New Anime Series! Shirobako episode 1

Goodbye childhood, hello real world!

WEEEE look what it is! The last of the new animes I am watching this Fall season. I am so sorry Shirobako that I have kept you on hold. :( But I am almost done with episodes 2 and 3 if that counts for anything. If it doesn't...well here is the almost forgotten episode 1 for Shirobako. Spoilers for anime really cutting it close to the wire.

Err if you say so....

Episode Summary: 5 girls are apart of an animation club at a high school and have decided to make their own original anime for their high school festival. It will be a lot of hard work but most of the girls seem very talented. Aoi makes them promise victory on some doughnuts. Then the seasons change as the festival draws closer and the girls work hard on their animation. Aoi seems the most outgoing and outspoken about all of them going to Tokyo and working in the animation field together but seems to have the least talent in any one thing. Ema seems the most talented with drawing but has doubts her family will let her go to Tokyo. One girl is talented at voice attacking and the two younger members barely get any screen time. They work hard and by the time the festival rolls around they proudly present their work. Ema talks her family into letting her go to Tokyo and at graduation Ema, Aoi, and voice acting Shizuka bow to their younger classmates and promise to all meet up in the city one day…on the promise of doughnuts of course. Two years later and Aoi is beyond tired at her job. But she trucks on. Well actually she is in a car on her way to pick up some artwork for her studio. Her studios is mentioned on the radio as their anime Exodus to Tomorrow is premiering in a few hours. Aoi blasts the theme song on the radio happily. When she spots a fellow coworker out and about they decide to race to the next destination. By race I mean they turn the cars into airplanes and nearly die. Aoi wins and races up to get some stills or whatever from Key Artist Misato. Aoi is impressed with how hard this woman works..and that she has huge boobies. Aoi makes it back to the studio…and she notices no one is in the work areas. She walks around the area until she finds everyone in the break room eating and waiting for their anime to air on TV. All the other workers at this studio are introduced at a breakneck speed but a familiar face is shown in Midori as she is one of the new artists at this place. Everyone has differing levels of excitement and how to handle their nervousness. Aoi and Midori are so happy part of their dream is coming true.

I am sure this makes some kind of sense...

The anime airs and as the closing song ends….the entire room is excited. Of course there has to be someone who reminds them there are 12 more episodes to go and not to get too excited. But everyone seems to be positive except for one nervous looking boy. The next day the entire studio is given a pep talk about what to do next. Again more introductions of characters and job titles. Aoi seems to be…in charge of making sure all the art pieces are collected? Like each assistant is in charge of making sure all the elements of shows are ready to go. Aoi and the rest of her team go to watch episode three in which the nervous boy Tarou was in charge of. Turns out he was so nervous because the main key animator for that episode basically told him there wasn’t enough time to finish the main battle scene or something and gave back the rough sketches. This puts a lot of things on hold as coloring can’t be done and the voice acting can’t be started as it will be off in the syncness. Tarou apologizes about a million times and said she tried to ask other key animators for help. They list other people they know but Midori is too new to do such an important scene and all the others are a no go for some reason or another. It is basically decided that Aoi, Tarou, and a few others would go and ask Misato for help even though she is busy working on other episodes. She seems concerned that Aoi won’t be able to get episode 4 finished in time if she is helping with episode 3. Well 3 comes before 4 so lets put that aside for now. Misato agrees to do the heavy work much to someone’s…disappointed back at the studio? Work gets under way and for some reason Aoi get a lot of talking to despite the fact that she is just trying to help get episode 3 done since 3 comes before 4. She seems rather frustrated at home but knows it will all work out. At the last possible hour Misato is able to get the frames done. She is told to rush over there as everyone else is on standby to color and dub. Misato seems exhausted and Aoi thanks her for the hard work. Aoi declines going to the voice acting session so she can get to work on episode 4. She does stop by a doughnut shop on the way home to share with Misato. Only when Aoi gets to Misato’s home she hears the artist pass out on the floor from exhaustion. Oh no!!! THE END!

Well that part was easy enough to understand. Working in the anime field means you can drive a car like a spaceship DUH!

So folks…not going to lie. I had to watch this episode twice just to understand everything. Okay that really isn’t accurate. I had to watch this episode twice in an attempt to understand everything. I don’t think it worked. I don’t know if the show is at fault though. I guess I thought the show would explain everything to me, step by step. Sorta like how all my “yaoi” shows do when they focus on the manga and anime industry. In between the not having sex and barely having kisses. With this show I feel as if someone needs to have a basic or working knowledge of anime to understand this process. That might be far but it sorta just left me feeling lost and confused.

I can get behind doughnuts all the time. Go girls!

The first part of the episode was easy to understand. A bit fast paced and we really didn’t get much time with all the girls but easy to understand. These 5 girls all attend the same high school and belong to the animation club which also has to involve doughnuts. Donuts? How do you really spell doughnuts? I hate words. The doughnuts might just be an added perk as one of the main character Aoi loves them. She makes all the girls promise to work together to make an original anime in time for the school festival. That is why I am assuming this took place over a year as each year would have their own festival. Less than a year then…..more like 6 months. Quick look out the window and watch the seasons pass on by.

Look at those eager little faces!

So throughout the year we see these girls working really, really hard together on this. And the entire time I was so impressed with them. I really would have liked to see more of the final product but I am going to assume that it turned out awesome. The girls seem very talented. Or at least talented enough to do all this work on their own. So maybe in Japan everyone does have a working knowledge of how anime is made since these girls with no prior training figured it out. I found it odd that all the girls seemed to have a hand in some of the animation. Like all the girls might have different interests (like Shizuka and voice acting) but they were all able to contribute to the final drawing product. Kids if you can draw a stick figure you can help make an animated film.

Best friends forever!!!!

Throughout all this hard work we learned a tiny bit about the girls although it was really Aoi’s episode with Ema in between. The internets are trying to tell me that Midori also works where Aoi does. If that is the case I didn’t see her this episode. But yes Aoi. She seemed to be the most pumped during the episode, about doughnuts and the episode they made at the club. But then she seemed liked the most inexperienced? Like she wants to be in the anime industry really badly but hasn’t found what she is really good at. She even doubts herself when telling the others they all need to get to Tokyo and work together. Ema seems to be the most talented of the group but almost didn’t make it to Tokyo due to family problems. It wasn’t explained well but it sounds like her parents weren’t keen on the idea. Still sent her money after the fact so I guess it wasn’t too bad. Shizuka seemed very good at voice acting. The other two girls got barely any airtime, probably due to the fact they didn’t graduate at the same time. Midori and Misa will get their time to shine. That time isn’t now though.

The face of happiness....

For now it is Aoi and 2.5 years after graduation. I wonder if Midori and Misa kept the club running after the older girls left. Guess we will find out next time. Right now we go to watch Aoi look beyond tired and hungry as she waits for the light to change. Apparently working in the animation area means really late nights as it was pretty dark outside. She was listening to the radio before she became a road criminal and the very fast talking hosts were LALALAing about the new animes coming out soon. Even if I did speak Japanese I would have been like X___X trying to understand them. But Aoi understood them enough and couldn’t help but beam with pride as the anime she was working out, Exodus to Tomorrow, got pretty good ratings from the duo. Even had the voice actresses on to talk up the show. Oh Aoi was just so happy. Of course even after viewing the episode twice I still have no idea what she does for the show but she was excited. Sorta like you stay and watch the credits for a film you worked on. Head Person in Charge of Cleaning the Make-up Brushes. Work is work though folks and Aoi pushes aside all the tired feelings she was having and was excited for the moment. Their show was almost on the air! Quick cue Aoi racing her co-worker down the street like an insane person while singing the theme song to the anime in question. Sounds like an idol show thus the peppy song that really jazzed up the fact that these cars were basically flying in the sky. Where are the cops? Oh wait they are at home ready to watch a new batch of anime too? Fly on.

