Dropped Shows for the 2024 Summer Season

 It's a bit past the half way point of the season which has somewhat fallen into a slump across a number of shows.  This season saw me watching an abnormally large number of shows, larger than any season in the past 10 years I would imagine.  But not all of them have survived to the halfway point, quite a few have gotten dropped in recent weeks and here is the rundown of whats been left behind.

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

    I pretty quickly was able to determine that this show was not for me.  It focused too much on the characters perverted tendencies and both of the characters seemed to lack any depth of personality beyond their archetypes.  I keep thinking of it as a poor attempt at copying the concept of  My Dress-up Darling but completely missing the key piece that made that show so good...the heart and realism of the characters.  My Dress-up Darling had some questionable choices in how gratuitous it chose to expose Marin and highlight her dangerous level of comfort but 2.5 D really missed the bar on its protagonists' make up to be worth trudging through.  This was dropped after episode 1.

Plus Sized Elf

    Watching the anime adaptation of a questionable manga I read more of that I probably should instantly reminded me of why I stopped reading it.  While the concept is novel this series offers little more than fanservice.  But at least its thicc girl fanservice which struggles to receive mainstream exposure.  But, its fanservice in the end and I have too little time to spend retreading this 'story' even if its more adult than the source material.  This was dropped after episode 1.

My Wife Has No Emotions

    I have a lot of problems with the concept of 'yamato nadeshiko' the out dated, idealized concept of the dutiful, subservient wife.   This show, about an old model android who's owner attempts to force into an object of affection serves little purpose than perpetuating otaku stereotypes.  Those stereotypes, talking points of conservative politicians in Japan since at least the turn of the millennium, center around adults who struggle or outright refuse to engage in 'normal' relationships with the opposite sex, further exacerbating the countries declining birth rate.  I suspect its not at rampant as many sources will make you believe, but this show doesn't work to dispute that.  This was dropped after episode 3

ATRI: My Dear Moments 

    I have watched a number of anime based on visual novels, some were well done others were annoying.  But ATRI is the first time I can think of where said adaptation felt exactly like watching a play through of said visual novel.  The characters were obnoxious and trite and the story was so purposefully mysterious that it was difficult to generate any interest in its outcome. This was dropped after episode 5.

Twilight out of Focus

    I was hoping to get a good yaoi series to cleanse the palette from the abysmally boring Tadaima, Okaeri.  The first few episode of Twilight out of Focus seemed to do just that.  But then it started to become a situation where the actual developing plot lines were little more than set ups for the characters to have sex.  Then it reset its self and decided to set up another pairing, completely shifting focus and just became rather boring.  I dropped this after episode 6.

The season still have a little more than a month to go and honestly...VTuber Legend might be cut in before I concludes.  It was fun at first but as its progressed its meandered into a world that appears to only appeal to people who are big into VTubing...which I am not.  At this point though, everything else is on course to be finished when the season wraps up and I will have to crank out more than a dozen end of series reviews in the beginning of October.  The Fall season, based on the shows that are known so far, seems to be less interesting than this Summer season has been, which is a bit sad.  If the Fall is lighter for my concur ant viewing, I can probably concentrate more on the back catalog!

The Keirin - a Specifically Japanese Bike Race

The 2024 Spring season saw a sports anime called Rinkai! that told the story of 5 young women who decide to join the semi pro ranks of the national keirin racing league.  While the keirin is an event during the Summer Olympics, it began its life strictly for the purpose of gambling.

 

    Keirin, literally bicycle racing, is one of many race formats that exist in the bicycle discipline known as track cycling or track racing.  Track cycling is a form of bicycle racing that has existed since the 1880's and involves a closed oval track with steeply banking turns.  The specialized bikes used in track racing are unsurprisingly known as track bikes.  Track bikes have a fixed drive train, which means the gear that rotates the real wheel is fixed to the wheel its self, meaning that as long as the pedals are moving so too is the rear wheel.  There is no coasting or stopping pedaling by the rider with out the risk of serious bodily injury.  No matter how big or strong the rider is, the mechanical advantage of the drive train can not easily be overcome, if you try to stop pedaling while riding a track bike there is a very real chance that the momentum of the pedals will throw you from the bike.  Due to the nature of the fixed drive train, track bikes only have a single gear, determined ahead of time by the size of the front chain-ring and rear cog.  Racers will change the size of these gears depending on  their goal for a specific rare.  Usually, the gearing of the drive train is set to be very high, to achieve as great a speed as possible without having to pedal at an impossible rate.  The final thing that makes track bikes different is the lack of any mechanical brakes.  The only ways a rider can slow a track bike down is through gradual reduction of pedal velocity, removing the riders weight off of the rear wheel enough to remove it from the surface allowing the rider to lock the wheel up with their legs or crashing.

    The race course in track cycling is known as a velodrome.  Over the almost 150 years its existed the specifications of velodromes has changed.  The biggest things that have changed are the total length which also helps determine the degree the four corners of the oval are banked.  The track is always two long stretches capped with two banked turns on either end, with varying lengths of much shorter strait areas between each sides two corners.  The total length of the velodrome and the straightaways determine the pitch of the turns.  The modern Olympic velodrome is 250m in diameter with each of the corners usually at a 45 degree pitch.  The banked corners are designed to allow the racers to be able to turn without turning their front wheel, the curve of the track carries them on a technically straight path.  The surface of a velodrome must be free of blemishes and debris to prevent crashes.  The width of the tires used in track cycling is usually between 18 and 23 cm in width and have very little to no tread.  For comparison, the standard width of a mountain bikes tire is around 58-63 cm.  Olympic velodromes are surfaced in specially treated wood planks that are designed to be smooth, featureless and offer a slight amount of traction for the wheels.  The banking of the track decreases near the lower portion of the track, the typical position for the fastest racers.  Riders that are high up on the track bank will normally have to maintain a minimum speed of around 25 kph to avoid loosing traction and sliding down the track.

    Races done on a velodrome are either lap based or distance based.  Keirin is a little bit of both.  Keirin was established in the late 1940's as Japan was beginning to rebuild its self following the lose of the second world war.  Its creation was primarily for the purpose of betting.  This necessitated strict standards and regulations to limit the chances of mechanical advantage by more financially secure racers, limit material failure and to try and curb unconventional cheating.   In Japan, from its inception to the current, Keirin is essentially no different from horse racing when it comes to why most people in the country pay attention to it, its an exciting way to gamble.  

