Haiyore! Nyarlko-san - 08

這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Yoriko takes her charges to go buy souvenirs before they return home, as Mahiro observes Nyarlko with his mother and recalls Nyarlko's confession to him. At one store, they find an old WonderSwan Crystal game console, which Mahiro turns on. He finds himself back home in bed, with his mom waking him up and addressing him as "Mahiro-chan" instead of "Hiro-kun."  On the way to school, he literally runs into Nyarlko with toast in her mouth, but when she sees Mahiro noticing her on the ground with toast between her legs, she runs away crying and saying she can never get married. Outside of his renamed high school, Cthuko greets him as "Mahiro-san" instead of "Shounen" and expresses feeling for him. Inside, Hastur is in basketball gear and is also different.

With everyone he knows being different, Luhy shows up as the school nurse and takes him to the infirmary, were she explains that he's in the game along with his companions and mother, and until he chooses to be with either Nyarlko, Cthuko, Hastur, or Tamao, they won't be able to leave. Nyarlko, hiding under the bed, plans to have her flags set by Mahiro, but Cthuko and Hastur have other plans. With the secret out, the three jashin establish various scenarios in this dating sim game, culminating with the three of them battling until Nyarlko wins. After Tamao does the "trapped in the PE storage room" trope, Mahiro finds himself under a large tree, where Nyarlko arrives. Since the only way out is to kiss her, Mahiro reluctantly agrees, but when they emerge, only he appears to have retained any memory of what happened.

Thoughts/Review:

Ah, what a fun episode, filled with parodies of popular tropes, popular franchises, and more.

Starting with the parody stuff (and I appreciate you guys pointing out ones I missed or didn't know), my favorite, overhyped franchise, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, scored the most parodies. There was the "Endless Eight" name drop, as well as recreations of at least two scenes from the first series. One being Cthuko's attempt to kill Mahiro and the other being Nyarlko's band moment.

I laughed with joy when Yoriko sent "Mahiro-chan" out with the "Saiyuusen jikou yo!" (This is a top priority!) catchphrase from Onegai Teacher.  I haven't watched that in ages, and I know I still have the DVD's after I decided not to sell them way back when.

I also squealed with delight when Hand Maid May (which I happened to marathon this past Sunday) got a nod with Hastur's "Hand Maid Hastur" doll. The moment would have been more awesome for me had Hand Maid Hastur moved, or been dressed like May.  That aside, it is enough to know that Hastur's seiyuu, KUGIMIYA Rei, was the voice of CBD Rena-chan in Hand Maid May.  

Hastur in the battle ring on the high school grounds (not sure which series that's supposed to parody) first made me think, "Index" from A Certain Magical Index, due to the character of Index being a nun and voiced by Kugimiya-san.  However, I figured his character had to be from a fight game, and came upon the fighting game Guilty Gear and the trap character there named Bridget. ^_^; I don't know whom Nyarlko and Cthuko are supposed to be. 

Real life things got nods too, such as Denny's (which I've heard is better in Japan than in the U.S.).  Here, Denny's is renamed Derleth, after August Derleth, who coined the term Cthulhu Mythos, and who wrote Cthulhu fiction based on notes from H.P. Lovecraft after he died, thus insuring that Mr. Lovecraft's work didn't go into obscurity, and deny us this awesomely funny take on the mythos. 

And of course, the real game console SwanCrystal (slightly renamed as WonderSwan Crystal) got a nod to kick everything off.  (I didn't know the game Nyarlko held up.)

The whole dating sim stuff was a riot, and I couldn't help but remember my introduction to this type of game on a handheld console in Excel Saga.  For me, had the whole episode had Nyarlko and company keep in their game characters without knowledge they were in a game, I think things would have been even funnier. As it was, Nyarlko acting chaste was so 180 as to be awesomely funny.  Cthuko being in love with Mahiro without the sexual aggressiveness was funny.  Hastur acting different was funny too.  However, things went the way they did, and that's fine.

As to the overall story, things really feel like they are setting up Mahiro to truly fall in love with Nyarlko, only to have her taken away at the end with a sad moment. I'm probably being influenced by the end of Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love (Craft-sensei).  Still, with Nyarlko not being so clingy, and knowing that despite her constant, aggressive push for Mahiro to have sex with her, one can see that she really does mean it when she says she loves Mahiro.

While I'm thinking of it, we again had a bit of creepiness with Yoriko's desire to be lovey-lovey with her son by playing that kind of character in the game (and thus why she addressed him as "Mahiro-chan" instead of "Hiro-kun").

