Hey there! Thanks for visiting Anime Rants today. For those who care, I’m getting help for my addiction issues as well as continuing therapy for my mental health. It sucks being stuck in the fascist country of the USA, led by a pedophile President, but I know I’m not alone. For everyone suffering under this nightmarish regime, please remember that the most important thing is to stay alive. That is how we fight back. Anyway, here’s some anime reviews.
- City the Animation Episode 5
- Dr. Stone: Science Future episode 16
- Kaiju No. 8 Season 2 Episode 3
- New Panty and Stocking Episode 4
- Ruri Rocks Episode 5
- Sakamoto Days Episode 15 (Part 2 Ep 4)
- The Summer Hikaru Died Episode 5
City the Animation Episode 5
Episode Rating: 7/10
This episode felt more like a parody of some kind of shounen competition anime with Nagumo and company going through the 12 floors of the hospitality towers and beating a gatekeeper at each floor – sort of. The “prisoners” didn’t have to do anything because the gatekeepers at each floor sabotaged themselves so hard. Each floor’s keeper was naturally absurd. After escaping the tower, Nagumo found a cookout with free drinks, meats, and sushi. Lots of people from the city were there having a good time.
Niikura continued trying to get her locket back, but the long-eared cat escaped with it. The cat’s owner ended up finding the locket and selling it off like junk. As expected, the locket contained a photo of Nagumo. A bunch of other stuff happened too, but everyone met up at the party. Even the Tsuchinoko creature was there.
The last bit of the episode told us the story of the Tanabe family founder in the distant past. He helped the people of the town and they helped him build his new house. Centuries later, the Tanabe family is rich but generous. Miss Tanabe loves to give out awards and hospitality to members of the city. Wholesome.
Dr. Stone: Science Future episode 16
Episode Rating: 8/10
For the second time this season, we met a new character. But unlike Chelsea, who is with the main group, I think Joel the engineer and watchmaker will be a much more minor character. His only purpose seemed to be disassembling the Medusa. All we really learned about it so far was that the core was made of diamond, which acted like a battery. Though Joel got the mechanism to work once, that was the last of its battery power. The medusa seems to be dead unless they can find a way to charge it.
While Nikki, Joel, and company retrieved and investigated the Medusa, Senku’s team was crossing the mountains on their bikes. Eventually, they reached a slope they couldn’t get over even if they walked the bikes. To make things worse, Stanley was about to catch up to them via mini-plane. Hope seemed lost, but Senku suggested they use a ropeway to slide away. They only have minutes to build the system. To be continued!
Kaiju No. 8 Season 2 Episode 3
Episode Rating: 9/10
What an amazing and inspiring episode! Kikoru helped protect Kafka while he was having trouble with transforming. But even after Kikoru bought him time by cutting the Kaiju apart n a fantastic fury of violence, Kafka still couldn’t transform. He saw a terrible vision of himself killing his friends. It made him realize that fear was stopping his transformation. Kikoru helped Kafka get back to his senses by telling him he shouldn’t underestimate her, his other teammates, or his own mental strength.
Finally able to transform, Kafka defeated Kaiju 9 (but I’m not convinced he’s dead for good yet). I related to Kafka a lot when he said that he couldn’t believe in himself enough yet, but he has no problem believing in his trusted comrades. I feel the same about myself and my support group. Anyway, this episode also showed us flashbacks of Kikoru’s life with her mother before she was killed in the line of duty. That was sad.
In addition, we got to see Naurmi’s weapon and how it lets him predict the future in battle. So far, in its new season, Kaiju No. 8 continues to be a fun, exciting, and inspiring anime! Since I haven’t said anything about this yet, I also love the new opening (“You Can’t Run From Yourself” by Aurora) and ending (“Beautiful Colors” by OneRepublic).
New Panty and Stocking Episode 4
Episode Rating: 7/10
This installment was split into three different mini episodes with different ghosts. The first chapter showed how Stocking ran for President of Daten City and defeated the ghost that was the current President. It wasn’t particularly funny. The second chapter was actually fairly wholesome. The group adopted a ghost cat and Panty learned to love it over time. Eventually the ghost faded away because he was now fulfilled, having been loved for the very first time.
