#sekijitsu

[sorrowtainted]

Of all people, the president of the Armed Detective Agency is the last person Chuuya expected to run into today.

It's purely a chance meeting, or at least it seems to be - Chuuya doesn't particularly imagine that Fukuzawa planned it out, but anything's possible, isn't it? The truce between the ADA and the Port Mafia is still going on, but it still feels strange to stand face-to-face with this man without tension in the air; or the expectation of a fight about to break out.

...Admittedly... Chuuya has always found himself curious about Fukuzawa. What kind of a leader is he, to command the ADA in the way he does; to make it such a formidable opponent of the Port Mafia? Of course, in the end, the organizations function with each other as much as they do against each other. Perhaps both may be needed in order to keep the peace of Yokohama, but it's clear to Chuuya that at the very least, the ADA have got the much easier job. Doesn't make it any less irritating when they get in their way, though.

"...Didn't expect to run into you here." Chuuya's voice is causal, but while he's scowling, it holds no particular malice. There's no point pretending that Fukuzawa hasn't seen him, so he might as well speak first.

"Did you need something from me?"

@sekijitsu ( starter for fukuzawa! )

#ic #sekijitsu #v. main; tag tbd. #aaaaaaa tysm for the follow!! #i feel like this isn't my best starter otl; so apologies if it's not super creative ;; #but i'm super excited to write with you nonetheless #i've always wanted these two to interact... i love them............... #chuuya could learn a lot about leadership from fukuzawa i think #either way; lemme know if you want anything changed! <3

[kenpxchi]

@sekijitsu

His first observations about the Soul Palace are about how clean it is. Everything's a near-blinding shade of white, to make up for the lack of clouds in the sky around them. He walks through the entryway, unattended. They weren't expecting a visitor. But he isn't here to do anything so brash as rebellion, and frankly, he's found his method of transport more secure than flying up in a pillar fired out of a cannon. The tear in space seals up right behind him as he walks through it and onto the spotless expanse of white.

As the standard method of transit is unattended, Kenpachi is unable to be blasted across the expanse between palaces, which is a shame, because he knows it would be a lot of fun. Renji told him a lot about this place when Kenpachi insisted on knowing everything about it. The Captrain can be very persuasive when he wants to be. Disappointed, Kenpachi backs up all the way to the edge of the floating entry platform, and with a running start, his feet reach the edge of the platform and he leaps. No explosion required, he sails through the sky, permitting himself a little laughter as he careens towards the first floating city.

He touches down with all the grace of a cannonball, tumbling end over end and tearing up the tile floor as he comes to a stop at the edge of a trail of dirt. Pulling himself free and shaking his head, his uncovered eye moves between all fifteen blades pointed at him from various angles, each held by a masked palace guard. Seems his outburst drew some attention. He remains still, letting out a sigh, slightly shaking his head to get some of the dirt free, despite the blades drawing closer to his neck.

He looks to the man standing slightly behind the guards, observing the small crater from the shadow of his magnificent pompadour. Kenpachi has no idea who this guy is, but he must be important. He can tell by the hairstyle alone, and the way he carries himself, like a king inspecting a beast who wandered into his castle. Kenpachi certainly looks the part, considering how filthy he is right now.

"i ain't here to fight anybody, but if ya wanna kick me out, i'd be happy to spar. i'm here to talk."

"you guys must get lonely up here."

#;; ic #sekijitsu

[mayscarlet86]

[mindtap]

Grisaia no Kajitsu - First Impressions

Studio: 8bit

Genre(s): Drama, Romance, School, Psychological

OP: "Rakuen no Tsubasa" By Maon Kurosaki

ED: "Anata no Aishita Sekai" By Yoshino Nanjo

Summary: Mihama Academy—on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree.

Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama.

Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome?

And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain—his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students...

(Source: VNDB)

I honestly didn't know what to expect going into Grisaia no Kajitsu, but the most prominent thing that drew me in was it is a psychological romance. With that in my mind, I was hoping for something that was more than likely a mature in nature anime. So when the first scene with the listing of the five girl's "sins" in life, I was interested in seeing where this anime was going.

Oddly enough, it switched quite quickly into to this very stern looking male character being interrogated by the police. With these two scenes, I almost immediately had the thought that Grisaia no Kajitsu had the feeling of the characters might seem somewhat normal but there is something off about them. This continues when we enter the so-called "ordinary school" known as Mihama Academy.

The first thing I noticed as our main character, Kazami Yuuji, and Tachibana Chizuru pulled up to the school is the cameras. I some normal schools you might see a few cameras here and there, but in Mihama Academy there seems to be a sizable amount outside the perimeter which continues this eerie feeling about the anime. The other was how bare the school grounds was, which is basically step up for a harem situation of five females to one male.

