Check-in Station Year in Review: Winter 2013 (the Warmth of Companionship – and Subpar Anime)

With my Christmas post, I’ve already started my recap series for the year that I’ve dubbed End of Year Faffery.  My love of  British culture, and love the phrase “faffing about” is the inspiration behind this.  But don’t get the wrong idea.  Though I’m playing with concepts, presentation and ideas all the time on this blog; I’m seriously going through this blogs journey in anime throughout the entire year of 2013.  And I’m of course starting with the first season of the year, the Winter season.  After all, this blog is named the Check-in Station. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to not not check-in at the end of the year with everything I’ve discovered, and experienced in world of anime.  Please enjoy, as I take on my journey through the year of anime, 2013.

DKJ’s Top 20 Hottest Anime Chicks pt4 (5-1)

So here we go!  My list of who I think are the five hottest women in anime.  Yes, I realize ahead of time that this likely will have some huge omissions for some of you.  But this is my damn list!  And my damn choices, tastes and rules!  If you have a problem with it, then send me a comment and tell me who I missed or who you’d prefer.  Or write your own damn blog post and send me a link.  Because from here, to the end of this blog post, it’s nothing but eye candy!  So shut up, and soak in the sexy!

Check-out Station: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep12 (Knowledge versus Tradition)

So here I’ve come to the end of another season of anime, with another series I hardly expected to finish.  And a wonderful, and increasingly rare chance for me to tell someone whether I’m more enriched for the experience, or embittered by it.  And despite the sometimes vexing experience of trying to write about characters named so literally that it made me feel lazy for typing them onto a page, I think I’ve seen this series in a mostly positive light.  And no, for any that have followed me as I followed this show.  There will not be a single Light Spirit joke.  They weren’t funny in my head, so I know they’ll never be funny in yours.  Now, let’s put this series to rest, at least until they green light the second season.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep11: the fruits of labor

The Demon King has been away for quite a while at this point. And the series is moving on with or without her. But despite that the fact that she’s very nearly tucked away at the center of the Earth, her presence shines on in the show in many aspects. Still, despite claims that this may not be one, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is still a love story to me. And we can’t expect the love interest to just fade away can we?

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep10: reverberations

Episode 9

After the explosion of emotion that was episode 9 of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, you just knew there had to be some consequences. There are positive and negative side effects to declaring your overseers pompous greedy slave owners. The positives seems to be a renewed spirit in the populace, and a chance at living up to high ideals. The negative is of course being wiped off the face of the Earth.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep9: you are nothing before a powerless insect

Episode 8

If a plan goes wrong, it should go spectacularly wrong! For if it doesn’t, what’s the point? And at the very least, the spectacle can erase the sin of your mistake.

Yeah, this latest episode of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha took a very unexpected turn. By the end of this episode, things became very hopeful, very doubtful and very uncertain.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep8: what is easily given, is easily taken (back)

I am really enjoy Maoyuu Maou Yuusha on a basic level. And when I say that, I mean I enjoy just watching despite any criticisms. And even better, I enjoy it the most when I can’t muster anything to complain about, like this episode.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep7: I’m sorry, but how is she the only person in the world with this information?

Episode 6

I usually come off in a negative tone when I start a conversation with a question. And it’s not the preschool crap that announcers say at the end of episodes.

“Will Domon survive the attack?”

“Can Kirby float to the other side of that moat?”

“Did the butler really do it?”

The answers are yes (he’s the star of the f*cking show); yes (Kirby can float forever, just like he can suck infinity); and yes (the butler always does it, but usually with the help of the slutty/greedy maid). What I really want to know is how the world of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is so prehistoric and backwards that it hasn’t figured out basic agricultural and navigational techniques and devices, but it can have this sophisticated economic system based on war? And don’t give me that crap about basic medieval serfdom and the intervention of magic either. This Demon King chick is either a damn time traveler or she has help.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep6: in war, blood is the only real currency

Episode 5

I usually am careful what I ask for. A motto I like to live by is: be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. And that is because when people ask for something, when people demand things, they rarely take into account what it takes to get it. It’s a lesson popularly told in stories dealing with genies, or other apparitions that like to grant wishes. Often it’s not just about producing things out of thin air. It’s about commandeering resources from one group or place, and giving them to someone, or someplace else. I find this applies not just to me as I watch, but it applies to the characters in this story as well. The people of the Winter Kingdom want victory, peace and independence. But I’m not sure more of the populace even fathoms what even a fraction of that costs. And Demon King/Crimson Scholar wants something even beyond that. And though I’m sure she’s done her calculations, I’m not sure she’s fully prepared for what comes with its cost.

Check-in Station: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha eps 1-5 (War & Peace & Virgins)

Episode 4

Am I just not permitted to drop anything?  Or is this just a matter of having the right and wrong criteria for judging a show?  Or perhaps I should just stop worrying about it, and focus just on watching a series to completion and then b*tching about it if I don’t like it.  Well none of that is getting solved immediately.  Maoyuu Maou Yuusha has just given itself a stay of execution.  Episode five was pretty good.