MOG SO MANY PEOPLE!!! X____X

Once Aoi picked up some…..some things from key animator Misato Aoi drove the company car/flying vehicle back to headquarters. It looked..well different than I thought it was going to look. Almost like you could live next door to a major anime studio. Pretty cool. Anyway she arrives back at work and no one is there. Clearly the zombie apocalypse has happened and they are all dead. Or you know…everyone is waiting for their show to air at what looks to be 11 pm or midnight. If Aoi hadn’t figured out where they were would she have missed the showing? Maybe she forgot and they did tell everyone? In any event now Aoi can eat and watch the show with all her millions of coworkers. Seriously it felt like millions. Is this why anime is so expensive to produce? I felt as if there were a lot of people with jobs that could either be given to one person or the job itself didn’t make much sense. Just…just a lot of people and I didn’t bother to learn all their names. 

So the first episode aired and like the school festival anime we didn’t get to see any of it. Like shush guys it is starting, lets watch it and poof they are already clapping that episode 1 is done. GOOD JOB EVERYONE. Everyone was on a different scale of being worried and excited before the episode aired and after it aired everyone was at least revealed. Some people were on the internet trying to figure out how the general public was responding to the show while others are like okay onwards to more episodes we got to do this folks. Aoi and Ema shared in a moment of MOG this is our life now. We have done it, helped with an anime episode. Now are all the other girls involved so this is a dream come true? Just happiness for right now, more work later.

How dare you not take enough screenies for this episode Tenchi.

And then this is the part of the episode that makes me all confused. First off…I was taken aback at the fact that anime is made so……close to the wire. 14 days before the episode airs and it still isn’t done? Like that actors and actresses haven’t said their pieces nor have the special effects been added? Hot damn what is going on there? Animes are announced months in advanced and you are telling me they only start making episodes 2 weeks before they air? This explains why things can sometimes look and feel rushed, that once the DVDs come around things are really cleaned up. But why is it happening in the first place? Why can’t they just produce all the episodes in the winter season and then it airs in the spring season? Instead I feel as if the winter season ends and instead of taking a week or two off those people jump into a new project. So during that week or two where all the animes are ending and we have no new episodes everyone is scrambling to get episode 1 out. Doesn’t my idea sound better?

And that means Ema the newbie can't do it?

Apparently not. Because while there seems to be a million people working on producing an anime there is only a finite number of people doing the actual drawing. People with no drawing skills are then allowed to put the scenes in order, scan them on the computer, and do the coloring. The people who do the important drawings are outsourced. So while an anime might say such and such company apparently anyone can draw it. Here I thought that people were working all together in a room, the same team all the time. Or at least in the case of Sailor Moon, two teams that work on every other episode and boy does it show. But now I am amazed that every episode doesn’t look incredibly different. I am not sure how many key scene animators there are but it sounds like they use more than 5? Perhaps the same crew is used over and over again for background peoples and scenery but wow the fact that the show goes through that many hands is mind blowing to me. And since these people are contracted out they might be working on more than one show at a time? Like if this Misato is working on episodes 4, 7,10, and 12 of Exodus to Tomorrow she could be working on other anime episodes at the same time. Is that why everything looks alike nowadays? HMMMM so animes that look super different might have the same staff.

So if I say no the work will magically get done?

In any event…I don’t know what Aoi does. Nor what the boy who messed up a lot Tarou does. It seems as if there is a mini supervisor over each episode. Like make sure the artist stays on task, put things in order, and maybe helping with the coloring? Maybe. In any event (because I am confused) Tarou messed up. And I don’t really know if it was his fault. The key animator was like nope can’t do this in two days and handed him back the work. Sure Tarou should have said something but why would a professional say that?! It’s your job to do it even if it’s hard. Plus I think Tarou should have told someone higher up to deal with the situation, how do you make a grown person draw something they don’t want to? If that key animator is in charge of episode 3 and there is too much work to be done isn’t it their job to find assistants to assist them? Why is it Tarou or anyone else’s job to find them helpers? Wouldn’t they have assistants all year round no matter what project they were working on? Just….not seeing how this person could refuse the work.

Um you might want to be quiet Tarou.

But it doesn’t matter if I understand or not about why key animators can turn down work or what Tarou or Aoi really do at the studio. What matters is episode 3 can’t be finished and it is a perfect time to panic. This is going to set Aoi back no matter what because folks….3 comes before 4. Not a concept that made sense to a lot of people in this episode. I mean everyone was getting on Aoi’s case. If episode 3 doesn’t air there will be no episode 4. Yes she is in charge of episode 4 but this is a team effort folks. I think Aoi knows this will put her behind so maybe someone from episode 7 or episode 1 should step up instead. I guess it doesn’t matter what Aoi did as her key animator was the only one who said yes to helping out despite some people not being on board with her sense of style. Um don’t like her sense of style, do it yourself. And back up what you are going to say coward. Trying to lie about what he said…meh.

HAHA that's what you get.

So despite me not understanding a lot of what was going on I understood it was a hectic time at the studio with all this work for episode 3 needing to be done but until the frames were done it was put on hold. Aoi probably could have monitored other things while she was waiting for Misato to finish up. Standing by the phone wasn’t really helping. But Aoi was under a lot of stress too. All her dreams of coming to the big city and working with all her friends sounded like a grand idea in high school but now it is long nights and no doughnuts. Frustrating workers and what nots. Poor Aoi. This business seems very fast pace and stressful, all of which could be solved if they made animes in the Summer that would air in the Fall but what do I know?

Um....anime is serious business?

In the end Misato pulled out a win. A very exhausting win but a win. Aoi was able to zip around the city and the wheels for the rest of the episode 3 get started. I was a bit sad for Aoi as she didn’t get to stick around and see the voice acting process (where I think I saw Shizuka) because she had to actually start on episode 4. :( Poor Aoi. Maybe next time. I like that she took the time to get her hard working key artist Misato some of those precious doughnuts that she loves. You know..because the woman deserves them. But also because if Aoi hadn’t been thoughtful Misato would have been passed out on the floor alone. X___X So while this show has a lot of happiness and lala bubbly moments there is a serious side to making anime. Clearly everyone is overworked. So while I don’t understand everything going on in this episode….this show has promise. Maybe I will learn much more about anime and appreciate the process a bit more. Or feel bad for everyone in this industry and I can’t ever judge the C-team ever again. Time will tell if Aoi will enjoy this industry or will gain a million pounds by drowning her sorrows in doughnut. Until next time!

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Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de episode 2

Silent!!!!!!! I am the fearless leader, here me roar!

WEEEE post number 4. Of course given how long I went without posting that might not be something to brag about. But for now I still have things in the queue and I will worry about catching up when....well when I find time to catch up. Up now is Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de episode 2. Spoilers for misunderstandings and crazy names.

Yeah you pretty much suck at this task.