From this point on their it was mostly normal interaction of introducing the new female characters into the story. The one thing I do want to note is how analytical and snarky Yuuji is when interacting with people. With a male protagonist so boring looking, there had to be somewhere for the audience to relate with him, and that snark seemed to do the trick -- at least for me.

Many of the females are very high energy, so having that balanced out with the cool as ice Yuuji make both funny and interesting conversation of these polar opposites. And the overall nature of each conversation almost made me forget about this lurking darkness the anime first presented. However, what followed after meeting all the cheerful characters, was a very quick and sharp snap right back into the reality of this anime.

When Yuuji stayed to meet the last student -- who doesn't show to school until later in the day -- he was met with hostility quite quickly. Sakaki Yumiko is probably the only girl who doesn't hide her dark side and ended up baring her claws at our male protagonist instantly. And that scene was the turning point for the curtains being lifting about the academy.

Not going to lie, I am personally drawn to female characters who are considered "roses"; on the surface they seem so beautiful and harmless, but go down a bit further you might get cut by their thorns. So many of these characters do show these types of characteristics but right from the first episode alone, I'm interested in Suou Amane -- the sizable women -- and Sakaki Yumiko -- Ms. Quick-to-Stab.

So with just this one episode, I'm interesting in seeing what to come from Grisaia no Kajitsu. The fact that some of the girl seem like they are ready to kill Yuuji for something he did in the past is something I can't wait to see. And getting into the different personalities of each character seems like an entertaining journey to take.

Originally posted 2014-10-08 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#grisaia no kajitsu #le fruit de la grisaia #first impression #anime #sekijitsu

[the-bejeesus]

One needs no more proof that a man is not lonely than that he does not read.

Kaneki: *insists that Hide, and ergo also suggests to the reader, that he should start reading novels*

Ishida Sui: *novelizes the bits of Tokyo Ghoul to get us started on reading like Kaneki*

Me: *starts reading Tokyo Ghoul book*

Book: *starts making fun of me for reading*

#Tokyo Ghoul #Toukyou Kushu #Tokyo Kushu #Toukyou Ghoul #東京喰種-トーキョーグール- #東京喰種 #Tokyo Ghoul: Past #Tokyo Ghoul Past #Toukyou Kushu: Sekijitsu #東京喰種-トーキョーグール-［昔日 #anime #manga #light novel

[putrilaurant]

憧憬と屍の道 FULL Size Lyrics

憧憬と屍の道 歌詞 ― Shoukei to Shikabane no Michi Lyrics

Kanji

Der Weg der Sehnsucht und die Leichen

あの日人類は思い出した―――

薄闇の中進む影は 誰も心許なく 不確かな未来は何時だって 薄氷の上に咲く 夜は訪れる度に幾度も 冷たい手で俺たちの首筋を 優しく撫でた

黄昏を裏切って 灯る希望の背に縋り 追い駆けた　地獄へと 向かってると知っても

夢の続きが見たいなら お前は何を差し出せる 悪魔は甘く囁いた 屍で道を作れ

「この壁の向こうに何がある？」 幼き日々に憧れた 真実がすぐそこにある 屍の道の先にーー

箱庭で繰り返す 悼[痛]みと恨[怨]みの 《円環構造》 流れ込む　記憶の果て 自由の意義を問う

嗚呼… 可能性に満ちていた筈の 少年達の器に 運命はそれぞれ　何を吹き込んだ？

ーーそれは… 誰の悲願か 誰の夢か 悲しみ　憎しみが　交わって 紅蓮の矢は　互いを目指す

鳥の翼に憧れた 人は空へと羽撃ける 悪魔は狡く嘯いた 屍よ道を辿れ

この空の向こうに何がある？ 幼き日々に囚われた 昔日の灯が照らしだす 屍の道の先をーー

空の上から見たら 一体　何が見えるのだろう？ 【ここ】ではない【どこか】へ 行ってみたかった

幼き日に夢見た 広い　世界の果てには 目眩　覚えるほどの 不条理が潜む

自由を夢見た代償は 冷たい土の 《棺》 時に 《獣》の姿借りて 正義は牙を剥く 檻の中も　檻の外も 等しく地獄か？

罪の重さを背負うほど 踏み出す明日に意味がある 悪魔は低く呟いた 屍の道を進め

この闇の向こうに何がある？ 幼き日々に呪われた 現実はいつ報われる 屍の道の先でーー

《紅蓮の衝動》が翔け抜けた軌跡→ 《自由への覚悟》を散らして→ 《捧げられた花弁》を束ねても→ 《手向けるべき真の暁》には早過ぎる→ 太陽はまだ沈んでいないのだから→ 進み続ける波の彼方へーー

