When the original season of Horimiya aired, I wasn’t convinced. I enjoyed the show a lot, but it is rated incredibly high and hailed as an absolutely amazing manga in the romance genre. To me it felt much more like a solid romance anime that had a good beginning, middle and end. So why is it rated so highly? That’s what I was trying to figure out when Horimiya Piece started airing. Horimiya Piece is to Horimiya what Treasure Chest of courage is to Ranking of Kings. It fills in all of the blanks in the story and explains why the original season felt fast. So let’s talk about it now that it’s all over.
High school in a nutshell.
Horimiya is a romance story about two young teenagers, Hori-san and Miyamura-kun. They both seem like very different people and each of them have a secret. Miyamura secretly has tattoos and piercings which is not allowed at all in their high school. On the other hand, Hori’s secret is that she… does chores around the house? I never understood why this was being mentioned as a secret or something to hide, but let’s just run with it.
okay Sengoku you’re not wrong, but I feel like you have some ulterior motives here buddy.
The story follows these two as they slowly become friends and then start dating. We also learn about all the people around them, their friends and family and their relationships. Both Hori and Miyamura are very likable characters. They don’t get stuck in silly misunderstandings for episodes at a time, things get resolved. I do kind of dislike that Miyamura changes out his more unique hairstyle for a generic one as the story goes on. It was kind of part of his charm that he looked a little bit different. #notliketheotherboys I suppose.
Me when someone tells me it’s Monday
In Horimiya Piece we go back in time and cover stories that didn’t get told during the first season. 13 episodes covered 17 volumes of manga, after all. Looking at it this way, I’m sure there’s more content left even after two seasons. But for the season there was more than enough content. We see the kids spend time outside of school, we learn more about the student council and we get a lot more windows into everyone’s interpersonal relationships. It’s got a very relaxed and comfy feel to it throughout the entire season and I found myself enjoying the episodes more and more as the season went on to the point that I finally decided to get the manga. Well, my mom gave me the first volume for my birthday this weekend (thanks mom) so now I have to buy the rest as well, right?
Cloverworks did a great job with this one!
There’s not a lot more to say about Horimiya. Even without the added season it’s already a good romance show and with these extra episodes to fill in the gaps it becomes much better. I would have liked a longer season (maybe like 39 episodes) that covers the entire thing at a slower pace to make it run better and I will report back here once I’ve read the manga to see if the thoughts I have about the pacing are true. For now, if you haven’t seen Horimiya yet, treat yourself right and give it a watch. If you like romance and slice of life you will not be disappointed. Thanks for reading!
If you’re still here then congratulations, you’re caught up on the entire story of Bungo Stray Dogs. Well, maybe not the entire story, since there are many novels and spin-offs, but the manga’s main story is done. Better yet, as far as I’m aware some of the things that happened in today’s episode have yet to be published in the manga. It’s been one hell of a ride and as much as I’ve enjoyed watching these episodes weekly, I think this will be my last time doing anime recaps for a little while. I want to focus more on different content, more in depth looks at certain moments in anime. I say that now, but first I need the energy to not forget to upload.
Heavy Stuff.
Anyway, let’s have a look at how this season resolves itself. Let’s start with Aya and Bram. I saw some people joke that Aya should just jump off the building with the table, but that’s too much bravery to expect from a ten year old. With absolutely no regard for her own safety she jumps off and pulls the sword loose from Bram, freeing all the vampires from Fukichi’s control. What an absolute badass. We resolve her story later in the episode, when she regains consciousness and Bram calls himself her knight. I wonder if we will get to see more of these two in the future. No one knows.
Aya with the winning move out of nowhere
Let’s quickly move to the other side of the world where some of the questions I still have are answered. Fyodor makes his way outside to where Nikolai is and gets in the helicopter. There he gets stabbed in the stomach by one of the vampires under Bram’s control. We get the explanation as to how things have really gone down. Fyodor communicated with the outside through some of the zombies provided by Bram and Fukichi. Dazai admits that the big difference between him and Fyodor is that Fyodor only plans for the people and things he can control but Dazai also plans for the fact that his friends will figure things out on their end. Case and point, Chuuya was never taken over by Bram, he was pretending all along. Not only that, but because he trusted that the vampire control could be undone, he didn’t act too quickly in the prison and let Ranpo help him out from the other side of the world. Fyodor then goes out in a fiery crash. This does answer the question about how someone like Chuuya got controlled so easily. That was always something that felt strange and the answer was that he was simply pretending. That makes a lot more sense.
Do we actually know who Fyodor is talking about here? Maybe I’m just forgetful, but I don’t remember if this is a former opponent of him that we as viewers know, or a future antagonist perhaps.
What still doesn’t quite make sense to me is that Fyodor’s plans to communicate with the outside world were that simple. We also don’t get to see his entire body, so I think he got out somehow. Someone on reddit theorized that the memory dump he did into Sigma is his ability to take over someone’s body or something like that. I hope not, I quite liked Sigma and really want him to somehow make it out of this mess. Our little existential crisis terrorist. Either way, Chuuya, Nikolai and Dazai make their way out of the prison. So much for the most guarded prison in the world, when three freaks can break out of it no problem. I suppose that just shows how dangerous these ability users really are.
