Meta Mash – 22

While we take a rest from bishies this week, we are back with another dose of Joshiraku and the usual Uta Koi & Gundam Age.

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Uta Koi – 05 

This series keeps hitting extreme fanservice! Wait were are the sexy swim suits?!!
Uta Koi continues with the adventures of Komachi, Yashuhide and Narihira. The three have an inextricable chemistry that is buoyed by the poetry they composed. The series continues to expand its philosophical scope, by drawing together plot threads of episodes past. Slow burn storytelling like this can be trying if done incorrectly, but it’s already paying dividends. Piecing together the parts of their lives is rewarding, and brings considerable depth to the burgeoning cast. Both Narihira’s wanton nature and Komachi’s lofty ambitions get corralled in by Yasuhide’s realistic optimism. He acts as a anchor that grounds these larger than life characters.

In it’s fifth outing, the show tackles the idea of legacies. When your body is gone, what really remains? Is there anything left but our corpses? But our material legacies, such as children or wealth are finite and eventually disappear. The intellectual kind, however, live on forever such as feelings framed in verse. It is only the immaterial and transient that can truly live on forever and carry our names on its breath.

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Koi Choco – 04

Can you smell the awesome plot development!?
Surprisingly enough, KoiChoco is shaping up to be a promising school politics show. Rather then montaging or time skipping their way to the main draw, the Food Club is actually working, learning, and improving from the ground up. The tasks and discussions so far might seem trivial, but what has impressed me is that these trivial tasks are taking an even more trivial club and transforming them into a recognizable force. I’ve always enjoyed underdog stories, and the Food Club is most definitely an underdog. KoiChoco is a very silly show, but at the very least they’re not treating the viewer dumbly by inexplicably turning the club into a bunch of political geniuses. Instead, they’re going through even the most minute details, from cost concerns to awareness, and as a person who loves small details I have to say it’s making the election twice as exciting.

I shouldn’t forget to mention the other side of the show, drama! Last week seemed to be segueing into a Michiru focused episode, but in the end that was only a small taste of what we might get in the future. Instead, Aomi was the center of most of the conflict this week. Based off the over-exaggerated excitement a lot of the characters often show in the club I was worried the drama wouldn’t be much different, but it turns out it’s handled in a much more subtle way. Aomi’s story is nothing new, but compared to similar conflicts (in terms of light-hearted romcoms) I found this one to be much darker and scandalous, which I could attribute to the obvious social and economical inequity of the students. For a character I thought would dissolve into a clumsy distraction, I’m now seeing Aomi in a much different light, and I actually felt terrible watching that last scene play out. For now KoiChoco is hitting all the right notes for me, a stark contrast from last week which I found somewhat boring, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the election is handled. Until next time!~

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Gundam Age – 42

Even though Girad is a bad guy! I LOVE THE COLOR OF HER MACHINE!
It appears like Gundam AGE is near the end of their series and these last few episodes  so far have amazing plot and serious progression of certain characters like Flint, Kio and Asume all fighting the vegans in the same area? I know they always have that quote at the end of every episode about three generations coming together for something great. I swear I keep waiting for the Gundams to combine together and form a giant super Gundam! And now for the episode which is a mix of good old mecha on mecha fighting with people getting seriously owned, but it appears like every “important” pilot is rocking their own funnel system…hell even the new character Captain Girard Spriggan has her own set of mind controlled weapons that double as freaking DRILLS! I think I would rather get blasted by a laser versus getting drilled to death.

The second half revolves around the tragic backstory of Captain Girard Spriggan and why she decided to switch sides joining the Vegans fight against the federation? Well she was a test pilot of new prototype mobile suits for the federation, but she went by the name Reina Spriggan and she met another pilot named Girard. The two of them hit it off and were growing closer as a couple; however during a new test he got killed off and it left Reina injured in the process. After she recovered days later she discovered the truth about the failed test and the leaders didn’t really care if anyone died because it was for the good of the Federation. So that left Reina filled with anger because she went through hell and she jumped at the chance to join the Vegans for some good old fashion REVENGE! The oddest part about her story is she apparently took the other pilots name? Creating a new persona for herself as Captain Girad Spriggan…uh yeah…creepy much? Then again they were in loveeeee and all that extra mushy stuff, but I think their minds got fused somehow during that accident? I mean the test was screwing up their brainwaves and stuff I think something like that happened to Reina and Girad? Overall great stuff this week and I assume they are shooting for 52 episodes? I sure hope so.

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Joshiraku – 03

Kids, remember not to get your parties TOO WILD!
This week on Joshiraku, moe rapping and and explosive televisions! For anyone who skipped past this show either because of JC Staff or the “cute girls doing cute things” facade, I would suggest giving this show a try. In all honesty it’s one of the funniest shows I’ve seen this year, and although comedy is subjective in a lot of ways I genuinely believe many will enjoy Joshiraku, even if the jokes are occasionally hard to follow. The scenarios so far are typical for anime (visiting the shrine for example), but it’s the way these five very unusual and humorous personalities interact in such scenarios that makes Joshiraku such a joy to watch. Break-dance rakugo was easily my favorite scene this week, when Kigurumi went for that handstand I think I almost died from laughing so much. The Marii skit was also very well directed, all of the jokes felt so perfectly timed. The girls are so cruel to poor Marii. Anyway, for anyone who didn’t see his comment in Meta Mash 20, croos pointed out something funny about the character’s names. (So obvious, yet I didn’t realize it at all!)

