12 Days of Anime 2014--#3: Because I'm the Hero

December 23, 2014, 11:30 am

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Ping Pong is full of interesting visual choices, but the "hero" was the one that I enjoyed the most.

(A/N: This post contains spoilers for the ending to Ping Pong.)

Throughout Ping Pong: The Animation's run, they would occasionally cut back to an image of a shadowing winged figure that never spoke, at least not verbally. It would declare "I'm the hero!" in large words across the screen, but there were no clues about who or what this "hero" was. At first I assumed that it was some sort of reference to the video game that one of the main characters Smile is seen playing, or the theme that he hums under his breath, but otherwise I couldn't figure out why the show kept referencing it without context. As the show continued, my confusion only grew. The show was about competitive sports and friends growing apart, right? Why continue to show this strange creature?


It's not until nearly the very end of the show that it's clarified what this means. The "hero" is a reference to the other main character, Peco, and a promise that he made to Smile when they were still kids. Smile's apparent apathy towards the game suddenly makes much more sense. He never wanted the attention or the fame that playing the sport has suddenly brought on him; he just wanted to play against Peco. He wanted the hero to come in and save the day. Once that becomes clear, the imagery of the hero, especially it's past usage, becomes very interesting. Sometimes, like in the above image, it feels like it's overshadowing Smile rather than a benevolent figure waiting to reach out its hand to him. It's easy to read the different ways that the "hero" appears as a metaphor for Smile's changing thoughts about Peco over the course of the show.


However, at that point in the the story when this is revealed it was unclear whether or not Peco could save the day thanks to a variety of obstacles that I won't spoil here. However, the visual callback is one of the many things that I really enjoyed about watching Ping Pong. What started out as something confusing was actually a very early way of setting up the final conflict. The lightbulb moment for me when it all came together was not something that I'll soon forget.

Images from Hulu.com.

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12 Days of Anime 2014--#2: Ghoul or Human?

December 24, 2014, 11:30 am

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Despite the fact that I was cringing throughout most of it, this is one of the best anime episodes that I saw this year.

(A/N: This post contains some spoilers for the final episode of Tokyo Ghoul.)


Despite the complaints about censors, Tokyo Ghoul is not a series that pulls its punches. The final episode covers just once scene: the physical and psychological torture of the protagonist, Kaneki, at the hands of Yamori, a ghoul who became twisted by similar torture. While nothing is explicitly shown, what Yamori does to Kaneki is made clear through expertly cut scenes and bone-chilling voice acting.


However, an entire episode of the main character being tortured is not what makes this episode stand out. In response to his trauma, Kaneki jumps back and forth between the reality of what's happening to him and deep inside his own psyche. However, there's no escape for him there either. While he's there, a vision of the ghoul Rize, who changed his life in the first place, forces him to face his internal insecurities and fears, finally reaching the crux of his character conflict--the fact that he feels the need to sacrifice himself in order to help others.


What follows is absolutely fantastic. The combination of the symbolism within Kaneki's own mind contrasting and melding with the horror of his current reality provides he best character study that I saw in an anime over this last year. In fact, it's rare to see this level of insight into a character in anime at all. While the violence did make the episode hard to watch, and it definitely didn't wrap up the ongoing storyline, the way this last episode was executed was a hell of a note to leave on. The staff certainly set the bar high for the return of Tokyo Ghoul next month.

You know what they say about white-haired anime boys...

Images from Hulu.com.

12 Days of Anime 2014--#1: The End?

December 25, 2014, 11:30 am

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I've talked a lot in the last few posts about finales, but there was one ending this year that truly earned the top spot.

(A/N: This post contains spoilers for the ending of the recent anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter.)



At the very beginning, Gon set out on his journey with a very clear goal in mind. He was going to become a Hunter and find his dad. And after nearly 150 episodes, he finally accomplished his goal. He caught up with his dad and was able to have a long talk with him. But in the end, was the story really about Gon's search for his dad? It was a goal he constantly kept in mind, sure, but Gon grew and gained so much along the way because of his friends and the challenges that they faced together. If, theoretically, Gon had pursued his goal single-mindedly without help from the friends that he made, he might've never reached Ging. And when they finally start talking to each other, what they share are stories of their adventures.


Ging goes into a long anecdote about wanting to know what was hidden in some ancient ruins, and how he managed to gather a group of people that also wanted to accomplish that goal. It isn't mentioned what they found down there, but that wasn't the point. The point was what he'd learned on the journey, and the friends that he'd made. The same is true for Gon.


And there's something to said about the stopping point the anime chose as well, since as we know, the Hunter x Hunter manga is not finished (or should I be calling it Hiatus x Hiatus?). Still, the anime made a powerful statement by chosing what to cover in its final episode. The goal laid out in the first episode has been accomplished--now what? That's when the true scope of the Hunter x Hunter world is revealed. Just because Gon accomplished what he set out to do doesn't mean that his journey is over yet. There's a whole universe of possibilities to explore.


Altogether, it feels like the anime was trying to send the message that it's not the goal, it's the journey itself that matters. And for a show as focused on exploration, discovery, and sheer survival alongside friends as this one is, I can't think of a better place to stop.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Subdued Figures: Nendoroid Sakura Kinomoto Review

December 27, 2014, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Top 10 Anime of 2014

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Did everyone have a good holiday? Even if you aren't celebrating anything, I hope everyone is enjoying the time off from school and work! I'm starting to look forward to the new year, and with that in mind, this is the final figure review for 2014! Bringing some cheer to the cold winter months is the much-anticipated Nendoroid #400, Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura!

   
The heavily-edited English version, known as Cardcaptors, was my first magical girl show, so I have a lot of nostalgia for the series and a lot of love for this character! GSC has done a fantastic job at bringing her and one of her iconic outfits to life, and I'm very pleased with her! Right out of the box she is absolutely adorable. Even on the smaller scale, she's absolutely true to character and CLAMP's designs. Everything down to the bows sits perfectly on her. And if you were wondering about the hat, it stays on her head thanks to a slight magnet and can be removed. The sculpting on her skirt in particular is very impressive to me. The waves and the frills look great, especially when considering how small a scale they're on. She even has frills on her underwear! (No, I am not showing you pictures of that.)

 
Her paint job is very clean as well. The only flaw I could find was a slight smudge on one of her shoes. The seamlines are virtually unnoticeable (which the obvious exception of the removable parts) unless you are holding the Nenoroid an inch away from your face. On the other hand, her joints gave me some problems. Her arms fall off at the slightest brush while her legs are so stiff that they barely move at all. The hole in her torso that holds her skirt in place is also slightly too large, which is something that I'll get into later.


However, for the most part her display options more than make up for this. To start, she's meant to be displayed with a pair of wings that fit over the back of the stand. This completes her outfit and adds a little bit of flair as well, since the wings have a little bit of articulation to them to match whatever pose Sakura is in. The stand itself also deserves a mention, since it's the first time I've seen a Nendoroid stand where the final joint moves from side to side rather than up and down, which makes a lot more sense for posing Nendoroids. I hope that this is something that will stay for future releases.


Her first real accessories are her wand and the extra hands that can hold her cards. Kero is also included as an extra, acting functionally similar to the rabbit familiar included with this year's Snow Miku and the Kyuubey that comes with Madoka. However, he does not come with a separate body that Sakura can hold. I'll let GSC off the hook on that one, though.

Release!

There's a separate tip for the wand that the cards can attach to so that Sakura can recreate one of the iconic poses from the series. The cards themselves are also quite detailed. It's clear that GSC went all out to ensure accuracy on this figure.

 
However, I ran into a lot of problems with the final pose, which requires the rest of the extra parts. Sakura also comes with a longer staff that attaches to a different skirt piece to recreate the way she flies around in the series and in the opening credits to the show. But when I went to put this pose together, nothing seemed to want to stay in place. The idea seems to be that Sakura's hands would partially hold the wand in place, taking some of the pressure off of the middle peg holding the skirt in place. However, my Sakura's arms are only long enough to just touch it. Thanks to the slightly too large torso hole I mentioned earlier, Sakura's bottom half would fall off with a few seconds. In the pictures, the tip of the wand is touching the base, but I don't like that as a long-term solution, since it's holding up all the weight.


Making matters worse, there's some weird smudge on the back of one of the wings that I haven't figured out how to get off yet. It doesn't seem to have affected the paint, but it's troubling all the same. It's disappointing that this pose has so many problems for me, since this is how I wanted to display her.


But for all my complaining, Sakura is pretty adorable regardless. The problems that I had with her seem to be caused by the random variations that always happen with mass-produced figures, rather than problems with the runline itself. The rest of this figure is absolutely stunning, and the above problems are really the only thing holding it back from being one of GSC's best Nendoroid releases. Her expressions and accessories make her a great addition to any Nendoroid collection, and the accuracy and nostalgia are sure to charm any Cardcaptor Sakura fan. After all, how can anyone say no to that face?