Romaji

Der Weg der Sehnsucht und die Leichen

Ano hi jinrui wa omoidashitaー

Usuyami no naka susumu kage wa  Dare mo kokoro motonaku  Futashikana mirai wa itsu datte Hakuhyou no ue ni saku Yoru wa otozureru tabi ni ikudo mo Tsumetai te de oretachi no kubisuji o  Yasashiku nadeta 

Tasogare o uragitte Tomoru kibou no se ni sugari Oi kaketa jigoku e to Mukatteru to shitte mo

Yume no tsudzuki ga mitai nara Omae wa nani o sashidaseru Akuma wa amaku sasayaita Shikabane de michi o tsukure

"Kono kabe no mukou ni nani ga aru?" Osanaki hibi ni akogareta Shinjitsu ga sugu soko ni aru Shikabane no michi no saki niー

Hakoniwa de kurikaesu  Itami to urami no《enkan kouzou》(loop) Nagarekomu kioku no hate  Jiyuu no igi o tou 

Aa… Kanou sei ni michiteita hazu no  Shounen-tachi no utsuwa ni  Unmei wa sorezore nani o fukikonda?

ーSore wa…  Dare no higan ka  Dare no yume ka  Kanashimi nikushimi ga majiwatte Guren no ya wa tagai o mezasu 

Tori no tsubasa ni akogareta  Hito wa sora e to habatakeru Akuma wa zuruku usobuita  Shikabane yo michi o tadore 

Kono sora no mukou ni nani ga aru?  Osanaki hibi ni torawareta Sekijitsu no hi ga terashi dasu  Shikabane no michi no saki oー

Sora no ue kara mitara  Ittai nani ga mieru no darou?  [Koko] de wa nai [doko ka] e  Itte mitakatta 

Osanaki hi ni yume mita  Hiroi sekai no hate ni wa  Memai oboeru hodo no  Fujouri ga hisomu 

Jiyuu o yume mita daishou wa  Tsumetai tsuchi no《hitsugi》(Beddo) Toki ni《kemono》(oni) no sugata karite  Seigi wa kiba o muku Ori no naka mo ori no soto mo Hitoshiku jigoku ka? 

Tsumi no omosa o seou hodo Fumidasu ashita (ashi) ni imi ga aru  Akuma wa hikuku tsubuyaita  Shikabane no michi o susume 

Kono yami no mukou ni nani ga aru?  Osanaki hibi ni norowareta  Genjitsu wa itsu mukuwareru  Shikabane no michi no saki deー

《Guren no shoudou》(yumiya) ga kake nuketa kiseki → 《Jiyuu e no kakugo》(tsubasa) o chirashite → 《Sasagerareta hanabira》(shinzou) o tabanete mo →  《Tamukerubeki shin no akatsuki》(requiem) ni wa haya sugiru →  Taiyou wa mada shizunde inai no dakara → Susumi tsudzukeru nami no kanata eー

#Linked horizon #lyrics #shinjitsu e no shingeki #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan

[ashesofeternity]

The field of one-ten-thousandth "big order" Ikuoku kotowari yokubou no ori shikitsumeta Gareki to hokori no machi boku ga inai Sekijitsu no tsumi ka genjitsu no misogi ka Eichi to muchi ga semegi kioku no kakera ga uzuku Awaki inochi osanaki yume Narikaware shihaisha yo Zetsubou o tsunzake Big Order Uragiri dake ga mune o eguru Metsubou o kutsugaese Big Order Sekai o tsunagiawasete

bad

good song tho

#Anonymous

[kenpxchi]

@sekijitsu

This Hollow looks pretty weird. It doesn't have a mask, and it seems to be spewing flames everywhere. Regardless, it attacked him, and Kenpachi's eager to see what it can do. Heat engulfs him again and again as he charges, the thing leaping and weaving through the air, propelling itself with more jets of fire. It almost looks confused, as if it's asking why this maniac running at him with a sword hasn't been reduced to ashes yet.

The chase is almost over, finally, the thing is faltering, and he's getting close enough to give it a good slash and see how tough it is. Only a few more steps... And from out of the sky, a long pole, a matoi, comes careening down from the air, impaling the thing through the back as it turns to flee. There's someone riding on it, and as their fist slams into the back of the thing's head, it vanishes, dissipating into ashes.

Kenpachi lets out a low sigh.

"oi, oi... i was gonna get that one."

#;; ic #sekijitsu

[mindtap]

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso - Review

Summary: Piano prodigy Arima Kosei dominated the competition and all child musicians knew his name. But after his mother, who was also his instructor, passed away, he had a mental breakdown while performing at a recital that resulted in him no longer being able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing was perfectly fine. Even two years later, Kosei hasn't touched the piano and views the world in monotone, and without any flair or color. He was content at living out his life with his good friends Tsubaki and Watari until, one day, a girl changed everything. Miyazono Kaori is a pretty, free spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her personality. Kaori helps Kosei return to the music world and show that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kosei was used to.