Episode Summary: Jurai has gathered all the club members together for something super important. Tomoyo is yelled at for showing her visible boredom. Jurai says that they all agreed to pick super hero names and Tomoyo needs to fall in line. Tomoyo points out that Jurai basically forced everyone’s hand into this insanity but Jurai is not deterred. All the girls set to work on picking a name that is perfect for them based on their abilities and personalities. Hatoko is rather boring with picking colors and putting them in front of her name. Jurai is like no go on those names. Sayumi is next to show off her skills in name picking and most of hers have the word Princess in them and have to do with fairy tales. Jurai is impressed and seems to think she put a lot of effort in her names. He does question why a mature woman like Sayumi would pick cute Princess names and not something along the lines like Queen. Sayumi gets embarrassed and/or mad and stomps away to the bathroom. Chifuyu is next in the name presenting procession. Her first name is something stupid, like Strawberry Strawberry or something. Her other names are things like Pineapple or words that imply something bad is happening in her home life. Tomoyo is last to show her name off and Jurai is moved to tears at how amazing her name is. He goes on and on and embarrasses her. They are interrupted when Mirei walks in to tell them to keep it down. Everyone knows she is using the noise as an excuse to come in for something else. Mirei is like I have business with Jurai today. Apparently he left a love letter in her locker and she is here to respond to said letter by confessing her love to the boy as well. Jurai is like whaaaaa while all the other girls have daggers in their eyes and anger in their hearts. Tomoyo is the first to voice her concerns and Mirei accuses her of being in love with Jurai as well. When Tomoyo blushes and denies it Mirei is like well then mind your business. Jurai tries denying all of this so Mirei pulls out the note and starts reading. She goes on and on for about 5 hours which is amazing since this is a 22 minute show. Jurai is like…I was trying to give her a name based on her power and she mistook the word Robber for Lover. Mirei is like I love you too so lets date. Tomoyo tries to rally the troops to take out Mirei but they are all so upset over this develop they have lost their minds. Mirei tells Tomoyo not to be jealous over her small boobie size verses Mirei’s breast size which causes Tomoyo to use her power against Mirei. Mirei of course steals them and Jurai has to sweet talk the girl into giving them back.

But but...it was in my shoe locker.....and a word that looks like Love.....how can this be?!?!

The next day Mirei waits for Jurai after class hoping to spend time with the boy. She ends up just walking him to his club room but is all happy and flowery about the situation. Jurai is like oh boy I need to stop this somehow, especially when he learns what her email is. All the girls were waiting for Jurai to arrive to the club room but when he walks in they all enter a state of ignoring him or being so pissed off at him he shouldn’t really talk to him anyway. Jurai asks Tomoyo if she is jealous which was the wrong thing to do. Eventually Sayumi becomes the mature one and points out that Jurai really isn’t doing anything wrong and that they should come up with a plan to help the boy let Mirei down. Jurai then has a mature moment and decides this is something he needs to do on his own as he created the problem. He finds Mirei after school and explains that it wasn’t a love letter but a letter giving her a name for her super power. Mirei gets embarrassed ad pretends that she never really liked Jurai anyway, she was just going along with him. Jurai sees the tears and keeps on apologizing because he really does feel bad. Mirei makes an excuse to leave and runs into walls because of her tears. Jurai feels super bad so Tomoyo walks up to make Jurai feel even worse about making a girl cry. But Tomoyo admits it really was Mirei who was going on and assuming things. Tomoyo asks why Jurai picked such a confusing name to begin with. It turns out Jurai had a reason for it. He wanted the character count and what to match, based on Japanese characters. He felt bad that Mirei must have felt so alone when she had powers and no one else while everyone else was together. Tomoyo smiles even though she still thinks Jurai is a chunni or whatever. They almost have a moment but decide to go home instead. Mirei texts Jurai that night with a different email signifying that things will probably be okay between the two of them. THE END!

Also this episode had a lot of words and terms that might have been easier to understand if I were Japanese.

Despite the fact that I have been going through a blogging slump I did enjoy watching this episode…like a million years ago. Just goofy kids having fun. Playing up certain aspects of magical animes that we all think are rather special while being slightly slice of life. Slightly. Because these kids are still crazy and not much outside of the club room is shown. No walking home and shopping at the corner store in this anime yet.

But I didn't even want to do this task in the first place! Why am I the best?!

No no, we got to focus on some of the more important aspects of being a super hero and having magical powers…..having a magical/superhero name. Now I might be incline to call BS on this whole scenario if I were in a more cynical mood. These kids have had their super powers for 6 months now and have named their attacks or at least their core powers but haven’t come up with a name for themselves individually? I can see still fighting over a group name but how can you name your attack and not yourself?! Just a scene that is cute to show the audience but it reality this should have happened a long time ago, in the 6 months they were waiting for something amazing to happen to them. Especially Jurai and his….8th grade crazy self. He seems to be the kind of crazy who would want to pick names the next day, especially if they are going through the effort of having power checkups and what not.

Chifuyu....is there a reason you are never at home? Do you have parent problems?

However based on what Tomoyo was saying and doing maybe Jurai has brought this name thing up before and each time everyone was like no go away and stop being so weird. Each time Jurai got smarter on how to approach the situation and this time went with Chifuyu who is easily manipulated. Um why is someone’s niece hanging out in a junior high club after school? Where are the parents? Where is the aunt? Chifuyu indeed. Out of everyone Tomoyo was the most against the names. I think as a general rule she hates anything Jurai suggests. If the other girls had suggested it she would have been like oh yeah we do need nicknames. All the other girls were like okay we shall do this. Maybe because going along with Jurai is easier than listening to him whine. And despite it all every girl has a crush on Jurai so they would probably go along with his nonsense anyway. I don’t think Hatoko deserves a lot of time in regards to talking about her nickname. I mean…I think I sorta have a friend like her. Sweet and nice, like a cuddly bunny that is missing part of their brain and sometimes you want to shake some sense into. But then they smile and you know they are actually doing their best and it’s an OHHH moment. So yeah Hatoko…colors. Go you. Also this episode would probably be easier for me to understand if I spoke and read Japanese. So since I don’t a lot of this was lost upon me so yeah.

How dare you say the word cute! Now I must run away in a super cute manner because I can't handle the word cute.

How did the other girls do in picking their super hero names? Turns out Sayumi the mature and quiet one is actually good at this task. She does as Jurai asks and thinks of something that matches her power and has the correct…letters or what not. Like way to go. If you are going to take part in this task you are going to do so seriously, I like that. Jurai made the mistake though of asking why Sayumi was making her name cute instead of mature, like the person she pretends to be. Of course all girls in Japan want to be cute so this embarrasses Sayumi. Like don’t point out that I am trying to be cute when it isn’t working due to how I look. Sorta like if someone asked why are you trying to look sexy Tenchi when clearly I have the body type of a 12 year old boy. So go Jurai for being special. Chifuyu is another one with the names that…I guess she tried but it came off a bit…off. She is right about Jurai’s power name but then the rest of her names were…special. At least the way they are read. Jurai was like okay crazy kid alert and moved onto the last member of the club. The one he thought was going to give him the most problems. I thought that too given how Tomoyo was all RARW about the task. But me and Jurai had to take back those negative thoughts as Tomoyo was the best at the task in Jurai’s eyes. I think even though she protests a lot Tomoyo is the most like Jurai and that is why she picks on him the most. But Jurai was singing her praises and probably was on his way to making her the captain when drama happened. Because this anime has no aliens or enemies yet it has to be real life drama but I guess that’s the best kind of drama.

Put the crazy back in the box, this is not a love letter missy!

See in Jurai attempt to make everyone pick out super hero names he decided to include Mirei in on it too despite the fact she isn’t in the club and tried to steal all of her powers. Of course she was tricked by hanging upside down from a tree dude but she really didn’t start off on the right foot with these people so it is nice that Jurai was trying to include her in this name picking insanity. Now this is where Japanese anime and English Speaking Tenchi have to stop and think about what is going on and meet together in the middle. I am going to assume that Jurai used the English word ROBBER which would be hard to pronounce in Japanese which is what lead to the confusion on Mirei’s part. Like Lover? Jurai leaves a note in my locker which is love letter rule number one and he uses the word Lover as my super hero name. Clearly he is asking me out so I will bust into the club room and declare my love for him as well with no explanation whatsoever as she thought everything was cut and dry.

Well if I have to give that mean girl back her powers I will...for you love!

