Nobunagun #12 – Let’s hear it for the medics! John Hunter was a Scottish surgeon credited with many advances in the understanding of human anatomy. You can see how his AU manifestation would not be too keen on helping with indiscriminate slaughter, though ironically it looks like he’ll be beating both Geronimo’s and Jack’s totals.
And then… Florence Nightingale. Wow. I was hoping they would get around to showing a reincarnation of a famous woman, but I sure as heck wasn’t expecting that. It makes perfect sense that someone could be the descendant of two significant figures, which leads to the question of whether it’s also possible to have two E-Gene Holders conjuring the same person. Either way, there’s no way that Asao could also be Florence Nightingale (as Shio previously speculated), because (a) it appears you do have to be their direct descendant and (b) given how diametrically opposed the personalities of the reincarnations are to the people they’re reincarnated from, if Asao is the reincarnation of anyone significant, it’d have to be Japan’s answer to Lucrezia Borgia.
Rounding up this week’s vaguely familiar-sounding references, “Ghost Protocol” was one of the Mission: Impossible movies, though I don’t see how it applies to Geronimo sprouting a bunch of extra weapons, and the Munroe effect is the thing that makes shaped charges focus their energy. Also it appears to be the name of an alt-rock band.
Samurai Flamenco #21 – That was a surprisingly grown-up moment for this show, and a great one for Ishihara, who hasn’t really had much to do up until now other than be annoyed by Masayoshi and Konno. Regardless of how lovely that speech was, it’s hard to take this as anything other than a blunt message from the scriptwriter: get a life, fanboys.
Loneliness is the perfect explanation for why Haiji Sawada has been drawn back into Masayoshi’s universe. Masayoshi has dreamed up someone who not only cares about him above all others, but has never truly loved anyone else. And since he’s never really experienced romance, the form of that love has had to follow a narrative he is familiar with. This is going to be one awkward breakup.
Kill la Kill #23 – Just when you think Kill la Kill can’t possibly overdo things any more, we get Ryūko shaking off being cut in half, and most of the rest of the cast jumping into a giant hamster wheel to propel the Nudist Beach flagship through the invading alien fibers as it morphs into the shape of a giant thread cutter. It never fails to disappoint.
About that ship, by the way– its name could also be translated as The Naked Sun, as in both Isaac Asimov’s novel and a 1958 movie which I can’t find any plot information on. Likely the reference is to the latter, and, given the timing (the novel was published in 1957), it was nothing at all to do with the former.
Now, as the preview says, both the cast and the staff face their ultimate challenge! Which is another way saying, I think, that they didn’t have enough footage ready to even construct a proper preview. Anime series almost always cut their production schedules close, but with it being posted to Crunchyroll late three weeks in a row, this one is running closer than most. I hope they make it.
The Pilot’s Love Song #12 – And so it’s farewell to Isla, as it meets its cruel fate sailing off the edge of the world. Mission accomplished!
…um, what mission, exactly? Did this all start when the Wind Revolution leaders got bored and drunk and one of them said, “Hey, dudes! Let’s take that irreplaceable flying island and smash it into a structure we don’t understand! That would be so cool!”? Was there some kind of deep mythic underpinning to this event that the story forgot to explain? All we ever got was the story about the broken flagstone and the spring that spits out flying rocks. Which, come to think of it, we never did get to see.
Much the same for the legends of the Sky Clan. It would have been a whole lot more meaningful if we could have heard about that before, or at least something about the version of the legend that Isla’s people supposedly share. As it is, it just feels like the author pulled it out of nowhere to manufacture another heart-wrenching twist for the lead couple.
This show has one more episode to redeem itself, but that’s looking like a tall order at this point.
Hozuki no Reitetsu #11 – Random running in all directions and not really going anywhere? Yeah, that’s kind of how this show increasingly feels overall. It’s been seesawing back and forth between cohesive stories about the central cast and chapters that are like, “Look! A random mythological character acting stupid!” It’s been at its best with the former, so getting two of the latter this week makes this not a very good episode.
