I was going to brush this episode aside with a statement like "if you like underboob and you like fishing, this is the episode for you", but then SOMETHING happened right at the end. Something so fucking bizarre that it warrants being the focal point for my discussion of this week's episode (because, let's face it, there wasn't anything else to discuss anyway.)
So, here's how the episode went down before the scene:
Imagawa Yoshimoto is spending a few days fishing in the wilderness because her tits are getting too fat from sitting around her secret base and eating cake. She quickly masters catching small fish, but she has a chance encounter with the KING OF THE SWAMP, a giant golden carp larger than the boat she uses to fish. Imagawa makes it her goal to catch the fish and begins to study advanced lure fishing.
After making a special lure made out of sweets, Imagawa spends five days and nights at the shore of the lake waiting for the fish to bite. She momentarily nods off out of exhaustion, at which moment the KING OF THE SWAMP steals her bait. Imagawa decides that the reason for this is that the fish will only take the bait when she's not consciously performing the act of fishing (huh?) and proceeds to practice meditation in order to clear her mind of all thoughts, intending to fish in a trance-like state of unawareness and react reflexively when the fish takes the bait.
So, at long last, it comes to be time for Imagawa to enter her trance. As she stands on the lake shore and focuses her mind, there's an explosion of light from within her and..............this utterly weird scene happens:
As this series of images has undoubtedly confused you:
Imagawa finds herself naked in the midst of outer space and face-to-face with a FLAMING version of the fish. She flies through space, embraces the fish, then proceeds to mount it and make an expression like she's getting railed as the fish begins to fly through space with her atop it. The flaming fish then turns into a FLAMING DRAGON, at which point Imagawa's expression makes it appear as though she's being penetrated more deeply. Suddenly, the planets of the solar system come into view, and the dragon begins to accelerate, passing each one faster and faster until it hits THE SUN and Imagawa makes a FULL-ON ORGASM FACE.
She comes out of the trance and, her line having broken, achieves some kind of state of cosmic enlightenment and declares her intent to meet Nobunaga in combat.
I. SHIT. YOU. NOT.
Weirdest scene ever. And now you don't have to watch.
Also, Studio Pablo's thing this week was apparently to outline stuff in neon pink and green. Looked kind of neat in some scenes:
Heaven's Lost Property: Forte Blu-ray is now delayed to June 25, 2013. Looks like the U.S. has five months to wait after Japan's BD-box for Forte next year.
I can only imagine the wait for Blu-rays to be released for all the other Kadokawa titles that have DVD-only releases as of now.
The show actually stopped being genuinely bad months ago. Everything outside of the sequence in question in this episode was actually harmlessly amusing in a mundane sort of way; it was only that little bit that transformed it from average to lolwat.
What started off as a fairly silly episode about sweets and fishing turned into something absolutely fucking incredible with the ending. I look forward to the battle meido messing shit up in the finale. Anyways, now would probably be a good time to write up some very brief impressions on each episode and whether or not they're worth watching.
What a weirdly fascinating and compelling film. I'll see if I can write up more detailed thoughts at a later time, but suffice it to say that I really loved it. The pacing, the music and sound effects, the anthropomorphic cats, the surrealism, the subtle characterization, actual meaningful use of religious imagery - it all came together into something very special.
It was supposed to be Nobunaga collecting the secret treasures of each of the other characters, but somehow I think they ditched the idea, I cant even remember when the last one was involved.
"In a timeline different from our own, the generals of the Warring States period, vie for power. But they're the same generals we know in name only: their appearance, personality, and gender are all different. One day, first Oda Nobunaga and then all the others are transported to our world. Everything is new to them - bicycles, cell phones, automatic doors. Each episode focuses on one general and how she learns to adapt to the modern world."
it's based on a sengoku era genderswap trading card game.
Previously Animax Japan was listing E7AO Ep22 (airing on 10/3 on the station, a week after MBS) as the final episode, with the next two weeks being filled by Anime Mirai reruns before AKB0048 takes over that time slot on 10/24. But now it has changed to reflect that E7AO Ep23 and Ep24 will be airing on those slots instead as originally planned with NO delay.
Since Zetsuen is still taking over E7AO's slot on MBS on 10/4, it means that MBS must have found some other way to air the last two episodes on some other slot without a delay.
I'm crying tears of happiness right now. Waiting does crazy things to people, and after the horrors i've seen as a result of the Olympics, I can only imagine how much I would hurt myself waiting months instead.
