Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 315 [Reveiw]

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/148466/partfive36.png.jpg

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind - Episode 36 [Review]

Well, there certainly is a lot of stuff happening in these final episodes. Whether that stuff is good or bad, I'm still not sure how to feel.

The name of the game is keeping the golden arrow out of Chariot Reqiuem's hands. Turtle-Polnareff has it, but we've got a multitude of additional problems stacking up, like how Chariot's body swapping is entering a new phase that mutates all the life around it into new shapes, and our heroes are living time bombs as a result. Likewise, the mystery of Diavolo's whereabouts finally becomes pertinent. The gang figures his soul must have transferred inside one of them, and they have to put the golden arrow problem on pause because the second any of them are within King Crimson's reach, they're doomed.

There's plenty of JoJo's weirdness making the rounds here, as the conflict shifts towards our heroes trying to understand the in-universe mechanics of souls. Giorno makes some interesting claims about how his body being empty enough to return to when Narancia died is proof that he's the only soul left in his body, and I'm glad the other characters chimed in with "Wait, why are we assuming that's how souls work?!" because I thought that was weird too. The suspense is super goofy for this whole scene, because they fake you out into thinking Diavolo had remained inside his own body this whole time, which is the least interesting place he could have ended up. It turns out he's actually slumming it in Mista's body with his daughter, so hopefully Trish can get at least a few good hits on him while she can.

The climax of this episode leads Diavolo back to the arrow, where he remarks that what makes Chariot Requiem special is how its shadow exists relative to the individual's perspective. I've been thoroughly warned that this final battle would be where Golden Wind comes off the rails, and while nothing's been as dramatically out-there as I anticipated, this scene is like crashing into a wall of incomprehensible gibberish. Somehow the shadow is the reason why Requiem can control people? And the way Diavolo conquers it is punching the back of his own head and destroying the symbolic "light" that casts the shadow? Oddly enough, King Crimson's powers themselves have been easy enough to follow (it's predicting a short period into the future and erasing people's memory of those few seconds, right?), but Requiem gets one big thinking emoji from me.

With so many pieces moving in this final battle, I wish I could say they were working together better than they actually are. Whether we're focusing on Diavolo or Chariot Requiem, the rules and stakes keep changing on a dime. The chaos doesn't feel like it's funneling to a specific point, it's just a bunch of semi-related ideas wrestling for the viewer's attention. The off-kilter strangeness of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure rarely manages to nail the Rube Goldberg plotting that Hirohiko Araki seems so inclined to tackle. This would be less of a problem if we weren't in the final stretch, where I was hoping the thematic richness of Golden Wind would still be at the wheel, but my favorite elements of this series haven't been present for a few episodes now.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/148456/fairy-tale-last-ep-38.jpg

Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 315 [Reveiw]

This was another one of those episodes where I was torn between a 2.5 and a 3 for a rating. In favor of the lower grade was the fact that everything really just came too easily for everyone – Erza's amazing overpoweredness, Wendy's pitch-perfect sword enchantment, Irene's change of heart, Natsu's solving of his problem, fixing the land – if it had been any easier, someone would have just snapped their fingers and said “Abracadabra!” The simple resolution to several weeks of fighting just feels a little hollow, like someone realized too late that the pacing needed a kick in the pants.

But the thing is, none of those issues – or at least most of them – ignore the central themes of either sword and sorcery fantasy or Fairy Tail itself. In fact, they work quite well within those strictures. Irene's actions to end the ongoing battle between herself and her biological daughter especially are thematically sound; “family” is the single most important thing to Erza, and that which Irene threw away when she got caught up in her own angst and issues. Central to this is the way that she convinced herself that she could not enchant herself onto infant Erza. The way she initially phrased it made it sound as if she did not have the magical capability to overwrite Erza's soul with her own, like she wasn't powerful enough. But this week she remembers the truth: she would not do it after realizing that Erza was an innocent who had nothing to do with Irene's own problems beyond the fact that she was born to Irene. Irene's problems and traumas belong to Irene alone, and she realized that she had no right to use them as an excuse to use Erza. But she also knew herself well enough to understand that if she tried to raise her daughter, she'd probably try to do it at some point any way. So giving Erza up was truly the best decision she could make.

