Mastodawn

Angelic Layer Episode 20!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer!

Last time on Angelic Layer, Misaki is chosen to fight in an exhibition match with the Angelic Layer developers! And to make things even more surprising, poor Hatoko is running a fever and can’t be Misaki’s second for the match and Misaki finds out that Mr. Ichon is not only an important developer for Angelic Layer, he’s considered the “Father of Angelic Layer”. Thankfully even with all these surprises and shocks, Misaki still manages to pull out a win against the newest model of Angels, and Mr. Ichon is totally okay with that.

Episode 20!

For this episode it’s the anime staple, the beach episode! OMG, this episode was so drama-tastic, it’s hard to keep all the love triangles straight. I would definitely place this firmly in my Not Standard Beach Episode category. For one thing, there really wasn’t any fan service. It is a kids anime after all. And for another, this really was a huge character development and drama episode.

The episode starts with two groups getting ready for a trip to the beach. Misaki with the fumbling help of Tamayo worked on making a picnic lunch, while Ichon, Shuko, and the research team meet up at their team’s van. Misaki and Tamayo meet up with Kotaro and Hatoko and already lovey sparks are flying. Kotaro bats his doki doki eyes at an oblivious Misaki, while a heart broken Tamayo tries to get Kotaro’s attention with a choke hold. The research team all crams into their van, Ichon passing out penalties to his underlings, and away the two separate groups go, off to the beach unaware that the other is going to the same destination.

The two groups set up their beach umbrellas and towels, still not knowing that the other group was just down the sand, but it doesn’t take long for the friends to find each other. There’s just one little problem, Misaki’s mom is still not ready to meet her daughter. Though the surprise meeting doesn’t happen (Shuko starts feeling sick from the heat before Misaki is spotted) the meeting was a close call.

What meeting did happen was with Misaki and the newly smitten Ojiro, much to Kotaro’s horror! So Ojiro is chasing Misaki, Kotaro is chasing Ojiro to break them up, and Tamayo is chasing Kotaro to stop him from breaking them up! And Hatoko is rolling her eyes at all of them! Oh the drama.

The love triangle? square? pentagon? story comes to a climax after Ojiro and Misaki leave for a private walk down the beach. Oolala! They even hold hands! Kotaro storms off to try to rain on their lovey dovey parade and Tamayo chases after Kotaro to stop him.

She trips and falls to the sand, getting covered in mud and there’s a long moment when Kotaro doesn’t stop for his long time best friend. Then Tamayo mutters that she’s loved him for a long time, only after that does Kotaro stop, but he still doesn’t help Tamayo up. It’s at this point that I’m kind of not liking Kotaro. Even if he doesn’t feel the same for Tamayo, that’s no reason to treat his friend like this.

The rest of the beach trip continues with an awkward air, and it’s clear that things are tense between the friends. The episode ends with everyone heading home with a lot on their minds.

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #episodeReview #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #SciFiAnime

Anime Hanabi May 15

Angelic Layer Episode 19!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer!

Last time on Angelic Layer, tall ships, tall girls, and Misaki accused of telling tale tales! Misaki accidentally gets in the way of a tall girl with a crush, getting on her opponent’s nerves for being so darn cute. And if the drama of angsty teens in love wasn’t hard enough to navigate, there’s a storm brewing outside the arena that is messing with the electricity for the tournament. As the storm rages on, the terrain projection for the games keeps breaking down. Ichon and his crew of developers has to work fast to keep the matches on track. Thankfully, in the end both Misaki and Ichon win their struggles and even the tall girl with a crush has a happy ending!

Episode 19!

This episode was actually pretty lighthearted and fun. The episode starts with Misaki being announced as the opponent for an exhibition match. In which a Angelic Layer competitor is supposed to fight against the developers of Angelic Layer and the latest addition of the Angelic Layer doll that would be release later that year. It’s like a product demo and a match in one.

Needless to say, Misaki is very surprised that she’s chosen to fight in that match. As Misaki is talking to her friends about the surprise match, they notice that Hatoko doesn’t seem to be her self. She seems distant, she can’t seem to keep up with the conversation, and is weirdly quiet. Hatoko’s older brother Kotaro is worried and asks if she’s okay, but Hatoko insists she’s fine.

In the next scene, Ichon is outside the arena in a park with Misaki’s mom Shuko. Ichon mentions that Misaki will be fighting the new prototype that they had been working on, and kind of awkward/casually asks Shuko, if it was Ichon versus Misaki, who would she root for? She doesn’t have time to answer because Ichon’s research assistant interrupts them, asking Ichon to return to the observation center for the next match.