As of the writing of this post, Sakura is still widely available at many online stores for a little under SRP. If you've been thinking about getting her, now is a great time!

Images by me.

Top 10 Anime of 2014

December 29, 2014, 3:32 pm

≫ Next: Happy 2015 from Subdued Fangirling!

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It's almost the end of the year, and that means it's time for Top Ten Anime lists! I had a very hard time picking out my favorites since a enjoyed a lot of anime titles this year. I've also decided this year to not rank them--I feel that each title is different enough from the others that it makes it hard say that one is better than another when it really all comes down to personal taste. With that said, all of these shows are the best that I watched in the last year, and I highly recommend all of them.


Tonari no Seki-kun
As short anime have become more common in anime season line-ups, it's also becoming clear what kinds of setups work the best in this limited format. Comedies have had the most success so far, and Tonari no Seki-kun is the best of the bunch. The premise is simple: dedicated student Rumi sits next to her carefree classmate Seki, who distracts her from her lessons by playing around on his desk. However, can you really call something like creating a remote control car racetrack or acting out drama worthy scenes with shogi pieces just "playing around?" Much of the humor comes from Rumi's reactions to the absurd situations that Seki creates, and thanks to the simplistic animation style, her expressions are hilarious as well. Every episode delivers on at least one solid joke, and even manages to build up into more and more elaborate setups as it goes on. It makes perfect use of its small runtime, and never feels rushed or stretched to pad for time. It even has time for a great ED sequence! Tonari no Seki-kun proves that short anime do not need to feel limited by their runtime, and can reach the same levels of comedy as full-length anime.

Hozuki no Reitetsu
Take The Office, set it in Hell, pack it to bursting with eastern mythology references, and you get Hozuki. While I'd be lying if I said that I understood all the references, the unique cast of characters alongside the show's blend of slapstick combined with dark humor makes the show fun to watch regardless. While the title character Hozuki is not always the focus, his personality is what really made the show for me. His sadistic nature contrasted with his complete devotion to his job running Hell always made him interesting to watch. The show has a very different sense of humor than what typically shows up in anime comedies, which makes it a fun watch.


Log Horizon
I did not watch this when it initially aired earlier this year because I assumed that it would be an SAO clone. After that show, I didn't want to watch anything like it. However, seeing discussions on Twitter and other anime blogs about how Log Horizon executed its premise in a way that felt believable, I decided to take another look. I'm glad that I did. The show follows a group of top players from an MMO called Elder Tale that has suddenly become reality after an expansion pack was released. The gamers slowly figure out the differences between the way the game works and how this new world operates, presenting it in a way that feels like it could really happen if, say, WoW suddenly became real. The plotlines deal with guilds, quests, raids, PvP, and more, integrating features familiar to anyone who's played these kind of games before.The characters are just as believable, ranging from the hardcore questers and roleplayers to people who just want to be with their friends and have fun. It's realistic while still being entertaining, and delivers on a compelling storyline once everything is established. If you watched SAO but wished that it had done more with MMO mechanics in its story building and character arcs, then this is the show for you.


Space Dandy
No, it's not the next Cowboy Bebop, but I don't think Space Dandy ever had aspirations to try to take over the top spot anyway. It is what it is--an episodic series loosely following the premise of bounty hunters Dandy, QT, and Meow as they journey across the universe looking for rare aliens to turn in for money and fame. Each episode is unique in its plot and character designs, with humor and the main three characters acting as the connecting line through all of their different adventures. Strictly animation wise, Space Dandy is a must-see show for it's creativity. The final episode is also a surprise in and of itself, but I won't spoil that here. If you want to see some of the best that the anime industry has to offer within the constraints of a premise that pokes fun at old sci-fi tropes, then you can't get any better than this.


Haikyuu!
In some ways, I feel like this year was the year or fujoshi-oriented sports anime. Both Free! and Kuroko got their sequels this year, and a third show also rose up along with them. Haikyuu! stands solidly in the middle between the two shows that I mentioned previously. It's not literally dripping in homoerotic subtext like Free!, and despite their characters displaying amazing skills on the volleyball court, it doesn't reach the same display of insane skills like in Kuroko. However, this works in Haikyuu!'s favor, allowing fans to interpret the characters however they wish while still maintaining focus on the game itself. Regardless of our feelings on the fujoshi phenomenon, Haikyuu! holds its own very well as a sports anime, focusing on how the characters gradually learn to work together as a team. It even provides explanations about the tactical side of the game, making it easy to understand for someone like me who isn't very familiar volleyball in the first place. In some cases it even feels like you're watching a real game and rooting for the underdog. I think that the broad appeal has a lot to do with Haikyuu!'s spike in popularity, and I'm excited to see what will happen in future seasons!


Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
One day after school, Sakura Chiyo finally works up the courage to confess to her crush, Nozaki. At first, it seems like he's accepted her feelings...but then he hands her an autograph. It turns out that Nozaki is actually the mangaka of a well-known shoujo manga, and he mistook Chiyo for a fan. Unwilling to become discouraged, Chiyo takes this as a chance to get closer to Nozaki and ends up helping him with his manga. While the premise may make it sound like the show is about romance (and I won't deny that it's in there), where Nozaki-kun really excels is in its comedy. The otome game scene that briefly went viral on Twitter and Tumblr is a great example of the series' sense of humor; the majority of the show lampoons popular tropes while still putting its own original twist on it. Additionally, it's never mean-spirited--it pokes fun, but the jokes feel like they come from a source of love for the medium. Even when it's not tackling shoujo tropes specifically, the characters themselves easily carry the show are well-written and developed in their own right. It's a blend of humor and strong characterization that is not only rare to find in the genre, but an overall great show that I recommend to any fan of anime.


Ping Pong the Animation
I feel like this show got ignored because it doesn't really look like "anime," in the sense that the style is geared more towards the needs of the animation than the big-eyed character design style that we're used to associating with Japanese animation. That's a shame, since this show is easily the best sports anime that I've ever seen. Directed by Masaki Yuasa, who some of you may recognize as the person behind The Tatami Galaxy, another anime that I strongly recommend, the show follows high school students Peco and Smile who play ping pong. Peco wants to be a world-famous player while Smile is happy with serving as a stepping stone to Peco's dream. However, Peco plays for the sake of his own ego, while Smile has a natural talent he's been suppressing. The two get slowly involved in the high-stakes world of the tournament circuit, but in the end, what are they really playing for? The show gets off to bumpy start pacing-wise, appearing to meander around without a point, but once its narrative direction becomes clear it makes for a compelling watch. I was also a big fan of how the visuals occasionally mimicked the look of manga panels, which also added a lot to the flow of the action. It's a show that delivers all around, and if you're looking for something a little more original and different, Ping Pong is a great watch.


Kill la Kill
It's been months since I finished watching it, but I still don't know where to start when I talk about Kill la Kill. The term "roller coaster ride" comes to mind, and not just because of the twists in the plot. I mean, the premise itself is crazy enough on its own: A girl named Ryuko, who wields a giant half-scissor blade, transfers to -- to find out who killed her dad and ends up teaming up with a sentient sailor school uniform in order to fight against other superpowered school uniforms so that she can face Kiryuin Satsuki and find out the truth. That alone would've been more than enough for any other two-cour show to cover, yet anyone who is familiar with the staff at Studio Trigger (they were also responsible for Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking) won't be surprised to hear that it doesn't stop there. The twists kept coming and the stakes got ever higher, to the point that I'm not sure when I stopped feeling uncomfortable at the fanservice and started to genuinely care where everything was going. On the topic of the fanservice, I don't completely agree with the argument that I've seen floating around that it is "empowering," yet I do think that the show deserves credit for creating characters that were interesting and compelling enough that eventually it didn't matter what they were wearing (or not wearing, depending on the scene). Provided that you can get through some of the slower earlier episodes, watching Kill la Kill is liking going on a thrill ride for the first time; you enjoy the twists and turns, but the overall experience is what makes it great in the end.


Knights of Sidonia
This show shares a lot of similarities with Attack on Titan, except it is set in space and has a much clearer thematic direction. The plot tells the story of the seed ship Sidonia, one of the last remaining strongholds for humanity in the universe as they defend themselves from attacks against Gauna, strange shapeshifting alien creatures that seem t have only one purpose--destroy what is left of the human race. While the Attack on Titan parallels are immediately obvious the show also draws from the best of the mecha and sci-fi genres, creating a show that is not only interesting for the action but also for its world and characters. It's the only show in recent memory I can think of that has a third-gender character that isn't treated like a joke (although be warned that the English dub calls them an "it"), and the other revelations about what the residents of Sidonia have done in order to keep the human race alive raises some interesting ethical questions. When's the last time an anime made you question the definition of "humanity"? Knights of Sidonia s a great watch for all of these reasons, and it easily makes my top ten for not just being a solid action sci-fi show, but also for not being afraid to delve into some deeper questions with its story.


