Check-in Station Year in Review: 2013 (Summer)

There are some anime seasons that are just good.  There are seasons that are memorable.  And then there are seasons that are legendary.  The Spring 2006 season saw the debut of the most influential anime since Evangelion, Haruhi.  On top of that, it had Higurashi, Ouran High School Host Club, Gintama and Aria!  The Fall 2006 season aired the beginnings of Death Note and Code Geass, two juggernaut series at the same time!  Fall 1995 saw the debut Neon Genesis Evangelion and the first Ghost in the Shell movie.  And yet, I look at this Summer 2013 season and wonder – does this rank as one of the best seasons of anime ever?!  It’s insane to think about how low the expectations were going into this season.  My own expectations were near rock bottom.  When it came to what hype I had, it was all regarding the two returning series and nothing else.  Even then, Bakemonogatari‘s second sequel was getting a lot of hype from the anime community because of the mixed reactions Nisemonogatari received (I loved it).  And there was no telling if Symphogear G was going to be able to live up to the hype,pacing and expectations set by the first season.  But what we got this season was an ever rolling, ever growing ball of quality, memorable anime.

Summer 2013 was the little engine that could.  It was the nerdy kid turned super star.  Summer 2013 was the best of 2013!  And I’m proving it here!

Check-out Station: Uchouten Kazoku ep13 (alien world, alien culture, familiar familial values)

What a warm, inviting show.  Well, until humans start trying to eat cute tanuki moms and tengu get drunk and start blowing people away with hurricane force winds!  GEEZUS Akadama!  Calm the f*ck down!  Oh god!  He’s looking this way!  Run awa- AAAAAAAAH!

Uchouten Kazoku ep12: what is fun is good – for tanuki!

You didn’t expect the Shimogamo family to just roll over and die did you?  Oh hell no!  Its time for the counterattack.  The big counterattack!

Uchouten Kazoku ep11: a chasm of understanding and emotion

Providence favors the wise, wisdom favors the patient, patience favors the thoughtful, and the Yasaburou is none of those. But he does have luck. Hell, that’s all he’s got going for him now. In a matter of hours, the Shimogamo family’s history will be written in stone. A history of a family that failed to live up to the low expectations of even tanuki society.

Uchouten Kazoku ep10: the true goodbye

With the pieces in place, it’s not hard to see how things played out. It seems that in this mystical world of tanuki, tengu and humanity, there aren’t many accidents, but quite the few twists of carefully woven fate. That said, I’d love to see some of that thread wound around Soun Ebisugawa’s throat.

Uchouten Kazoku ep9: musical hotpot

Oh how I got excited about this episode when I saw the title. Mysteries are what drive me when it comes to anime. The less I know, the more exciting the prospects for the show seem. It’s like telling someone you’re going to a stadium or some other grand place. They could show you pictures and give you dimensions, but it’s never as exciting as your imagination can make it. Let your mind run wild and soak in the possibilities. Though in the case of Kaisei Ebisugawa, I’ve been given so little that I have nothing to draw in my imagination. It’s almost like being told your going to a stadium, and you don’t know what a stadium is.

Things start off with a

Uchouten Kazoku ep8: the blood of sages

So is this the great goodbye? Is the only mystery left to us Benten?

The final moments of the great Souichiro Shimogamo’s life are finally told in this episode. Though the pages in this finally chapter of his book don’t end quite the way we’ve been lead to expect.

Uchouten Kazoku ep7: blood is thicker than tears; Ebisugawas are dumber than rocks

At the beginning of the episode, we hear Yasaburou speak of what he calls a troublesome bond between family in tanuki society.  And family and tanuki society are what this episode is all about.  Well, it’s about that and taking regular baths.

Another troublesome day in old Kyoto as Yashirou, Yasaburou’s younger brother, petitions him to help get Professor Akadama to go take a bath.

Uchouten Kazoku ep6: the two pillars of this show

If this show gets successful enough, I can easily see Benten becoming a popular choice for a lot of people’s favorites list.  She’s an intriguing character, and one of the two pillars that this show seems to revolve around, the other being the great and revered Souichiro Shimogamo.  In this episode, we’re shown how even a group of the most influential humans in all of Kyoto seems just be moths to a flame.  She’s a woman too beautiful and too dangerous to ignore.  And yet, six episodes in, she’s not actually that mysterious.  Or at least she isn’t so long as

Uchouten Kazoku ep5: you can’t have your tanuki and eat it too – so don’t eat it!!

Well this episode was weirder than normal. All in all, not a lot happened. But what did was pretty important. Our tanuki hero is on the run from Benten after destroying the inner parlor and losing the Flying Thunder God fan. His efforts to be on the run don’t get him very far though. As pretty early into the episode he’s already been caught by Benten and her tengu guards. Wow, this show isn’t going to last very long if the main character gets cooked this episode.