neko's thinkbox

Since the season is almost ending, I’ll just quickly update you on these two series I’ve recently caught up to.

Tears to Tiara:

Ka-ching! (No, really, I'm not inspired today. I'm sorry.)

Ka-ching! (No, really, I’m not inspired today. I’m sorry.)

I was about to love this series, but episodes 20 and 21 felt massively out of place, too little too late. Too little, because I expected 18 to be the only “timeout” episode in-between arcs, and too late, because, why expound Arawn’s past only in the last quarter? Fine if they wanted the viewer to give him the benefit of the doubt until this point, but the way they executed that flashback, it completely took out any momentum this series had built until now. I also don’t like the fact that the Empire’s army suddenly became so insignificant after Gaius’ defeat (that whole battle was relatively pointless anyway), skip everything above Gaius, cue the end bosses. There’s quite a gaping hole in the story IMO.

But apart from that, I really love all of the characters. Most developed well, especially Arthur. Although, the whole “reincarnation” subtext felt a little too hollow. And I absolutely felt endless disappointment once I saw this scene…This pretty much broke my heart. It left me empty, disillusioned, disheartened. My dear Octavia… :(

Don’t get me wrong, I still like this series, and I am looking forward to watching the end, but the last few episodes blew it a little in writing. So, what can I expect from the last 3 episodes? Let’s see… Like in an RPG, our group is now split, and need to face individual hardships which will unite them even more, until they reach their final destination at the top of the tower. The final battle will be epic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Arawn was to die (again) in the end. It would leave some kind of “open (undesired) ending/unfinished story” aftertaste like in Utawarerumono. Well, I’m eager to see how it turns out.

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class

The one on the left. Tomokane. Awesome. Mine. (Also Sawashiro Miyuki = sold.)

The one on the left. Tomokane. Awesome. Mine. (Also Sawashiro Miyuki = sold.)

Hmm, I don’t have all that much to say about this series – episodic series mostly make sense in episodic blog posts anyway, and I’m not about to summarize stuff today – but I know I like it a lot. Not so much for its extreme SD/moe faces (which I am being fed en masse in anime these days), but for its light humor (albeit occasionally forced) and occasional educational tidbits about select painting tools, techniques and art.

As for 4koma series, moderation is advised. It’s nice to get a weekly fix, but too much is bad for my ADHD in denial. That format gets boring/repetitive after a while if there’s no variation, as in a continuous story for instance. I had little to no experience with this before, so I was a little dumbfounded to find myself taking a break after episode 5. Nothing bad, though.

From the last few episodes… I don’t really expect much apart from the usual content. Perhaps our quintet will either finish their first term, or graduate – it is almost certain that this will spawn a sequel, reminding me once again of its spiritual father (the Hidamari Sketch series, both of which I have yet to watch yet). And in the meantime, some Drama CDs mayhaps?