While the weather warms up so does the competition!

This week’s challenge : It’s time for you to grab your friends or family members and get them to watch an episode of a show that’s almost over. Don’t give them any context, just get their idea of what’s happening… maybe they’ll be right, most likely they won’t.

Wake Up, Girls! (Episode Ten)
Player: Kanashimi
Class: Boss

Well, this week I watched the show with a bunch of colorful individuals, which makes this even more difficult… considering their vocabulary. However, this episode of exposition pretty much spells out what happens, so it was easy to figure what was going on. These “b****es” are in a contest and need people to vote on them. Yup, that’s the episode and the description I was given.

Wake Up, Girls! go around and ask for horrible advice from random people before several of the girls “turn to backstab that one brown haired chick and tell her she sucks.” This translates to Airi needing help with her dancing, and the others teach her the proper way.

As the girls begin to put their nose to the grindstone they run into a rival group named the Demons Of Oga who are also in the contest. “You said this was a fluff show? What’s with the demons?!” This group appears in masks that look straight out of history; I can’t imagine their fans are the faint of heart.

Next Mayu goes home and encounters her mother, who has nothing to say to her. Despite that, she’s able to get her to sit down to talk. She explains she wasn’t happy with I-1, and she didn’t want to hurt them due to her selfishness, but in this new group everything is different. She’s learning life lessons instead of being an object to be praised. She asks her mother to attend the preliminaries, but her mother walks out which is to be expected.

“Oh my god, they have a fat fan? No skinny, hot fans?” We go back and join our otaku fan that keeps defending Wake Up, Girls on 2ch. He is meeting other fans of the girls and they decide to best way to display their affection for the girls in the crowd. It’s actually probably one of the most respectable things I’ve seen in a while.

“Did anything happen in this show?” No, I know the feeling. The girls head to the preliminaries, their otaku group waiting for them. The demons are back, hiding in Wake Up Girls! dressing room, since that makes sense. They threaten them, but the girls don’t seem to care. The girls go perform a really poorly drawn song, but Mayu’s mom is watching so I guess that’s something. The group that advances is Wake Up, Girls! They actually did something good for a change, but the whole scene seems lackluster. “Haha, the geek guys are crying.”

Surprisingly, her mother came by and signed the contract with Tange the next day. Kinda surprising that hadn’t been dealt with earlier. Matsuda comes in and turns on the TV only to discover, “What the ****?! The other b****** took the song from the original b******!” Yes indeed, the song Wake Up, Girls had is now being done by I-1 because that makes sense in terms of copyright. See you next week!

Watch Wake Up, Girls! on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Sakura Trick (Episode Ten)
Player: Midnight
Class: DJ

So I missed last week sadly in a flurry of personal drama and convention preparation, but I am back on the ball this week. So, let’s cuddle up with our friends, under our second winter blankets and watch Sakura Trick episode 10. The most any of my friends have seen of this series is episodes one and two, and that’s just Will. The rest are falling in completely blind.

Haruka fails to check the weather forecast, and it’s snowing. Haruka is super excited about it. So is Shizuku, however nobody else seems to be on board with the snow. Shizuku and Haruka want to eat outside in the snow. So they go, with or without their lovers. This was a bad idea, they’re freezing.

Apparently snow is super rare around there so Haruka wants to stay out there so she can etch the memory of a day spent in the snow with her friends into her memory. Haruka runs off, presumably to get Katone. This is so cute; a lot of Katone and Shizuku development is happening. Katone comes out and decides to play in the snow. Oh, Haruka went to get everyone so memories could be made between all of them. Yuu-chan is ko’d by snowballs by Yuzu-chan. Oh dear, this is going to be the yuri snowball fight of the century.

The girls really do get into a snowball fight. Oh dear, they’ve forgotten Kaede! Who was busy with student council things. I feel like Kaede and Mitsuki are going to be dragged out into this snowball fight.

Kaede breaks it to Mitsuki that Haruka and Yuu are going out! What has she done!?!?!?!

Well uh, there’s a time skip because the snow has stopped and it looks like it’s spring outside. No wait, it’s still winter. The trees don’t have any leaves on them. Now Kaede is acting super weird. Wait! is Kaede in love with someone? Perhaps Yuzu? has my dream come true?

