Autumn 2014 Episode Rankings – Week 11

No Parasyte this week, so it’s a short list! And it’ll be shorter still next week, with both Psycho-Pass and Akame ending. As an advanced warning, however, I’m hoping not to pick up too many new series at the start of next season, so this size could become regular… or I might give in to temptation and pick up 20 shows, it has happened before. 😛 For now though, there’s still two-three weeks left of Autumn!

Shingeki no Bahamut reminds us that it’s still a contender, and can invoke more emotions than just laughter.

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1 – Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis ep 10 (↑ 3)

2 – Psycho-Pass 2 ep 11 (↓ 1)

3 – Akame ga Kill! ep 24 (↑ 3)

4 – Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road ep 11 (↑ 1)

5 – Selector Spread WIXOSS ep 11 (↑ 2)

6 – Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works ep 10 (↑ 7)

7 – Shirobako ep 11 (↑ 1)

8 – Gugure! Kokkuri-san ep 11 (↑ 1)

9 – Amagi Brilliant Park ep 11 (↑ 1)

10 – Donten ni Warau ep 11 (↑ 2)

11 – Akatsuki no Yona ep 11

12 – Tribe Cool Crew ep 11 (↑ 2)

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Plot armour, duh.

Ending:

Psycho-Pass 2 ended quite solidly, in my opinion. Sibyl finally accepted Kamui, and the concept of a group Psycho-Pass… and so the system survives once again, after sacrificing a few brains to lower its coefficient. And after Togane fails to darken Akane’s Psycho-Pass, he and Kamui (who also now has a group Psycho-Pass) end up lethally shooting each other. All wrapped up nicely… except that Mika managed to get away with her betrayal. I have to wonder what her colour is right now! Overall, I’d say Psycho-Pass 2 was a decent sequel, though with half the number of episodes as the original, it was a bit rushed. New additions to the cast didn’t get the development that the returning characters had, but still managed to be interesting. 🙂

The finale of Akame ga Kill! was also strong, though I worried when the final battle between Akame and Esdeath first started, as it seemed the show had returned to the sub-par animation we saw in early episodes! Thankfully, once the characters were done warming up (or cooling down, in Esdeath’s case?) and brought out their strongest abilities, the rest of the fight looked fine. In the end, not quite everybody died – Najenda seems like she’ll live long enough to lay the foundations for a new government, while Akame (now sporting some funky body art) lived on for the sake of her fallen comrades. Not bad for an anime-original ending!

The Prime Minister was gloriously despicable to the end. 😛

Moving up:

Stealing the limelight from two strong final episodes was Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis! So much happened in this episode, though it was Amira’s reunion with her teacher Martinet, and with her mother shortly afterwards that stands out. Martinet is working for Beelzebub, who seeks to lift the seal on Bahamut… and in order to do so, they artificially created Amira from her angel ‘mother’, and gave her false memories to manipulate her. In a state of absolute despair, Amira releases the key into Beelzebub’s hands. Other highlights from this great episode included both Jeanne and Fava turning into demons, and Bacchus’s cart running over Azazel (seems it takes a lot to kill a demon).

This is my third week in a row focusing on Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, but it’s jumping around a lot at the moment, so it’d be silly to ignore it! As I predicted after last week’s dull episode, the show seems to be building up to an exciting mid-season climax. Having worked out that Issei wasn’t a Master, Rin and Shiro’s suspicion falls on Kuzuki Souichirou, who also lives at the temple. Sure enough, he is Caster’s Master, and though he wasn’t aware she’d been sucking the life energy out of tons of innocent people, he didn’t really care, as he used to be a killer himself. His magically-reinforced fists and Caster’s attacks give Shiro’s party plenty of trouble… until Shiro uses projection magic to summon Archer’s swords!

Finally, a competent master appears!

General comments:

Interviews this week in Shirobako, what with Musashino losing staff members to other companies and professions. And though she’s ridiculously busy trying to find key animators to work on the final episode, Aoi ends up as one of the interviewers. Unsurprisingly, the candidates weren’t as crazy as those in Amagi Brilliant Park’s interview ep, and it remains to be seen whether any of them will be joining the already huge cast! We also got flashbacks to Aoi’s own, ultimately successful interview at Musashino… and one not-so good interview at another company. The episode ended with Aoi, now back on the hunt for key animators, deciding to ask renowned animator and director ‘Mitsuaki Kanno’… meh, no harm in trying! 😛

Dressed as the little match girl, wandering from one pixelated studio to the next, Jingle Bells playing in the background… I love this series!

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