Haikyuu Season 2 Episode 3

*Warning Spoilers Below*


One problem's solved, but another arises. Shimizu and Hitoka are preparing to go home, but Hitoka overhears Takeda sensei say the bus they booked for Tokyo away games is not available. It looks like they're going to have to find another way or reserve another bus, which will cost more. 

More members come outside after a while and are all very welcoming to Hitoka. She talks about how this is really a new experience is grateful for Shimizu's outreach towards her. We get to see a little of Hitoka's life at home. Her mother's a businesswoman who goes out for work often. Before she leaves in this scene, she tells Hitoka she has to have the same amount of passion as the team otherwise it would be extremely rude. The very next day, Shimizu reassures her on joining in the changing room. As the team gets ready for their practice match. Hitoka gets more interested and awestruck in the team's actions and mood. 

Pretty sure she got a lady boner when she sees them rush out to their positions. She is so hyped and excited after seeing her first match. After striking a conversation with Hinata, she thinks back about her mother's comment. She relates the situation to how she was only a villager in a school play, but Hinata says he was also the same role in a play before. 

The statement that really hit Hitoka was Hinata saying, "Townsperson B has its own kind of awesomeness." Later on, Hinata and Kageyama finish a study session with Hitoka at her home. They also meet her mother and let it slip that they want Hitoka to go to Tokyo with them. As the duo walks home, Hinata remembered he left his textbook at Hitoka's home so he runs back to retrieve it. Hitoka takes that time to tell him why she shouldn't be a manager. Hinata couldn't relate to her response at all, but goes on to make points of his past mistakes.

He first confirms that she wants to join then settles on taking Hitoka to her mom to tell her about her conviction. Once they arrive, she makes a scene of screaming her commitment to become manager for the team. Her mother sheds tears of joy in response. At that point, Hitoka also asks Hinata for help in creating a poster to start a donation campaign for the team. She's able to capture the essence of her vision for the poster with her mother's help. When Hinata passes one of these posters, he stops in awe to see how much he resembles his hero Little Giant.

We conclude with the official induction of Hitoka as team manager,

                              and the four academically challenged members receiving their grades in the moment of truth.

I must say that I giggled every time they said Murabito (townsperson) because it's such a funny word, and it also happens to be Villager's (Smash Bros) translated name from Japanese. This was a great episode to give more background for Hitoka and prepare the setting for their next away game. 

Thanks for reading!

Owarimonogatari Episode 2

*Warning Spoilers Below*

Since Oikura is returning to school in this timeline, that's where we start this episode off. The monologue is about Oikura's despise towards Araragi and him not returning such feelings back. They make a slight at Detective Conan in this opening sequence lol. 

I forgot that they make new OPs every episode. Ougi calls the coincidence of Oikura's return a strange twist of fate. For one reason or another, Ougi and Araragi are at his previous middle school. In his shoe locker, they find a letter addressed to him. Flashing back to what happened last episode, when Hanekawa informed Araragi of Oikura's return, Hanekawa also tells of Oikura's many questions regarding Araragi specifically. Once she leaves to tell Ms. Hoshino about Oikura's return, Araragi enters the classroom to meet Oikura. While he was taking a lighthearted and funny approach to her, Oikura opens up albeit with hostility. 

She sounds like a fucking granny in contrast to the first episode's flashback. Turns out she has some health issues revealed through a cough. We also learn that her absolute despise of Araragi is because she hates people who don't acknowledge why they are the way that they are. As she goes into a crazy frenzy, Araragi attempts to calm her down by putting his hands on her shoulders. She responds by stabbing his hand with a pencil. As he walks away, Senjougahara is seen standing by the doorway with Hanekawa hanging on to her in an attempt to keep her outside. 

This premise is kind of... out there. They want to fight each other over Araragi (not in the traditional way the phrase sounds). Oikura runs over to slap Senjougahara after hearing her say she's helping Araragi get into her college because that is her desire, not his. After she punches Oikura in return, she tells Araragi to take care of the rest since she will faint as well. In the present, Ougi explains a very weasel-esque story of how she was able to accompany him. Ougi disappears for a bit then reappears with Araragi in a different setting. 