Tokyo Ghoul
This show was a pleasant surprise for me, since at first I wasn't even planning on watching it! It follows Kaneki Ken, a college student and book nerd who is transformed into a ghoul--a being that can only eat humans. Despite his attempts to stop his newfound instincts, Kaneki has to learn how to survive in the ghouls' violent world. There were a lot of complaints while this was airing about the censorship of the violence (I didn't mind the inverted colors so much, but the black bars were annoying), but I still found it compelling thanks to the way the show handled its characters. While it was violent, I would say that this is the kind of show that s preoccupied with showing as many bloodbaths as possible. Instead, it ended up being more about how the characters tried to reconcile their true natures with living in human society. It serves as a strong metaphor for people who feel that they are living on the fringes of society, or those who feel like they're just faking it to get by. It also ended with one of the best character study episodes that I have ever seen. It has its rough patches, but Tokyo Ghoul is still a compelling show that lives up to the attention it has gathered.


Hunter x Hunter
I know I said at the start of this post that I wasn't going to rank these, but Hunter x Hunter is indisputably my number one show for the year. It's shown up on some of my previous Top Ten rankings before, and since it didn't start airing this year it is a little unfair to pit it against other titles from 2014, so I'm not technically counting it among my Top Ten. However, the final two arcs that aired this year on Hunter x Hunter put it solidly in the top spot for the year regardless. The Chimera Ant arc and the Election Arc have some of the best storylines and character arcs that I've ever seen in my life, not just in anime, and that's not something that I say lightly. The way that the characters grew and changed, the detail put into every part of the world they inhabited no matter how small, and the final episode that wrapped everything up while still leaving things open to a wider adventure made this nothing short of a masterpiece. If you didn't watch it while it was airing, please do not let the episode count intimidate you. I can't really find the right words to describe it, but it is quite the experience. If you watch nothing else from this year, please watch Hunter x Hunter.

What were your favorite titles from this last year?

Images from Crunchyroll.com and Hulu.com. This post is also available at OASG.

Happy 2015 from Subdued Fangirling!

January 1, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapters 63 & 64--History Repeating Itself

≪ Previous: Top 10 Anime of 2014

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Happy New Year! I hope that you've all enjoyed your time off and caught up with some anime series before starting the new year. I know I did!

I'll keep this short and sweet. Over the past year, it's been hard for my to keep up with this blog, and a lot of posts and reviews that I've wanted to write have fallen to the side because of real life and school demanding more and more of my time. I always promised myself that I would quit this blog if it became too much of a hassle or felt like a burden, but I've really missed writing for it as much as I used to. I don't think that I'll ever get to that level of output again, but I'd like to at least put posts out more consistently.

That's why one of my New Year's Resolutions is to put myself on a writing schedule so that I can write the posts that I want to without conflicting too much with my other commitments. I may still drop in and out of activity (I'm starting student teaching this month), but I'm hoping that this schedule will let me have some content to fall back on when things do get busy.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking around and reading my thoughts on anime over the past year! Let's make this year a good one!

Top image from the Attack on Titan online game (source).

Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapters 63 & 64--History Repeating Itself

January 5, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Winter 2015 Watchlist

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To be completely honest, the lower half of that image scares me more...

(A/N: The post deals with spoilers for the entire manga and contains disturbing and graphic images. Please do not read unless you are caught up!)


Wow, I really bring new meaning to the word "late," huh? Originally this post was delayed thanks to finals, and then I didn't finish it time before Chapter 64 came out... And after that the holidays took a bigger drain on my free time than I thought, not to mention getting those 12 Days posts done. And that's why part of my New Year's resolutions will be to get these posts out on a timely basis! No more slacking! In the meantime I guess you can consider this a recap post, since I've got a good feeling that we're about to hit the climax of this arc.


Let's start with Rod Reiss. We get a ton of information from him in both of these chapters, but the way it's presented still makes me think that his main goal is to manipulate Historia. He zeroes in on Historia's fond memories of Frieda and uses that to turn her against Eren. While I don't deny that Eren's dad did a horrible thing, there's clearly more than what Rod was telling Historia. He may be the one narrating, but the flashback images are coming through Eren's eyes. We still don't have context for what Grisha was trying to accomplish.


For example, Rod makes it sound like Grisha just walked in and slaughtered them all when Eren's flashback shows what could be interpreted as Grisha begging with the Reiss family at one point. I think that he was trying to make a deal with them, or at least get Frieda to agree with him. Whatever Grisha was trying to accomplish, the end goal was obtaining Frieda's power, and to me it looks like Grisha wanted Frieda's cooperation at first.


But what is Frieda's power, exactly? Chapter 63 pretty quickly debunked my theory that it had to do with becoming a Titan shifter, since we see that Grisha was capable of controlling himself as a Titan (how he got that form is still a mystery, though). They only thing that Rod does mention specifically is the memories that Eren inherited. This explains a lot of things from earlier on in the series, including how Eren knew how to transform. The big reveal at the end of Chapter 64 is that the collective memories of everyone whose held this power, including the truth about the Titan who created the walls and wiped humanity's memory (IT'S ALL TITANS, EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO TITANS) is held by the person who inherits it. It was passed down through the Reiss family, but now Eren is the one who holds it. Now that his memories have been unlocked, Eren knows the truth about the history of the world, whatever that may be.


However, while that knowledge is probably dangerous and world-altering--after all, the government put a lot of effort towards making sure that records of the world beyond the walls weren't common knowledge--I'm not convinced that's the only "power" Rod was referring to. He also said that Frieda had the strongest Titan but didn't know how to control it...sound familiar? Eren is still figuring out what he can and can't do as a Titan, and there is evidence now that he was following the extra memories in him from the beginning.

I also think that Rod was jointly referring to the memory manipulation, which is probably related to the "Titan Scream" as well. He makes a big deal about the "power" being stolen from its "rightful place" and claims that only people from the Reiss family are able to use it properly. I've read some interesting theories about Eren being a Reiss--which, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if that was true at this point, given how similar Eren's mom and Frieda look to each other--but I think the claim about the family birthright is yet another lie from Rod. I don't think that it's impossible for someone else to use it--I think that it's more dangerous for them if all of that power is in a vessel that they can't control.


After all, Rod claims that the memory manipulation doesn't effect nobles, but conviently glosses over the fact that Frieda used her power on Historia. Some of it did stick around and affected her subconciously (ex: I have to be a good girl), but until this moment Historia had no idea she had a sister. The nobles may have been spared, but I'm not sure that they're immune. And then there's the possibility that memory manipulation and titan control actually isn't that special when it comes to Titan shifters--Annie was able to do the latter, after all. There's also the fact that she turned herself into crystal, which may be addressed soon considering that the cave that they're in seems to be made out of the same material.


But getting back on track, when it came to the memories, Rod mentioned that none of the previous holders decided to reveal what they knew. He says that it's proof that they understood what that first Titan was trying to accomplish, but I think that it's more likely that how they were raised may have more to do with it. Frieda seems to have maintained a fair amount of free will, but she still adhered to the status quo. She went to see Historia, but she erased her memories. She loved the people who lived on her family's land, but after the walls fell, she went to pray instead of going to the front lines to do something about it. Frieda strikes as someone whose heart was in the right place, but she didn't want to rock the boat too much.


Eren is nearly the complete opposite of that. He's fueled by rage against the Titans that killed his mother and has an amazing amount of determination and will to back that up. He's seen too much to care about the establishment--in fact, whether he realized it or not, he's been fighting them from the start. As soon as the government was aware of his power, they tried to take him out, and now we have a clear reason why. Eren has the power of the King. Eren knows the truth about this world. That's why they want to take him out. In Eren's hands, the current power structure is over.

But assuming that Rod is right and that the power has to be used by a Reiss--why is he passing it on to Historia and not himself? He's the real king and the last of the pure bloodline. If this is really just about returning the power to the Reiss bloodline, they'd really only need Eren. If Rod is telling the truth, then involving his bastard child is unnecessary. Why do they need Historia specifically?


In the flashback images, we see who had the "power" before Frieda--Rod's "younger" brother. I put "younger" in quotes since he looks a few decades older than Rod in the above image. It's possible that having all of those memories shortens the bearer's lifespan. I imagine that all of this supernatural stuff would put quite the toll on the human body.

And then there's Rod's thousand yard stare after bringing this up...

However, it's also possible that it's a lot simpler than that. By the end of his speech, Rod has Historia wrapped around his finger. In the space of a few hours, she's gone from hating her father to being willing to eat her friend at the suggestion that she might see Frieda again. That part is where Rod's manipulation is the clearest. Frieda is dead, and nothing will bring her back. Historia might get the memories, but what she really wants is long gone. Honestly, I'm getting increasingly disappointed in Historia for falling for all of this. Doesn't she feel just a little suspicious of the father who abandoned her suddenly accepting her and wanting her to do this horrific thing for him?