Um, no. I guess not maybe this is about pranks? Well now they’re having a jump roping contest. She plans to beat Kaede but she’s really awful at jumping rope. Yuu keeps giving Haruka mean nicknames. Kaede in the meantime manages a thousand jumps.

The losing group needs to clean up. By the losing group, I mean Haruka, since the rest of them abandon her. The teacher sees the rest of them and locks Haruka into the gym storage room. She doesn’t have her phone. Is Kaede seriously the only one that has caught onto their relationship? For a moment it looked like Yuu was gonna fall in with her. As Yuu leans in the window they make out and eventually fall in when Shizuku frightens them by opening the door. Mitsuki seems to be in a large fit of denial about her sister and Haruka dating. It looks like the next episode might introduce a new couple? Isn’t it a little late into the series for that?

Now, let’s ask my friends what they thought of the episode. Will believes Kaede might be his favorite character. (I knew we were friends for a reason). Tamer’s opinion was that the hardest thing about the series was that it was a slice of life. He thinks that makes it easy to jump into suddenly. He liked the first half of the episode more then the second half and enjoyed the message it was trying to pass. He also really enjoys the animation, thinking that it’s really cute.

Will says there is nothing really groundbreaking about it as a slice of life; he however does like all of the characters. He thought it was entertaining and cute, and he’s interested in the relationships. He however would like some more focus on the other characters; since it’s a slice of life he feels we could afford to focus on more of the characters. He also enjoys the animation and feels that, while they might cut corners at certain points when they really want to put effort into a scene, they put effort into it.

My friend MentalKitty said it was a series about girls kissing in high school… couldn’t be more direct than that… and it was cute.

Tamer adds that he is pretty sure the thousand jumps make the girls who did it seem like robots, and that’s pretty much what my friends thought of Sakura Trick. So if you want to introduce your friends on a random episode, it’s a good series to do that in. This is Midnight saying never let personal drama get in the way of your work… see you next week.

This player has been docked 5 points for grammar problems in their summary.

Watch Sakura Trick on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Gundam Build Fighters (Episode Twenty-Two)
Player: Elk
Class: DJ

Can it be? Time for another episode of Gundam Build Fighters? I’ve got my brother watching this with me. For some background, he is half redneck, half ricer, all anti-anime. Besides Initial D. He loves Initial D.

He already thinks the idea of an anime around Gundam toys is kind of dumb.

So we start off with “some dumb old people” talking: Ramba Ral, and the British semi-finalist, an old man who fought the second Meijin who was all about victory at any cost, and is now the third Meijin’s opponent. He seems to suffer a heart attack, then of course…

OP Break! If anything the cool action here is satisfactory, even if it’s just “dumb toys.” Of course, it is a silly premise. Like any toy based anime, you’ve gotta look past that.

Afterwards, Sei and Reiji have a homemade bento from China and Rinko. At that moment, Aila comes out wrapped in nothing but a towel, happy for the food. Of course Rinko and China are displeased with this turn of events. After some discussion, it’s agreed that Aila will stay with Rinko and China. Reiji explains he’s an alien prince, and no one really takes him seriously. Of course, that’s just more childish “dumb s***” to a person who only cares about cars. If only Gundams were cars, Carson would be much happier. Nils appears and borrows Reiji’s gem, as he wants to run tests on it after the end of the last episode.

Meanwhile, a young blond man has shown up at the bedside of the elderly dude. The man’s grandfather requests that he fight in his place. Apparently there is some history there. The grandfather hands him a shoebox, and tells Julian that it’s his last wish for him to win honour for the Mackenzie family. The doctors ask him to let his grandfather rest. He takes the shoebox outside and opens it, finding a custom F91. It all seems so silly to my brother that they take Gunpla so seriously.

Cutting back to the hospital, it seems the grandfather is in fine health, and faked all of the heart problems to trick his grandson into playing with Gunpla again.

Rinko and China are moved by Aila’s story, and Julian shakes off the “ring rust” by accepting a Gunpla battle with Mao, who is looking to cheer himself up with an easy win against an unknown fighter. While Nils is thinking about the Gem, he hears that a battle ended in a nearby room and goes to check. He finds a worried Mao and a Gundam X Maoh that’s been torn to shreds.

Meijin Kawaguchi is checking out his new Gunpla, an Exia, and is informed that the challenger is no longer the old man, but rather his grandson Julian. This shocks Yuuki and Allan. It turns out they knew him at the Gunpla academy, and he was a shoe-in to become the third Meijin (a role that went to Yuuki instead). One day he just quit and disappeared.

