Terror in Resonance #7 – Nine and Twelve have managed to keep Five’s bomb from causing any casualties and escaped with their own secrets intact, but their new allies are not so lucky. Shibazaki will now have to face the consequences of pulling a gun on an air traffic controller, and Lisa’s identity is now known to Five and her FBI team.
Shibazaki is probably off the Sphinx investigation now (officially, anyway– I’m sure that unofficially, Hamura and his other colleagues will find a way to keep him contributing) but he’s likely to use the talk about his removal as a way to pry some information loose about whatever it is Nine and Twelve want the world to know about.
Lisa has become exactly the kind of vulnerability Nine was afraid of. He and Twelve are smart enough to realize that if Five knows who Lisa is, they have some additional tracks-covering to do, but Five now has an invaluable clue to where they’ve been recently. Five’s investigation into Lisa will probably get us the exposition we’ve been waiting for about her missing father (my money’s still on Shibazaki). You know what would be a great culmination to the plot thread of Lisa’s increasing confidence? If she’s the one who gets the opportunity to definitively strike back at Five.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders #21 – It’s all fun and games until someone has to deliver the news to a parent that their son is dead. While Joseph goes to speak to Avdol senior, father to father, Polnareff goes for a little walk and ends up taking a massive guilt trip.
So, show of hands, who was surprised that Polnareff’s wishes were granted in some horrible, twisted way? No one? Yeah, thought so. Judgement is really living up to its archetype by bringing Sherry back as a flesh-eating ghoul. Not only is there the physical damage Polnareff is taking in fighting her, but now he has to somehow deal with the psychological damage of killing her himself. And next, it looks like he’s getting an undead Avdol for bonus fun.
I’m still convinced that we’re going to see Avdol alive and well again somehow, but I doubt that after what the genie did with Sherry, that it’s going to turn around and properly resurrect Avdol.
Hunter x Hunter #144 – With Killua and Alluka finally making it to Gon’s special room, surrounded by a nervous reunion of old friends, the action, if that’s the word I want, shifts to the final rounds of the election. Leorio really doesn’t want to be the chairman, so he announces that he will treat the organization as his personal property, then divulges a little too much information about what he was up to while Gon and Killua were off visiting Greed Island and then fighting Chimera Ants. Unfortunately, this being the Hunters’ Association, the idea of having an unstable, power-mad dictator in charge actually appeals to a lot of people.
Even more unfortunately, it seems that Pariston Hill doesn’t really want to win either, he just enjoys the politicking. This leaves Cheadle and Mizaistom scrambling to find a way not just to win, but to avoid indefinite gridlock.
Ging dropped an interesting hint when he said that Cheadle’s problem was she actually wanted to win. Maybe the solution he’s hinting at is to forget about that, and spoil Pariston’s day by forcing him to win.
Aldnoah Zero #8 – Things we learned this week:
- Saazbaum has a badass mech
- Slaine is really, really devoted to Asseylum
- People forgot how to do interrogation right after WWII in this timeline, too
- Cruhteo is an idiot, because after marvelling at all the care Slaine has taken to make sure no one was alerted to the plot being uncovered, he immediately takes action that will alert the plotters
Things we did not learn:
- What Dr. Troyard is up to that makes it so important that Slaine not be vaporized
- What happened between Inaho shooting at Slaine and Slaine deciding for some reason to go right back to the castle
- Why someone on Earth built an entire flying battleship and then didn’t tell anybody
- WTF Marito saw at Tanegashima in 1999
Terror in Resonance and this show are a study in how to do mysterious, and how not to. Terror in Resonance has plenty of questions to answer, but it does much a better job of making it because the story hasn’t gotten there yet. Aldnoah Zero is artificially avoiding exposition by very obviously skipping over things for no good reason. It frustrates the viewer and gives the impression that the story won’t be strong enough to withstand the explanations that are coming.
