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Golden Time 24 (End)
That scene with Ghost Banri and Linda absolutely killed me. It really hit close to home, too close.
 
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Silver Spoon S2 11

Not much else to add. Silver Spoon continued to be brilliant all the way to the end of this season. Hiromu Arakawa is simply a master storyteller, and this anime does justice to her work. Following Hachiken on his journey has been an absolute pleasure. I would love to see a continuation in the future.

Pupa 12

Did I walk into a different series this week?

Golden Time 24

Hmm. Still processing this one. Thoughts in spoiler tags may be a bit rambly and stream-of-consciousness.

RUN FORREST, RUN!

The first word that comes to mind when thinking of this finale is "clumsy". I don't know if it's just me but the pacing was all over the place. It could be a source material issue. I know that episode 21 finished where Volume 7 ended, and Volume 8 only came out two weeks ago. They may very well have had to have rushed the last three episodes to coincide with that volume. Toradora was in a similar situation, but that handled it in a much smoother and more organic way. That might have been the staff having an influence. Not that Golden Time's staff were slouches (the writer handled the scripts for the likes of Full Metal Panic and the director did Higurashi and some later series of Nodame Cantabile), but Toradora had the incredible Tatsuyuki Nagai and Mari Okada dream team. I ultimately found the ending somewhat unsatisfactory due to the way it was presented, and with the resolution.

My main issue with Golden Time's actual story was never resolved. I never bought the relationship between Banri and Koko for one second. I can totally understand Banri falling for Koko. She does have an incredibly magnetic presence. I never felt that Koko genuinely loved Banri back, but rather just wanted love full stop. In this final episode, during her long speech on the bridge, her line "I need you" stuck out to me. I may be overthinking this a bit, but her choosing the word "need" speaks volumes about their relationship. For a brief period, I thought the series was going to explore the theme of relationships that weren't healthy, and show the consequences of that. At university I witnessed a couple of my friends go through similar unhealthy relationships, I think it could have been a bold direction and made for a potentially more interesting series. Once again going back to Toradora, one of its real strengths is that I could see any of the main relationships plausibly working, which added to the drama.

I'm still undecided on the entire Ghost Banri plot angle. While there were times it legitimately added to the drama (the holiday and the car accident for example), there were also times were it felt too forced and unnatural. This episode in particular with the entire scene on the bridge with the multiple Banris didn't work for me at all. What should have been a powerful moment with Linda turned into a "Eh, what happened?" reaction. That added to my feeling of dissatisfaction.

Still, despite my issues, there was still a hell of a lot to like in Golden Time. I really did grow fond of the core cast. Linda-senpai stood out in particular. She was in a tough situation throughout and I really sympathised with her story. 2D-Kun, Mitsuo and Oka-chan were very likeable characters too. Koko may have many many flaws that made her tough to like at times, but she was always an incredibly compelling character to watch. While I didn't particularly care for Ghost Banri or pre-memory loss Banri in general, post-loss Banri was generally quite interesting too. I did like his attitude and his sense of humour a lot. The way the characters bounced off each other was really fun to watch.

The opening episodes in particular really captured the great feeling of going to university. When Golden Time was funny, it was very very funny. From the moment the Latin Music club showed up all the way up to EXORCIST, there was always something to make me laugh. For all the occasional lapses in execution, in general the episodes went at a hell of a clip and I was never once bored. I always came back every week too so it was definitely doing something right.

On the whole, I am glad I watched this series. The university setting really was refreshing and I did mostly like the characters, if not necessarily their actions throughout. It does have some very deep flaws though, so I never could engage with it the way I did with Toradora, which is a shame.
 
RAINBOW - Episodes 14 - 17
Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai! REN - Episode 12 (END)
Golden Time - Episodes 21 - 23

Really looking forward to the final episode of Golden Time. It has been one of those series which I have thoroughly enjoyed despite its flaws.
The final episode of Chuunibyou was just HNNNNG.
 
One Piece 496-535 (Started watching at 9am an only just finished now)

The first 6 or 7 eps after the time skip were amazing but the eps ive seen of Fishman Island have been pretty ****...

But the rate im going through episodes this arc will be done in no time
 
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions Ren 12 (End)
The series had its moments, but was a pretty unnecessary sequel tbh. Last episode was really cute though.

Kill la Kill 24
Well, the wicked fun ride is finally over. I definitely will miss this series. I also loved the allusions between Ragyo and Hitler in this episode. Early on in the series, we were reminded of Hitler and the Nazi regime. In World War II Hitler had lost the war and rather than surrendering, he shot himself in the head.

Here, Ragyo’s plan had failed and she was given the option of surrendering, but she chose to crush her own heart. When you consider that Kill la Kill has always been a show that prides emotion over logical thought (or heart over head), then the possible allusion becomes quite clear.

Ragyo Kiryuin wanted to wipe out all of the people she thought were beneath her so that one race could reign supreme - in this case, humans. In Hitler’s case, the Jews, the Roma people, the disabled and many more in favour of the Aryan race.
 
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@ Ath

In regards to Golden Time, I told ya man, Openings are like a crystal ball, you don't doubt the information you get from them. I totally got where you were coming from in your very good analysis of the relationship, but it was clear to me that you had expectations for the show that it was never going to live up to. It was never going to offer such a complex and nuanced slice of relationship. This show was fluff through and through, enjoyable fluff, but fluff nonetheless. I did find some of memory loss scenes to be quite affecting though.

But yeah, I'd take My Little Monster all day erryday over this. The characters were far more nuanced. I need to start an internet campaign for a second series or some ****.
 
Hah, yup you're absolutely right Vash. It's definitely also my fault for expecting the series to be something it's not (same for Oreimo). I need to trust the OPs more.

I wonder if the author's other series Evergreen will get an anime at some point?
 
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