Apologies for the lateness of this entry. I finally thought that that I’d have some time to catch up to everything this week, but then I caught a cold, so at the moment I’m not really 100%. I do want to respond to the surprising amount of comments who found it strange that I didn’t have this ranked as my top series for my August Summary. It’s pretty similar to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica earlier this year: yes, this is undeniably awesome, and this episode was no exception. There just are series that I like better.

The reasons for that are always tricky, but I think that me having trouble to identify with Okabe’s angst has some part in it. There are a few things about this series that I just didn’t understand that have to do with that, and which have been bugging me for quire a while now. The first one I mentioned before: what about all of the time-lines that Okabe left behind, where Mayuri just dies. What happens to them? I find it a bit hard to believe that they just… disappear. The second thing I didn’t understand though: why is Mayuri fated to die? I mean, I can understand the first time she died: Moeka was ordered to do it, so she did it. Fits totally with her character. However, why does every single truck, train or vehicle hate Mayuri to the point where they just have to run her over? This series has this idea of “fate” that I just don’t understand, and for as far as I picked up, it just refuses to explain exactly why.

Still, the plot, and setting here still are top notch and amongst the best of the season. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the characters: Hyouge Mono, Natsume Yuujinchou, Tiger & Bunny, Penguin Drum, and quite possibly even No.6 all have a characterization that I consider to be better and more interesting, varied and dynamic. Does that make the cast of Steins;Gate bad? Hell no, this episode was awesome and an excellent climax for the romance between Okabe and Kurisu.

I do guess that my expectations were a bit off about these past two episodes, but instead I got two very character focused episode. First one about Mayuri, then one about Kurisu, all about Okabe trying to decide to which time-line to go, all assuming that Kurisu’s death will be unavoidable like Mayuri’s. I admit that I did expect something more fast-paced.

The thing is though, that if if the plot wasn’t this good, I wouldn’t be able to have all these criticisms. The dialogue was wonderful and the conclusion of this past two episode arc, while I do feel that it was a bit dragged out, was excellent. I also really have to give props to the excellent use of the ED and that final climax afterwards.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Yup, now that this arc has officially finished, I can say that it’s the best arc of Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou so far. The two extra episodes really did it, and allowed this series to really create a surprisingly interesting story with some very creative twists. Oh, and Narumi… he actually popped up as a very good leader; that’s not something that many of his counterparts can boast here.

So I have been rather busy lately, so I don’t have as much time as I’d like to really speculate what’s going on. Because of that the truth behind the mystery really came out of left field for me, and that made it all the more satisfying. I love how nearly all makes sense with the build-up that these past four episodes have put into it.

the only thing that I’m a bit iffy about is the Fourth’s reasons for keeping silent. I mean, I understand them, but Renji was willing to destroy everything he built up, which basically involved him putting the lives of everyone loyal to him on the line. Was that really worth it for a simple pride issue? The only thing I can think of is that he didn’t expect Renji to go as far as he did.

I really wonder: can the final four episodes top this? It al depends on what kind of material they’re gonna adapt. The thing is: I do not think that this will get a second season. The thing with JC Staff is that they in general are very loyal with their series… and yet Aoi Hana did not get a sequel (this has been confirmed: disappointing sales were the reasons). Based on recent years this was about the only series of theirs that really left with an open end and that did not get a sequel along the way… but then Uragiri and Yumekui Merry came around, both with disappointing sales. In the same way, I really can’t see Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou’s sales to turn out good. It does have the typical JC staff tropes, but it executes them in a completely different way from usual, to the point where there’s hardly any cliched moe left at this point. Even Alice’s antics are nothing like her counterparts (we can thank her excellent voice acting for that; I shiver at the thought of them putting Rie Kugimiya on the job again…). The problem is that this is just all speculation, of course. It’s gonna take years before we fully know whether this is true.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Out of all of the endings that are coming up next month, Steins;Gate is the one I look forward to the most, with on second place Hana-Saku Iroha. It’s really going to be something that could potentially make the entire series come together and boil down to a wonderful conclusion. But first, an episode entirely dedicated to the characters.

This episode didn’t really reveal any new information, but it really solidified the cast. The past between Okabe and Mayuri got fleshed out some more, same as Mayuri’s worries about Okabe, along with Kurisu. My favourite part of this episode was when she learned that she’d die if the cracking phase was completed.

The people who rewatched the first episode pretty much know what’s going to happen next, so the question of this episode wasn’t really “if Okabe is going to continue with the cracking”, but when he’ll do it. There’s also still the question of how he’ll be able to find a device that allows him to travel further back in time (what happened in the first episode can not be explained with just the thoughts-back-in-time transferer).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Now this is really more like what this series should be! A four episode arc that really allows the creator to take their time to flesh out everything, to build up intrigue and atmosphere. The mystery in this series really is excellent and really well written. If the next episode handles things right, I can see little in the way for this arc becoming the best arc so far.

