Thursday, October 9, 2014

New Anime Series: Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de episode 1

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This anime might be a little short of common sense but Jurai brings a whole lot of...drama I see. XD
Post number 4 of the night. Not that it matters because the computer will post it wherever it wants to. Stupid technology always getting the best of me. I was hoping to have the Molestation of Ange or you know Cross Ange up tonight but I got too distracted on how amazing it was to have the jerk voted off Survivor or one of the other things I was doing tonight. Tomorrow for sure...I hope anyway. But for now you get another new show called Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de. Episode one did not contact anyone being molested or treated like garbage so yay! Instead we got super powers and super over the top acting drama. XD Have fun.
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And then no one really cared.
Episode Summary: After school Tomoyo promises to meet her friend Hakoto in the club room after Hakoto is done with cleaning duties. Tomoyo walks on alone, her future self telling us that this day started off as a normal day but little did everyone know things were about to dramatically change. Tomoyo reaches the Literature Club and finds fellow club member Jurai writhing on the floor, holding his arm. He says he is struggling to remain himself before the evil takes over and she needs to run. Tomoyo calmly sits down and ignores him which hurts Jurai’s feelings. He thinks that others in the club like his antics but Tomoyo says no one is impressed with his chunnibyou (2nd year middle school) behavior. Jurai vows to prove her wrong by doing the antics in front of the other club members. Hakoto is the first victim and she believes his story and calls an ambulance. Jurai tries a different approach but ends up scaring the crap out of a little girl (Chifuyu) and he feels bad about it. Another club member Sayumi shows Jurai just how much she doesn’t appreciate his show. Tomoyo tries to point out that no one likes when Jurai acts like this and she doesn’t know how he can do this every single day. She ends up using the phrase common sense that seems to trigger something in Jurai, something that is triggered all the time. He goes on and on about how she doesn’t know for a shadow of a doubt it isn’t possible and blah blah blah. There was actually a lot of blah blah and the rest of the club seems used to it. While he questions whether or not it is possible for an evil force to take over his arm…..his arm starts to glow. Everyone is like X_____X as the room fills with bright light and….it’s 6 months later. Tomoyo leaves Hakoto to take care of cleaning duties as she goes to the club room. She arrives to find Jurai on the ground talking about his evil arm and telling her to run again. She tells him to be quiet as other clubs have been complaining about the loud noises coming from their club room thanks to him. Plus since they are part of that world (PART OF YOUR WOOOOOOOORLD) it is no longer funny. Hakoto is Jurai’s next victim but she panics at the idea he is suffering and uses magic to trap him in a water bubble. Before he can drown Tomoyo freezes time and removes him from the bubble. Chifuyu uses some sort of magic and poofs into the room. She tells Jurai he needs to stop causing people problems. Sayumi comes in and does some sort of magic to Jurai, telling him to keep it down because of noise complaints. Then she explains it is time for their monthly checkup on their magic powers.
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Tomoyo might not be totally cool, calm, and collected, like she pretends to be.
Hakoto and Chifuyu are up first with this magical power exam. Chifuyu can create matter and space, including the area they are in now separate from the club room. Hakoto can control the 5 elements. They battle for a while and it includes LAVA. Tomoyo freezes time when the battle gets too much and separates the two. They thank her for the effort until they realize she is being a bit chunnibyou herself as she is a bit flashy with her powers. Sayumi uses her powers next, which are to brings people/things back to their previous state AKA heal them. They then conclude the 6th powers test and Jurai is like hello what about me?! All the girls exchange glances as they don’t think his power is all that great. He insists on having a turn when there is a knock on the club room door. They scramble to make things look normal as Mirei the student council president walks in. She is here to tell everyone about the noise complaints because apparently Jurai hasn’t heard this enough. Instead of apologizing Jurai accuses Mirei of being…well a baddie, using the noise complaint as an excuse to spy on them. He demands to know her true purpose. Tomoyo and the others smack Jurai and apologize for him being stupid. Mirei is shocked and demands to know how Jurai figured it out. All the girls are like….how the heck was Jurai right as Mirei goes on about how she has been spying on them and their magical powers. Jurai pretends to roll with this as if he knew she had powers too. Mirei refuses to reveal more unless they battle together. Jurai gets cocky and says he will battle her first and the rest of the club is like…oh but your lame powers…Still Jurai gets all pumped up and Mirei readies herself, even when Jurai messes up his attack summon. He continues to talk up his power and how he has to go through great lengths to protect others when he summons this blue flame thing in his hand. Mirei is like haha you showed me and uses her power to steal his. Jurai cries about his stolen powers as Mirei analyzes and realizes the other club members are right…this is totally useless in battle. Tomoyo tells the other girls not to use their powers as Mirei can only steal it once she has seen it. Sayumi threatens to kick Mirei’s butt the old fashion way. Mirei gives in easily and leaves, giving back Jurai’s power. The rest of the club talks about how Mirei confesses she received her power stealing power about a month ago and freaked out, fearing she was different and people would find out about her. Then a week ago she got a text saying the Literature Club was full of people who had powers so Mirei was curious and afraid. So the club knows that Mirei didn’t give them their powers but who did? Who sent Mirei that text message? Outside hanging from a tree is a dude looking and acting suspicious so I would go with him. THE END!
