Midnight Occult Civil Servants Review Episode 10

Posted on by Karandi
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Do You Think He Realises He Was Wrong Yet?

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Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 10

Pride comes before the fall and the government guy certainly is going to learn that after this week. Midnight Occult Civil Servants picks up immediately from the events of the last episode and shows the divide between Arata and the rest of the group he’s working with widen as their very different views on the Another’s clash head on.

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This episode got a bit dark, so here’s a yokai cat being tickled just to make you smile.

A new case is brought to Arata’s attention and they head to the stadium where it turns out there are eggs or coccoons scattered about. Naturally Arata can’t converse with the cocoons which leads the government guy to the false assumption that Arata is useless and that the only possible action is burning them. You can already tell this is going to end well.

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What we end up with is a cliff-hanger episode that is about as exciting as this anime gets. It is hopelessly predictable and yet satisfying because of it. What makes it even better is the guy who was kind of staying neutral in the war or words between Arata and the government guy calls Arata to beg him to help when everything naturally falls apart.

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It will be interesting to see how the team handle the situation next week. I kind of would have liked a little more from this episode in terms of suspense and I’m sure that with some better visuals the reveal of the Another at the end could have been spectacular. Still, it was good enough and interesting enough for what it was and I am enjoying this from week to week.

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Karandi James

Vatican Miracle Examiner Episode 11: A Conclusion of Sorts

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This week they solve the mysteries and we actually realise that for once not every single weird thing is connected as coincidence ends up playing quite the role in linking some of the events. It makes the main mystery make more sense but it means some of the answers for other things are highly unsatisfying. (He stowed away under a plane? Really?)

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I think the biggest issue is the sheer amount of content these mysteries want to pack in. Underground people, cults, murders and love quadrangles, miracles… there’s so much going on that very little of it can get enough time to feel satisfying. The explanations are similarly rushed and just kind of come together in exposition at the end.

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While this does bring this mystery to a close, apparently there is one more episode so I wonder what that will give us given they clearly don’t have time to start another mystery arc, and there is no way they can give us closure on some ongoing issues that the priests have.

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Karandi James.

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Elegant Yokai Apartment Life Episode 11: Shifting Tone and Lack of Conviction

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

While it will become apparent from my Feature this week (tomorrow), I am really not loving this show. It was one of the few titles I was genuinely anticipating this season and the overall delivery has been mediocre at best, though reasonably uninspired is probably a better statement.

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This week finally delivers something that looks like a real conflict and even then we waste air time with the characters going crazy over food in a moment of light hearted comedy that was utterly at odds with the subject matter of the episode and made no sense given the situation. By the time we got back to the matter at hand we’d forgotten all the earlier build-up which was heading in an interesting direction.

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Then we get the end of the episode which I guess is supposed to be having us on the edge of our seats but because of the inconsistent delivery and tone pretty much all it made me do was roll my eyes at the cheap plot device to drag us into one more episode. See, Princess Principal did much the same thing this week at the end of its episode, but due to actual build up and a fairly good effort at characterisation all season, that plot device worked whereas this one falls pretty flat.

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Karandi James.

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Vatican Miracle Examiner Episode 10: They Threw Him Off the Matterhorn?

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

You know sometimes when you are watching something and there’s this one line or moment that just sticks with you afterwards, even though it is really inconsequential? Well, I had that moment while watching this episode of Vatican Miracle Examiner. In an effort to prove that Hiraga doesn’t really get people or jokes or anything else outside of the church, he gullibly believes the investigator when he tells him another character was taken up the Matterhorn, frozen, and then thrown off resulting in him crashing through the roof of a barn.

There’s actually nothing wrong with this scene and it is quite amusing, except that the fact that Hiraga doesn’t get these sorts of things was told to us by him early in the episode, and then emphasised when he didn’t get what Roberto was implying about the relationships from 30 something years ago, and then they hit the audience in the head with it in this scene. If this is such an important character point, possibly it should have come up in the 9 previous episodes rather than having the writers just get a hammer out and keep pounding the point home in the space of twenty minutes.

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Anyway, onto the mystery.

Hiraga has apparently figured out the whole rainbow light mystery in the church, though only part of that has been explained to the audience, but the priests all but don’t care as they are fully into the murder investigation. Which has now turned into some sort of economic terrorism case involving forged American money and a boy who lived underground and lived on bugs. This show really does love to overcomplicate everything.

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Still, it isn’t like I’m walking away mid-mystery so I guess we’ll all just wait and see what happens next week.

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Karandi James.

