This is it guys — the beginning of the end for us

Anime Seasonals 2018 back in your screens for this last week of February as we go into the eighth round of The Winter Games!

There’s no ifs ands or buts about it folks — we absolutely choked last week and Leap250‘s Blog now finds itself far behind the pack in last place. Irina is still continuing her mighty reign of terror whilst the AstralGemini and TPAB are off having merry race of their own. I thought we got our second wind last week but as it turns out that may have been our last spurt as I’ve been absolutely dragging my heels with these last couple of predictions. If I had a coach in my corner he’d probably throw in the towel for me at this point —

And I’ll catch that towel and throw the darn thing right back at his face! We’re down (like way, way, way down) but we’re not out! I mean, for as laid-back as I am we’ve thus far managed to stand toe-to-toe with these folk so that’s really nothing to hang our head for (*for people who notice that I use “we” when I really mean “I”, it’s ’cause you too — dear reader — are part of this, whether you like it or not!)

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So if we (yes, “we!!”) are gonna go down, let’s go down swingin’

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Laid-Back Camp
(Yuru Camp)
Episode 08
tl;dr: “Definitely a breather episode.”

Not like this show really needed one but, well, this is what we have this week. Which is a bit ironic considering the reason why there wasn’t a lot of camping going on is because they /weren’t/ in vacation — far from it, they were actually in the midst of their exams! (so not much of a “breather” for them as it was for us). Interestingly enough, because things did calm down a bit and everyone stayed in their own homes for the most part, things in the background began to move at a much-needed faster pace.

Episode 08 is behind us and it’s looking like we’re finally headed for our first full camp with all five girls! I swear, if I had to shoot from the hip during the first week, I would’ve bet that the our campers here would’ve assembled way sooner than the Sanrio Boys. But I guess, as my other seasonalists have speculated, that would be saved for the season finale. We see pieces of that though in this episode here with Chiaki and Aoi inviting Saitou now to go out camping with them, and then subsequently later in the episode with Rin thinking about how to recompense Nadeshiko’s camp cooking.

Actually, let’s talk about that Saitou scene a bit ’cause that was really interesting to me. It starts out with Chiaki getting Aoi to help her out with her new camp goods as they plan their next outing when all of a sudden Saitou comes and joins in on the fun. They ask if she could join them for a Christmas camp (at the behest of another Nadeshiko whim) but Saitou answers.. a bit coldly. She says she’s not good with the cold (no I didn’t mean this kind of cold), and that she’d think about it. But she didn’t really sound enthused by the whole prospect. Maybe she’s just not an outdoors-type person and is actually just content living vicariously through Rin’s solo camp escapades?

Whatever the case may be, I’m still convinced that she’s related to our veteran camper duo from last episode. Speaking of that, our day drinker Toba-nee-san is revealed to be a teacher at their very school (so yeah, something something this town is small and everyone knows everyone — as per our observation last week as well xD). If only we called that vagary as our prediction xD We did get a partial from one we have on the back-burner (group photo of Nadeshiko, Chiaki, and Aoi sent to Rin) so that’s neat I guess.

>> Predictions
~ Nadeshiko uses her old lady voice! (action)
~ The girls go hiking up a mountain path! (plot)

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Record of Grancrest War
(Grancrest Senki)
Episode 08
tl;dr: “Oh God, did they really devote half an episode of back story for this??”

I can’t. I just can’t with this show this week because that first half was just unnecessary long, I’m sorry. I get that we kinda have to establish the whole “Romeo and Juliet” subplot that apparently was a thing still (would’ve much preferred it if Marrine was full-on “Hell Hath No Fury” but what can I do). Sure, devote some time to that — but at least don’t make they’re backstory so needlessly convoluted.

This week’s Grancrest was split down the middle — with the first half being a “how did they meet” story between Alexis and Marrine, and the second half picking up where we left off last episode with the whole meeting of the lords thing. One more interesting than the other, and that’s not even saying a lot considering what we have, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about this flashback real quick. Dude. Why (xD). It’s not even a legitimate flashback, but Villar just recounting events that he doesn’t even have a first hand account of. And yes, we get it Grancrest, it’s the Capulets and the Montagues all over again. Please, spare me the melodrama (the question is, will their romance end Shakespeare-like?)

