Rail Wars 08-09
“I’d ride you..r train anytime…”
Two episodes of Rail Wars, but not a whole heck of a lot to talk about after last time.
Saved By Natural Disaster
This is the first close up shot of any person they put in this show…
So the beautiful weather that Naoto and all the girls went to the chapel in has somehow turned to pouring rain between episode 7 and 8. And not only that, it’s been raining enough that there’s a landslide blocking a track now. But let’s leave that for a while and see the fireworks inside the chapel as Noa, Haruka, and Aoi have it out over Naoto! Except there aren’t any. It becomes obvious really quickly who is the girl in charge of the situation, and despite Aoi’s bluster in other situations, and Haruka’s storm in on Naoto and Aoi, when faced with Noa both of them are majorly outclassed. But at least it’s not that Naoto’s head is particularly turned by Noa, it’s just that she has so much more self-confidence than the others she is easily able to beat back their feeble protestations at her moves on Naoto.
Yes, suddenly pouring rain, and really uncomfortable in this chapel
But let’s forget about all that, because it’s now pouring rain outside, and the whole crew needs to go help train passengers who are stranded after the sudden landslide. Harem stuff, you’re on the back burner, and now it’s time to give Naoto his chance to drive a train. Because one person is relying on the rail system for an organ that’s been donated. And D4 is expendable, er, available to try to get it there.
I’m on a Boat Train
This totally works…
Well, maybe it’s a train. More like a chibi rail car. With completely inadequate brakes. Never mind that they had to pedal it up and over the top of the hill (it’s a good thing they’ve got an Imaizumi on their team), so their initial velocity is almost nothing, they spend the whole time going waaaaay too fast down the hill, relying on thoroughly unrealistic ways to stay upright, like hiking, and when that fails just having Imaizumi bash his way against the wall. Maybe they should have deployed the resistive brake sooner, although you’d think that it would be able to at least slow down the train below pegging the meter. And they manage to fully wreck the little thing, although they do at least get the organ delivered.
This is the most smiley he’s been when this close to Aoi
And then it’s back to harem hijinks, kinda. At least now Mari officially puts her hat in the ring for Naoto, cause having 3 other girls, including one who randomly shoots at people, one who looked ready to behead Naoto, and another who’s an idol, after him isn’t enough to scare her off. Haruka did look like she was ready to choke a bitch when Mari said Noa was her rival, tho. “Heeheeheehee”
Haruka’s got a new theme song
I’m actually really disappointed they spent so much time in these two episodes on the really dumb chibi train mission. It was boring, repetitive, and pretty uninteresting throughout, only interrupting those things to be completely unrealistic. And it didn’t really serve any purpose, although one could say that “it brought them more together” blah blah blah. Anything could have done that, and it wouldn’t have needed 30 minutes of screen time to do it. It didn’t even show off Naoto’s train driving skills, because he basically just rode an out-of-control train car down the mountain, while the others got all cirque du soleil on it’s ass. Plus the huge discontinuity of it going from beautiful weather to pouring rain to set up the disaster, and this was probably the worst two-episode stretch of this series. I hope the finishing arc is significantly better.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 167 comments
If you watch the crunchyroll stream you get the uncensored version.
http://puu.sh/bfCBA.jpg
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’m curious as to what would actually be uncensored. This isn’t the kind of series that strikes me as NSFW.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, from the screen shoto, we have pantsu. Glorious pantsu.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I do love how Naoto’s not even in the shot, and probably not looking at her.
Wasted that flash on nothing.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
I haven’t watched episode 9 yet but Naoto does get more credit and he does little to deserve it. In that bomb defusing episode, I remember he was the one who got the leadership position or something like that when it was Aoi who defused(lol) the bomb. I’m guessing he was the one praised in this episode for managing to deliver that organ when Aoi and Iwaizumi did a lot of the work for the train.
Guess it’s the leader who gets recognized for things, not the grunts. It’s like that in history after all.
They should rename it to Harem Wars already.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Actually, there wasn’t much outright praise or reward. It was more that they just got through it.
And I don’t think it was particularly out of line for Naoto to get the deputy leadership position after the bomb defusing episode. He’s the one who has the clearest view of what D4’s mission actually is, and is able to keep that in mind. Much more than the others, even though that’s not the division he wants to be in.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A poor story arc for a series that’s barely adequate as it is. I don’t know if there are better railroad animes out there, but there are certainly better harem animes and ones that deliver better fan service. High School DxD for starters anyone?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There are much worse harems also, tho. Seireitsukai no Blade Dance for one just this season. For a first effort by Passione, it’s not completely unacceptable, especially since they’ve cleaned up a lot of the outright errors. But I don’t think they’re doing themselves any favors by pissing off the author.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
To say there’s a worse harem show this season doesn’t make this a good one.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It’s weird, tho. For whatever reason, I like this show, and want it to succeed. I want it to be better, and not just dismiss it as a terrible harem show. I enjoy and look forward to this show, whether it’s because I like the character design, I like the trains, I like the harem setup, or whatever. And if it doesn’t get better, then I will probably say at the end that I wish it had been better, and lament what could have been, rather than dismiss it as something that was just irredeemably ‘bad’.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I had hopes for it, too, when it started. By now I’ve lowered my expectations for it to the point where I can find an episode tolerable, but not really anything past that.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
Part of me is tempted to say that after this arc the only way this series can redeem itself is by completely dumping the bucket. Like make the final arc be about D4 saving the JNF from an alien invasion (led by a hot green-haired alien girl).
The abrupt shift in the weather was pathetically handled, but let’s get real, the harem antics in the church were in no way believable. Naoto was clearly surprised by Noa’s appearance, so there was no legitimate reason for the other two girls to be mad at him.
I did enjoy the transplant delivery, because I thought the show was going to have more great stuff like that – trains running out of control, and the team pitching in together to avert disaster. I’m not saying it wasn’t ridiculous the way they handled it, but I was glad to see it nonetheless.
Now bring on the aliens!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, it was pretty dumb (and I think I mentioned it last post) that Haruka accused Naoto of lying to her about Aoi, when he plainly said “If I hear from Sakurai, I’ll have her meet me at the chapel”. And on top of that, to have Noa say “You said we’d be alone” when Naoto didn’t even know he was meeting her there was also pretty dumb. Maybe you could say that Noa was stirring things up, but even then it’s pretty weaksauce to get mad at Naoto about that. Besides, there’s plenty of OTHER things to get mad at him about, like waltzing into the girls’ dressing room a few episodes ago.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The valiant effort to deliver the organ for the transplant helped with overlooking most of the unrealistic means of keeping the rail car under control. Because for those who are supposed to be all about safety regarding trains, they did some really risky stuff. Sticking half of your body from the outside to maintain balance… A blessing nothing showed up that could’ve taken their heads off.
Iwaizumi wins the award for best bro. If you need something potentially life threatening done as means to an end, count on him.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
In episode nine I was so thinking that something could have come along and…yeah, don’t something horrible. Glad to know I’m not the only morbid ghoul around…. 😛
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This was one of those things, when you give Fridge Logic as you’re watching it, you enjoy it less. Save that Logic for when you want a snack!
But yeah, after the fact this two-parter is held together with a string of prayers…