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We can break the mold without being in your face about it.
Despite this show sounding like a bunch of craziness…it was funny craziness. This anime isn’t going to change the world and it knows it. This anime knows what it is without being over the top about it. Like look at us we are going to completely going to go against the grain and break the 4th wall and make banners making fun of our own genre. It doesn’t go that far. It is somewhere in between I think. Tongue and cheek without being so obvious? A nice little fluffy show for my fluffy eyes.
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Do I look stoic enough? Hit my marks?
This show starts off like any other show in this genre. Two friends talking to each other, hammering home the fact that in Japan kids are responsible for cleaning the schools because subliminal messaging. One girl promises to catch up later as the other goes to the club room. A happy and simple school life this girl Tomoyo reports in as she looks stoically at the tree in the distance. Quick let me pause as this scene is a must in all slice of life/magical shows as a life changing moment. There is no going back, the past is in the past THROW THE CROWN. This is the moment where everything changes. Kiss your normal life goodbye Tomoyo, your carefree days are over.
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This word was used 1,967 times in this episode and I had no clue what it meant.
Tomoyo arrives at the club room to find fellow club member Jurai acting like a weird kid. Because that is what boys do. I didn’t feel as if his behavior was that annoying…but if he does this every single day (as we see the same scene 6 months later) I can see Tomoyo just walking to her spot and ignoring him. He was pretty funny though. Apparently there is a confusing term for what he was doing though folks. And I thought that maybe I could find out what this term means if I kept watching the episode. Note to all folks…the term is never explained. Because this show is made for Japanese people. So the word that Jurai was being was called chunnibyou. According to urban dictionary this is a real term for a phase in a teenagers life. Because calling kids douchebags is still. Mainly it is the phrase when people think they are invincible or their lives are so boring they need to make up crazy stores to make the time go by. I am not sure why this term needed to be used a million times or why this is the first time I have ever heard it. If this is the case than many of the protagonist in animes are this word. This seems to be Jurai’s thing though so you know…..Also these kids are apparently junior high kids, not high school kids like I thought. Maybe Jurai being this word would be more important if he was in 11th grade and still acting like an 8th grader?
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No matter what this kid does he is rather...special about it.
Jurai attempting to show Tomoyo that everyone loves his antics is how we are introduced to the rest of the Literature Club. By the way in all the animes I have watched in my life I don’t think I have ever seen the Literature Club actually do Literature Club things. I am beginning to think that this is a fake club entirely, that it is sanctioned by the school for a catch all for insane people who are contained in one club instead of being spread out through the school. Like um you are best suited for…a club that is supposed to sit around and read books. Yeah BOOKS. So Jurai and his evil self taking over himself. The cleaning girl Hakoto is the first to suffer his wrath. Despite the fact that Jurai has done this a million times before Hakoto still believes him and attempts to call for help. It would have been funnier if she knew he was going to freak out over her call and she made a fake one instead. That was not the case so I guess she is just a ditz. The next victim is some random shortie from the local elementary school that is allowed to show up at this middle school? Chifuyu freaks out with the addition of the blood to the routine and the last girl Sayumi seems rather protective of this random member of their club. Like back up off her.
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Wait this wasn't part of my schtick!
So everyone suffers from Jurai’s joke and he still holds out hope that people like him making things interesting. Tomoyo is like see, all of us are telling you this behavior is not acceptable and you need to accept reason, common sense. I would argue that maybe Jurai is acting this way because he is the only boy in this club and he needs attention from all the ladies. Look at me I am cute and dateable. And if you don’t want to date me I will tease you forever. Anyway common sense and reason…them be fighting words. How dare someone bring up to Jurai that there is no possible way an evil force will take over his arm one day. This speech also sounds like something the rest of the club has heard a million times before as their eyes started to glaze over. This might be how they open their club meetings everyday. Like okay Jurai has had his moment, time to…read. Only this time something actually started to happen. As Jurai went on and on about magical powers…something magical started to happen to his hand. I am not sure what the girls thought was going on. Maybe that Jurai increased his prank budget or something. Whatever the case may be the room is slowly filling with something….something and it is going to affect everyone and….
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See, life hasn't changed much at all.
6 months later. Because seeing all the details is silly folks. And it appears not much has changed. Tomoyo still goes to the club room alone while Hakoto stays behind to do her classroom cleaning duty. Jurai is still being annoying when anyone opens the club room door. No one seems to care about his antics or overreacts to them. The word chunnibyou is still used a lot. The only thing that has changed is….everyone has magical powers. Instead of calling for an ambulance Hakoto tries to save Jurai with her magic. Tomoyo stops time to rescue Jurai from said magic. Instead of climbing through windows elementary school student Chifuyu uses some magic to poof into the room. And while adding to the dogpile of Jurai is so loud we get complaints mantra Sayumi…does something. I don’t know what.