They proceed to the discussion of their childhood and sparingly mix in Oikura; Araragi was born to police parents, Oikura returned to school as soon as Mrs. Tetsujo (the culprit of last episode's cheating) went on maternity leave, and Ougi reveals a feeling of being born very recently. Araragi realizes that he can't keep quiet about things when he's with Ougi. As the episode ends, Araragi sets the stage for himself telling Ougi about his own story, the next episode.

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Owari no Seraph: Nagoya Kessen-hen Episode 2

*Warning Spoilers Below*

Our Moon Demon Company members are learning how to further their power by learning the demon possession skill for their weapons. 

Yoichi demonstrates his demon manifestation skills to Yu and Kimizuki's amazement. Of course Yu is quick to attempt the demon possession without a word of warning; before everyone fully freaked out, he faints and falls to the ground. After a while, he has a seizure like episode. We see more of his internal past with an emphasis on being called a Seraph of the End by his parents who were also trying to end his life. 

This is all generated by Asuramaru in order to try and take over Yu's being. Alas he fails and (I giggled at this part) when trying to assassinate Yu internally, Yu courageously does nothing against Asuramaru's attack stating that he won't fight back because he wants to be his friend. #Friendship-speech-initialized. I am just laughing my ass off at this cliche. I need some time to breathe. We switch over to Sanguinem City, where Ferid and Mika are reporting the war's events to Queen Krul. It seems other vampire progenitors are also in attendance and in disbelief seeing the Seraph of the End project results. 

This was due to the fact that eight years ago, Krul had supposedly exterminated the Hyakuya Sect, source to these experiments and our hero Hyakuya Yuichiro. Okay... How is this show switching from friendship speech to the epitome of politics. Another progenitor attempts to leverage Yu's survival as a fault from Krul to propose that he should be King. To Krul's displeasure, once the presentation ended she let her incited anger out on Ferid. Now, Ferid decides to blackmail Krul with his intel and use of Mika. 

Back to the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. Kimizuki has lost a battle against his demon and it appears he is losing control. After a scene showing his conviction not to lose to Yu, he wins over his demon. They show off their new found skills in a little spar. Afterwards, Shinoa and Mitsuba check the computer to find that the their Moon Demon Company memebers' past histories have been deleted, most likely done by Guren.

Thanks for reading!

K: Missing Kings Movie

*Warning Spoilers Below*

I hope i'm not wrong in expecting a lot from this movie after watching season one. 

Before Munakata is a gigantic Damocles. Scepter 4 receives an emergency alert about the Gold tower being under attack. A green light flashes across Munakata's glasses... Could it be that this is the unveiling of the Green King? While Scepter 4 has the outside of the building locked down, there is an assailant inside who cuts down a group of Gold clansmen in an instant. There's a lot of green colored themes already but this guy doesn't have green hair. 

After more cutting, he arrives at his goal, the slate that gives the Kings their auras. Wtf. Was that Mikoto Suoh? Yata is seen traveling on his skateboard. Neko and Kuroh meet up with Kukuri at a cafe. Through their dialogue, we gather that it's been a year after the events of K Project season one. Since then, the school has been restored barring the clock tower and a crater. Kuroh and Neko split off to chase after Anna. There appears to be another assassin aiming for Anna. Kuroh can immediately see that the enemy is from Jungle, the Green Clan; before the attacker retreats, we're treated to a taste of his manipulation ability which is the Green clan's specialty. 

My jaw dropped in response to finding out who Anna's escort, Kamamoto Rikio was. Holy cow like that's a completely different character. I first thought it was Kusanagi. He explains that Mikoto's passing has made him lose his appetite. It turns out the reason the Jungle member was stalking Anna was because he wanted her to use her powers to locate Weissman, the Silver King. With an appalled reaction from Kuroh and Neko, they get their hopes up. However Anna hasn't been able to use her tracking powers as of late. Furthermore, we hear that Homra has basically disbanded. 