Story

Like many music anime, they tend to focus on the character's involvement with the craft and how music helps each character -- whether that is personally or within a relationship. Probably the most interesting thing about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is one of the main characters, Arima Kousei, starts out with a trauma about music and is entirely appose to participate in the activity. In a sense, this was a clear conflict that was establish right from the get go and makes the viewer curious as to how we will see Kousei make his way to actually enjoying music again -- if he ever does.

With an end point set, the anime needed to plot the course of getting to said end point. Since Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is character focused, most of the pushes toward the goal was through either the supporting or main characters, making each individual role feel like they had a purpose in the story. So even if the story was mostly revolving around Kousei getting back into music, the rest of the cast felt meaningful to each other and as well a Kousei.

The last rung of the story is the importance of music with a character who is actively trying to avoid it. Well this is where Miyazono Kaori comes into play. She is the one to spark Kousei's interest in music, as well as interest towards her. So this is where the fascinating relationship of the characters and how music ties them together. As far as I'm concern, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso does a great job in setting up the plot and establishing our four main characters that are either involved or experiencing the wonders of expression within music.

Art

The first thing that stuck out to me, when I starting watching the first episode of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, is how beautiful it is. You would think that a music anime would have art that didn't really stand out too much, because the focus would be on audio, but there was no punches held in the art department. There isn't a doubt in mind that probably most people were drawn to this anime because of its art -- and that doesn't bother me -- but the thing that made it stand out even more is the way this anime used it's color palette.

A lot of times anime tend to be very flashy with their colors, this isn't the case for Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso because it uses those brighter tone to draw the eye toward someone. For example, the first scene Kaori is in, she is high up on a jungle gym playing a Melodica and since she has blonde hair, there was this moment of awe. Also a lot of the scene with Kousei are darker and more monochromatic as he is in his head trying to deal with his trauma. I find this use of color and art direct extremely well executed and works well to convey the mood of a particular scene.

Characters

With the story being so focused on one character, there is this importance of actually making any other character as interesting and believable. In my opinion there are two real main characters and two main supporting characters in the story of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. I mentioned them before but Arima Kousei and Miyazono Kaori are our two musicians, the main focus, while Sawabe Tsubaki and Watari Ryouta are the non-musicians who support both of the musically talented. What I like the most about the relationship between Kousei and Kaori is the fact that they seem as close to equals as possible since both feed off of each other and make themselves stronger because of it. And the thing that keep them moving forward is music, whether that is the piano for Kousei or the violin for Kaori.

Now, having non-musical people in an anime such as this might seem counterproductive, however Tsubaki and Ryouta have importance. With both of them being jocks, where thing like sport are highly based on practice and talent, it allows the viewer to make parallels to music from a different angle. Also, since they are friends with Kaori and Kousei, we can get a second and third perspective from characters that knows them so well. These strong relationships make many of the character that much more real because others have opinions of them and character interaction has consequences.

Overall

Good Bad clear inner conflict from the start melodramatic inner conflict very impressive art and animation great color usage to convey scene tone dynamic characters that felt real

It's really hard to actually find something I had an issue with while watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso but there is something that could have been eased up on. This being the inner conflict within Kousei head; sometimes they felt melodramatic, however we have to remember that this is a middle school student we a talking about, things tend to get overblown when you lack the emotional maturity.

Beside that stretch, I would consider this a must watch for those who like dramas or musical anime that will not hold it's punches. I feel like there isn't much to really complain about since A-1 studios did a great job conveying an expressive art like music within it's animations and sound design. I can see myself watching this again in the near future, plus English title -- Your Lie in April -- once you finish the anime you will understand the significance with all of its bitter sweetness.

Originally posted 2015-03-26 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#shigatsu wa kimi no uso #your lie in april #review #anime #sekijitsu

[sasakiofficial-blog]

昔日

#ayato kirishima #kirishima touka #sekijitsu #tokyo ghoul #tg

[mindtap]

The Good, the Bad, and the Morally Ambiguous

In so much of media, a distinct line has been draw between what is objectively good and objectively bad. In most cases this rather simple view served as a way to instill virtue on the youth as they grew up and later became apart of the "adult world". However, when that person, who grew up watching this type of content, begins to mature they begin to realize how flawed this simplistic world view is. With the world being something not as clearcut, or black and white, the actual spectrum of what is moral gets lost when focusing solely on what is definitively good or evil. There has always been this thick cloud of ambiguousness that gets ignored, or never even seen, because people want moral choices to fit in those two nice boxes.

