Zone Anime OST

It's been two weeks since the last World Trigger, and between this and Sailor Moon Crystal that seems to be the sweet spot for making me forget everything that happened previously in a show. To recap: mysterious invaders called Neighbors are invading Mikado City, and an organization called Border fights them off. Bordertrainetransfer student who claims to be a Neighbor and has some serious ass-kicking powers. They fight off a few Neighbors, and now Border's shown up and is getting suspicious.

This episode is about Ai Kitora, a neighbor-hunting prodigy and local celebrity who's jealous of Osamu's sudden rise to prominence. As both the youngest and one of the strongest Border agents, Kitora is used to being on top. She wants to seem above it all, but doesn't take competition lightly either. She's in favor of court-martialing Osamu for using his trigger - a border supplied supersuit - against regulations, even though it resulted in him saving dozens of civilian lives. However, the city is attacked on their way to the hearing, and they're forced to put aside their differences to try and stop the battle.

Production values continue to be this show's death knell. There hasn't yet been a moment as transcendently cheap as the first episode's opening slideshow, but its visuals are still unimpressive and unengaging. The animation is choppy even during simple talking heads sequences, and there are plenty of weird issues with the editing. At one point the show breaks the 30 degree rule, an editing principle stating that not moving the camera at least 30° when cutting creates a jarring, noticeable edit. (Lo and behold, this edit was both of those things.) This is such a fundamental principle that you usually don't see issues with it pop up.

It's a shame that World Trigger appears to have negative production values. The content's still not that bad. Unlike other monstrous invader shows (for example Attack on Titan and Neon Genesis Evangelion) it doesn't front-load the stakes with an explosive opening episode, but has let them grow steadily since the beginning. This show seems to be selling itself on taking place within a false sense of security rather than in the immediate aftermath of a breach, and while it's not the obvious choice for engaging an audience, this structure may have something going for it. The characters all have distinct personalities, relationships, and conflicts (although they seriously overuse the duck face on Yuma). Osamu in particular is a likable guy. I like how the main character's heroism is defined by wanting to save as many people as possible rather than taking down the big monster. Yuma's deal is that he's sort of amoral and doesn't know how to function in the real world, but he also sees right through social niceties to people's true intentions. He's a bit like an action version of L from Death Note, and an invaluable ally to the pushover Osamu, whose kindheartedness often forces him into a corner. Kitora is also nowhere near as irritating as she could've been in her role as "prom queen of murdering robotic axolotls."

The anime also drops hints toward things that weren't revealed in the manga yet, like Osamu's relationship with the black-haired girl in his class and the little creeping robots that appear before Neighbor attacks. There were a couple charming jokes, like Kitora's "accidental" posing while people were taking pictures without her consent. (This is the kind of show where jokes are "charming" rather than actually funny, but that's better than them being actively annoying, I guess.) World Trigger could be a competentintroduction to an intriguing story, but it's hard to recommend sticking around for that because it's just so ugly.

Grade: C+

Shirou Emiya is not good at grail wars. He doesn't try to hide his command seal, presumes that his scary weirdo teacher is innocent, and calls Saber by her title in public. It's frankly a miracle that he's even made it this far. It's appropriate that this episode begins with a discussion of pity, drawing a contrast between Ilya's lack of it and Rin's dangerous abundance of it for useless Shirou. The assumption that ruthlessness wins grail wars led to Fate/Zero's tragedy, so it'll be interesting to see how Rin and Ilya's respective approaches to Shirou pay off.

Otherwise, this episode was bound to be a step down from the last four. It's a lull before the storm, consisting mostly of emotional closure and foreshadowing for things to come. As pure character and plot development, it's fine for what it is though. Saber continues to get along pretty well with Shirou. She appreciates his considerate and trusting nature, but still chooses to withhold her identity. There's more explanation of magic mechanics to get the newbies up to speed; this time it's all about the class system and the risks involved in casting magic above your level. Unlike previous exposition scenes, this one doesn't have much of an interpersonal conflict brewing beneath the surface, although the episode as a whole dwells on the difference between Shirou and Kiritsugu as masters. Saber follows Shirou to school to get a feel for the place where he insists on going every day, and there they have a number of curious run-ins with students and faculty. Saber thinks there's something odd about Mr. Kuzuki, Shirou's placid history teacher, and given how some of his shots are framed, I'd say it's a good bet that he's involved in the grail war somehow. Meanwhile, Sakura seems even more flustered by everything than usual, and Shirou's classmate Mitsuzuri expresses her concern for him and his unhealthy levels of self-denial. During their conversation, he flashes back to Fuyuki City's destruction ten years ago, linking his martyr complex to the carnage his witnessed there.

Finally, Rin continues to display emotional flab toward Shirou. She's absent from school today in order to investigate some mysterious gas leak incidents, which are not really gas leaks or all that mysterious, of course. She's in favor of hunting down Caster, a servant with unknown capabilities who's wreaking havoc on the city, and allowing Shirou to live, since he's a vulnerable master. This is in contrast to her espoused principles, which are becoming more and more apparent as a persona she tries to maintain rather than her true self. The cracks are also beginning to show in her working relationship with Archer, who constantly reproaches her. They're sort of an inverse to the Kiritsugu/Saber relationship from Fate/Zero, where Saber was the idealist and Kiritsugu the pragmatist.

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works still looks great, although it's difficult to follow the last episode's balls-to-the-wall action. Last time was all acrobatic pirouettes by Saber and bursts of magic between Rin and Ilya. Now all that energy is turned inward, giving the characters an expressive dimension to whether they use or conserve that energy, and how. There was some awkward CG in the form of Caster's skeletal minions, but they're taken care of quickly. Otherwise this show's integration of CG is excellent and should serve as a standard for other anime. All in all, it's an understated episode of one of the season's standout shows, functional and entertaining but reaching towards something beyond itself.