TL;DR HISTORIA WHAT ARE YOU DOING

And then there's the fact that we still technically don't have Eren's reaction to all of this yet. He's trying to tell Historia something, but it looks like she's interpreting that as him begging for his life. I'm not so sure. There's probably a missing puzzle piece somewhere in those memories, and I'm really curious about what it is.


That'll have to wait until the rescue though, and it looks like we'll have an Ackerman showdown before that. I've been really excited about this, since this time we'll be able to see Levi and Kenny on equal footing without a surprise attack giving one or the other an upper hand. Or at least, that's what I thought. The way that Levi describes Kenny is pretty terrifying, even though we've already seen him fight. I've thought in the past that it's a good thing that Levi is on the heroes' side since before this arc the only character who was a close match to him was Mikasa. But hearing Levi himself say that Kenny is just as strong as him makes me concerned...


At least we're starting to get some answers on the Ackerman mystery. Mikasa says that her father told her that his family was "persecuted" and driven away, and then Levi asks if she's ever had a moment where she felt a rush of power from inside her. It looks like Mikasa's backstory moment where she killed her kidnappers to save Eren is even more relevant to the main story than we thought. It's possible that this power is something that runs in the family, since Levi states that Kenny told him about it once, and that it happened to him too.

I am a little disappointed that the strength of the two strongest characters in the series so far isn't due to them being badasses on their own but instead due to some inherited power. However, I do appreciate the way that some of the plot threads that we've gotten throughout this arc are starting to show their relevance, and given what has happened so far, we're long overdue for an explanation as to who Levi really is and where he came from.

(A/N: Spoilers for the prequel manga A Choice With No Regrets follow in the paragraph below.)

Speaking of backstory, I seen some speculation that the moment Levi got his Ackerman power took place in the prequel series, a.k.a. A Choice With No Regrets, during the final two chapters when his friends Farlan and Isabel are killed by Titans. I see where people are going with this since it's the only time we see Levi completely snap, but I don't think that this is when he got his power. One of the main criticisms of ACWNR is that Levi is just as powerful and competent as he is in the main series, since he has little trouble adjusting to the way the Scouts fight Titans. Additionally, in one of the shorter side chapters (which regrettably didn't make it to the English release) Levi takes on a group of people--one of which is more than several times his size--and comes out unscathed without any help. There's plenty of evidence in ACWNR that shows that Levi already has the power. That means that this had to happen at some point before the prequel.


We also get solid evidence in this chapter that Levi was not deliberately hiding the Ackerman connection from Mikasa because he had no clue what Kenny's last name was. That means that he was also trying to figure out what kind of connection they had, leading to the question about her power. This makes me think that up to this point Levi believed that he was tied to Kenny through shared experience, not bloodlines, so the family connection is probably news to him too. I also get the feeling that whatever happened to unlock his power is also what made him leave Kenny behind. Isayama has said that he wants to cover Levi's past in the manga, and I imagine that will clear up a few things, including Kenny's goal.


At the end of Chapter 64, we find out that Kenny had been aiming to become King all along, which explains why he's working with the group whose members he previously killed. However, it doesn't seem like just a straight power grab. Before the fight scene in Chapter 64, the female soldier who's his second-in-command talks about how Kenny's plan will bring "meaning in this meaningless world." I doubt those were his word's exactly (Kenny's even less eloquent than Levi), but that's a lofty dream for a mass murderer. He probably wanted to use that power to somehow change the world from the inside out in the same way that the Scouts want to use Eren's power to stop the fighting against the Titans permanently. Of course, we don't know any details on Kenny's real goal yet, but it looks like we're heading towards another shades of gray moment where the villain of the current arc is more nuanced than we first guessed.


However, they have to get to him first. The majority of Chapter 64 is filled with action, and it was great to see the plan to get past Kenny's giant squad (over thirty people?!). Connie, Sasha, and Jean also all have great moments which are made even more impressive considering not that long ago they were talking about how they refused to fight other humans. I wonder how they would've reacted if they'd known that in roughly 48 hours they would be fighting to kill.


At the moment though, I'm mostly scared for Hanji. Taking a serrated hook to the shoulder has to hurt... Not to mention getting thrown into a pillar right after getting it ripped out. A lot of people reacted to this scene similarly to when Hanji was injured after Bertoldt transformed into the Colossal Titan on top of the wall, saying that Hanji is probably going to die. However, people also said that about Jean in the cliffhanger from Chapter 58, so I'm not that concerned yet.


In the past, Isayama has been pretty explicit about character deaths, leaving no room for any other interpretation unless you are a "Marco Is Alive" theorist. In this case, it's made clear that Hanji wasn't immediately taken out, and Levi tells Armin to stay with them, something that he wouldn't do if it was clear that Hanji was dead. It's more likely that this was meant to raise the tension of the scene and/or take Armin and Hanji away from the front lines for a while. At the moment, the evidence points to Hanji being badly injured, but not anything more than that.

And that's what I'm going to believe until the next chapter tells me otherwise.

In the meantime, good luck dealing with an enraged Levi, Kenny's squad!

But the good news is that right now Erwin's on his way with reinforcements. I'm kind of hoping for one of those dramatic moments where they show up right when it looks like all is lost, but this isn't the kind of series that does this kind of thing, so I'm not really expecting it. It's more possible that Armin and Hanji might be the ones who let Erwin and company know what's going on before he goes off to help Levi and the rest of his squad rescue Eren. Everything's leading up to at least a few more high-stakes battles, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Until then, I'm going to go find some brain bleach so that I can forget Zackley's scene. *shudder*

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulpub.

Winter 2015 Watchlist

January 6, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 65--Breaking Point

≪ Previous: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapters 63 & 64--History Repeating Itself

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Once again, Happy New Year everyone! It's time to kick off a brand new twelve months of anime! This season is a bit sequel heavy, but it's covering a lot of series that I'm interested in, so I'm pretty excited. Even with my upcoming busy schedule, I couldn't help but add a lot of new titles to my watchlist!


Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
Several times last year I asked for a magical boy anime. Kamigami no Asobi got really close, but I don't quite count it because that show was about gods, so they are magical by default. This time we're getting the genuine article. I literally do not care about the quality of this show's storytelling. I am all in it for the premise alone. I have waited so long for this. I am so excited. ANIME OF THE YEAR.


Assassination Classroom
I don't know too much about this one, except that whenever I see anyone mention it online it's with nothing but praise. I first heard it mentioned back when I started following the Dangan Ronpa fan translations, and if this really is anything similar I'm pretty excited to see it. That said, even without knowing much about the source material I hope that this adaptation does a better job than Dangan Ronpa's did.


Death Parade
Back in 2013 when everyone (including myself) was losing their mind over Little Witch Academia, there was another stunning short from the same Anime Mirai collection that didn't get much attention. It was called Death Billiards, and it was a short and wildly creative piece about a bar that probably exists somewhere in limbo where two people were pitted against each other for a second chance at life. It had several interesting twists, with even the ending itself left up to interpretation. Overall, it presented an interesting premise that I thought would make for a good episodic show in the same vein as Hell Girl. Now that it's getting that chance, I'm really excited to see how this turns out.


Durararax2 Shou
I'm really excited about this sequel, but for the life of me I do not remember what was going on when the series left off in 2010. I mainly remember being disappointed that the second half of the series focused on teenage gangs rather than the more interesting things that were going on. And that one of the characters was possessed by a sword, I think... Where was I? Maybe I should hold off on this until I get the chance to rewatch the first season, but I'm really happy to have it back.


Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 2
This is the part with Dio, right? I kid, I kid. Despite what I said in one of my 12 Days posts about not really feeling Stardust Crusaders so far, I am still interested in seeing where the second half goes.


Kamisama Hajimemashita 2
I honestly cannot think of the last time a shoujo series got a sequel, and it's one of my personal favorites! I started digging into the manga after the first season finished airing, but I didn't get too far, so whatever this season will cover will be a surprise for me! I'm just really happy that this show did well enough to come back for another season.


Kuroko no Basket 3
I used a good chunk of my winter break to catch up with everything I missed, and Kuroko was one of those series. I'm really happy with my timing on that, since now I don't have to wait much longer to see what happens next! Time to find out whether or not I'll become a Akashi fangirl (since I seem to love all characters voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya by default).


Tantei Opera Milky Holmes TD
Once upon a time, there was a show that stated that it would be about a group of girl detectives that would use their supernatural powers to solve mysteries. Despite the premise, it looked like it would be a "club full of cute girls does nothing" show, since those were coming out in droves at the time. Instead, the show went completely off the rails into absurdist humor, including episodes where the characters do things like escape from a prison island and fight off a villain who wants to steal the world's lard. Yes, you read that right. I completely fell in love with the show for this reason. However, for whatever reason the third season decided to "reinvent" itself and take its premise seriously, removing what made it different and fun in the first place. After my heart was broken I didn't hear anything else about that version and assumed that Milky Holmes was over. However, it's somehow resurfacing for yet another season. If the zany humor is back, I'm all over this. If it's a continuation of what they did last time, Milky Holmes will remain dead to me.


Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls
The first Idolm@ster anime was a pleasant surprise for me, and it was one of the shows that sparked my current interest in idol anime. I'm definitely more of a Love Live fan myself, but I've got high expectations for this anime thanks to the previous series' focus on the characters and their growth. And who knows, maybe this will generate enough interest to get an English release of the game...?


Tokyo Ghoul √A
I have made no secret of my love for Tokyo Ghoul. It made my Top Ten Anime List for 2014, and the fantastic final episode of the first season also made my 12 Days of Anime. After finishing the anime, I followed the manga spoilers and am completely caught up. I was very excited to see the anime cover some of the darker stuff that the manga gets into after the point where the anime leaves off...until it was announced that this season's story would be anime-original. I'm not completely sure how I feel about that, but it's been reported that this season's story was written by the original author, so there's probably not much to worry about in terms of continuity. Still, I'm hoping that this season will continue to build on where the finale left off, since I think that the anime version of this series has the potential to become something really amazing.


Yuri Kuma Arashi (a.k.a. literally "Yuri Bear Storm")
And finally, the show I'm most excited for this season: lesbian bears! Although, in complete honesty, Ikuhara could announce that he was making a show about paint drying and I would watch it. For a while there I thought that "Penguinbear" was some sort of leftover joke from Penguindrum that Ikuhara forgot to put in, but nope! It's yet another show. I can hardly wait for the SYMBOLISM. And the staircases. Can't forget those.

What are you planning to watch from the Winter 2015 season?

Images from MyAnimeList.Net. Top image from the Yuri Kuma Arashi official manga. Series information from AniChart.

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Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 65--Breaking Point

February 2, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Status Update: Subdued Fangirling is on Hiatus

≪ Previous: Winter 2015 Watchlist

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Signs that you've screwed up: the serial killer character is more sympathetic than you.

(A/N: The post deals with spoilers for the entire manga and contains disturbing and graphic images. Please do not read unless you are caught up!)


I have to hand it to Isayama; every time I've fully committed to hating a character in this series, he throws something in to make me reconsider my opinion. Which isn't to say that I forgive Kenny for everything (as far as I'm concerned, he still has to answer for the death of Hanji's squad), but now we have a little bit of context for his behavior.


The chapter opens with some explanation about the Ackerman family. The claims from the nobles that they were "chosen" seem to be a bit incorrect; apparently the truth is that the memory modification of everyone within the walls wasn't as complete as the first king/titan wanted it to be. Those bloodlines (read: minority races) were faced with a choice: play along with the lie or be exterminated.

And now we know why nearly everybody is white in this series

The heavy implication is that there was a mass genocide sometime after the walls went up. It isn't made clear how many other races survived, but since the series has portrayed the majority of its characters as being of white European descent, I'm going to assume that not many did. According to Grandpa Ackerman, they reached a point where they completely abandoned their history in an attempt to protect subsequent generations, but that hasn't seemed to have worked out. Case in point: "Kenny the Ripper" earned his reputation by keeping MPs away from his family, despite Grandpa Ackerman's disapproval.


There are some hints dropped about the background to Mikasa's and Levi's families as well. Kenny mentions that one "branch" of the family is moving towards Shiganshina, which is likely where Mikasa's dad came from since she states that her parents met near the wall. And Kenny tells Grandpa Ackerman that he's just found his sister, Kuchel, in an underground brothel, pregnant with a client's child that she wants to keep. I'm convinced that the baby is Levi.

I know that in previous posts I've said that I wasn't convinced that Kenny and Levi were related at all, but to be honest, my main misgiving was because of the visuals. While Isayama's art is inconsistent, he does make a point to show some family resemblance between characters who are related. In fact, that's been the basis for the "Eren is a Reiss" theory, since Frieda and Carla look so much like each other. So while I saw similarities between Levi and Kenny in their behavior, I didn't see the family resemblance. At least, not until the flashback we got from this chapter. I can see it a bit more in younger Kenny, but I really see it in Grandpa Ackerman.

Those eyebags don't lie

The pieces fit from what we know so far. Kenny is definitely not the parental type, but I imagine something happened to Kuchel and he couldn't ignore his nephew. Also, Levi's confusion over Kenny using the Ackerman name implies that he had no clue what his last name was until now--introducing himself only as Levi may not have been a deliberate omission after all. Kenny may have wanted to respect his grandfather's feelings and never told Levi about his name or the truth behind it. And honestly, if this all does end up being true, I'm very interested in the circumstances that caused them to split up.

Anyway, with all of this backstory we've yet again returned to the theme of gray morality, making Kenny not completely despicable. Also, there's now basis in canon for Kenny being stronger than Levi just by merit of bloodline purity. Because of this, within days of the chapter coming out I saw theories that claimed Kenny may have deliberately thrown his last fight against Levi so that he wouldn't have to kill him--for instance, he made it very clear where he was standing in the room and even gave Levi hints about what was waiting for him outside. This theory is based on what we see at the beginning of the chapter, where Kenny admits to killing MPs to keep his family safe. However, that was a long time ago, and present Kenny doesn't seem to care too much about such things, regardless of whether he threw the fight or not. Kenny has shown that he's willing to sacrifice anything, including his family, if it means reaching his goals.

But what is he working towards anyway? Why would Kenny protect the family that has been trying to wipe out his own for generations? We know that he attained serial killer status protecting his family, then trained Levi... But what happened after that? At some point, he ended up killing exclusively for the royal family. Why? There's a missing link here, and I think it has something to do with the person Kenny mentions in this chapter--Uri.


When Kenny starts calling out Rod on his BS, Rod tries to insult him while mentioning his younger brother, the person who held the coordinate power before Frieda. Kenny doesn't object to Rod calling him a "dog," but begins to act violent when Rod starts to speak ill of Uri. The scenes between Rod and Kenny in this chapter show that they never really were on the same side after all. It's clear where Kenny's loyalties truly lie.

So then what did Uri do to gain Kenny's trust? I'm also pretty sure that Kenny's plan also has something to do with Uri if he stuck around for this long after his death. He makes his hatred for Rod pretty clear, and given the small sampling we're seen in this arc of what the First Brigade does, Kenny probably saw as well as committed a number of disturbing acts in order to keep the truth a secret. Maybe he's moving to take the power out of the Reiss' hands once and for all, since he experienced firsthand how corrupt things have become. But with all of that said, we still don't know the details about Kenny's plan just yet. The only thing that is for sure is his contempt for Rod Reiss.


And while putting a knife down Rod's throat was going too far, Kenny ended up saying a lot of what I wanted Historia to hear. He confirmed that Rod was a liar, that he was twisting facts to fit the situation, and that he didn't really care about Historia at all--she was just the replacement for the rest of his family. Rod claims that there's a reason he can't become a Titan, but saying that right after Kenny reveals that no one knew the coordinate was missing until Eren became a Titan in Trost really brings it home that Rod didn't want to take responsibility. Just like everything else in this arc, a political mind game is being played on a massive scale, and right now Historia and Eren are just pawns.


Which leads into my frustration with Historia. I talked about this a little bit last time, but the way she turned on her friend and fellow soldier in favor of believing a man who ignored and abandoned her was nothing short of chilling. Yes, she's confused, and yes, Rod's actions did fall in line with what she likely wanted to believe all along--that there was something else keeping her father away--but that still does not excuse her actions. Despite claiming her real name and dropping the "good girl" act, Historia is still only doing the only thing she knows how to do--play a role. And this time, it's as a martyr.



I'm not in complete agreement with the Historia hate that has swept the fandom following this chapter, but I agree that it is time for her character to grow beyond this stage. She's made steps, but she's still only following other people's wishes and instructions. Ymir asked her to reclaim her real name, so she did. She was only able to accept Levi's order to become the new queen by thinking of it was a "role." And now she's talking about her "duty" to wipe out the Titans. What were you doing before, then?! Didn't you already commit yourself to wiping out the Titans when you became a soldier?!

There's just not much evidence that anything that Historia does is truly through her own volition. She changes with her surroundings and matches what people ask of her. In that controversial choking scene a while back, Levi tells Historia that if she really doesn't want to do it, she has to fight--and that's when Historia gives up and goes back to her old coping mechanism of playing a role. It's happening again here, but this time it's the role of "savior" because that's what her father wants.

Ymir would have a fit if she knew what was going on. "Historia will be safe inside the walls"? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This continues all the way up to the pivotal moment--Eren versus Historia, with Historia ready to throw everything away again for someone else's agenda--when there's that moment of hesitation. Eren doesn't fight back.


For the entire series, Eren has been an unstoppable force. No matter what has happened to him, he has refused to give up. He fought not just for revenge, but so that those who lost their lives wouldn't have done so in vain. It's been heavily hinted throughout the series how much Eren blames himself for the death of his friends, but his guilt is clear here. Still, Eren never stopped fighting, never stopped looking forward. That was what made him the main character. It was inspiring, the way he always picked himself back up.


