Greetings to you, fair readers of this blog. This week I am happy to greet you along with my new friends who now inhabit the top shelf of my anime bookcase. The genki power in my apartment is strong…

Oh, right! Anime! Let’s get to it!

K: Return of Kings, Episode 9: Now there’s the K I know and love. Some ridiculous action sequences (Seri and Kusanagi going on an undercover mission together was wonderful), some happy happy Silver Clan home life, and one heckuva a crazy twist about the Green’s living situation put K back into the territory where I enjoy it most. Things are mostly playing out how I’d predicted they would, with the Greens winning the fight for the Slates and the rest of the clans having to figure out how to recover them. However, the most interesting thing going on right now is really with Fushimi, whose defection from the Blues and subsequent embrace of the game-style Jungle system due to the pain of dealing with the relationships says a lot both about him and about what K thinks about diving into games to avoid the trouble of dealing with people. I’m curious to see how this idea of “games” interacts with that of “power” in forming K‘s final thematic statement.

One Punch Man, Episode 9: If you some how missed it, this week’s Aniwords post over on Crunchyroll was all about One Punch Man 9. Genos is still my baby.

Concrete Revolutio, Episode 9: I’ll admit I didn’t expect Concrete Revolutio to start musing on the very nature of humanity this episode, but with the season’s best show tackling a topic like this I’m not going to complain. In any case, there’s very little to complain about as Conrevo continues to run away with the title of the season’s best show. Timeline-wise, this episode seems to fall between Jiro’s initial split from the Superhuman Bureau and the (I’m assuming) big incident that really turned him against them and caused him to form his own group to oppose them. As much as an episode featuring a giant acid spitting robot can, this was a subtle, thoughtful episode. Jiro’s closing thoughts—”They have surpassed humans”—are an interesting thing to consider. Is death inherently part of what makes humans human? And it’s interesting that Jiro doesn’t consider the family less than human, but superhuman. If you think about it that way, couldn’t you argue that all superhumans have surpassed humans? Or does that lose the nuance of what Jiro’s observing here?

Concrete Revolutio is an awesome show, you guys.

Mecha Sunday

Gundam Tekketsu, Episode 9: I’m pretty impressed by how quickly Tekketsu dispelled my discomfort with the whole harem thing—and that the way it ended up doing it was via parallel with the Tekkadan organization and one lecture about love to a non-comprehending Atra. Also via my own realization that perhaps part of the reason I didn’t like it was…jealousy…? Yeah, I’d marry Lafter. Moving on. In other important things, Tekkadan folding under the Turbines and Orga making a blood oath of brotherhood with continues to roll the show’s family theme forward in a compelling way. It looks like Turbines might be accompanying our Martian boys to Earth? I’d love that. Okada please.

Comet Lucifer, Episode 9: Man, this show is seriously one above-average scriptwriter from being a genuine star. Sadly, it hasn’t got that so we’re left with what ended up being a cluster of potentially evocative plot threads that don’t come together in any meaningful way because they aren’t given enough time in this episode (or in prior ones). Do Mon’s backstory, his relationship with Sogo’s mother, Gus’ obsession with Do Mon, Sogo coming to terms with his relationship with his surrogate father, Kaon and crew sweeping in to save the day…correctly handled, this could have been an emotional watershed. As it is, all of Comet Lucifer‘s cute faffing around in earlier episodes crippled its ability to be serious now. A shame. Both parts were good, but the staff couldn’t make it work.

Short Takes~

• Miss Monochrome S3, Episode 9: “We will become a delicious ramen.” I will be very sad indeed when this show leaves us.
• Noragami Aragoto, Episode 9: Here is some relationship advice from an anime blogger—if you are on a group date with a girl you’ve only met for the second time and she starts crying, DON’T KISS HER YOU JERK. Also, what in the world was up with Hiyori’s hair this week?
• Haikyuu!! S2, Episode 9: It’s kind of sad that Haikyuu!! doesn’t really do character drama all that well (with the exception of Yachi’s single-episode arc), because that’s been mostly what we’ve gotten this season. I watch Haikyuu!! for exciting volleyball action and I’m extremely thankful that it appears to be coming up next week. Finally.

I’m still behind on Starmyu. My apologies. Thanksgiving really messed up my schedule.