This obviously did not go over well with anyone. Mirei just coming in and saying she loves him back in front of all the girls is a bold move let alone in a place like Japan. Given that all the other girls like Jurai and he is the only guy in this club I am surprised that Mirei was alive by the end of the episode. The obvious pairing for Jurai is with Tomoyo what with her blushes and hating on him the most. So when she has the biggest protests and anger problems Mirei was ready for this as I think she knows the girl is her biggest competition. Mirei started off okay with decent ammo. Like um if you don’t like Jurai then you have no reason to be commenting on this situation. But then Mirei was all talking about busts sizes and what not and I was giving her side eye. I would have gone Tomoyo on her too and tried using my powers because some of us can’t help but look like 12 year old boys okay! The others were upset with this confession as well but the person who was the quietest about it was Jurai who probably should have been the loudest about it. Instead he just stood there and allowed the insanity to happen. I guess him explaining the names to the other girls IN FRONT of Mirei does count as an explanation but since Mirei didn’t hear any of it due to the fact that she is a permanent citizen of LALAland I think Jurai could have done a bit more.

Your love is just so....overwhelming...

Since Jurai is in shock that this life is turning into a harem anime instead of a super natural one he gets to deal with the consequences of it the next day. Mirei has morphed into a level headed Student Council President or whatever she is into a love sick puppy and the entire school sees it. But I guess people can have different sides to them and if that makes her happy who cares who sees. Of course it would be best if the other person in the lovely dovey relationship wanted to be in it as well. Also Mirei….for next time….just….settle down with the eagerness. She might have thought that Jurai had taken the major step with the L word so she was free to express her feelings that she might have had for a while but the email was just a lot at once. Just dial it about a few notches..or a million. A million notches would be good. Jurai just sorta smiled and laughed nervously for all of this while mouthing help to the viewers. Gotta tell the girl who you feel or this is going to go on forever. Girl might be crazy but you not saying anything isn’t really helpful.

Be nice to me or the plushie gets it!

Jurai arrives at the club room either expecting to find help for his situation or at least a temporary reprieve from the insanity. But the club girls are like um no we invented insanity so you better just walk outside now if you want to be left alone in peace. Because we are all in love with you because we are girls. Girls and guys cannot be friends because the world as we know it would shatter into pieces. So everyone must be upset that Jurai accidentally wrote a love letter to someone that isn’t them. Tomoyo was pretty upset as she has the most feelings for the boy. Hatoko probably couldn’t really be upset at someone to save her life as she had to keep telling the kid she was ignoring him. Sayumi was…..probably pretty immature given her usual standards but not too bad in the grand scheme of things. And Chifuyu is a child so expecting much from her would be silly. But she did give it a good go. Like let me make my plushie to the mean Jurai instead. Doesn’t really work though when Jurai takes said plushie away. FOILED! But did try.

A little help here guys?

Sayumi was the first one to stop being mad and to see the situation for what it was…Jurai is dumb. And that he was just trying to give the girl a nickname and she took it way too far. So now they need to work together and figure out how to get Jurai out of this mess. Which is where I thought the episode was going. But then Jurai surprised me. Like legit surprised me. I thought was going to ask the girls for help and it was going to turn into this comic battle for the boy and backfire in his face. Instead Jurai had a super mature moment, which is amazing considering how the girls usually comment on how immature he is. He realizes that he accidentally created this problem so he needs to be the one to finish it. He has accidentally led on a girl and he needs to just tell her point blank the truth. No games or silliness…just the truth. Wow Jurai. How quickly boys can change. X___X Are we sure he is male? I kid I kid…maybe.

Err I can see that you are handling this news well.....

Jurai wastes no time in breaking the news to Mirei which is good because any further leading on would just be cruel to the girl you know? I think Jurai might be a boy he isn’t stupid and realized how upset and embarrassed this would make Mirei. So he was super apologetic and did some deep bowing to the girl where he explained SLOWLY so she could hear him…it was a misunderstanding involving his superhero nickname for her. Of course Mirei tried to play it all off like a joke, that she only was trying to save him from embarrassment and going along with the love letterness. Both knew this was a lie so Jurai apologized more which made Mirei more upset. I think they were both handling it as expected and all Mirei really could do at that point is go home and cry. Jurai did the right thing but no matter what it was going to hurt. Poor Jurai, being the mature one is hard.

Well....as long as you weren't being a brat about it or anything....

Tomoyo rounds the stairwell to give Jurai some crap. Well to encourage him a bit but also to give him some crap because she has an image to uphold after all. Yes he made Mirei cry but she is the one who really read the letter wrong. Tomoyo then asks why Jurai picked such a hard name for Japanese people anyway when many other words could have done the trick. This is where Japanese characters and meanings came in, Jurai wanting them all to match so the previously loner Mirei could feel a part of the group. So while Tomoyo might be shaking her head at Jurai all the time…she knows he is a nice guy. Even if he is a bit crazy. Mirei seems to be doing okay by the end of the episode so I think this will all blow over. Including the names. I doubt they will use them at all. XD I am sure something else will happened next episode and the names will be long gone. At least they had 15 minutes of fun yes?

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Denkigai no Honya-san episode 2

Is everyone enjoying the holiday season? Of course I am talking about Halloween time and how there are lots of scary/horror movies on TV. I would like it a bit more if some channels stopped repeating the same movies over and over again and showed some other movies but still...I like all these kind of movies. Horrible or not. This may also be keeping me from blogging on time as I get so engrossed in these repeat movies and POOF it is time for bed already. Silly me.

Tuna tug of war. DUH FOLKS!

Before you bundle the kids (or yourself) up in costumes have some more anime posts. Up now is Denkigai no Honya-san episode 2. Spoilers for....very questionable games.

Run away from the insanity Hio!

Episode Summary: Director is rallying the troops as there is a special manga release coming out. It is heavily implied in the finale of the Haruhi. Some of the workers are a bit doubtful that they should change their work hours (closing at 2 am, after the last train) for a manga that had a three year period in between volumes. Umio takes offense to this and goes off on a crazy tangent that this is a manga to end all mangas and how dare people doubt it. He is basically declared insane as the rest open the store up for business. Fu Girl ends up being a customer and worries about not making the last train home. She is pretty far back in line but the rest of the staff at the store work as hard as they can to get the customers out. Super fast, flying all over the place besides Director. Hio points out he needs to start helping them work. Everyone collapses to the floor around 2 am as the event is over. Hio and Fu Girl are worried about there being no more trains. Director offers to clean up as everyone else can go..somewhere else. Sensei takes everyone to a family style restaurant that she loves and often spends a lot of time at doing her manga work. Soon Fu Girl starts to get sleepy and Sommelier goes out of his way to be the one to take her back to the store to nap. He gets her in bed and while being a creeper is sad to hear her whisper Umio’s name. He goes on the couch and sits with Director for a while. Sommelier drinks him under the table and they are both pretty sloshed when the others return to sleep in the break room. Early the next day Umio wakes up with Fu Girl on top of him. Sommelier pretends to sleep and watches this scene, ready for more heartbreak when it is revealed Fu Girl thinks Umio would make the perfect zombie. She is obsessed with them and happily tells Umio that he looks like the guy who would die and become a zombie to protect the rest of the group. To prove her point she has painted Umio all up like a zombie. She decides she wants to practice her zombie killing skills on the confused boy as Sommelier and the rest are like oh….that’s the kind of relationship they are going to have and go back to bed.

Doesn't this scream summertime street fair?