Suffice it to say, that was a good 15 minutes of fodder that I think didn’t really need to happen. I mean, I get that this is all setup for Marrine’s heel turn but I honestly feel that the romance cheapened her whole subplot (and subsequently her entire character). Marinne, prior to this episode, came across as a monarch who felt the need to take matters in her own hands when she found out that her man-to-be wasn’t capable of doing so. I loved that. I really thought, in my heart of hearts, that she was going to be the character with the most depth in this show by being this badass woman in a room full off gents. But alas, that was now how the creator of this show envisioned her as. Shame.

Speaking of a room full of gents — the lord’s meeting! Which… let’s face it, didn’t amount to anything at all. The highlight of the whole affair was an affirmation that Villar can’t be the one to lead them into war (which, from a purely political standpoint was actually pretty cool to hear sounded out), but them lords don’t even want to go to war (boo! this isn’t Grancrest “Friendship”! for Lodos’ sake) so really we’re back to square one. But I guess, we never really stray that far away from it, even after 8 episodes.

>> Predictions
~ Marrine kills someone with her own hands (action)
~ Milza hates peace (lol), so he probably up and leaves the Union now after hearing that they have absolutely no intention to go to war with the Alliance (plot)

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Sanrio Boys
(Sanrio Danshi)
Episode 08
tl;dr: “Seiichiro is best Sanrio Boy confirmed.”

This is how you’re supposed to watch the show right..? *ehem* Anyways, wow Sanrio, back-to-back digs at Hase’s old friends? I thought you’d at least be beyond that. But nope, they still think it’s a good joke (xD). It was funny the first time, okay-ish the second time, but now it’s just sad. Like I said last week, this recurring gag that Hase dumped his old friends for better ones just rubs me the wrong way for some reason. I mention at the start of this series that I view Sanrio Danshi as somewhat of a mirror to anime fandom, but this right here isn’t really the message that I wanted it to portray.

But, this isn’t really the place to go on an all out diatribe on the in-group/out-group nature of otaku (show of hands if you want me to write about this in a separate post though!). What we’re here for is Episode 08 of Sanrio Danshi and we somehow hit a crossroads from what I thought was a straight road ahead coming off of last week’s developments. Apparently Kouta didn’t think he wanted to do a play just like the one they saw (lol). Now, I would’ve thought that was the natural thing to conclude but nope. All he got from the experience was that he just wanted to do “something”. How very… Ohana of you, Kouta.

So a good half of the episode is Kouta trying to figure out what it is exactly that he wants to do, by spending time with the other Sanrio Boys, and doing the things that make them sparkle. Which leads to a montage of fails on Kouta’s end that ultimately leads him to wallow in despair — only to be saved by the funniest skit Sanrio Boys has ever done so far. It might just be a timing thing but the whole bit with the clearfiles was just really funny to me xD. Kouta thought so too as he regains high spirits enough to come to the conclusion that he wants to do a musical (so not just any sort of stage play either, but they sing in the OP/ED so I guess this was more or less a given).

The other half of the episode is them now working towards this newfound goal by first overcoming their first obstacle (highlighted by Seiichiro); money. Remember that their cultural festival is set up so that planning happens way earlier than it should, so in the time leading up to that they all get part-time jobs to finance their little indie production — to which they do, leaving now the important task of actually setting up the musical. The boys hit a wall here until Shunsuke goes and suggests that they do a training camp (’cause why the hell not? xD)

>> Predictions
~ Someone splits a watermelon in half (action)
~ Yuu makes a ridiculously good Sanrio-themed sand castle, which then gives Kouta the idea for what their musical will be about (plot)

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That’s our run for the week!
Will we be able to bounce back from this predicament? Tune in to find out!

In the meantime watch these lads (and lady) run circles around us with their more accurate prediction game~

AstralGemini — Week 8

Irina — Laid-Back Camp (8), Record of Grancrest War (8), Sanrio Boys (8)

TPAB — Week 8