Usagi Drop 03-05 – Father (?) and Daughter Moments

I can't believe that Daikichi is slowly becoming quite a believable father to Rin! Anyways, in these three episodes, Rin finally enters a proper kindergarten school and made some friends while Daikichi makes a life long career related decision for the sake of Rin.

The past two episodes of the series basically shows Daikichi slowly adjusting into becoming Rin's sorta adoptive father and gathers clues regarding Rin's mother to find out the reason on why she decided to abandon her at the first place. If there is one thing I observed about Rin is that she is now used to Daikichi's family and that she is now more open to them, especially Daikichi's mother. Also, she starts making a lot of friends in her school.

More on Daikichi, he decided to be moved into a different department so that he will have enough time to spend for Rin. I find his move quite admirable as it is pretty rare for a parent to ask his boss to move him in a different department for the sake of his child, what more if that child is just someone he took care of because of his dead grandfather?

Now to episode 5 in which we meet Makoto, Rin's mother who is a manga artist and based on one short scene, a quite popular too. Based on her actions when she talked with Daikichi, she is the kind of mother who slightly cares about her child. The only sign of affection she gave regarding Rin is that she doesn't want her to be teased by her classmates because she doesn't have the same family name like that of his guardian, and that's about it. This led to Daikichi having plans on formally adopting Rin because he now cares for her like she is his own daughter or something along those lines.

In addition, the entire episode has this same warm feeling that the first episode had in regards with the interactions between Rin and Daikichi, from Daikichi asking Rin if she wants to adopt his family name till Rin’s graduation from kindergarten. It was sweet and I can’t wait to see how Daikichi would raise Rin into a fine woman that her mother says she was, even if she is not his daughter by name.

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger 23 – Peoples’ Lives Are the Future of the Earth

Also known as Fabulous Basco IV: Basco and Friends! In this episode, for the first time, Gai wasn’t able to figure out what Navi is talking about and now becomes part of the team’s biweekly routine of aimlessly looking for the Grand Power. Asides from Basco’s return, this episode contains many girl power moments.

Many fans wondered why Luka was so protective towards Ahim that it later led to shipping called, Luka x Ahim. This episode cleared that misconception that Luka is tomboy for Ahim, turned out that she has a little sister (sona ka ono hajimaite…) named Fia and she wasn’t able to bring her to a doctor when she was sick, and thus psychology wise, she instead carry her emotions of guilt by being overprotective towards Ahim. Speaking of which, the episode also serves as Ahim’s character development episode as she tries to prove in front of Luka that she is not her little sister that she is some pirate princess.

Compared to the other girl power episodes that I watched, it was not that impressive but it was not that bad. I just loved that they transformed into various sibling related Sentai teams (namely, Magiranger, Fiveman and GoGo V), but it wasn’t that it didn’t sold me less the Fiveman Gokai Change in which I suddenly remembered my old crush, Five Yellow or was it Pink. And the last Magiranger Gokai Change, boy, Ahim proves that she is indeed a Pink Ranger!

For the actual tribute itself, it never felt like a GoGo V tribute in my opinion, sure, we have Matsuri aka Go Pink but she does not have that impact of a mentor figure compared to her brothers, especially if we are talking about Matoi. I mean, she was just… there and didn’t give anything special to the episode asides from her presence and saying the episode title! Remove Matsuri out of the picture, and it would be one average filler episode. Also, the “sibling plot” felt a bit advance in some point since I find it best if they just use that plot in the Fiveman tribute.

As for the GoGo V Gokai Change, I knew it, Gai’s imagination can’t create a Go Titanium/Go Silver/Titanium Ranger/Insert Name of Possible Japanese name of Titanium Ranger here Ranger Key! I mean, he is a Sentai fan and doesn’t watch Power Rangers, so yeah. Now back to the fight, I just love that the GoGo V theme being played in the background, it adds a heroic feel in the battle that they should save the Earth and save lives because they are the Rescue Sentai GoGo V. As for the GoGo V Grand Power, understandable since Victory Robo’s main body base is a fire truck, so I am not surprised that the GokaiOh will have water hoses attached to its body.

Now to Basco, I just loved that he tries other approaches in getting the Grand Powers. If doing a direct approach won’t work, then do an indirect one and fool the enemy that Zangyack is the one responsible for it! Lastly, I just love his choice for Ranger Keys this time! I mean, Rio and Mele had long history of being the bad guys before helping the Gekirangers fight Long at the show’s last 3-5 episodes and prior to that, they occasionally helped the Gekirangers if they have no other options left, like when they were transported to Hong Kong or when they were transported back in the past. As for the use of Zubaan… well, my only memory about the guy is him forcing himself to be Boukenger’s Seventh Ranger and if you consider Power Rangers, him being hammy most of the time.