After the break it has skipped over to the Denki-Gai Late Summer Greetings Festival. Basically all the shops in the area will compete to be the best and win some fabulous (and not so fabulous) prizes. A lot of people are dressed in funny costumes while our main characters are dressed in what looks like high school gym clothes. Most of the girls are unhappy with this state of dress but Sensei tries to keep her eye on that cash prize. Fu Girl is the team captain who thinks yelling at everyone is a great way to lead the team. The only one who seems to be motivated by the yelling is Sommelier who wants to please her in any way and Sensei who sees dollar signs n her eyes. After the mascot of the street (which I think changes throughout the episode and says super annoying things after every sentences) Hio is up next for some golden ball pushing event. Most of the contestants are girls and super embarrassed at what they have to push. Director decides to make the event worse by teasing Hio. She ends up being flatten by another contestant’s ball. Umio is up next in the Protect Your Wife contest. Basically they have to run while holding a figurine AKA wife. Umio does pretty good in the event as he loves his figurine and is able to hold off others who are trying to cheat and push him. One team then shows off a pre-release figurine which gets Umio’s interest. He ends up dropping his figurine and he experiences shame. With Hio and Umio down for the count Kameko is given a shirt and put on the team. There is a Tug of Tuna event next which Kameko loses for her team as she is distracted by a camera lens that is apparently amazing. The mascot announces that the last event will determine the winner meaning all the other events were useless. Teams of no more than three have to protect one member wearing a flag from getting wet in a water fight. Our mains break into two groups of three with Fu Girl leading the charge with her zombie killing ways. Director decides to wear the smallest banana hammock in the world causing Hio to lose it again. Hio and her team eventually lose even though Hio was targeting the balls. Fu Girl and Umio make a good team but it is Sommelier who is super protective of Fu Girl. Their team ends up winning…until Sensei attacks Fu Girl. Turns out she was her own team so she could have the prize money all to herself. As they watch Sensei win Umio asks Fu Girl about the costumes they are winning and she is like…no I am in high school, this isn’t a costume for me. Umio is shocked and Sommelier and Fu Girl have a moment later, deciding the day was fun. THE END!

Remember...they are zombies!

Episode 2 and there seems to be no stop on the insanity train. I wonder how long this show can carry this insane pace. Like WOOHOO every day is crazy at HorseHeadMangas! In between shrink wrapping and ringing customers up of course. XD Just so much craziness though.

The most special manga ever folks. We must be prepared!

Sometimes shows are very abstract on the topics they are talking about. Like oh a special manga release is coming up, time to get to work people. Nothing is really mentioned, probably due to copying right material. Then some series make up shows to talk about, like LalaLulu that might be based on something but is so generic no one can say anything and that is the main focus on the show (or the go to point). Not this show. This show is going to call it Yepsis and keep on trucking. So it is my impression that crew this week was talking about Haruki. The late release date that kept fans hanging for years and having a super late release date in a country that has last trains and…expensive taxi cabs. The way Umio talks is probably how a die hard fan of the Haruhi series talks: I will support the manga no matter how much I am put through! Hio had more of a logic point of view, this took…a long time to be released and working this late is going to cause problems for workers AND people picking up the manga. A lot of work for a manga that took it’s sweet time coming around and keeping fans blowing in the wind. In fact most of the workers felt that way while Umio was in the corner with all the other volumes, caressing the volumes as he whispered sweet nothings into the page’s ear. I think Umio works here for the discount.

I am sure it didn't go fast enough but it ends without death.

The event comes and goes. It only lasts an hour. Besides Fu Girl (what a lame name…) all the other mains had to work the event. “Work” of course. Isn’t that how it always goes? Oh you are in charge of us so you are going to stand around and watch us work? Good job. Although I am not sure what else he could have done in this silly scenario. People were coming to buy that volume only and leaving. It’s not like they needed help around the store. As long as all the registers were manned I am not even sure why the entire crew was there. X___X Just for drama I suppose. Hio was making it look like utter chaos. Get in line you manga lovers. We are all just trying to get in and out of here without any blood shed. As long as it isn’t limited edition there is no reason to be all crazy about things. But if it was limited edition…yeah people would be going crazy. Sadly.

No one else can take care of Fu Girl or Sommelier will kill them.

After two hours the event is over and everyone seems to have survived. Fu Girl stuck around because of the last train issue. I think the other characters minus Hio were able to walk home despite the late hour and instead of inviting the girls to stay at her house Sensei is like…lets go to a family restaurant. Like um no I want to go home and sleep. Or go home and read this manga. Too early, even for me, to see looking at people. But everyone else was like WOOHOO we should eat some food after drinking all those Redbulls. Sometimes you reach a point where you are so tired you aren’t tired anymore. And going out and acting silly with friends is always fun right?

Why are you whispering Umio's name?!

Partially through the dinner/lunch/breakfast/early morning noms time Fu Girl gets tired. All that nonworking got the best of her. Apparently the plan all along was to eat at this restaurant and THEN go back to work and take a group nap in the break room until the trains were running. I think I might have taken the nap instead of going out at all but I like making sense. I like that Director did most of the cleaning up since everyone else did all the other work. Of course was there much to clean up? Anyway Umio offers to take home Fu Girl and suddenly Sommelier is like NO I will. Well he didn’t say it in words. Just his massive body standing up and letting everyone know he is the only one carrying the tiny girl back to the shop. So not only are they are dynamic duo at the shop (his mouthpiece if you would) but he has feelings for the girl as well. This will surely end well. Except the fact that Sommelier puts Fu Girl to sleep and she moans Umio’s name. That could be a deal breaker. All the girls want him woohoo! Sommelier drowns his troubles in beer. Director tries to keep up with the drinking he is no match for the giant man of few words.

You like me so much because you want to shoot my zombie persona?!

Everyone ends up back at the shop and passes out for some hours. On couches and what not. Since Fu Girl didn’t work and got the most sleep she was up the soonest. And decided that she needed to hit on Umio in front of all her coworkers. Or or…..she is a freak. I think Umio might have thought it was a sexy wake-up call and he was going to be flattered yet turn her down. Then he realized that he never asked what Fu Girl’s nickname was all about. I actually didn’t know what her name meant either so it was a shocker for me. Not much of a shock for Japanese people or those who know how to work the internet. I don’t think I would enjoy having the nickname rotten girl but meh. I guess this means she has an obsession with gross things. In Fu Girl’s case she has an obsession with zombies. And Sommelier need not worry about Umio. Fu Girl just happens to think the boy would make a perfect zombie. Like the guy who dies saving his friend and what not. You can go back to sleep Sommelier…and others. Because Fu Girl has no romantic feelings for this boy. She just wants to dress him up as a walker and beat him silly. Girls has to be prepared for the apocalypse you know!

YAY TEAM SPIRIT!

Sometime later the group moves on from the sales of the Haruhi manga and focuses on this festival. Ah it must be fun to be part of a company that does fun things like that. Of course if I had a job (you know at all) that had events like that I would complain how it was mandatory and how I didn’t want to do it. You know, like how the girls at this shop really didn’t want to wear these uniforms and take part in some of the questionable activities. This festival, the Denki-Gai Late Summer Greetings Festival, was for the entire street. This street might be based on another famous street in Tokyo, one that focuses on manga, anime, and electronics. I am sure that is just a coincidence that the two are similar. XD So yeah it is a time to promote the businesses or just build up camaraderie within the area. The mascot for this shopping area is rather special. I might not have gone that way but whatevers. It is what it is. Everyone seems excited for the events but don’t want our mains to win for some reason. Some of the girls aren’t happy with their outfits as they were…special. And looked more like a field day event at a high school and not anime/manga related like their shop specializes in. It looks like Fu Girl chose the outfits though as she is very invested in a win despite how her teammates felt about the event. Like you will listen to me and we will win that grand prize. Sensei also seemed pretty concerned about the prize money too but…for herself. HOW DARE SHE!

No. Just no.