I really missed this goober. Shiki from Eden’s Zero better step up his game because Chuuya is still my favorite gravity ability user.
With the vampires no longer under Fukichi’s control, Akutagawa returns to his senses and saves Aya from certain death. Now all that’s left to resolve is Fukichi himself.
Let’s for a moment forget how incredibly dangerous the man truly is and appreciate the heartfelt moment.
Speaking of Fukichi, he’s about to destroy the world, so the gang better hurry up with taking him out. It turns out Fukuzawa had a plan all along. There was a moment of weakness in Fukichi’s plans. When he stabs Fukuzawa, his sword is in his enemy, so he loses hold of it. With the sword taken from him, he cannot use his powerful time abilities. There’s one problem with this though, this means he never got the sword back at all, since he could have otherwise just turn back time. This is why I’m not a big fan of time traveling in fiction, a lot of the time it either doesn’t make sense or it’s too complicated for me to fully grasp all the rules. It’s just not really my thing. Either way, Fukichi loses control of the sword and his One Order, which Fukuzawa promptly uses to call off all of the attacks. The world is saved.
That’s going to be tough to recover from
But why would Fukichi do all this? Of course it’s for a good reason. It’s a little bit contrived, but that’s how these stories go. Fukichi got a message from 36 years in the future that the world would be destroyed in a massive war. His goal was to unify the world before we ever got to that point. To do so, we needed the destruction of the state. If there’s no state then there can be no state backed violence. To make a long story short, Fukichi was ACAB all along. Kind of. He wanted Fukuzawa to be completely in control of the armies of the world because Fukuzawa is the one person he unwaveringly trusts with that kind of power. We end the season with Teruko killing Fukichi when Fukuzawa wavers. The world is saved and Fukichi only had to sacrifice 500 lives to save 200 million lives. Not a bad trade-off, even though it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. Fukuzawa loses his childhood friend and is understandably heartbroken. But we end the season with everyone safe.
I think this nails the problem with a lot of idealistic worldviews. You can’t tolerate the intolerant and you cannot count on everyone to have integrity.
Well, that’s what it seemed like, at least. We get a quick taste of what is going on two hours later and things are not looking good. Someone very powerful is fighting against Atsushi and Akutagawa and we have no idea what is going on. Things are looking very dire though, but when have things looked good in Bungou Stray Dogs lately? Either way, this is a teaser for things to come and I personally cannot wait to see more. What happened to Fyodor? What will Fukuzawa do with the One Order? Will Sigma live? Who is this strange attacker and are they somehow related to Fyodor? Are there still things written into the page that we don’t know about? What is Dazai’s deal really? There’s so much more story to get through and I’m a bit sad that we’ll have to wait a long time, but on the bright side there is still more story being made, so all we need is patience. But that’s been me and my opinion, if you made it all the way to the end of this series drop a like or a comment to make my day. And as always, thanks for reading!
Kowalski, Analysis. Who in the hell is this guy. Is this the deer villain from God of Highschool? He looks like a cultist but he doesn’t look familiar in any way. I’m scared.
Today we’re talking about the penultimate episode of season 5. Apparently we’re so close to the manga now that this episode covered moments from a manga chapter released this month. I’m not a manga reader (I’ve only read the first volume and two of the light novels), so I don’t know how accurate that is, but I’m curious to see what the final episode will look like. People on reddit are saying that the author has given material to the animation studio that just hasn’t been released yet, but who knows if that’s right or not. Anyway, this episode was an absolute banger and things went from bad to worse, so let’s break it down. I’m sleep deprived and full of caffeine so if today’s post is a bit more chaotic than normal, you know why.
Poor Aya, such wise words for a 10 year old, coming from a place of pain and sadness.
There’s four storylines happening at the same time in this episode so let’s start with the one that has the least going on. Atsushi has been allowed to escape by Teruko and is on his way to find Bram, the vampiric sword. Bram and Aya were attacked by Akutagawa in the last episode and have been used as bait to lure Atsushi in, which works wonderfully. Atsushi tries to get through to Akutagawa but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work and he gets torn to shreds. There does seem to be some part of his old personality hidden – which is a trope I dislike in mind control stories – but it’s not enough to help Atsushi out. He ends the episode several limbs down and in real big trouble.
It’s a good thing the weretiger has such strong regeneration abilities because Atsushi sure needs them on a day-to-day basis
Above their fight, at the top of an air control tower, are Aya and Bram. Bram laments his inability to stop Fukichi. He doesn’t care about the state of the world, he just wants to sleep, but Aya has been nice to him so far and she even offered him an ipod. Her big plan is to pull out the sword so Fukuchi loses his mind control over the zombies. I’m presuming this does kill Bram – or Bra-chan – but he doesn’t seem particularly bothered about this prospect. We get a cute flashback to what is presumably Bram’s daughter and she looks like the spitting image of Aya. Again a trope I’m not a huge fan of, the sentiment could have worked if they just had similar personalities and didn’t also look like the same person. Either way, she unfortunately doesn’t manage to pull the sword out this episode, but I’m confident she’ll be able to do something before the season ends.
