With only two weeks left what’s left in store for our players?!

This week’s challenge: It’s almost the end of Simulblast, and the end of your shows! But every end is a new beginning! Re-read your Simulblast summary from Week 001 and tell what you agree with and disagree with from that week! Doing so will gain you 30 points!

Gundam Build Fighters Try (Episode Eleven)
Player: Elk

It feels good to write a Simulblast review without being 20 minutes or closer to the deadline. It’s like having a seat on an airplane where you can stretch out your legs. On to episode 11!

We open with Ramba Ral, always a good start. He’s at the Yajima showroom, and he’s meeting Nils Neilsen from the first series, only he’s NOT Nils Nielsen. He’s Nils Yajima. It seems he’s taken his wife’s name, who I think is probably the rich girl from last season who pretty much declared ownership of him in that season.

Ral wants to bring the Try Fighters to Nielsen Labs, which is the name of the episode, to train for the National tournament. Nils is worried that as first timers in nationals, Nielsen Labs might be too much, but Ral is willing to bet on his team being able to take the harsh training.

OP Break!

Now we’re in Ral’s Jeep, everyone is heading to their training camp, though Ral hasn’t told them where. Sekai and Hoshino are singing the theme to Double Zeta, though they’ve adlibbed the lyrics a bit, and Yuuma is fed up with the singing. Needless to say, to people who have been into Gunpla, Hoshino and Yuuma are a bit awed by the locale. Sekai is just pumped at all the cool shiny stuff.

When they get to the training area, they’re just in time for a start up simulation. A couple Zeon grunts are taking on an entire army of simulation drones and a battleship. They make short work of the CPU enemies, and are physically drained. Perhaps they’ve been training a while? Sekai thinks they’re good, while Yuuma notices the quality of their Gunpla, and Hoshino notices their teamwork.

They don’t seem to recognize the Blue Giant, because after Hoshino introduces the Try Fighters and the school they’re from they treat them like trash since it’s only their first time. Sekai of course takes umbrage with this, causing the duo to challenge him to a fistfight. They’re surprised when he gladly accepts taking a fighting stance.

Luckily the two are saved when their leader “Matsunaga” with a silver Zaku Commander shows up. (Gundam fans may or may not know who this is.) He introduces them as White Wolf, and when Hoshino introduces Try Fighters to him, he recognises they beat the semi finalists. It seems White Wolf beat them in nationals last year.

Sekai asks how many times they won, which is a silly question since Gunpla Academy wins every year. At least for the last 6. Allan Adams from last season is their coach. Sekai says he wants to beat them, which amuses White Wolf’s subordinates, which again riles up Sekai. Ral sets up a training match for one hour from now.

A little over an hour later Sekai is looking for his Build Burning, so they’re late for the match. When they get there, team White Wolf has been completely destroyed by a single person. Ral is in shock, having witnessed the fight.

The one man who beat them isn’t just anyone though, Yuuma recognises the Gunpla as the one that made him quit Gunpla years ago, against the fighter who called him talentless. His rival is taunting team White Wolf when he has to suddenly dodge some long range blasts. In a rage Yuuma rushed into the field to battle him. Yuuma is monologuing about his pain, and Hoshino is flashbacking to his explanation for why he quit Gunpla. Ral also makes the connection, wondering if this is fate.

Yuuma does a lot better against him now, but winds up still losing easily. They trade words, and his rival pretty much M.Bison’s him, making him even more angry. He planned and practiced how to beat all of his weapons, but his enemy has grown since then, or at least had extra tricks up his sleeve. The Lightning is in bad condition, and Yuuma is mentally and emotionally out of the game. Before his rival, Adou Saga, can finish him off, Sekai and Hoshino also enter the battle.

Sekai attacks with the Jigen Haoh school, which surprises Adou, but not for long. He recognises them as the same attacks someone named Junya uses. He manages to dodge his attacks, and fires on Hoshino, who dodges by splitting up to give Sekai his fist. Sekai goes in for his final attack, but Adou reveals his hand has a face on it, like D from Vampire Hunter D. It eats Sekai’s Winning Knuckle, taking off his right hand in the process.

People are watching now, in awe of Adou, “a regular member of Gunpla Academy”‘s strength; But before Adou can finish them… again, the A-Meijin Meijin, Tatsuya descends from the sky. I missed his theme, it’s so good. The light from his majestic Perfect Gundam III causes holographic flowers to bloom. This is apparently a legendary Gundam, Red Warrior, and it looks amazing.

ED Break!

Allan Adams is also watching, wondering what spurred him to intervene in the Gunpla battle.

Reading my first episode Simulblast, I was wrong about quite a few things. I thought Yuuma and Hoshino would be a thing, where as it now seems Sekai and Hoshino will be a thing, and Yuuma might get with Mirai? I was right about Sekai being a Reiji clone, so much so that some people STILL think they’re related somehow. We actually saw the fight that caused Yuuma to quit Gunpla battle in episode one. It’s funny that it came full circle in this episode with this challenge. All in all I think the first episode was a great setup, and despite the lack of time being dedicated to each mobile suit since there are 6 in every fight now, I think it was a great choice to show off more interesting customizations. I also should have realized JoJo was on hiatus before I said I’d be recapping it at the start, or at least edited that out once I said at the end that it was on hiatus.

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

Chaika ~The Coffin Princess~ Avenging Battle (Episode Eleven)
Player: Kanashimi

So, as most of you know, Chaika ended last week. Regardless, it’s been quite a journey and it’s been somewhat nice to reflect on the series now that it’s over. In the first week I entered with high expectations, and I think it’s fair to say they were met. The journey was fun yet lacked somewhat in the end. I also never got more kawaii desu luffle huggles from Toru and Chaika. I needed some more!

The way the series started though was really interesting because we encountered a hero who had a remain that was willing to duel for it instead of our trio being forced to steal it. It gave some variation to the journey from the first season, and allowed us an avenue to learn from backstory on Emperor Gaz. At this point, I was still hopeful that Chaika was actually Gaz’s daughter. In addition, the Gillette Corps were re-introduced to make them relevant, but I still think their purpose in the show was somewhat one-sided and shoehorned. That didn’t change so much until near the end of the series, but I digress.

The second episode is when I had to grit my teeth. One of my least favorite characters throughout Chaika was Red Chaika. She’s the typical tsundere type of character, but the issue with her specifically is that she has many of Chaika’s qualities. For example, Chaika speaks in broken sentences and is fairly innocent, but she can still fight. However, Red Chaika talks in broken sentences and yells at people, so it just grinds my gears. This was the first time though Red Chaika was able to get a remain before our heroes despite the fact that they defeated Claudia.

Vivi’s mental state also began to change her since she was half transformed into a Chaika. This was never really effectively explained why Vivi was transformed. Was her emotional state? Was it because she was so close to a Chaika that died, Blue Chaika? I have no idea, and I guess we’ll never know!

The next few episodes were pretty par for the course. For example, we found Clay who has another remain as well as information about an island that holds Gaz’s treasure. It’s the first time in the show where Toru and Chaika have different goals, and as such they fight over it. Chaika is hurt and thus leaves them to instead explore the island that is calling to her. Obviously, Toru and Akari have to follow after her after Toru realizes he’s a dummy head.

This is when the series begins to get complex. We discover there is a magic/scientist operation of Gaz’s old followers on the island developing something. They’re working on demons and demi-humans and all this other junk that actually doesn’t make any sense in the context of the story. Realistically, the only thing we gain from the island is the meeting of Niva, who is a strong weapon that can be used by gundo users. We never really get much of a bonding moment between Niva and the rest of the gang, but her choice later in the series single-handedly saves them in the end. Regardless, on the island, Chaika is able to blast up any bad guys and continue on her journey.

After that, we get a note about the tournament, which is where the final bit of the series takes place. The tournament is being held by a man who beheaded Emperor Gaz and has sunk into this “I must bring back war because otherwise I have no worth” thing. He’s being aided by Arina, Irina, and Black Chaika… sadly, his plan attracts pretty much every other key character. Not only that, we find out Alberic is actually alive and working for this guy. Oh, and Shin is, too… who is Shin? The guy who trained Akari and Toru, obviously.