Because of that, I was sure it would happen this time too. I didn't think that Eren would want to fight Historia (I mean, he even had his misgivings about Annie), but I know a lot of people, myself included, expected Eren to come out swinging once he got out of those chains and could turn back into a Titan. What actually happened made my heart fall and shatter onto the ground.



He's completely broken. A lot has been said during this arc about how Eren has become useless as a main character (to the point that I've seen some people claim that he needs to be killed off), but this is an all new low. It's not just his physical restraints; what was keeping him going, his unshakable belief that the Titans were the sole enemy he needed to face, is gone. Now he's facing the possibility that everything that's happened to him could've been avoided, and that everything he's done might have made matters worse.


From a storytelling perspective, it makes sense. The main character has to hit complete rock bottom before rising up once again to save the day for good. But man, seeing Eren completely give up hurts. He really does believe that his only option is to put things in Historia's hands. I'm sure that there's something more to this, but he can't think straight right now, and I can't blame him.

Don't get me started on Titanstoria

And once again, I have no idea how the main characters are going to make it out of this one, so lets close this post with some random speculation! Here are some possibilities about how this might go down:
1) That's not Historia transforming and is actually Rod (unlikely)
2) Mikasa and Co. snap Eren out of it due to their lives being in danger (much more likely)
3) Titanstoria gets herself stuck--it looked like that Titan's head was hitting the ceiling--and Ymir/Annie have to get her out (highly unlikely, but I like this one)
4) I don't really even want to consider this, but... Rod mentioned that the point was to get at the spinal fluid. Maybe there's a way for that to happen and then Eren regenerates...? But no, a Titan's weak point has to do with severing the spine. This was a terrible theory. (very very very unlikely)

It's only the first chapter of the year and already this series is breaking me.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulpub.

Status Update: Subdued Fangirling is on Hiatus

March 8, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Muse Escapes From The Walled City in LA!

≪ Previous: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 65--Breaking Point

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TL;DR I'm really bad at keeping New Year's Resolutions.

I didn't want to have to say this, but since the month of February passed without me posting anything and with no chance of my current schedule letting up anytime soon, I'm officially going on hiatus.

For those of you that don't know what's been going on with me recently, I'm getting a teaching credential in English. I'm not sure yet if I want to teach middle school or high school (since I have experience with both, and each has its pros and cons), but if this crazy schedule has taught me anything, it's that I really do want to do this and make a career out of it.

However, that same schedule has forced me to stop pretending that I'll be able to keep up with anime fandom, at least not until graduation. Right now I'm student teaching in the mornings, working in the afternoons, and at class in the evenings. I'm lucky if I get to glance at Twitter or Tumblr, let alone watch even one episode of anime. This also means that blogging has come to a complete halt. Case in point: it's taken me nearly two weeks just to write this blog post.

Basically, I feel Shirobako on a spiritual level right now.

So in summary: I'm not dead, but school is trying very hard to kill me. I'm still keeping up with the Attack on Titan manga, but I don't have the time to do the lengthy breakdown/meta posts for each chapter right now. Honestly, that is what bugs me the most about my schedule--I want to share my theories, dammit! Figure reviews are also on hold, since I don't have the time to dedicate to figure photoshoots either.

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to come back in full force by May, but in the worst-case scenario I'll be back in mid-June. In the meantime, I still check in every now and again on Twitter and Instagram if you want to see what I'm up to. Until then, I'll be out defeating my own personal Colossal Titan! Wish me luck!

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Muse Escapes From The Walled City in LA!

March 30, 2015, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Subdued Fangirling's Fourth Anniversary!

≪ Previous: Status Update: Subdued Fangirling is on Hiatus

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Guess where I am! #attackontitan #realescapegame

A photo posted by Muse (@subduedfangirl) on Mar 21, 2015 at 2:04pm PDT

On March 21st, I joined 1,600 other people at Weingart Stadium in Los Angeles to take on an Attack on Titan themed Real Escape Game titled Escape from the Walled City!

When I first saw news reports of an Attack on Titan themed escape game that was running in Japan, my first thought was, "Wow, it would be cool if that ever came to the States." A couple months later, my wish was granted with the announcement that Escape From the Walled City would be going on tour in the US, and that the one closest to me (in LA) would happen on the one weekend that my insane school schedule wouldn't require all of my attention. I took this as a sign, and preordered my tickets as soon as I could!

The basic premise of the game is that everyone who shows up for the game are the new recruits of the Survey Corps. However, in the middle of the induction ceremony, Titans begin to attack. They will reach the Walled City (the stadium where the game takes place) in one hour. During that time, the game players, either in groups or by themselves, have to figure out the various puzzles to gather their gear, escape the city, and save the day!

Outside the stadium were life-sized cutouts of all the characters (that kept getting knocked down by the breeze, haha). I couldn't get a good shot of all of them since a lot of people were taking selfies with their favorite characters (myself included), but I personally got a kick out of seeing the height differences side by side.

I went to the 2:30 game, and I overheard staff stating that around 600 people showed up for that game alone. I'd picked that game in order to give myself plenty of time to account for traffic to make it out there, but I hadn't considered the heat. There was plenty of shade outside the stadium, which was okay, but once they put us all inside, a lot of the time was spent in direct sunlight. It got really hot after a while, especially after running around to collect clues.

It's hard to talk about the game itself, since the organizers have asked for participants to not post any spoilers to social media because it would ruin the experience for future events. A lot of the experience is wrapped up in the clues and how the game worked, so unfortunately I have to speak in vague terms. That's also the reason why I don't have a large amount of pictures in this post, since the majority of the photos that I took had game clues in them. The puzzles ranged from fairy easy to Myst-level hard. At one point I became convinced that if I just stared at the clues long enough, I could figure out the solution. Of course, that didn't work.

MADE IT WITH TEN SECONDS TO SPARE BY THE POWER OF TEAMWORK #attackontitan #realescapegame

A photo posted by Muse (@subduedfangirl) on Mar 21, 2015 at 4:12pm PDT

In the end, the real key to solving the puzzles was teamwork. While I imagine that there is someone out there who could solve all of these puzzles on their own, given the time limit it's much better to be able to bounce your ideas off of multiple people or build off of what others have already discovered. If you're planning on trying this out on your own, I highly recommend that you reconsider. Bring some friends, or ask to join a group when you make it to the game. The people at the LA event were very friendly, and it was a lot more fun figuring out the answers in a group. Plus, we made it!

Overall, I had a great time. If I had the chance to do this again I would probably pick an earlier time due to the heat, but I don't have any complaints about the game itself and had a lot of fun! The game is possible to solve without any prior knowledge of Attack on Titan (ample hints are given within the game for the series-specific parts), but I would mainly recommend this to fans, since being familiar with the series adds a lot to the experience (for instance, Erwin's speech about loyalty prior to the game starting is downright hilarious if you've read past a certain point in the manga).

Cosplay in America put together an excellent video that showcases what the game was like (spoiler free, of course):


If you'd like to try out the game for yourself, their last stop will be in New York City on April 11th! You can find more information on their website: realescapegame.com/sp/.

Subdued Fangirling's Fourth Anniversary!

May 16, 2015, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 69--Drunk on Power

≪ Previous: Muse Escapes From The Walled City in LA!

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I don't know what image to use, so have a sketch that Isayama drew of Levi with a Colossal Titan facemask

Guess who missed their blog anniversary again?

Four years though. That's not that long, and yet it feels like an eternity. That day when I decided to create this blog on a whim in-between episodes of a Fushigi Yuugi marathon seems very far away. Since then, I've graduated from that school with a BA, earned my Masters, and now I'm about to finish student teaching and hopefully move on to a career of teaching. However, my obsession with anime hasn't changed.

I haven't accomplished as much this year with the blog as I would've liked, mostly thanks to school eating up my schedule, but I still feel the same as when I wrote this last year:

...All this time I've been thinking, "I wish I had more than two spare minutes a day so that I could write more on the blog." I've still been getting ideas. I still have things I want to say. And that tells me that I'm in for the long haul, regardless of what real life throws at me.

At the time I'm writing this, I've got several editorial-style posts in the draft stage as well as the figure review I never got around to posting last...January? I think it was January. You know it's been a long time when you can remember the last time you made a post... I'm also thinking about reviving my Summer of Backlogging feature with a few tweaks, since there are a lot of shows on my backlist that I couldn't watch while they were airing this past year.

Also, the blog is going through a slight makeover yet again, as some of you may have already noticed due to the fact that the banner and the blog width don't match anymore. I'm planning on whipping up a new banner and finding a new background to match (I still really dislike Blogger's default tiling regardless of resolution). In the meantime, please pardon my mess!