Still, we ended up with really fun, funny episode that had parodies of all sorts in it. I loved it!

Hayate the Combat Butler Manga Chapter 364

ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 364

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ayumu stops by a cake shop, but can only afford to buy some ¥80 creme puffs. As she waits for her order to be completed,she notices an advertisement poster featuring Ruka and recalls how she and Hayate are friends, but she's glad they aren't living together (at the apartment house).

Unbeknownst to Ayumu, Ruka has decided to rent an apartment room, which Nagi agrees to, leading the two of them to get serious about their manga efforts. Hayate worries about security, as does Chiharu, who's working as Sakuya's maid and tells Sakuya of developments. Sakuya is impressed that Nagi has made another good friend outside of the four childhood friends, and decides to contact Isumi, who mistakes the vibration on her i-Phone to mean it is broken.

Ayumu arrives, and Nagi initially refuses to let her in, but Hina happens to be arriving home then too, thus Nagi is forced to relent. Ayumu admires this apartment house and tells Hina she trusts her not to do anything with Hayate, leading Hina to become a bit frustrated by that. When Ayumu expresses a desire to live there as well, Nagi says they have one remaining room to rent for ¥45,000 a month. It is a bit steep for Ayumu, who then is shocked to discover that Ruka is the apartment house's latest resident.

Seeing Hina being friendly with Ruka, Ayumu drags Hina away.  Hina is surprised to hear that Ruka likes Hayate, so in desperation, Ayumu decides to rent the last room, which Nagi agrees to providing Ayumu can pay the rent.

Thoughts/Review:

Heh!heh!heh!  I figured Ayumu would become a resident as well. Question is, how will she be able to pay the ~$566 a month (based on the exchange rate at the time of this post) for rent? She has a job, but she doesn't come from a rich family, and does she work enough hours at her job to afford that kind of money?

As I think about it, Chiharu doesn't come from a money family either, which is why she took a maid job in the first place (or rather it was the threat of her father losing his job).  However, Sakuya is rich and probably pays Chiharu fairly well to be her personal maid.

With these new character designs, Sakuya just looks wrong. She used to have this cool look to her, but now...ugh.

I'm surprised Hina hadn't caught onto Ruka's liking Hayate. She's usually on top of things, but here, Ayumu has the advantage.  I really do need to sit down and just read what I've missed, even if I don't blog my thoughts on the catch-up (which had been my intent).

The only funny moment of the chapter was Isumi getting the call from Sakuya, and presuming her vibrating phone meant it was broken. Actually, that aspect wasn't so much funny as it was the setup for the awesome moment of Isumi's mother telling her to chuck the "broken," vibrating phone in the trash.  *lol*  Isumi's family are so out of it, and thus funny. ^_^

It will be a couple of weeks before a new chapter comes, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how this story progresses.

Fate/Zero - 21

フェイト/ゼロ Episode 21


SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Saber on a motorcycle chases what she thinks is Rider, but loses sight of him in the city streets. Using her scenes, she finds the real Rider with Waver and gives chase. Rider decides to land his chariot on the mountain highway and make it a race. Saber uses her powers to modify the bike, making it sleeker and faster until she catches up with Rider by jumping the bike through a switchback and attacking, though she's puzzled by the fact that Iri isn't with them. Rider decides to make a stand, so that as Saber starts to launch her Excalibur attack, he has his chariot charge her.  Her attack destroys the chariot, forcing Rider to grab Waver and grab a high up tree branch. Saber does not attack again, but drops her battle garb and leaves.

Elsewhere, Kirei thanks Kariya for his help as "Rider" turns back into Berserker, whom apparently can mimic other Servants. It took two Command Spells for Kariya to do this since Berserker is obsessed with Saber, so Kirei gives him two additional spells and tells him to come by the church at midnight to settle things with Tokiomi.  Back at Tokiomi's place, Kirei finds more evidence, and a servant whom he tortures to discover Kirei's involvement with Kariya. Later at the church, an angry Kariya arrives and sees Tokimoi at the front, but then finds him dead. Aoi arrives and thinks Kariya has killed Tokiomi and in grief, verbally attacks Kariya, who snaps and strangles Aoi, whom he loved. In anguish, he leaves as Archer tells Kirei the play they just watched was an OK thing for a first attempt.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, it has taken me a while to realize this, but the whole purpose of this Grail War was not to win the Grail, but to see who could best screw over someone else in the most fracked up way possible.

Zouken is even more twisted than previously shown. It was sick enough what he did to Sakura and Kariya, but his admission that he couldn't decide on whether to win the Grail or see Kariya suffer horribly was not what I expected.

