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May 23 2012

Categories: episodic review, fate/zero, hyouka
Tagged: fate/zero, hyouka

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“Figuring things like this out is just luck.”

(Where’s my Chitanda ponytail fix this week?! I need it as badly as Kirei needs his Gilggy-poo.)

Sakamoto-san!!! He’s also on screen for only a second as Houtarou will eventually walk over and block him from view, but, still, I like my Easter Eggs. As long as the series isn’t one big Easter Egg (see: Dash, Pani Poni). I hope Sakamoto becomes Kyoto’s unofficial mascot, and Kyubey becomes Shaft’s. I feel like this must happen. What I wouldn’t give for a K-On! x Sakamoto-san crossover… something like if Sakamoto wandered around lost but was eventually found by Mugilicious and taken to her mansion. Hijinks ensues.

(Actually, anything with Mugilicious and “hijinks ensues” is probably going to be entertaining. At least a lot more than NBC’s Must See TV.)

What a cop out for his sister to run away right when Houtarou asked her for the truth. Of course, it would have been a boring resolution is she just spilled the beans, but I felt like it’s a cop out by the author. Weak writing. Also, if his sister is moving all over the world and couldn’t stay in one place long enough to take a three minute phone call, why the hell did Houtarou write her a letter? Is she going to be somewhere stable and long enough to receive a letter? Why not e-mail? You know, the thing that replaced letters? or Facebook messages? You know, the thing that replaced e-mail?

(There’s quite a few shows this season depicting social media, so anime is at least getting “Twittor”… but I still feel like I’m watching Rock Hudson’s Giant whenever I see a modern anime character write a letter.)

This scene is excellent: the conversation, the music, and the animation. Now I want Kyoto to go back and remake Clannad in a few years with all this fancy animation. Imagine being trapped in a gym storage shed with Kyou then. I just wish Houtarou would admit that it’s not that he wants to live a rose-colored high school life but rather he wants to live a rose-colored high school life with Chitanda. Funny how they’re a much better and a much more believable couple than Haruyuki and Black Lotus from Accel World.

Kyoto and their tears… anyway, the meaning to “hyouka” sounds like a typical Nishio Ishin pun. Sigh. I did hope this story ended last episode, and when it was brought back again this episode, I hoped it had a murder or pirates or zombies attached to it. I felt like the story wasn’t emotional enough for us– not enough vestment by the viewer in what was at stake for Chitanda and her feelings. I think an episode from her point of view rather than Houtarou’s would have been good– at least show how much her uncle means to her besides a few flashbacks. Something more meaningful to connect it to today.

You know who this school needed? No the hero the school deserves, but the one it needs right now… Onizuka-sensei! This scenario is custom made for Onizuka. And, yes, I’m guardedly excited about the live action remake only because it’ll be fantastic if they did a good job (low probability since the original live action series was so damn good), but it’ll be an awesome train wreck otherwise. In other words, it’s like watching Sunrise trying to top Gundam with each new Gundam series.

(But, sorry, no one is topping Takashi Sorimachi’s performance. He nailed Onizuka’s role… my only criticism was that he couldn’t do a proper German suplex. Not only that, he ended up nailing and marrying the actress slash model who played Fuyuki-sensei. That to me is what any actor portraying Onizuka would have done.)

What I miss most about Fate/Zero have been all the big brother moments with Iskandar and Waver. It’s not often that anime has good older brother type relationships. Though it’s a shame that most likely, these two will die next. They’re the Ron Paul to Kiritsugu’s Obama and Kirei’s Romney.

We knew Maiya had to die, but I didn’t think it would be to Iskandar (or was it someone impersonating Iskandar?)… but most telling of this scene is that when Kiritsugu when to visit Irisviel on her death bed, Kiritsugu was acting like he’s visiting his accountant. He starts to cry with Maiya… and, of course, he cried for Sally and the Demon Hunter (sorry, too much Diablo for me lately)… but not Irisviel. Is it become he doesn’t care for her, or he cares too much for her? Mmm…

(And, come on, there’s no way Kiritsugu didn’t tap that ass. I’ve read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… girl and a guy out on a lonely mission… what could possibly happen…)

Fantastic cell phone. I think I had one of those back in the day too… but you couldn’t call fast with those. You had to enter in a pin code before you could use the phone since people who scanning and duping phones (before they put proper security into the phones). Ah, the good old days. Though did Kiritsugu need to burn a command spell to bring Saber back there? She could have teleported of her free will especially since Irisviel is in danger. Does using a command spell give her a mana boost so she could teleport? I dunno. Is it like stimming marines in StarCraft?

So evil. Feeding him a penis worm that had been feeding on the little girl whose life he tried to save… but there’s no way she was going to be saved. Matou is quite a fool… never trust guys who have penis worms, or IPOs underwritten by Morgan Stanley. That should be the lesson here.

I found it funny that both Irisviel and Maiya lay dying on the same spot, and neither of them have a pillow. It’s mighty uncomfortable to lie on hard concrete like that… couldn’t Irisviel have gotten a pillow or blanket beforehand? Or do those things block the mana transmission?

(And how calmly she accepts her fate and wishes she could be there to make Ilya happy… that’s… that’s… Nagisa-class.)

So disappointed a bento battle didn’t break out. Like I said before during the first season, I would so love to have a Fate spin-off involving the heroic spirits battling for half-priced beef bowls and sushi rolls. That would be awesome omake.

Three MVPs…

1. Sakamoto-san.

2. Irisviel.

3. Deckard Cain.