Naruto 571

A power-up Naruto and allies continue to battle Tobi and his beast puppets.

Kurama knocks back the other beasts with his terrible roar... and bad breath.

Summary:
The five remaining tailed beasts aim Tailed Beast Bombs at Kakashi and Guy. Kakashi and Guy are about to pull their last resort moves, but Naruto powers-up with Kurama's help and bounces all of the blasts away. Tobi's beasts decide to charge in, but Naruto forms a full size chakra version of Kurama to bounce the beasts away. Kurama warns Naruto that they can only remain in the form for 5 minutes, but Naruto thinks it's enough time to find and eliminate the chakra control rods on the beasts' bodies (using a shadow clone in Sage mode). Naruto/Kurama and Bee/Hachibi engage in some melee combat with the five beasts and Naruto's Sage clone locates all of the chakra rods. Tobi gets his beasts to combine their Tailed Beast Bombs to blast Naruto and company, and Naruto/Kurama try to counter with a giant Tailed Beast Bomb of their own.

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Naruto powered up and finally he looks like he might actually be able to win this battle. It was about time that happened. The initial fox chakra mode hasn't been all that impressive especially against strong enemies. This was a decent action chapter for Naruto/Kurama to show off their new combined abilities, and next chapter we'll probably see Naruto successfully pulling off the Tailed Beast Bomb... it'd be hilarious if Naruto fails at it even with Kurama's help, but I doubt that would happen. If Naruto does defeat all of Tobi's puppets by removing their chakra rods then it'll force Tobi to retreat for the time being, but I'm hoping something not so predictable will happen... say having Sasuke show up to crash the party? Haha one can dream.

One Piece 654

The Straw Hats make their ascent back to the surface.

Hook one fish, get two larger ones for FREE!!

Summary:
The Straw Hats are making their ascent back to the sea surface. Nami takes a break from her navigator duties to take a bath, and Brook and Sanji are hanging around outside the bathroom wanting to catch a glimpse of a naked Nami. Chopper is also around but he is more interested in Nami's tempo clouds, but he accidentally touches a thunder cloud and causes Sanji and Brook to be fried. On deck, Usopp, Luffy and Zoro are planning to catch a deep sea for dinner. Luffy knocks out a large fish and Usopp hooks the fish, but the fish is eaten by a larger fish which is eaten by an even larger fish. Zoro kills the final fish with a sword strike, but the crew notices that the ship is sinking and Luffy spots a "white dragon" nearby. Robin realizes that what Luffy is seeing is an underwater whirlpool called a Whitestrom. Nami returns to the deck and tells the guys to cut the fishes loose to avoid getting sucked in to the Whitestrom, but it's too late and the Sunny is pulled inside. After spinning around for a bit, the Sunny is spat out into a school of giant Miraculous Island whales which Brook mistakens for Laboon. To avoid getting into more trouble, Nami orders the ship to sail with the whales. Brook starts singing and the whales seems to enjoy the music, and the Straw Hats are carried by the whales to the surface. The Straw Hats break through the surface and find that they are inside a huge storm, but the terrible weather fails to dampen their spirits.

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Luffy and their friends finally make their way back to the surface world. The crew is progressing towards their next big adventure, but it might take one or more chapters to actually get there. If I remember correctly, Urouge (one of the 11 Supernova/100 million+ bounty rookies) ended up in a stormy location. We'll see if the Straw Hats ended up at the same area or somewhere else entirely. It's safe to say that thanks to the fishing attempt, the Straw Hats probably don't know where they are. The next few chapters will be for the Straw Hats to figure out where they are and what is there for them to do.

Now that the Straw Hats ended up in dark and stormy seas, they probably won't be seeing Smoker's G5s anytime soon.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 15

Grodek's task force and Flit venture into Ambat.

Bigger doesn't mean better.

Looking like an ace, slicing through grunts with ease.

Summary:
Woolf, Largan, Ract and the other mobile suits are in charge of protecting the Diva while it is docked at Ambat. Grodek leads Millais, Adams and a few others into Ambat in their spacesuits. Flit also ventures into Ambat in the Gundam and is tasked with destroying the central reactor. Flit flies through the tunnels and runs into Geera Zoi in his giant Defurse mobile armor. Flit loses his beam rifle in the skirmish but Flit damages the Defurse in a sword fight and this prompts Geera to retreat. Having heard that Geera is one of the central culprits, Flit follows him down the tunnels but this is what Geera wants. Geera leads Flit into an ambush in the reactor chamber consisting of several UE mobile suits, but Flit channels the power of rage X-rounder and quickly cuts down the ambush party. Flit destroys the Defurse's sword arms, but Geera opens fire with the scatter beam and takes out the Gundam's left arm. Woolf arrives to back up Flit, and Flit destroys the Defurse with a slash to the chest. Geera escapes before his mobile armor is destroyed and escaped down a personnel tunnel and Flit gets out of the Gundam in pursuit. Woolf tries to follow but has trouble getting his boosters attached.