These things are continuously messy the more I think on it. Either way, Niva follows Guy so Black Chaika can use her when she begins to revive Emperor Gaz by eating all of the remains… I can’t describe it any other way. In addition, we find out Gaz never had a daughter and Chaika is just the name of the magic that makes a person Chaika. It’s really vague, but hey, we don’t have many episodes left.

Blah blah blah, final fight, Toru turns into a dragoon, and fights Gaz and Niva betrays Gaz to help our heroes. Everyone lives happily ever after! Except for Alberic who got his arm cut off… oh well. The show was great and is still my favorite Simulblast show I’ve ever gotten, but the rushed ending still irks me.

After three attempts, Kana stole Elk’s Color-Of-Blood Shell!

Watch Chaika ~The Coffin Princess~ Avenging Battle on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Denki-Gai (Episode Eleven)
Player: Sho

Whoa! We’re almost done with this season of Simulblast! Can you believe it?! And it seems to be Sommelier’s past? And perhaps the G-man? She used to be the class rep and she caught Sommelier and his friends looking at pervy books. Even as a kid he didn’t really say much huh? Oh yeah, he could possibly be a selective mute huh? It looks like he and his friend’s look at these kinds of books all the time. And G-man, or at least a girl that looks like her, joins them each day too! It looks like she’s starting to enjoy the books? Bi? Pan? Or perhaps she’s just interested in Sommelier! This show is incredibly… Well, it’s heart warming too. She keeps wanting to protect Sommelier’s ero-books. And Sommelier protects her when she brings a book to give to him from her brother! It looks like she loves ero-books too! At last it’s revealed! Plus she’s actually G-man, haha.

Girl power check time! Tsumorin and Hio-tan goes to check on Sensei’s girl power! It looks like she slept in for four hours! It looks like she goes to a family restaurant to work on her manga, only buying drinks and pretty much working all day. I think Tsumorin forgot what she was doing watching Sensei-chan. Apparantly she did a lot of things that Sensei-chan did herself, trying to save money. Even going so far as to eat ramen using the same soup from lunch!

The Lips, huh? Fu Girl is way too short to be talking to Sommelier. Sommelier can’t even see her when she talks to him unless he looks down. She wants to get taller. In order to solve this problem, she piggybacks Umio! He loses balance and Fu Girl crashes into him! Unfortunately he has a big lump on his forehead now, and Fu Girl… W-what?! She ends up kissing him suddenly when he’s resting! She ends up running away because she’s so embarrassed! I can’t tell if Sommelier could tell what happened, but he seems to be shocked anyway!

So, my first impressions of this show. I thought it was perverted, funny, and adorable! I was totally right. Although it’s not an ero show, it’s mostly comedy, drama and outright adorability! Much better than erotic fanservice if I do say so myself!

Watch Denki-Gai on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Your Lie In April (Episode Eleven)
Player: Kayarath

We’re transitioning to the second half of Your Lie in April now. Kosei has stood up (emotionally) and now ready to walk forward. But the journey to find oneself is long and arduous, and is filled with peril. The first perils Kosei has to face are the judges’ scorn and Takeshi’s anger. In terms of the competition, Kosei blew it and the piano competitions are serious business. Takeshi is also quite letdown by Kosei’s sub par performance. Takeshi wanted to face the human metronome, not some angst ridden teenager.

Kosei, of course, shrugs it off. Winning isn’t everything you know. He admits he made a mistake and moves on. Looks like Takeshi doesn’t have a rival anymore. While Kosei isn’t out to win anymore, losing and bombing hard still has an effect on him. He breaks out in a sprint in a rush of energy and emotion.

But what now? There’s always the next performance. Kosei and Kaori get invited to perform again. Looks we have something to do for the next episode.

Watch Your Lie In April on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

World Trigger (Episode Eleven)
Player: Tyler

Tyler has exhausted all of his chances, and is now out of the competition!

