We now arrive at the heart of Season Two’s plot at long last.  Much of the previous episodes was made up of filler and fan service before, but things are really starting to heat up.  Episode five begins with Kirino coercing Kyosuke into the awkward role of pretend boyfriend.  Her boss, the president of the modeling agency, wants her to travel overseas, and going out with Kyosuke was the best excuse she needed to stay home.  While they may have succeeded in convincing the president they were a real couple (and possibly not related), they couldn’t avoid causing shock and befuddlement in their friends who encountered them on their “date.”  Real sis-con lovers will probably be a bit disappointed; the “couple” was quite content groaning and gagging in secret during the whole ordeal, hoping to get Madame President off their scent as soon as possible.

The following episode seemed like a bit of a waste of time after the fact.  Episode six has Kirino introducing fashion designer Mikagami to Kyosuke and friends, and later claiming the newcomer as her boyfriend.  The rest of the episode is wrought with a bit of melodrama, the end of which produces the not-so-shocking revelation that the whole love triangle was made up.  Kyosuke was open about his feelings for Kirino and would not readily give consent to any boyfriend, present or future.  It’s obvious that she was actually craving for attention from her doting brother, and that was exactly what she got.  It’s not quite the incest fuel as some Oreimo critics might try to insinuate, but rather it’s a moment in which Kyosuke is being more open and honest about his feelings around Kirino now.

Episode seven continues the “boyfriend arc,” this time putting Kyosuke and Kuroneko together.  He is unsure if he should accept her invitation to be her boyfriend, and seemed to wonder how it would affect their relationships with Kirino.  But, in the end, with the encouragement of his friends and loved ones, he decides to go for it.  Kuroneko was a lot more charming than usual in this episode, and easily fits the mold of a main character that rivals Kirino in attractiveness.

The series is still fairly interesting, but the sudden introduction of one love triangle after another may be hard to swallow for a lot of the viewership.  There may have been better alternatives to move the plotline along, but they chose this route instead.  Furthermore, it’s really hard  tofit in the comedy when Kyosuke is being put into these overly-dramatic scenes of potential heartbreak.  That said, the plot involving Kuroneko may possibly have a bigger impact on the Kirino/Kyosuke dynamic than expected.  The series will hopefully pick back up on the comedy, or at least try to keep things more interesting by doing something other than create character drama out of thin air.  Here’s hoping for some more improvement before the end of the series.

My Score: 6.00/10.00

Baltimore, MD (June 18, 2013) – Voice actor Kyle Hebert to make his first appearance at Otakon.

Kyle Hebert is a Los Angeles-based anime and video game voice actor whose credits include Wreck-It Ralph/Street Fighter (Ryu), Naruto (Kiba), Bleach (Aizen, Ganju), League of Legends (Ezreal, Jarvan, and Graves) and Gurren Lagann (Kamina). He is best known as the Narrator and Teen Gohan from the Funimation dub of Dragonball Z. Other notable roles include Fate/Zero (Beserker), Blue Exorcist (Bon Suguro), Guild Wars 2 (Great Ginz, Ogron, Hamar), Fullmetal Alchemist (Vato Falman), Tales of Symphonia (Richter Abend) and Star Ocean (Dias, Arumat, Crow).

Kyle can also be heard in numerous video game franchises such as Sonic, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Skylanders, Devil May Cry, Dynasty Warriors, Soul Calibur and Resident Evil. He is also the voice of filmmaker, Kevin Smith’s Smodco Internet Radio. Lastly, Kyle will be performing voice work for Otakon’s video game, Crisis Heart Brawlers: Clash at Otakon!

For more information, visit www.kylehebert.com.

Otakon 2013 will be held August 9-11 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD.