We cut to Yata back at Homra's bar, stuck in the past and watching old footage of his own birthday party held there. Damn son, dat ass doe. Seri calls Kusanagi who has been doing investigations in Germany following the incident. The Jungle member informs his partner (who we saw at the beginning of the film) of KuroNeko's reappearance. As KuroNeko travel with Anna and Rikio to shelter, they get intercepted by the Jungle clansman, Mishakuji Yukari. He and Kuroh know each other having served the late 7th King Ichigen together. Kuroh harbored hatred for this man for years due to the fact that Mishakuji pointed his blade at Ichigen once before. 

As they began their battle, Rikio attempts to escape with Anna. Unfortunately they were cut off by the masked Jungle assailant from before resulting in Anna being captured. Rikio makes his way back to the Homra bar to enlist the help of Yata, still feeling salty about Kusanagi's absence. With no one else to turn to, Yata calls Saruhiko for help. Alright, why is it that the sign above the bar says Homra, but clearly when Yata and Saruhiko pronounce it, it's the same as Homura the word? Shake my noggin. Anyways, Yata is begging with all he's his pride on the line and Saruhiko hangs up on him. After pre-raging and feeling hopeless for a bit, Yata receives a map from Saruhiko. One of the most ridiculous(ly hilarious) forms of comedic relief, is given here as Saruhiko reports to Munakata on his findings. 

As he speaks about the relationship between Miwa Ichigen and Jungle, then the manipulation ability of their higher tier members, Munakata shifts his entire focus on the similarities between their masked clansmen manipulating walls and the wonder of Ninjas. 

>>>Holy fucking shit, you can't make this stuff up. As I'm taking screenshots for this blog I get this notification from Gyazo<<<

Once he's got his head back on straight, Munakata decides to rescue Anna. Once again, the characters head to the gold tower where Jungle has taken control. Yata charges straight through the front door surprising everyone outside. As Kuroneko follow suit, they beat a ton of Jungle clansmen then move up and find a trapped Anna behind Mishakuji. It seems like the green parrot could be a strain like Neko. 

After the parrot dispels Neko's illusion, she is saved by Kusanagi. Meanwhile, Kuroh is fighting Mishakuji once again. As Yata also has trouble with his green ninja opponent, Kusanagi also makes his way up to assist him. Kusanagi whispers something into Anna's ear, which in turn initiates a dream sequence. She sees Tatara and Suoh who encourages her to accept and become the new King (Queen?) of Red. 

Once she does, she easily breaks her cage and summons a Damocles. At that time, every member of Homra gains a sense of what's going on through their emblem. Yata brims with confidence in this new powerful feeling, as he takes down the foe. A gigantic bird thing flies out of Anna. Not too sure what's going there. Kuroh resolves that he's not just a follower of Ichigen but Silver Clansman to Weissman. After the parrot confirmed Anna becoming the new Red King, it becomes a tool for communication between Mishakuji and Nagare Hisui, the Green King. As Mishakuji leaves, they leave a "gift" of Green lightning amassed by their power. 

Anna struggles with her Damocles to shield the group from it. Once her barrier broke, Munakata immediately forms another and saves them. When the Ninja jungle member tries to escape, she is cut off by Saruhiko. As Anna, Yata, and Kusanagi exit the gold building, Scepter 4 gives them a warm welcome ceremony for the new Red King. 

Since the Green King has his eye on Anna, Munakata offers the full cooperation of Scepter 4 to protect her. Back at Yashiro's dorm room, Kurneko and Kukuri look at the tracking marble gift Anna gave them. Inside of it, we see Weissman, alive and talking to a hospitalized Gold King Kokujoji on his blimp. It seems like this is a death talk where Kokujoji will die at the end of the conversation. Yep, that's exactly what it was. I think this is an allusion towards the return of Weissman back onto the grounds of humanity. 

The stage is set for Season 2 K: Return of Kings.

I wonder if this was like a theater movie or a TV special movie. Most of my time spent watching it was also wondering if this could've been done in 2-3 episodes so I'm guessing TV. All in all it was pretty good. Definitely a great way to set up the new season. In this method of laying bases for a continuation, they reminded everyone of the characters, already introduced new ones, and answered questions people had following last season. I very much prefer this way than how they taught characters in season 1. Onto Season 2!

Thanks for reading!

