About Dustin

Dustin (aka Stilts) enjoys playing and yelling at video games, especially RPGs. He also likes super robot shows... the more outrageous the plot, the better!

Beware of Kyubey!

The harbinger of your destruction.

To all aspiring magical girls: don’t trust the cute animal.

He may seem to have the best interests of the world at heart, but don’t be deceived. There’s information he’s deliberately withholding. There are questions he never answers. Some of these are:

  • Where do Witches come from? And why do they drop “seeds” with a similar floral patter to the Puella Magi’s soul gem?
  • If Puella Magi are necessary to defeat Witches and avoid the destruction of the world, why does Kyubey allow a rivalry between two of his Magi?
  • How long has this struggle with Witches been going on? How many Magi have come before Mami and Homura?
  • Why do the Magi’s soul gems get darker when they use their powers? If the grief seeds are used to cleanse them, wouldn’t that indicate the Magi’s power source is of a corrupt nature?
  • Why does Kyubey specifically target young girls for recruitment in this war?
  • Also, why does Kyubey give an apocalyptic dream of the future to Madoka but not Sayaka? He offers the Puella contract to both of them, after all.
  • When Homura injured Kyubey, why did his white “fur” look more like a covering for his actual appearance? The phrase “wolf in sheep’s clothing” comes to mind.

Besides these in-universe mysteries, though, there are pretty clear meta-textual references scattered throughout the last three episodes. These references primarily point to a Faustian bargain. Specifically, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s version of the story.

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Bakacast – Murder on the Gothic Express

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The bad news: Jon was captured by Doctor Wattsman and couldn’t be on this episode. The good news: that means it’s Glen’s turn in the spotlight, and he bombards the latest episode of Gosick with a rage-fueled rant of magnificent proportions. And though the Gosick discussion may be a little one-sided, Wolverine gives us a perfect opportunity to do what we love: tag-team mocking. If you happen to be nostalgic for the days when we reviewed Highschool of the Dead, this may be the episode  for you.

Also, Twitter questions make a triumphant and uncomfortable return, as we relate our first experiences with the adult side of Japanese entertainment and discover that my mind has been hopelessly corrupted by being Jon’s roommate for nearly four years.

We cover:

  • Fractale #1
  • Wandering Son #1
  • Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka #1 (dropped)
  • Madoka Magica #2
  • Yumekui Merry #2 (on thin ice)
  • Wolverine #2 (dropped)
  • Gosick #2 (on thin ice)
  • Level E #2
  • Star Driver #15

First Impressions – Level E

"How dare you look prettier than me!"

I had no idea what to expect from Level E. To be honest, the only reason I checked it out was because of how bizarre the promo art looked. A naked, androgynous man floating in space with galaxies covering his private parts? Okay, you’ve got my attention.  So I was completely unaware that it was originally a manga created in the late 90s by the same guy who did YuYu Hakusho. And I also didn’t know it was about an alien prince getting stranded on Earth and moving in with a high school freshman.

Which, of course, means I also didn’t know it would be hilarious.

Not only did Level E‘s content catch me off guard, but it also surprised me by being much more enjoyable than I dared hope.  Click the jump if you want to know why, exactly, you owe it to yourself to watch this show.

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Bakacast – Lolverine

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It’s time once again to dive headfirst into another season of anime. And it seems our initial fears of a sparse winter will prove false, since we review ten–yes, ten!–shows. And not everything has aired yet! So to keep things from going way too long, we skip the news and only answer one Twitter question.

The anime we cover (in order of their air dates) are:

Although we only covered one Twitter question, it was a bit of an in-depth one. If you can’t remember all the suggestions Larry and I made, click the jump to get the full list.

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First Impressions – Wolverine

Hey, have we mentioned he's Canadian yet?

After the Iron Man debacle, I can’t say I was looking forward to Wolverine. After all, it was being made by the same studio (Madhouse) and had the same art style that Iron Man used. And to top it all off, the promo wasn’t exactly flattering in terms of animation quality. On the other hand, there were some things that gave me a little hope. Most importantly, the director was different. Also, near the end of Iron Man‘s run, Jon pointed out that it behaved like a brainless action movie. While that doesn’t work so well for a story that features Tony Stark, there are plenty of fun Wolverine stories that are stupid action plots. If Madhouse decided to go as crazy with Wolverine as they did with Highschool of the Dead, maybe it could actually work.

Unfortunately, the first episode was noticeably worse than Iron Man‘s (which was at least above average), and I have my doubts that it will get better from here.

Check out my detailed thoughts after the break.

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Bakacast – Wattsman!!

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Because the winter season shows didn’t air in time for our normal recording schedule (Tuesday nights, in case you’re curious), each Bakacast host picked something they wanted to discuss on the podcast. I chose Digital: A Love Story, a visual novel about 1988 cyberpunk romance (seriously). Glen picked out Voices of a Distant Star, an interesting short film by Makoto Shinkai, one of the rising stars among animated-movie directors. Jon was pretty excited about finally getting all of us to check out The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. And Thomas–who’s probably tied with Jon as the biggest Dirty Pair fan we know–chose an OVA he recently reviewed on his own blog: Dirty Pair: Project Eden.

