Ajin Season 2 Episodes 7-9 Recap and Thoughts

A Triple Episode review for Ajin, and we begin with the conclusion of the mission to rescue Yuu Tosaki from Agents Almeida and Myers. The mission was pretty much done by the first half, with Izumi and Myers getting their rematch. As they clash with their Ajins, they see glimpses of each other's memories, realizing they both are kindred spirits as both are very loyal to their superiors. This is in spite of the fact that Almeida continues to verbally bully Myers. That was the last straw, however, and Myers takes a near face-turn and shoots Almeida dead before leaving Izumi and Yuu behind for places unknown.

This doesn't have a happy ending however, as rescuing Yuu costs them their opportunity to protect their intended target, leaving him dead by Sato's hands. Yuu is furious and acts like Almeida as he berates Izumi for not prioritizing the mission of proecting the Minister of Health first. The death of Almeida and the disappearance of Myers has also complicated things. As Yuu prepares for his deposition, Kei has to provide a cover story and putting all the blame on Sato, in hopes that the Americans focus their attacks on him instead.

Meanwhile, Sato executes his latest target, this is in spite of the minister already willing to give in to Sato's demands. He later shows the execution on the internet and announces one last target of his second wave along with the date and time. This was important as the last target is the head of an industry that provides weapons for the secretive Anti-Ajin Force, to which the Japanese Government has decided to announce its existence in response. Sato has also intentionally done this in order to use his secret weapon against the Anti-Ajin Force.

In the following two episodes, we see that the weapons the Anti-Ajin Force will be using against Sato and his group are the latest in Smart Weapon technology (making weapons more accurate and provide maximum damage using sophisticated computer mechanics). Seeing this was a clear flag that Sato's so-called secret weapon was an EMP bomb to disable the Smart Weapons.

As Kei's team prepares for their final chance of taking down Sato, there's also the matter of Yuu's strained relationship with Izumi. He can't stay mad at Izumi forever and eventually forgives her, though still acting like a jackass. Izumi wouldn't have it any other way.

Sato's plan goes into action and as expected, the EMP caught everyone by surprise. Kei and Sato finally meet face to face and a game of psychological warfare and tactics begins. Ultimately, however, Sato gains the upper hand as he is one step ahead of Kei. Not only was Sato successful in completing his second wave, but Kei has lost most of his human comrades, including bald guy Manabe, who is sort of a father figure to him. Kei's selfishness has also played a factor in his defeat as he is unable to control his Ajin. Worse, he and Ko are held captive by the Ajin Management Committee. In a surprising twist, Yuu betrays the Committee and rescues Kei and Ko, in effect making the remaining members of their team as fugitives.

One thing I noticed in the last three episodes is the gradual improvement of the animation. Recalling back to the first season, and by extension Polygon Pictures's previous work, Knights of Sidonia, the character designs and animation tend to be a bit blocky. With these three episodes, the designs are more defined and the animation much smoother and visually more appealing. I definifely enjoy this transition and I can expect something like this applied in the next season of Ajin, as well as for Knights of Sidonia.


Plot-wise, this is one of the most thrilling parts of Ajin I've seen and it borrows popular films and TV shows like Die Hard, and 24. Sato is quite the conniving and crafty villain, mainly due to his prolonged experience in combat and as an Ajin user. Yuu Tosaki's gradual concern for his fellow comrades is also a nice touch, although he hides it with his usual attitude.

I can't help but feel a bit of glee for Kei to suffer a bit as his attitude of being a sociopath comes to bite him hard. His loss to Sato also shows the very point he is emotionally vulnerable, something we haven't seen in Kei. Whether this brings out the humanity in him, or it resolves him to be more anti-social to a point he's like Lelouch from the Code Geass series remains to be seen.

This season is coming to a close with the next episode showing more tension, fights, and explosions. It's a wonder how Kei and his team still have any chance of defeating Satou with their dwindled number and resources. Whatever it is, something bigger is about to happen in the final episodes to come.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Diamond is Unbreakable Ep. 36 Thoughts

Calling it now. Yoshikage Kira, or by his current alias Kosaku Kawajiri, is the top ranked villain of the JoJo series. That is because he has done something no previous villain (or probably even ones after Diamond is Unbreakable) has ever done before - defeating the Joestars. It's shocking, I know, but not without context, which I will explain in this review.