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Elegant Yokai Apartment Life Episode 10: An Attempt At Darkness

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

If this show wanted me to take the supernatural seriously and think that there was any kind of threat coming from that perspective, it really needed to do something earlier. So far this show has delivered nothing but the occasional thug as a potential issue as almost every situation has been dealt with in an almost non-event fashion.

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On the bright side, at least as we approach the end of the season, the show seems to be trying to step up its game. The issue is, they’ve given no precedent for the emotion they are trying for and so – like a lot of other things in this show – it is a poor fit in a show that has no idea what it actually wants to be.

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Perhaps the lesson is simple: figure out whether you want to slice of life, emotionally resonate, be a supernatural investigation show, or a comedy and actually commit to something. While there is nothing overly bad in this show, the elements have never come together and I have no idea what tone they were even attempting at this point. I’d have to say they missed the mark but maybe they were going for unsatisfying meander.

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Karandi James.

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Chronos Ruler Episode 8: Playing in the Past

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

Well whoever is doing the subs on this one finally decided that Victo was meant to be Victor and so we now have the name change. Unfortunately this coincided with the episode that decided it also wanted the audience to start taking his character a little more seriously as we delve into his past, quite literally. Yet, it is a little bit too late to ask me to care about Victo/Victor or whoever else he might be given he’s been a flake and pain all the way throughout the series.

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Basically the group finally made it to Victo’s home town and of course for some reason time has reversed and there are Victo’s parents and himself as a five year old, pre-tragic fire and back story that they’ve only just bothered to tell us. Wasn’t it enough that he lost all his adult memories we now learn his few childhood memories are of tragedy? No wonder the guy acts the clown all the time but that doesn’t make him any better to watch. More importantly, Kiri has had to put up with Victo as a father and you have to admit an amnesiac who looks and acts younger than you isn’t exactly a glowing role model.

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All and all, this episode tries for a more serious tone at times but doesn’t hit the mark and then ruins its own attempt by a few incredibly lame gags. It is watchable but that’s about all you can say for it.

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Karandi James.

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Vatican Miracle Examiner Episode 1: Cliches Abound But Can This Find a Good Story To Tell?

Posted on by Karandi
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Overview:

In the heart of Vatican City, there is a secret organization dedicated to investigating reports of miracles. Robert Nicholas, an archivist and cryptanalysis expert, and Josef Kou Hiraga, a genius scientist, are members of the Assembly of Saints. As miracle investigators, they travel the world validating particular phenomena, only to uncover events tainted with conspiracy and deceit. With orders to find out the truth behind God’s works, Josef and the fiercely protective Robert venture out into the unknown.

– From AnimeLab

Review:

This is tricky because this first episode is riddled with the standard Catholic clichés and it feels like the show is trying desperately hard to hook its audience by throwing literally everything at you. This includes crying statues, stigmata, devil worship, immaculate conceptions, and so on. Because of this, it doesn’t seem to have any kind of clear focus at this point other than make us feel that the church is dark and mysterious and full of potential mysteries. There’s also a heavy reliance on blood for shock at key dramatic points so if floating blood drops and smashed in heads aren’t your thing you may want to pass without trying this one.

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That said, this wasn’t a total wash out. The more serious tone is a nice change from so many other shows I’ve tried this season, and the two main characters have the potential to be interesting even if so far that is remaining strictly potential rather than reality.

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I’m going to give this one a bit longer to find its feet because it does feel like this story could go somewhere interesting, or it might just become the stock standard travel to new location, poke around a bit, debunk whatever myth is going on Scooby-doo style and move on. I’m hoping it does a bit more than that but to be honest, that would be enough to keep me interested for a season.

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Karandi James.

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Blue Exorcist Episode 28

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

I shouldn’t be surprised that very little is happening at the moment in this show. Season 1 did the exact same thing. Big opening with lots of supernatural menace and action and then highschool playtime and teens figuring out who they are only occasionally broken up by action sequences.

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Its a weird choice for a show that most people would call an action. The problem is, Blue Exorcist doesn’t really do characters that can pull off emotional nuances so mostly we’re left with lame jokes and obvious emotional fumbling, meanwhile we know there’s this whole conspiracy and demons and amazing things we could be watching and instead we see Shiemi get comforted by being called a weed.

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Not mocking Shiemi too much. She’s my favourite character in this show but as I said the characters aren’t exactly amazing. All and all this is watchable to those who watched season 1 but hasn’t improved at all so won’t be winning any new fans.

Blue Exorcist is available on AnimeLab.