Why, Rise? Why?

Belated edit: 
I didn’t last to the end of KMB. It’s neither funny enough nor can I think of a single amusing thing to actually write about it. Maybe if it aired on a slower day, I’d have a little more patience/forgiveness for it, but I think I’d rather glance over BRS’s otherworld stuff than search for the one or two decent jokes in each KMB episode. Even with more Agiri this week, I still nearly fell asleep multiple times.

Impressions:

This was an… odd episode. Well, the first half I mean. The second half was the typical post-dungeon recap and wrapup. Exciting. Part of Naoto’s Link also bled over into the ED. Nobody cares about you, Naoto. You have your "surprise, there’s a vagina" thing and that’s it. Hama and Mudo are not useful against bosses, or even in most normal encounters. There was also a bit of them all getting flustered over her having ovaries, but I suppose that was unavoidable. Get back on the bench and stop stealing focus.

The first half was much better though. Better than usual even. I think they found some spare change to actually animate a fight for once, although I really didn’t like the remix of the battle theme all that much. It wasn’t a particularly well-done fight, but it wasn’t only 30 seconds long followed by 2.5 minutes of monologue, so that puts it above every other fight except the chain summons against ol’ Fetusboy. On the other hand, the fight was broken up by the bad jokes about the old man beam and Rise’s bizarre lovestruckness (that better be a word) when Yuu was hit with it. It was nice to see Kanji get to be the one to stand up to Naoto’s shadow before Teddy used his deus ex powers to heal everybody so that Yuu could use another Persona he had no business being able to summon yet and finish things as usual… a 30 second explosion followed by 2.5 minutes of monologue.

Preview:

Totally not time to set up something happening to Nanako.

The twist that never gets old.

Impressions:

Yawn, Naoto. The first five minutes was practically nothing but him recapping events to date followed by the usual "sit around at Junes and review what happened before" and then the usual futzing around learning more about him. These episodes have always been the weakest of this series and this is certainly no exception. If anything, it was probably even lazier than usual because they tossed a little of Kanji’s link in there before the Aiya girl just dumped the information on them. I think the writers just threw up their hands and gave up.

I still wish they could’ve pushed more of these learning-about-the-victim parts into the dungeons instead of simply wandering around town, half-assedly doing whatever social links Yuu happens to trip over. This week’s was Kanji’s. Oh boy. Naoto’s seeming initial command over his shadow along with putting himself into this situation could’ve had potential too, but… just… "Eeeeeeh? He’s not a guy!?" Over the broadcast system, no less. The bad humor to end the episode was also not exactly the best idea I’ve seen. Maybe they’ll have a real fight next week, but I can’t say I expect it.

Preview:

Talk to the hand.

But bitches ain’t one.

Impressions:

I think the real surprise here was the Chariot Link popping up out of nowhere. How do you begin with honeymoon beds spinning, end with ‘drunken’ escapades and Megahunk^TM Yuu, but think to yourself… "You know what would be a great transition between the two? Chie." But they did a great job with getting them drunk, particularly how Yuu just kind of started shining, throwing the ‘sodas’ back, and then the shirt came off. On the other hand, the amount of glistening naked man chest I’ve seen today is already at critical levels.

Even the awful "Good Kanji/feeling" bit made me chuckle just from how terrible it was. They even busted out the P3 battle music for the King Game. Aaah, the King Game. What doesn’t it make better? Then there was Ultra Dynamic Dart Throwing and Yuu made Chie sit in his lap to level up their Social Link before the rest of the harem went crawling over to get a taste of his pants while he sat there and took it all in. Naoto, of course, had to be a wet blanket on the whole affair. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

As for the other 14 minutes or so, eh. Business as usual. But with Chie’s link for some reason. Oi.

Preview:

If you’re reading this, it means that I forgot to change the template.

At least he wasn’t getting high off of fox leaves.

Impressions:

About what I expected. Just a clusterblitz of about five social links all at once without much effort put into it. Sayoko was probably the most amusing of them because she was the most melodrama-free of the group. Seriously, if not for Tanaka and the Super Fishing Ultra Deluxe Omega Special with Social Link level up music (and then battle music for catching the fish… which I think meant that Yuu had just lost it at that point), this would have pretty much just been an endless parade of "My life’s sad" for the first 15 minutes or so until the wrapup at the end. Yuu’s popped collar still makes me chuckle at least.

