Yet the Town Keeps Going 8 – Live Alive This Isn’t

Well, this one was a bit of a misstep. It wasn’t bad, it was amusing enough, but the style of humor was very different from the norm, resulting in something decidedly more run of the mill and boring than usual.

Star Driver 9 – “Mines a Little Longer”

If the first eight episodes focused on fish girl, it appears that the next set of episodes will focus on Mizuno, who may be come to known as bird girl. With the updated ending featuring Mizuno’s face instead of fish girl’s on the bus(it finally occurred to me that having her picture on the bus meant something given the nature of the last episode), it is clear that the show has entered a new phase, but not just for this reason.

She's smitten

Telling Stories with Rhythm

You could say I’m a pretty big rhythm game fan.  I have a custom build Dance Dance Revolution pad and can pass some 10s on a regular basis.  I play Expert guitar on Rock Band with little difficulty, for the most part.  I even bought the rhythm indie-game pack on Steam today.  The rhythm genre has come a long way over the years, and now a variety of gameplay mechanics have risen from using music as a base.  When I first got into the genre, I never though something like Rock Band would end up becoming mainstream.  However, I’ve recently determined developers have left a little something out of the equation: the story.

 

Please, sir, may I have some more?

 

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes 21 – Sion Astal is the Devil

This was actually a very good episode, but there were a lot of things that left me scratching my head. The single biggest question mark relating to this episode’s events was how the hell did Sion get so damn strong, because it seems like all he has been doing in the past 10 episodes (aside from letting Ryner help him get rid of Tiir) is sitting in a chair in that room full of glass muttering to himself.

Star Driver 7, 8 – The Adventure of Life Goes On

I have to say that Star Driver is beginning to have me question why I watch it. At some moments the show delivers kick but action scene after scene, but it increasingly seems to be borrowing frame rate lessons from Evangelion at other moments, though I guess if you’re a fan of two bishies panting for what seems like an eternity this is probably right up your alley. More on point though, this series is moving at quite the breakneck pace, what with fish girl (and her awesome battle song) leaving after only a third of the series is complete. Suffice it to say no one really knows where this thing is headed, but then again, did anyone ever really?

=(

Amagami SS Rihoko Arc – Isn’t It Sad, Ri-chan?

Like Kaoru way back a few months ago, Rihoko was someone who already shared a friendship with Junichi, though, in her case, it went way back to childhood, not just a few years. At points while watching this arc and Kaoru’s, the same thought occurred to me several times: what if Junichi doesn’t “win” this time around? What if these girls who start out as friends, end up as friends as well? I thought it would be a great idea, the ultimate FU to the viewers expecting the couple to end up together as expected.

Well, be careful what you wish for.

Yet the Town Keeps Going 7 – Arashiyama Hotori no Yuutsu

One thing Hotori certainly doesn’t lack for are males in her life. We had both parts of an entire episode focusing on her relationship with her math/homeroom teacher, and now we get to see her interacting with her classmate-cum-secret-admirer Hiroyuki Sanada, then with her little brother Takeru. We’ve passed the halfway point now, and the show has hit its stride, as this was the best episode yet, giving us plenty of its distinct brand of humor while also hitting us with heartfelt and emotional content.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes 19, 20 – Come Together

Since school kind of took up most of my time the past week and a half, I decided to combine the past two episodes into one somewhat longer post. While it would seem like a lot of things have happened in these two episodes, and a lot has, it also is clear that for many characters, especially the main ones, change is a slow process.

Yet the Town Keeps Going 6 – And Going and Going and Going…

I probably should’ve seen this coming given the title of the show, but with this episode, Yet the Town Keeps Going pretty much defined “slice of life.” I’m not a fan of that label or “genre” (not the contents – I enjoy shows such as Hidamari Sketch that fall into the category, but I find the name of the category not to be descriptive and rather a convenient label that you can slap onto anything), but really, I can’t think of a better way to describe this show. Of course, it did provide some new material, but mainly, this was Another Couple of Days in the Life of Hotori Arashiyama. Fortunately for us, Hotori leads a pretty hilarious life.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes 18/Star Driver 6

Since I am looking down the barrel of two hellish weeks of school before Thanksgiving break, I am going to combine the two shows I am reviewing into one post this week and next. Unfortunately, that means I am not going to be able to go as in depth as I would like to, which really sucks since Legendary Heroes is really starting to heat up again, and Star Driver continues to meet and exceed expectations.