That sounds a little suspicious when we think about what Erza went through with that whole tower fiasco, and it definitely feels uncomfortable to say “Well, at least she got Makarov, Fairy Tail, and Jellal out of it!” But I'm fairly certain that that's how Erza herself would see it – when Wendy, with her usual empathy, asks Erza if she's okay after Irene kills herself, Erza's response is that ultimately biology means nothing and that her only parent was Makarov. So what Wendy was sensing was Erza's pain at losing her father, not her mother; something that poor Erza then has to tell Wendy. It's a fitting end to the whole Irene mess, really – within Fairy Tail Erza's role really is that of older sister, and it's the older sister's job to tell the younger things like this.

Conveniently, Irene's demise also undoes her Universe One spell, putting Fiore back together, turning the princess back into herself, and getting the injured out of that cold basement where they were being treated. That's pretty standard fantasy genre fare, even if it does feel way too easy for our heroes – when the caster dies, oftentimes their spells are broken/curses lifted or however you want to see it. It's also nicely symbolic if you think about it – Natsu's back on his feet, and he and Lucy are starting back out as a team (with Happy, who I think many of us haven't quite forgiven) from their home, ready to take back their guild.

Yes, technically it's just Lucy's home, but with the amount of time Natsu and Happy spend there, I think we can just go with the feet-on-the-ground symbolism here.

And Natsu does have his feet firmly back on the ground, heading in the direction he needs to go in. His battle within himself ended up feeling a bit anti-climactic, but it's also a very Natsu conclusion. Basically it was akin to a scene in Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad when Granny Weatherwax is surrounded by mirrors and has to point to which image of herself is real and Granny says, “That's easy” and points to her physical self. Natsu's choice is between what others see him as (dragon, demon) and what he sees himself as – human. Where someone like Irene would get lost in the reflections and be uncertain as to who or what she truly was, Natsu is simple enough to just say what he's always felt – it's easy. It perhaps doesn't make for exciting viewing, but in Natsu's case, the simple answer is usually the correct one, and in this case it's also the answer that's going to get the story moving forward.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/148467/satowa.jpg

Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life - Episode 13 [Review]

This episode of Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life may not feel like much of a finale, but this is all we're going to get until this split-cour series resumes in October. It's not conclusive in the slightest, but it captures a pivotal moment in time for the Tokise koto club that shows us their growth—less as musicians than as increasingly kind and self-aware human beings. Takezo, Takinami-sensei, and Chika all make bad choices in episode 13, but the reasons they make these decisions further cement this show's optimistic, feelings-first attitude. It's only because of the way the characters have grown to support each other over these past 13 episodes that they're able to turn a disastrous situation into a success, much to Takinami's surprise. Kono Oto Tomare!'s triumph is its emotional intelligence—over and again, characters are urged to express their true feelings and are consequently rewarded for doing so. The result is a show with a narrative tone as warm as the koto music it features.

The episode begins with Chika making the wrong choice: you should never hide an injury or try to play through it. Takinami is the only one that notices, but his decision to talk to Chika in private, telling him his lack of participation in the performance won't change a thing, is designed to rub Chika the wrong way. Even Takezo points that out to Takinami afterward: if he were really so worried about Chika, he could have just taken him directly to first aid. Fed up, Takinami tells Takezo the decision is in his hands now, leading to the third bad decision of the episode: Takezo encourages Chika to perform anyway. Why? Even though he knows “as club president” that it's the wrong decision, he couldn't leave Chika out after overhearing his impassioned speech to Takinami about how important it was for him to play with the group. Takezo's emotions overtook his logical side, and he made a decision with his heart instead of his brain.

Takinami is the least surprised of all when the performance starts off on the wrong foot. Chika's injury means he can't play with his usual resolute clarity, a development that causes a chain reaction of panic and anxiety through the rest of the club. All seems lost until an unlikely hero emerges: Kota! The member of the club who has seemed to struggle the most these past 13 weeks finds a new role as the center of the performance, nailing his part just when everyone else was faltering. His determination is one of the most inspiring moments of the show so far, a scene that breaks through the cynicism of detractors like Takinami. In this fictional world, honesty, emotional transparency, and mutual support actually pay off! This is the kind of wholesome message that has lately gone out of style in anime, but it doesn't feel corny or contrived. I think it's because the show has spent so much time developing each character: his or her beliefs and trauma and unique reason for being drawn to the koto club. It's not phoning it in, which means it can cash in big emotional payoffs later in the game.