Previously Animax Japan was listing E7AO Ep22 (airing on 10/3 on the station, a week after MBS) as the final episode, with the next two weeks being filled by Anime Mirai reruns before AKB0048 takes over that time slot on 10/24. But now it has changed to reflect that E7AO Ep23 and Ep24 will be airing on those slots instead as originally planned with NO delay.
Since Zetsuen is still taking over E7AO's slot on MBS on 10/4, it means that MBS must have found some other way to air the last two episodes on some other slot without a delay.
Well, hosannainexcelsis's post sort of works as a bit of a segue for mine then as the author for Night on the Galactic Railroad, Kenji Miyazawa, wrote another story, Serohiki no Goshu, which was also adapted into a movie and one I just watched. Release wise Gauche the Cellist came first in 1982 followed a few years later by NOTGR in 1985.
I thought this was a nice coming of age type story for the main character Gauche, hence the title. It was interesting to see the contrast in how he presented himself in his public life compared to that of his private life. In public he's more shy and apologetic where in private he's much more sure of himself and direct with others, the others usually being different animals. It was interesting to see this conveyed more visually as Gauche lived by himself across a bridge from the town that he would have to traverse everyday creating a very real physical separation in the two worlds he lived in and not just a psychological one. As far as the animals went I think I preferred the little tanuki as he was so polite in his demeanor but the scene with the cat and the visuals with that were on display there were pretty entertaining to watch.
The music in this was very beautiful, appropriately highlighting the tone and mood of the scenes. It was nice how many of the characters feelings were communicated through this universal language and the visual metaphorical representations demonstrating Gauche's and others thoughts were quite eye pleasing. The animation for playing the musical instruments was impressive, especially since it seems to have been carried out mostly by one person I believe, which took them a few years to do.
It was kind of interesting seeing how immature Gauche was even so late into the movie where after the performance
he still believed his fellow peers to be laughing at him and not seeing him as one of them. Only after his solo performance did he seem to come to the realization of what had fully transpired such as the animals helping him to grow
The visuals were quite nice to look at at times not only with the somewhat more surreal visual metaphors being presented but also the water colour backgrounds that the film displayed. There were some nice little visual details as well such as at one point Gauche sets his cello against the table where it slightly shifts likewise slightly displacing the lamp on top of it. This was a nice subtle way to help give the instrument some weight and add to helping to bring the environment into a more relatable real world sense. Other little details such as at the end of the film where
you can see some type of tape on the window putting it back together after the bird had crashed through it was a nice touch
I also quite liked how it used the night time shot of the stars without any music at all as a sort of bookends for the film which also helped create the sense that the film itself was also a song telling it's own story matching the silence at the beginning to demonstrate a build up before winding back down into a calm silence for it's finale.
The story of Night on the Galactic Railroad compared to this seemed to be more about symbolism and expressing ideas more abstractly but Gauche the Cellist seemed to be much simpler and grounded in reality with it's presentation. I also felt the pacing was much smoother in this film, although I believe it is about half an hour shorter as well, coming in at about the hour.
In the end I enjoyed the film and will echo the recommendations many here at AnimeGaf have already put forward.
I was only able to watch the last 10 minutes (if that) of the episode, since I forgot it was starting to air today here (I also missed out on Planetes =( ), which means the only thing I can say is: incestilicious.
Put off watching a bunch of shows, had to play catchup, too lazy to post any real impressions. Here's a rough ordering of how much I liked them, from most to least, with a pithy comment or two.
Binbougami ga! 12 -- Still excellent all around. Glad that the gag everyone's already posted dozens of times isn't all there was to it. Sword Art Online 11 -- As one of the few people here actually interested in the series and not hatewatching, I liked this episode. Kokoro Connect 11 -- Better than I thought it would be after I heard about the new story direction. Space Brothers 24 -- Same as usual. Tari Tari 12 -- Heading towards a predictable conclusion. Phi Brain S2 24 -- Finally this is almost over. Sket Dance 76 -- A weaker pair of stories for the second-to-last episode. Next week's finale looks like strong though.
The planets must be in some strange alignment or something, she's 18. I guess at age 34 Phoenix was getting a little old to have a high school tagalong.
What a weirdly fascinating and compelling film. I'll see if I can write up more detailed thoughts at a later time, but suffice it to say that I really loved it. The pacing, the music and sound effects, the anthropomorphic cats, the surrealism, the subtle characterization, actual meaningful use of religious imagery - it all came together into something very special.