As I write this introduction, DashCon 2014—the first-ever Tumblr convention—is less than twenty-four hours behind us, yet it’s already gaining notoriety as one of the biggest convention disasters to date.
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Back in elementary school, Haruka, Makoto, Rin, and the younger Nagisa swam together in a relay and brought a championship home to their local swim club. Afterward, however, Rin moved to Australia to pursue his swimming at a prestigious school, his sights set on one day swimming in the Olympics. Haruka, who loved the water, stopped swimming, effectively dissolving the relay team; before too much longer, the swim club closed its doors altogether.
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It’s been about two years since Sword Art Online ended and waves of fans began waiting anxiously for the next season. As you may recall, I concluded the first season of SAO with some major issues. First of all, the last two episodes irked me with the graphic nature of the scenes, and the resolutions were downright weak. Secondly, I felt like Asuna’s character went from a glorious warrior to a housewife for no good reason.
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This season of Mushi-shi has been a much darker, colder take on the mushi so far, but episodes 8 through 10 do much to shake the chill off. Winter remains a prominent theme in all three, but in each episode the lessons seem to focus on ‘just because you can doesn’t mean you should’ and the innate balancing act that is nature.
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After the events of the Sword Art Online and Alfheim games, Kirito is called in to the SAO Survivor School to discuss his experiences in-game in relation to Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online. Meanwhile, Suguha is learning to swim for an upcoming quest in Alfheim with the help of Silica, Lizabeth, and Asuna. The quest: to find a whale in Alfheim to show Yui!
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One Week Friends remains sweet, but I’ve lost interest. The memory problem that defined earlier episodes has degenerated into a circumstantial plot tool and any weight it once held is gone; Yuki Hase reduces the progress he and Kaori Fujimiya have made together to acts that he is solely responsible for, and a grudge-holding boy from the past enters the scene and conveniently resets Fujimiya’s memory from the beginning. The more this series has progressed, the less and less it’s appealed to me, unfortunately.
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There is a lot riding on this latest batch of episodes of Captain Earth, now that the second act is in mid-arc. The antagonists, having suffered major defeat by the newly-minted Midsummer’s Knights team led by “Captain Earth” Daichi, now seek to increase their own ranks by awakening more Kiltgang. Each episode introduces a new antagonist, as well as new challenges that put the heroes to the test and allow their individual skills to shine.
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The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is the first major Zelda title to appear on Nintendo’s Wii U console. While many re-releases tend to be nothing more than ports with updated graphics, Wind Waker HD changes enough of the gameplay and mechanics of the original Wind Waker to make the game feel like a new experience.
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Princess Nike is forgiven by Livius and is back in his good graces. The rival for her affections, Prince Bard, is still imprisoned by Livius’s command. Seeing Prince Bard as an important figure from Livius’s past, Nike works to help both Prince Bard and Livius to see past the bad memories they have together and move forward. Nike is called back to the Principality of Rain due to her ailing grandmother.
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Episode seven features the semifinal round of the competition. After this round, Kanade receives additional responsibility for the ensemble (I know this is a bit vague, but I don’t want to give too much away).
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