    A Keirin race features eight racers for a heat.  The standard distance of the race is 1.5 kilometers.  The participants begin the race being paced by a motorized bike which will slowly build the field up from 30 km/h up to 50 km/h.  Once the races have reached 50kph, the motorized bike will leave the track and the racers are free to go as fast as they want for the remaining 3 laps/750 meters of the race.  The first person across the finish line wins.  It is not unusual for the racers to hit a top speed over 70 km/h.  The slow build up in the beginning is needed due to the bikes only being a single gear which is set to a significantly large ratio.  Set your mountain bike to its hardest gear then try to pedal that from a dead stop and you're still not close to what the keirin racer is doing when they start their race.

    There exists a multitude of racing formats in the world of track cycling and keirin is one of the few disciplines that has remained one of the few remaining events for track cycling in the Olympics.  It is a quick race, mere minutes instead of hours like road racing, and has a lot of excitement as the racers physically bump each other to gain the best position during the race.  It may be the most physical of all cycling disciplines and well worth checking out!

    Unfortunately, Rinkai! has not yet been made available in North America but you can check out the keirin during the 2024 Olympics as of the week that this post is published.  As with everything, there is a wealth of archived footage of keirin events all over YouTube along with the other track cycling events.  I also recommend another Olympic track cycling event, the Madison, named after Madison Square Gardens (which used to host many track events in its early days).  The Madison is a long distance lap event in which teams of two riders compete against each other.  Both member of each team remain out on the track at all times, but only one of them is accumulating a lap count.  As the race goes on they switch off which member is adding laps and they do so by a physical exchange where the rider who is transferring to be the laping member will be pulled up to speed through a hand grab by the other rider who will be pulling to the top of the track to slow own and rest, a bit of a transfer of momentum at 20+ mile ans hour...while all of the other teams are also racing and doing the same things, its intense to behold!

My Home Hero

 My Home Hero (マイホームヒーロー) is a 12 episode crime drama based on the manga of the same name by Yamakawa Naoki and Asaki Masashi .  The anime originally aired during the Spring of 2023.

    What would you do if your only child was in an abusive relationship that could very well end in her murder?  Tosu Tetsuo, when faced with that very scenario, did what ever he could to protect her and the rest of his family.  He becomes concerned when his daughter Reika arrives for a lunch date with black eyes.  Her avoidance of the situation causes the mild mannered salaryman concern and he heads over to her apartment to talk with her.  He inadvertently encounters her boyfriend, a flamboyant braggart named Nobuto.  He overhears him discussing his abuse with a group of friends but before Tetsuo can learn more a man approaches him.  The man pretends to be scouting for call girl clients but when he gets Testuo in a secluded area he beats and strips him.  The man is looking out for the abuser and takes a photo of Testsuo and his ID for safe keeping, hoping all it takes is a warning to the worried father to keep his nose out of things.

    After spending the night recovering in an internet cafe Tetsuo returns to his daughters apartment, to try and gather clues about her boyfriend.  Before he can formulate a plan, the man enters, oblivious to the scene, belligerently chatting on his cell, visibly intoxicated.   Testuo hides in a closet, overhearing the conversation and becomes convinced that the man will kill Reika once hes been able to extort money from her.  In a moment of panic he sees an opportunity and fatally strikes the larger man with a rice cooker.  At that moment his wife enters the apartment, finding her husband trying to settle his nerves, bloody rice cooker still in his hands.  He does his best to explain the situation to her and she agrees to help him to hide the crime, unwilling to lose the love of her life over protecting their daughter.  Little to either of them understand the difficult task ahead of them.  Nobuto is the son of a man who holds an important position with a dangerous crime syndicate.  He will search the ends of the Earth to find his son and enact any level of retribution he wants.  Testuo, with the help of his wife, must use his lifetime of mystery novel reading to aid him in disposing of the body and preventing the crime from being connected to him.

    I was never able to get past season one of Breaking Bad.  The continuously building tension of a situation spiraling more and more out of the control of the main characters got incredibly exhausting to endure.  My Home Hero is not unlike Breaking Bad in that regard.  The entire plot is 'will Tetsuo be able to get away with this one murder'.  Almost immediately that situation becomes impossible as the criminal syndicate his victim is a part of knows full well that he walked into Tetsuo's daughters apartment and never left.  The person Nobuto was on the phone with before Tetsuo killed him was a man named Kyoichi, who was nearby.  Kyoichi, sensing something wasn't right with the situation, begins to investigate the apartment.  He fully suspects Reika's unassuming father knows what happened to the disliked gang member and wants to use him as a stepping stone to more authority in the syndicate.  The course of the anime roughly follows a week in time as Tetsuo is quickly rounded up by Kyoichi and is given a week's deadline to either be blamed for the murder or find the lost man.  Testuo spends all of his time, being heavily monitored by the gang, working out ways to cover up any last traces of the crime and to manufacture evidence that would exonerate him in any way possible.  Every moment of his life is filled with uncertainty and terror as the malicious criminals he becomes surrounded by offer little sympathy for his situation.

    Aside from the constant stress of the events that transpire from beginning to end leasing to mental fatigue, there are numerous points through out the story where Testuo's successes are aided by deus ex machina.  The story tries hard to remain within the realm of realism but there are a few points where that becomes absurd.  The weakest thing in the story over all is how the audience is supposed to accept Testuo's cunning and knowledge come from his avid interest in crime mystery novels.  Using this knowledge he's able to craft masterful plans to further his artificial innocence.  Aside from the idea that plot points used in fiction are largely realistic and beneficial in Testuo's situation are hard to believe, the idea that he is able to remain as level headed his is being chocked up to his carer as a salesman is absurd.  Its crazy that he has some of the knowledge he does and the means to utilize it in a real world situation.  That and there are a few key moments where he is able to 'perfectly' seize on an opportunity for maximum effect.  There is way too much in the way of plot armor to make the story as satisfying as it could be.  But thats not to say it isn't a finely crafted story with a lot of twists and turns.  It dips its toes into the morality of the characters situations and shows them coming face to face with the reality of whats going on, but that is largely swept away in favor of the continually complicated problems.  Death Note was easier to digest due to the super natural nature of the story, but My Home Hero tries really hard to make us think it exists in the real world that it ignores the unrealistic ways some of the problems resolve.  That said...I may have to pick up the manga as there appears to be a lot more story than was done in the anime...but we shall see.