As this anime season comes to an end, I do want to highlight two anime that have focused on the topic of moral ambiguity in their own ways. The more popular show this season was Death Parade, who had several people confused on what the finally fate of these two being judged by the arbiter Decim. And the other being Junketsu no Maria, or Maria the Virgin Witch, where a lot of the struggle is between three "sides", the people, their god, and witches. Most of the hardship has this feeling of questioning authority when their value deviate from your own, or just following status quo to save your skin. Junketsu no Maria does get a bit more in-depth in that subject, but I do what to start with Death Parade and the matter of judging humans objectively as an arbiter.

Objectively Subjective

When the pilot for Death Parade came out from the "2012 Young Animator Training Project" named Death Billiards, my initial thoughts were about the nature of humans as they fight with their lives at stake. It was in fact about that, but there was a bit more that I didn't really see until that concept was expanded on in Death Parade. From the start, and maybe to the middle, most people would have thought of the old man -- that being in Death Billiards -- as someone who was the "good person", but with some hints toward the end it might have made you question that judgement from earlier.

Having that foundation of unclear motives, from the people being judged, it made a nice point to lift off of this idea of whether or not you can judge a person objectively. And right from the first episode of Death Parade, you get reintroduced to that feeling, even if it wasn't as clear that that was what they were going until a few more episodes in. In the ultimatum of being reincarnated or going to the void, viewers almost instinctual think that one party is going to be good and the other evil. When it is clear that both parties aren't "evil" in any way -- for example the Death Bowling episode -- it suddenly shakes that assumed notion of there being two opposing sides.

On the other end we could have people that were clearly evil, but that wouldn't really prove much of a point. The interesting thing that Death Parade did was have two people who didn't seem bad at all and slowly worked in things that most people would consider vile without context, like murdering someone, but with context it doesn't seem as bad but its still morally gray. And this is where the objectivity of anything really flies out the window and things need to be judge with a bit more nuance. Can we really judge a persons actions if we are pushing them toward that evil we want to see? Is that true objectivity if we know these arbiters have the goal of seeing humans in a dark light?

When it comes to judging people, we can only really gauge intent through actions rather than what they are actual thinking. Putting people in a box of either good or evil isn't the best course action because people cast shadows, no matter how well they live their life. If we continue to weight someone's merit simple on the shadow they cast, we will never really get to the person casting that shadow and no real judgement is made. And that is the flimsiness of "objective morality", sure we as people can come to some common consensus but that is not true objectivity -- and never will.

Of course there are some moral systems that claim objectivity, and I obviously disagree as I've stated above, but funny enough there is an anime that gets in the foggy nature of these type of "morality by authority" philosophies. Like mentioned in the introduction, this anime is named Junketsu no Maria and I am going to jump into the individual versus authoritative principles that Junketsu no Maria covers.

Might Makes Right

Considering the main character Maria is a witch in a time of war and peril, I was pretty sure there would be some push back from regular humans. And with references to Christianity, there was no doubt that she would be labeled a heretic since she uses magic not ordained by their god. However, the thing that took me by surprise was both Maria and the god of Christianity had their own opposing styles of interfering with humans. And the humans had interpretations of the word of god via the church and it's priest.

Maria was someone that didn't like the war going on between the France and Great Britain, so most of the time she would interrupt and stop battles by using her magic. It was clear that a lot of the townspeople being drafted for the war also didn't like the war that was going on, so it would seem like Maria was doing them a service. Unfortunately, with some influence coming from higher ups, this includes the church, there was a push toward getting an unfavorable view toward Maria. And this is where I see a lot of conflict going on between individually held values, or morals, compared to a moral system coming from an authoritative entity.

Pretty much every person has their own set of values, even if they follow an authority based morality; however, some believe that you can only get any morals from an objective moral authority. As I said in the last section, I don't think there is an objective moral code, but we as humans can come to some conscience and always improve on ineffective or error prone laws through discussion. Without discussion we end up with this "might makes right" philosophy. A lot of times people go with what they find immoral, in that type of philosophy simply because of fear. With that being said, this was the main struggle between the groups in Junketsu no Maria -- that being Maria, the witches in general, the church, and village people.

It is of value to have some structure in a moderately big group of people, but real morality gets lost if people start blindly following the leader. Individual thought is as important, if not more important, as the group in power because it takes people without power to know when they are being ruled unfairly. And "fairness" is what is so complex, as well as crucial, about the topic of morality in the first place.

Concluding

Whether or not someone believe that morality is objective, subjective, authoritative, or democratic, there is one thing for certain is that it is complex. There is no reason to shy away from complexity and that is what makes mediums that dive into these types of subjects that much more fascinating. It opens up the conversation to those that consume that type of media and form nuance thoughts about many of its aspects.

