Sankarea Episode 12: An Inconclusive and Bloodied Finale

I know that a final in-depth glance at Sankarea has been long overdue, especially by my otherwise loosely standards of puctuality, but I like to finish what I start, and I think a fun weekend at Anime Expo is a fair enough exchange for actually writing about shows on time. Ordinarily if the final episode was complete crap I would have ignored it in favor of getting a running start on the coming season, but I’ll be damned if Sankarea doesn’t pull through again with a poignant, if abrupt finale.

There are so many reasons to crucify the ending of Sankarea, or the show as a whole for that matter, and set its splayed corpse as a warning for all prospective writers to see. Most grievously it ends on a terrible cliffhanger, one that most assuredly points toward a second season, though there are so many other niggling things that take away from the show’s whole that I can’t in good faith recommend it. But at the same time I can’t help but marvel at how such a decent, if unspectacular manga ended up with as visually creative animated adaptation as it did. Most of all, I’m surprised how well the relationship between Rea and Chihiro was handled in the finale, far and away different from Sankarea’s almost cringe-inducing romcom antics.

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Sankarea Episode 11: Bunny Girl Zombies Are Plot Kryptonite

No matter how genuine a show’s eagerness to make a point, it doesn’t help if it sabotages itself right away by doing exactly what it’s trying to avoid or bring attention to. It’s like if Batman robbed a bank after foiling a potential robbery, or if somebody on a diet moved next door to a bakery specializing in their favorite pastry; yeah, there could be factors that lead to it being their only option, but it still undermines whatever argument’s being made if seven jelly doughnuts are bought on the way to work. I guess what I’m trying to say is that bakeries are terrible places to move next to, and Sankarea couldn’t have missed its own point by a larger margin if it tried.

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Fate/Zero Episode 25: Bittersweet Ends, Silly Faces, and Chiseled Physiques

Fate/Zero’s finale isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. It isn’t exactly outrageous and controversial to scream that from the world’s tallest peaks, or to more realistically type it on an anime blog, but it’s nonetheless necessary to preface by saying that there are many little chinks in the otherwise flawless armor that take away from the overall merit of the show; microscopic blemishes noticed only with the utmost scrutiny, but blemishes nonetheless. And, as much as I could gush about the continued excellence of the production values or the tragic yet fitting end of Kariya, which was handled far better than I’d hoped, it wouldn’t help me maintain a thin veil of professionalism if I didn’t harp on the negatives with as much enthusiasm and vitriol as three cups of coffee and a cursory glance at political news can muster.

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Jormungand Episode 11: Her Name is Valmet, She Likes Chardonnay (I Said Yay)

It’s often said that craziness only attracts more craziness, like schizophrenic moths to a psychopathic flame. While the validity of that statement remains to be seen, that seems to be the only consistent thread of logic that Jormungand seems to have running through it. Every action is apparently only in search of finding a way to upstage the collective psychopathy and disregard for self preservation that precedes it, leading to a bizarre snowball effect that it feels the need to add to with each passing episode, seemingly with little rhyme or reason.

To use a more palatable analogy, any excess zaniness that doesn’t add to the plot should only be the frosting on the cake of dismembered limbs and gunpowder, not the actual cake itself. If Episode 10 executed this magnificently by spreading it just enough without laying it on too thick, Episode 11 decided to make the cake entirely out of crazy-frosting, sacrificing consistency and any semblance of nutrition just to add its favored plot device.

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Fate/Zero Episode 24: Staying the Course, or Fate/Zero’s Continued Character Neglect

Say what you will about the problems gnawing away at Fate/Zero like ravenous locusts in a lush cornfield fertilized with blood and decapitated limbs, but it certainly has a sense of consistency about it. Whether this is good or bad depends on how much the viewer is put off by the lack of focus on Berserker’s history with Saber, or how much they enjoy seeing two ideologically opposed men get in a scuffle in Batman’s spacious garage, but the best way to describe this episode in relation with the rest of the series is “consistent”. Unfortunately, part of that consistency is neglecting elements that would add richness to particularly thin areas of the story, and that’s where the show fumbles considerably.