 

The anime is available in dub and sub format on Crunchyroll.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - part 3

 Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Clash (銀河英雄伝説 DIE NEUE THESE 激突) is the third 12 episode season of the remake based on the novel series Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Tanaka Yoshiki.  The series was originally released as three movies over the Spring of 2021.

If needed, here are the links for Part 1 and Part 2.

    The Alliance is doing its best to overcome the failed coup but there is much unrest and mistrust among the populace, the military and the bureaucracy.  The Galactic Empire on the other hand seems to be falling firmly into Reinhardt's control.  Admiral Yang has been promoted to fleet admiral following his role in quelling the coup.  He is stationed on Iserlohn along with his closest allies.  On his adopted sons first training sortie their fleet stumbles upon an advanced Imperial fleet and a battle ensues, thrusting Julian into adulthood as he has to deal with surviving his first combat experience.  The top science advisor for the Empire proposes a plan to retake Iserlohn using a derelict battle station left over from the defeated nobles.  The idea is to use experimental technology to warp the station within striking distance of the other station and engage it with a powerful force.

    Fezzan is beginning to make their move in the shadows, with plans to tip the balance in favor of the Empire and then assassinate Reinhard.  Their first step is to sow division and rot inside of the Alliance.  A plot is hatched to discredit and ruin Admiral Yang which is begun by summoning him back to the seat of power for a questionable tribunal.  As he is being bullied by hawkish politicians the bold plan from the Empire begins with the unprecedented warping on entire battle station.  While the command staff that Yang left behind would rather their magical tactician be their they employ a series of successful strategies to stave off annihilation, having faith their alerts to the capital were received and Yang would be returning with reinforcements before they were overwhelmed.  With the help of their guest admiral, an Imperial defector, using his intimate knowledge of their opponents to devise a reliable counter.  Yang and his fleet arrive as the battle seems to fall into a stalemate but the commander of the Imperial forces is becoming desperate to achieve victory.

   While part three started off strong it fell into a lot of back story and plot lines of miner characters that may or may not have been useful in the remake.  I started to loose an amount of interest when the story spent too much time focusing on some of Reinhard's underlings and brushed him off as little more than a set piece at this point.  His assistant though is an interesting character in her own right and a blatant copy of Yang's long time assistant.  The war-is-hell perspective as we see more from Yang's adopted son were enjoyable as was the frustrating tribunal Yang faced due to deeper Fezzan interference.  It will be interesting to see what will come of their more open manipulations of both governments.  The epic confrontation between Iserlohn and the recommissioned pleasure palace was fantastic and was a great showcase for the abilities of Yangs staff.  We usually get to see Reinhard's underlings succeed but we never get that from the Alliance side.

    This was the least interesting series so far in the remake.  If anything, I feel it showcases why it was a good move to trim out of lot of the side story stuff from the original series to make the story move in a more concise manner.  This season, at least in the first half, got bogged own by somewhat uninteresting side stories that felt more like distractions than anything else.  I can only hope that the fourth series sheds that off once again and kicks everything into high gear for what is assumed to be the conclusion of the remake and the culmination of the massive shift in the lives of the galaxy.

The series is available in sub and dub formats on Crunchyroll.

Click here for season 4.

A Town Where You Live - manga deep dive part 1 - Hiroshima arc

A Town Where You Live (君のいる町) is a shonen romance by Seo Koji.  The manga ran from 2008 until 2014 and has been compiled into 27 tankoubon.  It also received a 12 episode anime adaption in 2013 that covered the first two arcs of the story, with the first arc being largely glossed over.  The series and its characters are indirectly related to Seo's prior work, Suzuka, and the ending leads directly into the continuation of that series with the manga Fuuka.

    Kirishima Haruto is about to enter his first year of high school in rural Hiroshima prefecture.  His easy going and idyllic life is turned upside down with the appearance of an unwanted house guest, Eba Yuzuki.  Yuzuki, who's father is childhood friends with Haruto's father, convinces the Kirishima's to let her board with them.  She has decided to get out of Tokyo and spend some time in the country, planning to attend high school there.  Haruto want's nothing to do with the weird girl from the big city and sees her presence as an invasion of his privacy.  His mother see's no problem with the bubbly girl staying with them for the foreseeable future and ignores her sons pleas.

    Yuzuki's first day with the Kirishima's turns out to be a series of problems for Haruto.  First his mother forces him to show her around town.  He tries to get out of the task by loaning her his bike, so she can give herself a tour instead.  Yuzuki tells him that she doesn't know how to ride a bike, further reinforcing his distaste for what he sees as a spoiled aloof girl from the glittering capital.  He begrudgingly bikes her into town, obligated by his mothers request.  As they stop at a convenience store he attempts to distance himself from her, forcing her off of the bike.  Coming out of the store is a classmate and object of unrequited love, Kanzaki Nanami.  Haruto is desperate to distance himself from Yuzuki, to prevent any misunderstandings about their relationship, especially when it comes to Nanami.  The plan fails and Yuzuki excitedly introduces herself to the bewildered girl, hoping they can become friends once school starts.

    Before more damage can be done to his fragile ego, Nanami heads home.  Yuzuki grills him about his behavior at the convenience store, suspecting him of having feelings for the other girl.  Lying, he rebuffs the accusation and pedals faster to get home and away from her.  His home doesn't shield him from further complications as his best friend, Yura Takashi, pays a visit.  Unable to hide Yuzuki from him, he tries to paint her in an unfavorable light, working to establish his level of disinterest in her.  Takashi on the other hand is smitten with the new girl.  He first challenges Haruto for her attention then asks to him help her see him in a favorable light.  Before he can push him out of his house and find solitude Yuzuki needs to go back to the convenience store.  She fell into his families pond and needs to buy some more underwear.  Kanzaki misunderstands the reality of the request and fears shes going commando while wearing a revealing dress.