Owari no Seraph: Nagoya Kessen-hen Episode 1

*Warning Spoilers Below*

Now we get to the good good. Near the end of last season, we learned that the experimentation the humans were working on was called the show's title: Seraph of the End (Owari no Seraph). I just remembered, the vampire queen (Krul) hardly served a role outside of being the explanation for Mika's survival. I hope she'll do more in this season. Off the bat, Ichinose admits to killing Shinoa's sister Mahiru, who now holds her existence in Ichinose's sword as a demon. 

Yu, now out of his comatose state, remembers nothing from losing control of himself. One thing that's made very clear is that Shinoa has fallen in love with him. I don't know, her teasing nature is quite annoying in my opinion. An announcement is called requesting the presence of Yu in the middle of his conversation with Shinoa. Before he gets there, Ichinose Guren intercepts and reminds him that he is his savior and should be prioritized over any of the Hiragi family's orders. 

He also runs into Sangu whom informs him she just had an interview concerning the incident and of her promotion. Upon entering the main office to be interviewed, Yu finds himself in a test to see if he's a spy for the vampires. Kureto, the Lieutenant General of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, takes it a step further showing Yu an interrogation room filled with his teammates. Through his research and questioning, Kureto pieces together that since Yu's name is Hyakuya, he was involved in magic experimentation through his orphanage. 

He also aligns this with Ichinose's character, getting a feel to why he saved Yu. Afterwards he suggests that Yu works for him, exactly as Ichinose feared. As soon as Yu leaves with an extremely injured Yoichi and Shiho, he finds Guren and Shinoa waiting for him. Guren admits to saving him for the express purpose of experimenting. In response, Yu says he is fine with that, and will do anything to save Mika. Guren also goes on to say that they are his family and they will save Mika. 

Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it. The episode ends with a scene of Mika refusing to drink an abducted child's blood as requested by Ferid, and remarking how painful it is.

So the problem now is that even though Yu knows he was/is being experimented on, he doesn't know the results of it and still doesn't know about the monster he became. A sort of hole here is that his weapon, Asuramaru, can communicate with him right? So he can just tell him what happened right? I mean he did warn him when they first made contact; I'm going to assume the scene of him seeing angels and the heavenly light with Asuramaru is included in his amnesia.
There's lot of story left to unfold and I am hooked.

Thanks for reading!

Owari no Seraph: Nagoya Kessen-hen Episode 0 RECAP

*Warning Potential Spoilers Below*


So I ended up binge watching the first season really fast without blogging about it since it was recommended to me by a friend; the good news is now I can write about this second season that has just now started.

>Lookback at season one's finale
From what we last saw, Mika was taken back by the vampires and Yu woke up from his coma and rampage. I was actually kind of mindfucked with that ep because we had a biased view of Yu's story with the humans the whole time and with Mika's reasoning, I suddenly thought... maybe the vampires could be the good guys? Not entirely though. I mean they still view humans as livestock but the Japanese Imperial Demon Army regularly use them and vampires as test subjects for experimentation. It is sort of a situation where you gotta choose the lesser of two evils... But we'll find out more through season two.

>Episode 0

Lol, this Universal intro really rustled everyone when it first came out. Seems like this will be a recap-montage episode? Yep. Guess this was made to accommodate people who skipped the first season, but I'm glad I watched it anyways. So I skipped the entire thing till the end and there was nothing new except a few snaps of characters old and new.

Context clues - this is probably a main family or leader of the JIDA/relative to Shinoa.

Thanks for reading!

Noragami Aragoto Episode 2

*Warning Spoilers Below*

While Kugaha collects sap to make pills, Nora visits him. He calls her "Norry" but she remarks that she dislikes that name and asks him to choose another from her body, showing off how many owners she has as a stray regalia. 

He mentions that he visited one of her favorite owners, Yato, and notes that he will be useful. I must say this is some pretty decent build up and is raising my expectations. After the OP, we're taken to a fake-serious mood meeting between Yukine and Yato where he informs him that he's made a friend. Yato visits Tenjin's temple to be teased by Tenjin and Mayu for not even know who Yukine's new friend serves. A quick skirmish between Yato and a phantom happens and as soon as they're done, Yukine reverts back and rushes away to meet with his friend Suzuha ecstatically. 

