fate/zero 18 and hyouka 3

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

When the two shows that I am blogging both throw up a random no-OP (indicating Very Special Episode or Very Bad Time Management) status, I have to combine the posts. In terms of pantheon Very Special Episodes or VSEs, my ranking would be:

1. Different Strokes, Gordon Jump episode.
2. Saved by the Bell, “I’m so excited!!!”
3. Beverly Hills 90210, when Brandon dates a non-white girl. (Weird that it was barely two decades agos that TV thought it would be controversial if the pretty boy main character dated someone who isn’t white?)

OH. MY. GOSH. Kyoto somehow broke the cuteness scale. I just want Rena to tell us how many, “I’m going to take her home!”‘s that toddler Chitanda gets. And, of course, Houtarou is like Joe Cool slacking off…

I was disappointed in this episode that Kiritsugu’s past is nothing but a Resident Evil rip-off. Seriously? Zombies on an island? Gen, you couldn’t do better than this? Even Captain America had a better origin story than Kiritsugu’s. I was hoping for more substance than zombies and bad dad… instead, we get a 24 minute long version of Diablo 3’s Demon Hunter trailer.

(I did enjoy everyone calling him “Kerry.” I hope Saber starts calling him that too.)

There’s seven Avengers? There’s seven servant classes. Do the math… Nick Fury and his incredible flying ship as Rider, Black Widow as Assassin, Captain America as Saber (I’m okay with Captain Femerica if that floats your boat), Hulk as Berserker (most natural match), Thor as Caster, Hawkeye as Lancer (curveball!), and Mr. Stark as Gilggy.

(The whole hand-wavy way how Thor suddenly returns to earth reminded me that yep, this is a comic book movie. And, yep, I gave up comic books along time ago.)

Awesome ponytail, ample bosom, beautiful scene… so you just know everything will go downhill for poor Shirley at this point. I just didn’t expect everything to fall apart the next day. If there’s anything VSEs taught me, it’s that creepy, mysterious guys who live on the edge of town are just bad news. Sure, they might have candy or pills, but the cost is never worth it in the end.

I was really hoping that the uncle’s secret is that he’s been working on a recipe for zombification, and he was using the Classics Club as cover. Or why else would the Classics Club have a chemical safe in the room? Wouldn’t having a room filled with, I dunno, books make more sense? But Chitanda as a little girl is adorable. I kinda want Kyoto to come out with their own line of children’s books now… they should definitely use Bonta-kun as their mascot in that case. (No, definitely not Fuko-chan.)

Color me surprised when the Classics Club discover that they are missing the most important volume of the collection! Though I like how Ibara didn’t place them in any sort of logical order or stack but rather spread them out on a table randomly.

“Sunflower!”

Best part of the episode. And a toilet seat cover.

Kerry reminds me of a young Setsuna F. Seiei… or the poor dude in Jormungand. Though Gen did have to paint his dad as a monster who slaughtered an entire town to provide moral justification for Kerry to kill his dad. Yes, his dad was extreme, but it was sure fast that Kerry went from a normal happy-go-lucky boy to OMFGWTFBBQDOTACSI:Miami.

I don’t blame Kerry for not killing Shirley early on as he was probably peeing in his pants at that time. Finding an adult is the sensible (but not correct) thing to do. I mean, something is freakishly wrong if she is eating chicken raw. Think of the food safety issues there. And they are obviously zombies, so why call them vampires? Gah.

While most anime male leads want to live a rosy high school life with a hot girl, Houtarou has a chance to lead such a life with a cute girl with a cute ponytail. Instead, he bills himself as an “energy conservationist,” and doesn’t want to help said cute girl with a cute ponytail. What is wrong with him?! Even if he’s lazy, his hormones should at least propel him into action. And “energy conservationist” doesn’t make him sound lazy as it should… it makes him sound like he’s Kyubey trying to conserve the thermodynamic energy that’s left in this universe. Anime has warped my mind in most unexpected ways.