    With this idea in his head and understanding she will have to ride side saddle on the back of his bike, he tries to force Takashi to go home.  Instead, wanting to spend more time with the new girl, he follows them into town.  During the trip Haruto tries various tactics to help Yuzuki protect her dignity form the prying eyes of his friend.  When they reach the convenience store he stalls him from entering, so he won't find out why she's there.  Takashi again lays down an ultimatum about trying to date the new girl and forcing an unrealistic rivalry with Haruto.  In the end he forgets to buy something from the store himself and continues on home, leaving Haruto alone with Yuzuki once more.  On the return trip she questions his erratic behavior.  He comes right out and tells her he was trying to prevent her from flashing Takashi since she didn't have any underwear on...at which point she tells him she did and just needed more for when she changes clothes after taking a bath in the evening.  After the first, entirely too stressful day, misunderstandings lead to careless actions by Haruto related to this troublesome girl that he doesn't want anything to do with.

    Due to the size of the school, all of the freshmen are grouping in a single class, meaning Haruto is stuck with Yuzuki all day, every day.  To try and prevent people from getting the wrong idea about them, he plans to make her walk the last leg of the way to and from school instead of on the back of his bike.  The first day goes relatively smooth, with Yuzuki being the center of attention among his classmates.  He senses an opportunity to walk home with Nanami afterwards but needs to ensure Yuzuki gets home.  Since Takashi is interested in her he ask him to give her a ride back to his house.  Haruto then follows after Nanami, struggling to have any meaningful conversations with her. As she parts ways with him she expresses her desire to become better friends.  Before he can absorb the implications of her statement, Takashi calls him, telling him he never found Yuzuki.  Frustrated, Haruto back tracks to the convenience store where he finds her hiding nearby.  She didn't know about Takashi's plan to take her home, taking to heart Haruto's concern over people seeing them together to and from school  But, with the implications of Nanami's intentions buzzing around his brain he can't be too bothered with Yuzuki's personality quirks and misunderstanding.

    Thinking that Nanami would be joining the cooking club, like she had done in middle school, Haruto joins, claiming to be have the goal of opening up his own restaurant in the future.  His plan fails when he learns she was forced to join the baseball team instead.  Faced with this pointless gesture he struggles to find a path forward.  As she heads out to the first meeting of her new club, Yuzuki drops a bomb on Haruto.  She realized why he joined the cooking club, further proving her suspicions about his feelings for the other girl.  Teasingly, she offers to be his object of affection instead, since he keeps failing at getting close to her.  Shocked by the sudden joke, Haruto brushes it off as her being mean to him, but it sticks into his brain none the less.

    Haruto's club rarely meets, so he spends most of his afternoons waiting on an empty classroom for Yuzuki's club activities to end.  To make it up to him, Yuzuki invites him to visit a hot spring on their way home, enticing him further by inviting Nanami as well.  The following day he comes down with a strong fever at school and is taken to the hospital.  While resting at home, worrying about how Yuzuki will get home she enters his room accompanied by Nanami.  As soon as they arrive, Nanami has to excuse herself to answer a phone call from her older brother.  Sensing an opportunity and grasping at still unknown motives, Yuzuki leans in to kiss the bedridden Haruto.  She tries to explain away the kiss by saying it was a way to get rid of his cold, but he's not buying such a flimsy excuse.  He fights with her, accusing her of being a flirt, playing with any boys emotions that looks her way.  She tries to protest but his anger doesn't let him listen to her words.

    The next day his cold keeps him from school.  His mother tells him that Yuzuki will be getting a ride to school from Takashi.  Believing that she really has just gone to the next victim in her twisted world, he settles in to recover for the rest of the day.  Later, after school has let out, Takashi calls him to let him know about Yuzuki's behavior at school, telling him she was different than she had been previously, sitting alone, eating barely anything and arriving late.  For whatever reason she had lied to Haruto's mom about getting a ride to school with Takashi and had walked the entire way.  Worried about her, he rushes out of the house to find her before anything happens to her, ignoring the lingering exhaustion from his fever.  When he finds her on the road, she breaks down and accuses herself of being so useless with out him around.  Both kids remain silent on the way home, Haruto dwelling on why she had been behaving so erratic the past few days and what her intentions really are.  As hes about to settle in for the night Yuzuki calls him, instead of coming to his room, to talk.  She tells him she was happy when he came to find her and that she had turned down Takashi's offer because she only wants to rely on Haruto in those kind of situations.  Before she hangs up she asks him if he's going to ask her about why she kissed him.  When he tells her he doesn't want to know she morosely accepts and hangs up.  The following day she has returned to her normal carefree self...confusing Haruto further.

    Haruto struggles to make Nanami understand that he and Yuzuki aren't dating.  At first she thinks Haruto has an unrequited crush on the new girl and offers to help him with any advice, as a friend.  While he tries to make Nanami change her viewpoint, Yuzuki openly expresses her wishes to Haruto.  She hasn't been acting on a whim or to toy with him, she generally wants to date him.  When he tries to convince her she's being impulsive and wonders why she wants to be with him, she answers, she likes who she likes.  Haturo feels Nanmi slipping away from him, brought on by the introduction of the obnoxious girl from Tokyo who suddenly falls in love with him.

    Haruto's other childhood friend, Akari, rope he and Yuzuki into joining her on an outing with Nanami's older brother, Narumi.  Akari has a crush on the older boy and is hoping this will be a good chance to get closer to him.  During the outing Narumi questions Haruto about Yuzuki, telling him he likes her.  Haruto is astonished, knowing how much Akari wants to date the older boy but is unwilling to let her know that his attention has shifted to the new girl.  Nanami accidentally tells Akari that her brother is interested in Yuzuki, causing her to skip school to get over her broken heart.  Nanami, concerned for her friends well being, confides in Haruto about the dilemma.  Not sure how to broach the topic in a way that will present him in a favorable light, he bumbles into a confession to Nanami.  She doesn't respond to him, fleeing the music room they had gone to for their discussion, leaving Haruto to worry over any damage his confession may have caused.

    Things become awkward between Haruto and Nanami and he tries not to interact with her.  He can't avoid her during a school trip they take and she tells him that she just wants to remain friends, crushing the dreams he has held onto for three years.  Sensing his depression, Yuzuki tries to cheer him up, telling him that even if he's just friends with her for now, that doesn't mean the friendship won't turn into love later on.  Reinvigorated by her encouragement, he works to normalize his growing friendship with the girl he likes.