Ayaya?
The third story we have running here is Fukichi trying to get control of the One Order. He has taken care of the agency members in front of him and is more or less just waiting on the votes from the United Nations. They decide to give him the one order which is just insane. Let’s trust that the mass murdering sociopath will not use the artifact that controls the army to control the army. There’s no way a massive political organization would be this incompetent…. Oh wait no, that checks out. Fukichi unsurprisingly tells the entire army under his control to attack. It’s the end of the world.
Hello Fukuchi from Bungo Stray dogs. Hello Pride from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, in a prison in Europe, Sigma and Dazai are still trying to escape. Fyodor is safe but wounded in the central control room and Chuuya is off somewhere else. It’s not really explained how Chuuya is being controlled directly by Fyodor and not by Fukichi but maybe Fukichi can instruct individual zombies to listen to other people. Sigma and Dazai manage to get out of their room of doom, but not without serious injuries. Dazai saves Sigma from making lethal mistakes and then makes sure he gets out alive. Sigma repays this favor by going after Fyodor like he promised. He confronts Fyodor who pretends to have a split personality only to then turn around and stab Sigma. He offers Sigma the option to read his memories which he hesitantly accepts. The data coming from Fyodor’s mind is too much for him and he collapses on the floor. I wonder if the numbers coming into his brain mean that Fyodor is some sort of AI? I don’t know, maybe it’s just the way they show memories on screen, but graphics like that make me think of computer data and not a human’s memories. Fyodor then orders Chuuya to kill Dazai, which he does. Dazai laments that this is a bad way to go, being in pain, losing to Fyodor and getting killed by his old partner. With only one episode left, things look terrible for the Agency.
When it rains, it pours
I’m hoping we get the initial start of a comeback in the final episode. I’m assuming it’ll take a long time before we get more Bungo Stray Dogs anime, if even the manga isn’t at the point we’ll end this season, so I hope it’s a satisfying ending episode and not more suffering. I can’t imagine having to wait years to continue off from this moment, that would really kill the momentum. I hope things end up at a decent spot, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, thanks for reading, I’m going to take a nap!
Spice & Wolf was the very first light novel I ever bought. I bought this even before I ever bought a single manga volume or figure or anything related to anime and manga. The original Spice & Wolf anime was probably the first anime that really stuck with me. For a long time I considered it to be my favorite anime of all time. Obviously I got older and watched more anime. More new anime came out, and nowadays I’m not even convinced Spice & Wolf would be in my top 10. But it’ll always be an anime that has a special place in my heart.
The art for this season already looks fantastic. I can’t wait to see Spice & Wolf animated again in a modern jacket, I hope it looks as amazing as the artwork does!
As some of you might now, I have been reviewing some of the novels on my blog in the past two years. I read all the way up to volume 7 – side colors – before taking a break. The early volumes of Spice & Wolf aren’t as good as the anime. They’re fine, they’re a light read on an interesting subject and I definitely enjoyed reading them, but animation, music and voice acting definitely improved on the base product a lot. At its core, the early volumes feel very dry and predictable. It’s only by the time we get to Volume 8 that I started getting more invested in it. So with a reboot of the anime on the horizon, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Spice & Wolf one last time.
Volume 8 and Volume 9 of Spice & Wolf cover the Town of Strife arc. It’s a story that spends two novels on the same plot points and takes more time to develop its supporting cast than any of the previous volumes do. Not to mention the fact that some of the characters in this volume were already introduced before, making them more memorable. I can guarantee you that in a year I can still name Col, Eve and Lud Kieman by name, but I can’t name you anyone from the first several volumes. I remember the currency exchange guy that Lawrence was friends with early on, but I couldn’t tell you his name. We also finally get a world map in this volume, which does feel nice. Maybe not a world map per se, but at least a map of the region the story has taken place in so far.
The covers for each volume have Holo on them and rightfully so. She’s always stolen the show in this story although she does take a bit of a back seat in Town of Strife, where we really take some time to focus on Lawrence.
To quickly go over the plot of Town of Strife without going into spoilers; Holo, Lawrence and Col arrive in the coastal town of Kerube. There they are in hot pursuit of a rumor about wolf bones. They’re still trying to learn more about Holo’s hometown and possible friends. In this town, there’s something happening surrounding a different legendary creature. Holo and Lawrence get sucked into the chaos and have to navigate a web of intrigue in an attempt to not get into trouble and perhaps even make some money at the end of it. We get the return of Eve, who betrayed Lawrence before, and Col who was picked up on the way here is still traveling with the two.
The benefit of having two volumes for this story is that the author can take their time setting up the different plot points before resolving them in the second half. It gives the reader a bit more time to breathe and it makes it a much more pleasant story to read. With that in mind, I’m happy I was reminded of why I initially fell in love with this series so much. Adding to that, I’ve seen the promotional artwork for the upcoming reboot and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The soundtrack is being done by Kevin Penkin, who has done a fantastic job on the other shows he’s worked on that I’ve watched (Made in Abyss, Shield Hero, Tower of God). All things considered, I’m very excited for a reboot of this show, and it should be a comfy watch. I also still have two more unread novels on my shelf that I might check out in the future. I’ll let you guys know if they’re any good! Thanks for reading.
The unfortunate downside of Fukichi abandoning his search for Aya is that he can now aim his attention elsewhere. And that ‘elsewhere’ turns out to be the Detective Agency members. To be more specific, Tanizaki and Kunikida are in big trouble. But it seems like Atsushi is in even bigger trouble. He’s being held captive by Teruko and is about to be tortured for information. We’re starting off hot.
Kunikida has straight up not had a good time throughout this entire arc
We move to the long awaited meeting. Ranpo and Fukuzawa come face to face with Fukichi, who has Tanizaki and Kunikida hooked up to what is basically a discount saw trap. I’m guessing he wants them to play a little game or something. I don’t like these kinds of convoluted methods, but they’re really your only option for suspenseful storytelling if you’re not willing to outright kill important main characters. As much as I love Bungo Stray Dogs, one of its fatal flaws – and this is true for many for my favorite shonen – is that it’s unwilling to kill off any of the interesting characters. I can understand that desire, but it does take away the tension if you know everything is going to be alright in the end. Of course the good guys always win in these stories, but it’s more interesting if there’s a cost. I digress, we’re only three minutes in and I’ve written two whole paragraphs, I should just shut up and keep watching.
It’s pretty cool for the plan that Ranpo had to not go into effect at all since we already know of his powers. He just prevents it from the start.
It looks like Teruko is in a difficult position. She still works for her Captain, but she’s also aware that her captain is a terrorist. Regardless of her hesitation, this makes it very clear that she’s choosing to be a villain. I can understand her being torn at this moment, but she really is just aiding terrorists for no reason other than she’s a fan of the terrorist.
I was reading SKip & Loafer yesterday and they used the phrase “The screw is scarily loose”. I think that works for Teruko too.
Fukichi and Fukuzawa clash and it’s a brutal clash. They both take damage, but Fukuzawa definitely comes out worse, being stabbed in the stomach by a dagger. And here we finally get the long awaited flashback. The two have known each other since they were very long. More than 20 years, from what Fukuzawa has said. They trained at the same dojo and after years of training they were still friends. Where Fukichi agreed to go to the battlefield, Fukuzawa didn’t go. That’s where the two ended up splitting. And of course, that’s where his PTSD turned him into a demon.
This is where it all started for these two
Atsushi has been told the Decay of Angels true goal, but we as viewers haven’t yet. I’m guessing he wants to kill everyone involved with the government or something. It’s Fukuzawa’s turn to guess, I’m betting his guess will be better than mine. Good thing I’m not a betting man, since Fukuzawa was also wrong. Atsushi gets let go by Teruko and we go back to the prison escape duo. Remember how Chuuya and Fyodor drowned in the last episode? I wonder when we’re going to find out what actually happened to them. Meanwhile Sigma still wonders what he’s done wrong to get here. I still really like Sigma and his struggle as a person. He comes from nothing and has been abandoned again and again, only to hear how Dazai really cares. I really hope he comes out of this well.
This is incredibly on brand for Dazai
Fyodor and Chuuya have made their way to the time stopping gifted and brutally kill her. This seems to have been outside of Dazai’s plans, since he’s surprised and he truly seemed to plan to use Sigma to read Fyodor’s memories. After the two of them played idiot for so many episodes it’s easy to forget just how much of a complete sociopath Fyodor is. Even though Fukichi is the leader of the Decay of Angels, I think Fyodor is probably the scarier one when it comes to the way they think. I wonder if he’ll somehow get out of all this trouble alive at the end of it all. He did at least predict the flood and had Chuuya bend the wall. And now at the end of episode 9, Dazai and Sigma are in the same predicament that Chuuya and Fyodor were in at the end of the previous episode.
I say that no one dies in this, but there are exceptions of course.
I’m curious if they’re going to finish the story in the next three episodes, and how they’ll do so. I don’t believe the manga is far ahead of where the anime is either, but I say that having not read it. There’s so many factors and things running around. What happened to Aya? Someone must have saved her, but who? Is Fukuzawa going to die? And lastly, what sort of time bending trick are they going to pull off to win? Dazai wanting information from Fyodor’s corpse about his future plans makes me think he expected Fyodor to die here but be alive again later. It’s all too complicated for me to predict, but I’m still enjoying myself and I suppose that’s all that is really important. Let me know if you have any theories about how this all will conclude (Of course no input if you’ve read the manga and actually know what will happen.) As usual though, thanks for reading!
Almost unsurprisingly after the hints we got last week, Teruko is definitely still an enemy. After Atsushi comes across an inconsistency in her story, he gets turned into a child by her powers. That’s right, we’re jumping straight into it. The opening plays early this week as well, I hope that’s a sign that there’s a lot to come.
remember, all cops are bastards
Unfortunately for Tetchou, he accidentally activates Kenji’s PTSD and promptly gets sent straight through the exit terminal, no baggage pick-up required. It’s easy to forget that pretty much everyone in the agency is an absolute monster. We still haven’t even seen the boss go all out today. But Kenji goes crazy when he’s angry and has incredible powers. I kind of like Tetchou though. Luckily no one ever really dies in these stories (sorry Oda Sakunosuke). This fight ends in a draw, with both of them being knocked out. Unfortunately this doesn’t better Atsushi’s situation.
One Rage Farmer
We swap to the other side of the world where Dazai and Sigma are still trying to make their way out of the prison. Meanwhile Fyodor and Chuuya are also making their way to the prison. Calling sigma sharp for a three year old is really funny. He technically is three years old I suppose, but he was born an adult. It seems right now like Dazai has the upper hand over Fyodor.
I’ve missed Dazai’s wit, hopefully we get more action from him in the next few episodes
Dazai and Ango have been working with a gifted person who can stop time around her. With the gifted in question being locked up, there’s no benefit to her normally using her ability, since she can’t move anyway, and no one else will even know when the ability has been used. But there is one person whose ability doesn’t work. Of course, that’s Dazai. He’s been using these mornings to make preparations. And the woman gets a plea deal from Ango when all is said and done. Dazai uses his heartbeat to send messages to Ango, and Ango uses the duration and frequency of these time stops to communicate with Dazai. It makes sense in an over the top, bungo stray dogs logic, but it’s still very out there. Dazai and Sigman now have access to the entire control room while Fyodor and Chuuya are stuck and will soon start drowning. If this is really all there is to Fyodor’s plans that would be a little bit disappointing, but they have one-upped each other a million times already in this season, so who knows.
All that remains of Chuuya is the hat.
It would be kind of funny if Dazai has had the complete upper hand over Fyodor from the very start. These are Aizen levels of planning except it doesn’t end in massive failure. There’s also a fun reminder that we still don’t know what Fyodor’s special ability is. Planning to kill Chuuya off in the meantime is kind of hardcore. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.
Unfortunately I don’t think that ended up happening
Aya is still on the run with Bram and she’s decided to go through the employee exit while hiding in a truck. It’s a good plan but with the amount of crazy powers in play I doubt it will work out as she’s planned. The holy sword that’s stuck into Bram was once a gifted who got turned into metal when he died. So the ability is still in the sword. That’s how the sword got its power. And like clockwork, Akutagawa shows up to deal with Aya and take Bram back. This is looking very bad. Akutagawa is still a mindless zombie here. I do have some hope that she will take hold of the sword and Bram will work for her instead of Fukuchi. Probably not though, that might be too much to ask. We are getting closer and closer to a conclusion with only a handful of episodes left. I’m curious where this arc will take us, and after that I’ll probably have to get into the manga, seeing as it might be a while before we get more anime. But that’s a worry for another day. Thanks for reading!
It’s Bungo Stray Dogs day. I had my first day of teaching at a new job yesterday and one of my students asked about One Piece (I showed off my bookshelves in some pictures like a proper nerd) and I answered her question of “do you watch One Piece” with “Yes, and I have been watching it since before you were born.” I can use a distraction so my bones don’t continue evaporating. I also read an interview with the author about his process and there seems to be a lot more cool stuff coming up. Let’s get started on this week’s episode though.
This is definitely the face and demeanor of a sane person.
We’re starting off with a far too lengthy explanation of the prison’s defenses. I’m sure the two have some sort of weird trick to circumvent all of it. Either way, this prison sounds like the most unbelievable thing in this universe so far, and that’s a universe that had a massive flying casino. I’m staunchly opposed to the death penalty in our world, but in a world like Bungo Stray Dogs I would probably be in favor of just killing the prisoners instead of wasting the GDP of several planets on imprisoning them. Unfortunately, Dazai, Nikolai and Fyodor are all completely insane. Poor Sigma. And things don’t get better from here on out. Instead of one of the four items provided in Nikolai’s twisted escape room, he picks Sigma as his item. I suppose he was technically created through the book, so is he an item? Let’s not look at it too deeply, this isn’t a trolley problem, it’s insane detectives doing even more insane things. I love Bungo with all my heart, but I have to remember to leave my common sense at the door before I come in. Let’s roll the opening credits!
I’m sorry to hear that.
Speaking of remembering things. For some reason I thought Aya was a young woman in her late teens. Anime’s warped display of age has definitely changed the way I see characters. Turns out she’s only 10 years old. Why she was alone in an airport picking up a friend at that age in a world as dangerous as Bungo’s is beyond me, but it makes her dealings with Bram all the more impressive. She quickly gets circled by vampires. She’s also aware of how important Bra-chan is. Luckily the Armed Detective Agency is there to save the day.
It’s Ichimaru Gin!
Let’s check in on Dazai and Sigma, it turns out they’re still insane. At least Dazai is. Sigma is just trying to find his place in the world and the word home resonates with him extremely strongly. I hope he gets out of this, terrorist or not, he was abandoned and used by everyone in his life. Now that he’s in charge of his own destiny he’s finally shaping up to be a more decent person. I wonder if he will end up joining the Agency. Also, I’m much more confident now that I was right! It has to be Chuuya we saw last week. Chuuya being here would be an incredible game changer. I got what I wished for, in a sense. It’s Chuuya alright, but he’s been turned into a vampire. That’s bad. I repeat. That’s bad. I am still incredibly curious about what the timeline looks like. Is Aya meeting up with Kenji here while Dazai is breaking out of prison, or is Dazai about to show up at the airport.