Of course I'm sure there are quite a handful of anime that cover this no-so clear cut view on morality, but these are this two this season that I wanted to write about. I hope to see more coming out about moral ambiguity expressed in different ways, so the topic can reach more people in the long run.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#death parade #junketsu no maria #maria the virgin witch #anime #sekijitsu

[mindtap]

Log Horizon 2 - First Impressions

Studio: Studio Deen

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Magic, Shounen

OP: "database feat. TAKUMA (10 Feet)" by MAN WITH A MISSION

ED: "Wonderful Wonder World*" by Yun*chi

Summary: Veteran gamer Shiroe and other players have been trapped in the world of the online game Elder Tales for six months. The once chaotic city of Akiba has regained its everyday hustle and bustle following the formation of the self-governing organization Round Table Meeting. The earthlings, who are originally from the game world, have gained the trust of Shiroe by waging a defensive war against the Goblins in Zantleaf Region. This has led Princess Rayneshia of the Cowen family, the highest-ranking Earthling Aristocrats, to live in Akiba.

It's almost winter and the Adventurers are thinking about what they're going to do and what their goals are in this other world. Will they remain in Akiba or go to the city of the West? Or will they travel to the land of the North or another faraway country? The opinions of the Adventurers begin to diverge. What adventures await the members of the Shiroe team in this second series of Log Horizon?

(Source: NHK Enterprises)

Log Horizon was my favorite anime of the season when it originally aired. So, I was waiting with excitement for the next season to start. It is, without question, the one anime I've been looking forward to the most this season. Not only that but it very interesting that it is beginning around the time when Sword Art Online is entering its second half of the season -- which I would argue will be most disappointing part, like the first season.

With all that prefacing it, I would say the first episode is pretty much what you would expect from Log Horizon. Unlike the first season, there wasn't much setup and we jumped straight into reintroducing the characters and setting. Considering I didn't rewatch the first season before jump into the season, I feel lucky that I remembered most of the characters. With the addition of many interaction with comedic flair, it all felt like a seamless transition of season. We also had the setup for future political intrigue with the slowly depleting funds for the Round Table.

To be frank, I would describe this first episode as a condensed version of what makes up Log Horizon. From the silly interactions to the serious political and physiological conversations

Going into detail, we know that Akiba was establish, in the first season, to be a safe zone for players in this hostile world that is Elder Tales. Now that we are in the second season this peaceful life has been going on for a while, however, that life style is possibly coming to an end. The Round Table needs to keep paying a large sum of gold to keep their hold on many of the buildings in Akiba, but their funds are slowly depleting.

Knowing this problem, it is in Shiroe nature to plan for alleviate such a predicament. Not only this one issue but there also the possibility of Southern spies in Akiba, so the South id becoming an emanate treat. With these spies about, the troubles and plans to get out of said troubles need to remain secret as to not let the enemy see a weakness.

Having all this setup, for the political side of Log Horizon, so early on make it seems like this season is going to be on good standing.

So overall, I would say that this season of Log Horizon is starting out really good. I really liked how the anime handled introducing new subject into the story -- back in the first -- in stages, making it easy to digest. The only complain I have is the first season didn't make the physiological elements that important even with it being losing memories in the real world after you had died in Elder Tales. If this season focuses more on the fact that players could forget outright that they are in a game, that would serve as another point of what makes Log Horizon such a good series. Regardless, I'm looking forward to the season with or without the anime heading into the mental breakdown of a character.

Originally posted 2014-10-08 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#log horizon #log horizon 2 #first impression #anime #sekijitsu

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Sword Art Online II - First Impressions

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Romance, Shounen

OP: "IGNITE" by Eir Aoi

ED: "Startear" by Luna Haruna

Summary: 1 year after the SAO incident, Kirito is approached by Seijiro Kikuoka from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Department “VR Division” with a rather peculiar request.

That was an investigation on the “Death Gun” incident that occurred in the gun and steel filled VRMMO called Gun Gale Online (GGO). “Players who are shot by a mysterious avatar with a jet black gun lose their lives even in the real world…” Failing to turn down Kikuoka’s bizarre request, Kirito logs in to GGO even though he is not completely convinced that the virtual world could physically affect the real world.

Kirito wanders in an unfamiliar world in order to gain any clues about the “Death Gun.” Then, a female sniper named Sinon who owns a gigantic “Hecate II” rifle extends Kirito a helping hand. With Sinon’s help, Kirito decides to enter the “Bullet of Bullets,” a large tournament to choose the most powerful gunner within the realm of GGO, in hopes to become the target of the “Death Gun” and make direct contact with the mysterious avatar.