When Julian finds out the third Meijin is Yuuki, he’s shocked. The second Meijin’s philosophy disgusted Julian, and he couldn’t stand to think of Gunpla like that, which is why he quit. He can’t understand how Yuuki could have accepted that and became Meijin. My brother is going for eye-rolls-per-second world record status at this point.

The battle is about to begin with everyone watching. “Field two, dessert” is what it sounds like, even though it says desert. If they fought on ice cream this might be slightly more interesting.

The F91 and the Exia stand off, and like many shonen anime and manga in the past, someone is wondering why they aren’t moving, and it’s explained they’re actually going through hundreds of movements mentally and finding none that are going to work. Then they start, and the F91 is fast enough to leave after images. They’re both exceptional fighters dodging each other’s shots. They go in for some beam saber combat and discuss why Yuuki became Meijin. Yuuki tells Allan he’s resigning the position til he proves himself by beating Julian.

The Exia enters Trans-Am mode and now the F91 and the Exia are on equal footing in terms of speed. The Yuuki theme starts playing, which is epic as always, although my brother doesn’t understand why there is Mexican wailing in the background. (It’s a Spanish theme; he’s a redneck remember).

It’s an epic match, but in the end Yuuki manages to cut the F91 down. This means the finals will be Reiji and Sei vs. Yuuki, for a third fight.

Julian and the third Meijin talk, and Julian lets him know he can’t give up Gunpla again, which makes his grandfather very happy. Sei and Reiji discuss the Exia and the fact that Trans-Am was a desperation move and that they can win.

ED break! Carson has to agree the action was good even if it was just dumb toys fighting.

Post ED, Nils is doing tests on the bead, and comes to the conclusion that it’s a Plavsky particle crystal. Queue mystery music.

Next episode, everyone has fun at some sort of Gunpla fair and WHAT IS THIS? Reiji vs. Sei? Get hype!

Watch Gundam Build Fighters on Gundam.Info or talk about this episode on our forums.

Nobunagun (Episode Ten)
Player: Bobby Henshin
Class: DJ

Get ready, everyone. The flashback episodes are coming. Today’s episode is a flashback where we learn the origin of Dogoo’s commanding officer, Commander… um… yeah that’s right we never learned her name, and it’s like episode 10. Oh well, we learn that at the age of 15 her village was destroyed… in the year 225 AD. She is almost 1800 years old. Turns out Mr. Bunny Alien Man was keeping her alive all these centuries in exchange for her help in collecting E-Genes to help fight the Invasionary Objects. Also to help in this quest he brought in Saint Germain. After she woke up from a 500 year long nap. She is not happy because whoever he brings onto the team will just die off after going to sleep. She wakes up again 300 years later and Saint Germain is still there. A look of extreme shock comes over her face, and the only explanation we are given is that he is a very interesting human being.

So, putting together the information we have gathered so far: Saint Germain is able to survive an exploding car wreck, stay the same age for hundreds of (going on a thousand) years and throws things with great velocity and accuracy… This man is Sebastian Michaels from Black Butler! He is an immortal butler. I don’t even know what to do with this guy anymore. Well I think the Black Butler fan girls do, but come on! If we are talking Black Butler, he has the looks of Chlaus from season two and the personality of Sebastian. So there you go, fan girls, have at him. Cut to the warring states era of Japan where they are sent to obtain the E-Genes of Oda Nobunaga. The young commander is enraged because she sees him as nothing more then a savage killer and all-around horrible human being. So you don’t like him because you think he is savage and a killer. Yet you went and got the E-gene of Jack The Ripper, known for killing countless victims in London and going down in history as the greatest murderer of all time. And you were okay with it. Yeah! Okay! What is your problem with this guy again? She throws a fit and decides to run away. Saint Germain decides to stay with her.

Years have gone by and she is now a 80 year old woman. Saint Germain, though, hasn’t aged a day, which destroys the theory of him being put in a cryochamber to keep young like she was. She came back to the tiny village she was living in just to find it burnt down to the ground again. She realizes what she must do to protect the world, and it only took her two burnt down villages. Leaping through time to one year before the Invasionary Objects become active, Saint Germain is… still the same, and it is time for Mr. Bunny Alien Man to use the cryochamber because he has used far too much power and is breaking apart. She is now put in charge of the newly created Dogoo and the fate of the world is now in her hands.