It was pretty obvious that Akio (Kyoto really is getting the gang back together) was hiding something in the room. The scent from a cigarette would definitely still be smellable even with the deodorant and the open window, and it’s a shame the writer had to use a “Chitanda and her awesome bloodhound nose is mysteriously sick for this scene” gimmick. The whole premise of Akio trying to cover something up would have been better served if he was making meth instead.

(Funny how smoking is a big deal in Hyouka when it doesn’t even get a VSE status in American shows since maybe 1980s. To be relevant to American audiences today, Akio can’t even make meth… he has to be doing something like performing demonic abortions paid for with taxpayer funds.)

The older sister is voiced by Misae’s seiyuu. So basically, we have Tomoya, Sunohara, Akio, and Misae so far from Clannad, no one from Full Metal Panic (though some will according to the cast page), a few from Haruhi, and Ritsu with K-On! with the remaining HTT members soon. This is going to seem more like Ocean’s 11 than Encyclopedia Brown by the end methinks.

Why does this seem like a summary of Nichijou? “Stop!” is pretty much every Yuko and Mio conversation. The running… well… there’s serious business running in Nichijou. The dude in the suit reminds me of the teacher brodude. The kendo represents Mio’s older sister, and the sun on the bottom left corner for the Nichijou mascot sun. And science stuff for Shinonome Labs… if there’s anyone who needs an origin story told, it is Professor. And it better not involve Professor being on a zombie-infested island.

And Kyoto’s animation is truly outstanding. They have characters who walk in the background as other characters talk… and not just background street traffic. Just rare to see in anime.

Sales of this tea cup skyrocket. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want one… or a full set… I am in a market for a good tea pot…

“Because it was, most definitely, not the story of a hero. Eventually, all subjectivity on the matter will be lost, and it will all be viewed from a historical perspective as a ‘classic.'”

Doesn’t this line just sum up Kiritsugu? Anyway, three MVPs…

1. Chitanda’s uncle.
2. Shirley.
3. Satoshi’s sunflower.
15,512. Kerry’s dad.

7 Responses to “fate/zero 18 and hyouka 3”

  1. Honestly, from the way Akio was acting, and the way it was set up, I was convinced he was smoking left-handed cigarettes… Of course, this is Japan so there’s no way they would have done it or suggested it.

  2. I actually kind of got the impression that the main guy was expecting her to confess and was getting nervous about it. The pendulum on the clock was all heart-shaped until she changed the subject from where it was going and he didn’t run at least.

    The main guy has quite a few Allie McBeil sorta moments about. Not sure if that’s a plus or not.

    And stuff.

  3. Don’t forget that Misae = Chidori from FMP

  4. Houtarou’s a bastard. In a bad way when he coldly refuses Eru’s request for help, but in a good way when he uses his detective skills to blackmail that other guy into doing his work for him.

    Ibara suddenly seems to have joined the club (they’re doing a fair amount off camera for a 21 episode show) and taken over most of Eru’s Houtarou communication/personal space invasion duties… it just isn’t the same though.

  5. Appearently, in Japan, Vampirism goes in stages (or maybe that’s just Nasu). In the West, you get bitten by a vampire, you become one. In Japan, you get bitten, swap fluids or whatever, you become a mindless dead (Ghoul/Zombie) for a while. If you were mentally strong enough, you regain your personality (somewhat) and become more like a traditional vampire. If you are really strong, you become like Alucard in Hellsing or something.

  6. To be honest I find it was more Shirleys fault for what happened instead of his dad. She tested the stuff on herself without his permission and turned the people into The Dead. Kerry’s dad like all Mages simply didn’t give a damn as long as he or his family could reach the root one day. He was partially responsible thanks to his carelessness but I find more fault with Shirley who apparently doesn’t realize that the reason a scientists starts with plants and animals first is to see whether the experiment fails or not.

    Also Kerry’s dad does love him. Which I felt the anime didn’t show very well. Of course when you change the entire scene where they meet after everyone is turned into zombies then of course that’s going to happen. Of course that only makes what he did worse because he also still loves his dad even if he killed him.

  7. do u play dota? dota 2? if u got a beta key like me, add me on steam. peace.

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