The third mini-episode was downright bizarre but also very funny. An evil ghost born of another dimension was invading the earth and morphing people into different styles of animation and character design. I love it when an animated series does something creative and weird like this. Panty and Stocking got caught in a cosmic adventure to save the universe along with a Space Ghost Hunter named Bay Watcher. This insane episode also made funny references to western superheroes from old cartoons. I loved this wacky, imaginative chapter.
Ruri Rocks Episode 5
Episode Rating: 8/10
As you will already know if you read my previous episode reviews, this show is special to me, allowing me to appreciate the audiovisual beauty and vicariously live out childhood adventures with science that I never had. This episode wasn’t as emotional as the first few, or I am just getting used to the beauty of it now so it’s not straight-up blinding. Anyway, in this episode, Ruri and company went to a beach and collected samples of Agate, which is a reddish, striped rock in the quartz family.
After this, on a separate venture, Ruri went panning for minerals with Nagi. She discovered a silver-colored grain, but despite her insistence that it was silver, she was incorrect. It was actually placer platinum. Nagi, Imari, and Ruri then embarked on a mountain adventure to find Serpentine, which would lead to more platinum. They eventually found what they wanted. This episode was very educational about the life-cycle of rocks, broadly speaking, as well as informative about specific minerals. I love educational anime – especially when they are this beautifully animated. 🙂
Sakamoto Days Episode 15
(Part 2 Ep 4)
Episode Rating: 6/10
Most of this episode focused on the fight between Apart and Sakamoto. I still have trouble taking the character seriously, but I’m glad Apart was given some backstory and character development. We saw how he never fit in and how his animal cruelty quickly escalated to the murder of his own father. Despite the fact that Apart seems to lack empathy for others, not all hope is lost for him. Sakamoto saw potential that he could change. So, after the fight, he brought Apart to share a meal and kotatsu with everyone.
Apart was quite moved, since all he truly wanted was human connection. He ended up telling Sakamoto everything he knew about Slur, which wasn’t much. Apart hadn’t even heard the name “Slur.” However, he did know that the man who freed him and the other serial killers was planning on destroying the JAA (Japanese Assassins Association). Even as they spoke, Slur arrived at the JAA with another deadly killer named Gaku. Together, they began their takedown of the JAA. To be continued.
The Summer Hikaru Died Episode 5
Episode Rating: 8/10
This episode didn’t seem quite as amazing to me as the first few, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe the novelty is wearing off. Regardless, it was still a high-quality episode with plenty of suspense and monster horror. There was one scene where Yoshiki reached inside Hikaru again. When Hikaru tried to “touch him back a little,” it was a terrible experience that alarmed Yoshiki enough to shout. That was intense.
I feel a little bit sympathetic toward Unuki because he loves Yoshiki so much but knows he isn’t human and would be repulsive to normal people. Poor thing. Then again, I’m also worried that he’s going to eat Yoshiki by accident if he’s not careful. Clearly, that “mixing” thing is happening that Kurebayashi described. I wonder how she knows about that. She was also right about the town being driven crazy by “impurities” or evil spirits. One such entity was the wig ghost that haunted Yoshiki’s house.
At one point, Hikaru went to battle the wig ghost in the bathroom. Yoshiki interfered because he was worried about Hikaru. He accidentally become possessed by the hairy evil spirit and then tried to drown Hikaru in the bathtub. Yoshiki also bit Hikaru’s arm until it bled. After a struggle, Hikaru used his power to knock the wig ghost out of Yoshiki’s body. The creature then escaped. The boys were both shaken and Hikaru had several small wounds. Yoshiki felt terrible for inflicting them in his possessed state, but Hikaru said there was no need to apologize.
Surprisingly, the episode ended on an uplifting note, with Yoshiki being hopeful that this nonhuman Hikaru can live a normal, peaceful life. I seriously doubt that. Tanaka is tracking him down and has the supernatural abilities and weapons needed to exorcise him. This is still my favorite new anime of the season. I look forward to more soon.
~Thanks for reading~
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