Kirei continues down the road of insanity by screwing over Kariya so that he snaps and kills Aoi. As an aside, I'm still surprised Kirei would take Rin under his wings and not just kill her too (after raping her, since he's that sick in my opinion).  I actually feel the need to watch Kirei get killed in Fate/stay night. *_*

As I thought, there was something very wrong about Rider attacking Kiritsugu's hideout and taking Iri.  What I didn't expect was for Berserker to have a skill to mimic the appearance of Rider.  I know this Berserker can do some incredible things, but this seems almost out of left field. However, now that it is done, assuming Kariya hasn't completely lost it, I suppose he could have Berserker mimic someone else too.  That would make things more interesting.

Berserker is mentioned to be obsessed with Saber, enough so that it took two Command Spells to get him to do what needed to be done (kidnap Iri). I noticed early on that he seemed to just go after Saber.  Considering these Servants were real people, I wonder whom Berserker's real identity could be.  Considering how one of the Servants in Fate/stay night was actually from the future, it would be rather twisted if Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Lancer) was also Berserker somehow.  I tend to doubt that will be the case, but anything is possible when "magic" is involved. ^_~

Kiritsugu apparently didn't know that Kirei was involved until he found a servant to torture (and this was real torture, not that crappy, redefined BS done for political gamesmanship).  I find it interesting that he suspected Kariya.  However, does Kiritsugu come to realize what happened with Archer?  Considering how intelligent he is, I'd say he will fairly quickly.

Saber's ability to transform the motorcycle on the fly and use her powers to make it go faster than designed is a new one. Other than the fact that the original, visual novel writer(s) didn't conceive of it when Fate/stay night was done, one wonders what might have been were Saber to have had a bike in that series as well.  Then again, she had limited access to mana/prana so maybe it is a moot point.  Regardless, it was neat to see, though again, out of left field.

In the end, another sick and twisted episode, but with some interesting developments.

Lupin III: A Woman Called MINE Fujiko - 08

LUPIN the Third ～峰不二子という女～
LUPIN the Third - MINE Fujiko to Iu Onna Episode 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fujiko is in New York and kills to guards at a warehouse holding noted death day fortune teller Shitoto Chandler's large lithograph, which he uses in his predictions, and steals it. Elsewhere, Zenigata puts Oscar on the case after Oscar discovers that all of Shitoto's clients had been previously robbed by Lupin. Someplace else in New York, Jigen is hired by a man to take revenge on Shitoto, then that man dies in front of Jigen. Jigen finds Shitoto at the warehouse, where the lithograph has supposedly been burned. Oscar is there with a large police force, but Jigen manages to shoot his way clear for a while, only to be nailed a short time later.

Convinced Jigen isn't Lupin in disguise, Jigen is taken in a police van with police car escort when a Monkey Delivery Service truck passes the convoy, causing a wreck that throws Jigen and a cop into the waiting truck basket, where they are safely brought into the cargo area. Jigen knocks the cop and and joins Lupin in the front, where Lupin takes him to his hideout and prepares a meal for him. They discuss the Shitoto situation, where Lupin reveals his interest in the fact that Shitoto's clients are all victims of Lupins, as well as Fujiko's involvement.  As such, Lupin arranges to be in Shitoto's car as he travels to repurchase his lithograph, where he has a frank discussion with Shitoto, revealing that he knows Shitoto is actually killing his clients on certain days.

At the rendezvous point, Shitoto meets with Fujiko to repurchase the lithograph she stole. However, Fujiko knows it is Lupin in disguise. With the jig up, Lupin opens the trunk to reveal the real Shitoto, who upon getting out, shows his trump card -- Oscar and a large number of cops. A shootout occurs with the cops having the advantage until Jigen takes out some with a sniper rifle on a nearby roof. Lupin and Fujiko part company, with Shitoto following Fujiko. He then has a revelation about Fujiko's death day and mentions the name Count Luis Yew Armeid, which causes Fujiko to have a flashback to her youth before she shoots a live wire on the ground, which ends up electrocuting and setting alight, Shitoto. Shitoto dead, Zenigata expresses his disappointment about Oscar's performance with Lupin, Fujiko, and Jigen ponder things.

Thoughts/Review:

A pretty good episode with a shocking low amount of Fujiko nudity, though being an exploitation series, every episode has to have at least one scene featuring Fujiko's naked breasts.