As for what else has changed, I've gotten a lot more into cosplay over the last year with my first serious attempt at Anime Expo last July. I'm planning on bringing three cosplays with me this year, and I'll actually be there the whole four days for the first time! I've been posting pictures of my plans and progress over on my Instagram. There also might be some posts on the subject in the future, and I'm toying with the idea of even making some YouTube videos about that and my con adventures, but nothing's set in stone just yet.

I also finally joined the 2000s and got the blog a Facebook page, not just a Google+ page. There's not much on it right now, but I'm planning on not only sharing my blog posts but also anime-related news items that I find interesting (read: every piece of Attack on Titan news will probably cross that page at some point). You can find it here or through the widget on the sidebar.

So as usual, I have lots of plans, but whether things actually turn out that way remains to be seen! In the meantime, I'm still here, and I'm really looking forward to getting out of school (for real this time!) and getting back into my hobby.

And now, as is blog anniversary tradition, here are some stats!

Since I barely wrote anything this last year, everything is down in terms of month-to-month data, yet overall my pageviews are up 10k from last year... Somehow.

Meanwhile, my Blogger stats fell off a cliff yet again

In any case, here's hoping for a more productive year five!

Top image is an original sketch by Hajime Isayama posted to his blog here.

Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 69--Drunk on Power

June 7, 2015, 3:30 pm

≫ Next: Shoujo You Should Know on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses!

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I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face.

(A/N: The post deals with spoilers for the entire manga and contains disturbing and graphic images. Please do not read unless you are caught up!)

I have started this post at least a dozen times over the past month since its release, and with the new chapter once again about to come out, I really need to just sit down and finish this thing, because this is a chapter that is going to stick in my mind for a while. Not only do we finally get a resolution to this arc (Everything worked out?? What series am I reading??) but we also get something that a large part of the fanbase has been asking about for a long time--Levi's backstory.

While No Regrets has been out there for a while now in both manga and now OVA form--I've got a separate write-up planned on all of that once I can pick up the shattered pieces of my heart long enough to take screencaps--it wasn't the story that Levi fans had expected or, in some cases, had even wanted at all. The Levi presented in No Regrets is already very close to how he is in the main series (with a few differences in his character, given the fact that he was younger), offering nearly nothing in terms of an explanation on where Levi came from or why he acts the way he does. This chapter finally answered those questions, and while it was everything that has been hinted by both the main and spinoff manga series and guessed at by the fans, my heart still wasn't prepared.





But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. While the chapter does give context for Levi's backstory, it's not presented from his perspective. In fact, this is actually a backstory chapter for Kenny, starting with his relationship to Uri, the previous king. As we saw a few chapters ago, past Kenny shares the same bloodlust that current Kenny does, although back then it was turned against his family's enemies. After finding out the truth, Kenny tracked down Uri and tried to kill him. However, there wasn't much he could do against the power of a Titan shifter.


But despite the fact that Kenny makes it abundantly clear that he'd like nothing more but to put a bullet in Uri's head, Uri surprises him by not only letting him go, but also apologizes for the Ackerman's persecution and bows his head to him, asking for Kenny to forgive him and spare his life.
This shocks Kenny so much that he has a complete turnaround and ends up working for him instead. Kenny notes that this has the side benefit of temporarily slowing down the persecution of his family, which may be what prompted him to track down his sister Kuchel for the second time.

And this is where Levi comes in.



Have I mentioned that I probably won't be over this anytime soon?


Instead of his sister, Kenny finds an emaciated child who introduces himself as "just Levi." Respecting his sister's wish for Levi to not know anything about their family, Kenny takes him in for a while and teaches Levi the only thing he knows how to do: how to fight to survive.


There's no evidence that suggests that Kenny was harsh or abusive to Levi, despite fandom theory turning that way after it was first revealed that he'd raised Levi to some extent. But that said, a small child being raised by a serial killer does not make for a good combination.


In the end, while Levi did learn how to take care of himself, Kenny abandoning him after he proves that he can take down a grown man by himself probably has something to do with his reluctance to get close to anyone. He lost one parent to disease, and another parental figure just walked away from him. However, in Kenny's eyes he'd done all that he'd could. He'd given Levi the power to live, and to Kenny power was everything.


The heart of the chapter is truly in the panels above. Kenny is arguably one of the more irredeemable characters in the series not only because of his actions, but because he shows no remorse for them. Bertoldt, Reiner, and Annie at least have demonstrated guilt over what they have done. Kenny showed none of that. He was well aware that he was beyond saving, even referring to himself as garbage. Even though Uri had won him over, his entire life was based around fighting to survive. He couldn't afford to believe in the things that the Reiss family preached. He'd seen the reality of the world that they ruled from the shadows. It's easy to preach peace when your life is sheltered, so I can't blame Kenny for concluding that "peace" is a by-product of "power."


He also begins to believe that the "power" is what will save him, that maybe by inheriting it, he'll be able to finally understand what Uri meant. However, since we already know where that quest ends--learning that he can't use it at all because of his bloodline--that just makes this backstory a case of tragic irony. Kenny becomes consumed by his quest for power, ultimately acting in his own self-interest. By the time he faced Levi again, it didn't matter to him that his own nephew stood in his way. He wanted the power even more. His speech towards the end of the chapter about "everyone being drunk on something" speaks to this. For him, it was power gained through violent means.


I've seen some posts calling Kenny tragic since he never got what he wanted in the end, but that's just not true. He did get what he wanted, but not quite in the form that he expected. Not only that, but ultimately he decides that he doesn't want it after all.


In the last moments of his life, Kenny held in his hand the power that he'd dedicated his life to taking for himself. The Titan serum that he stole from Rod could've saved his life, even if just in a superficial Titan form. There's even a chance that he could've become a proper shifter, since the serums haven't been fully explained just yet. But at those same moments, he realizes that it won't truly save him. Along the way, he'd lost sight of what he'd really wanted to save--his family.

The fact that Kenny's last moments involved him handing over the power that he'd wanted so badly to Levi made this a gut punch of a death scene for a character that I personally hated with no reservations only a few chapters ago. Kenny's actions are still inexcusable, but introducing his reasons and motivations finally drew him out of the overpowered cartoon-like villain he had been previously into a believable character. On the one hand, I'm disappointed that the Ackerman showdown that's been teased for a while didn't happen, but on the other hand, this was far more powerful.


It's also clear that Levi needed the closure as well, given the fact that he very quickly drops the line of questioning about the king when he sees that Kenny doesn't have much time left, and asks him two key questions: why Kenny abandoned him and what his relationship was with his mother.


The way the question is phrased and how Levi reacts to Kenny saying that he's his uncle makes it seem like Levi had guessed that Kenny was his father. If that's true, even despite his guess being off, Kenny was the closest thing Levi had to a father figure, and if he hadn't saved him that day it's likely that Levi would have died in the same room as his mother. While Kenny is indeed not fit to be a parent, Levi owes him a lot. Getting at least a few of his questions answered about who he really is hopefully helped him get some closure after all these years.


And on a different note, all of this hasn't even touched on Historia's character development over this arc. Holy crap was that a wild ride. Everything that I was complaining about several chapters back was addressed in regards to her character motivations and then some. Not only did she realize that blindly listening to her father was a dumb move because he was manipulating her (something that she realized after remembering Ymir's wish for her to live freely and honestly, no less!), but also she was the one who ended up taking down her own father when his Titan form threatened to repeat what the Colossal Titan had done at the very beginning of this series. That is quite the turnaround!


...At least, that's what I think this panel is getting at? There's some strange wording here.

But regardless, what immediately follows Historia's coronation is a fantastic place to end this arc. Now that she's finally risen above her past and is no longer anyone's puppet--she's the Queen because she wants to be, and for no other reason--she finally gets to make good on that promise to smack Levi for how he treated her earlier in this arc.

Mikasa's reaction alone is priceless

But then, just when I thought that I was done with the waterworks:



Of course, Levi was always perfectly capable of expressing his thanks to the kids, but now that we know the true weight of his backstory, it's more obvious why he's always held back a bit on stating his feelings. Maybe after all this time and despite all the crud that he's had to put up with, the real Levi is starting to break through the persona he's had to cultivate in order to protect himself.


And then there's Kenny's claim in his final speech about Levi being a "hero." Personally, I've never quite thought of Levi as anything other than a reluctant hero before, but there's no denying that Titan-slaying is what he's known for. I'm not sure if that thread will go anywhere, but it's interesting to think about in light of everything that we learned about him in this chapter.


In any case, this chapter contains a lot of the elements that I love about Attack on Titan as a whole: fantastic character development, unpredictable twists and turns in the plot that are backed up with subtle and consistent foreshadowing, and reveals for the bigger questions in the series that have me tearing my hair out or crying into a pillow (sometimes both).

That said, aside from this chapter, it did feel like the ending was rushed. I saw a lot of fan complaints about the focus on political intrigue for this arc instead of Titan fighting, so it feel like Isayama cut off what would've been a longer finale in order to move on to the next part in order to stop those complaints. Personally, I really enjoyed the more political side of this arc, so if that hunch is true I'm a bit disappointed. However, I'm really excited to see where the next arc takes us--are they finally going to the basement? Either way, we'll know soon!

