Rankings for last night:
1. FMA Brotherhood
Mother of God, THIS is how you suck a viewer in and bring them to their knees with an eyeball melting sequence of pure animated bliss. The action in this episode was sublime but the emotional tug on my heart strings is what pushed this episode of Brotherhood from 'wow this is pretty good' to 'HOLY F-ING CRAP THIS IS TOP TIER'. As if a blind Mustang rejoining the fight wasn't enough to get me riled up (I'll admit it, I'm a fanboy), Alphonse choosing to make the ultimate sacrifice for his brother and all of Amestris got me to tear up a bit. There wasn't a dull moment in last nights episode of FMA and Edward kicking Father's ass at the end was the cherry on top.
2. Space Dandy
It finally happened guys, Dandy actually lived up to it's potential and delivered a masterpiece. One of my bigget issues with Space Dandy has been the comedy, most of the jokes have been more 'miss' than 'hit' with me. However, last night I found myself literally laughing out loud at most of the gags, the rest of the time I had a big stupid grin on my face. The writing moved away from childish T&A jokes (for the most part) and focused on making light of the predicament the crew found themselves in. For once it wasn't constantly jammed down the viewers throat that Dandy is a lecherous moron and the comedy was able to flow more naturally as a result. Meow's still faces in particular were absolutely hilarious, I'm still sitting here giggling think about them.
Pacing was another big issue I had with Dandy's first few episodes but this one was perfect. There was no 'slow' half followed by a really good push towards the end, the whole thing was perfectly balanced. I really didn't expect them to take the 'day in the life of a zombie' route near the middle of the episode but applaud the effort, it was awesome and unexpected. The various movie spoofs were great as well, many live watchers pointed out references that I wouldn't have caught on my own.
I can tell by now that Dandy will have no continuity since characters have been killed off multiple times only to return the next week with no explanation..I guess I'm cool with that. I'm still waiting for the show to explain why Mojo JoJo and the Gogol Empire want Dandy so badly though, that is still a huge mystery. Also, there needs to be more character development for Meow, that is severely lacking.
Hopefully Space Dandy can keep the ball rolling, last night was one heck of a ride, baby.
3. One Piece
Geez, Luffy took a lot of L's this episode. First Franky nearly OHKO's him (SUUUUUPAR) and then the Galley La shipwrights proceed to take out some street justice. Like somebody said last night, the whole situation could have been cleared up if Luffy wasn't such a dumbass.
Galley La: 'Iceburg was shot and he said a member of your crew did it! You all must be involved!
Luffy: 'Wait a minute, nobody in my crew would ever hurt Icepops! This is a huge misunderstanding!'
Nami: 'Yeah! We all have alibi's, lets just talk this out. We'll come peacefully..'
Galley La: 'Seems resonable..alright but we're taking you into custody and impounding your ship'
Luffy: 'Deal'
See? Needless fight avoided. Oh well, it made for good television.
4. Soul Eater
Ms. Marie and Crona venture into the lair of Medusa to save Stein. That sounds boring on paper but played out beautifully last night. Medusa is the best villain on the block, she really knows how to get under my skin and make the blood boil (it's black, ya know). It was cool seeing Marie be a badass and Crona stand up for himself (herself?) but the subsequent beat down and Maka save were predictable. During the live watch Seda was trying to decide if the 'vector arrow sword' was cool or stupid...I lean towards the opinion of the latter, it just seemed silly for her to use that weapon. I mean, this is Medusa we're talking about, you'd think she be a little more creative than that.
Overall the episode was good, it struck a nice balance between action and feels. It's nice to have the 'good' Soul Eater back.
5. Bleach
Mayuri is the best captain, I'm glad we got to see him troll Kageroza so hard. For those wondering why he didn't just slice his throat after pulling the first trap card of the night, I think it was because Mayuri is a mad scientist at heart and wanted to see the effects of his drug during combat on a live specimen. He seems to be a bit of a sadist and probably wanted to make Kageroza suffer. Another explanation could be that they were ordered by Soul Society to capture him alive. The only thing that truly made me say 'what the hell' were the clones being revived stronger than ever, that just seemed like a cheap cop out to drag out the arc. I wonder sometimes if the writers just made this storyline up on the fly.
We found out Kageroza is the creator of mod souls which contradicts the canon but who cares, right? Oh well, the similarities between this and the Bount Arc grow stronger by the week. I had fun with Bleach last night, I'm a genuine fan of this arc minus the Kon comedy relief crap.
6. FLCL
I can't pretend to understand what happened, all I can say is that is was awesome.
7. Ghost in the Shell
Wow, this was the least cerebral episode for me yet. The plot was incredibly simple but I kept over thinking things last night. The only question I still have is why was the terrorist group following the daughter of the woman they kidnapped? I don't think that part was properly explained.
8. Naruto
I actually really enjoy these early episodes of OG Naruto, Kakashi is such a boss. The humor still works for me and I'm still hyped up when Naruto decides to use the shadow clones.
9. SAO
I know some people are going to raise their eyebrows at me for putting SAO so high up on my list but this episode was genuinely entertaining for all the wrong reasons. If there was a poster child for 'so bad it's good episode of anime' this would be it, nearly every facet of this episode was unintentionally hilarious.
First let's start with Kirito trying to solo the world tree. I will admit that the action sequence here was pretty impressive...too bad the melodrama accompanying it killed the eye candy. Kirito screaming 'ASUNAAAAA' while hacking and slashing his way through a bunch of shitty looking CGI knights had me rolling around on the floor in laughter. I applaud the effort SAO, but no amount of flashbacking or leet hax moves are going to make me care about your terrible love story. At least he got his ass kicked instead of breaking through using nothing but cold steel and the power of love. Blegh.
Leefa predictably rescues her crush with a Phoenix Down instead of just letting him respawn in 5 minutes because SAO makes no sense. Is it weird that the thing that would normally make the least amount of sense seems to be the most plausible outcome with this show? My brain hurts..
The main event of the night was Kirito and Sugu hilariously figuring out each other's real identity simultaneously. This was simply pure comedic gold, easily the funniest moment of the night. The ensuing rage tears and 'why won't you fuck your cousin, you betrayed my love!' speech at the end was just brilliant.
Kudos SAO.
10. Shippuden
What a snoozefest. The Gaara 'fight' was painfully weak and I could see how Naruto was going to get the bells from Kakashi a mile away. The best part of the episode was everyone spamming the spoilers gif! From what I'm being told the pacing doesn't improve until the Immortals arc *sigh*
11. IGPX
Race was anti-climactic but it was nice seeing Takashi not mope around like he does for half of S2. It was also fun to see a normal brother-sister relationship after what we witnessed earlier in the night...
12. Clone Wars
Literally put me to sleep. I despise this show.
Overall I think we had a great night, everything except Clone Wars was enjoyable for me. I'm looking forward to seeing the ratings Tuesday.