We now find ourselves in a medical bay where Jack, or Adam, is talking to Sio. The cells of Jack The Ripper want to use Nobunaga to find a way to defeat the giant squid monster guarding the tunnel they found two episodes ago. She using her Nobunaga mode, or Nobu-mode as I like to call it, and has war flashbacks. She bursts into the briefing room where Vidocq and several other general-looking people are trying to find ways to defeat the squid. They all just sound like they are arguing with each other and acting like children. Nobunagun says she has a plan to defeat the squid. Everyone stops and gives her a mean look. She hesitates as Vidocq yells at her about this not being a game. She gains her courage back using her Nobu-mode and basically gives the order of “Shut up I am talking.” Vidocq is about to retaliate when the commander orders to let her speak. Sio shows them on the map that they might be building another tunnel on the side that will lead up into the mainland. Vidocq is shocked and extremely mad that he did not think of this. Using this information, they come up with a plan to force them out into a nearby lake and fish them out. Everyone praises Sio for this finding. All except Vidocq, who looks like he is about to pop a blood vessel. All of this planning leads to what I believe Sio wanted this whole time: her own giant battleship lined with tanks! The episode ends here. Next episode we are going to have a giant epic battle!
Now usually this is the time where seasonal animes go into their spiral towards the climax, but in this series they haven’t gone into much yet so I think this is turning out to be a 24 episode anime, guys.

As for the challenge this week, we were to have a friend watch the episode and have them tell us what they thought. Sadly this wasn’t really
a challenge because this was a flashback episode where they go into detail and explain what the series is about. So no fun was had. But here is what his answer was.

“I think in this series there’s a secret world government organization that has people who have something called E-cells, which is a special power passed down from families without them knowing until the time was right to activate this power so that they can destroy an evil alien race from taking over the world.” -NathanGraves989

I will catch you all next episode when Sio uses her new Battleship tanks!

This player has been docked 10 points for grammar problems in their summary.

Watch Nobunagun on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Log Horizon (Episode Twenty-Two)

Player: Siege

Class: Content Provider

Oh, hey, a festival. Guess I missed the war.

“Hey, is this breast elf?”

Oh, right, Jay is joining me again. Also a friend of mine who goes by Snix. We’re watching Log Horizon. Woo?

So, this episode is based around cake I guess. And a festival. A festival of cake? Who knows? No time to wonder about that, it’s time for the opening!

Snix says “This is rap. Rock rap. Anime rock rap,” and Jay says “The only thing this anime has going for it is the decent opening. Well, I mean, if you compare it to something actually good it’s gonna seem bad.”

Apparently the trees also look nice. Thank you, Snix.

This episode is super dull. It’s not something I think I’ll enjoy writing about. It revolves around a love triangle and a cake and doesn’t further anyone’s character development.

This is the food episode, I guess. They already had a swimsuit one, albeit focused on war. Snix points out that they still have a baseball episode to do, while Jay mentions the spa episode. Both valid points. They still have four episodes to fill!

Snix informs me that this show isn’t very good. That’d pretty valid since this is the only episode he’s seen. It’s pretty okay. He does, however, concede that it’s “still better than Fairy Tail.”

Oh, right, episode. There’s a whole love triangle thing between tiny ninja (“I am not a fourth grader, I’m a level 14 thief!” says Jay.) and the little girl this show seems to focus on. There’s not terribly much to say here. Little girl cries and is cheered up by her brother. Oh, and ninja girl rubs Shiroe’s face. Which is pretty weird.

After going through this (admittedly pretty dull) episode, Snix left me with these parting words:

“Y’know, I wasn’t interested in this before you showed me this, and now I’m even less interested.”

Thanks, Log Horizon, for boring filler.

Watch Log Horizon on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Engaged To Unidentified (Episode Ten)
Player: Kayarath
Class: Content Provider

This week on Engage The Unidentified, the Kobeni wars! Benio and Mashiro face off in bloody combat to determine who Kobeni is destined to be with! Can the valiant knight Hakuya win the fair lady’s heart? The battle begins now!