P.S.: Levi sure does take after his mom, huh?

Manga images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulpub.

Shoujo You Should Know on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses!

June 23, 2015, 3:57 pm

≫ Next: Subdued Figures: Figma Levi Cleaning Ver. Review

≪ Previous: Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 69--Drunk on Power

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[Image]
If you don't follow me on social media, then you haven't heard about the new joint series that I'll be working on over the summer over at OASG! It's called Shoujo You Should Know, and fellow manga reviewer Helen and I will be talking about shoujo series that we feel should be discussed more by the community!

To find out more details, you can read the intro right now by following the link here or by clicking the link in the tweet below:

New @OrganizationASG: @WanderinDreamr and @subduedfangirl introduce Shoujo You Should Know! http://t.co/PGd2MhoP9E

— manjiorin (@manjiorin) June 23, 2015

There will be individual and joint reviews up every week on OASG, so I hope that you guys check it out!

Subdued Figures: Figma Levi Cleaning Ver. Review

June 27, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Gatchaman Crowds Insight First Impressions--You're You, You

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I’m back! Sorry for the extreme delay on this review; this was supposed to go up all the way back in January, but school had other plans in mind for me. Anyway, after waiting for this figure for quite a while back in December (GSC really needs to fix the problems with its international shipping) but once he got here, I was very pleased with him! This month's review will cover the WonFes exclusive Figma Levi Cleaning Ver.!


   
This version has a simpler design than his standard release Figma version thanks to the lack of a jacket, and the figure itself looks a bit more polished than usual because of it. The only paint flaw I noticed was the usual complaint about the edges of the straps blending into the shirt/pants, but otherwise I love the attention to smaller details, like the little bit of Levi's undercut hairstyle that isn't held down by his headscarf.

 
Levi comes out of the box already wearing the handkerchief around his neck, which is made of a bendable plastic that holds its shape. I love this, since I don't have to worry about it breaking when I move it around for different poses. The expression on his faceplate is spot-on; the sculptors and painters did a great job of capturing the nuances in his expressions. Well, except for one, but I'll get to that a little later. But despite my love for the expressions, I'm still not sure why GSC and Max Factory think that his eyes are green (in all other official images, the color is a gray-blue).

Similar to the other Attack on Titan Figmas, Levi is also perfectly capable of staying upright without the use of a stand. However, I noticed that my Levi's weight isn't evenly distributed, so all of his poses look a little more sassy due to a slight hip pop. As far as I'm concerned, that is not a defect.

 
Like the Nendoroid version, all of Levi's accessories are cleaning related to match the scene from Episode 15 of the anime. He has a broom (which is taller than he is, haha) and two duster mops that can be posed at multiple angles. However, the handles on the dusters are thin enough to make me start worrying about them snapping. I have to be careful when threading them through the extra hand pieces that are meant to hold them. I also enjoy his first alternate expression--I can almost hear him yelling at Eren to do a better job cleaning.


Levi also comes with an alternate hand piece that's attached to a piece of cloth so that he can scrub things. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything Figma-sized for him, so he cleaned my camera lens instead. The "cloth" itself is an impressive bit of sculpting--it almost looks real! You can also see the piece that covers part of Levi's face in this shot which is also made of bendy plastic like the neckpiece, a definite improvement over the solid shell that was used in the Nendoroid version.


The final two accessory pieces are technically not for this figure at all, but only work with previous releases. Pictured above is Figma Mikasa with the alternative wind-swept bangs piece that only comes with this release. For me, this brings up two questions: 1) Why wasn't this included with her standard release in the first place, and 2) Why is it packaged with Levi? I mean, if you've been following the manga recently, you can make a plot-related guess why, but I doubt that's the case here. Mikasa and Levi are the most popular characters, so it's more likely that this piece was included to get more buy-in from Mikasa fans. If that's true, I'm not sure how I feel about it... Oh well. It's a nice touch to an already great figure.


In Levi's case... I can't take this seriously, I’m laughing too much. The faceplate comes from Episode 22, which fans will likely recognize, but something about it is off here. I can't quite put my finger on it. Anyway, the faceplate is meant to be paired with the optional set of wind-swept bangs, but this is where the problems come in. The bangs absolutely will not fit on the Cleaning Figma version, only his standard Figma version. The Cleaning Version has a different sculpt for the head, and even if you did manage to get it on, he'd still be missing half his head, since the headscarf comes off in one full piece. Therefore, if you want to pose him the way he's displayed on the box, you'll have to be an owner of the standard Levi Figma and swap out the heads. This was not clearly stated in the original advertising, so people who only ordered this version were upset that they couldn't use this piece. It also brings me back to my first question with Mikasa: why wasn't this included with the standard Figma in the first place?

But aside from including accessories meant for other figures, I'm very pleased with this release. With the exception of the extra bangs, I had no problems with setting up any of the accessories. The joints on the figure were very smooth, so posing was not a problem either. It’s also one of those figures that I feel captures a bit of character. As I mentioned earlier in the review, I could almost hear the lines from the show. As of this writing, Figma Levi Cleaning Ver. is available in the aftermarket for around $50, which is not bad for an exclusive figure from last year. It was also recently announced that he'll be sold at AX, so he's likely to come to other conventions as well! If you’re a huge Levi fan like me, this is a great figure to add to your collection.

Images by me. Always buy your figures from trustworthy shops, and watch out for bootlegs!

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Gatchaman Crowds Insight First Impressions--You're You, You

July 10, 2015, 2:07 pm

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That feel when your boobs will never be voiced by Miyano Mamoru…

Freaking paparazzi

I’ve seen some complaints on Twitter that the first episode was kind of slow, but I’m just happy that this show is getting a second season so that didn’t really bother me. It seems like it’s taking the same kind of pacing as the first show by gradually introducing the new characters and setting up the conflict. There’s also red Crowds piloting fighter jets in Episode Zero, so it’s not as if the opening is devoid of action.

I wonder what version of Flight Simulator they were running

So far it looks like it’ll be dealing with the fallout from where the last season left off, and there are some strong hints that this season will also deal with popular media, not just the internet. I’m not completely sure of what to make of IRL emoticon alien just yet though. I hope they flesh out that character a bit more. Otherwise, I am here for Hajime shutting down the evil alien that lives in her boobs.


Images are from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcast.

Working!!!/Wagnaria S3 First Impressions--Now With More Exclamation Marks

July 10, 2015, 3:00 pm

≫ Next: Million Doll First Impressions--Fake Idol Fans

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Yamada is still best girl.


The other characters don’t remember what happened in the previous seasons either, which makes me feel better about not remembering all the random details.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcast.

Million Doll First Impressions--Fake Idol Fans

July 10, 2015, 4:00 pm

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Otaku fight about idol popularity over Twitter. Most realistic show this season.

...Well, as long as you don't count the CGI.

This does look like a fun short though. The two otaku characters are at completely different ends of the spectrum (one’s a blogging hikkikomori and the other is a guy who just likes what’s popular) and even within the short runtime there was already a lot of grandstanding about being a “real fan,” so I was pretty entertained. In related news, I have found my hateship for this season.


Downside is that the idol characters were pretty bland, but this episode made it feel like the otaku subculture is the focus here, and I’m fine with that.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcast.

Durarara!!x2 Ten First Impressions--Izaya Has No Friends: The Episode

July 11, 2015, 9:46 am

≫ Next: Rokka no Yuusha First Impressions—The Strongest Exposition in the World

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After a season where I watched the Durarara animation literally melt before my eyes, I started to wonder if I’d stopped caring about the series during its long absence, if the series had lost its touch, or a combination of both. Then this episode completely won me back by dedicating most of its air time to Izaya trolling people from the hospital because no one came to see him after his stabbing and he had nothing better to do.

LOL
Animation issues from last season aside, I think my main issue with Durarara is that I care about everything except the teenager gang war, and yet it insists on focusing on that. However, as long as it keeps cycling back to the other characters, I’ll keep coming back for this show.


Or maybe I’ll just watch the parts where Izaya messes with people.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcast.

Rokka no Yuusha First Impressions—The Strongest Exposition in the World

July 11, 2015, 11:00 am

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My dream is that someday fantasy anime will learn that you can deliver backstory without having to resort to long monologues.


The opening fight scene in this episode was pretty cool, and the world itself seems interesting (albeit inconsistent—the backdrop is Not-Ancient-Mexico yet the bits of technology we see are far past that), but the long winded info-dumps almost killed all interest I had in the show.


THEN WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IT


Also, "the strongest man in the world” fell for one of the oldest cliches in the book. It was obvious from when she walked in that she wasn’t who she said she was, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he was playing along. Nope.


Hopefully the rest of this show is more action and less characters reciting history lessons that everyone in earshot is already aware of.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcast.