Sunday, January 12, 2014

New Anime Series! Hamatora episode 1

Post number 5 of the night. I am going to reward myself with some ice cream. Since, you know, currently it is not freezing cold outside. That might change tomorrow or in the next hour. That polar vortex thing was crazy yes? I know since I live in Florida I didn't get hit that hard or suffer that much. But we Florida people aren't equipped for 19 degree weather. Layer? What layers? How does one wear more than one pair of socks at a time? I can't wear gloves the entire time at work. Just...just no. I will eat my ice cream for now in case there are more cold times to come.
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The only thing you need to wear is a paper bag on your head. Not a school girl uniform!
What is up now besides cold weather? The new anime series Hamatora. You know, if the X-Men weren't quite so amazing and had more realistic proportioned bodies. This sounds like fun yes?
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I am the main character, thus I am the one who is going to put all this together.
Episode Summary: A young man (Nice) calls his friend Murasaki. He is in the bank complaining the ATM won't give him whole 430 yen (or some small amount) and that he had to go inside. Murasaki starts going on and on about something deep and meaningful, the idea of knowing and what not. Murasaki asks what is taking so long and Nice doesn't know. A far away view shows that the bank is actually being held up. By the time Art (Mr. Policeman) and his partner pull up the other police officers say it was taken care of...by Nice who has now gotten his riches. Art seems amused. Nice and his female companion Hajime show up to a bar owned by Master. Hajime used some of his money to buy Hajime a burger and the rest is used to buy her milk. Nice is made fun of because he be poor. He asks if there were any jobs for him but mostly the talk is about how Nice owns nothing. Other people are introduced. Ratio and his clean cut self. Birthday seems a little crazy. Murasaki turns out to be Nice's partner and doesn't care about his (Nice's) problems. Koneko appears with not one but two cases. One is a big pay out to protect a safe and or open it. The other is a small payout to find out why a bunch of college girls are getting kidnapped. Murasaki says the obvious choice is the big pay out. Nice wants to help people so that makes him a chump and that is why he has no cash. Despite being partners Murasaki and Nice go on their own separate ways. Birthday and Ratio are going on a third case that involves protecting a college age girl. Nice goes to a college campus to find the friends of one of the kidnapped girls. Instead he finds a bunch of smiling, gossipy twits. They do manage to tell Nice that their friend quit her job recently but wasn't hurting for money. This pings some interest in Nice and he goes to some back door restaurant to talk to some joker about info. Only Nice can't even afford the game of clue let alone the intel price. Art shows up to pay the guy off and treats Nice to some food since the boy is starving. Nice thanks him as the client for his case is the police force. They often give the Minimum Holders jobs. Art seems okay with working with the Minimum Holders but tells Nice he has to pay him back for the clue money.
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Pardon my amazingness.
Elsewhere Murasaki has made it to case de rich. The safe is HUGE and if not opened with the correct code will destroy all the contents inside. The son seems distraught about the whole thing, as he thinks someone will attempt to steal it. In another part of town Birthday and Ratio are outside an apartment complex, guarding said college girl. Apparently there is a no eating policy in Ratio's car and Birthday is a special person. They attempt to have a serious discussion about eggs but Birthday continues to be special. All of this is interrupted when the car is thrown up against the building by some giant dude. Said giant dude then throws objects into the apartment building and confronts the girls they were watching. Giant dude asks for the code and the scared girl gives it to him. Baddie leaves and Ratio mourns over his car. They slowly take the girl back to the bar. Nice shows up and starts questioning the girl. Turns out the old man was sleeping with college girls, this one included and all the other kidnapped girls. Back at the house Murasaki tells the son about the dad and jailbaits having sex. The son is scarred for life and Murasaki learns that the father had a condition when he talked in his sleep. Nice starts to put things together and books it to the mansion. Murasaki barely gets the son and creepy maid out of harm's way before the giant dude from before starts throwing shit into the house. Sleep talking dad would say the combo in his sleep and I guess these baddies knew he was sleeping with college girls...I don't know. But this group of baddies put it together, started kidnapping the jailbaits in order to get the combo. The baddie huge dude throws things and Murasaki reveals he is a Minimum power too. Other baddie people move to help the big guy but Ratio and Birthday appear and use their Minimum power. Nice shows up at the mansion and the huge baddie says they should all work together. Nice is like um no I am not using my powers that way and defeats the baddie in 5 seconds....with sound? The cases are solved but the only thing that was in the safe was pervy magazines. Everyone seems to be happy. Art and one of his people talk later on if they should tell this little group that someone is out killing Minimum Holders. Instead dead Minimum person here. THE END!
