Not Expecting the Unexpected

So....lot of stuff that surprised me over the past several days. Oh, and I'll do the Ikoku Meiro review soon, don't worry.

When a character looks cute with what seems to be an attempt at a trollface, that's a sign that the said character is approaching dangerous levels of moe. Beware.

I completely forgot to flipping mention Dantalian no Shoka in our Summer 2011 Impressions list. Jesus Christ. It not only has a very interesting premise (and good beginning), but it's a Gainax film. What does that mean? It means a lot of craziness. Let me emphasize that. A LOT OF CRAZY SHIT.

The first episode was already evident of the above. My predictions on it being more of a Gosick-type series was also correct. Weirdly awesome girl + guy with gun and not much else. What a classic combo. Gainax, however, managed to stuff in a lot of classical references, so that was pretty cool. The setting makes it seem like it'll start off Gosick and then maybe - if it's lucky - end up like Yumekui Merry or something. However, it's Gainax. You might already be tired of hearing this name, but by God, after Gurren Lagann I half-expect the girl to spontaneously combust somewhere in the middle of the series. Or perhaps in the alternate Gainax Ending. Watch it for flashy fun and a lot of unexpected stuff. Don't watch it if you don't think a crazy girl pulling random books out of her private parts to wreck a demon's face is your first choice of series.

Always remember: a key that opens many locks is called a master key. However, a lock that gets opened by many keys is only a broken lock. Key words to live by.

Another series that surprised me out of the blue was Ro-Kyu-Bu!. MorningLescue and I probably spent about 200+ lines in GChat just bashing the series for being so blatantly stupid. Apparently we were wrong.

What?

No, seriously. About 3, 4 episodes have come out at the time of my writing this post; none of us here on this blog have watched it (I hope...) but the reviews seem to praise Ro-Kyu-Bu! for its character depth and surprisingly competent sports references. This is around the time where I claim that the USS Kennedy is going to crash into the Capitol building riding a tsunami heralding the apocalypse. I mean...think about this setting for a second. Maybe two seconds after you call me a lolicon.

Lolis. Lolis in a basketball team. Cute, nicely drawn lolis. Headed by a non-loli, male lead. This male lead has a background that involves being traumatized by the fact that his former basketball captain ran away with a grade-school loli.

SHE IS SO READY TO SINK FADEAWAYS LIKE A BOSS

This sort of setting is not just a crippling setback to viewer count (as in, not counting fetishists). It is like taking the first guy bumped off the Biggest Loser, making him run a 1 km marathon, then without breaks making him run the 100-m dash against Usain Bolt. Starting from 10 meters behind him. Perhaps there are people who are interested in this sort of marshmallow-cream-in-vegetable-salad mix and would watch it regardless of the disappointment they might face. However, most viewers would definitely skip over this as an obvious attempt to ride the "omfg males going for moe tend to make up a lot of our audience" trend I've seen too much over the past year.

Apparently they would be in the wrong. I will definitely watch this series soon and give my opinion on it so you followers can safely touch this NSFW series with justification.

I shit you not, this is the cast. If this series ends up being actually good...well...hoorah for that one demographic? Yay for hormones! There. I did it.

In other news, Azusa is awesome but STILL DID NOT WIN INTERNATIONAL SAIMOE SAPPHIRE ASDFJKL; WHY WHY WHY

Why is God so cruel

Sorry. Uhmm...Ikoku Meiro no Croisee has been going pretty well. I predict a nondescript "feel-good" end that essentially has the main guy (Claude) and the porcelain doll main girl (Yune) overcome one last small interpersonal road bump and then smile at each other, implying that they live happy lives in their home sweet home. Obvious thing is obvious, but then again, feel-good series don't need to be unexpected. It's good if they can use the surprise to make the series sweeter, but I do not need a cast member to be run over by a carriage and then die of dysentery kthx (actually it would probably be croup or whooping cough or mumps or whatever other stupid non-eradicated crud they had at the time, but dysentery is much cooler. Nobody wants to die of whooping-cough on the Oregon Trail.)

So hopefully Ikoku will end up being a nice series. Hanasaku Iroha's also going splennnnnnndidly. Definite inter-episode character development up the goddamn wazoo while managing to not railroad and always maintaining one interesting mini-arc or another. This isn't to say that the series doesn't have some sort of direction/ending that the series seems to be aiming for. However, I can't actually predict what it might be this time. There are the canon shippings, sure, but beyond that I don't see much going on other than "Oh...Ohana matured."

Anyways, it's a pretty relaxing and feel-good series, and I feel that it has more depth and subtlety than the obvious themes touted in all their angst-filled glory in Ano Hana, no matter what anyone else says. The characters are refreshing, none of them are 2D in their interactions, nobody does weird chants a la RING OF FIRE! OOH HA HA HA...Ok stopping Finding Nemo reference now. So yes. Watch Hanasaku Iroha if you have the patience to sit through a slow-paced slice-of-life. But like many slice-of-life series, the slower the series, the better the ending and enjoyment. Unless it's part of the shoujo genre. Then screw that series. I'm LOOKING AT YOU, Kimi no Todoke.

Give it 5 more seasons. Maybe they'll be 5 millimeters closer than they are in this picture right now.

That's it for now. Also, I recommend Defense Devil as a good manga to read if you guys have free time. Great plot and loooooooots of U-turn lolol plot twist trickery. Some of them are outright ridiculous, but they spice up the series and make the series seem faster than it actually is. Take a look.