First off, this week's episode of Diamond is Unbreakable gave more details as to the functionality of Killer Queen's third ability, "Bites The Dust". They are as follows:

- Anyone who asks Hayato about Yoshikage, or sees Killer Queen in Hayato, are all killed automatically by Bites The Dust.

- Bites The Dust appears to be immune against all Stand attacks, as featured when Josuke, Jotaro, Okuyasu, and Koichi, attack at once.

- After Bites The Dust claims its latest victim, the time loop is activated and things go back an hour and a half earlier.

- Whatever happens prior to the time loop are bound to happen no matter what direction Hayato takes.

- Bites The Dust will protect the carrier from any harm, even if the carrier chooses to commit suicide.

- Yoshikage will notice the time loop, but is unaware of the details surrounding it.

- Only Yoshikage can remove Bites The Dust from its carrier.

- This is merely an assumption, but it seems that Bites The Dust only gets inside non-Stand users as a carrier. It is unknown if Stand Users can be carriers as well.

We then knew Yoshikage's ultimate plan. By using Hayato and having him indirectly attack the Joestars, he will then remove Bites The Dust in the next time loop after the events occur, causing the fates of the Joestars to be permanent. This leaves very little options for Hayato as the only way he can prevent all of this from ever happening is by either killing Yoshikage himself, or somehow force him to remove Bites the Dust before the said events take place. Not an easy feat when you're a non-Stand User against one who is also a very cunning Serial Killer.

And that is what I like about Yoshikage Kira. He's the one you love to hate because of all the things he has done and gets away with it. Creator Hirohiko Araki has created a villain that even Hollywood would love to adapt in whatever stuff they are doing.

It's amazing how the fate of the Joestars, and the downfall of Yoshikage, rests firmly on Hayato's hands when everything is stacked against him as he is at such a disadvantage already. For a moment, it elevates the underdog trope we see in many works as Hayato makes one last attempt to stop Yoshikage and Bites The Dust once and for all, only to see it fail. Or is this another one of Araki's signature misdirections and Hayato came up with a backup plan.

We can only find out in the next episode, that is aptly named "Crazy Diamond is Unbreakable". I find it hard to believe the series is about to end very soon, as this has been quite an amazing ride. Diamond is Unbreakable is clearly a contender for Anime of The Year.

Adventure Time Islands Spoilers

Some of you may know this already, but the following are possible spoilers for the upcoming "Islands" mini-series that kicks off the 8th season of Adventure Time.

First off, here is the DVD cover for Islands scheduled to come out in January.

The rest are various scans from the Adventure Time Cookbook, which is canonically tied to the Islands mini-series and reveals a lot of what to expect.

 

 

So not only is the Islands mini-series feature Finn's mom, but we also get to learn her name - Minerva Campbell Mertens. All that's left now are the circumstances that led to Finn being abandoned, and if Agents of SHIELD's Ming Na Wen will continue to voice Finn's mom as she did in the Farmworld episodes.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Ep. 35 Thoughts

When we last saw Iron Blooded Orphans, Teiwaz wasn't happy that Tekkadan is teaming up with McGillis and offering Orga and his faction control of Mars once McGillis's campaign is complete. Jasley Donomikols, the second-in-command of Teiwaz who simply has zero love for Tekkadan at all, decides to do something about it by fighting fire with fire. That is to say, by providing Rustal information that McGillis is covertly heading to Mars to meet Orga regarding the excavated Mobile Armor from a few episodes ago.

At this point, Iron Blooded Orphans starts to expand with its lore and we get to see two parts of it. The first comes from Rustal's faction, who believes that McGillis is after the "Order of The Seven Stars", a title given to those who destroyed the Mobile Armors (MA for short) during the Calamity War which also determines the rank of power within the Seven Stars. I honestly don't get it - McGillis just goes to the wreckage of the Mobile Armor and shouts "I SLAYED THIS MOBILE ARMOR!" and Boom! He got the order already that makes him the leader among the Seven Stars? This gives me the impression that the Seven Stars' aristocracy is so far back is silly to think such would exist in an age of ultra-high tech and Mobile Suits. Whatever the case, this was their conclusion of McGillis's plot and Iok Kushan is more than eager to stop McGillis at all costs.