Back at the tournament, the match between the developers and Misaki is about to begin, but Hatoko seems to be more and more sluggish. And then, just as Hatoko is insisting that she’s fine one more time, she collapses! Hatoko is running a bad fever and needs to be taken to the hospital stat! Someone needs to step in as Misaki’s second, and Ojiro volunteers. Kotaro doesn’t like leaving Misaki in the very handsome clutches of the princely Ojiro, but his little sister needs him, so Kotaro leaves to the hospital with Hatoko.

Mr. Ichon sees his little brother stepping in as Misaki’s second and he just can’t stand by, so he steps in as the new second for the development researcher that is presenting the new Angel doll for the demo match.

There were actually quite a few moments of the match that were pretty funny. Ichon, seeing Misaki’s impressive entrance into the layer, ordered his researcher subordinate to also have a flashy entrance. Not surprisingly for the developer, he just said the string of numbers that was the prototype model and “Go, go, go!”. In the start of the match, the new Angel seemed to be doing really well. Misaki couldn’t manage to land a good hit, and the new Angel could dodge very easily. Though his team was winning, Ichon looked to be weirdly angry and growling at his fellow researcher. And when Misaki turned it around and started fighting back, Ichon was strangely relieved. Hmm, gee, I wonder who he was really rooting for?

Of course, Misaki was really shocked to find out that not only was Mr. Ichon an Angelic Layer researcher, he was considered the “Father of Angelic Layer”. Though Misaki had so many distractions, with Hatoko sick in the hospital and the big Mr. Ichon reveal, she still managed to win. After the match, Misaki chased after Ichon, and had my favorite scene of the whole episode. Once again Ichon gave us a perfect Dad Moment. He patted Misaki on the head and said, “You squashed me! Good work!”. That just put a smile on my face.

It ends up that the reason Ichon had stepped in as the development team’s second was because he had actually wanted to be Misaki’s second, but his little brother Ojiro got there first. So Ichon decided he needed to give his little brother a hard time. Lol!

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #sciFiAnime #shojoAnime

Anime Hanabi May 8

Angelic Layer Episode 18!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time On Angelic Layer

Last time on Angelic Layer, the national games kick off! Unfortunately they don’t start without a few hiccups. First, Misaki’s mom was supposed to do a presentation to start the games, but she had over trained the night before and over slept that morning and showed up late! Misaki and her friends are all excited and nervous. Are they ready for the big league? We’re going to find out. In the first match Sai is up. Of course, Shirahime wins, but Sai and her Angel win with the help of their second Katie. After Katie teaches Sai how to do Blanch’s signature move Hyper Mode, Shirehime is almost unstoppable!

Episode 18!

In this episode of Angelic Layer, there’s a ship at sea, there’s a storm, there’s technical difficulties, and there’s the horror of being tall! Lol. This episode definitely emphasizes that different cultures see beauty wildly differently.

The episode starts out featuring a girl in the waiting area of the tournament struggling with the costume of her doll. A boy stops by to help her out. They get to talking, and it ends up the boy is there with his little sister and both siblings are fans of Misaki. The boy starts gushing to the girl with the costume issues about how much he adores Misaki because she’s just so cute and tiny. The girl is clearly crushing on the boy, but when she stands to leave, the boy comments that she’s really tall and that she’s the exact opposite of Misaki. Wow, that’s more then just thoughtless, that comment was kind of rude. Not surprisingly, the girl is hurt and runs away.

Later Misaki is with Hatoko and the fan boy soaking up his praise, when the tall her spots them and makes a nasty comment that Misaki is lucky, if she loses she can just blame it on being tiny and everyone will cheer for her anyway. I mean, yeah it was a kind of snotty thing to say, but not as bad as what the boy said. Though he seemed to be a lot more angry about what the tall girl said than Misaki was.

Of course, in the next scene we see that the tall girl is Misaki’s opponent. The terrain is a pirate ship and sea and if the Angels are knocked off the ship into the water, it is considered a knock out! And if that isn’t tricky enough, there’s a real life storm brewing outside of the arena that keeps messing with the electricity! As the match starts, there’s plenty of smack talk from the tall girl. She claims repeatedly that short people are envied and adored by everyone and it’s so hard being a tall girl! That she’s going to win to prove that tall girls can be cool too!