The wrapup at the festival was at least sort of clever in how things sort of came together. Only sort of though. Yuu still just bounced from the end of one social link to the next and when they couldn’t think of a social link to toss in, they had the delivery girl show up out of nowhere with ice in what was ostensibly a serious scene seconds before. Some didn’t even really have that. Sayoko was just kind of… there. At least she wasn’t being a ball of angst like all the rest, but it very much felt like she was just there so they could check her off as existing with the show’s universe.

And it’s on to Persona 3 next week. At least everyone gets ‘drunk.’

Preview:

Field trip to Iwatodai.

Of course, now I’m looking forward to next week’s episode even less.

Impressions:

Well, I was expecting very very little from these social link episodes after how underwhelming the first few were, but thankfully (sort of) they just gave Nanako a highly defective magical staff and let her play magical detective for awhile to try to figure out what Yuu’s been up to while showing only bits and pieces of her discovering him in the middle of the other links. It’s certainly an… interesting way to go about it. I like the increased focus on Nanako and, again, given how the social links have gone so far, it’s certainly a more creative way of coming at them, so I guess I approve. Unfortunately, it ends with Nanako asking Yuu about them and the calendar rewinding, so it looks like we’ll be getting the digest version of them all next week after all.

Not too much otherwise. Just kind of a silly episode of Nanako stalking Yuu and peeking in on bits and pieces of the other social links. I’ll accept that they actually should explain some of this for it to be standalone and whatnot, but I have precious little faith that next week’s episode is going to be particularly interesting if they do indeed focus on that. I’d rather watch another twenty minutes of Detective Nanako trying to solve the mystery of why Yuu spends all day hanging out with middle-aged (and up!) women with the ‘help’ of her magical stick/magnifying glass.

Preview:

Social links.

I didn’t see one die use Last Resort. How disappointing.

Impressions:

This was… odd. I’m not so surprised that Teddy’s persona didn’t get even a moment to be a badass like at least Kanji did. He was reduced to bouncing around with those damn annoying dice in the background. Then when they found Mitsuo, they bypassed all the usual shadow stuff and Yuu got sucked into a delusion that was kind of a mix of various events along with chunks of the bad ending before finding the DEMON FETUS in his dream and Yosuke pulling him out of it. Then with a cry of "I am NOT empty" (Ha HA! Title in the episode itself! …sigh) he proceeded to summon every single one of his various personas in turn, including some he’s never used and spank the baby.

Like I said… it was… odd. Also probably the best looking battle in the show to date, but still… the whole thing was a bit off-kilter. Coming from Guilty Crown though, it’s hard to judge just how far. Given the smash cut from finding Mitsuo to various antics, I think they really should have made it much more obvious that it was an illusion from the start. Show some static during the transitions or something. You’re not a good enough show to get away with a jarring shift like that without a few other cues. For a moment, I wondered if they really were flashing forward for some reason before they started leaping months at a time. They could have also done a lot more in the dream if they wanted to give weight to Yuu’s declaration to show he has no purpose or relationships with the case over. It would have worked nicely as a contrast between Mitsuo’s own hero-complex stuff too which was more or less completely cut. Oh well. C’est la vie.

The show’s off next week for the holidays and will be back with all the new broadcasts in January.

Preview:

More social links.

That popped collar hurt my eyes.

Impressions:

Another one of the fairly dull and formulaic setup episodes for moving on to Mitsuo’s dungeon. Yuu aparently broke into Dojima’s closet and stole one of his old shirts from the discotech era because his shirt through the first half looked like it came straight out of the 80s. If he had a line of cocaine under his nose, the illusion would’ve been complete. The photographic backgrounds were also particularly obtrusive this week. Maybe it was just because there was a whole lot of feeling sorry for themselves and exposition through most of the episode with Teddy’s annoying piercing voice and fellow 80s style chewing up much of the rest. I do chuckle at them accidentally leaving his head in various places and traumatizing children though.