McGillis himself, however, has a far different reason for getting to the Mobile Armor himself. Turns out the Mobile Armors are self-automated and are so destructive, they took out a huge chunk of the human population, making the Mobile Armors responsible for the Calamity War. The Gundams were designed specifically to battle these Mobile Armors. An MA can also reactivate itself in the presense of Mobile Suits. Oh, and they have smaller MAs called 'Plumas' that can cause as much havoc.

This sounds like something taken out of a Metal Gear plot. And yet, I'm now even more curious as to what happened in the Calamity War. It seems as though Sunrise is possibly teasing a further expansion of Iron Blooded Orphan's lore with a prequel. If they are taking that route, I can declare IBO as no longer part of the Another Gundams/Alternate Universel line and become it's own era like the Universal Century and Cosmic Era lines. I would then call it the "IBO Line".

By the way, as McGillis is narrating the history of the Mobile Armors, he does so with a smile on his face. I dunno if that's just how the animators want to do it, or McGillis has something in mind with the Mobile Armors, probably use it as his own personal armada. This could place McGillis back in the villain role, until it was set aside by Iok's arrival, who got their idea all wrong and unknowingly awaken the MA. With no Mobile Suits in sight, this places McGillis and Tekkadan in a very dangerous situation.

There were some light-hearted moments in between. Chad still hasn't gotten over that Merribit and Old Man Nady are dating. Zack has somehow placed himself at an advantage over Shino after a night out, so much so that Shino is willing to do whatever Zack says so long as he doesn't squeel. First thing that came to my mind is Shino may have blurted out about Yamagi being in love with him. Hush meanwhile, acts like a little puppy as he follows Mikazuki whereever he goes, even to meeting with Kudelia at her main office, much to Mika's chagrin. Turns out Kudelia handles all the finances of the main Tekkadan crew, as they have no idea what to with it. This was the motivation for Kudelia to set up an education center for kids, but laments over having to gain financing through the war economy, and by extention the lives of Tekkadan, to achieve this.

Though a very minor detail, I have to commend Sunrise when it comes to using English words as they got the spelling and grammar right. Most Japanese anime when it comes to displaying English like signs and the others tend to be so misspelled if not grammatically correct. Also can't help but notice Atra's hairstyle makes her look like she had dog ears and appears to be just as tall, if not taller, than Mika himself.

The next episode will see the Mobile Armor and the Plumas in action, and likely will take a few episodes before this arc is resolved. I would think the Flauros won't be in action for another week or so, so we'll be seeing Barbatos and Gusion first take on the Mobile Armor. I'm happy the series so far is taking quite a steady upswing and just gets better.

So Who Wants a Superman Origin Story Retcon?

Mark Waid, an acclaimed Comic Book Writer famous for writing "Kingdom Come" for DC and "Onslaught" for Marvel, made a tweet on Nov. 29 saying he's in favor of retconning Superman's origin story. More specifically, in his childhood days growing up with the Kents.

And just in case that tweet gets deleted, here's the screenshot.

In context, Mark Waid is very vocal regarding the rhetoric and policies by US President-Elect Donald Trump, which may have influenced the tweet he made. He is currently working on a Black Widow solo comic series for Marvel. DC has no announcement of retconning Superman origins, so this idea from Waid is into the bin.

Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger (Space Team Kyuuranger) 1st Promo Image

I'll be honest, I pretty much moved on from the Super Sentai/Power Rangers franchise, because of the simple fact that it's been going on in like forever and is always aimed at the younger demographic. It'd be nice if the franchise does something to appeal to older viewers (Jetman, and by extension, Akibaranger comes to mind). Sadly, that ain't going to happen in this day and age, and Toei, which owns the Super Sentai franchise, wouldn't have it any other way since they make a lot of money every year with each installment.

That being said, hardcore fans of Super Sentai will enjoy this promo image of the next installment - Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger.

Apologies for the bad quality, but this is the only one available as of this writing.