Benio is quite upset at the whole ordeal. The stench of love comedy rears its ugly head once again! The smell is so great, it triggers an outburst within her. Her ranting is so strong, it forces even Hakuya to respond with a pity shutdown! That won’t stop Benio for a minute, though. The mere sight of Kobeni and Hakuya alone is enough to cause her to jump out the window! Since it’s not a depressing anime, it’s only a second floor window and she makes a four point landing. She immediately inserts herself in the picture to ensure that their relationship doesn’t develop any further.

Obviously, Mashiro will have none of that nonsense. She’ll do whatever she can to get those two together. She’ll tell Kobeni not to worry about Konoha because her proposal wasn’t that serious. On the other end, she’ll encourage Hakuya to get a great White Day present. Hakuya wonders what to buy, and tries to get a handle on the situation in general. Is Kobeni his waifu? Courtship is a perilous dance and Hakuya can barely two-step.

How does Kobeni feel about all of this? It is her life we’ll all arguing about; what’s her position on it? Honestly, all she really wants is peace and quiet. She doesn’t want to rock the boat or be in the spotlight in any manner. In many levels, she’s simply not ready for love. Even the thought of matching outfits with Hakuya freaks her out. She is concerned about him, however. At the end of the episode, she presents him with a handkerchief, which just happens to match one she got for herself. Every boat must move sooner or later. Some just like to cruise at their own pace…

Watch Engaged To Unidentified on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Kill La Kill (Episode Twenty-Two)
Player: Knightshade
Class: DJ

People of the internet! I’ve seen crazy, strange, over-the-top anime before, but I feel that the more I watch this, the more new and inventive ways this show finds to screw with my head… in a good way. Well, I just saw Kill la Kill 22 with a good friend of mine, and while I loved it like I love my Oreos, my friend hated it due to its silliness, but I’ll get into that in a bit; let’s start the review!

Ryuko reunites with Senketsu, gives a Gurren Laggan speech, fights against Nui, and really starts beating the ever-loving crap out of her. This results in Ryuko recovering both Scissor Blades and using them to cut off and destroy Nui’s arms. Nui is rescued by Ragyo’s secretary, Rei Hououmaru, while the Elite Four and Nudist Beach take advantage of the Covers used for her escape to recover their allies and Life Fibers. We see Nui having words with Rei about how she wasn’t finished with the rebel scum and vows to get revenge. I’m wondering at this point, since she’s bleeding like a chocolate fountain at a kids birthday party, if Nui really needs blood or if it’s just for show… oh well.

Afterwards, Satsuki offers to let Ryuko punch her in penance for manipulating her, but the Elite Four stand in the way of her blows. Recognizing that Satsuki has friends supporting her like her own, Ryuko accepts Satsuki’s apology and agrees to fight alongside her for the epic battle yet to come. After a reconciliatory celebration, Satsuki explains Ragyo’s plan to take over the world by linking the original Life Fiber to a satellite above Honnouji Academy, turning every human being into a Life Fiber being. Ryuko and Satsuki head off together to face Ragyo, while the Elite Four stay behind to defend the ship from a giant-sized Covers, which leads to a dresser falling from the sky revealing Mako making her triumphant return to the battlefield with her two star goku uniform.

Now, I found this episode wonderful, exciting, and awesome; however, my friend saw it as stupid. Now before you all try to kill him: 1) I saw him first so I get to Kill la Kill him first and 2) if I was thrust into an episode with no context or an explanation of what’s going on, I’d feel the same way. He’s looking at it as an outsider, and that’s what he is. He has no real idea of what really going on unless he watches the whole show. Now, I hope he does, but sadly he may never want to come back to this show again, and to that all I have to say is this… 9 dead planets out of 10. I’m going to hunt down my friend now with my goku uniform I took from the episode. I knew it would come in handy again!

Watch Kill La Kill on Crunchyroll & Daisuki or talk about this episode on our forums.

Nisekoi (Episode Ten)
Player: Zero Gravity
Class: DJ

Watch Nisekoi on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Week 010 Tally

1. Kanashimi: 2,817
2. Midnight: 2,341
3. Elk: 2,298
4. Bobby Henshin: 1,870
5. Siege: 1,610
6. Kayarath: 1,580
7. Knightshade: 1,600
8. Zero Gravity: 900

Next week’s challenge: Since horrible cosplay is trending… take a picture of you cosplaying from one of the characters from your show!

Make sure to vote for your favorite review below! You can give your favorite an extra 20 points.