ABOUT OTAKON AND OTAKORP, INC.: Now entering its twentieth year, Otakon is an annual celebration of Japanese and East Asian popular culture, and also one of the largest gatherings of fans in the United States. Otakon celebrates popular culture as a gateway to deeper understanding of Asian culture, and has grown along with the enthusiasm for anime, manga, video games, and music from the Far East. Since 1999, Otakon has been held in Baltimore, Maryland; currently, Otakon is one of Baltimore’s few large, city-wide events, drawing over 32,000 people for three days each year (for a paid attendance of over 89,000 turnstile attendees). Otakon is a membership based convention sponsored by Otakorp, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based, 501(c)3 educational non-profit whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture, primarily through its media and entertainment. Otakorp, Inc. is directed by an all-volunteer, unpaid staff – we are run by fans, for fans.

For more information about Otakorp, Inc., see  http://www.otakon.com/otakorp/index.asp

For more information and the latest news on Otakon 2013, see  http://www.otakon.com/

At just over halfway through the season, Leviatan sticks stubbornly to its pattern of boring, weak and often random plotlines that only marginally connect to the premise of the show.  The characters are flat, and the animation is inconsistent and lazy – the single fight sequence of any note thus far recycles the same frame sequence multiple times and culminates in the most boring climax yet.  It’s as if this anime is deliberately trying to make you yawn and put it down.

Jörmungand, the axe-wielding earth-element girl, is the only remotely interesting character, if you don’t count the awkward and convenient revelations – and mistakes – that Leviatan makes.  The loss of Leviatan’s spear results in the girls trekking out into the desert in search of it and, after some incredibly awkward exposition, they find the location in a ruin.  Never mind that it is somehow located in a desert that each one of them remembers as being a vast, lush jungle that surrounded said ruin – there is literally zero concern over this revelation. This doesn’t take into account that they trekked out into the desert, when the forest was supposed to be just outside town when they played there as kids.  And does the fact that floating islands crashed out of the sky and fertile lands are now wastelands not cause alarm?

The only redeeming factors to this show are the introduction of a cocky and mysterious young character that obviously knows more then he lets on and the little tidbits of world building at the very beginning of the episodes.

I can’t say I was expecting amazing things from this show, but considering the popularity of its source material one would think that they would at least try to make the story interesting.  I will be grateful when this season is done.

Score: 4.25/10.00

Commander’s Log, Episode 7 of Sparrow’s Hotel. The abnormally large-eyed hotel clerk continues to wreak havoc on Project Spring 2013. There seems to be no end in sight…. logic and any means of storytelling are completely lost… time is running low… the horrors ahead too great…

—-Flashback—-

In all seriousness, this anime is still going nowhere. There are attempts to give a slice-of-life look into working at a hotel, however that slice of life is ruined when, during a crazed week of tourism, a great deal of emphasis is put on Sayuri’s breasts.  There are convenient unintentional runnings into them or some speculation if her energy is derived from said female assets. Then, when the topic of the episode suddenly devolves from the issue of low guest count to how the characters spend their pay checks, Sayuri explains her apartment floor broke from her buying too many weights. Next, with a great deal of whiplash, the episode jumps to Tamaki bribing her older brother into buying her dinner due to her lack of money, and afterwards learning that she gained weight.

Then episode seven occurs, and I let my hopes raise ever so slightly. The episode opens with the hotel undergoing some renovations. Among the construction crew is a man named Billy, who uses special moves to put the bath area together.

First reaction: FINALLY, AN OPPONENT FOR THE ABNORMALLY WIDE EYED ONE!!

Then as he gets ready to leave… she appears and wishes to talk to him. He talks about how her strength calls likewise strong fighters to the hotel. Any second a battle could erupt… but it never does. He just leaves and she let s him… SERIOUSLY WHAT EVEN?!?

Now for the finisher move – there is still plenty of time in this episode left. How is it used you ask?

