That's some weird pacing @_@

Aw. Just when I thought Black Bullet is gonna be the highlight of this season, their 4th episode totally ruined the experience for me. It felt more like watching a "recap" episode rather than a usual one with so many things happening at the same time. The episode just feels so rushed out. I am not one that follows the light novel so with this rushed pacing, it didn't feel right watching so much content unveiling itself in a single mere episode.

Let's take Kagetane for example. Sure he did appear from the very start as a formidable opponent. One who has special abilities as a modified human. Even Rentarou had so much trouble with this guy that he almost lost his life for it. Coupled with his daughter initiator Kohina, the duo sure seemed like a unbeatable opponent right from the start. Or at least it would take about half a season to do so? Compared to what he was exactly planning to do, which was to destroy the world with a stage 5 Gastrea. But nope, the storyboard decided to take him out, rather easily, with Rentarou simply going all out and wipes him off in like half an episode. I ain't complaining about how overpowered Rentarou was, after all his risk of taking the gamble on Gastrea's regenerative capabilities, (and also ignoring how obvious he was as a modified human as well), I'm complaining about the lack of character development for Kagetane itself. To me, he was a character that appeared as a wonderful antagonist, and gets wiped off the screens as a side character instead. Unless of course, if this wasn't the end of Kagetane himself, I would appreciate to have more screen time for that dude.

That wasn't the end too, with an appearance of a stage 5 Gastrea. Now THAT too appearing in the same episode?! That is no doubt a rush in the plot too. But wait! Simply appearing is not enough, the episode still has time for Rentarou to take it out! And within a glorious single episode, Kagetane got defeated, we witness the truth of Rentarou's body, an appearance of a stage 5 Gastrea, and the fall of it...

@____@

It was all too convenient for the stage 5 Gastrea to appear, and there standing, was a Railgun capable of destroying it. I did read through some of the comments of others who pointed out that this episode was so rushed that many major plot points were ignored. On the episode itself, it ended with the catalyst being shown as a tricycle, which hints to me that the Gastrea, or at least the stage 5 Gastrea's could be previously Cursed Childrens. We have yet to see what the Cursed Children become once their corrosion rate hits over 50%, even Kayo died as a "human" rather than turning into a Gastrea, which further fuels the unknown fact about the fate of the Cursed Children. One of the plot points pointed out by a LN reader, was that a scene where the stage 5 Gastrea was about to die, it actually did look towards Rentarou's direction, perhaps hinting something, or as though wanting to convey something. If that was true, the TV series really has messed up... Considering how well the pacing for Tokyo Ravens was even though it only covered certain novels, but for this, meh. 13 episodes is just isn't enough, and rushing it won't do the series well too...

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Mekaku City Actors on the other hand is doing just fine, after a fairly interesting opening to the series by introducing the 2 Kisaragi siblings.

from left>right, top>bottom: 

Kido, Seto, Shintarou, Ene, Hibiya, Kano, Mary, Anayo, Haruka, Momo

Pretty neat too linking their first 2 episodes together, so now we finally understood what happened behind the scenes of the escape Kisaragi Shintarou managed to pull off. And of course, finally we got to see the whole team, well, less a few to be exact, but most were introduced to us, which makes the series twice as interesting with their specific powers in check:

Kido - The leader of the group and holds the power to make her own existence disappear.

Seto - Able to read other people's minds with eye contact

Shintarou - Owner of Ene?

Ene - A.I.

Hibiya - ???

Kano - Change how people perceive himself to be

Mary - Lock someone's movement with eye contact

Anayo - ???

Haruka - ???

Momo - Always in the center of attention

That is what is known through the TV series so far, I want to enjoy this series upfront so I'm refraining myself from spoilers and am excited to see how the series goes. Sure enough the start of the series was a little slow and confusing too, but with their 3rd episode, I thought they had redeemed themselves and am now headed to the true plot of the series. Somehow I got a feeling that Shintarou has his own ability as well, rather than just being the owner of Ene... And of course, there's always this question that lingers around: Are those powers of theirs real? Or it was just a mere perception of their individual selves that make them look like they have such powers? It becomes more interesting if you start to think towards this direction but nonetheless, whichever side the series is on, boy am I glad that SHAFT return to animate this genre of series rather than the disappointing Nisekoi (which of course the plot of Nisekoi was disappointing as well too)

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No Game No Life has definitely topped my chart this season with their intense chess game and the anticipation of what there is to come in future episodes. To think that the world's One True God had called upon the "Blank" siblings into this world because she wanted a chance to have a rematch with them after losing the chess match back in episode 1 which was her first loss.

And no doubt, it was a chess fight that earned the duo the title of King and Queen of Imanity (which of course there was a misunderstanding of the possibility of having only a single ruler). The stage is finally set in this new world which Sora and Shiro has been "reborn" in, where there are a total of 12 different races in the world, and them, as Imanity, as humans without magic powers, are ranked the lowest. The One True God, Tet, offers them the chance to fight her with the gamble of the title : "One True God" on the gaming board, which both Sora and Shiro have to obtain all the chess pieces of the other races, rule the world and earn the right to challenge Tet herself. It is of course non-stop entertainment after seeing Sora and Shiro pull off all those handy tricks harboured by their long experience of gaming life, from strategic warfare, to civilisation, nation building etc. Boy this is really an interesting series to follow.

What I do worry about is how they are going to wrap up the whole series in just 12 episodes. Sure they did have that marvellous setting of obtaining all the chess pieces from other races and challenge the One True God, but with 4 episodes already down, I can safely say that I don't think the duo will get to face Tet at all, even if every following episode is collecting another piece each, there wouldn't be much plot development and the series will go downhill from there. Furthermore, the light novel has yet to end, which would mean that it is virtually impossible for the TV series to complete the story. Am hoping that everything goes well for this series too, pacing wise, this is just right and after every episode, I'm always yearning for next week to come! :)

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plot aside, Black Bullet do have a wonderful opening song: Black Bullet by fripside

it does kinda have a railgun X shingeki kind of feel here too: