Summer 2014 Episode Rankings – Week 9

Once again, there are only seventeen episodes making up the list this week, as Barakamon didn’t air. And unless there’s going to be other breaks that I’m unaware of, shows will start finishing next week! 😮 This year is flying by…

Plot twists! Aldnoah clearly doesn’t want to give up its recently acquired lead!

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1 – Aldnoah Zero ep 9

2 – Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus ep 9 

3 – Zankyou no Terror ep 8

4 – Hunter x Hunter ep 145 

5 – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders ep 22 (↑ 1)

6 – Akame ga Kill! ep 9 (↑ 3)

7 – Re:␣Hamatora ep 9 (↑ 1)

8 – Haikyuu!! ep 22 (↓ 1)

9 – Tokyo ESP ep 9 (↑ 3)

10 – Love Stage!! ep 9 

11 – Free! Eternal Summer ep 9 (↑ 3)

12 – Tokyo Ghoul ep 9 (↓ 9)

13 – Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun ep 9 (↓ 2)

14 – Nobunaga Concerto ep 8 (↓ 1)

15 – DRAMAtical Murder ep 9

16 – Sabagebu! ep 9 (↑ 1)

17 – Bakumatsu Rock ep 9 (↓ 1)

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The Jaegers and their lovestruck leader should prove interesting!

Moving up:

Akame ga Kill! has been faring considerably better in my rankings over the past few weeks, but 6th is the highest it’s placed so far. This is probably because most of the episode was spent introducing new villains, eccentric members of a newly formed squad known as the Jaegars… can’t wait to learn more about them! On the other hand, I’m still not overly interested in any of the members of Night Raid – Tatsumi is a fairly generic male lead, while Akame’s faded into the background despite the show being named after her! I’m guessing the latter point will be addressed soon enough, though.

Some drama in Free! Eternal Summer, at last! The topic of the characters’ futures now that they’re in their final year of school has come up several times throughout the series, in general discussion, school surveys, and of course the talent scouting… but Haru fears the future, lacks the same goals that drive his peers to do well, and just wants to continue swimming for fun with his friends. Meanwhile, with Sousuke’s shoulder injury giving him trouble, there should be disappointment to come for the Samezuka team too.

Haru fails to finish his race, a shock end to a good episode.

Moving down:

Not many series moved down this week, so I’ve ended up picking on Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun again… I do like this series, honest! The second half of this week’s episode was particularly good, as it focused on editor Maeno-san and his ‘influences’ on Miyako’s manga… how any of the manga-ka who end up with him get their work published to begin with is a mystery. Unless the chief editor and the majority of the readers also really like tanuki, who knows in this series. 😛

I can’t really ignore Tokyo Ghoul‘s nine place drop… once again, the episode wasn’t bad, just lacking in the action that caused me to rank the previous episode so highly. Quite a few things happened to move the plot forwards, such as Amon being relocated to the 11th ward where they are having problems with ghouls attacking inspectors. Oh, and one of said ghouls happens to be Touka’s brother. And they’re after Rize for some reason… I get the feeling this show will bounce back in episode 10.

Guess that spells the end of the umbrella industry…

General comments:

I’m still loving Hunter x Hunter, while simultaneously dreading it’s imminent ending. The mind games and tactical voting resulted in Pariston facing the unlikely Leorio in the final rounds of voting, with the latter only really caring about finding a way to heal Gon… so when Gon enters the voting hall, seemingly cured entirely, Leorio’s loses both his motivation and support. The election seems all but guaranteed to go Pariston’s way now, but there’s still time for further plot twists! As for Gon’s recovery, I was slightly underwhelmed by how quick and easy it was (once they finally got Alluka there, that is) – but that serves to remind us just how powerful Alluka’s ability is. Gon’s reunion with a reluctant Ging should be an interesting start to the next episode. 😀

Another slower, set-up episode in this week’s Zankyou no Terror (aside from the bombing of Sphinx’s base, and Lisa’s kidnapping right at the end)… exactly why this series can get away with having those while others like Tokyo Ghoul take huge drops is a question I struggle to answer myself. 😛 I am a fan of mysteries and detective work though, so Shibazaki’s research and inquiries certainly didn’t bore me. I like the fact that his colleagues are still helping him too, despite the risk to their jobs (or worse). Finally, Lisa has been causing a rift between Sphinx for a while, and her kidnapping has resulted in Twelve going to save her without the help of Nine… though surely the latter will also go to their rescue in the end? 😮

Nice to see some emotion on Illumi’s face for once. 😀

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