Not having an epic fight. It’s used on some guy who apparently adores the protagonist and planned to surprise her, only to have his plans foiled by a “Closed for Renovations” sign. The ending credits queue, and there is Sayuri naked in bed for some reason… with a slow pan up from her legs to face… This anime just broke me with its lack of logic or substance…

Episode 7 Score: 0.25/10.00

Devil Survivor is definitely living up to the expectations put on it, coming from a best-selling game from a huge-name franchise. Since episode one, Hibiki, Nitta, and Daichi have gone through a number of battles – a lot for only three days in the series – and learned a lot about their situation.

And with knowledge comes questions – who are JP’s, who recruited them at the end of episode one? Why is there a resistance group? Why are former members of JP’s trying to take down JP’s even though JP’s seems to be humanity’s best bet against the Septentrion? Each reveal opens the door to another set of questions and unknowns and another moment of thought that maybe the path that everyone’s barreling down under the stress of attack and battle isn’t quite the right one. Shin Megami Tensei games have a record of making you question motives and whether the side you’re on is really doing the right thing, and Devil Survivor 2 is no different.

We’re also introduced to a number of new characters, some much better developed than the rest, and I do wish we had more time to spend on them. Worse, being based off of a game where the major battles are to keep your friends from dying, you have no idea how long characters will be around and who the animators will choose to let die. There have already been a few casualties, and while dealing with a larger cast of characters and trying to cram a fairly dense game into 13 episodes is a challenge, it’s one that’s only being half-met. We’re still just getting bare-bones glimpses of those characters that aren’t the most integral and a lot of the pacing feels rushed. On the positive side, though, the animation is gorgeous and smooth, and the music catchy.

Episode 7 Score: 8.00/10.00

For a show we all expected to be full of lolicon and hair porn/innuendo, The Severing Crime Edge is turning out to be one of the better shows this season, if not one of the most all-around entertaining. In the first episode, we were tantalized with the idea of Killing Goods, items owned by murderers in the past and handed down, either through family or choosing their next owners, and the disbelief that they could be a real thing. Well, as the next few episodes reveal, they are very real, and the “game” that revolves around them has trapped Iwai and Kiri at its core. Iwai, with her cursed hair that grows back every night, is thought to be the Queen, so inevitably, every Author, as owners of Killing Goods are called, comes after them. This builds the mystery higher and higher around them – just what is the link between the Queen and the Killing Goods and Authors, aside from the legend that to kill the Queen will grant her killer any wish.

Each Killing Good is surprisingly unique and creative, from a book of judgment to a mind-controlling whip of a dominatrix, and every new character that is introduced is intriguing. There are also some twists to some characters’ relationships, and some little fun bits, like one of Kiri’s classmates’ favorite historical figure being the murderer who owned Crime Edge before it passed to Kiri.

Overall, it’s set itself up as a strange blend of a wacky slice-of-life hijinks show and a murder mystery/action show, and it works surprisingly well. Each episode balances both aspects, even going as far as to endear you to most of the people trying to kill Kiri and Iwai.

The only downside is that the character designs and overall animation style are definitely better suited to a show from a few years ago; the animation itself is fluid, and especially shines during fight scenes, but the designs pull it down. On the other hand, it has some of the best music this season (one of the episodes actually centers around a lounge piano player), and the opening and ending echo the mix between a fast-paced action show and a simple story of, as Kiri puts it, a faithful knight trying to protect his naive queen.

Episode 7 Score: 9/10

The series is starting to grow on me. It has an extremely loose storyline – just the main characters’ daily lives – but it’s starting to pick up as the characters begin to develop. I wouldn’t say that Ayuko or Saki are particularly developed or memorable just yet, but the sibling relationship between Kanaka and Souta has sparked my interest. It provides at least some form of entertainment. I feel like I might develop a slight attachment to the other characters in time. I still wouldn’t call Aiura a breakthrough series by any means, as it’s just a series of animated shorts that one would watch merely out of routine. There’s a sort of comfort in a series like this, an opportunity to grow with the characters, though there are many others like it and I find most of those slightly dull.

