天下制覇

The last episode has left me in despair!

Impressions:

Oni invaded for the first part, sending Itoshiki hiding in the north pole where he became a feral wolf creature. To be exact, it was about throwing roasted beans at Oni to drive them away. "Oni out, happiness in," is I believe the saying at Setsubun festivals… well… then it moved to things getting abandoned, which is why Itoshiki ran off. The second part was, of all things… about finding Meru a voice. Meru was teased for her voice when young which somehow led to them all going down to VA castings for the role of Meru. Even Hatsune Miku turned up to audition… as did a number of males. "BOKU MERU DESU." Then the rest of the class auditioned for the voice of Meru. She ran away in shame and was kidnapped by some freak, but because of her freak voice (being voiced by Usui at that moment) ruined the freak’s image of her. She eventually escaped and ran into Majiru and ‘confessed’ (voiced by Kafuka) her love to him. Yeah, it was a bit weird.

After a little ‘scary’ storytelling, we hit part 3 which I’m perfectly fine in admitting passed mostly over my head. They chatter on about things happening in the right order or neccessary preparations or somesuch and then eventually visit a tsundere cafe. Kafuka works there for some reason. Eventually, a samurai came in to challenge Itoshiki in Zetsubou-ken, but they ended up just sharing a milkshake. He just thought they needed to be enemies before they could be friends or something. There was also some yaoi daydreams in there too. Like I said though, there’s also a good possibility that I’m just talking out my ass too. Part 3 seemed even less cohesive than normal. Then, the last words before the (new) ED played were "Sayonara" followed by a full cast "Zetsuboushita!"

So, a relatively fun episode, though the middle part was by far the best, even though it was somehow more plot driven than usual SZS faire. It didn’t even really have any strange wordplay or Zetsuboshita that I can recall. Well, except for maybe Meru getting kidnapped. That was just kind of bizarre and vaguely unsettling. A relatively solid end to a solid series though.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Episode 12 ED

Final Thoughts:

Well, I was dubious of my abilties to follow zSZS raw, but I was more or less able to keep up. That didn’t always actually make things make sense, but it was still fun to watch and I didn’t feel totally left behind my Shaft’s constant wordplay and style shifts. I’m really not certain there’s too much to say that hasn’t already been said though. It was another very fun series with Shaft’s dark sense of humor and unique take on presentation. I’m sure the things that will stick out are the really bizarre things that other studios wouldn’t dream of doing. The VA Shuffle for example, or the experimental animation styles rotating through part of the episode. That’s what makes Shaft Shaft though, love ’em or hate ’em. It did feel a little more chaotic than the first season due in large part to the shift from two ‘mini-episodes’ per week to three, but on the other hand, that also gave Shaft a little more freedom to putz around a bit more for quick jokes, which is really what the show was all about.

So, yeah. Shaft is a unique snowflake in the anime world and I love them to pieces for it. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do with Shina Dark.