Mawaru Penguindrum 04: The girl in red heels.

Looks like Ringo is here to stay!

Last week's episode made the whole Ringo situation seem monotonous, but that completely changed, episode four was brilliant! Penguindrum is back with lots of laughs, skunks, and a whole slew of amazing plot developments. I'm so glad this series is running for 24 episodes because it's already outstanding and I'm sure we can expect even more to come. If you haven't picked up Mawaru Penguindrum, you should definitely give it a shot!

Himari, and the entire "Survival Strategy!" sequence took a back seat this week to let Ringo shine as both a hilarious and very peculiar character. I can't help but break out into laughter every time she makes one of her distorted faces, and those opera scenes were even better. I seriously think she may have even been funnier then the penguins this week, who had me laughing just as much. Maybe it's because in life I find almost everything funny for some reason, but this week definitely delivered on the comedy side of things.

NO.6 04: Strangers

Well Nezumi, the general consensus over the interwebz seems to be a yes.

Yet another week of the usual action-packed, dramatic scenes I've come to expect (and enjoy) from NO.6 has gone by and I'm starting to wish these episodes were a half an hour longer. I feel like this month has passed so incredibly fast (maybe it's the stress-free feeling of Summer to blame), but we're almost half way done and I'm already wanting more. The dialogue is exaggerated and addicting, the setting is cynically wonderful, and the plot is more interesting then the majority of new anime I've seen this year.

This week revealed the chaos associated with the "real world" and it wasn't short on prostitution, criminals, and ... dog-blankets. It's funny how close NO.6 and this "real world" are in terms of distance, but how far apart they are when it comes to civilized living. But, which is better, living in a world where people do whatever they want or constantly being under the watch of the government?

The iDOLM@STER 04: Ribbit

Ribbit indeed.

The premise of this episode was ... well, pretty lame and annoying, but thankfully the odd mixture of Chihaya, Haruka, Takane, and Hibiki managed to save it from becoming bad. The first three are my favorite characters in the series and they work extremely well together, especially Haruka and Chihaya. Since this was a Chihaya-focused episode I was hoping they'd at least give her a good premise to develop her character, but instead we got frogs, cooking, and a bunch of perverted cameramen.

This was the first episode to focus solely on a small group of characters which was awesome at first, but the episode slowly turned irritating thanks to the game show-like atmosphere and the annoying hand puppet. Unlike the previous two episodes where the focus character got lots of screen-time, I felt Chihaya was sort of ignored. There were tons of annoying scenes that could have been switched with more time for her, but they weren't.

Eden no Ori 95: Just Another Disaster

One thing that can be said about Eden no Ori is that the pacing never slows down. Every chapter Sengoku and his group are hit with more and more hardships leading to some exciting (yet sometimes depressing) entertainment. This week another tragedy struck, and it was made all the more emotional by the impact on the group. Though it was sad, there's also now a bit of fear because clearly nobody is safe from the fangs and claws of the island. (spoilers after the jump)

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation 04: Believing in promises.

Oh dear, poor Yune.

I'm not sure which is cuter, Yune's dedicated friendship with the Claudel's or Rin and Daikichi from Usagi Drop. Both shows are so adorable and enjoyable in their own unique ways, but one thing they do share are extremely likable characters. Even Alice Blanche, who last week I was a little mean to, became a lot more likable this episode. Also this week I think we can get a slightly clearer picture of where this show is taking us.

I've noticed the differences between Japanese culture and French culture have become a major theme in every episode. In the beginning I thought it would move on from that after the first or second episode and focus on other things, but I'm glad it has remained an important part of developing Yune and Claude. What I'm most happy about though is that it never becomes boring. We're not listening to long speeches and lessons about trivial things, but instead we get to watch Yune and Claude interact with the differences and get better understandings of each other in the process.

Corpse Party Blood Covered 09: Alternate Dimension

With my episodic anime reviews, "flash fun", and occasional editorials, which I really would like to do more of, I'm covering 2 of the 3 hobbies of my everyday life (anime and gaming) and I haven't been giving enough attention to the third, manga. I won't be covering manga very often, but the ones I truly enjoy I'll talk about when new chapters are released, and who knows, maybe I'll help you find a great new manga to read!

