First, a bit of a rant. I'm not happy that half of the new shows I'm following didn't get released by the sub groups I decided to go with. I hope they will fix this soon, because I'd rather not have to hunt through the other groups and find replacements. Anyway, on with the review...
07-Ghost ep 3
There's something fishy about the mysterious elderly guy. I'm betting he's been corrupted by the Kor (the servants of Verloren), or he's one of them in disguise (more likely). And Ayanami has the same creepy red glow to his eyes in certain scenes, but since he's the villain I'm not surprised if he's done a deal with the devil. He also wins the Biggest Bastard Award for threatening to harm Mikage's family.
Oh, and the eyefish are effing weird.
Strawberry Panic ep 1 - 3
Now that I've completed all that exists (so far) of Marimite, I wanted to start on this show and compare the two. While Marimite is more subtle, Strawberry Panic is already looking like it's going to be way more blatantly yuri.
The setting is the joint campus of three schools: St. Miator, St. Spica, and St. Lilim. Nagasa Aoi, the main character, is a student newly transferred into St. Miator. She gets lost on her first day and happens to run into Shizuma Hanazono, the "Etoile", a highly loved and respected student who represents all three schools. Shizuma's gaze makes Nagisa go weak, and the older girl nearly kisses Nagisa on several occasions only to be interrupted each time. She also neglects her Etoile duties most of the time, running off and causing tension between the student councils of Miator and Spica. There's also Nagisa's room mate Tamao, who seems to develop a bit of a crush on her.
Well, so far it's interesting. Lots of characters, so I'll probably have a hard time remembering who everyone is. Shizuma is pretty creepy, trying to kiss Nagisa so often and most of the time even when they're surrounded by people. She has no grasp of subtlety, it seems.
Key the Metal Idol ep 14 - 15 (Complete)
While Eps 1 - 13 are of the typical episode length for anime, 14 and 15 are both movie-length. You could call Ep 14 the exposition episode; everything is laid bare through conversation between Tataki and Wakagi, as well as the ramblings of Maestro, a scientist and former colleague/rival of Key's grandfather who is in Ajo's employ. Everything is explained in detail, from Dr. Mima's obsession and research with robots to the origin of Key's powers and the reason why she thinks she's a robot. There's also the suggestion that Key and Sakura may actually be half-sisters (through a tryst between Sakura's father and Key's mother) At the end, Sergei puts his plan to trap Key into action by capturing Sakura.
This turned out a lot better than I thought it would be. I'm not sure where I read the info, but I had long thought this episode was one giant recap. It's more like filling in the huge blanks, making sure the audience clearly understands everything before launching into the final act. And despite a length of over 90 minutes, it doesn't actually feel that long, probably because you're being bombarded with the answers to all the questions that have been raised so far.
Ep 15 compensates for the previous info-dump by including some action as Key, Wakagi, and Tataki journey into the belly of the beast, storming Ajo Heavy Industries to rescue Sakura. Unfortunately, Ajo has already drained much of Sakura's life force from her; even though her friends save her, she dies a short time later. Ajo's plan is revealed: to extract the gel from 50,000 people at the final Miho concert. With the additional help of Prince Snake-Eye, Aoi (Miho's former manager), and Tamari (the shady porn producer/talent scout who appeared in the first few episodes), Wakagi and Tamaki form a plan to infiltrate the concert, expose Ajo's deception, and give Key the chance to finally awaken her long-buried humanity.
In the end, the series was much better than I expected. It starts off seemingly as a sci-fi "Pinocchio" tale about a robot girl who wants to become human, although the question of whether really is a robot or not always lingers even early on. As each layer of the mystery was exposed, it led off in a different direction, adding in a heavy element of the paranormal which I think elevated it from the standard robot story.
K-ON! Ep 4
Obligatory beach episode. This reminded me of the summer vacation episodes in Toradora! Mio was acting almost exactly like Minori did, at least when it came to being freaked out by stuff. Once again, music didn't enter into the story much, although there's hope when Yui plays a nice little guitar solo. I guess she's more adept at learning the guitar than I thought.
Higashi no Eden Ep 3
This just gets more mysterious and compelling the more I watch it. I hope they start answering some questions soon. And then there's the detective guy. I went from hating him when he beat up Takizawa and stole his phone to feeling sorry for him after he got knifed by his wife. At least, I'm guessing she was his wife, there was something in there about a wife and a mistress that was a bit confusing.
There's also the suggestion that Takizawa was involved in a mass murder of thousands, which is pretty disturbing. I can't really see him doing that, but then we have no idea what he was like before he had his memories wiped in the first episode.