Every single of the events was special and over the top. It was like the event was made to make women feel as uncomfortable as possible. Because anime and mangas don’t have a bad enough reputation for woman. No no, we must do everything over the top. Like exaggerate this and exaggerate that. What do a lot of men like in anime/mangas? Panties. So instead of a pie eating contest or apple whatever thing on the string (I forget what it is called) there was a Panty eating contest. I notice that they didn’t actually eat the panties which I am grateful for. Sommelier was the one who ran this race for the team and it was dramatic but he pulled out a win. It was for his Fu Girl after all. Everyone else would have to follow in his footsteps in terms of victory. Fu Girl will not accept defeat which is pretty unfortunate given what would happen the rest of the day. It is not explained why the rest of the street shops are so against our mains but they are bitter about the panty lose and decide to team up to stop them from winning any more events.

Do you HAVE to do that Director?

The next event…was a lot of special. And perverted. Everyone seemed to put their girls on this event because golden balls folks. Golden balls. The other store people weren’t shown harassing their girls so I don’t know if Director was really out of line or just going along with the MENZ being perverted and creepy people out. Director was a super creep later so maybe it was only him. Hio did not take kindly to this harassment and almost died on the ground. I think if Fu Girl was in this event…it might have gone better. She is a bit shorter but seems to deal okay with balls. BALLS FOLKS! Are you laughing yet? Balls. Hio loses and loses big as she was run over by a golden ball since she couldn’t handle her balls correctly. The shame folks. She shall never marry obviously and must sit out a few events until she is able to pull herself together. From the shame of being squished in a golden ball event.

Umio...you have let us down. Disappointment.

The next event featured Umio and had a lot of promise. Because he is basically a crazy person when it comes to anime and manga. So I figured whatever the task was he might be good at. When I saw it was figurine carrying (like egg carrying) I was like score. Umio will treat this wife (MOG INSANE) like gold so our mains will be back up on that leader board. Well…since the other stores are mad at the mains they tried to push Umio to make him lose. And when that didn’t work they went with the more aggressive approach…..introducing a new figurine that hasn’t been released yet and will be limited edition. Umio was weak and cheated on his wife. He should kill himself now. One could argue his inability to do the next event cost them as Kameko had to take his place. I am not sure what the competition was supposed to represent in the anime/manga world but it was a tug a war with a fish. Yeah…..I don’t know. You would think that the tiniest girl Kameko wouldn’t even matter in this game as Sommelier was in on their event. But I guess everyone got distracted when Kameko was tricked into buying a false camera lens. Cameras are her weakness and shouldn’t pass up a deal. She should sue for false advertising as that wasn’t a lens at all. So yeah disappointed in that event as Sommelier could have been on his own team and won yet somehow got distracted along with everyone else and lost it. How can this group when the events now?!

Aim for the head!

Oh because the last event is the only one that counts? I see now. I am sure the rest of the stores were thrilled with this news. The last event was a good old fashion water fight with a bit of capture the flag mixed in. The only thing perverted about this event was Director handing out banana hammocks to everyone else. And lets be real folks. Calling those banana hammocks is being kind. They really were just….the things men wear to appear to be naked in movies. Where do you even buy underwear like that?! But besides that the event was pretty cut and dry with the teams. Fu Girl really led the way with her pretending everyone else was a zombie and shooting them up. With Sommelier using his body to protect his little Fu Girl and Umio being pretty decent they were able to beat all the other stores despite more teaming up against them. They are unstoppable. Victory is theirs!

Why? Were you going to ask her out? X___X

Or you….the store. At least the store won guys…even if there was people turning on each other. Sensei paid attention to the rules that stated up to three people on a team. So when she wasn’t picked on a team she was like…I can have the flag on my own head and protect myself. Then run around and snip people and win on her own. Technically I would think that it was a store win as that is how she was able to enter the contest in the first place but it was presented as she won by herself. Fu Girl wasn’t as upset as I thought she would have been. Like how dare you steal my victory! This might have something to do with the fact that Umio just learned that Fu Girl was really a high school student thus the high school swim suit and what not. That turned into a slight embarrassing moment. But since Sommelier and Fu Girl had their own moment at the end of the show I don’t think it is going to have anything to do with romance. Umio and Fu Girl will just be friends as she and Sommelier have more of an understanding, always there for each other. Sommelier says few words but the words he does say are for this zombie loving gal. Ah young love at the work place. With those two out of the love triangle mess who does that leave for Umio to leave heartbroken? I guess I will have to find out next time…whenever I get caught up you know. XD Go me!

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Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo episode 2

I know I know folks. I know what you are going to say. How can I be so behind on anime but still make an effort to watch this show? I have no idea. I really don't. Maybe I think it's a train wreck and I can't look away? I want to see how bad things can get? I want something to complain about? Who knows with me.

So how long do you think this togetherness will last? Spoiler alert...not long at all!

What I do know is that I need to get some more posts up tonight as it is October and I barely have any posts this month. Such an empty little month this October. Up now is Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo episode 2. Spoilers for Ange being in denial and hell at the same time.

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine?!

Episode Summary: Dragons. Dragons everywhere. That is what is playing on a screen for tiny children to watch. Their Norma teacher explains to them what the terms Dragon stands for and how it is their duty as Norma (objects) to fight these deadly foe until the bitter end. Ange looks out of place in this class as she was discovered to be a Norma pretty late considering. The leader of this island of Normas Jill and Mana user Emma oversee Ange taking in this lesson but Ange is still going on and on about this all being a mistake. Jill decides that lesson time is over and Ange is to join Troop One. Emma is a little shocked at that as Jill takes the protesting girl away. From a cargo bay Troop One Leader Zola is licking her lips and groping other girls at the idea of Ange joining their squad. Some girls are…jealous I guess of the attention Zola is already showing her while other squad members complain about how Zola is touching them. Zola pretends it is not a big deal and happily awaits for Ange to be brought to them. Ange is still not in a great mood when Jill marches her in there and is told to be shown the ropes. Second in Command Salia attempts to introduce Ange to the rest of the squad, some of whom were happy to meet her for non rappy ways. This doesn’t go over well as Ange still thinks of herself as Mana user, the mana just doesn’t reach this awful island. Most of Zola’s groupies are pissed off with Ange’s attitude and want to slap the stupid off her face. Salia is tasked with showing Ange the rope and apparently the edge of her knife when Ange mouths off. Ange is scandalized at what she is given as a uniform to wear and that it belongs to some dead girl. You know, also there is still blood all over it. Ange decides she rather be naked than wear that and Salia gives her her wish temporarily. Ange eventually decides to wear the clothes but since she is a Princess she has no idea how to dress herself anyway. Salia is like is this real life as Ange realizes all the rumors about Normas were true. Jill has gone to the clinic to get felt up herself (which she is not happy with) and to get her fake arm worked on. She is told to be more careful as she broke in slapping Ange around apparently. The people in the clinic are not sure Ange should be in Troop one either but Jill is like if she dies she dies oh well. Ange gets dressed and immediately is taken to a simulation class that looks pretty real to me. Salia shows her the ropes and off she and the two other new recruits go. At first Ange does worse than the other two girls but then she gets pissed off and really starts to focus. She realizes that this machine isn’t any different than the one she used when playing her sport in school and magically masters it in front of the others. Everyone is pretty impressed that she didn’t splat herself on the ground. Later they all take showers together, with Zola getting…washed from her groupies. The talk of the shower seems to be Ange and her amazing abilities but she pays no mind to them. Salia takes Ange to her room which is empty as there are no other new recruits at the moment. She gives Ange a bit of money and what not and leaves the girl. Ange has delusions of her happy life back home but quickly snaps out of it. She continues to train with the Troop and they find she is above average in everything they throw at her. Impressive…for a Norma Emma says.