    While Haruto tries to return to normal with Nanami, his life at home becomes significantly more problematic when his older sister suddenly moves back in.  Aoi is going to college to be a teacher and has come back home to serve as a temporary teacher at Haruto's high school to help complete her certification process.  She and Yuzuki quickly become friends, causing more trouble for Haruto, who feels a need to take care of both of them.  Everyone quickly plans to throw a welcoming party at the Kirishima's house for Aoi, including Nanami.  During the celebration Haruto elects to cook more food and Nanami decides to help him out.  As he agonizes about not getting to date her and hoping that eventually their friendship will blossom into something more, she tells him that he should wait for a proper answer to his confession.

    As Haruto settles into a comfortable peace, with Nanami undecided about dating him, Aoi brings up a lost memory for the past that suggests Yuzuki and he met when they were younger.  After digging through the storage room, looking at old summer diaries, he remembers meeting her in 3rd grade at the summer festival.  She was lost and upset and he did everything he could to calm her down.  She had gotten separated from her family and was frustrated with her father making her come to rural Hiroshima.  Haruto remembers something he said from that time, that if she ever needed help again, to let him know.  He mulled over that declaration and if there was some hidden reason behind Yuzuki moving in with his family.

    He didn't have long to mull over his premonition though as he was faced with a dilemma of obligation on the following Saturday to either help Yuzuki practice riding bike or to help Nanami do some shopping for her brother.  Haruto catches a break when Yuzuki heads back to Toyko for the weekend instead, due to something unknown that has come up.  She tells him it isn't anything to worry about and he forgets about it, seeing it as fate working to his benefit.  This quickly evaporates as his mother urges him to accompany Yuzuki to Hiroshima to catch the train back.  She tells him Yuzuki is returning to Tokyo for her grandfathers funeral and is worried that the girl will run into trouble on her own.  Once there he has to force her onto the train, Yuzuki having severe reluctance to follow through with the trip.  Haruto finds himself stuck on the train as well, heading to Tokyo, forced to cancel his plans with Nanami.

    Haruto makes a point to accompany her all the way to her house, suspecting she will try to avoid whatever shes avoiding.  Before they reach her house they run into her parents, who greet him and take over escorting her, like she's a prisoner.  Haruto backs out of their invitation to come with and spend the night with them, telling them he has other things he needs to accomplish.  Free of Yuzuki, he goes to his sisters apartment to clean it, upon her request.  As he heads out to catch the night bus at Tokyo Station a young woman appears at his sisters door.  The girl claims to be Yuzuki's younger sister Rin, she is looking for the older girl and thought to check if she followed Haruto to his sisters apartment.  Once satisfied he doesn't know where she is, the girl turns to resume the search.  He convinces the younger girl to allow him to tag along.  They search around, not finding her.  Haruto mentions that Yuzukia had talked about not wanting to return home, reluctant to run into someone.  When he mentions this to Rin, the younger girl replies that the person Yuzuki is avoiding is her, that she is the reason her older sister went to live with Haruto's family.

    The kind and courteous girl suddenly transforms into a cold and calculating woman when she begins to talk about Yuzuki with honesty.  Complaining about having to look after the older girl and watch her seduce people to do her bidding.  Accusing her of appearing to be helpless as a calculating way to get attention.  Haruto finds himself dumbstruck with the sudden change in Rin's personality and questions his initial impressions of everyone he has met in her family to this point.  Before he can figure out whats going on, Rin receives a call from her mother about Yuzuki returning home safe and sound.  Rin quickly bids farewell to the boy and runs off, leaving him alone, questioning what happened and needing to catch the bus back home before he is stuck over night in Tokyo.

        Haruto never gets on the bus, receiving a phone call at the last minutes from Yuzuki.  He knows she's lying and suspects that Rin and her mother were lying earlier when they said she returned home.  He tells Yuzuki to stay where she is and he rushes off to meet her.  He tells her that she doesn't have to go back to her parents home, if it causes her that much trouble, instead she can stay at his sisters empty apartment for the night. (Suzuka side note: they end up watching a show on TV where Honoka talks about meeting Yamato as kids when he fixed her shrines broken bell).  Yuzuki tells Haruto that her siblings are step-siblings from her fathers new wife.  The reasons behind Yuzuki suddenly coming to live with his family comes into focus.  He understands the discomfort she is feeling, faced with living with 3 new members of her family, due to her father remarrying.  Not wanting her to feel isolated, he tells her that she can consider him family as well and for her to let him know when ever she needs help, that he will come and save her any time.  Setting the stage for further development in their relationship.

    Before the night ends, her older step-brother Itsuki knocks on the door and introduces himself, relieved that Yuzuki is staying that night at Haruto's sisters apartment instead of returning home.  Before he leaves he asks Haruto to talk with him in private.  Itsuki explains to him that the friction between the two girls is due to Rin's obsession with her older brother.  The merger of the two families and Yuzuki's outgoing nature has caused the younger girl to see her as an enemy, who is trying to take her brother away.  This perception has lead to a lot of aggression and antagonism from the younger girl, putting strain on Yuzuki, who is trying hard to have a normal life with her step family.   Haruto gets angry with Itsuki and punches him, just as Yuzuki arrives.  To break the tension she tells Haruto that she's going to go home and talk things over with her family.

    Left to his own, Haruto returns to his sisters apartment and finds he missed a call from Nanami.  He calls her back and finds out she felt guilty for inviting him out to something as trivial as shopping with her.  He does his best to persuade her that he was really looking forward to it  He doesn't tell her the real reason he has to cancel, affraid knowing he went all the way to Tokyo with Yuzuki would negatively impact any feelings she may have for him.  The easy nature of the conversation reinforces his feelings for her.  In the morning he meets with Yuzuki and her sister at the train station, by all appearances things honestly look to have been patched up between everyone.  Rin admits to him when she leaves to buy their tickets that her opinion changed about her older sister from competitor to idiot, not worth the bother.  Haruto isn't convinced that this is the end of problems from the scheming younger girl.  They return to Hiroshima and an end to the tumultuous adventure in Tokyo.

    The spring semester comes to a close and as the last day of school ends before summer break, Nanami
asks Haruto to walk home with her.  Jumping at the opportunity he finds himself alone with her again, wondering about the status of his proposal.  Before he can press her about it they get caught in a downpour.  While waiting for the ran to let up she invites him to go to the beach with her the following day.  His thoughts of being alone with her at the beach are quickly squashed when it turns into a group event, chaperoned by her older brother Narumi, who is driving them to and from the beach.  Haruto has a phobia about open water so chooses not to join the others playing in ocean.  instead busies himself with a sandcastle.  Nanami seeks him out when she realizes hes by himself and joins him on the beach.  She asks him is he wants to come with her the following week to the summer festival, alone.

 

     Haruto's lazy summer comes to a halt when Yuzuki's step siblings arrive to stay with his family.  Rin is bored being on the country, with nothing to do.  The entire group goes to a cook out and Rin notices the chemistry between Haruto and Nanami.  Rin also overhears a conversation between Haruto and Yuzuki where Haruto brings up Yuzuki wanting him to fall for her.  Recognizing the potential drama she can unleash, Rin is suddenly more interested in being there.

    On the day before the festival Rin joins the others on a trip to buy yukata.  She casually brings up Haruto going all the way to Tokyo with Yuzuki.  Internally Rin connects the dots and realizes that he lied to her when he told her why he had to cancel going shopping with her.  That night when Haruto calls her to finalize the plans for meeting up she abruptly cancels it and hangs up on him.  Unwilling to let it slide, confused by the drastic change of attitude, he sends her a message to meet him at the convenience store so they can talk.   At the festival Rin gets bored and decides to head to the convenience store to harass Haruto.  She tells him that Nanami isn't going to show and explains why.  She was hoping for him to get angry at her for tattling on him, but he accepts that the situation is his fault.  Frustrated that he's not falling for her bait she leaves him, bound for Nanami's house.

 

    She concerned about the older girl, who despite cancelling the meeting is dressed in a yukata when she answers the door.  Rin coxes the story between she and Haruto's relationship out of her.  During the course of it Nanami realizes that she needs to tell him how she feels instead of dragging it out, waiting for feelings that may never come.  She rushes off to meet him, afraid he has already left.  When she gets there she is prepared to tell him her feeling but us interrupted when the others who also arrived, talking about how they aren't sure where Yuzuki is.  Haruto rushes off to find her, realizing she is probably at a secluded spot where he first showed her the fireworks reflecting on a pond 10 years earlier.  His hunch was correct and he finds her, lost but safe.  They head back and find only Nanami waiting.  Yuzuki, realizing shes a third wheel, runs off ahead of them.  Nanami confirms what Haruto suspected and she declines his confession and tells him she isn't able to date him.

    The following day Haruto is worn out from the depression of having his heart broken.  Rin on the other hand is quite pleased with herself.  When she finally decides to return to Tokyo, he is forced into making sure she gets there safely.  Wanting to mess with him more, she continues to come up with distractions causing her to push-back which bullet train she will take home until she gives up on toying with him.  She had expected him to lose his temper after a while but has come to realize his caring nature knows no bounds.  She returns to Tokyo with a different understanding of Haruto but is still satisfied in her mischief.  Haruto can finally get some well deserved rest for the remainder of the summer break.

 

     According to Rin the reason Nanami isn't able to date him is due to his undying commitment to Yuzuki.  Time after time he has left Nanami's side to aid Yuzuki in something and Nanami is unwilling to compromise her love.  She doesn't want to share Haruto's attention with another women.  As she leaves, she tells him that he needs to come to terms with the feelings he has for the girl living in his house.  Haruto mulls over this, frustrated at Nanami's inflexibility.  Bur her words bury themself into his psyche, strengthened by his sister telling hims something similar when she pries information about Nanami from him.  He suddenly begins to question whether its true, looking at Yuzuki in a different way.  But just as he begins to see her in a new way she confesses to him that she is planning to return to Tokyo in a few months.

     The fall semester brings preparations for the cultural festival.  Yuzuki volunteers herself and Haruto to be part of the executive committee.  They along with the two other members, Kimuro a boy who is on the baseball team and Kikukawa a shy girl, must formulate the plans for the classes event.  The class decided on a cafe and its up to the committee to flesh out the details.  Through being bullied into it by Yuzuki, they decide on a maid cafe and learn that Kikukawa is adept at sewing, leaving the costumes in her hands.  Kimuro tricks Haruto into talking with Nanami about getting apples from her families farm for the cafe.  Since she rejected him at the summer festival things have been awkward between them.  The conversation is normal enough that Haruto decides to ask her once and for all the reasoning behind her rejection.  He jumps the gun during the conversation, thinking he understands what the reason is and prematurely cuts her off.  Satisfied he was told the truth from Rin, he asks her not to tell Yuzuki, fearing it would destroy her if she was the reason Nanami rejected him.  Nanami slaps him in anger, furious with what he proposed without knowing the truth, only assuming things on his own.

 

    Haruto and Yuzuki end up having to walk home together one day and he takes a chance with holding her hand.  She only lets it slide for a little bit and pulls her hand away, leaving an awkward silence fill the gap.  She begins to avoid him and as the cultural festival nears Narumi begins to turn up, flirting with Yuzuki.  He is going to help them pick apples and bring them back to school from his families farm.  This gives he and Yuzuki plenty of time alone together.  At the same time Kikukawa misinterprets Haruto's kindness and begins to openly flirt with him, hoping he will confess his feelings for her at the end of the festival.  Haruto has really shifted his romantic attention to Yuzuki but is uncertain about why shes behaving the way she has been.  Kikukawa is nowhere on his radar for romance and he fears if her misunderstanding continues the let down will be devastating.

    Their classes maid cafe is a smash hit, near the end Haruto and Yuzuki are sent on an errand to get more supplies.  He gathers up the courage to ask her if shes been avoiding him because of holding her hand.  She confirms his suspicion and he tries to play off the act as nothing more than innocent communication between friends.  She asks him to take her to the bonfire.  Shocked, he brings up his suspicions about her going with Nanami's older brother.  Her mood shifts and she tells him it was just a joke.  Confused he struggles with what to do during the bonfire, actively avoiding Kikukawa.  Yuzuki comes up to him and asks him to dance with her.  Shocked at first he goes a long with it but soon destroys the mood by asking what happened with Narumi.  Frustrated by how dense he is and how little he pays attention to subtle clues, she leaves the bonfire and lets him mull over the problem on his own.

    Haruto chases after her but they are both stopped by Narumi.  He tries to get Haruto to pay attention to Kikukawa, leaving Yuzuki to himself.  Instead Haruto drags her out of the area so they can talk more in private, closing the door for both Narumi and Kikukawa.  He confronts Yuzuki about his feelings but downplays it, saying it is hypothetical.  She tells him it would never work out if he was really confessing to her, since she would be moving in six months.  The reality of the situation dawns on Haruto and he drops the subject, never talking with her about it until the day she leaves for Tokyo the following March.

    The day shes set to leave for Tokyo, he wakes her up in the early morning.  He has a surprise in sotre her with a natural formation in the nearby river that only happens in the dead of winter, ice clusters that form flower like shapes.  While there he broaches the subject of dating again, saying they could do it as a long distance relationship, telling her he means it and has liked her for a while now.  She declines again, voicing her concern that the distance between them would make things unstable, especially if he decides that he has feelings for Nanami still.  He accepts her rejection and stays quite all the way up to when she boards the train back to Tokyo.  Before she leaves she tells him that she has changed her mind and would like to try dating him long distance.

    Haruto struggles with their relationship, unsure if shes actually interested in him or not.  He has a hard time interrupting their conversations and gets annoyed when she wants to talk about her new pet bird.  Takashi and Akari try to convince him its mostly in his head but caution him when it comes to his selfishness in their conversations.  A month into the relationship an opportunity to see her presents its self as the class will be taking a trip to Tokyo.  After setting up plans to meet with her during the trip he joins Akari and Takashi doing part time work at a restaurant over Spring break. 

    Haruto chooses to work in the kitchen instead of as a waiter due to his dislike of interacting with people and his confidence in cooking.  Shiho is an 18 year old, who has worked part time at this restaurant for the past three years.  She has enviable talent as a cook and her confidence and prowess has earned her respect from the full time staff.  She is tasked with breaking in the temp employee and boy does she break him in.  The first day he drown in a mountain of dishes, doing nothing but washing bowls and flatware for 10+ hours.  She then makes him do a bunch of prep work to finish out the day. When she questions him about why he prepped shrimp the way he did he tells her it was to reduce the change of water being left over for frying.  This insight and understanding makes her trust him a little more.

    The next day she starts to have him do some of the line work, putting together some of the dishes.  When she challenges his attempt to short cut at one point she demonstrates why he was wrong.  He immediately recognizes why what he did was wrong but his pride gets in the way and he feigns ignorance.  At that point hes back on dish duty.  That evening, sensing shes upset with him, he admits that he recognized the mistake he had made and apologizes for being stubborn about her lessons.  She makes him food during a break on the third day and they begin to talk about long distance relationships.  She warns him that it didn't work for her when she tried it and it may not work out for him.  With that concern in his mind he finishes up the grueling work, earning some respect along the way, and has some cash to buy Yuzuki a present when he meets her in Tokyo.

    They get into the city early on their first day and Haruto hastily makes plans to see Yuzuki that day.  She decides to get his present first and gets stuck on a train after a fatal accident shuts down the line.  As hes waiting for her, Nanami comes to tell him the teacher is waiting for everyone for their first event.  She then asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend for the trip so that she can impress an old friend of hers that she's meeting.  Before he can turn the request down, the old friend arrives and immediately assumes hes her boyfriend.  Haruto is now stuck having to pretend to be Nanami's boyfriend for part of the time, while also juggling meeting with Yuzuki.  Knowing the past between all three of them, Haruto knows it will be hard to explain things rationally to Yuzuki if she catches wind of what hes doing for the girl he used to like.

    Nanami's friend Haruna is bold and unapologetic.  She susses out the truth pretty quickly but lets it pass.  As they part ways, Haruto tries to convince her of the false relationship one last time and holds Nanami's hand as they watch her train pass by.  Before they break the ruse Yuzuki sees them from across the platform.  He quickly rushes to meet her and explain things but she boards the first train that arrived and he has no idea where she is going.  Nanami feels terrible for the mistake and they both wait for Yuzuki at the spot he was going to originally with her.  She never shows and refuses to respond to any emails or calls from either of them.  There is little he can do now and they return to the hotel.

    After trying to get a hold of her into the evening he decides he has no choice but to sneak out of the hotel and go to her house, figuring she will at least be there so he can try and explain things to her.  Nanami and Haruto explain the situation to Takashi and Akari and all three agree to help cover for him, alone on his own at night, away from the confines of the school trip.  He rushes over to her house, only to realize he left his phone at the hotel.  Rin comes up to him and tells him she saw her sister shopping.  Unsure what to do, thinking shes avoiding him and without his phone his options are limited.  Little does he realize the mistake he made in leaving as Yuzuki comes to the hotel they are staying at to visit him.  Not wanting to wait for him at the hotel, her best opportunity is to wait for him at the train station he would most likely pass through as he tries to make curfew.  After Haruto exhausts himself checking the nearby shopping district he decides to call it quits and head back, only to run into her where she decided to wait.  They reconcile and connect on a level they had not been able to reach before.  She gives him his present, but he had left hers back in the hotel.  They spent as much time together as they could, cherishing every moment, but that time was too short and he had to return, unsure when he would see her next.

   Yet that was the last chance he had to talk with her.  When he got back from the trip her number was no longer available.  After their heart felt reunion and bitter sweet departure, Yuzuki appears to have cut off all connection with the boy who had given her his heart.  Yuzuki ghosting Haruto isn't a secret and weeks after she stopped communicating with him and everyone else in Hiroshima, Nanami struggles with how to break him out of his funk.  Akari thinks that he just needs to get another girlfriend, even if its for a short time, to help free him from his feelings for Yuzuki.  Nanami thinks that she could be the person that can help heal him, still conflicted over her feelings for him and the complications surrounding their relationship.

    In an attempt to get closer to him, Nanami quits her position as the manager of the baseball team and switches to the cooking club, of which Haruto is a member of, but never goes to.  Akari forces him to go with her on the first day and a series of mishaps at Nanami's expense brings a little bit of light to Haruto's eyes.  That evening, Nanami gets a phone call from Yuzuki's younger sister, Rin, who tells her that Yuzuki has apparently started to date a new guy.  It hurts her how badly Yuzuki has treated him and she struggles with what to do with the information, fearing it would do more damage to him just as hes beginning to perk up.  In a moment of panic she confesses to him.  He replies with the same thing she told him last year, to give him some time to respond to her. 

