Sorry for this post being so late! Packing for college is actually kind of stressful and hard, but I doubt anyone cares about that haha! Anyways, aside from Nozaki-kun, which has failed to give me a single lackluster episode so far, these weren’t the best episodes so far, but they were pretty alright, especially in terms of Love Stage!! which was much better in comparison to last week.
And Nozaki-kun continues to be the shining star of my week. I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing me continually gush about Nozaki-kun and how much I love it and how you all should watch it, but what can I say? I am really enjoying Nozaki-kun. There hasn’t been an episode so far where I haven’t laughed or had a stupid grin slapped on my face the entire episde. I think it’s safe to say I’m head over heels.
Unfortunately, since I can’t just have every entry end there, some of my favorite parts of these two episodes were Mikorin and Nozaki’s foray into VNs, the subsequent Tomoda doujinshi, Maeno, and Nozaki’s attempt to put himself in Mamiko’s shoes. Though episode four focused on our usual bunch, episode five saw the introduction of a couple more characters and they are equally as lovable and memorable as everyone else. I’m actually pretty impressed that, at least in my opinion, there hasn’t been any one character introduced so far that I’ve disliked or even found vaguely annoying. Maeno, especially, was a character that I fell for immediately and can’t wait to see more of, especially considering Nozaki’s reactions to him. In terms of the usual bunch, we didn’t see too much Kashima, but she shone in the few scenes that she did pop up in. Mikorin and Nozaki, on the other hand, had ample screentime. Though Mikorin continues to shine as an adorable dork, I really enjoyed the different reactions and sides of Nozaki we were able to see in these episodes, and he’s definitely a character that has only grown on me the more I see him. I can’t wait to sit down and watch the next two episodes, and, as I seem to do at the end of all these segments, I can’t say enough how happy this show makes me and how much I want you all to watch it and experience a similar sort of joy.
Well, suffice to say these were not my two favorite episodes so far. The orientation camp got pretty boring after about an episode, and I’m really happy that it only lasted two episodes. As much as I like the whole friendship thing that Futaba and her group of future friends are starting to build, it’s not the most compelling material. On the other hand, seeing Futaba’s continued determination to try and be a good leader and be a better person is still pretty nice. Additionally, the moments she and Kou shared during the camp were actually pretty sweet, notably the table scene and the scene at the bus station. Speaking of the bus station scene, one of the things I’ve really come to appreciate at this point, is how well Blue Spring Ride handles it’s more sentimental scenes, especially when it comes to the background music.
Besides the usual Futaba and Kou moments, though, we also saw the introduction of some “jucier” elements because, you know, shoujo. The first of these is the relationship between Murao and Tanaka-sensei, one that’s hinted to have some romantic undertones. Unfortunately for Murao, Tanaka, for his part, seems to be trying to gently push her away because of their relationship as teacher and student. Since I vaguely remember shipping them in the manga, I’m sort of looking forward to that melodrama, though not so much the future love triangle. Speaking of love triangles, that brings me to the more annoying introduction. At the end of the episode, Futaba’s new BFF sends her a text saying she thinks she’s fallen for Kou. Of course this text arrives right after Futaba herself realizes she might be in love with him as well. Cue annoying love triangle and melodrama. I can only hope that this will be dealt with quickly, seeing as how this is probably the beginning of an onslaught of annoying shoujo cliches and other things that will try my patience. Anyways, here’s to hoping Blue Spring Ride doesn’t fall too far into the annoying shoujo hole.
3. Love Stage!!
I am a weak, horrible human. I feel absolutely terrible, but I’ll be damned if Love Stage!! didn’t start to majorly chip away at what I thought was going to be a hard shell of hatred and disgust. Unfortunately, I’m the weakest person alive when it comes to fluff and gosh darn these two episodes had a lot of fluff. Now, that’s not to say I’m completely buying into Ryouma and Izumi’s budding relationship considering how quickly everyone’s brushed off the events of episode three (they kind of were worse than a mosquito bite, Rei), but…I have caved a bit.I think what’s really done a number on that shell of hatred/disgust is how hard the show is trying to have Ryouma’s apologies come off as genuine and make him seem more sympathetic.
For example, one major thing that they added in was Ryouma’s comment about how he had been sexually harassed early on in his career, something the manga didn’t mention at all (or that I didn’t notice when I skimmed the chapter). Though that doesn’t really excuse crap diddly, I can understand what purpose it was supposed to serve in terms of Ryouma trying to excuse his own actions. Apologetic and somewhat sincere Ryouma is actually quite the cutie and his attempts to try and make amends as well as improve his relationship with Izumi are things I could appreciate. To his credit, Izumi isn’t quite jumping on the Ryouma train and I actually liked how annoyed he was with Ryouma constantly bugging him. That said, Ryouma isn’t completely perfect. Besides the obvious he sort of assaulted Izumi thing, I thought it was a bit much that, when he met Izumi again, he forced a new haircut and outfit on him just to have Izumi rise up and match his standards. Ryouma also kissed Izumi several times while he was unconscious, but, thankfully, he didn’t venture any farther than little pecks and…it was kind of cute.
Although I think it’s important to not excuse or pretend that Ryouma’s actions didn’t happen or that they’re realistically justified, especially considering how something like that wouldn’t fly in real life, I also have to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, and one that falls into a genre that often has romance arising from stuff that goes beyond what Ryouma did to boot. It being a work of fiction doesn’t mean I approve what happened, but I’m not necessarily going to let that stop me from enjoying the fluff that I came for. I guess what I’m trying to say is despite the rage/hate that I expressed in my last post, I’m actually kind of enjoying Love Stage!! for what it is and what it’s giving me.
4. Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?
At this point, if there’s one thing I can appreciate about Invaders, it’s that it never quite plays out as I imagine it’s going to. These episodes, surprisingly enough, didn’t deal with the conflict over the room and were much more centered on how the inhabitants of Rokujyoma have become friends. Out of the two, I probably enjoyed episode four the most since I thought the hijinks on the beach were pretty entertaining to watch and I enjoyed learning more about each girl’s reason for wanting the Rokujyoma simply because it made their struggle a more sympathetic one. That said, episode five was a bit too out there for my enjoyment. One thing Invaders doesn’t really do that well, this episode has taught me, is drama. The drama with Sanae (and the other ghost) was kind of dumb and the ghost hunters were even more stupid (who pays for a ghost??). Though the fighting was kind of neat in how silly the situation was and the ending was sweet, the majority of five just fell a bit flat. Since Invaders is at it’s best when it’s be silly and doing competitions, hopefully we’ll go back to that and not have any more friendship crisis drama.
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AnimeEmily
I'm a shy, lazy, easily impressed person who loves anime and manga. I've been seriously watching since about the summer of the sixth grade and have been in love since. I'm pretty much an amateur when it comes to anime and am somewhat still in that starry-eyed phase, but as I continue to watch more, I have become more critical, I suppose one could say.Latest posts by AnimeEmily (see all)
- Emily’s Attempt To Survive The Summer Romance Anime, Week 4 and 5 - August 15, 2014
- Karneval Review - August 1, 2014
- Emily’s Attempt To Survive The Summer Romance Anime, Week 2 and 3 - July 27, 2014
- Emily’s Attempt To Survive The Summer Romance Anime, Week 1 - July 14, 2014
- Summer Anime 2014: Blue Spring Ride Impressions From Emily, Ben, and Manjiorin - July 10, 2014