What I really like about this series is that the mysteries aren’t just of “the butler did it”-variant, but there are tons of details about them that just make them more intricate. There are many layers that make solving them a lot more challenging than usual. Unlike Gosick, the gathering of intelligence makes sense and things flow logical into each other.

I also think that amongst the Gosick Trilogy, Alice is the best amongst her counterparts, or at least around the seven episode mark. Dalian of Dantalian no Shoka unfortunately turned out to be just annoying, but I even feel that she’s more dynamic than Victorique, who at the beginning was just a simple genius who once in a while showed a cute side. Alice’s dialogue is always interesting to read whenever the fanservice isn’t involved, and her bond with the male lead doesn’t just consist out of tsundere type insults. Instead they can just have normal conversations, and Alice’s insults are usually much more subtle than her counterparts.

Now, whether Alice will really turn out better than Victorique overall… that totally depends on her development of course. This episode gave a big hint that that’s coming somewhere, but the problem with this series is that it still feels like a 13-eepisode series, pretending to be a 24 one. This show is arc-based, so it won’t have an as big of an ending problem as No.6, but the current pacing makes sense for 24 episodes, but not for 13 of them. With one arc taking up a whopping four episodes, there’s hardly any time left for the rest of the content.

Oh, and the characters were actually playing the Colonists of Catan here. That’s a reference I never expected to see in an anime. :P
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Whoa. He realized. Okabe realized the thing that had been glooming in the background for ages and that we were all looking forward to: if he reverts back the first D-Mail, Kurisu will end up dying. I’m really looking forward to seeing Okabe prevent that, while at the same time preventing her from joining CERN and create the time-line where Mayuri dies.

I do wonder, though: how does Okabe keep travelling back in time? Sometimes he uses the D-Mail, yes, but at others the time just goes back, and while sending FB’s message in this episode he reverted back to Moeka’s apartment. Are we to assume that Okabe goes back to Kurisu immediately, wait for her to complete the brain travel device and travels back using that?

And yeah: FB’s identity: it all makes sense now, or at least the big question of how CERN knew so much details about their plans: they’re just a case of poor sound ceiling isolation. His motivation was very clear, and he was really a tragic character and I really liked how they tied Suzuha to him, without making her part of CERN’s plot. It really was a clever way to flesh out a villain who you don’t want to be known as a villain yet.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Now this is why I originally was looking forward to this series. This definitely was the best episode of this show since the first episode. This fully let the characters show their characters off, without divulging in annoying fanservice. This show already had the best dialogue of the series that premiered during the summer season, and this episode finally showed the heights you can reach with it.

I really like how natural this episode progressed. Little by little the past between the Fourth and the guy with that strange haircut became clear, and just about everything was well acted. The scenario was very creative, and I liked how Narumi also got to hang out with some of the side-characters for a bit. Alice’s part in it as a bystander was also top notch. Everything was just really well written. I’d go as far to say that the characterization was even better than during the first episode.

The weird part though, is that this doesn’t really have anything to do with Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou. Alice was just a side-character here. A role she fulfilled really well and all, but this series is acting like it’s got 24 episodes, while it actually has just 12. This is a mystery series, but instead of that this was much more a character study. A very well written character study and all, but I still believe that this show has a bit of an identity crisis.

Overall, Narumi does have the “Kamijou Touma”-syndrome of having very vague reasons to want to risk his life in order to help others. The people he meets thankfully are a lot interesting than with To Aru Majutsu no Index and all, but it still stands out especially with the actual mysteries of this series. This arc has managed to avoid that, though: with this, I can see why he wants to involve himself. He’s a guy who very easily makes friends and attaches himself to people who treat him with respect. I guess his family situation also has a lot to do with that.

The fact remains though that it remains a bit annoying that anime keep pulling the dead parents thing. It makes sense for things set in the past and all, in modern times it just happens way too often.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Holy crap! Talk about being completely different from the previous episodes! While those episodes were tragic and bitter-sweet, this one was just completely brutal. The writing in this was just brilliant, as things slowly became clear about what was going on with Moeka, and how any of Okabe’s attempts to change that were futile.

What’s bizarre is also the strange message that she sent. Because she sent a message to herself to buy a new phone, she received the message from a mysterious FB (who seems to be the mastermind behind everything) with the message of where the IBM 5100 was… and yet she just put it in a safe and didn’t hand it over to her subordinates. What’s going on here?

