Kore wa Zombie desu ka - 6

More insane action :-D

If the crazy multilife girl wasn't enough, Yuu masou shojo!!

We get a taste of the power of her words. She starts killing her enemy multiple times just by saying "shinde"!
And what is the solution to this? Don't listen?!? o_O
I thought her words can warp reality! Well, it's not really important, after all this leads to Yuu loosing all but her amour =-n

In the end the evil girl is defeated, we get to see Haruna's sensei and a new enemy (probably the final boss) is introduced.

Ah, also Yuu smile at the end!

This is clearly a fanservice oriented show, yet the story is so unpredictable and the way things happen is so over the head that I find it really enjoyable!

Madoka Magica - 7

Why Kyubei, why don't you tell them the truth from the start?
Well, even now he didn't tell them all the truth... Is it possible that the witches come from puella magi? Maybe not as they are born from familiars, but maybe they come from normal people or have some connection that when revealed will be shocking.

Is Kyubei naive? No, he is cunning.
When asked "why didn't you tell the truth about the transformation" the first answer he gave was "because you didn't ask". But when pressed on he told "because it's easier if you don't know".
Sure.
Maybe because it is unlikely that someone would accept the following conditions:

• you will give up your humanity, your sould will be extracted from your body and put in a greef seed
• you will then fight witches with your magic
• ah, by the way, when you use magic your soul gets corrupted. You have to use seeds from killed witches to cleanse it

So basically you are selling your soul and you are corrupting it to fight witches and feed Kyubey. For one wish.

One can understand Mami who really didn't have much choice, she would have died anyway. But for the others... They were fooled by Kyubei who took advantage of their innocence and enslaved them to his will.

I wonder what would happen if one of them refused to fight the witches. Would Kyubei end the contract and claim their soul?

I bet he is enjoying it...

The way he tortured Sayaka at the beginning of the episode showed his nature once more.
It really is a striking contrast with the way he looks... creepy Kyubey... But that's also something I really like about this show. We are usually wary of things looking "scary", not of things looking cute. A good way to get accepted by young girls without scaring them away: take the look of a small inoffensive cute animal.

This episode was less of a shock and more of a confirmation. We got to know how Kyouko became a puella magi and why she decided to fight only for herself. Sayaka also showed her resolve and a touch of nichilism at the end. Looks like the weight of having her wish come true but not having the possibility to take any joy from it is too much for her...

Anyway we are now in the second half of the season and Madoka is not yet a puella magi. Looks like the story of this anime is about how she becomes one and she will do so only in the last few episodes.

This is the anime I look forward for new episode every week the most!

Gosick - 6

Kujo-kun how could you!?! >:-[ rrrrrrrraaaaageeeee

Poor Victorica doesn't really tolerate pain does she? This adds even more to her moesome level!

The story is going into a new arc which should give some more infomation on her past. The outcome seems pretty clear, let's see if they have some surprise for us.

To Aru Majutsu no Index 2 - 17

After the conclusion of the "Queen of the Adriatic" arc Touma and Index are back to Academy City and all the usual cast gets some screentime.

Accelerator is also back! I am hoping he gets some more focus in the next episodes!

But this was fundamentally a light episode (which is not a bad thing at all in this series) with Touma facing the batsu gamu from Misaka.
And there is plenty of BiriBiri show :)

Oooh, that's a very nice move!

Finally someone realized!!

Uiharu you know how dangerous that is 

An evil presence approaches 

Judgemento desu no!

Here starts Misaka tsundere mode!

You cannot stop Misaka's Gekota passion!

More tsundere moments!

Awesome faces :D

You went too far Touma!

Super bonus moment: Last Order!

Time for revolution!

Gosick - 5

The mistery this time was not blatantly obvious like in the first episodes and was quite enjoyable.

It was nice how in the end they played a bit on the "Victorique is a product of your imagination since you are a ronery transfer student" thing.
I actually found myself thinking: "that's not possible, people on the boat where interacting with her" and such to reassure myself :-)

We also got some development of the relationship between the air headed protagonist and our golden fairy which was very nice and heartwarming.