(Source: Crunchyroll)

Back with a new season of Sword Art Online, or rather Gun Gale Online this time around. And as one of the many people extremely critical of the previous season, specifically the ALfheim Online arc, I'm going into this pretty sceptical on whether this season will be any good. Like last season, SAO II presents the hook pretty early on and for this season, it is the death gun that seems to be causing people's deaths in the real world, after being shot by it. To me, it is interesting enough to want to see what happens next; however, how long will this anime stick with it as the main plot? With the first season as precedent, it doesn't look too good for this one, but we will see if SAO II doesn't make the same mistake as to rush the ending of this arc and start another one that is both not as interesting and entirely pointless.

Next up is how the main characters from the previous season have been doing. Starting with Asuna, it seems she is continuing to spiral into the unimportant character role. The biggest give away for me was when she and Kazuto were discussing what they want to do in the future. Asuna was the one who didn't really seem to have a goal while Kazuto wanted to become a creator with all the research he is doing on virtual reality headsets. The answer that Asuna was that she wanted to spend it with Kazuto and really that just felt like her character is now defined only by how much she likes Kazuto. As a small side note of Asuna's character, why does she still call Kazuto his in game name, "Kirito" after dating his for over a year? That is just an odd detail that probably shouldn't happen if you actually cared that much for someone.

As for Kazuto, we know that he want to work on virtual reality headset -- I'm guessing to make them safer after going through SAO and ALO. I guess you can stay thats the only thing new about him specifically, but it also seems Kazuto is becoming a detective for the virtual world. And that pattern of some problem in a game is affecting the real world and Kazuto has to gear up and enter this new world to, most likely, dominate everything for no real reason continues.

The overall theme of this arc seems to be the crossover, or even merging, of real and virtual world, which is interesting to me. This season might actually turn out to be good and the understandable scepticism I have can be lifted; but, it as could just end up being mediocre like last time. We will see how much has been learned from the previous season or if A-1 will continue to ride this hype train until it eventually crashes. Either way, I'm moderately interested in the current plot that have been establish in this first episode.

Originally posted 2014-07-05 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#sword art online #sword art online II #phantom bullet #first impression #sekijitsu #anime

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Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - First Impressions

Studio: Dogakobo

Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, School, Shounen

OP: "Kimi ja Nakya Dame Mitai" by Masayoshi Ooishi

ED: "Ura Omote Fortune" by Ari Ozawa

Summary: Sakura Chiyo confesses to her crush, Nozaki-kun, but he mistakes her as a fan! Unable to convey her feelings, what happens when he invites her to his house? Find out in this hilarious series!

(Source: Panda Scans)

Going into Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, I didn't know what to expect but I did have Bakuman on the brain only because they both revolve about mangaka. With the just first episode, it feels like this anime will be more focused on the comedy aspects rather than the actual struggle of mangaka trying to become serialized. And that is fine considering I found the duo of an overreacting Chiyo and deadpan Umetarou to work well, resulting in some quick and silly humor.

Of course, like most romcoms that focus on comedy, we probably won't be seeing any real romance; sure there will be "hints of romantic nature", but I doubt there will be any progress between the two characters. And really, that is my beef with romcoms, they call themselves romantic comedies but they end up being just glorified comedies where any romance scene is just another comedy moment. Of course this is only my prediction, so we will see what actually happens between Chiyo and Umetarou, but really do doubt that there will be any relationship progress because it will ruin the dynamic of oblivious guy and girl trying to convey her feelings toward him.

Going back to the manga side of things, it's interesting to have a guy doing shoujo manga. Someone like Umetarou, where he is blunt and doesn't really show his emotions that often, you wouldn't really expect that genre to be his pick -- specially him being a popular shoujo mangaka at that. So the thing that feels strange is that he makes stories that resonate with a lot of females, resulting in him understanding females at some level, but he is oblivious to Chiyo's feels? That feels like the weirdest disconnect within a character, but this is only the first episode so I will cut it some slack for now.

As for Chiyo, she seems to be defined by her affection for Umetarou. Like I said in my first impressions for Sword Art Online II, I don't like those type of female characters but Chiyo is quirky and we still has time for her develop.

Right now, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun shows some potential. The dynamic coming from Chiyo and Umetarou is entertaining and it seems like there will be even more characters being added in pretty soon. I'm still preparing for this to be mostly comedy and no romance, so thats too bad for Chiyo but she'll live.

Originally posted 2014-07-07 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#gekkan shoujo nozaki kun #monthly girls' nozaki-kun #first impression #anime #sekijitsu

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Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Episodic 20 - 26)

Episode 20 - 21

Episode 22 - 23

Episode 24 - 25

Episode 26

Originally posted on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#mahouka koukou no rettousei #the irregular at magic high school #episodic #anime #sekijitsu

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Stepping into Your World

Transitioning from middle to high school can be somewhat of a fresh start, where people get to reinvent themselves in order to better fit their new surrounding. There are also those that stick to their roots and hang out with the old friend they have had from the previous years. There is no clear right or wrong way to approach such matters, but the one thing that stays with both situations is they are trying to establish some type of group to be apart of. While, at the same time, thing to be someone who is special, someone who sticks out from this group is also important at this new stage in live; and that struggle to balance the two different categories, group vs individual, is one of the difficulties of being in high school.