I doubt this, but I also don’t think Ranpo would let her meet him without a plan, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next week.
Uh oh. It’s one of the two remaining Hunting Dogs, or Wolves as Kenji refers to them. Atsushi joins the fray and budget Tanya Degurecheff tricks him into thinking she’s Aya. I love how Bram instantly has respect for Kenji because he’s a farmer. Real recognize real. Atsushi was trying to tell Teruko that Tachihara had uncovered Fukichi’s schemes. Teruko wants to meet up with Ranpo, which is understandable. As much as the Hunting Dogs are terribly hungry for blood, they have to start listening to reason at some point, right? They can’t just blindly follow their leader while everyone around them is telling them they’re wrong. The episode ends with Kenji getting defeated. I’m almost hesitant to predict this, since I’m more often wrong than not about this show, but I want to say this was an illusion created by Tanizaki’s powers. He’s not been seen in action for a while, after all. Either way, things are ramping up on all fronts. I wonder what Dazai’s plan is to escape prison and I wonder if the Hunting Dogs are going to be convinced soon. Either way, it’s been a great episode once again and I can’t wait to see next week’s. Thanks for reading!
I’m inserting this image after finishing the episode and the rest of the post, and I’m thinking about what the timeline is. I’m starting to wonder if this is happening at the same time as the Agency dealing with Bram. Perhaps Bram will undo his powers somehow and Chuuya will flip sides while they’re still in the prison. That or there’s some other plan going on in Dazai’s head.
Fukichi starts off strong by assuming Ranpo might be behind the intruder or the seeming intruder he’s dealing with. It doesn’t help that he can’t seem to find her, making him more paranoid about what he saw. A lot of his plan hinges on getting a hold of both Bram and One Order successfully. Meanwhile Ranpo is embracing his inner terrorist. It really is more fun to root for those trying to demolish the standard quo than those trying to defend it. I’m learning the correct lessons from anime for sure. And just like Ranpo predicts, setting off explosions sends the Europeans back the way they came, to make sure the One Order doesn’t get stolen.
Besides this duo and Kunikida, we don’t get shown the other members. I wonder where they are right now.
In the meantime, Aya has gotten herself from a rock to a hard place. She did indeed go into the coffin as I expected, it made the most sense narratively. Unfortunately for her, the coffin is not empty and she is now face to face – depending on how she’s sitting in the coffin – with an undead sword scourge. Poor woman.
Here’s Brammy!
We go from scene to scene rapidly here as Ranpo thinks about the one person capable of outmatching his intellect, who is currently in a European prison. We jump back to the plane where both its pilots are dying from what seems to be poison. Whatever it is, it looks incredibly painful and the plane is about to go crashing into the airport. Fukichi’s remaining lackeys slice the airplane to bits while Kunikida looks on. No regards for the pilots who should still be their allies at this point. The One Order is now in Fukichi’s hands. Ranpo does seem to have a clue into why the box with One Order in it can’t be opened and it seems like Dazai is responsible for it. I’m going to be honest, if there is a character with this kind of power in the story, I have forgotten about them. I am likely buying the manga after this season ends and then I’ll see if there’s stuff I missed throughout the years. It’s been a long time since this anime originally started after all. Anyway, roll the opening credits!
Fyodor has been incredibly effective against the Agency.
Ango has become so incredibly important throughout this arc. He has now convinced the UN that giving the One Order to Fukichi before the vampire scourge starts its attack is an unnecessary risk. Ango lies for the sake of his old friend Dazai and pretends that chief Taneda is already awake again. That’s a lot of risks he’s willing to take for his friend. Good man. Despite Ango’s amazing save, the box is still in Fukichi’s hands. Speaking of Dazai though, I think we’re finally going to see him released here. Someone is breaking into the prison quite violently and if I were a betting man (which I’m not, I’m vehemently anti-gambling) I would bet all my money on it being Chuuya from the Port Mafia. It’s a good thing I’m not a better man, because it’s not Nakahara Chuuya who shows up, but instead it’s Nikolai and Sigma.
You thought Chuuya would break you out but it was me, Dio! I mean Nikolai.
Nikolai is exhausting and the anime director knows this, so after a short dose of high energy sociopaths we go back to the low energy vampire. I said this last week, but Aya really has nerves of steel. She goes from certain death to making friends with an immortal vampiric sword. This is a dangerous game to play as Fukichi is rapidly and angrily making his way back to where Bram is. The look on his face when realizes that Bram has been stolen is worth a fortune. He immediately goes to set out and retrieve his trump card again, I hope Aya has a plan.
One braincell.
Sigma is meanwhile pondering the kind of company he finds himself in. Every other person there is a sociopath and quite frankly could serve as a textbook example of pure insanity. Nikolai brings out the poison that dealt with the European soldiers transporting One Order. This means one of two things to me. One, this scene is happening after Nikolai poisoned the soldiers and fled to Europe. Two, Nikolai has already left the prison with whomever is making it out of this scene, and then used the poison on the European soldiers afterwards. There’s other options, and it could just be a case of weird timelines, but we’ll find out eventually.
Don’t waste your time or energy on them Sigma, they’re far beyond saving.
Aya is trying to figure out how to get Bram on her side. He seems to just want to sleep and have chill vibes, besides that he doesn’t really care all that much about Fukichi’s plan. Fukichi is the one who turned him into this sorry state to begin with, after all. But for him to help Aya out, he needs her to give him a legendary artifact. It’s… It’s a radio. He just wants to listen to some Backstreet Boys while he’s sleeping, that’s all. And who can really blame him for this. I love how Aya playing a song from her phone sends us into the ending theme. We finally see things shift in a more winnable scenario for the Agency. Aya has unknowingly been the hero of the story so far. But even with all of this, Fukichi still has his extremely powerful body and his time travel abilities. He’s still a force to be reckoned with. I am excited for this to finally turn around and come crashing down on the man, he’s an irredeemable evil man that deserves every bad thing that will happen to him in the second half of this season. At least I’m assuming bad things will happen to him. Thanks for reading!
Welcome back to your weekly dose of superpowered detectives outsmarting each other. After a very bumpy ride, we find ourselves back at the Armed Detective’s main office. Well, not quite. Poe has made a copy of the office inside a novel so they can hold a meeting. It turns out Ranpo got out safely and Yosano has healed Kunikida’s missing arms. This did remind me of something from last week’s episode that feels like an oversight on Fukuchi’s part. Maybe he knows more than we do, but him not killing Tachihara outright, instead only making him useless in battle, will likely result in Yosano healing him, will it not? It’s clear to him at this point that the agency and the port mafia are working together, so he should see this coming. I do hope Tachihara isn’t dead, but he’s one of several red headed young men that I confuse from time to time, so taking him out of the story might be better for my slow brain. Anyway, what’s this meeting all about then?
Fukuchi stole this as part of his plan back in the day, but this sets up the possibility of the other nine tragedies showing up later in this story. I wonder how long this story will keep going for, and when I should bite the bullet and start reading it.
Ranpo reveals that although the vampiric scourge is doing the rounds, if the Europeans were to fight back, the problem would eventually be solved. There is more to this plan though as their goal seems to be putting their hands on an artifact called The One Order. This supposedly causes soldiers to follow orders, it’s mind control. I like the conversation they had about how many bullets it takes to kill a soldier on the battlefield. I have my doubts about the accuracy of the numbers, but some mild googling didn’t help much. I just saw people get scolded for asking insensitive questions. You’re right, we should start banning knowledge and perhaps even burn it, that won’t end poorly at all. Depressing real world opinions aside, it makes sense to me that many soldiers would shoot at random spots to avoid becoming murderers. I’m sure there’s arguments to be made that fighting a war can be needed (if you’re the defending party, or when they pushed back the nazi’s in world war II, but I can also imagine there are many soldiers fighting in wars that don’t want to hurt people, they’re there to protect. It’s complicated, and I like to think there’s good people in every place. As Ranpo points out though, this is an artifact that can backfire pretty quickly. He also points out how cliche and lame the Decay of Angels’ true goal is (I don’t mind some self-awareness from an author). World Domination sounds awfully exhausting. As much as I like to think I’d be able to make the world a better place, I am not smart enough to actually do so. I think anyone who truly believes they could be the one ruler of mankind and make a good and just world is thinking too highly of themselves and that’s dangerous.
This girl has to be the dumbest person on the squad. She was present for so much of what happened on the airship and went straight back into line after going back to the ground. At least Tachihara was smart enough to learn.
We move on to the actual airport where the Hunting Dogs are gathering. They’re aware of the One Order being shipped to Fukichi. The fact that they’re not questioning the morality of such a weapon, especially after they’ve all seen strange actions from the organizations involved in this whole ordeal, is pretty damning. Something, something, one bad apple spoils the bunch and now they’re all bad apples. Except Tachihara, but he’s struggling right now. Man, these hunting dogs are such unlikeable douchebags. They make the Mafia seem like the good guys. I hope Jouno gets beaten to pulp before this season is over. Please make it so.
Stranger danger!
Okay so hear me out, we get to the next scene and I’m now thinking he’s like a double agent pretending to be evil so that Fukichi will trust him and he can betray Fukichi. With how many bad hands the Agency has been dealt, it’s time for Fukichi to experience some bad days too, right? I’m probably wrong on this, I’m often wrong on my predictions in this show, but that’s what makes it fun. Either way, he is let in on the plan and is shown where Bram Stoker is. I’m really hoping this backfires on Fukichi. I think the way for his character to lose is by being overconfident. I can’t see the man losing in any other way. Bram needing protection is a pretty obvious weakness. I think Fukichi and Fyodor shouldn’t have abandoned Nikolai and Sigma in the way they did. They probably would have ended up being liabilities either way, but this way Fukichi wouldn’t have had to bring in Jouno on the plan. Speaking of, I wonder if Nikolai is going to show up here, or perhaps at the prison where Fyodor and Dazai are locked up in. We haven’t seen those two in a while, so it could be the latter.