Watch World Trigger on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince (Episode Eleven)
Player: Bobby Henshin

We’re almost done with the season! It went by pretty quick, if you ask me. But, we are now on the second to last episode. Now, if you remember last week, I said that this episode is going to have a woman from Kyoya’s past visiting and making trouble for Erika. I thought it was going to be a old love interest or a woman who is taking Kyoya away from her. Turns out that this woman is Kyoya’s older sister!

Her name is Reika Sata, a 21 year old college student with the persona of a tiger, has come to visit her little brother in Tokyo. Erika, Kamiya and San-chan are very surprised to find out that Kyoya has family. The siblings greet each other with a…slap to the face?!She asks if they are his friends. San-chan says no, she is just a classmate. Jesus San-chan, cold hearted aren’t we? Erika is freaking out because she is meeting a member of her boyfriend’s family for the first time. She starts talking really fast, then breaking down until she slams her head on the table.

Back at Kyoya’s apartment, Reika says that Erika is cute but he should dump her. Kyoya tells her off and walks away. Reika is unconvinced that her little brother has actually found love. So, she calls Erika out on a date. The date turns into a test of faith as she takes Erika on a food eating spree. This girl can really pack in the sweets. They, basically, had 7 restaurants worth of food.

After being hit on by some guys that were sent packing by Reika’s tigerish behavior, Erika tries to tell her how Kyoya has helped her and has shown his true love for her. Reika is just laughing at every word and saying that Kyoya is nothing more then a moron. Erika has had enough and yells at her to stop. So Reika challenges her to the most grueling contest ever and, if she wins, she will apologize. So it has become a battle between the tiger and the wolf!

Meanwhile, at Takeru’s house, Kyoya is laying on Takeru’s bed. Not in that way you perverts. Takeru is playing a game and laughing at the fact that his sister would rip all of his clothes to shreds if he didn’t get home in time. Kyoya then receives a call from Reika which sounds like she did something to seriously hurt Erika! Kyoya rushes down to the hotel they were staying at and asks where she is. Reika is trying to stop him but Kyoya gives her a threat that I think would stop anyone in their tracks. What was the threat you ask? Well, you are just going to have to watch the anime for that one. But Erika is ok. Turns out that the two girls have settled their differences and are pals now.
So much so that Reika invites her back to Kobe to meet Kyoya’s mom. Oh dear!

They arrive at the train station. Erika asks what his mom is like. He just says she is a normal, middle-aged mom. Not a very concrete answer. Reika waves to the street and yells, “Mama! you came!”. Instead of a normal looking woman we have a giant, towering transvestite!? What just happened? Well we have one more episode to find out. Next week is the series finale! Stay tuned and make sure to vote for your favorites below.

Now for this week’s challenge! From the start of the series till two episodes ago I hated Kyoya with a burning passion. Now that there is only one episode left, I still want to hit him, but not as much. He has learned to be one with his own feelings. But he still has a long way to go. I still agree with my opinion on Erika. She just isn’t interesting as a main character. Kyoya is the only one that has really changed.

Bobby bought two items!

Strange Vial: STRANGE, ISN’T IT!? I don’t know what this does. Drink it yourself or throw it at someone else to use it.

Color-of-the-day-sky shell: A totally not-stolen invention! Use this item to make the leader lose 10% of their points!

He used his Strange Vial on himself! The strange vial transformed his “Tiny Envelope of Mystery” into “THE GIFT BOX OF SECRETS!”

He also used his Color-Of-The-Day-Sky Shell! Elk loses 117 points!

Watch Wolf Girl and Black Prince on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis (Episode Eleven)
Player: Whiskahs

This episode went places, places I didn’t particularly expect. The story continues along the two separate lines started in the last, the first following Favaro and gang and the second focused on the happenings in the capital, with an equal amount of surprises on both sides. There definitely seems to be a lot of tension building up to the season finale, but we’ll get into that in a bit.

On the capital side of things Rita is discovered by the demon that framed Jeanne, but a bit of quick thinking and necromancy allows her to escape from the lair unharmed. Despite the escape nothing really changes for Jeanne as in the morning she is still brought out for public execution. The crowd does its best to try and prevent Jeanne’s death, but when the stake she is tied to is set ablaze her fate seems sealed. To underline how stupid the king is he ends up ordering the soldiers lining the execution to kill the people who are calling out in support of Jeanne, which has an unintended consequence. In what would have been her final moments the demonic temptor from before appears to her in the flames consuming her and once again offers her power to which she finally succumbs while watching her countrymen being slaughtered by the king. Annnnnd just like that she is turned into a demon and flies off.