This series has had very little of the traditional Lupin III humor from past incarnations. However, this episode managed to sneak in a funny moment when Lupin told Fujiko not to die since he hadn't banged her yet, and she told him to ask Zenigata about what sex with her is like. That did make me laugh as Lupin can't believe Zenigata has already scored a piece of what Lupin wants.

For me, the best part of the episode were the Jigen and Lupin stuff.  Lupin performs one of his trademark road heists, only this time to save Jigen. I loved the idea of Lupin cooking a meal for Jigen, and helping to establish a foundation for a good friendship and partnership. The fact that Jigen returns Lupin's favor by being a sniper for him further's that foundation. I really hope that from here on, Lupin and Jigen are working together, even if they haven't officially become a gang. We just need to get Goemon worked in there.

As an aside, I'm going to assume the "Monkey Delivery Service" name is a nod to manga-ka Monkey Punch.

The surreal stuff continued with the owl and butterfly motifs. Clearly, the one owl person is this mysterious Count Luis Yew Armeid.  Further to that, the episode implies that he raped Fujiko when she was a child. That's messed up to be sure, but as I've said before, Fujiko is a tragic character here.

Speaking of this Count, for some reason, I thought of Pycal, who was a villain in the original manga, and in the second episode of the first Lupin III anime series.  He would then return in an OVA special.  Pycal was a mage in the TV series who was shown to use tricks for his magic. However, his return to life in the OVA, as well as other things suggested that Pycal really may have been a mage.  To be honest, I think it would be cool if Pycal was this Count, but I rather doubt that happens despite the supernatural elements of this episode.

One wonders why Zenigata puts Oscar in charge of anything. I get the feeling that since Oscar is a new character, he'll die before the series ends.  Heck, he'll probably be Fujiko's lost brother, or someone else who was raped by the Count.

So, as I said earlier, a pretty good episode here.

Urusei Yatsura - 185

うる星やつら episode 185 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 185 review


SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shuutaro's parents and his sister Ryoko leave, allowing Shuutaro to have a New Year's celebration that Ten-chan, Shinobu, Lum, and the self-invided Ataru attend at his house. At the new building built for Shuutaro, the group gathers, but soon Ten-chan and Ataru have the floor open up under them, which has them on a conveyer back to the front of the building. One wall starts moving in on the others, and soon they are forced out as it turns out that Shuutaro's parents, sister, and grandfather are using Shuutaro and his guest as game pieces with the new building as the game board. The family members use all sorts of tactics to get their assigned piece to the goal, but in the end, Ten-chan is the only one to reach the goal. None of the family had him as a piece, but it turns out that Cherry had been there and had taken the Ten-chan piece, meaning he won.

Thoughts/Review:

Egad.  Chalk this episode up to the losers column, but there were a few positive moments.

The moving sidewalk turning into an escalator with Ataru making Shuutaro fall was humorous, but expected. However, Shuutaro attempting to chase Ataru back down the escalator was a bit more amusing (probably because of a similar joke in one of my favorite British comedy series, The IT Crowd).

The only other humorous moment for me came from the nearly paralyzed Ataru seeing the cute "maid-san" and suddenly finding the ability to move to chase her.

That humor moment was expanded when Lum started riding Ataru like a bucking bronco.

Other than that, the episode sucked. Shuutaro's family playing some idiotic game with live pieces wasn't funny.  It was boring and even irritating.  Heck, by the end of the episode, I was REALLY hoping that Lum would just unleash an electrical storm on Ryoko, Shuutaro's parents and grandfather, and all of the security folks. At the same time, I was hoping Ten-chan would burn the joint down.  Sadly, other than Ten-chan shooting some flames of frustration at the end of the episode, which do no harm to anything, I didn't get my wish.

All throughout this tedious travesty of an anime episode, I kept thinking, "the only thing that could make this suck more is Cherry showing up."  Well, the production team didn't disappoint me here and Cherry was the icing on the cake for ultimate suckiness.

Well, at least I'm one closer to the end of the series, which isn't going out in style.

Haiyore! Nyarlko-san - 07

這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 07

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Nyarlko's attempt to become one with Mahiro at the resort fail as he binds her in sheets to a mattress propped against the wall. At breakfast, she complains about how mean he is to her, but tells implies to the others that they had sex, and that she's now pregnant. Mahiro attempts to get his mother to help him, since she'd previously opposed Nyarlko dating Mahiro, but now, she's OK with it. Hastur nearly dies at this news, so later when Mahiro finds him on the beach, Hastur says that he'd be OK raising Nyarlko's baby with Mahiro. Before Hastur can do more, Mahiro teleports in and send Hastur flying into the ocean. Nyarlko becomes very clingy, forcing Mahiro to hide from her.

Mahiro finds Cthuko in the beach's tea house playing a classic video game, still depressed over the loss of Xoth. Mahiro comforts her, and though cheered, she tells him that triggering her flags won't work. Luhy passes by, revealing she's opened a takoyaki restaurant on the beach. Everyone is enjoying the takoyaki, but only Mahiro notices that this takoyaki is made from an alien creature. Now that Nyarlko has found Mahiro again, she returns to being very clingy.  Mahiro's cold attitude starts to make her question whether he likes her. When he tells her straight forward that he doesn't like her, Nyarlko is devastated, so much so that Mahiro has to rescue her from Cthuko attempting to take advantage of Nyarlko.

Yoriko tells her son that he was too harsh with Nyarlko, especially since Nyarlko risked her life to help the family. Mahiro decides to be kinder to Nyarlko, and agrees to go on a date with her to a local, traditional Japanese festival. Yoriko keeps Cthuko and Hastur from interfering as Nyarlko wears a yukata and does the festival with Mahiro. They pay a visit to the shrine at the top of the mountain and pray, leading Mahiro to wonder if a deity like Nyarlko should be there. After sharing a drink at a cafe, Nyarlko buys sparklers and lights them with Mahiro at sunset. He agrees to walk the beach with her, making one of her dreams come true. She explains why she acts the way she does and confesses her love for Mahiro.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, this episode was someone surprising in that it was very funny at times, yet poignant and touching at others.

I was surprised that this episode picked up where the last episode left off.  I had assumed that this beach stuff was filler, but clearly, that started a whole new story piece, which concluded here.  One of the things about anime series like this one is that there seems to be a tendency to make each episode have a conclusive ending. So, if you don't have enough material, you pad it out. If you have too much material, but not enough for two episodes, you might cut stuff.  So, having an episode finish one tale and start a new one is different, and I liked it.

The funniest moments of the episode were in the first third of it, such as getting to see what really happened with Nyarlko when she tried to physically express her love for Mahiro in the night. Of course, Nyarlko's tales and stated pregnancy, combined with Mahiro not getting support from anyone (because Cthuko was too busy "meditating" about Nyarlko) just had me laughing out loud.

Nyarlko's excessive, clingy attitude this episode had me uncomfortable.  Personally, I can't stand clingy girls (of course, I am older so that does play a role).  They start becoming less and less attractive the harder they cling.  This episode made me remember a girl I dated who LOVED playing that hideous, "you hang up first" phone game. Well, I did and she was hurt by it.  However, I was at work and had a job to do, which didn't seem to matter to her. ^_^;;;

Anyway, Mahiro's harshness to Nyarlko also reminded me of the above moment from my past, and thus I felt sorry for Nyarlko despite how uncomfortable I was seeing her clingy ways.  That's a pretty wild swing of emotions, so I guess the folks at Xebec are to be commended for this. ^_^

Mahiro's and Nyarlko's festival date was cliched, but no less sweet. I did get a laugh out of Mahiro worrying about Nyarlko praying at a shrine, which in Japan are supposed to hold deities of some kind.

Nyarlko's serious confession to Mahiro was almost like her setting a death flag for herself.  I am now suspicious that there could be some sort of sad ending, were at best, Nyarlko is forced to leave and Mahiro realizes he loves her.  I guess we'll see.

Speaking of flags, I got a chuckle out of Cthuko cautioning Mahiro about setting her's and his response to that. Got to love those visual novel references eh, where flags are set to get the girl and a good end, or fail and have a bad end.

I guess I was wrong about Luhy being a teacher. I knew from the light novel artwork that she'd done the alien takoyaki stuff, but I figured that wasn't a job, but just something she was just serving. Go figure. 

There were a few other parody references that I noted.  When Mahiro was devastated and turned white, the eyecatch made it clear that they were referencing the classic Ashita no Joe manga series, where Joe the boxer does that very thing at the end of it (or so I'm told).

I believe the 2CH Touhou "Yukkuri Shite Ittene" meme of KIRISAME Marisa and HAKUREI Reimu is parodied here when the depressed Cthuko and Hastur aren't allowed to interfere with Nyarlko's and Mahiro's date (you can see a bit more about that meme in another review I did for Natsu no Arashi).

Tokyo Big Sky got a parody nod with the Ariake Space Colosseum, and subsequent Comiket implied nod. 

So, another really enjoyable episode with lots of laughs, but also some nice, sweet moments too.