Hey you, no name. Go out into the open and get shot so we know where the defenses are.

OMG, the UE are made up of people with crazy hair!

Meanwhile, Grodek's task force battle their way through the tunnels. They make it into the control room by disabling an automated defense system. A number of UE personnel are operating computers in the control room and none of them reacts to Grodek's gun-toting task force. Geera returns to the control room followed shortly by Flit who is sporting a pistol. Geera takes off his helmet and the Diva crew are surprised that the UE are actually human. Flit wants Geera dead for the deaths of his mother and Yurin, and Grodek wants revenge for his family. Grodek knows that Geera is Yark Dole and he was responsible for letting the UE into Grodek's home colony. Grodek then demands to know the UE's motivations, and Geera reveals that the "UE" are actually survivors from a failed attempt to colonize Mars. Many colonists died from sickness after getting to Mars, and the Federation covered up the event and told that there were no survivors. The survivors formed a new country called Veigan and Geera is here to carry out the will of their leader. Flit refuses to accept that the UE are human, and Geera dares Flit to shoot him, but Grodek is the one who shoots Geera. The wounded Geera goes to a computer terminal to activate the fortress' self destruct sequence before dying from his wounds. Geera's son Arabei returns and draws his pistol, but Grodek swats the gun away. Grodek tells Arabei that he is the one who killed Geera before leaving with Flit and the rest of his team. While all this was happening, Woolf is in the hallways and finds a dying Veigan man, and the man hands Woolf a necklace before dying. Woolf tries to venture further but his path forward is cut off by explosions, and so he returns to his mobile suit. Grodek and his team returns to the Diva and orders the ship to launch, and Flit and Woolf fly out of Ambat as the fortress is engulfed by explosions.

I activated the self-destruct. My job is done.

Classic flying away from explosion at the end of battle.

After the battle is over and the Diva has made it to safety, Grodek thanks his crew and retreats his office to reminisce about his family. Meanwhile, Emily spots Flit in the hangar sulking by the Gundam. Flit is still depressed over the fact that he couldn't save Yurin and he promises he'll defeat the UE and become the savior. After the Diva returned to Federation space, Grodek gives himself up and takes full responsibility for taking the Diva. Grodek is thrown into prison, and the Federation takes full credit for the successful operation at Ambat. Back at the Veigan's home colony at Mars, the high command is concerned about the setback at ambat but their plans will carry on.

Seems like every Veigan commander must have an unconventional hairstyle.

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That's the end of first part of Gundam AGE with Flit as the protagonist. Flit and his buddies win the battle and learn a bit about the "Unknown Enemy" that they've been fighting for 15 episodes. It turns out the UE are a bunch of disgruntled colonists who are in part pissed off because the Federation left them for dead. We still don't know all of the reasons why the martians are attacking, but it's not surprising given there is still two-thirds of the series left to go. The UE, or Veigan as they call themselves are following the plan of some mysterious leader, and that's all we know for now. Given that, it's hard to guess how Flit's son's story will play out. Hopefully his story line be distinctive enough to be remembered. In other words, it better not be a repeat of how Flit's story went down.

Since this episode wasn't series-ending final battle, it wasn't super impressive. Geera and his Defurse mobile armor didn't really do anything special, and thus Flit didn't need to turn in an exceptional performance to win the battle. I guess the X-rounder stuff will become more and more out of the world as the series progresses, and the same goes for the mobile suits. In the aftermath of the campaign, Grodek is locked away and all the credit gets taken by the Federation. It'll be interesting to see how many characters from the current cast will return after the time skip. Flit will be back as a grown-up, and Decil and Arabei will probably be back as well given that they were both kids in this arc of the series. Let's see how many of Diva crew will make an appearance again.

One Piece 653

The Straw Hats bid farewell to Fishman Island.

Where is your spirit for adventure and danger, people?

Summary:
The Straw Hats get ready to leave Fishman Island and continue onto the New World. Before leaving, the Minister of the Left gives Nami a new log pose that has three separate compasses that can lock onto three different islands and tell which path is safer, but Luffy learns of this and wants to go on the most dangerous route. The crew then board the Sunny are bid farewell to Jinbe, King Neptune, the princes and all the other people at Fishman Island. As the Sunny is on its way to the exit, a tearful Shirahoshi appears and wants Luffy to guide her to the surface the next time they meet, and all of the Straw Hats make a pinky promise with Shirahoshi. The Straw Hats then exit Fishman Island and make their way towards the surface for their next adventure.