Why does my life suck so much?! :(

It is lunch time at the island and the two other new recruits, Coco and Miranda, are happy over pudding it seems. They go to sit down but see Ange being all upset. The girls who are Zola’s groupies join Ange and make fun of her for turning her nose up at the food and proceed to take Ange’s lunch. Ange looks at them like they are crazy for this is pure garbage what they are eating. They bully her a bit more and Ange walks away. Coco comes out of nowhere and is like please take my pudding. Miranda comes up and tries to get Coco to talk to Ange who she apparently idolizes. Coco offers to help Ange with anything and Ange takes her up on the offer since she doesn’t know how to do shopping. Coco shows her and Ange explains how things work in her world, that she got everything and no one was ever discriminated against or suffered. She is…sorta nice to the girls and goes to her room to throw the pudding cup away and write a letter with her newly purchased paper. Meanwhile Zola was busy molesting one of her favorites Hilda when Hilda grows tired of the sex and needs a break. Zola leaves to find more people to molest. Ange has finished her letter and gives it to Jill, stating it is her right as a royal to seek asylum and to please send this letter out. Everyone is like is you dumb as Zola comes in and decides Ange will DO and it will survive as reeducation. Ange is thrown into the prison room as Zola decides that Ange will learn to submit which will help her survive on the battlefield. Ange doesn’t take kindly to the molesting and fights back, accidentally knocking out Zola’s eye. She is stunned but insists she is not a Norma. There is more molesting and it probably would have gone further had the alarms not sounded. Zola is like I will have to rape you later. Ange gets her clothes in order and joins the others in the bay. Apparently there has been a dragon party sighting and Troop One is sent to fight first. Zola tells everyone to remember their training and they will live. Ange joins the group and realizes that she is outside. Instead of going into formation Ange is like I will just fly home and turns away. Hilda goes after her and threatens to shoot if she doesn’t go into formation. Ange is like I am going home bitches and Coco is like take me to this magical place you grew up Princess Ange. Coco smiles happily until blood pours from her face and she is cut in half as the dimensional portal thing forms right on top of her and dragons appear. Both Hilda and Ange are shocked as the battle begins. THE END!

0

More like the Molesting Troop.....

I am almost 99.9 percent positive that I hate myself. Why else would I watch episode 2 of this questionable anime? Even peoples on the internet are saying it is special. Not for the over the top fan service though. Well some people were upset at that and how…violent it was. But Christina, you watch The Walking Dead and that is a horrible situation with humans turning on humans instead of zombies. Well I don’t see Rick’s group eating each other. I would think that all these Normas would band together and make a close knit family to deal with the trauma of being cast out of society forced to fight acronym Dragons but no. Since everyone got bullied lets just keep on bullying some more, because who needs love and friendship in this horrible world?

And we are SOOOO gracious for the opportunity to die for those lovely Mana using people.

Lets start at the beginning of this episode though shall we? Ange is now 16 years old. That is pretty old to be starting off as a Norma. Most people are taken to this island of hell at a young age. I am sure once they enter school there is a Mana test. Like okay class lets see how far along everyone is in Mana land. But as we saw in the first episode young babies can be picked up as well. Maybe someone was being a narc. Or in reality it is hard to live in a world that has almost all Mana users and the baby accidentally broke someone’s Mana which caused the Popo to arrive with their billy clubs. The point is no one else is like Ange, going 16 years without using Mana once. Sounds a bit improbable but when you are the royal family you can do what you want. I can see the maid being banished to this island of hell too. So Ange is taking a class with much younger children because she didn’t grow up Norma. She grew up in a super privileged way and I am sure it was eating at her…well to be there at all but to also be in a class with such younger students. She might not have picked up on that insulting fact since in her mind this is all a big mistake and her…well parent is on his way to save her from hell. I like how she only thinks of herself in this episode and not the fact that her mother is dead, her brother turned on her, and her father is probably in massive trouble as well as the maid. I think the younger sister could skate out of this but hello now she is all messed up too.

I think the most surprising thing about this brief class is that DRAGON stands for something. That they aren't just dragons...

We briefly learn in this class (because Ange was in this class for 5 seconds because clearly the little girls just take these filler classes until they are old enough to die) that Normas are allowed to live as tools for the humans (as Normas are not humans). Tools that ride giant motorcycles in the sky and fight dragons. Yeah I can see how killing the Normas might be more humane but I am going to guess that humans aren’t lining the streets to take on these awesome jobs. Like you know what…instead of killing these awful creatures known as Normas we will let them live. How amazing and kind of us. In return for this gift of life Normas will then pledge themselves to the cause of fighting these giant dragons that randomly appear in the sky. A job that has a life expectancy of three years it looks like. Yes this is super fair. I am sure if I stick with this anime long enough it will be revealed that these dragons are appearing because of the Mana users. Like the power actually comes from them or when long ago humans were testing with genetic modification they did something SUPER bad and the dragons are now the results. I think it might be fun to see the dragons go to the peaceful kingdom and it turns out the Mana users can’t refight the dragons at all due to their magic. HAHAS for everyone. But for now the indoctrination must begin at a young age. The teacher seemed…resigned in telling the kids the truth. In nonrapey ways. Like yep we must do our duty as objects and do it proudly. Ange gets about 4 sentences of knowledge before Jill and Mana User Emma drag her not happy self out. I myself might have done other things to get her use to this life as 5 seconds of class and rape didn’t seem to work out that well in changing her attitude.

Oh I see where this is going....

I like how Emma, the only Mana user (I think) on this island of hell (which…sounds pretty bad when you think about it considering she is outnumbered AND her powers don’t work on Normas), is not really on board will all of Jill’s awful ideas. She was pretty much against the rape and now that Jill wants to put new recruit Ange in First Troop Emma is like oh boy. Might as well just kill this one if this is how you want things to go for the girl. Thanks for having Ange’s back Jill. I am sure as the show continues we will learn that all these girls have had it so tough and they are just taking their pain out on other people. Or it will be spun that they were just trying to prepare Ange for what is to come and it was all out of help for the girl. For now I will just feast my eyes on the girls that are in First Troop. Maybe because they aren’t as old or….broken as Jill they will treat Ange with respect. Or….you know…Zola the leader of First Troop is already acting like a bitch, trash talking Ange and molesting her fellow Troop members. It seems as if this First Troop has already gotten some new members as they have complained to second in command Salia about the matter. Skinship it is called. I am sure this Skinship would work better if it was consensual, like I will grow close to my Troop mates so we might be a force to be reckon with on the battle field. For now all these girls live in fear from Zola although she does seem to have some kind of fanclub. An unhappy fanclub that probably puts up with the touches out of fear, maybe at first, but are clearly upset that Ange might steal Zola’s attention way. Clearly everyone is insane on this island.

Oh this will end well. Just one giant happy family there...

After the nice members of First Troop joke around (you know, what which recruits will die first) Ange is happily introduced to the people she will be fighting Dragons with until she dies. Me thinks that First Troop is…well the first line of defense and therefore the veterans are probably the best. Perhaps they could have started Ange and the other newbies somewhere easier? No? Okay then. Zola starts the meeting off well by groping Ange a bit but Ange decides that she hates everyone and everything, even when Salia tries to be nice and introduce Ange to the rest of the team. Because Ange has lived 16 years with Mana users and has been brainwashed into thinking these individuals are dangerous and defects…well she treats them as such. This is probably new to the girls as they are all raised together and are used to being treated like crap…from Mana users. Not one of their own thinking they are better than everyone else. Ange being a Princess and thinking she is above even other Mana users helps this situation, even when a few of the Troop members try to give Ange a bit of slack. I think that Ange is used to be treated a certain way and of course she thinks these people are monsters on a good day. Given that they have done nothing but torture her since she has arrived I don’t see her changing her opinion any time soon.

Just so casual. Goodbye nametag.