We also take a moment at the end of the show to list the winter shows we’re planning on checking out.

If you have questions you’d like to hear answered on a future episode, please @reply them to Project Haruhi’s Twitter account, using the hashtag #bakacast.

First Impressions – Infinite Stratos

Just one of the things Infinite Stratos copies from Love Hina.

I was a little skeptical of Infinite Stratos just from the short description on Cart Driver’s season chart. Mecha are neat and all, but the no-boys-allowed rule seemed like a flimsy attempt to force a harem situation. Plus, the description of the main character’s friend made her sound like a generic tsundere. On the other hand, the director (Yasuhito Kikuchi) also worked on Macross Frontier, a show which managed to take a pretty traditional love triangle and make it interesting (even if Sheryl is clearly better than Ranka). So, hey, it could be good, right?

Unfortunately no, it isn’t. At all. Virtually everything in this show is profoundly disappointing, and the only thing I liked barely got any screen time. I’ll break it all down for you after the jump.

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Bakacast – We Are Not Spinal Tap

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On this episode of Bakacast, we bid a semi-fond farewell to the Fall 2010 season and share what we’re looking forward to (or dreading) in the coming winter. But first, I guess there might be more Lucky Star in our future? Who knows! And, more to the point, who cares? Frankly, we’re more interested in the recent Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya movie, which kicks off our review segment.

Ever wanted to hear me lose my temper? Well, you’ll get your chance when Jon and I battle it out during the Panty & Stocking discussion (though at least we can all agree that the soundtrack is fantastic). And to make sure this episode was extra special, we captured Thomas from Stepping Up to the Anime Plate so he could give us his thoughts on MM!

We cover:

  • The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
  • Panty & Stocking #13
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #13
  • Squid Girl #12
  • Iron Man #12
  • MM!
  • Star Driver #13

Since the winter season’s shows won’t debut before our normal podcast recording time, we’ll be doing things a little differently next week. How different? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see…

Bakacast – Chizuru vs Grizzly Bear

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Bakacast is back from our holiday vacation, and we hope you guys had a good holiday too! I got The Secret of Kells on Blu-ray, so you can expect me to review that sometime in the future.

In any case, we send off OreImo with tempered praise. This won’t be our last discussion of the series, though. We’re pretty much guaranteed to talk about the OVA’s when they come out (I’m crossing my fingers for a “nice boat” ending). After that, Glen and I lament how far Zakuro has fallen, Glen and Larry’s rant on Samurai Girls justifies my decision to drop it by the fifth episode, Glen confesses his love for Kanako of Star Driver fame, and I come up with a surefire way for Squid Girl to get a coveted 6 out of 5 Picards.

We cover:

  • OreImo #12 (finale)
  • Panty & Stocking #12
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #12
  • Samurai Girls #12 (finale)
  • Squid Girl #11
  • Star Driver #12

We’ll officially say goodbye to the fall season on the next episode and start bracing ourselves for winter. But until then, why don’t we gather around the yule log and enjoy the soothing strains of the Panty & Stocking soundtrack?

12 Days of Anime #3: Yoko Littner

I mentioned in my previous 12 Days of Anime post that I watched Gurren Lagann for the first time this summer. You probably don’t need me to tell you it was awesome. So I’m not going to.

Instead, I’m going to tell you how awesome Yoko Littner is. Let’s get the obvious point out of the way first: that is one hell of a character design. She’s easily one of the best-looking females in anime. I also appreciate that she constantly carries a very large gun around. I’m not entirely sure why I developed such a strong attraction to girls with guns (I suspect it has something to do with Sigourney Weaver crafting that assault rifle/grenade launcher/flame thrower in Aliens), but Yoko appeals to that fetish in a hilariously exaggerated fashion. I mean, look at that railgun. It must be really heavy, yet she can carry and even aim it from the hip with ease. That’s fantastic.

But what I really like is that Gainax cared enough to give her a great personality, too. Her usual mood can be summed up as confident and fiery. But there’s more than that. She’s perfectly comfortable showing affection (unlike certain annoying tsunderes I can think of), she’s intelligent, she isn’t impulsive (unless she needs to be) and, as we see in the second half of the show, her fighting prowess is not her defining characteristic. Yoko can put on glasses and live the peaceful life of an elementary teacher and not lose what makes her a fun and likable character. You know what else is cool? We actually get to see her mature from a teenager into a young woman, and her personality changes to reflect that.

And, frankly, it was nice to see a supposedly strong female character actually be strong. She’s not like those pansies from Samurai Girls who fret about a simple kiss. Yoko’s the only character in the show who fights alongside Simon through the entire series, and she loses two boyfriends in the process. But does she ever blame him? Yell at him? Complain that it’s not fair? No. She mourns their deaths, but understands they sacrificed themselves for a higher purpose. And then she moves on with her life.