That struggle is something that I find interesting and Japan as well, by the sheer amount of anime set in a high school. Unfortunately, there aren't that many anime that tackle this endeavor head on. This is where the likes of the Young Animator Training Project -- known as Anime Mirai -- comes to shine with the one shot style of anime. In this case, the anime name "Harmonie" is the one I thinks stands out this year and is also the one that deals with this individual versus group topic.

What is Harmonie?

Harmonie focuses around the spaces that every person has to themselves. Whether or not these worlds are affected or influenced by the people around you is debatable, but one thing that is certain is it's somewhere comfortable, for the creator of such a world. What if there was a way to step into someone else's world and be able to explore it? Well this is something that Honjou Akio did after listening to a song by Makina Juri. What is in such a world is where all the interesting bits come into play. Let alone that closeness that people undergo after having very similar experiences. Only thing is, these things don't come without a price.

Collectivism vs Individualism

Being the "weird kid" can be both freeing and isolating at the same time. With the freedom to express your individuality, but also be shunned from most groups. This battle of collectivism and individualism is something Juri has experienced in her youth, and that resulted in her completely distancing herself from what makes Juri herself. She traded her world for what was an all access pass to being in, what I guess would be considered, the in crowd. In the case of Juri, she traded her individuality for the comfort of being accepted by a group of people who happen to be the more popular type of people within the high school.

On the other hand we have Akio, who hangs out with his friends and they discuss anime together. Although Akio isn't as much of a tragic case as Juri, he only really interacted with this small group of people because everyone else thinks of his group as weird. So, it is almost like Akio chose his individuality, but still has a group of people who accept him and the majority of everyone else actively avoids them talking under their breath about them quite frequently.

I would say there is a divide between collectivism and individualism, it just has its own benefits and consequences based on which one you favor most. Of course a mix of the two is far more powerful of a bound, and that is what happened when Akio was the one of the first to enter Juri's world absent of the judgement that Juri has had suffered through in her childhood.

Connecting the Two

The one talent that makes Akio standout, but he isn't that proud of, is his ability to learn a song just by listening to it once -- which the anime would call "perfect pitch". That talent is what made Juri aware of his existence after Juri's ringtone went off during class. That song was something that came from the dream Juri has been having since she was a kid. That song was essentially the key to what was Juri's world and after she allow Akio to listen to the full song, he fell right into the same world Juri has visited often. And this new-found common starting place is where a new relationship started.

Juri finally had a place to be both apart of a group, rather someplace outside her head, and actually express the one thing she has tried to push away from for so long. I find this was of connecting two people very intriguing because of the mundaneness it is on the surface, but for the most part all relationships start at one common place. I also love that it brings together two people from different groups and create something that felt like Juri has grown by accepting herself, and Akio is stepping outside his familiar group of friends. The only this is, as I alluded to in the summary of Harmonie, there is conflict that comes from this newly forming affair.

Conflicting Conclusion

Most of the push back that came from Juri and Akio becoming closer was from Juri's friends, mostly just Gotou. The details aren't that important, but there is an interesting parallels to be made about this high school world and Juri's dream world. A lot of what happens in that dream is very similar to what happens between Juri and Akio. The closer the kid and the female doll got, the more these other dolls tried to break them apart. And by the time they break free for that conflict, both of them end up become extremely close, while also enjoying their time together. So even if this anime didn't show them getting closer, it is inferred based on the dream and the ending of Juri happy crying about finding someone similar to her.

To conclude this post, I want to say I enjoyed this anime way too much than I should have, but unfortunately it is only one episode. Since it was only one and ended so well, I still wish there was some fleshing out of the friction that was going to eventually happen the closer Juri and Akio became. Also, it would be nice to see how Akio's friend would react when the relationship between the two main characters get more serious. There is also the relationship being based on the hazy memories of Juri; Akio never really told her the full truth to Juri when he found out the dream he had were suggested to him from the track after Juri's song.

Last is the end scene in the dream world where the doll girl shows the boy her rainbow insides. That seem like showing him her true self; and as I concluded that the dream world parallels with that real world, I want to see Juri also showing her true self to Akio.

So leaving an anime open to questions like this really is the strength and weakness of it. It shows that I'm invested to just trying to predict what might happen to our main characters and also leaves a starting point for if studios decide to pick it up. Either way, I'm glad that I watched it and hope more people watch out for things coming Anime Mirai.

Originally posted 2014-07-05 on the now shutdown sekijitsu.com

#harmonie #2014 young animator training project #anime mirai #anime #sekijitsu