I was hoping they’d set up the reasons for his craziness a little bit better than in the game, but they seemed more concerned with just making sure that it got across that he was completely off his rocker. It wouldn’t have taken much to show King Moron push him over the edge from mild sociopathic to completely psychotic either. I generally do prefer crazy, just because their rantings tend to be more amusing than… say… Naoto reviewing the entire plot once again… but Mitsuo comes off as a little too flat and jammed in even here for it to even be sold for a moment that he’s the real killer… even before Naoto shows up with the exposition du jour and spells everything out anyway.

Preview:

Void Quest.

I remember that fight being much longer. And containing attacks.

Impressions:

While I did like that they took Teddy’s nihilistic realization and turned it into a literal blackhole (symbolism! Ha HA!), I feel like they could have paced this a lot better and maybe given a little more oomph to some of these scenes, especially Teddy’s stuff which felt completely under-relized, not to mention annoying as usual when he’s shrieking in that squeaky voice. I prefer the soothing bass of his shadow self sooooo much. What’s a little wanton murder if it means no more squeaking? I’ll always take things moving too quickly over too slowly though, and this hummed right along. The action remains the same as always. I appreciate actually showing some fighting as opposed to… say… certain ‘action’ JC Staff shows I could name, but if they’re going to half-ass anything, it should be the random policemen shadows, not the boss battles, and taking out giant evil blackhole Teddy with a scan and a stab is just… bleh.

They started to do some clever things, like Rise resisting saying that the shadow hordes of her weren’t her before stopping herself which leads nicely into her particular bit, but then everything got too compressed and kind of just barely touched on. I’m also not entirely sure what they were trying to do with Kanji either. They stuck him in the joke glasses until he got his supposed moment in the sun, which last all of about 10 seconds and a dramatic pose before he got gimp-shotted with everybody else. Conflicting messages here, AIC.

Preview:

8 bit adventures.

Fold those cranes, Yuu.

Impressions:

I kind of liked the start where they showed Rise being chased as a way of showing her anxieties for it. That’s the kind of change the show should be making to better present this stuff instead of the exposition of the game. Of course, having it turn out to be a completely clueless Yuu trying to return her phone is an exceedingly mixed message that kneecaps the entire scene. Following it up by actually stalking her just makes that worse. Ordering take-out and having a party while ‘hiding’ about 20 feet away from her beihind a parked car is… I don’t even know. I do think I like most of the general changes they made here though, particularly in establishing Yuu and Rise’s relationship a little bit before she got tossed into the TV to give it more of a personal connection to him instead of Rise just sort of ranting at the world in general. It may be the closest he’s come to a personality yet.

Mostly though, just another fairly dull intro/setup episode with special Rie opening sequence. I guess it could’ve been worse, and with a new ZnT season around the corner, I already dread hearing her try to sing again. At least Kanji’s finally been scaled back and down and is no longer a walking joke, although the way he was staring at Chie during the whole discussion scene made it look like he was either about to rape, eat her, or wear her scalp as a hat. Possibly all three. It was also disappointing that they broke out the All-Out Attack sequence for chasing a fanboy into traffic. I did laugh when he began folding increasingly smaller cranes out of Rise’s photos to make her feel better. Way to put that Understanding stat to good use.

Preview:

Those damn cop shadows.

AIC, what are you doing?

Impressions:

What is with the show lately? If it had been playing up the humor and silliness the entire time, that’d be one thing, but these last couple episodes have had such a different tone from the previous six or so. The camping trip wasn’t one of the more serious parts anyway, and they used it here to sort of blast through Naoki’s Link in about a three minute span (not that I’m complaining in this case), but it was still just kind of popped up out of nowhere and was then immediately forgotten again. They also did the general recap and review there instead of retreating to Junes. 

I stil really don’t like how they’ve completely reduced Kanji to nothing but a joke character. I wasn’t a huge fan of him to begin with, but him screaming and making ridiculous faces the entire time just annoys me and makes him look like a refugee from some bad Jump show. I kind of hope they just quietly fade him into the background once Rise’s stuff starts and we never have to hear from him again if this is how they’re going to handle his character.

Preview:

Floppy hats.