Episode 7 Score: 6.25

The shape of events in Amawakuni after the loss of the princess is becoming clearer as Akashi, one of Kannagi’s fellow Shinsho, starts trying to gather other Hayagami as his own. Arata Hinohara figures out more of his role, and how he’ll go about fulfilling it. Meanwhile, on Earth, black-haired Arata is causing all kinds of extraneous mishaps for Hinohara’s family and ex-friends.

Yes, extraneous is the right word for the black-haired Arata. He practically flaunts his cluelessness and disregard for Earth norms or the way he presents himself… oh, but he manages to unnecessarily change his clothes for some reason (considering his appearance to Earthlings is the exact same as Hinohara) and fit in at least a little, something Hinohara has yet to do (save for one brief scene) in Amawakuni.

Aside from these little inconsistencies, the plot also suffers from telegraphing every big moment and not sparing any of the melodrama those moments inevitably entail. It’s almost insulting. In addition to that, the anime glosses over other elements that feel like they should be more monumental than the series makes them out to be.

The visual effects are notably lame yet again, and the soundtrack shows how hard the show is trying and falling flat. A scene involving a chase that’s supposed to be funny? Bring out the slide whistle! Sorry, but a slide whistle is not supposed to make the humor, it’s supposed to accentuate it.

To be fair, though, there ARE interesting elements at play here. It’s definitely setting up nice contrasts between truth and lies, as well as between peace and violence. There are powers at play that utilize either of both dualities, and seeing them intermix is keeping Arata the Legend from sinking to complete mediocrity. It’ll be interesting to see how prevalent those factors are, and how quickly.

Episode 1 Score: 5/10

Episode 4 Score:  6.25/10

Episode 7 Score: 6.50/10

Arata Hinohara, in the place of the Amawakuni Arata, is captured and charged with the murder of the princess and sentenced to a prison island (along with Kotoha, the girl from Arata’s tribe) where random executions  keep the populace there on edge. While there, he meets the wild prisoner Kanate and his little brother Ginchi. Kanate challenges Arata, believing that killing the boy will result in his freedom, but the two soon find a mutual respect for each other and Arata later steps in to save the boys when their fates are at their most dire. Afterwards, Arata “levels up” and the four escape the island just as Kannagi, the traitorous captain of the princess’s guard, arrives at the prison island to chase Arata.

I don’t feel bad saying so much about this story because it’s both so easy to summarize and the story doesn’t break any molds of the genre aside from changing the set dressing.  Also note – I didn’t mention the Arata currently on earth at all. He’s appeared in two scenes since the pilot – both in episode 2. Maybe the focus will shift soon? I don’t know. I get that other worlds are more interesting to Earthlings since this is where we live, but Amawakuni Arata seems to be adjusting too well a bit too fast.

The themes of trust, both broken and earned, and promises, broken and kept, continue to show up, and their focus in the series is already starting to wear a little thin only four episodes in. Don’t be a jerk. Got it. Can we move on, please?

In terms of plot devices, Kannagi is a terrible villain.He vows to kill Arata, but instead sends him off to the prison island with the intent to watch from afar, only to change his mind yet again when he decides to follow and slay Arata anyway. However, Arata keeps moving and is now going BACK to the capital, where he was takenafter being captured for conviction and sentencing. This is shaping up to be Keep Away: The Anime, and that gets boring really quickly. Also, this show suffers from one of my pet peeves – clunky exposition. The princess magically appears at one point and explains she’s not dead and that Arata is awesome. Arata “levels up” by touching a tainted Hayagami (sword/dagger) and thus we are transported to a magical flashback zone where he encounters his first opponent’s backstory in its simplistic entirety. A change of heart ensues and Arata’s Hayagami, already inhabited by a Kamui spirit of its own, is now doubly-possessed. At least we find out at the end of episode 4 what Arata’s Hayagami’s original Kamui controls.

This is a pretty standard series, and if you happen to like shonen shows, then you’ll probably enjoy it. I generally don’t, however.

Episode 1 score: 5.00/10

Episode 4: 6.25/10