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Tsuritama Episode 10: Originality is Overrated

All three or four of you that have religiously followed my Tsuritama posts are probably still reeling from how I didn’t write on it last week—or not, seeing as the only new thing it brought to the table was a group of silly people in squeaky suits. This week was no different, unfortunately, since all it did was continue building up to the grand finale while ending on an unbearable cliffhanger, a nasty habit that otherwise great shows of this season seem to have. And yet, even if I’m finding it nightmarishly difficult to write about, there’s still an underlying charm that leaves me looking forward to it week to week, something that has stopped happening for almost every other show airing this season. 

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Jormungand Episode 10: The Many Faces of Koko Hekmatyar

For a series that’s run for ten episodes thus far, it’s pretty discouraging that Jormungand’s elements are only now starting to come together into an enjoyable whole. But maybe I’m just looking back at the rest of it with less of a rosy tint after this episode blew everything else away, both figuratively and literally.

When taking into account just how much the show has progressed, it’s like making the jump from the pretentious, inane scribbles of an albino/gun fetishist, to writing an action script as lovingly-written and appropriately dramatic as the second season of Black Lagoon; considering my love for Black Lagoon’s Greenback Jane arc, that’s saying a hell of a lot in Jormungand’s favor. Even so, as it’s always been, there are still a few niggling flaws to pick at, and it wouldn’t befit me to go a post without picking at the few weeping scabs on Jormungand’s otherwise pristine skin.

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Sankarea Episode 10: The Many Dysfunctions of the Sanka Family (and the Hilarity that Ensues)

 

 

When stripped down to its broadest description, Sankarea is the tale of a girl trying to escape the yoke of her domineering, obsessive father through leaving the corporeal world and of a peculiar boy’s dream coming true in the most unlikely way possible. But depending on how jaded one is, it could also be seen as what would happen if somebody took their love for a moeblob too far; after all, Chihiro would still be longing for the faintly odorous, clammy embrace of the undead and Rea would have a pulse if her father wasn’t so focused on making her into the vomit-inducing spitting image of his deceased moe personification of a wife. So basically what I’m saying is that fated-to-die anime love interests are the root of all evil, and an indirect “Fuck you” to Key and Jun Maeda. Oh, and this episode deals heavily in the various pathologies of the Sanka family in a manner oddly reminiscent of the flashback episodes of Evangelion, so you know you’re in for a happy ride that’s not at all fuelled by alcoholism and crushed dreams of normalcy.

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Fate/Zero Episode 23: Saving Private Rider

 

Well folks, Rider’s officially dead. That means we can all go home dejected, but I guess not every show ends happily. Oh right, there are still two episodes left. Two lonely Rider-less episodes…

In order to pull myself away from the inevitable wave of Rider mourning, I was originally going to write this post on Berserker and the not-so-secret revelation that he’s Sir Lancelot. Unfortunately, there’s been little to no content related to his character elaborated on in the show, and from what I’ve read his Nasuverse representation differs very much from Arthurian legend, so in the interest of content it looks like I’m going to don my proverbial black veil and write about Rider’s death was handled.

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Jormungand Episode 9: Albino Sunbathing, Smuggling and Other Pastimes

Jormungand did what we all thought was impossible: inserting a beach episode in a show not revolving primarily around high school students. Oh, also there’s a conflict with Balkan highwaymen with significant pull in the government over a delivery of humanitarian aid, and Koko’s grey morality definitely shines through the whole debacle, but fuck that noise, it’s half of a beach episode! Though I admit, it’s difficult to imagine Koko not bursting into flames when exposing most of her body to the sun like she does here. Anyway, it’s a fairly pedestrian episode, aside from how it hints at the potential insecurities lurking behind Koko’s nearly perpetual smirk.

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