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Trying to be all deep about your friend having like 5 whole dollars to his name.
X___X That was a very...fast way to start a series. Like very fast. So many characters introduced at once. I am sure next time things will go at a slower pace. Like let's backtrack and give some back story. Back ya'll. For now we need to stand out about the other new shows. Start off with a bang, to draw viewers in. Just so many characters though.
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Oh that horse head. That is what I would rob a bank with ya'll.
Our story starts off with Nice and Hajime at the bank trying to procure some cash. 460 yen I think? Less than 5 dollars. So right off the bat we know Nice (X___X that name) is poor and he takes care of Hajime for some reason. Relative or otherwise. On the phone Murasaki went on and on about something when Nice called to complain. About wants and needs and suffering and being aware of it. Like some sort of philosophy lesson. Nothing that will be important later, just something so the characters look well rounded, smart, and maybe a bit like Hipsters. This happened several times in the show so I think this will be a running theme. Also something that occurred would be this philosophy lesson going on and something comic would happen afterwords. Like oh Murasaki, I need my cash and this girl won't give it to me because the bank is being held up. Injustice.
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Oh you guys...what am I going to do with you Minimum Holders? XD
Art (...I guess if people can name their kid North West people can be named Art....like from Saw) seems rather young to be a policeman, let alone someone in power. Animes either have really old looking people or everyone is forever 21. So who knows how old Art is. He does seem to know about Minimums. I don't know if everyone in this society does or just some people. He doesn't seem to be going after them which leads me to believe society doesn't fear them or doesn't know about them. But there was none of this RARW I will get you Spiderman crap and Nice didn't run away from the scene. As we see later Art and Nice might have a working relationship but more on that later. For now....um the bank is safe and the baddies were dressed as mascots. I see.
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Can I borrow some time then?
Nice is part of a larger organization. Guess what it's called? Hamatora? You're right. How did you guess? Since this is only episode 1not much was explained. From what is looks like a bunch of Minimum people came together to form a semi group that might work together? I don't know, they all seem very different. Nice could only afford a burger and a glass of milk while Raito has (had) a nice car. So it looks like these missions don't get put in a group pot. Almost like Weiss Kretz minus the whole hot soccer guy and the whole we don't have a place to do business. This random mix of Minimum Holders has a secretary it seems (Koneko) but have to do business at one table in a bar. Oh the fun they will have.
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Blowing gum, throwing super heavy things. Make sense yes?
Since the business structure was passed over today we can talk about other things. Like what a Minimum Holder is. Basically it is like being an X-Men with rules. You can't always be super. There must be certain conditions. The baddie needed to chew gum, Nice has to block out....other sounds I guess, and Birthday needs a tazer to have his powers work. Like are these seriously their names or a codename? So this “rare” ability gives people the power to do super things. From what I saw there are time limits on these things as Mr. Baddie was having a rough time after just a few minutes. I am sure much more will be explained later but for now this is what information we are working with.
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Clearly I want the big payout because my name isn't Nice.
Speaking of work....Nice needs a job. So poor. Just so happens Koneko has two. We get kidnapped girls on one hand and guarding the safe on the other. Decisions decisions. Do we go for the money or do we help the most people? It appears Nice is...nice and his “partner” Murasaki is like show me the money. I mean we all need money. So it's hard to fault someone for that. Even if the “good guys” should step up and do the right thing. I guess I am faulting Murasaki a bit....Nice is just like no I will use my last pennies for Hajime and find missing girls for quarters. That's the right thing to do!! Ratio and Birthday were off on a third case that probably didn't pay them much too. Do I really have to write these names out? In true crime(ish) show fashion all three cases were connected but they didn't know that at the time. No no, let there be dissension in the ranks. No working together for these guys yet.