(Also, please no naked Ilya in the future. I know that it wasn't that explicit and the scene was otherwise good, but I would not like to dwell on unclothed children in my anime. Yes, I know that she's really like twenty or whatever but let's be real that's not an acceptable excuse. This wasn't in the visual novel either, so bad call. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works doesn't have to be a show you can't watch in public.)

Grade: B+

Sword Art Online's light adventure came to an end this week, as Kirito and the gang challenged the king of the giants for the sake of all Alfheim and also a really cool sword. Giants were slain, swords were tossed away and then picked back up again, and Klein discovered and immediately lost yet another love of his life. This was a fluffy, upbeat adventure episode, and that's perfectly okay.

We started off this week with the actual boss fight, as Kirito and his friends battled the king of the giants in a vaguely defined race against time. We sadly didn't get another animation buffet to match last week's, but this fight was still reasonably engaging on its own terms. There were a whole lot of “now it's my turn!” attack rotations, which come across as total nonsense to anyone who's played an MMO, but are basically just an accepted part of the SAO package at this point. Yui calling timings on the bosses' various attacks did help give it a somewhat more game-like feel, and attacks like his freeze breath-into-shatter also helped evoke a true boss battle mood. It didn't match last week, but it was still a vast improvement over the majority of the first season's fight scenes.

Following that, the NPC Freyja informed Kirito that in order to win, they'd have to recover her family's golden hammer. This led into one of the most Kirito of Kirito moments, where Kirito's response to Sugu asking him to use a lightning attack is to leap in the air, do an absurd backflip, and then kneel down and perform his attack. Moments like that are exactly the kind of thing that make Sword Art Online impossible to take seriously, but they're also honestly a part of its charm - this show is silly and in love withits protagonist, and if you accept that, you can actually feel in on the overall joke.

Recovering the hammer led to sudden heartbreak for Klein, as Freyja transformed back into the giant Thor. With Thor's help, the party swiftly dispose of the giant king, and Klein ended up receiving a hammer consolation prize for his efforts. And then it was down to Excaliber's chamber, where everyone got to watch Kirito pull the sword from the stone. With the quest finally complete, the world of Alfheim finally began to right itself, and we got treated to a lengthy sequence of watching color return to the underworld.

The second half of this episode really made clear what this whole arc's been about - just hanging out with characters the audience is already fond of. There were silly jokes at Klein's expense, silly harem gags at everyone's expense, and the whole gang got to laugh and make merry and have a party at the bar. Your mileage here is pretty much entirely reflective of how much you enjoy watching these characters spend time together, so it's not really something that lends itself to easy critique. It's light and fluffy - a moment to catch your breath between larger adventures. And outside of that first slog of an episode two weeks back, I'd say this filler adventure was a perfectly reasonable time.

Rating: B

Sailor Moon is the Moon Princess. Last week ended with Tuxedo Mask throwing himself in the way of Kunzite's killer blow in order to save Usagi. Now as he lays dying, cradled in Usagi's arms, she remembers her previous life as Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, her fairytale romance with Mamoru's past self Prince Endymion, and her kingdom's violent downfall. Her sorrow summons the Silver Crystal, which enters Mamoru, giving him life anew. However, the DarkKingdom manages to make off with his unconscious body, leaving the senshi in an apparently hopeless situation. Finally aware of their previous lives on the Moon, they decide to return there to come to grips with their past identities and uncover a way to stop the Dark Kingdom at the cusp of victory.

First of all, I'm confused - why doesn't this episode look terrible? I mean, that's a low bar, and it still has some of the problems that have plagued Sailor Moon Crystal as a whole. The faces are pretty much impossible to make work from certain angles and Usagi's hair will always look like she has latex streamers taped to her head, but otherwise this episode's visuals demonstrate actual strength. There's animation in the Kunzite fight. Beyond that, still shots are well composed and the colors pop. At times they even manage to convey a mood. However, the episode's strongest point was definitively Usagi's expressions, which succeed at conveying how traumatized she is by regaining her old identity. They can even shift within a shot using fluid animation. I don't know how to deal with this. I thought that there were stable things in life. The sun comes up in the morning, people die when they are killed, Sailor Moon Crystal gets criticized for how it looks. It's a brave new world, where up is down, bad anime is good, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it.

Narratively, this was also the episode where Sailor Moon Crystal laid down all its cards. "I will never be a tragic princess ever again," Usagi says at the end, with determination in her eyes as she gazes on the Moon where the team will soon be returning to to confront her identities. She's played the damsel in both this life and the last, and having gained nothing from it, she's not going to take it any more. It's a really excellent, cathartic moment that almost pays off Mamoru's faffing about that we've endured for the past few episodes. This is the strongest Usagi we've seen yet, and it's largely because of the weaknesses she's allowed to express and how they're dealt with. Having suddenly become aware of her violent past, she feels shock, sorrow, and fear, but is never whiny.She's grown as a character! Usagi, who cries at the slightest inconvenience, is subject to a major tragedy and faces it with her head held high. This is the heroic core of Usagi's character - that she seems weak, but when it really matters she's stronger than anyone. It's also nice that she overcomes this through the kindness of her friends, who come to comfort her when she experiences night terrors. Good job remembering why young girls feel empowered by this franchise, Sailor Moon Crystal.

This episode is an anomaly. It's completely incongruous with the level of quality that I've come to expect from Sailor Moon Crystal up to this point, and difficult to evaluate because of that. It's not worth suffering through the first eight episodes of the series for this one, but if you've committed to the long haul, it's a wonderful surprise. Best case scenario, this episode could signal a permanent rise in quality, and has at least proven that salvation is possible. Onwards to redemption!

Grade: B+