    Haruto is prepared to reject Nanami's confession.  He doesn't want to hurt her with his lingering feelings for Yuzuki, especially when so much is left unanswered.  The day they decide to talk it over she surprises him by coming to his house.  He tries to let her down gently, but she tries to persuade him that any lingering emotions for Yuzuki are not a deal breaker.  He knocks over the present Yuzuki gave him in Tokyo, never opened, spilling a letter out of the bag.  Nanami convinces him to read the letter.  In it is Yuzuki's admission that she was leaving him for another guy, a guy that she liked in middle school.  Haruto can't believe the letter though, thinking it to be something else, perhaps a prank by Rin.

    Haruto tells Nanami that he can't date her.  He needs to find out the truth behind whats going on with Yuzuki and is determined to go to Tokyo to find that out.  She resigns her self to that and tells him that she will wait for him a bit longer to make up his mind once and for all.  On the final day of class before Summer break he stuns the class when the teacher announces that Haruto is transferring to a school in Tokyo for the fall semester.  He is going all in to find out whats going on with Yuzuki and to try and reconnect with her.

    A Town Where You Live takes place in the same universe as Seo-sensei's previous manga, Suzuka.  The apartment complex that Haruto's sister lives at is the same all girls dormitory that Suzuka takes place in.  While he is there the first time there is a passing reference to the two drunken college students who frequently pestered Suzuka's male lead, Yamato.  During the class trip to Tokyo, there is a passing reference to another character from Suzuka, Sakurai Honoka, who had become a fashion model in Suzuka.  The first portion of the manga is really little more than set up and character establishment.  The building of the relationship between Yuzuki and Haruto and the complex interactions with the other kids hes grown up with in his rural community.  Seo-sensei has a passion for drawing teenage girls who look like adults and then exposing their panties and nipples as much as he feels he can get away with.  The fan service doesn't detract much from the story but it does suffer from some rather rote trappings of the genre.

    Romance stories aimed at a young male audience fall into a some similar trappings, story arcs and character personalities that appeal to them.  Vulnerable women, 'every man' main characters and ridiculous situations where drama is forced and insincere.  this manga isn't an exception to those styling, but it also moves away from some of the more annoying traits.  This story is really slow though.  The Hiroshima arc is covered by 79 issues of the manga, ending halfway through the 9th tonkouban.  There is still a long way to go though with the story, sometimes a little too much.  The next phase brings in some interesting plot points and a hope for a more mature story.  All done and said though...Haruto is a fool to throw away Nanami.

Next up, the First Tokyo arc.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - part 2

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Stellar War (銀河英雄伝説 DIE THESE 星乱) is the second 12 episode season of the remake based on the novel series Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Tanaka Yoshiki.  The series was originally released as three movies over the Fall of 2019.

See the overview of Part 1 first.

    With the loss of their strategic forward base, Iserlohn, the Empire finds its self in a vulnerable position.  It is now possible for the Alliance fleet to directly attack Imperial planets.  The success of the operation by Yang and his fleet has emboldened members of the ruling council who are hawkish to stoke popular sentiment and push the attack.  A massive invasion force is sent into Imperial space, liberating planets with ease.  The Empire was aware of the attack, thanks for news passed to them from Fezzan spies.  A plan was enacted that would leave the Alliance forces vulnerable and over stretched.  Once the time was ripe, Reinhard ordered his men to attack at different points, overwhelming the Alliance fleets.  Military command has forgone thoughtful strategy, in favor of a smash and grab plan of action and are unwilling to listen to conflicting opinions from the field commanders.  Yang is able to get his fleet to safety, leaving their zone of protection to assist a different fleet, allowing both to fall back and regroup just as the combined forces under Reinhard attempt to destroy them completely.

    Recognized the defeat after so many soldiers were foolishly lost, many members of the council resign and the Alliance falls back, maintaining control of Iserlohn as a defensive choke point.  Political turmoil befalls the Empire as well, with the sudden death of the Emperor and a succession war brewing.  Sensing the civil war brewing, Reinhard launches a plan to keep the Alliance occupied to prevent a new invasion while internal battles begin to take shape.  A military coup destabilizes the Free Planets Alliance as the council is disbanded and many leaders are imprisoned or executed.  A similar coup is attempted by some noble factions in the Empire, as they attempt to assassinate the deceased emperors successor, one of his grandsons, who is too young to properly rule.  Reinhard, through successive advancements, is given supreme command of the Empires forces and wages an all out war against the rebelling nobles.  Just as victory is secured is childhood friend and most trusted advisor, Siegfried, is killed during an assassination attempt.    Meanwhile, Yang moves his fleet to face the leaders of the coup, understanding their roots stem from a plot hatched by Reinhardt through a prisoner exchange that allowed agents to be planted amount the Free Planets.  Faced with the reality, the coup leaders quickly fold, fading away to the return of the elected leaders.  When Reinhard overcomes the grief of his loss he assumes the seat of prime minister and has control over the child emperor and begins to set his eyes on wiping out the Alliance once and for all.  Yang struggles with the uncertainty of the newly reformed government while Fezzan begins enact a plan directed by a group of religious zealots who aim to return humanity to Earth again.

    The second season of the remake continues the fantastic story telling while leaning heavily into political intrigue as both factions begin to be overcome with political turmoil and massive shifts in power.  The intentional hamstringing of their miracle worker begins to be a major plot device as the council that governs the Alliance actively manipulates what Yang is able to accomplish.  Reinhard on the other hand has deftly been able to set up all of his political rivals to collapse in the manner of his choosing.  The writing remains strong with a widening cast of players who all offer interesting focus points in the story.  While the pacing feels rushed at times it does not detract from the over all story that is being told.  There do seem to be some missed opportunities for more depth when sometimes significant events are relegated to being recounted by the narration.  Particularity around some of the events surrounding the death of the emperor.  A good number of players in the fight for the throne suddenly show up with little background information other than their titles and family names.  Its makes it a little difficult to understand the stakes they all have in the battle that revolves around who will take the throne.

    One the Alliance side of things though, the coup plot and insidious plans of Fezzan and the Church of Terra are well laid out and satisfactory in their execution.  You really feel anxiety over whats occurring as Yang tries his best to keep his head above water while two fronts open up before him while his hands remain tied behind his back.  The second season was as far as I originally for when the remake came out around the beginning of the pandemic.  Instead of picking up where I had left off, moving into part 3, I restarted the entire series in order to finish it and finally set up these overviews.  The series did not disappoint in the slightest during the re watch, and I am excited to finally move into part three and all new story!

The series is available in dub and sub format on Crunchyroll.

Click here for part 3.