#that episode of madoka magica did shit to my brain.

[thegospelofnagisa]

Magia Record Anime: Episode 9 Thoughts (The Sana Show Edition)

I am so sorry for not delivering this yesterday, but better late than never and here it is, my review of episode 9 of Magia Record, and right from the go I want to say, this one is another goldie.

Another episode with a very simple premise, not as simple as the previous one but still something simple to follow and that is the introduction of Sana Futaba. As I stated before, at this point for me, the anime has passed where I am in the game now (Mostly because I’ve neglected powerboosting my Puella Magi and just raised their levels...whooops) so I have no idea how this episode was handled in the game but going by the anime only, it is a spectacular story.

My feelings regarding Sana is that she’s a nice character, she weirds me out a bit because she seems to be into some….weird BDSMish kinda things and I’ve stated several times here that it freaks me out, but I want to clarify that I do not dislike Sana and she has grown on me as the story progresses, but if you see her character you do understand where that comes from, she has an incredibly messed up backstory of neglect, emotional abuse that was conveyed very well on this episode through Madoka Magica’s artistic style and it was very hard to watch for me, Inu Curry blew it out of the park with this one through the use of portraits and weird hungry hungry hippo shadows of Sana’s family and other impersonal objects to express the harshness of her situation and it really delivered, I think at one point I kinda got a little bit teary because holy shit poor girl, her only crime was that she was the daughter of another man and had to be taken by some fucking Karen cunt that didn't want her, it makes it easy for you to understand why staying within an Uwasa Labyrinth was much more preferable for her than being outside, and she was extremely lucky to find a kind Uwasa who befriended her.

The whole story with AI-Chan was very sweet and touching, short but to the point and effective in a way that very few animes can achieve, Madoka being one of these, they managed to generate a lot more emotion and sympathy in 15 minutes than an entire season of your average run of the mill anime of the season, and how at the end when Miss Jokerina came in (I am getting to you soon Alina, don’t you worry) and forced everything into a conclusion, it was really sad but also very touching how the story of Sana with AI-Chan concluded, I know what comes next for Sana so I am happy she’ll finally have the love and appreciation she was denied by everyone else, I know Felicia’s family wasn’t really killed by a witch, but if there was a family that deserved to be eaten alive by witches, it should be Sana’s family, what a bunch of assholes, but whatever, things will bright for Sana from now on.

As for Alina’s introduction, ya’ll know me, you know I FUCKING HATE ALINA GRAY with a burning passion, she just annoys me and is one of the most reprehensible human beings I have ever seen in anime, and that’s saying a lot, so I was kinda waiting and kinda waiting not for her to appear but when she did, oh boy...I think I hate her A LOT MORE in the anime than I do in the game, maybe because nit he game she masks her insanity with some Jojoesque quirks, but for the anime they apparently decided to ditch that and gave her a more personalized quirk and it is fucking annoying and I hate her guts, it was a good decision.

Now...I want to be VERY CLEAR for the dumbassses who somehow managed to finish school without being able to have comprehensive reading skills and will get mad because how dare I disrespect their waifu Alina Chan, just because I hate Alina, doesn’t mean I hate her as a character, the fact that I hate her guts and I want to see her get beaten, is good because it means she is doing her job as a villain, you are SUPPOSED TO HATE HER, YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO SYMPATHIZE WITH HER, it’s ok for you to hate a villain, we’ve spent so much time in the last decades striving for “relatable and deep villains” that we’ve completely forgotten that they’re...well….VILLAINS, and unless you are in a story where the villain is the protagonist (And even then at best you are expected to understand them, not love them) you are expected to have negative feelings toward the villain, and that is something people has to remember, Linkara once said “In Good Stories you hate the Villains, in Bad Stories you hate the writers” and that rings true with Alina here, Alina is not meant to be imitated, she is meant to be disliked, if you somehow through some weird circumstance you still find her to be the best fit to be your precious waifu, fine….I guess...but don’t get butthurt when other people react in the normal way they’re supposed to react when seeing her.

Fuck you Alina, I hope they blow your fucking brains out in the game one day, overall I say this was another excellent episode and more than deserving of another 10/10, the series is going very well and like that, I hope everyone is pleased watching and hyped for what is to come next.

#magireco anime #my reviews

[akatokuro]

The Inevitable Saint Seiya Rewatch, Episodes 16-19

i am legitimately unsure how to respond to seiya fucking murdering a lady

- Hyouga, why the fuck would you leave your invincible rosary at Ikki's grave. TAKE THAT SHIT TO MU AND HAVE HIM RESEARCH IT HADES WILL NOT STAND A CHANCE

- ah yes, time for delicious toei filler

- In all seriousness, this filler is goofy and ridiculous as fuck, (OH NO THE BUGS ARE STEALING MY COSMO!!!) but I actually do like some of the character moments a lot, and I like the idea of the core group + Saori having time to bond and really become a team before shit starts really going down, and before Saori realizes she's a goddess.

- I have to wonder, though, if you're going to make filler to try to buy time while Kurumada smokes weed and makes shit up, why would you go with a really obvious "evil Pope" plotline? Seriously, it should be super obvious that eventually the manga is going to have its own plans for the Pope and Sanctuary, since he was a big figure in the first chapter/episode. Like, if the anime went to do completely its own thing, that'd be fine, but the halfway measure where it tries to weave weirdly back into the manga is just, uh, strange.

- Not that projecting Saga onto Toei's Evil Pope (complete with Evil Harem!) isn't the funniest fucking thing, don't get me wrong. Wait until they find out how much he loves being an owl!

- I mean, yeah, the montage of trainees dying horrifically by the hundreds is brutal and disturbing, but... is it really that much harsher than the picture we get of regular Saint training, considering LOL NINETY DEAD KIDS WHOOPS? I dunno...

- Marin and Shaina are both legitimately really cool characters. Saint Seiya ladies in general are cool as hell, you just wish that they got more focus, Saori included.

- The way Toei tries to inject RACISM!!! as another reason why Sanctuary evil feels a little weird, considering that, like, half of their Gold Saints aren't from Greece either...

- A wild Aiolia appears! The early stealth appearances of the Golds are a lot of fun. (Imagine how much more fun they could be if they were actually seeded in with, like, intent!) At this stage if you're watching blind you probably have no idea to make of this guy, who is also the narrator for the episodes...? It doesn't feel like he's obviously been set up as a "future opponent", but he's also not going out of his way to oppose the bad guys, either... but he does seem to be Marin's friend, so hmm...

-  It just seems like the kind of thing that'd be fun to play with, expectations-wise, if you're going to revise the series with hindsight in mind. In a way that, you know, gender-swapping Shun is not. What? Did I say something?

- Man, though, a Silver Saint like Shaina who is willing to shit-talk a Gold like Lia to his face... yikes. That's sort of nuts. You really do get no respect around here, do you, Aiolia...?

- have i mentioned lately that i'm in love with saori

- "Why are they after the Gold Cloth?" UH, BECAUSE IT'S A GOLD CLOTH, GUYS? HYOUGA, SHIRYUU, YOU TWO WERE TRAINED BY FUCKING GOLDS. SEIYA YOU'VE LIVED HALF YOUR LIFE IN SANCTUARY. YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL?

- "Our magic warriors were secretly behind every major historical event ever" was cringe in Madoka Magica and, uh, it's cringe here too, sorry!

- I'd loooove to see a more elaborate process of Saori slowly realizing and coming to terms with being Athena. More Saori content in general, pls.

- AH YES, THE SHUN SHOWER SCENE

- AH YES, THE SHIRYUU WAKING UP WITH KIKI SCENE

- I really like seeing the Bronzies do stuff like run around town doing "normal" activities, like Shun jogging, though! Shun is cute! CUTE! I even like seeing Seiya hanging around with the orphanage kids and setting up Miho for extreme disappointment.

- SAORI STANDING UP TO AND SASSING A SAINT WHO JUST BLEW HER HOUSE UP BY HERSELF I CAN'T IMAGINE BEING THIS BADASS GOD

- her expression change when seiya shows up though hnnnnng

- The setup is dumb filler, but I like the underscoring that Saori is HARDCORE (ignore me, protect the Cloth!), the Bronzies meeting up to discuss what they should do, and Seiya's not-super-personal rationale at this point for going to rescue Saori. I actually do think their relationship has nice progression, the fact that ideally there would have been more focus on Saori realizing her Foundation is pretty fucking evil aside.

- wait, you guys are going with hyouga's plan? seriously? oh shit..........

- AND THE CRYSTAL SAINT APPEARS. MY NEMESIS

- oh my god i want to see camus demonstrating this hilarious ass leg freezing technique. 'donk' sound effect and all. why would you deprive me of this

- i like how even the crystal saint, someone who is obviously defined as very much a 'nice/good saint', will cheerfully watch his student get mauled by a polar bear as part of his training though

- I'm not sure if it's more plausible that CRYSTAL SAINT failed to warn Hyouga that "hey, even if you freeze their legs, they can still punch you" or if Hyouga heard and just forgot...

- Shiryuu and Kiki are too late to reach the cave, watching them fly away in a helicopter because this is a filler arc. Wait, Sanctuary uses helicopters? Is there a helipad in Saga's house? Is it equipped with a personal bath? I need to know these things, dammit!

- I would seriously watch an entire fucking episode of just the Bronzies and Saori sitting in a room together discussing battle plans and other serious business, punctuated by Seiya and Saori occasionally flirting, and Hyouga occasionally invading Shun's personal space. A+++ quality episode right there.

- GHOOOOOOST SAAAAAAAAAAAAINTS

- poor shaina, getting filler villain-ized. but on the other hand, i kind of like her more in the role of 'ruthless and threatening villain/supporting character' as opposed to having a crush on seiya, ngl.

- Saori shitting on Tatsumi is always the greatest thing. But even that aside, even with the GHOOOST SAAAAINTS, I... like the idea of more elements of the Graude Foundation and their interactions with the actual world getting involved in this conflict?

- ghost saints tho...........

- I also really like Saori already showing she's growing up and changing the way she thinks. She has this perpetually troubled air about her even in the Ikki arc, so even though there's not as much focus on what's going on in her head as there SHOULD be, it's plausible she's really mulling things over, re-evaluating them, and internally struggling so she can be up to this task she doesn't fully understand. Rather than being smug about Graude's capabilities like Tatsumi and like she was in the early episodes, she's already thinking about the impact of their actions on the world at large. Because she rules.

- Really wish we had some aspect of her more directly confronting the fact that her grandfather was an evil fuck, but it's one of those things I feel like I can probably headcanon too, I suppose.

- shun and the nebula chains mvp all day every day

- i like how seiya is sitting there playing sad guitar and hyouga and shiryuu huddle together and are just like "man seiya's guitar sucks" “i know right”

- Saori's growth is great because she really feels like an actual character to me? There's an awkwardness about how she's trying to approach the Bronzies and bond with them that feels really organic and endearing, but she's trying very hard. I really like touches like Saori trying to say the reason she came was because she was worried about them, and Hyouga and Shiryuu sort of exchanging this skeptical glance. It's what makes things on Saori's end sort of easy to 'headcanon', so to speak.

- I love this whole idea of Saori randomly chucking her jewelry into the ocean to 'show her appreciation'. Because it's so fucking weird and awkward. This is a gesture that doesn't actually mean anything to the Bronzies - they're totally like "huh? uh, okay" - and objectively it's a dumb useless thing to do, but you can tell she, as a young girl, has really been wracking her brain over how to SHOW that she's growing to care about them, and... and came up with this? Uh, it seemed like a good idea maybe? And her self-consciousness continues to come through, the way she can't even look at the Bronzies as she explains what she's trying to say is that their lives are more important than any Cloth.

- In growing this way, Saori is already vastly different from her grandfather and even Sanctuary, who obviously didn't value life at all - but Saori is trying to figure out and navigate this new way of thinking and caring on her own. Of course it'll be clumsy as hell, but there's also a real earnestness to it. Saori is so great...

- THE HYOSHUN IS VERY REAL. even in the midst of dumb filler, i love the way hyouga is so consistently attentive to shun. why is hyouga the only one who reacts to shun getting pulled underwater and then tries to save him? shiryuu was right there too... i mean...

- (the answer: hyouga is crushing on him hard, but)

- shun catching hyouga on the cliff against THE EVIL BUGS too ffffffffff

- NEBULA CHAIN! PULL IT UP!

- "Shiryuu, what happened!?" "I DON'T KNOW." and then we never speak of this again. sounds legit tbh

- holy shit did seiya just fucking murder a lady

- seiya just totally cold-bloodedly murdered a lady

- AIOLOS DID YOU JUST FUCKING WINK AT SEIYA AFTER HE MURDERED A LADY THROUGH YOUR HELMET I..................

- no, but seriously, she's fucking lying helpless face down on the ground and seiya fucking punches her to death what the fuck. even the way the shot is framed. and then you get to hear her scream in pain as she's being fucking punched to death. like seiya could have seen an opening and punched her as she was falling from aiolos's sucker punch, but while she's literally lying on the ground is really... uh...

- WELL, UM, MOVING ON I GUESS... SAINT SEIYA!

#rewatching sts #aquarius camus did nothing wrong

[kindafooey]

Just a couple of words before going to sleep because my brain exploded (again)

So I started watching Black Mirror recently, and as a few of you might remember from a post at the time, the first episode left me pretty darn shook. I thought episode 2 would never top that, yet HERE WE ARE.

I have a somewhat conflicted relationship with dystopian settings. I enjoy dissecting them, especially when they’re topical, sharp-sighted commentaries of our own time. In my book, Gen Urobuchi has created the most effective dystopias this far into the millennium (I’m mostly referring to Psycho-Pass, but even Madoka Magica is a full-fledged dystopia at its core when interpreted as a narrative of sociocultural metaphors), and the best thing about Urobuchi’s work is that no matter how indestructible the dystopian system depicted appears to be, in the end, the story always gives the audience a glimmer of hope. That’s true artistry right there, and shows actual insight on things that can bring about change.

Then there’s shit like the second Black Mirror episode.

I’m not saying “shit” as in “third grade runner-up material”, ohhhhh hell no. This shit is the shit. It wasn’t one of your visually fancy futuristic dystopias - it swerved into that direction just enough to deliver, and boy, did it ever deliver. l’m sitting here 20 minutes after finishing the episode, feeling like I just had a goddamn bullet shot right through my brain. The topics handled are challenging and kind of trendy atm, and I’ve seen more than one attempt of covering them in the past. None of them delivered, but this one did.

Here’s the problem though... It tore right into the core of certain cultural phenomena that are among the greatest problems of our time, and that’s it. It’s a complete dead end. I’m... not sure how to feel about that tbh. Maybe the creators missed something here. I darn sure hope so, because this one hit home pretty fucking hard in certain regards and I don’t enjoy feeling cornered in my own home.

I uhhh... I need to sleep on this.

#black mirror #not gf

[theclacks]

Angel Thoughts - (S4 E15-E18)

I can pretty much sum up my thoughts on these episodes by saying that Connor is officially, unequivocally, 100% objectively...

Okay. Okay. In all seriousness, these were probably the best crop of episodes in season 4 so far (thanks in no help to either Connor or Angel). So let’s dig in shall we?

BtVS & AtS Recap Master Post located here

Episode 15 (Orpheus)

My favorite episode of the bunch. Probably because of combined Faith and Willow power. Both of them just showin’ up to the club like “wham bam, thank you, ma’am.”

At first I thought the Orpheus stuff was going to yet more straight forward Angel flashbacks and I was like “come on, really? I am all good on the Angel flashbacks.” But then both Angelus and Faith were there to watch and it was kind of awesome.

Well, half of it was awesome. Half of it was groan-worthy.

The Awesome:

I love my Spike & Angel comparisons. I love how 100% set Angel is in his ways that his experience is the Universal Vampire Experience (TM). I love how he dissociates from his demon self enough that--not only do they have two different personalities--but Angel goes as far as to block certain memories as well. It’s fascinating. And it’s like, on the surface, it seems like he’s the “noble” one for doing this, that he’s so disgusted at his demon and the thought of being evil by association, that he’s keeping himself “above” it, but he’s really doing the opposite?

Like, to hearken back to Lies My Parents Told Me (and now I’m kinda wishing I’d done these two episode metas in the same post), if the First was in LA, Angel would have soooooo many triggers, like holy shit his team would be screwed. And Angel would never, ever face them... or at least, would never face them in a way where he assumed responsibility and accepted his actions as things that’d happened and are in the past and are therefore unchangeable, so stop letting them rule you and do you best with the things that are currently in the present.

And, it’s like, until he does that, Angel won’t ever “grow”, he’ll just get more and more self-mired in his own angst while Angelus continues to destabilize into more and more of a ticking time bomb in his sub-conscious.