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Usually check ups means a bad thing but everyone seems rather chipper about it. XD
But yes folks life hasn’t really changed despite the fact something life changing DID happen. When Jurai started to glow it didn’t just affect him. It affected everyone in the room. 6 months ago all of them developed magical powers with different degrees of amazingness. But it has been 6 months and…nothing really has happened. Unlike every other anime on the face of the planet. Usually people get magical powers right before, during, or right after something very dramatic happening. Like oh snap aliens are here. Invaders from another dimension. Killer robots. Something happens and a person with powers gives the previous normal person powers and they are thrust into a whole new world of chaos and uncertainly. Not so much this show. They got magical powers and…they still go to school and hang out in the liar Literature Club. I feel as if many of their feelings and expectations could be summed up in a Disney song but they didn’t go that far.
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Maybe a little too prepared?
Instead they are trying to make the best of it. Or at least be prepared when the moment does come that their lives will change forever. They will train and practice with their new powers so they will be ready for anything that may come their way. Chifuyu seems to have the best power out of any of these kids and the one that is the least define. She can create anything including another dimension so that this practice can happen. Seems pretty much a given she is the strongest magic user they have now. Hakoto ain’t no slouch either with being able to control all 5 elements. Plus she is able to combine the elements together as if they are recipe ingredients. Instant magma. Tomoyo has the ability to control time going forward. No going back in time for her but she makes up for that in terms of showmanship. Gotta make things interesting you know. Sayumi is another that is a bit questionable. I am sure if anyone was actually injured or if something was actually broken it would have been more interesting to watch. But all in all these 4 girls seem to have pretty cool powers and if something does come their way they would be able to kick some serious butt. But when it comes to Jurai and him practicing his powers the girls are like…meh why bother? Yeah I am sure the person most hyped about getting powers is going to take that lying down. Prepare to be amazed!
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I'm Batman!
Or interrupted by student council president Mirei because I don’t think Jurai has been yelled at enough about being loud and annoying. No no he needs to be yelled at some more. It is a good thing that Mirei ends up being magical too as the club wasn’t that smooth on come back from this other dimension. Like err everyone just saw that. But instead of taking this new yelling at lying down Jurai keeps on going with his crazy self. He didn’t get to practice his powers yet so he went full chunnibyou on Mirei, claiming she was spying on them and was really out to get them. HAHA I shall make a scene because I am a crazy boy and that is what I do. And if this was a real fantasy anime it would be true, you would be the enemy.
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Foiled already? Jurai is way too smart!
As Jurai’s club members beat him for being so off with his insanity….Mirei pales and demands to know how Jurai knows she has magical powers. Say what? Jurai and his insane self was…right? By accident of course but Jurai has an image to keep up so he kept rolling with the situation despite not having anything besides the initial accusation. Mirei keeps on talking and talking getting herself in more trouble and revealing things that no one really knew. She has been spying on the Literature Club and probably made up the complaints as an excuse to investigate them. They have powers and she wants to see them. And she is not giving up any more info until they agree to battle. Sounds suspicious so why not? Since Jurai didn’t get a chance to use his powers earlier he decided he will take on Mirei which makes everyone groan. Next time I think the girls need to veto Jurai and his man pride just in case there is some real danger. I know they aren’t used to the massive amounts of evil or magical things in their life so far but that should be their next test. Picking up on iffy situations and sending out the right person for the problem.
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And when we find out who sent the messages...Jurai you are not going to handle it.
For now Jurai wants to use his powers. And since everything else is going their way it is for the best that the weakest member of the group was sent out as Mirai’s ability is to steal the ability of others. It looks like Jurai either has a weak power or no one knows how to use it properly because for now it is all flash and no substance. It doesn’t stop Jurai from having a cry over the loss of his power but never fear, there are other girls with powers. Well Tomoyo advises no one to use said powers as Mirei is a power stealer so it is up to Sayumi to lay down the pain the old natural way. From there Mirei breaks like a fortune cookie, that she randomly got powers a month ago and she was scared out of her mind. A mysterious text message told her the Literature Club was full of power people so…that is why she was there. Given that she is in the opening and closing I am going to guess Mirei is going to be easily forgiven. She did give Jurai back his power but then again…maybe it wasn’t worth stealing. Instead the club (once Jurai dries his eyes) focuses on who sent Mirei this text message and why people are spontaneously given powers. Well they might not have to wonder too much longer as some dude hanging upside down in a tree apparently sent Mirei on purpose to the crew. A power user too but does he give out powers? Did he give it to the Literature Club? Are things actually going to become interesting for the crew and they needed to wait one more day before complaining that life hasn’t really changed? That would make the synopsis for this show a lie but I guess we will have to stick around to find out if that is the case. Until next time! XD

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