According to JEFusion, Kyuuranger will feature a team of 9 Rangers (thus the name 'Kyuuranger' as the 'Kyuu' referring to the Japanese number '9'), each one based on a planetary constellation. I personally do not recall a Sentai series that had more than 6 members, so unless I'm mistaken, this is the largest Sentai team in a series ever made. I do dig the costume design, though.

Kyuuranger willl debut in 2017 following the conclusion of the currently running Zyuohger series.

EDIT: Here is another scan of the series (much clearer, this time) and a possible release date being February 1st.

Dragon Ball Super Ep. 69 Thoughts

We're now in the second week of stand alone/slice-of-life episodes of Dragon Ball Super, and this one is the anticipated 3rd (or was it 4th? I lost count) crossover between Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump.

Before I go into the episode, it's best for me to write a bit about Dr. Slump, as most of the Dragon Ball fanbase (especially those in the West), are not too familiar with it. Dr. Slump is an earlier work by Toriyama that became a major hit prior to writing Dragon Ball and is about the title character (real name Sembei Norimaki) who created an android named Arale to become his helper, which results into a series of misadventures for the little android. An anime adaption was made in the 80s, with a remake in the 90s. Arale has made a number of appearances throughout the Dragon Ball franchise, her first appearance was in the original series where she aids Goku in defeating Mercenary Tao (Tao Pai Pai).

It's worth noting that Dr. Slump, throughout its entire run, has always been a comedy series, whereas Dragon Ball started off as an adventure series before becoming an action series from Dragon Ball Z onwards. Dr. Slump also has its own set of lore completely separate from the Dragon Ball mythology. This is unlike Jaco The Galactic Patrolman, which is officially a spin-off of the Dragon Ball series as it's set in the same world.

In other words, because of Arale being made intentionally as a gag character, she has the advantage of beating down anyone in the Dragon Ball franchise for that simple reason.

Now that you got an idea about Dr. Slump. It makes watching this week's episode of Dragon Ball Super a little more sense. The episode has Dr. Slump beating Bulma at a Science Award for creating what Senbei calls a "Reality Making Machine Mk II", which is an anthropomorphic rice cooker who can materialize anything a person desires.

As Sembei celebrates his award, his old rival, Dr. Mashirito, who was killed back in the original manga, came back as a ghost to instill his revenge - by making a potion that increases Arale's playfulness by a hundred fold. This causes Arale to wreak havoc even to a point that she literally splits the Earth into two by simply knocking on the ground.

Vegeta is called in to defeat Arale, and much of this episode has Vegeta in the wrong end of the stick, as he gets pummeled quite humorously by Arale. This leaves Goku going Super Saiyan Blue against Arale, which cause worry as the two fighting would destroy Earth (even though Arale split it into two earlier). Taking cues from the final parts of the Kid Buu arc, Bulma uses a camera to address the worldwide audience to think of the most delicious food in the world at Senbei's invention to create a food that would get Beerus's attention. Beerus arrives and vaporizes Mashirito and is about to do the same towards Arale have it not for the food he ate being too much even for him to handle. The potion that affects Arale eventually wears off and everyone heads home, except for Vegeta, who is stuck in a branch somewhere.

I give this episode a 50/50 or 3 out of 5. On the one hand, it is more of a Dr. Slump episode than a Dragon Ball episode. As such, I was laughing a lot at the comedy and seeing poor Vegeta gets a mouthful of Arale's antics. My biggest disappointment is her fight with Goku, as other than a stalemate in Ki blasts, not much really happened. I really wanted to see Goku and Arale go all out, just to see how Arale can trump Goku at his full potential. Another disappointment is Beerus, who's only there briefly and almost instantaneously knocks away Arale and is on the verge of destroying her totally and easily had it not been for his diarrhea. I would have really preferred that Arale and Beerus get it on, for the simple reason this is more of a Dr. Slump episode. Sadly, but understandably, this was cut short due to the runtime.

It's a good episode and I enjoyed it for the laughs, but I really wish it was written and executed better. I highly doubt this episode will be featured in the Toyotaro manga as it is a stand-alone episode. In any event, it is good to see Arale again, and I encourage any Dragon Ball fan out there to check out Dr. Slump and see what placed Toriyama on the map.