Will the Woolf survive?

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE – 26

Um – no.  I’m of two minds about this week’s Gundam ep, because it was very entertaining and Woolf’s death both surprised me and impacted me (frankly, I was sure that Ruth had signed Lt. Obright’s death warrant by accepting his proposal, but I guess there’s still time for that).  On the other, several of the logical and narrative choices the series is making continue to annoy me.  At the least I think Woolf’s death was a long-overdue reminder that Flit’s constant reliance on war has real and personal consequences – while Vagan pilots die left and right, none of Flit’s subordinates (at least the named ones) has paid the price for his excesses.

I have some problems, though, among them with Asemu’s reaction.  While it’s understandable emotionally, the reality is, if you decide to engage in a way what right do you have to be so morally outraged when one of the victims happens to be your friend?  As well, there’s Desil, and Zaeheart’s mollycoddling of his brother.  Because he effectively let Desil be a loose cannon and do what he wanted, two more members of the Magician’s Eight Two were killed.  How many Vagan pilots have died because of Desil’s recklessness and Zaeheart’s unwillingness to maintain any kind of discipline?  On the other side, at least Asemu didn’t mope around when he was supposed to be alongside his comrades this week, but it still feels as if he got off easy for all his idiotic behavior.

I’m finding it harder and harder to root for either side in the war, to be honest.  Ezelcant’s “Eden” seems like a noble enough cause and there’s no denying the Vagans have a valid grievance, but they’re talking about enslaving an entire colony and using them as hostages to make it happen.  Flit is a brilliant commander, but it feels as if he’s fighting for the sake of fighting, driven only by the lifelong hatred of the Vagans that’s always been his motivation.  He seems to have taken no interest in his son at all – would he have shed tears over Asemu’s death as he did for Woolf?  If anything gives me some sympathy for Asemu (aside from the fact that I quite liked him before he got to Big Ring) it’s that he obviously got messed up by a really horrible father.

Kimi to Boku 2 – 02

Kimi to Bokoofuri is back with another very strong episode.  I’ll say this for KtB – and it’s something you can’t say about many multi-cour shows – it’s on a one-way trajectory.  The show has been getting better pretty much without interruption since about the 5th ep of the first season, to the point now where it’s making it hard for me to continue to blog it in digest format. 

Full credit to the mangaka (or the staff, if they’ve changed things significantly) for realizing that Chizuru was their strongest character.  He’s been assuming more and more of a central role and the series is much the better for it.  I’m not really sure what he sees in Mary-saki, as she’s not all that cute and certainly not very considerate.  But hormones are what they are, and the two of them undeniably look like a couple, just as that shop owner said (as aside: on my first trip to Tokyo that very umbrella thing happened to me, as the lady at the ramen place I was leaving rushed after me to give me an umbrella to stave off the rain).  It took Chizuru quite a while to realize – or at least to admit – that Mary had a thing for Shun.  It was rather painful watching him go out of his way to be considerate of her, as she continued to treat him like a dog.  Refusing to share the umbrella was rather cold, I though, yet it didn’t seem to faze Chizuru much.

I find more and more that this show gives me a few solid laugh lines every week, like Chizuru’s comment that too many hot couples were causing global warming, or his battle cry of “Kana-messed UP!”.  But the really surprising part is that KtB has gotten me genuinely interested in the romantic side of things, even given my indifference towards Masaki.  Maybe there’s hope, as she did share her umbrella with Chizuru (who we’ve now seen with his hair matted down in two straight eps – coincidence or foreshadowing?  Maybe he’ll decide she likes him better that way…).  As for Shun, while we’ve never really gone there it doesn’t seem like a leap to think his interests don’t go in that direction, or at the very least he’s shown no interest in Mary or any girl (or boy)  whatsoever.  As for poor Kaname, he was shipped with Mary-saki and Chizuru this week – probably the two people in the world he finds most annoying.  Well, as Chizuru (who seems to get most of the best lines) said, he’s already got his mother and Kaori-sensei anyway…

Saint Seiya Omega – 02

This seems to be some very well-produced, solid old-school (have I mentioned enough that old-school is back?) super-sentai shounen alliteration.  It’s going to struggle to find a place on my schedule because this season is looking extremely deep, and the choices are going to be tough ones after next week when the four shows I had at the top of my list going in will premiere – and then we get Hyouka the following week, as if that weren’t enough.  Some seasons I might continue to blog this show, but it’s straightforward and uncomplicated – a nice break, but not too much to talk about in a blog post, really. 

Still, if you’re a fan of the genre and certainly the franchise, Saint Seiya Omega should serve just fine.  This week we met Souma Lionet (our old pal Konishi Katsuyuki) a young Saint whose element is fire, and seems destined to fill in a friendly rival role for Kouga.  With a brief interruption by Mars’ hitman Mantis Ordugia (Masutani Yasunori) he and Kouga set off towards Palaestra, where the inevitable training arc begins. It’s all about finding Athena, who the young Kouga is convinced is still alive, somewhere.  But it’s only because she’s a mother figure to him, and for absolutely no other reason whatsoever.  Meanwhile, is it me or does Tokumaru look exactly like Major Alex Louis Armstrong 20 years older?