Salia is second in command of this unit and seems to be on the side of the ones who aren’t particularly cruel and aren’t down for Zola and her…..special skinship ways. So when she is put in charge of Ange I was like okay maybe Ange will have a bit of a break with all this….over the top stuff. Well Salia is a bit of a rule follower and isn’t taking kindly to Ange’s ideas that she is still a Princess and people need to treat her as such. Salia might not want to slap the bitch off Ange but she might cut off her arrogance. YAY FOR MAKING FRIENDS! First order of business is to put Ange in some clothes that I think the X-Men might pass on for being a bit too revealing. Ange is like…I can’t wear that in public. I think it was secondary that there was blood all over it and the last girl who wore it still had her dead name tag in it. I guess when someone dies on this island they are quickly forgotten about and washing clothes is just way too hard or something. Just gross. I wouldn’t want to wear that either. But since Ange had already been a brat about other things Salia has no patience for her. So when the former Princess was like um no to the clothes, I rather go naked Salia grants her wish by throwing her naked body into the hallway. Friends. Friends for everyone. Ange quickly dons the outfit although I don’t think it would have been out of line to ask for a clean outfit. The joke was sorta on Salia though as Ange had no idea how to dress herself. Ange really should have known something was up if her maid was dressing her her entire life with the maid’s mana but whatever.

HAHA bishes look how awesome I am in the sky.

Like the lesson on the dragons Ange’s time spent learning about the flying machines was brief. Salia did show her all the controls but I assumed it was going to be an actual simulator. Maybe I am wrong and it was a simulator and it just looked super real. Maybe Ange and Coco and the other random girl were never in any danger. Because it looked like a whole lotta danger to me. Here are the keys to the car, don’t die. Because when Jill was in the clinic getting work done on her mechanical arm she told by others maybe placing Ange in Troop 1 was a bad idea and Jill was like OH WELL SMILE SMILE! Like it might save time if they just shot the girl in the head. But since Ange was captain of that certain sport in school and vehicles are similar she was able to smoke Coco and Miranda who are younger but have been put through this training all their lives. They didn’t die so I guess it really was a simulator and they aren’t as evil on this island as I make them out to be. Oh who am I kidding they are all super evil.

First time eh....

The shower scene was…pretty unnecessary. Of course I think shower scenes are always unnecessary but this one just had all the girls gossiping about Ange in front of Ange while one of Zola’s minions washed her vulva. Like thanks, this show is totally awesome. Ange has a moment of what the hellness when she goes to her new room, like all of this happened on one day and she had been living in that cell before she was introduced to the others. She briefly wishes for her life at the palace before she fast forwards to the good part of the Be A Man song from Mulan. She magically aces at everything thrown at her during soldier training. At first I thought that was odd because she was a princess that couldn’t even get dressed on her own. But maybe since she had no mana she unconsciously had learned how to do things the normal way. Like yes we have magic magical people but there is just something satisfying about running and blasting things away with guns. Or you know Ange is just pissed off to be there and wants to prove that she is the best at everything because she is not like those awful Normas. Ange being great at everything makes people hate her and love her more than they already do. No minds were changed.

This is how much Ange does not care about any of these girls.

Since Ange is a newbie and didn’t grow up the normal Norma way she is an odd little duck. I am sure everyone knows by now how she insulted Normas so no one would really want to be her friend anyway. So when Zola’s crew tries to join her for lunch you know they are up to no good. Ange is like fine steal my food, it’s not even fit for pigs. Yeppers that might make them mad. Miranda and Coco saw the whole thing and decided to talk to the girl. Coco has a major girl crush on Ange and seems to block out all the negative things Ange says. She is just misunderstood you know! Miranda seems to just want to be friends, that they all can connect on a newbie level. I don’t think she approved of Coco giving up her pudding cup but whatever makes her friend happy. I am surprised they get pudding cups. Actually I am surprised they get paid. That kinda didn’t make sense to me. They are basically slaved that will fight until they die. I mean I understand the theory if you don’t give these girls hope they will all just die on purpose and who will kill the dragons then?! I just found the money odd. Like how about you don’t pay me and keep molesters away from me. Thanks. Ange seems to be used to dealing with annoying people as she clearly doesn’t want to talk to Coco but does so anyway. Or maybe Ange just wants to voice how wonderful her world is and how horrible it is here and someone actually wants to listen to her. Maybe she thinks Coco will treat her with the respect she deserves and that is why she allows the girl to show her how shopping works. I sense hope for these three. Or I did until Ange threw the pudding cup in the trash….

Ange has a whole lot of

So what did Ange buy at this random store at the slave labor camp? Well Ange still has delusions that this is not her life now. I guess that makes sense. She does come from the happy and perfect world of Mana Land but she was THE PRINCESS on top of that. She is probably used to being treated a certain way. And from what she has seen thus far….these are monsters. Normas are horrible even to each other. Surely she is not one of them. So she has written important people letters trying to get herself out of this situation. Like um your hommie brother is the one who helped get you exposed in the first place. Just who do you think is going to help you? This is basically Jill and Emma’s reactions. Like…do you really not understand that your life is basically over and you need to fall in line before more bad things happen to you? Because that physical examination was just the tip of the iceberg baby.

Oh yeah. I totally want to fall in line now....

While this was going on Zola was having a moment with her number one groupie Hilda. I am not sure if Hilda was having a good time or not. It looks like Zola was forcing her to orgasm over and over again and Hilda was reaching the point where she needed to rest or she was going to die. I guess Hilda was getting off on forcing orgasms onto her or something. So when Hilda needs a break Zola is like PSHT I will find someone else to molest since you can’t handle things. I think this actually hurt Hilda’s feelings but I would have been like YES escape time. Zola was trolling for groupies to molest so when she happens upon Ange being a dumbass Zola is like okay I can rape you instead because I will super get off on giving you orgasms that you don’t want. This method seems to be approved or invented by Jill to get people inline. I would think this would just BREAK a person more. Like nope not they really don’t have any reason to live and I am going to let them fly in the sky next to me with a huge weapon that could take me out. Yep yep this breaking the cutie moment will probably not end well. Thank goodness dragons came to attack or Ange would have been rapped. Well again. She did put up a great fight and knocked out Zola’s fake eye. Like bish is everyone made of fake parts?

Peace out bitches.

Whatever the dragons are they must emit something that allows the Normas to detect them before the portal opens up. Wouldn’t want them to attack the Mana users or anything. This means that there is time to suit up and get to the location that they appear. Zola switches from rape mode to leader mode and gives a speech about how if you remember your training you won’t die. She attempts to lead her troops into battle when Ange is like…I AM OUTSIDE. Okay so it was a simulator earlier, leave me be. She is like ha ha bitches I am flying back home. I am not sure how far she would have made it with all the other girls there ready to shoot her down. I guess all the girls could run away but where would they really go? Ange would have been shot the minute she got back anyway. Not to mention Emma might have access to some super weapon that would destroy them all.

The face of happiness and freedom!

The body of death and despair.

Salia tries to get Ange back into formation before the Ex Princess is shot in the face…by her. Salia is super big on rules and I wonder as the show goes on will Ange have her question those rules. For now though it is get back in line or I will blow your brains away. Ange doesn’t listen and soon Coco joins them. She loves Ange and wants to go to this magical place Ange has talked about. I am sure Coco has seen countless girls die and she knows what kind of life she will have on Zola’s rape squad. She just wants to go to the beautiful place Ange told her about. I could see Ange thinking about how Coco is a gross Norma and that place is not for her when….Coco’s smile was painted red and the top half of her body went flying through the air. Um so when the portals open up that let out the dragons out it is slightly dangerous in that area. Just an FYI. Ange and Salia look on in shock as the smiling girl is smiling no more and Ange’s lack of formation might have put them all in danger. What is going to happen next? Maybe Zola can just molest the dragons to death. Or they can all take off their clothes and then the dragons won’t see them at all. Yeah that’s it…..RIP Coco.

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