I’m not even joking, she turns into a demon and flies off. Don’t ask me why she flies off instead of, say, murdering the king and the soldiers that are slaughtering her people, but whatever. The hero “falls” and things kinda look grim, which both Rita and the recently arrived Bacchus comment on before Rita asks him for a ride.

Bacchus and Rita make their way toward Helheim via his magic cart and chat a bit about the happenings and what it means for the resurrection of Bahamut. Rita also mentions how strange it is that a human was able to completely turn into a demon as opposed to just gaining powers from a pact to which Bacchus mentions that there is one outstanding bounty for a person with such a power. The cart then runs over Azazel. Not really sure where he came from or how he is still alive at all, but the cart hits him and Bacchus and Rita tie him up and bring him along for the ride. Once he’s conscious he offers to help the duo if they take him to Bahamut to which they seem to agree.

The Favaro side of the story ends up progressing in a similar way. After escaping the pocket dimension Favaro makes the Bahamut claw into something like a sword while the trio makes their way toward Helheim. Eventually they stumble upon the place and after a weird sort of reveal it turns out there is a demon fortress waiting for them and both Beezlebub and the Jeanne’s temptor reveal themselves. After quickly sealing Kaiser and Favaro into seemingly impenetrable prisons the demons proceed to effectively harass Amira revealing that everything she knows about her past is a lie (or at least seems to be) before producing her mother. Amira eventually approaches her mother and hugs her, which causes weird magic things to happen which culminates in Beezlebub throwing a spear through her chest. Why? Not really sure, but whatever.

Seeing things as being pretty grim, Favaro attempts to make an escape by offering to join the demons. After being released and approached by Jeane’s temptor with a vial similar to the one that turned Jeanne into a demon, Favaro attacks only to be completely shut down by the demons superior strength and apparent knowledge of Favaro’s common tactics. The smackdown culminates in Favaro losing his crossbow and being forced to swallow the vial turning him into a demon. The transformation isn’t quite as colorful as Jeanne’s, his eyes pretty much just change, and then the episode ends.

So that was an episode. I feel like the series could probably use another few episodes to try and wrap things up nicely, but I think we only have one left, so here’s to hoping it’s good!

As for looking back in time to my first summary, I don’t think my opinion on things has changed too much. Favaro isn’t quite as questionable as he first appeared, but my opinion of Kaiser remains unchanged and Amira still mostly seems like a magical-girl-from-the-sky plot device. Overall I don’t think the series let me down too much on the expectation front, but it does seem like the series could do with a long run to expand upon a lot of things.

Aero made 4 attempts at stealing Kana’s Hat of the Banker, but failed!

Watch Rage of Bahamut: Genesis on Funimation or talk about this episode on our forums.

Week 011 Tally

1. Elk: 1054
2. Kanashimi: 1028
3. Sho: 969
4. Kayarath: 763
5. Bobby Henshin: 719
6. Whiskahs: 494
7. The Editor: 439
8. Tyler: 0

Week 011 Token Counts

1. Kanashimi: 2 Tokens
2. Bobby Henshin: 0 Tokens
3. Elk: 4 Tokens
4. Kayarath: 3 Tokens
5. Sho: 5 Tokens
6. Whiskahs: 0 Tokens
7. The Editor: 5 Tokens
8. Tyler: 0 Tokens

Next week’s challenge: It’s the last week of Simulblast, so, as per tradition, this challenge needs to be incredibly challenging! In fact, I don’t think it gets much harder than last finale! So let’s do it again! Write your summary without using the letter u! You may replace the letter U in proper nouns with an asterisk, but that’s the only time!

But let’s raise the stakes a little! If you fail this challenge, you’ll definitely lose all of your tokens, 100 points of yours will be given to the player below you, and each of your items has a chance to disappear!

Make sure to vote for your favorite review below! You can give your favorite a Token!