Just... holy mental issues, Batman. No wonder his moments of perfect happiness only happen during sex; he’s too fractured and fucked up for them to occur any other way.

The Groan-Worthy:

So yeah. That diner scene. I didn’t get it.

Oh no, Angel fed on a human that was already dead? The horror? Was I really supposed to be as shocked and disgusted as Faith was? Like I get the need to add new scenes, but really? This was BY FAR one of the least questionable things Angel has done with a soul.

Like... why didn’t they show him palling around with Darla, Spike, & Dru again? Darla mentioned in 1900 he’d been killing murderers and thieves to put on a show of still being evil. Killing murderers is questionable, but thieves? Steal a loaf of bread, get chomped by a vampire? They could’ve done something with that.

Or, you know, they could’ve also just flashed back to this scene:

How many people died in that bout of violence? 20-30?

But no. We get “ohhhhhh noo, Angel fed on a dead guy!!!!!!11!1” and are expected to care. Like puhlease. Give me a break.

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE HYPERION

Willow coming to the rescue was great. The best thing about crossover characters/cameos is the chatter.

So yeah. Wesley & Willow’s scene was amazing. I loved how Wesley was like “you couldn’t possibly understand my pain” and Willow was all, “ummm... yeah, about that... I flayed a guy last spring.” And I think that more that anything hit home how you don’t need to be the dark & edgy, more adult version of a show to have serious shit going down.

Also I’m glad that the Willow/Fred UST was called out because through-out the whole episode I was like, “daaaamn Alyson.... you are standing in the same room as your husband and are having 9000 times the chemistry with Amy Acker than him rn.”

But all’s well that ends well and Angel’s soul is popped back in, just in time for Cordelia to come down the steps wearing an ensemble that just SCREAMS, “I AM EVIL”. Surely our heroes will notice?!?

Episode 16 (Players)

Spoilers, our heroes don’t notice.

I’ve really been snoring to death on the evil Cordy thing (mostly because I hate Connor and all of Cordy’s lines have been reduced to “but Connor! think about the baby! think about us!”), so I’m gonna focus on the Gunn & Gwen subplot. Or main plot? IDK, I liked it a whole lot better than the baby drama.

Gunn is fascinating. He’s like the Xander of the LA team, but if Xander had maintained his soldier experience/role? Although I hated the fact that the Gunn/Fred relationship drama was happening in the midst of all the other drama, I’m actually kind of glad it happened because it did/does expose key issues in both their self-perception of each other + themselves.

In Gunn’s case, namely that he’s not smart. Or rather, he’s not book smart, because Gunn is hella smart. He can think on his feet, he can improvise, he can strategize... but all that pales and his confidence wanes when put beside the others.

Because when’s the last time he had to play a part and be all sneaky? When’s the last time he gotta to devise a battle plan (Angel & Wesley are the ones always taking charge)?

This episode really took the kernel that was planted back in Supersymmetry re: Gunn accompanying Fred and trying to care about what she cares about even though he understands 0% of it vs Wesley openly being able to discuss her arguments and positions...

It’s like, no, a relationship doesn’t require both partners to understand the other’s job, but when Fred has dedicated her entire LIFE to understanding physic principles, it DOES create a gap. It’s this untouchable, unknowable part of her brain that will always be unknowable as long as Gunn remains uneducated. Which he will.

And that’s not an insult because, hell, even I’d be uneducated compared to Fred & Wesley, but it’s like...

To pull an example from my own life, I recently went on a first date that went really, really well. At one point the topic switched into movies and we literally spent the next TWO HOURS talking about movies. Talking about narrative, talking about cinematography, talking about editing, talking about film as a medium as a whole and how the best film stories are the ones that can only be told through film and it was AMAZING. And yeah, I just think of that vs other dates where I’ve asked the other person what kind of movies they liked and they’ve just said “eh, superhero movies are good i guess” or “i haven’t had much time recently for movies,” and it’s like, sure, not being passionate about movies isn’t a dealkiller, but film/tv love takes up such a HUGE part of my brain that NOT clicking with it is always going to leave a significant deadspace re: things that are frequently on my mind vs things I know I can converse about.

Yeah.

TL;DR, both Fred & Gunn deserve people that they can not only be cute and loving with, but also passionate. Like mentally passionate.

Episode 17 (Inside Out)

I hated this episode. I mean, yes. Woo Lorne, acting the bait but otherwise??

Ouch.

Like... Angel knew Cordelia was evil by the way she said “my sweet”? Really? That was your master clue-by-four? You know it’s lame when you have to do a flashback all Mr. Monk style and LITERALLY EXPLAIN IT TO THE AUDIENCE. 

IDK, part of me’s just remembering BtVS S3 Enemies and how damn good THAT reveal was.

But yeah. Oh no, Connor and Cordelia run off. Oh no, Angel angst.

And then Connor just continues to be THE WORST. Like kidnap a girl and ignore the voice of his dead mom and then murder the crying girl THE WORST.

Like JESUS CHRIST. Your dad and... pseudo-nephew? Is Spike Connor’s psuedo-nephew? That’s messed up. Anyway, Your dad and pseudo-nephew at least had the No Soul Get Out of Jail Free card. What’s your excuse?

And, yes, evil!Cordy has been brainwashing him, but not to this extent surely! Like Holtz was screwed up, but he spent 15+ years instilling right vs wrong into him. And even if was swayed into confusion, CRYING GIRL PLEADING FOR HER LIFE. WHAT IS CONFUSING ABOUT THAT?

CONNOR YOU ARE THE WORST.

And then everything continues to go to shit and Cordelia gives birth to Gina Torres.

End episode apparently.

Episode 18 (Shiny Happy People)

My one complaint is that it took way too long for the ball to drop. (Not surprisingly, I had this same reaction to Madoka Magica: Rebellion--30m in of wtf dreamland vs eventual dark reality.)

But then once it did.

HOLY SHIT, FRED. I LOVE YOU.

I didn’t realize how much Fred had gotten side-lined this season until this episode and that’s a tragedy because Fred slayed it in this episode.

And omg, that one cut to Jasmine’s true face. HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, WHY THE FUCK DID THEY DO THAT. I watched this episode right before going to bed. I was not prepared for that! I was not okay with that!

Like, even now, I am too scared and revolted to scroll back through the episode and rewatch/pause that scene.

I’m just wigged.

Completely wigged.

Gah.

But yeah. Currently Fred is the only sane one and completely segregated from the rest of the cast + 99.5% of LA. How is she going to get out of this one? I honestly have no idea and for the first time in forever Angel has ended on a cliff hanger I actually get a fuck about so as soon as I hit “Post” I am headed off to watch the next episode.

That’s it for now, folks! Until next time, I’m gonna close out on my favorite line of this set of eps.

#angel #angel the series #ats #orpheus #shiny happy people #clacks from theclacks

[medea10]

My Review of Magical Girl Site

How did I get into this anime? I…huh…Good question! I don’t recall. Probably some other anime reviewers mentioned it and I put it on the Amazon/Netflix list hoping I won’t have to watch it any time soon. Two years later and here we are!

Aya Asagiri’s life is a living hell. She is constantly bullied at school and no one does a thing to stop it. Her teachers don’t care about her well-being. Her father barely notices she exists. And to top it off, her brother beats the crap out of her just for him to relieve stress! Is it any wonder that she wants to commit suicide? One night, her computer mysteriously turns on to a website, promoting Aya to become a magical girl. She brushed it off and thought nothing of it…

That is until the next morning when she finds a note and a gun in her shoe locker. After being tortured by her bullies and almost raped, she finds herself at the end of her ropes and pulls out the mysterious gun. When she pulled the trigger, her bullies disappeared. Turns out, the targets are transported to another place. In the case of some of her bullies, they were transported to in front of a moving train.

Karma, bitches!

It’s unknown why Aya was specifically chosen to become a magical girl, but fellow magical girl Yatsumura feels she could use Aya’s magic to combat a looming threat to other magical girls. But they must not overuse their magic, otherwise they will die.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As of this moment, this anime seems to be in the capable hands of Amazon Prime. And we all know how well they treat animes, right?! Hahaha! Funny! Anyways, don’t expect a dub! The cast seems to be comprised of many female seiyuus I’m not particularly familiar with. I mean with the exception of Aina Suzuki, I hear her sounds every day thanks to the Love Live game apps! Add to that the creepy, raspy voice of Frieza playing the site administrator! One voice actor however I heard the second he let out a creepy, hygena-like laugh, I knew exactly who this crazy bastard was! Nobuhiko Okamoto plays a great psychopath. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Aya is played by Yuuko Oono

*Yatsumura is played by Himika Akaneya

*Sarina is played by Haruka Yamazaki (known for Ruka on Hayate the Combat Butler, Mero on Monster Musume, Aika on High School DxD, and Natsumi on Danganronpa 3)

*Nijimi is played by Yuu Serizawa (known for Shera on How Not to Summon a Demon Lord)

*Shioi is played by Aina Suzuki (known for Mari on Love Live Sunshine)

AUTOMATICLY THROWN ON DISLIKED LIST: Okay children, who automatically ends up on my hate list for life?

Fuckers who commit rape and fuckers who kill animals for fun!

Damn right! Give this anime some credit for not showing Aya’s bullies throwing a cat in front of a moving train. If this were 10 years ago, they probably would have animated it and I would have been puking afterward. I’m not sure which of Aya’s bullies threw a cat in front of a moving train, but for the time being, I’m throwing them all on the list.

And while I’m here, Sarina! She was like the ring-leader in the bullying of Aya. I’m almost certain she’s the bitch that killed the stray cat but I have no proof of that. With my history with horrible people like that, I have no sympathy for bullies in the slightest and feel she got what was coming to her. Bitch, you got that big, ugly scar on your neck for a reason. You got what was coming!

DEFINITELY BELONGS IN DISLIKE HISTORY: Now that I got the usual gripe off my chest, gotta add Aya’s onii-chan, Kaname! Sweet merciful crap, do I love hearing Nobuhiko Okamoto play a psychopath, but this is going way too far. And Kaname is just irredeemable! He has this complex that makes him think he’s on God-tier and everyone else is beneth him. Now I do have to hate Kaname and Aya’s father for placing this kind of pressure on Kaname and beating the shit out of him if he gets bad grades. But good fuck, this guy just pushes past the line of no return when he tries to manipulate little girls, steal their power, and lose control. And this wasn’t like he had no control over his own body and wants to stop this from happening! Kaname meant every thing he did to his sister and her friends. OH…and that one guy he forced to off himself! I just can’t even with this guy!

SHIPPING: I know a lot of people ship the hell out of Aya and Yatsumura and yeah, I can see that and I would ship them too. But for reals, I just want these two girls to live a life of peace together for as long as they’re around. For fuck’s sake, did you see the shit they put up with in their lives? Aya was bullied relentlessly at home and school. Yatsumura watched her whole family be slaughtered by a creep. These girls deserve some sort of peace! I know this is the shipping category, but I felt the need to say this.

STICKS: Okay anime, what are you doing? Aya uses a magical gun! Sarina uses a magical yo-yo! Nijimi uses magical panties (insert immature laugh here)! Yatsumura uses a magical remote! How hard is it to have them say that! And I probably shouldn’t put blame on the anime and holler at the manga! But calling magical items “Sticks”, that feels…I don’t want to say stupid, but I can’t think of any other word to go along with that. I just feel like the manga was on some deadline and they were frantically finishing what to call their magical items and just went “FUCK IT, IT’S STICKS”.

COULD HAVE FOOLED ME: In the “Could have fooled me” category we have a boy who identifies as a girl magical girl! Man, 2018 definitely was the progressive AF year! I mean, we had Lily from Zombieland Saga, we had the girls who transformed into magical buff men in Magical Girl Ore, and now THIS! So we have Kiyo! An openly transgendered magical girl that’s not a token joke! Okay, well done guys! Pearl points all around!

ENDING: Early in the series, we learned about a moment called “The Tempest”. A catastrophic even set to take place once enough negative energy is caught. There are a lot of Magical Girl Site administrators that take advantage of “POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS”. They pick the most unfortunate girls as pawns in their game. And once “The Tempest” hits, everyone will die and the world will start over anew. Aya and Yatsumura end up meeting new magical girl allies and even a few that were coersed by different administrators. Not to mention one of Aya’s bullies is a magical girl too with a score to settle! What could be worse?

How about we add Aya’s disgusting brother to this mix?! As I’ve mentioned before, Aya’s brother Kaname would use Aya as a personal punching bag in order to get rid of stress. When Aya became a magical girl, she would spend more time with Yatsumura or the other girls, leaving Kaname to go without slugging his sister. So fuckface over here manipulates another magical girl, Nijimi to do what he says. This leads to him stealing Nijimi’s underwear and gaining her magical power of mind control. I never thought I would have to say a sentence like that, but here we are.

Kaname went out of control with this power as he managed to injure all of the girls and give a fatal blow to Nijimi. But another possible enemy dropped a bomb on us when they kidnapped Kaname. THEN, these girls are targeted at Nijimi’s funeral and they almost died. Add another plot-twist, a police officer that’s been seen from time to time in a lot of the tragedies in the show is in cahoots with one of the magical girl site administrators. This keeps getting fuckier by the minute! Well, the girls felt it was time to take action and try to take out the administrators that screwed them with this doomed fate. But once they took out one of the administrators, they came across an ugly truth.

Sight administrators are magical girls who died previously!

Yeah, not that big of a shock! Madoka Magica gave us magical girls who end up so corrupt that they become witches they’re supposed to fight. While some of the administrators ended up falling to these girls, Nana (the creepy one we’ve been watching since ep 1) is the hardest one to take out. She ends up killing Yatsumura (because she used up too much of her power), but then manipulates her to become an administrator.

Once she manipulated Yatsumura, she ends up going after Aya. And after a lot of back-and-forth between the two girls, Yatsumura was able to snap out of Nana’s control and they managed to take out Nana. And we end the series with a brighter future for Aya and Yatsumura as their lives become a little less unfortunate.

Yeah, few issues here!

1.) There are still a butt-load of site administrators. Isn’t there still a “Tempest” going to happen? 2.) Aya and Yatsumura’s lives aren’t in danger anymore after using fuck-tons of their power? WTF?! 3.) What was the point of Aya shooting herself to get Yatsumura back? I am not following you. Is this some sort of Insception shit?! 4.) That detective! Misumi was his name? Why was he just casually talking to Nana a few episodes back? 5.) Why don’t we see him until the final few moments in the finale? 6.) WHY DID HE RAPE KANAME?! 7.) WHY WAS THIS SCENE A THING? 8.) I don’t want to say Kaname deserved it, buuuuuut… Uuuggghhh…Mumble, mumble. I can’t finish that thought. 9.) These site administrators are probably pissed and are going to want revenge on these magical girls. What’s going on here?

…Let me guess, I need to read the manga to get all my questions answered…

FUCKING FIGURES!

Seriously...what Misumi did. That scene is forever etched in my brain forever. Next to that scene of Kaname wiggling his junk in front of a guy.

This anime was pretty bad. No wait...

This anime was way too edgy for me! Episode 1 was just absolute torture porn involving Aya. The first episode managed to combine the bully scene in Vivid Strike, the puppy killing scene in Elfen Lied, and every bullying episode of Hell Girl all into one single episode. As for the rest of this series, they go above and beyond to grab some of the worst aspects of other animes and implement them here. Aya’s older brother almost has a God-complex that rivals that of Light Yagami of Death Note. Nijimi has a devoted fan that’s almost crossing over from the movie Perfect Blue. Body mutilation scenes on levels not seen since Higurashi! And fill this world up with the worst kinds of humans imaginable like in Elfen Lied! This was just too much hatred! Too much!

Add to that, there’s absolutely no resolution to this story. Yes, Aya and Yatsumura are alive and together. But guys, there are still some other-worldly strong site administrators looming! Tempest is still happening. KANAME IS STILL FUCKING ALIVE…literally and figuratively speaking! And with how much this anime has been panned by anime fans across the board, I doubt if this anime will ever receive a sequel. Guys, if you want a really good 12-episode anime about magical girls with an edge, just watch Madoka Magica. But if you’re a curious idiot like me, whatever, you do you!

As this anime is an Amazon Prime exclusive, I’m afraid that’s the only legal outlet for this.

Now that this is over, my next Amazon/Netflix/Crunchyroll anime is…

Grand Blue!

Oh, it’s set in a cute ocean town. Am I going to enjoy some cute absurdity like I did with Tsuritama?

Sort of!

OH GOOD FUCK, WHAT FRAT HOUSE WAS THIS BIRTHED FROM?!

#anime review #magical girl site #mahou shoujo site #aya asagiri #tsuyuno yatsumura #kaname asagiri #sarina shizukume