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We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
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16 Responses to “Meta Mash – 22”

  1. JPNIgor says:

    Of this list I’m only watching KoiChoco and I like how it is until this episode 4. It is much less focused on the harem than one would think. Even though the abreviation says KoiChoco, the “Senkyo” part is really interesting and is not behind the other themes of the show.

    About the episode, they showed the reality of the “poor students” (I don’t remember the term that they used) and it’s not different of reality. I think that it will make a good plot for the elections, where it can work as a double-edged sword, since there is students who don’t like the poor ones.

    But it was funny when she asked to be smelled XD It’s not something that a normal girl would do.

    • Hawthorne says:

      Maybe KoiSenkyo would be more fitting! I agree though that it’s become a very interesting part of the show, one I look forward to seeing play out.

      That’s what I was thinking as well, the poor students will definitely take Oojima’s side. It’s like he’s building his own little election army! XD

      • JPNIgor says:

        When you said army, I just remembered of Dumbledore’s Army ._.

        • Hawthorne says:

          Perhaps the creepy former student council president is actually Voldemort in disguise. o__o

          • JPNIgor says:

            He sure is creepy. How comes he don’t open his eyes? Perhaps he don’t have it, like Voldemort don’t have his nose (just kidding).

      • Highway says:

        I don’t know how many will keep on Oojima’s side, because Satsuki seems to also have that angle covered. Now, that assumes that they can get past her exterior image and read her platform, like Oojima did.

        (btw, I think I have another comment caught in the filter from a couple days ago)

        • Hawthorne says:

          Wait, maybe I misunderstood, but doesn’t Satsuki want to eliminate all of the poor students from the school by removing the economic program? Again, maybe I didn’t see that right, but what it seemed like was that her intention was to stop the bullying by removing the cause.

          Hm, I’m not seeing it in the spam monster’s belly. Are you sure you submitted it? Apologies! :<

          • Highway says:

            It looked to me that Satsuki wanted to change the system from a work-for-tuition program to a scholarship program. That would theoretically put all students on equal footing, since now some wouldn’t have to work in whatever factory or do odd jobs around the school which makes them a target. But to be able to do that, she needs to save a lot more money from the school’s budget, and that’s her reason for getting rid of the various clubs.

            • Hawthorne says:

              Oh! I see now, I must have missed that scholarship part, or it slipped my mind.

              Wow, now I’m struggling to pick a side that I support. Satsuki’s plan is very reasonable, but at the same time I’m starting to like the Food Research Club. This show is doing a great job of not antagonizing either side!

            • Highway says:

              Yeah, the show has really done a good job, much like Rinne no Lagrange, of not making anyone out to be the stereotypical ‘bad guy’. Maybe in KoiSenkyo it’s the bullies, but they’re really just side walk-ons. Nobody cares who they are, just that they are bullies.

              I really like the way they’ve realistically portrayed the challenges that the Food Club has to face in participating in the election. There’s no magical montage, no ignoring facts of money and manpower, no easy good guy/bad guy dichotomy, and so far no skipping to the end of the process.

              In fact, the only thing I think KoiSenkyo is missing is… the romance (this is mostly what my eaten comment was about). We’ve seen a good amount of Satsuki and Aomi, we’ve even seen Hazuki putting the moves on Oojima, but Chisato, Mifuyu, and Michiru have been left back at the starting line. We’ve had more of Non-chan, Yume, and the monkey pair than of Chisato, Mifuyu, and Michiru combined. Maybe in Chisato and Mifuyu’s case this is trying to overcome the ‘childhood friend’ bias (although we know they always get friendzoned anyway), but Michiru’s still a complete mystery. I really hope the show gets moving on the “Koi” part of the name soon.

  2. †Croos† says:

    Let me share one joke for Joshiraku ep3. here

  3. BlackBriar says:

    Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate – 04: What I like about this is that the show uses actual political ideas instead of goofy notions to carry out their ambitions though the comedy is just as good. They really thought of possibilities and the consequences that come with them. I guess this is training for those who really want to become politicians in their future.

    The drama was well done, if not a little too well. Aomi’s situation is really tragic. It’s hard to see that happening to her since she’s so innocent. She’s a victim of typical school social status.

    • Hawthorne says:

      Exactly! I couldn’t have put it better. The show has a great way of meshing the comedy and politics together, but never allowing one to overtake the other.

      I feel bad for her, it’s hard not to. The school is like it’s own little civilization, and Aomi’s obviously at the bottom of that social ladder.

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