At this point, I’d usually review the anime I’ve watched from this season and rate them from one to five stars. This sort of season review might still come about on Medieval Otaku, but I already have reviews up for every show except Seraph of the End. You’ll find these reviews scattered over three posts on Beneath the Tangles: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. In the first part, Kaze gives Seraph of the End the same rating I’d give it. The second part features an amusing picture of Hestia with a caption added by yours truly. I found the picture particularly endearing because of it’s resemblance to the “Kilroy was here” image used by the Allies to mark their progress in WWII.
Let me remind my dear readers, as I did last year, that we celebrate the 152nd anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1st – July 3rd. Lord Drako Arakis created a beautifully drawn and tragic music video to commemorate last year’s anniversary, and I hope that he has one planned for this year. (His latest video is a ribald song not at all in the spirit of the battle, but click here if that doesn’t bother you and you want a good laugh.) At any rate, July 2nd saw one of the most thrilling fights of the war on Little Round Top. This was Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Maine’s most famous victory, which he wrote about in the article “Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg.” I highly recommend the article for how well Chamberlain immerses one in the action on that fateful day. Also, Chamberlain stands as the greatest hero to serve in the ranks of the Army of the Potomac and is worth learning about the Battle of Little Round Top for that reason alone.
This picture commemorates the famous bayonet charge lead by Col. Joshua Chamberlain. At the center, Chamberlain captures a Confederate at saber point whose revolver either misfired or was out of ammo when he tried to shoot Chamberlain. Chamberlain simply said to him: “You are my prisoner.”
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Well, this season was specially disappointing thanks to Hibike! Euphonium and the famous ep. 8 scene (yuri-baiting?, or an alternate universe with the two girls as a pairing?).
Only watched 3 episodes but, I’ve read about ep. 8. It was a series with such high quality.
What a bleak prospect.
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I think that they tried to do something similar to Hanayamata in Sound! Euphonium; but, it does sound like they made the yuri more prominent in the latter show. Hanamayata had a lesbian character, but she kept her inclination hidden.
Your reply gives the impression that you never got around to watching Arslan Senki. It was a very fun show, though I do admit that it manages to pick on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for various deeds in their histories. I should say that the main religion bears a closer resemblance to Islam than the other two, but that is merely my opinion.
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I thought Hanayamata was one of these slice of life schoolgirl series that stayed on blushing, etc. Dind’t knew they had a lesbian character. How the public knows that is it was hidden? inner monologues on part of the character?
With Euphonium, while I’ve read that a couple of pages of the novel are into that direction, (and detailed with the descriptions of the girls hugging), eventually the two girls have their respective normal crushes. I wonder what kyonai was trying to achieve there with the inclusion of these scenes.
No, I haven’t finished some of the shows I was watching.
With Arslan Senki, I still think that the name of the Lusitanian deity was a cheap shot against Christianism and other religions. Like implying these characters (and by extention, Christians) are following a fake deity.
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You’re right: Hanayamata was that kind of show. Yet, that one of the characters bats for the other team–to use the Japanese idiom–is obvious through certain reactions of hers to another of the girls. She never goes off on a monologue or has romantic daydreams.
Concerning Yaldabaoth, a short internet search reveals that this false god is associated with the Gnostic demiurge. Apparently, he has also been equated to Jehovah; but, there is so much other mythology associated with this particular god, that I’m not sure if one can say that he’s the God of the Old Testament.
Of course, the Lusitanians are following a fake deity. Whether the author wished it to be understood that Christians also follow a fake deity, I’d need more information to know for sure.
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Having watched only three shows this season, Seraph of the End, Blood Blockade Battlefront, and Danmachi, I’m not too excited about any of them. Seraph has some interesting bits but I’m still torn about it. On the one hand the recent reveal of the titular “Seraph” has me interested for these reasons:
1) The Seraph’s power is clearly shown to be superior to both the demons and the vampires, as it should be
2) Despite the “all sinners must die” line sounding particularly harsh it does make sense in context [If I was an angelic being bound to some kid (which is clearly painful for both of them given how the awakening of the Seraph seems to cause the host to suffer incredible strain and a being used to being outside of the confines of time and space being bound in a particular time and space would be pretty uncomfortable) by a bunch of people who consorted with demons I would be pretty eager to dispense a little divine justice on vampire and demon army alike.]
3)The Seraph is calmed by (what seems to be) love. This, again, actually makes sense. An angelic being would probably be more merciful if it (for lack of a better term since they lack sex) saw some chance for redemption in its opponent, even if they were dumb enough to invoke the demonic).
4) It hints at the fact that the Judeo-Christian God exists and so might allow for a redemptive element to seep into the otherwise (up until this point in the series) very bland evil vs. evil cliche I brought up the last time I commented on one of your posts.
However I am also concerned because:
1) It is all too common in anime that focus on the relationship between God and man for the writers to make God the “Big Bully”, who’s just cruel or uncaring, or overly rigid, or unforgiving. While Seraph of the End does not indicate this is the case I’ve been burned by anime too many times and so I sincerely hope the anime doesn’t take this route and end with the main character giving Heaven the metaphorical middle digit.
2) The aftermath of the big fight where the Seraph first manifests, while it introduced some political intrigue that I like, seems to indicate that the show will be preaching the same overly pragmatic principle found in Attack on Titan. While I’m able to stomach this, “Screw principles this is war!” message in Attack on Titan because the main character in that show’s every action rejects that narrative, Yu (despite having an admirable zeal for vampire-slaying) doesn’t have a defined enough character to determine whether or not he’ll go along with it.
Overall, I’m curious to see where it’ll go.
On a side note I have been watching that Blassreiter anime you recommended and so far I’m interested. The mixture of CGI and traditional animation clashes at times but I like the characters, and the show seems to actually be interested in teaching its audience something about real ethics so that’s something. The plot is pretty interesting with a mysterious hero, government intrigue, and the personal lives of the characters mixed in. Overall I’m liking it so far.
I look forward to your Seraph of the End review! (Sorry if the post is really long.)
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The seraph is quite interesting. The awakening scene had me wondering whether that terrible power inside of humanity which Yuuichiro’s demon refers to is love, which can appear in the form of wrath or kindness, justice or mercy. I can certainly see why a seraph would be angry at people invoking the help of demons. At the same time, since a seraph’s proximity and vision of God is clearer and fuller than any creature besides the Blessed Virgin Mary and perhaps certain other saints (St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist come to mind, but all the details of the hierarchy of heaven is unknown to us), they are likely the most inclined to mercy among the angelic orders. I do hope that the show reveals that God overcomes evil rather than evil overcomes evil, but anime does often disappoint in this regard.
Two things which gives me hope that the show may talk about God positively are that the vampires are very arrogant and our heroes are not all powerful or capable of reaching ever higher levels of strength. So, the heroes already recognize their limitations. Might they not also realize their need for a kindly Providence which shall scatter the proud, put down the mighty, and exalt the lowly? That remains to be seen. Yet, that the heroes realize that they are not God gives me hope.
I’m very glad that you are enjoying Blassreiter. Most people to whom I recommend it don’t. xD But, it is unique in the Catholicity of its principles. The only other show that is as Catholic to my knowledge is Ashita no Joe.
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Gettysburg was one of the coolest places my family took me on vacation while growing up.
I have etched in my memory the electric sizzle I felt when I visited the monument to the 20th Maine on Little Round Top and stood where such an important part of history occurred. There was also the disconcerting and unsettling feeling, while standing there, and thinking about how history would probably be very different, and much darker, if Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain hadn’t been successful that day.
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Gettysburg is an awesome place to visit. So many monuments dedicated to brave men. To tell you the truth, I’m of two minds as to whether it’s better that the North won. It provided an obvious benefit in the abolition of slavery, and one wonders if a divided America would have prevented Germany from winning the World Wars. Then again, the North’s victory increased the power and size of the Federal government which, combined with growing levels of corruption, has led to the present poor state of affairs. But, it’s still probably better that the North won in the end–something this descendant of a Confederate soldier finds hard to admit! 🙂
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You also! That’s a cool gif!
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About gnosticism.
Some beliefs of their various sects:
Divinization of man, salvation by man’s own efforts without a Savior, syncretism of various religions and philosophies, rejection of the Old Testament, esoterism, hatred of creation and matter.
They said that creation the product of a lesser deity, the Demiurge. Although their concept of the Demiurge is different from the Platonic one Theirs, was a form of misotheism, but covered with the concept of more higher deities. Basically, they had an anti-Christian posture too. Some authors, think they were a product of decaying paganism trying to compete with Christianism.
So, a series that uses that name for a deity, worshipped with people wearing Patriarchal Crosses, comes of as offensive.
Back to the topic of recent schoolgirl series, maybe is another example of the moé, slice of life and shoujo-ai combination.
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That makes sense. But, one would have to know about as much as you do about the subject to see it as an insult. The matter probably strikes most viewers as rather esoteric. But, I’m happy to know about this.
I try to avoid series about high school girls as much as possible, but some are pretty entertaining. 🙂
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