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Why aren't you crying?!
Case 1 involved the missing girls. All college age. Nice went to one of the campuses to find some witnesses/friends. Nice needs to find some better friends of the kidnapped girls. I didn't catch is the girls were found or not. By the end of the show all three cases were solved but it was unclear if the girls were found or dead or returned shortly after the abduction. Because these ho bag friends were not acting concerned at all. Can I get some tears up in this place? Hot damn people. Nice did find out some interesting clues. Well not all on his own. Art came by to deal with a bribe so Nice can make even mess money on this case. But yes all the victims were college aged, recently quit their jobs, and not hurting for money. HMMM.
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I bet the man died from a heart attack.
Case 2 involved a dead rich man. I don't think the man dying had anything to do with foul play but the man left behind a vault with a special code on it. Open it up the wrong way and the contents inside will be destroyed. The son ended up with just Murasaki who ended up not doing much of anything besides telling the son his father was a pervert and actually guarding the vault from someone else. Maybe next episode he will shine a bit more. He did help with the main baddie after all. But he didn't do any detective work this time around.
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Yeah just some girl. I bet she doesn't have nice friends either.
Case 3 involved a young lady needing protection. Birthday and Ratio have this covered ya'll. Chill in Ratio's car, waiting for action. Got another philosophy story in. This time with eggs. XO But the serious almost moment was ruined by Birthday attempting to eat said nasty egg in the car. Don't eat in the car!! That's Ratio's baby. Or was. The little car that was. While protecting said girl the huge baddie came and basically threw the car and other objects at the apartment building. The girl was quick to give up the numbers too. Like um no I want to live, take what you want. Surely any money that Ratio and Birthday were going to get (to buy more eggs) is going towards fixing said apartment. They didn't protect her from anything. In fact it might have ended the same way if the boys weren't there. She would have given up the numbers and went on his merry way right? Since she actually knew the number? If not the money will them go towards a new car.
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Err...by stopping you from kidnapping people?
Nice was able to put all the details and pieces together after everyone regrouped and he had a talk with a random informant and Art. Perhaps if I were Japanese I would have put 2 and 2 together about the girls basically being escorts. Like weeee we are college students and will sleep with this old man for money, even if he is boning my other friends. At least the son had enough sense to be scarred for like. That and his head maid was gross. But yeah, Nice figured out the girls quit their jobs for big daddy's money. Well I guess that Murasaki got the sleep talking thing. I mean that is a tiny clue to this case but it wasn't some microscopic event that only super amazing detectives who look like 8 year olds boy could solve. Still Nice is the one who got all the basic pieces together. Way to go Mr. Nice, solving three things at once. While taking the lowest paying job....Do you think the others will give him a kick back?
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And then my eyes melted into my skull.
This all lead up to the baddie going to Case 2's house with the vault and Murasaki and Nice battling him. The baddie was a one trick pony. A build up to more powerful Minimum Holders later. Small fry. Murasaki was probably going to be okay on his own but don't want to take chances. Nice and his unexplained powers should come and save the day. Yeah not sure what that's about. Birthday has lighting power (sorta) while Ratio has several (or his hands are wearing steel enforced gloves?). But nice...put some headphones on and....listened to what? I know his power has to do with sound but it wasn't really fleshed out that much. Just BAM everything is a technocolor mess and he's ready won.
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That's probably something these guys need to know...
And that's how our episode ends. All three cases solved. The safe had young school girl porn in it. Everyone is getting paid. What a silly bunch of people they are. A light hearted show? Not sure about that. Are the kidnapped girls okay? Oh and there is the little matter of Art investigating murders of other Minimum Holders. That might put a damper on the happy. For now this show seems decent enough except when people use their powers and my eyes protested at the whoosh! Oh and the many brief cut away scenes. Like BAM here is a 2 second shot of a case file. Way too fast for me to read and they happened a little too often for my taste. Other than that.....on to episode 2.

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