Special thanks to That Chick's That Toku Blog for the images, been busy lately so I wasn't able to get my own screencaps.

Tiger & Bunny 18 – Tiger Returns, Bunny Falls

Mind = blown.

In this episode, Tiger returns to Sternbild and he is ready to tell Bunny that he now plans to retire for the sake of her daughter, but it seems that he is on a wrong timing since Kriem wakes up and tells Bunny the truth about what happened during Christmas.

I just loved that they gave Kriem’s back story first before deciding to kill her off in the series. Well that explains why she is siding with Ouroboros! One of the biggest surprises in this episode is her revelation that Ouroboros is a much bigger organization than we thought it was and Jake didn’t kill Barnaby’s parents and that their group is just one tiny fraction of the entire organization. The part about Jake not the killer is predictable, while as for their group being a small fraction of Ouroboros is quite a surprise. If you look at it this way, Jake and co. made quite level of damage back then, considering that they are just a fraction of the organization, it means that Ouroboros is one threat that our heroes shouldn’t take lightly.

As for Barnaby’s reaction, it was obvious but the fact that the faces change while thinking of the possible killer is quite surprising. And thus, he doesn’t have the proper state of mind in becoming a hero. Meanwhile, back at the Kaburagi residence, we learned that Kaede’s NEXT powers is that she can copy the powers of the NEXT that she touches. So that means, after she touched his dad, she now has his Hundred Power and after she touch some random NEXT, she now has his magnet powers. The question is, will those powers stay permanently?

Trollin'

Overall, the episode is one of the strongest episodes plot wise and continues the tone that the series had in the past few episodes. Is it me, or I have this feeling that this series will have a tragic ending?

Ao no Exorcist 14-16 - Just You Average Summer Camp with Demons

First semester ends and it's time for Summer Camp for our young cram school students! To add up the spice in this camp, Amaimon is planning something while Mephisto is "supervising" on what Amaimon is doing... while having tea.

This is one hell of an arc to review; I mean for starters, a lot of things happened in just two episodes. The only thing important that happened in the 14th episode is that it is clear that Rin clearly has friends and that he is not anymore alone with his struggle. Also, it is the start of their training… and that’s about it. The only thing interesting in the 14th episode is the comedy and the gag with Shura’s boobs and that’s about it.

Now to the most important part of this arc, Amaimon’s epic return. But before that, they were able to finish the task with Takara (the guy with a puppet) being first then eyebrows chick and the rest. And seriously, how did Takara bring one giant lantern?! Now back to Amaimon, his return is one of the reasons why the 15th episode was really good. He did everything just to force Rin to pull the Kurikara out of its sheath. Also, thanks to what Amaimon, we finally see what will happen to Rin if he gets consumed with his blue flames. It was both scary and at the same time, your jaw will drop because the scene of Rin just owning Amaimon is awesome.

To top everything of is that the episode after it is that Vatican now knows about Rin being the son of Satan and now, the Paladin, Arthur August Angel captures him and he is faces trial along with Mephy and Shura. Meanwhile, most of the students are surprised with turn of events that caused Yukio to explain everything. To the disappointments, first they didn’t give Rin a chance to explain himself in front of the Council of Gregory (my subs says, Grigori, and since the series heavily borrows elements from the Roman Catholic Christian religion, I will go for Gregory) and second, they just easily accepted Rin especially Bon less Konekomaru.

More on Bon’s part, why did he easily accepted Rin at the first place?! I mean, his temple had quite a history with Satan and he vowed that he will defeat Satan at the first place! What’s more is that he is willing to help Yukio fix the Kurikara! Now back on Mephy and co., I seriously hate Arthur during the trial and Mephy continues to impress me. The trial also reveals who is the twin’s mom and how long Mephy roamed Assiah. Oh, and Amimon wants to fight Rin again, and now he is quite buff.

Meanwhile, Yukio and co. are now in Kyoto to fix the Kurikara and met Bon’s childhood friend, the current Yoshikuni. While in Kyoto, Yukio and Bon faced a test of faith while trying to look for the caretaker of the temple so that they can get the nails that are related to the sword. That scene alone confirms everything about their feelings regarding Rin.

Overall, the arc had a weak started and now the tension continues to rise as Amaimon wants another round with Rin. What’s more is that Rin is trapped in some crystal while facing trial in front of the council of Gregory. As for the new character, Arthur, he continues to irritate me and that’s about it.

Marvel Anime: Blade 3-5 – Blade’s Past & the Philippines

Title says everything, namely in the past three episodes, we learned Blade’s past before vampires call him Blade while he is on his Philippine adventure to find Deacon Frost. And as a Filipino, did they got the Philippines correctly? All I can say is, I was at rage while watching the fifth episode.

I love that they explained Blade’s past to those who don’t read the comics or watched some of the Blade films. It explains the viewers on why he decided to become a vampire hunter. One of the main highlights in Blade’s life includes his meeting with Noah Van Helling, an obvious descendant of Van Helling, an old professor who helped the Harkers fight Dracula in the original novel and Blade’s childhood. Until now, I still pity Eric’s childhood. Finally, at the end, Makoto now understands Blade’s struggle, which is good in my opinion if they want to keep Makoto in the series without her trying to kill Blade.

Now to the ranting about his adventures in the Philippines, for starters, they were able to copy Manila’s poverty atmosphere since we have the carideria (a place were people eat), the tambays (a shortened term for stand-by, or in simple terms, a jobless individual). The dumpsite in which we saw kids pick up trash for them to live and the standard abusive husband that most Filipinos grew up watching thanks to soap operas. My only disappointment in the Manila setting is that as far as I can recall, politicians in Manila don’t have private armies.

Now to my biggest disappointment, how they depict Siquijor. The last documentary about Siquijor that I watched was sometime in 2006-2007 in which we learned that Siquijor has paved streets, people wearing modern clothes and they are trying to get rid of the image that their place is filled with aswangs (the proper Filipino equivalent of a vampire). But look what we got, they depict them as primitive individuals! I am fine with them wearing traditional costumes if it is for battle but the fact that they depict them in that level of primitivity is quite disappointing in my part.

They can just depict those three Filipinos as the descendants of the original berdugo (my sub says verdugo, but I will use berdugo here since that’s the proper Filipino term) and now they carry guns and other modern equipment. As for how they depict a village in Siquijor, it looks more like somewhere in South America and not in the Philippines. The only thing accurate about Siquijor is that the place is actually called, “Isla del Fuego” back then thanks to the fireflies that surround the island at night.

And to my major disappointment, the manananggal. In classic Filipino folklore, a manananggal is a kind, beautiful lady at day and at night, she splits her body into half to look for pregnant lady and with the use of her tongue, she will eat the child inside the mother's womb, but if you want a more brutal one, she will eat any baby or eat any human that she likes to devour. To kill it, you must find her other half that most of time is secluded in area that hunters can’t find and pour salt or ash in it so that she can’t reconnect with it and thus, she will die once the sun rises. Instead, we have a giant monster that can turn guys into a manananggal, what’s more is that her other half can walk! To top it all off, they must SEAL it and not KILL it with salt or ash! The only thing accurate they got about the manananggal is that it’s a flying monster that attacks people and her splitting her body into half is disgusting.

Did I mention that the biggest WTF moment in the Siquijor episode is that Blade and Makoto used a SPEEDBOAT to travel from Manila to Siquijor! Most Filipinos would rather take a ship ride from Manila to Bacolod or Iloilo then take a boat or bus ride to Siquijor! Granted that a speedboat can do it but knowing the weather conditions here in the Philippines right now (the fourth episode depicts the country in its rainy season), it’s quite impossible for them to do that feat.

Now back to Deacon Frost, I love his plan! I mean, since Frost wants to conquer the world, then they must use the blood of a vampire that is not vulnerable to sunlight and that is Blade. As for their battle, as always, Frost still owns Blade in every angle that leads Frost to extract more of Blade’s blood sample for his experiment. The fifth episode also introduces that there is a group of vampires called, pureblood which my guess are descendants of actual vampires and Frost case is that he is once a regular human before he became a vampire. As for the three Filipinos, namely, Lupit, Cimarron and Hagibis (every time he makes an appearance, I tend to sing one old song from the group called, you guess it, Hagibis), they were awesome. Too bad, the boys didn’t last for more than one episode, while Lupit lasted for at least two episodes.

Overall, the last three episodes were good in advancing the plot of the series and explaining why Blade decided to kill vampires. The only problem is that their accuracy in depicting the Philippines was at least 60-70% accurate and the rest felt like they didn’t do any proper research regarding the country.