I made a mistake in at least one previous review: I thought the contemporary piece they were playing was called Rokudan. But as the title of the episode makes perfectly clear, this is Kuon. You can listen to the official track for the performance in this episode here because while the plot is rewarding and uplifting, it deserves to be listened to uninterrupted by every character's internal monologue. In the end, it's a reminder of what Tokise has that other clubs don't—if not technical exactitude, the heart that Chika's aunt, Isaki, was looking for last week. This uneven but in-the-end successful performance was a microcosm of the first cour itself. This show had some downs (off-model face art, episodes with barely any koto music, villains with weak motives), but its ups (stunning emotional clarity and a powerhouse soundtrack) more than compensated for that.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/148435/bungo-stray-dogs-season-3-ep-12.jpg

Bungo Stray Dogs - Episode 37 [Review]

Have you been wondering who the man with the lovely long hair who was absolutely not Pushkin was? Well, wonder no longer! Not only does Bungo Stray Dogs' third season end here, but it also finally gives us a name for him – Ivan Goncharov who, not coincidentally, was one of the authors Dostoyevsky most respected. He's not quite as well used in the story as some of the other authors, unfortunately; his power “The Precipice” is named after the 1869 novella that was Goncharov's third major work, and its plot is about a three-way romantic rivalry. I suppose that we could say that all three men who are the main characters of the novella are standing on a metaphorical precipice, which is commonly interpreted in the literal sense as a cliff, which is made of earth…so Ivan controls earth? It feels a bit more tenuous than some of the other powers in terms of connections, but I'm probably just feeling picky. In any event, the link between the two Russian authors in reality makes Ivan a nice choice for Fyodor's right-hand man, and his fight with Akutagawa and Atsushi is one of the more visually interesting. Ivan's super-creepy golem (it's those hands in place of a head) serves as a solid counterpoint to Akutagawa's tentacles and Atsushi's swift movements, and even without getting to see Atsushi wearing the Rashomon coat, it's really fun to watch.

The cooperation between Dazai's two protégés offers us a chance to see how the two really do balance each other out. Akutagawa is all action, never (overtly) doubting himself and unafraid to take whatever steps he needs to in order to secure the victory he wants. Atsushi is a classic overthinker, mulling over what to do and when to do it, even after the action has been taken. These qualities annoy the one who doesn't have them, but both need to absorb a little of whatever the other has in order to become balanced, both as fighters and as people. Akutagawa seems to realize this first when he brings up Atsushi's deceased “master,” the priest. He asks Atsushi, basically, why he's still listening to the words of a dead man. Atsushi's answer is that now that the priest is dead, he's always in Atsushi's head, and he's unable to escape him. You can't silence the dead, because they can no longer speak for themselves – we can only hear what we associate with them in their nonexistent voices. Until Atsushi can quiet the priest in his head, he can never stop being a stray, something he may not have fully realized until Akutagawa said something.

In a way, this is one of the links between Dazai and Atsushi. Although he hasn't said it, the flashbacks to his past, specifically his friendship with Ango and Oda, have made Oda the voice in Dazai's head. He may also be in Ango's head – we don't really know enough about him to say definitively – but there's a real sense as this series goes on that his death is the true catalyst for Dazai's actions, and therefore a major driving force in the series, even though he's long gone.

We really do see Dazai as the culmination of his experiences in the show thus far in this episode. His strategizing is very impressive, even as Fyodor almost manages to outwit him in the whole escape-from-the-mine sequence. It's a good thing that he hasn't been truly defeated with this finale, because more than anyone else, he's a worthy opponent for Dazai (and Ranpo, really), because he's so damn clever. I love his low-tech solution to avoiding Katai's detection, not only because we got to have that fight/chase scene to Tchaikovsky, but also because it's such a simple solution that most tech-savvy people would overlook in the age of internet and satellite radio. Likewise his decoration of the shipping container as almost identical to the café where he really was nicely circumvents anyone with clairvoyance or a similar ability. He's always thinking and always prepared, and that, more than anything else, makes him a truly interesting villain.

As far as places to end an ongoing story go, this is a good one. Dostoyevsky has been taken into federal custody (which doesn't mean he's gone), relations between Agency, Guild, and Mafia have all been decently patched up, and Dazai is slowly guiding Atsushi and Akutagawa to understand the sort of bonds he had with his friends Sango and Oda in the past, which, I suspect he hopes, will eventually put an end to the cycle of violence that has been plaguing Yokohama. He offers Atsushi a toast to the stray dogs at the end, and while that gives us our series' title drop (hooray!), it also offers us a reminder that they're “stray” dogs, not “wild” ones – and most strays are just looking for a home.

Source