Right now this might be a bit premature to say this, but at this point Steins;Gate has pretty much the best plot of the year for me. Of course, the series hasn’t ended yet, and that FB could very well turn into a generic villain after her revelation, or a very forced alias for a main character (Visual novel readers: please don’t spoil anymore than you’ve already done), but the way the plot is weaved together, the plot twists are delivered, and how this series changes with every passing episode, there isn’t really any other plot to match up to it. Even Madoka Magica, Hyouge Mono and Tiger & Bunny are inferior to it with their storylines.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

The entire theme of this week seems to be doing things against expectations. After the previous episode I expected another mystery story where Alice had to solve another case. Instead, we got this strange mish-mash of slice of life, character development and… organizing the stage for a band. I’m not sure where that all came from, but it was definitely something different for this series.

The thing with this episode is that the characters got side-tracked A LOT, however the things it got side-tracked with are actually pretty unorthodox and creative. They range from being ordered by Alice to go to the zoo, picking up a new apron, doing the laundry, meeting this strange rock guy and again: promoting this indie band. It’s a pretty whimsical episode and whether it’s good or not entirely depends on the length of this show.

The thing is, that for a 13 episode series it’s just goofing off too much. For a 26 episode series however this was some great material to flesh out the characters. It’s all going to be a matter of waiting what it’s going to be.

Now, as for the JC Staff cliches, there was a good thing and a bad thing about this episode. The good thing is that the main character isn’t just randomly running into females all the time: it’s actually nicely balanced at this point with that rock guy. The bad thing however is that for some reason beyond me, the creators are trying to make Alice into a Shana-clone! Thank God she’s a lot more eloquent than her counterparts, but it’s really getting annoying to see that JC Staff are trying to shoehorn the same bloody character in every bloody show of theirs. I keep complaining about this, because it really feels like someone took a look at the script and changed Alice to act more like every other bloody tsundere, especially after how different she was in the first episode.
Rating: * (Good)

One thing that we’ve never seen in this series: what happens after a D-Mail gets sent in the time-line that Okarin leaves behind? Does Okarin just split in two, where one version leaps to a different time-line and the other stays behind? I mean, this episode created a lot of drama around Rukako having to change her gender back, and yet that version of her shouldn’t notice any change and instead she’s sending a consciousness of Okarin to a different time-line. Would the time-line in this episode just result in a full fledged romance between Okarin and Rukako?

In any case, Rukako requesting a date made this episode a bit sillier than I expected. It unfortunately lead to Daru showing once again how far removed he is from reality (by far the most annoying part of this series), and unfortunately I have to admit that the reason why the creators made Rukako fall in love with Okarin was a very flimsy one. The kind you expect from a bad harem show.

The reason for the IBM5100’s disappearance however, was very good. Here I thought some big conspiracy was behind it, and it turned out to be a mere accident. It was such a key point in the story that changed everything for the worse.

Beyond that, the part few episodes have also been terrific build-up by preparing for the inevitable attempt to retract Shining Finger’s D-Mail. She’s been completely absent from the past episodes. And after that, things should only get even more interesting. It’s hard to believe that there are only 6 episodes left, and yet I feel that that could be the perfect number for this show to close off satisfyingly.
Rating: * (Good)

The fourth episode is traditionally a place for either the first big climax of a series, or a silly episode meant to flesh out certain characters. This was the latte, in which the cast tries to sniff out an underwear thief.

And yeah, that could have been better, and it could have been worse. I mean, it’s obvious that a show like Kamisama Dolls is better at these kinds of scenes because it’s got an actually good comedy director, but I do like that this episode tried to be serious despite having such a silly premise. It did make the revelation of the true culprit strangely contrasting and funny.

I can understand the need for this kind of an episode: it’s good to break up the mood and show more of the characters. I’d just wish that JC-Staff would pick something other than weird fanservice. The underwear thief wasn’t really the bad part of this episode: it had this nice camp-ness. Instead the creators couldn’t refuse to bring Alice in and start making small boob jokes. That’s where it really turned into the bloody overused territory. Go for something different, will ya!?

But I digress: this was a very good episode for Min. At the end of the episode Alice delivered a very good twist to the story, and I did not suspect that the creators would bring in her father at this point. The story between the two of them is very good, down to earth and yet a bit silly, and it worked out really well., on top of asking a few more questions (why didn’t she recognize her own father).

What puzzles me though is why the creators picked Min of all people to give some real depth. Seriously, she’s the most fleshed out character at this point, having gotten two full episodes of attention. Of course, it would be great if she were just the tip of the iceberg, but that entirely depends on the length of this series. This show is one of the very few series this season of which it’s still a mystery of exactly how long it’s going to be, but Ideally you’d want 24 episodes for this thing. Especially considering how large the cast is, and how much time this episode just devoted to one of them.
Rating: * (Good)