Of course, who needs a story when you have Victorique :-D

Shingeki no Kyojin

This new manga is topping the sales charts in Japan and I think for a good reason.

I just started reading it (I am just into the second chapter) and I am already hooked.
First let me spend a few words on the drawings. The backgrounds are quite nice and polished, but the characters, although nice, could be less "noisy".
I think this kind of style is instead very appropriate with the giants (or titans). They are strange, distorted human forms with the skin of their faces revealing all their theeth in a wicked grin. Their body proportions are usually off enough to give them even a more monstrous appearence.

The faces of the characters are nevertheless pretty good at conveing emotions. I felt immediately immersed and shared their fear and their helpless rage.

The story is about a world 100 years after the titans appeared starting to devour humans and bringing them on the brink of extinction. The few survivors closed themselves in a walled city. The walls so high and strong the titans cannot break in.

The people of this city managed to live well (let's not think about how a small closed environment can sustain itself...) and going out is a taboo. Only men joining the scouting squad go out trying to figure out where the titans come from or any possible information about them. They usually get massacred and only a few come back.

The main protagonists are a boy and his sister. The boy hates the way mankind is living. Closed in a cage like cattle. He wants to see the outside and plans to join the scout squad someday.
The tragic event starting the story is a huge titan, so big that his head is seen above the 50 meters tall wall, suddenly appearing and smashing a hole in it. The titan then disappears and a swarm of "normal" titans (about 15 meters tall) invades the city devouring everyone they can grab.
The protagonists house is hit by the rubble caused by the huge titan and their mother trapped with her legs broken. The two kids try to save her, but she manages to get them saved by a member of the wall guards before a titan devours her.
As I said the mangaka is very good at conveing strong emotions.

Their father left the day before after telling Eric (the protagonist) he would show him his locked room in the basement when he would come back.

After the tragic event the boy swears he will kill all the titans. He will have no peace until their have diappeared from the face of earth.

Not all is lost fot the humans, the city is revealed to have three sets of walls and the titans only got through the external one.

There is a time shift and we are shown 10 years later. The two protagonists both coming out among the top 10 recruits in the army.

This manga looks very promising.
It plays on our instinctive fears of predators. It's true that today humans are at the top of the food chain, but it hasn't always been like that.
Probably if lions would evolve an intelligence they wouldn't know this kind of fear as they have no natural predators (normally), but for us the fear of being preys, of being helpless in front of a strong predator is something we can understand well.

I don't remember another manga with such a strong enphasis on this aspect and this certainly is a good thing!

I also like very much how the drawings are able to convey strong emotions.

The only small complaint could be that the drawings quality is not always the best, but seeing how the series has just started I think the author has plenty of time to improve!

I definitely recommend this series!

Level E - 4

I am amazed at how this series can have such a change and still remain so good.

This episode was significantly darker then the previous ones. The story revolving around a group of boys witnessing a terrible murder: a boy killing and eating a girl. They are of coures scared and seeing that the murderer was wearing their same school uniform they started to investigate to figure out who he might be.

After asking the help of a strange doctor they will discover the culprit is an alien and they will come to know his very sad story. They don't have anything to fear for themselves as the aliens only feel the urge to eat girls. It's a reproductive instinct... the bad thing is that they also feel terrible guilt of this.
At the end the protagonists simpatize with the aliens, who in the meantime left the earth, understanding the difficulty to resist the instinctive needs.

Looking back at this part of the episode I really liked it. The story was very nice and the noisy image style was suited to the mood.

Of course, the protagonist is still prince Baka and all this story is revealed to be his attempt to disclose the presence of aliens to humanity :-D
Unfortunately the producer he speaks with rejects the movie! He doesn't loose spirit though and immediately starts working on a new movie: elementary school boys will turn in a sort of gaki rangers ;-) and fight their teacher who is an evil alien!

It looks like next week the mood will change again :-D

This show continues to surprise me and is definitely one of the best of this season for me. At the moment it's in the first two positions together with Madoka. I cannot decide which one I am liking more :-)