A sort of inside joke plays out through Suzuha saying he can get Yukine an autograph of Bishamon made out to Yato and him; the context being Suzuha not knowing who Yato is. Yukine starts to learn about Bishamon's family of regalias through Suzuha. Suzuha also takes Yukine to a cherry blossom tree and briefly goes through a story between him and a human friend, Tomoko, who could see him every summer, but can't ever remember him; they made a promise to see the tree together once it's fully bloomed but he has yet to see her again in 30 years. 

This makes Yukine consider what will happen with his friendship with Hiyori. He wonders if she will forget about him and since he's already dead and won't age unlike Hiyori. Dr. Kugaha pays a visit to Suzuha in front of the cherry blossom tree. He taunts him by saying he's forgotten by Tomoko and hasn't been called by Bishamon in forever either. What a dickbag asshole. As he leaves, he sends a pack of wolf phantoms carrying the strange mask again to tear Suzuha apart with their fangs. 

Once his death is confirmed, Bishamon awakens from her slumber from the pain of losing Suzuha's name from the contract. The next day, Yukine takes Hiyori with him to the tree and is suspicious about not seeing Suzuha there. Bishamon patrols her palace wondering what happened to Suzuha. Kazuma notices Bishamon's condition is worsening. As she turns in her sleep, he catches a glimpse of a blight mark on her neck. After running an inspection on every regalia under Bishamon with no results, the blight mark disappears. 

Out by the tree again, Yato runs into Kugaha. Kugaha instigates a fight with him and taunts Yato by saying he's a weakling that will fade away as soon as he's forgotten. At that moment Yato immediately pictures Hiyori in his mind. This must be part of his plan to use Yato as mentioned in the beginning. As Kugaha retreats to Nora, we finally hear his plan of making Bishamon disappear.

I seriously can't wait for Kugaha to get what's coming. But if he's the main antagonist then that's going to take the whole season... I just want to see him get buttraped by Yato and Yukine, maybe even Bishamon if they find out what's going on. 

Thanks for reading!

Haikyuu Season 2 Episode 2

*Warning Spoilers Below*

If any of the members fail their finals, they will have to give up their weekends and summer, putting the team's future activities in jeopardy. Oh man, literally every reaction shot in this beginning is gold. I can't stop laughing! If Hinata has never had a double digit score on quizzes how the hell has he been moving on to higher grades? It seems captain Sawamura has an idea for them to succeed though. 

Since they're in the same grade, Hinata proposes the idea of asking Tsukishima for help studying to Kageyama. Of course Tsukishima is the kind of fellow who wants to hear Kageyama beg before helping. Manager Shimizu is still looking for new club members and reminds us of the third years leaving soon. Nishinoya and Tanaka are also candidates for failure. They set up a study session at Tanaka's house.

In an exercise where Ennoshita advises that you can find the answer in the passage, the question was "In the passage, identify the sentence that best reflects Norio's contradictory feelings." Nishinoya's response was, "Live more like a man, Norio!!!" ROFL, He ignored the question and Norio. We also briefly see Tanaka's sister Saeko. Meanwhile at Hinata's house, we get a glimpse of him getting motivated while exchanging messages with Kozume from Nekoma High, their rivals. 

Here is the (temporarily) new manager Shimizu recruited, Yachi Hitoka. After visiting all of the club members she escapes in fright. We see more of Hinata and Kageyama's dedication when they ask Tsukishima for more help outside of their planned schedule to which he refuses. Before fully exiting in anger, Yamaguchi recommends the duo asks the new manager Hitoka for help since she's in a higher skilled class. While teaching them, Hitoka and Hinata go back and forth on the volleyball club and really gets Hitoka interested. She begins to understand the passion behind the sport and team. 

Afterwards, Hitoka attends a club meeting (practice) and watches the members in action with amazement. Takeda sensei comes in at the end of the session to announce that he has scheduled a practice match against Ouginishi High. The episode concludes with a shot of Hitoka's nervous face.

So many classic funny scenes. Albeit this episode's focus was on studying and meshing in Hitoka's character, I feel the execution was well done.

Thanks for reading!