Corpse Party Blood Covered is a manga I stumbled across while searching for a story similar to Battle Royale, which is one of my favorite reads. Though the two are completely different in every way, CPBC has proved to be quite enjoyable. I'm a huge fan of horror/psychological-type anime and manga, so whenever I come across something like this I usually give it a try. It combines elements of both moe and horror to create a gruesome and often time extremely creepy experience, sort of like Higurashi, but a little more bizarre.

Mawaru Penguindrum 03: Curry and Creeps

One big crazy happy family!

This episode was just as flashy and enjoyable as the first two, but it felt like a 23 minute extension of the previous, the Takakura boys are still far from retrieving the "penguindrum", but at least now they have more clues to work with. Though lots of questions are starting to pop up for me while watching, I still feel this is one of the best shows of the year and I can't wait to see more.

The focus was once again on Ringo, the obsessed stalker of Keiju who also has some connection with the "penguindrum", and while you might be thinking that it sounds like a repeat of last week, this episode managed to tie in some actual development for Ringo's character. That's great and all, but I still feel as if something is missing. Maybe it's because I'm beginning to feel like I have no connection to the main cast who, as I mentioned last week, aren't developed beyond their love for their sick sister. Maybe that's not such a bad thing though, because I can understand their wanting to do anything to help, which includes stalking a stalker.

NO.6 03: Collapse

Frie-nemies?

No.6 has worked it's way up to being the show I look forward to most each week, even more than Penguindrum. It might not have the flashy, vibrant animation of Penguindrum or the cuteness factor of Ikoku Meiro, but what makes it stand out to me is the stunning cast of characters and the intricate, character-driven plot. And every week I moan about the length, but I'm starting to feel that BONES might just be able to pull this off.

This week was very dialogue heavy, but it never became boring. Almost the entire episode was inside a single room and yet the tense, nail-biting moments involving Shion's bite (which I stupidly forgot to mention last week, but I'm sure you didn't miss it) and the great chemistry between the two leads left no moments of repose. In a way, it's like an affirmation of the first episode and the glaring differences between Shion and Nezumi.

The iDOLM@STER 03: Facing your fears.

Road trip!!!

While episode three didn't quite live up to the standard set by the first two episodes, I'd say it did an OK job at developing a character that in most cases is the worst of the cast. Two weeks ago I said Yukiho, who has a slight case of androphobia (or fear of men) would probably end up being my least favorite character in the show, and that hasn't really changed much even with this episode focusing on her. Luckily, she didn't ruin the episode.

In this episode 765 Production takes a road trip to perform a concert, but when they arrive they realize it's not as "fancy" as they would have liked. The most important thing I managed to scrape up from this episode was that the cast seems to be split into groups, the younger girls (Iori, Ami, Mami, and Yayoi), the teenage trio (Yukiho, Makoto, and Haruka), the mature girls (Takane, Azusa, Chihaya) and than there's Hibiki, who I rarely see, and Miki, who is always asleep. I love seeing the friendships within the groups grow, but I'd love even more to see more interaction outside of the groups, which there was only a little of this episode. I guess you could say the split groups does help with conserving time for each girl, since there's only 23 minutes and TONS of characters.

Flash Fun: Penguin Overlords (6.5 / 10)

Click Here to Play!

Finally! A game devoted to the long fought battle between ... wait, penguins and turtles? I'm just as confused as you probably are because penguins and turtles have never really had a werewolf and vampire-like rivalry. For me, playing became a little heartbreaking, watching my lovable penguins turn into man turtle eating beasts! But, I guess even they have to do whatever it takes to survive!

As you can see in the title, and as you'll see later in the post, I've changed up my review style for "flash fun". The old style didn't work well because it didn't take into account the important of certain aspects over others and became mostly about personal bias. And though a review is nothing without personal opinion, I think technical aspects are just as important.