This is definitely a Japaneses thing. I was a dinky kid growing up, a shrimpy teen, and now I’m a full grown puny adult. In all my years, no one was ever envious of my height or (cough, cough) lack of it. On the other hand, my sister is my exact opposite. She is tall. At 5.10 she towers over me. And growing up I heard nothing but praise for my older sister. She’s so elegant! She looks like a model! She looks good in everything! Okay, part of it is that my sister is very beautiful and as a teen she literally was a runway model, but still, no one cut her down because of her tallness. And I think that mostly comes from culture. The culture in the US says that tall is good, short is bad. Just look at how many mocking words we have for someone that is short. Lol, I’ve probably heard all of them. In Japan, short is not so bad? Or maybe it’s just that it’s good for girls. Hmm, I wonder if it’s not so bad being a short guy in Japan? I’ve heard it can be pretty rough being a short guy in the US.

Anyway, back to the match! As the electricity glitches out, causing problems with the layer, Ichon and the technical team tries to spin it as if it’s all part of the show and extra challenges they built in to add excitement for the competition, but really the projection kept having problems. So as Misaki was battling the tall girl, Ichon and the research team was battling the power outages and programing glitches. At one point the glitches were so bad, nearly the whole pirate ship had disappeared! Thankfully, Misaki managed to save the tall girl’s Angel from falling into the water as the ship disappeared and they rode out the programming problem in a crow’s nest together. The tall girl was shocked that Misaki would save her doll, but Misaki reminded her that age and size don’t matter in Angelic Layer, and she just wants to do her best and have a great match!

The tall girl realizes that Misaki is right, their match continues without all the drama, and Misaki wins. The tall girl is okay with that. They both tried their best, and Misaki won fair and square. And in the end, the boy the tall girl had a crush on came up to her after the match and told her that she had looked really cool. So it was good feelings all around.

Nothing ground breaking in this episode, but all around a nice feel good addition to the series!

#anime #Japan #angelicLayer #JapaneseCulture #clampAnime #episodeReview #robotAnime

Anime Hanabi May 1

Angelic Layer Episode 17!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Lasts Time on Angelic Layer!

This episode was kind of a filler, but still lots of fun. Misaki is having a victory party with her friends and finds out that in the national competition, the fighters can have a second that helps with repairs and advice. Hatoko assumes that Miksaki will naturally choose her, but once the party starts rolling and all Misaki’s friends start volunteering, who’s going to be chosen becomes a lot less clear. I felt a little sorry for Hatoko, but I also felt like she could use a little taste of humble pie. Plenty of fun and party shenanigans ensue and someone’s hamster gets lost, but in the end Misaki chooses Hatoko. Misaki’s mom stops by at the party but is too nervous to actually talk to her daughter, so Misaki never knows.

Episode 17!

The episode started out showing Misaki’s mom Shuko busy at work training for the nationals with her Angel Athena. One of the researchers comes into the lab where Shuko is practicing and tells her that it’s late and Shuko should try to get some rest. Shuko points out that it’s the lady researcher’s son’s birthday and she should head home. The researcher is reluctant because she’s supposed to stay with Shuko, but Shuko insists and points out that she should hurry home, she’s the boy’s mom after all. The researcher finally relents and heads home, making Shuko to promise that she will rest and stop training in an hour.

I don’t know, I feel like this scene seemed kind of hypocritical of Shuko. I mean, she abandoned her daughter for years, and not a couple years but like seven of them, but she’s nagging someone to hurry home to their son’s birthday? She seems like the last person that should talk.

In the next scene, it’s the nationals competition! Misaki is with her friends and they are all excited to be there. They can see in the crowd that all the competitors that they know from the regional games are there along with some new faces too. Just before the first match is supposed to kick off, all the fighters come up on stage to the cheering of the crowds. The audience is huge. In the crowd Tamayo teases Kotaro that Misaki will be all alone and nervous and the only one there to comfort her is the handsome and famous Angelic Layer champ Ojiro. Kotaro doesn’t look happy about it, but he understands that Misaki is going to need help from competitors that are more experienced.

Much like Tamayo’s prediction, as Misaki is waiting to enter the arena and getting nervous, Ojiro finds her in the crowd and holds her hand until she’s not scared any more. It’s very sweet, though the moment isn’t long and Hatoko quickly shows up to be Misaki’s second and help her through the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony ended up being a little delayed because Misaki’s mom didn’t keep her promise and instead of only practicing for a little while, she practiced the whole night long and slept through when she was supposed to start the ceremony! Thankfully she woke up just in time to make it and the games began!

The first match was with Sai and an unnamed pink Angel. Sai of course won, but how she won was really interesting. Katie was her second and she showed Sai how to make her Angel go Hyper Mode! So now we have two Angels that can go Hyper. I think this is going to make the competitions very exciting.