Who’s a good boy!
Man, Fukichi really is completely irredeemable. He even made me like Jouno only two paragraphs after wanting him to suffer. The goal of this show is making me write recaps that reveal how dumb I am at figuring out detective stories, I’m certain of it. But I’m having far too much fun with the ridiculous twists and turns this story keeps throwing at us. Let’s play a game of “where is Aya hiding.” My money is on the coffin. Man, this situation just keeps increasing in tension, I can’t wait for it all to come to a conclusion in another six or seven episodes. Thanks for reading.
The nerves of steel this woman has are impressive. Persevering when being that scared is crazy!
In winter 2017, Kyoto Animation adapted Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid) into an anime. The first season had a runtime of 13 episodes and there was a sequel made in 2021, which had 12 episodes. If you’re here and you’ve never seen the anime then let me start off by recommending it. As a matter of fact, I think it’s one of the better slice of life anime out there. And today I would like to take a moment to talk about why this show works as well as it does. To do so, I will be talking about episodes 9 and 12 of the second season, and why these two episodes in particular highlight what makes this show special. So if you don’t mind some spoilers – This is a slice of life anime, so spoilers don’t hurt it too much – join me in diving into this wonderful show.
The ancient dragon Fafnir practicing a dance routine for an idol show with his friend just brings me joy.
To give a quick summary of the story for those of you who are unfamiliar with it and curious, Kobayashi is an office worker who gets drunk one night and meets a dragon. It turns out dragons exist in another world and some have come to the world of humans. This dragon immediately falls for Kobayashi and then joins her household as a Dragon Maid, donning a humanoid appearance. Other dragons show up throughout the series and they appear at various points in Kobayashi’s previously boring life. By this point in season 2, we’re familiar with half a dozen dragons, some of which have some outstanding beef. One of these longstanding arguments, between Elma and Tohru, comes to a boiling point in the second half of episode 9.
This clash is violent and an absolute spectacle. If you haven’t seen the show and have no plans to watch it, I urge you to watch just this scene. I’ll link to a clip down below.
This fight is a marvel of animation, reminding us all that Kyoto Animation may prefer cutesy slice of life shows but has no problem creating something much more violent. Two dragons clashing levels an area in a matter of moments. They are still dragons after all, and their presence in our world is highly dangerous. I’m not going to go into their whole story more than this, watch the show if you want to know their history, but these two beating the crap out of each other while the environment goes flying is peak insanity.
There’s the real problem. Tohru changed and Elma is processing how she feels about those changes.
After their clash ends, things go back to normal and we have only three episodes left of this season. That brings me to episode 12 titled: Life is Constant Change (But It’s Okay To Stop And Appreciate It). This episode features a summer festival and the cast is attending. Summer festivals in anime always look like such fun, which makes me all the more sad that I had so much anxiety growing up. I remember my parents taking me to similar events on holiday and I would just be crying and wanting to go home. Missed opportunities. The episode starts off filled with melancholy. Both Tohru and Kobayashi think back to how they met and in Tohru’s case what got her to this world. The episode slowly meanders through the day of the festival until we reach the main event. It’s also interesting to hear the dragons talk about the festivals from their old world. They’re both different and similar. Everyone splits off into their own little groups and enjoys the festival separately. They’re sitting on a bench eating festival food while talking about being ancient gods and dragons. It’s the stark contrast between the two that makes this show so interesting.
Me when I’m at a party and everyone else is much more energetic.
Covered in lights that seem to blend in with the night’s sky the two main characters then walk through the festival together. When we’re further away from the characters, the voices sound further away. When the conversation gets serious the music fades out, and only some light chimes accompany talks of life as being different people. Human and dragon. Accepting yourself for who you are. Punctuated by beautiful fireworks we watch on as everyone is enjoying the festival. There is something incredibly serene about this episode that you can only really experience by watching it. And that’s what makes this show so great. It’s got insane episodes with dragons destroying entire regions and all sorts of strange escapades. And then we have people walking through a normal festival. It goes from utter insanity to the most mundane things in life in the blink of an eye. And that contrast is what makes each of the two extremes so satisfying to watch. And we end this season not with a bang, but with a nice relaxing flower viewing. As if to say that epic moments are not needed to write a good story. Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has been a pleasant ride from start to finish. It seems to know exactly what it’s good at and makes sure to polish that exact thing. It’s not perfect, I personally don’t care much for episodes focused on Kanna and her school friend, but very few shows have only good episodes. Whenever the story focuses on Kobayashi, Tohru, Elma or the broader cast as a whole, the show is always a joy to watch, outside of the episodes highlighted as well.
Episode 12 of Season 2 is probably one of the most comfortable things I’ve watched in a decade and some. The music, the backgrounds, the artstyle, it alls just fits together into a perfect sandwich of pure bliss.
I’ve gone on about these episodes for a little while now, but rewatching them has made me realize that my initial assessment still stands. This show works because it mixes the mundane and the insane just right. If you want to treat yourself, give this beautiful slice of life show about maids and dragons a watch. And as usual, thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you liked this show.
