So, I still haven’t looked for a fourth show to watch. I might have to go “back in time” and see if I find something interesting. So this week we get more Chihayafuru back with more karuta strategy, Brave 10 with more ninja fighting and less screen time for annoying characters, and Last Exile with lots of politics.
Chihayafuru, Episode 17
Back with the story, it’s the new school semester start and our karuta club is trying to get new members by… winning a racetrack competition at school against the other sports team. Unfortunately, other students think it’s too hard so they don’t want to join the small club. Besides that, we see a bit of character development with Taichi, Kana-chan, Nishida and Deskomu (I need to learn his name). First, Taichi broke up with his girlfriend, this causes a few funny comments from the club members. Besides that, he and Nishida each try to make Class A before the other at a tournament and fail and the two D class players think they are small and slow, but they make the effort to get better.
But the most important thing is that Chihaya is told to stop using her speed to take cards! Chihaya doesn’t understand strategy; it seems like she has a lot to learn about karuta. This ends with Deskomu-kun doing some brainstorming for Chihaya to become better and Kana-chan giving her some tips about what the poems mean.
Note: despite all the seriousness, this was a funny episode too.
Brave 10, Episode 5
So this show is really strange, on speed and apparently a lot tamer than the associated manga. From what I read, they crammed three volumes (about 100 pages each) into five episodes. That might explain why the story is moving so fast. As for strange and tamer, there is apparently a lot more fanservice in the manga (which is 18+). I’m not going to complain, there are enough bad sex jokes as it is and I don’t have to watch too many breasts bouncing. The show also has a lot of “not serious” moments among the super serious ones.
Now, let’s talk about this episode. It started with a bit more background on Saizou. He doesn’t want any master because his best friend was treated like dirt by his when he died. So now he just kills to live. I’m sure Ana knows about this, but she hasn’t told anybody. But most of the show is Sasuke and Ana saving the kidnapped Isanami from the bad guy. Highlight of this is Sasuke hiding in a hole with a bear complaining about Isanami refusing to come back to Ueda. Also, Anastasia is awesome! First, she’s a cool European Ninja with ice powers; second, she literally told Isanami to stop being such a crybaby (see picture above); and she has those little suspicious looks all the time. We also get a scene with Sasuke kicking the crap out of Saizou, because he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. We also learn there was a secret in the Temple they visited last episode, but not what it was.
Not sure if I will watch this for all 12 episodes, but it’s relatively entertaining as it is.
Last Exile, Episode 15
So we got a “real politics” episode this time and I found it quite interesting. We get to see more of the Ades Generals and Augusta Sara again and on which side they stand. Plus, Millia gets her Turan military back and we finally find out Luscinia’s goal in the North, but not what it is.
Let’s start with the Generals. Vasant has her “anti-Luscinia” rebels group meeting together. It’s made of people subjugated by Luscinia’s army or those who lost a lot of compatriots as collateral damage in the wars. Of course, there are quite a few Glacians among them and they are not friendly with their enemy’s sister (Millia). Sadri called Vasant quite bold and he’s totally in Camp Luscinia, but I’m not sure why. From the way he fought against the Silvius, Sadri is an honorable man, Luscinia isn’t. And Kaivan is following Sadri/Luscinia around. I wonder if they would switch sides if Sara told them to? We also get another discussion between Sorush and Orang. Orang seems like he would like to switch to Camp Vasant, but Sorush makes him shut up. He doesn’t want to be purged; you see, that might actually explain why everybody else is following Luscinia… You follow a guy who’s soon going to start shooting at his own people, because you don’t want to die. What a bunch of cowards. Of course, it seems all the generals think Sara can’t make her own decisions, but in a way Vasant didn’t exactly manipulate her here. She showed her what Luscinia was doing and told her it wasn’t the right way to bring peace. The meeting of the “rebels” should have shown that too, with everybody calling for revenge and bloody murder. Only Fam asked the right question, but in a bad way (paraphrased): “How can we get peace if everybody just wants revenge?” Nobody took her seriously, except Sara, who is now BFF of Fam and probably the biggest supporter of the Grand Race renewal. Fam and Sara are really cute together, mostly because their emotional ages are the same.
While the show sometimes doesn’t feel believable, the characters do. Millia had awesome character development and I see her as the real main character. Sara looks so much like a kid with shoes too big to fill as well, you can only feel sorry for her. Vasant herself seems to feel remorse at turning Sara against Luscinia. In fact, Sara acts like her mom and dad are having a fight. There are only two ways this show can end: happily ever after with everybody alive which would cheapen the whole story, or a big tragedy. I vote for the tragedy personally, too much bad blood everywhere.
For his part, Luscinia ends the episode by laughing like a maniac after he found what he was looking for in the North. It looks like another Glacians Exile to me which is quite different from Anatoray or Turan shapes. Sara said he wanted to wake up a Goddess to bring peace. Looks like it’s another WMD, because Luscinia only understands peace through force. It is definitely Guild tech though, and he used a “key” that Alauda found in a previous episode on a dead Guilder.
Also, we got a bit of Anatoray this episode, Vincent was watching his ship being repaired and saying that the coalition (anti-Luscinia rebels) was what they wanted to do in the first place. Although, I have the feeling the coalition is going to be crushed badly and the show will end with Silvius against whatever toy Luscinia is digging under the snow.
Speaking of the Silvius, it was mentioned again and how nobody knows where it is. I’m telling you, they are chilling at the bottom of the Grand Lake. I think their reappearance is going to be grandiose, because next episode is another recap episode, but of season 1 and probably Dio-narrated considering the image shown. Oh, and Sophia is on her way… with the Anatoray’s army.