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #episodeReview #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #robotAnimeForPeopleThatDonTLikeRobotAnime #shojoAnime

Anime Hanabi Apr 24

Angelic Layer Episode 16

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer

Last time on Angelic Layer Misaki was up against the cold and aloof Sai and her doll Shirahime. The episode starts out with more of a confirmation that Sai’s little sister did pass away and Shirahime was the Angel the two sisters made together. It was Sai’s little sister that was interested in Angelic Layer, and now Sai fights in her memory. When the battle between Sai and Misaki begins, Misaki finally learns about Hikaru’s weakness that Sai has been warning her about. It’s lack of impact force. Shirahime is a much heavier doll and on sandy terrain Hikaru couldn’t knock her out of the ring. But with some quick thinking on Misaki’s part, she moved the fight to the water and won the match.

Episode 16

I think a lot of fans might call this episode a “Filler” episode, but personally I really liked it. It was based on the idea that everyone was gathering for a celebration party for Misaki, and getting ready for the national competition. One of the new rules for the nationals is that each competitor has to have a second that helps with repairs and give the fights advice. Hotoko was very confident that she would be chosen for Misaki’s second, but then during the middle of the party all of the other friends volunteered for being Misaki’s second, and poor Hatoko suddenly wasn’t so confident.

During the party the guests decided that they would battle using all sorts of games to determine who would be Misaki’s second. Lol, but they didn’t really ask Misaki who she wanted to be her second. Then things get a little crazy when one of the partyer’s pet hamster escapes and disappears into Misaki’s apartment. Everyone has to drop their shenanigans and help look for the fluff ball. It’s as Misaki and Hatoko are looking together that Misaki finally tells Hatoko that she wants her as Misaki’s second.

The episode rolls to the end Misaki’s mom finally gets the courage to see Misaki. Yay! But not the courage to actually talk to her daughter, she just looks her her from behind as Misaki enjoys her victory party. Yeah, I’m kind of disappointed in Shuko, she could have done better. Even a phone call would have been better. But I guess at least looking at her daughter is something in the right direction.

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #robotAnimeForPeopleThatDonTLikeRobotAnime #shojoAnime

Anime Hanabi Apr 17

Angelic Layer Episode 15

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer

We get a back story of Sai. The episode begins with Sai and Katie first meeting in middle school. Sai is sitting under the cherry blossoms and Katie realizes that Sai is crying. It ends up that Sai has a little sister in the hospital and it hints that she might be dead in the present. After that, back at the tournament, Sai faces off with Hatoko. The two veteran fighters size each other up, and in a burst of speed they strike at the same time. After the computers add up the data, Sai’s Angle Shirahime is the winner! Hatoko is very up set after this and Misaki, like a great friend is there to comfort her.

Episode 15

In this episode Misaki’s opponent is Sai! We start off the story with a little more background on Sai’s past, and it’s just as sad as what earlier episodes hinted at. Her little sister Ren was gravely ill and at the hospital when, she asked Sai to help her make a doll for Angelic Layer. Ren designed the costume and even decided how she wanted the stats of the Angel to be, but she couldn’t think of a good name. Sai suggested Shirahime for the name, because she kept having a worrying dream of her little sister sleeping in snow. It wasn’t much after that Ren’s health took a turn for the worse and she didn’t recover. So, now Sai fights with the Angel they made together in memory of Ren.

In the next scene we swing right into the battle and the mystery of what is Hikaru’s big weakness that Sai warned Misaki about earlier. The terrain for this battle will be the beach. Everything seems to be going okay for Hikaru at first, she zips around and lands plenty of blows, but Misaki notices all the hits don’t seem to be doing anything to Shirahime. Misaki decided to close in for a one hit knock out and pulls out Rolling Thunder, but it doesn’t do anything. Shirahime loses a few hit points, but that’s it! She doesn’t get knocked out of the ring like all the other fights had been.

The battle continues and things look worse and worse for Hikaru. Finally Misaki realizes that Hikaru is just too light. Shirahima is a big, tall, curvy girl that sinks down into the sand, and Hikaru is a skinny little feather weight, so the sand of the beach makes it even harder to knock Shirahime over. Thinking on her feet, Misaki gets Hikaru over onto the shore rocks and ends up vaulting Shirahime into the water where Hikaru has the advantage, after that the fight was over in just a couple hits.

I kind of think the fight was over too soon. It felt like Shirahime, the unstoppable “Ice Machine” should have put up more of a fight in the water, even if she was at a disadvantage. I totally would have liked to seen this go into a tie breaker match or something. And I did feel a little bad for Sai when she lost.

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #robotAnimeForPeopleThatDonTLikeRobotAnime #shojoAnime