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This chapter wraps up the Straw Hats' adventure at Fishman Island... for now. Given that Shirahoshi is supposedly one of the ancient weapons, there's a decent chance that the Straw Hats may end up back at Fishman Island in the future. It's funny how King Neptune and his minister never bothered to tell Luffy and friends about the rigged bomb in the treasure Luffy gave to Big Mom, but I suppose the only thing the bomb will do is to make Big Mom more pissed at Luffy and thus King Neptune shouldn't be too concerned. The Straw Hats will have a showdown with Big Mom for sure, but as indicated in the previous chapter the immediate threat is probably Smoker and the G5 Marines. I'm looking forward to seeing where the next story arc will lead.

Naruto 570

Naruto and Kurama agree to join forces against Tobi.

Stop being such a tsundere, Kurama.

Summary:
Naruto pulls the stake from Son Goku by pulling from the outside and hammering from the inside with a shadow clone, and he then destroys the stake with two Rasengans. However to Naruto's disappointment, pulling out the stake only stops stops Tobi from linking Son Goku with the jinchuriki puppet and Son is still bound to Tobi's Demonic Statue. Son Goku can see Naruto is really sincere about trying to free him and give Naruto something before he is sucked back into the Demonic Statue. The effort used to stop Son Goku has drained Naruto of most of his strength, and Tobi increases the pressure by getting his five remaining puppets to transform into full beast mode. Seeing that the odds are against them, Kurama suggests to Naruto that they should merge their chakra. Naruto agrees and lets Kurama out of the seal, and now Naruto/Kurama and Bee/Hachibi are ready to take on Tobi and his beast puppets.

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Two expected developments in this week's edition of Naruto. The first was that removing the stake only defeats the puppet and doesn't free Son Goku from Tobi's grasp, and this isn't surprising since Tobi cannot to lose any of the beasts if he has any chance of carrying out his master plan. The second is that Kurama and Naruto finally agree to cooperate and fight together as a team. This of course has been a long time coming. It took Naruto a long time to convince Kurama, and it also took Kurama some time to finally stop being tsundere and get to the point, but the day when Naruto can finally access to full power of the nine-tails may be at hand. Let's see if Naruto can do the full beast transformation and used the Tailed Beast Bomb now that Kurama has decided to help out.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon - Final Thoughts

The Fall 2011 anime season has ended two or three weeks ago, and these days I usually do a round-up final thoughts post for all of the shows that I watched but didn't blog weekly. However, the only show in my line-up that ended last season was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, so hence Horizon will get the final thoughts post all to itself. Horizon was a decent show that had some good elements, but after a season of the show I'm still not sure what the entire story is about.

In the world of Horizon, humans moved into space but then returned to Earth for some reason and found that only Japan is inhabitable. The people from space (the Testament Union) conquered Japan and divided up the land, and original inhabitants of Japan are forced to wander the land on a flying city ship Musashi. The Testament Union is trying to return to space by reacting history according to some holy book, but things don't go quite according to plan and now the people on Musashi has a chance to fight back and take back their land.

That's Wikipedia version of the back story. From what I can make out from this season of the show, the ruler of Mikawa region destroyed the land to "make things interesting", and this leads the Tres Espana and KPA Italia factions to seize the P-01s automaton from Musashi because the automaton contains one of the Deadly Sin weapons and the soul of our leading man Tori Aoi's dead childhood friend Horizon Ariadust. The rest of the season is then about Tori rallying his classmates from the Musashi Academy and other supporters and mounting a rescue effort for Horizon.

The large picture of what happened in the season wasn't too hard to understand, I still don't really get the background story and details such as how the political system works in the show. There is just a lot of information that the audience needs to absorb to completely understand story, and obviously I didn't pick up everything partly because I'm watching subtitles. It certainly didn't help that there are a number of factions which results in a large number of characters. Even Tori's class by itself is around 20 named characters, and a few of them seem to have potentially good back stories, but with only one season worth of episodes and so many other characters vying for attention it's hard to set the supporting characters apart other than through appearance. I recognize the character designs, but I don't remember the names except those of the very important characters. We only saw 3-4 factions in this season of Horizon, but it certainly looks like we'll get more factions as the show continues in its next season and this will make the characters even harder to keep track of.

Although I didn't really understand all of the story and had trouble remembering who is who, Horizon was still fun show to watch mostly because it had good production quality (courtesy of Sunrise), decent action, and a good dose of slapstick comedy. Tori plays the class jester and helps to lighten the mood with his stupidly happy smile and perverted antics. Tori isn't the most courageous, cunning or skilled leader, but he has his own way of getting the job done through unconventional means and that was also amusing to watch. Another fun thing about the show is the character design. Even within Tori's class there is a wide variety, ranging from witches and girls with impossibly large hair to half-dragons, a naked incubus and a blob. The cast looks like they came out of some wacky fighting video game. All of the combat involving calling up prompts to power up was pretty interesting, and it's good to see different character source their powers from different means. The fights can be quite impressive at times, and in general they are decent.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon despite the fact that I didn't really understand the story. I'll probably watch the next season of the show which will come out in the 2012 summer season. The first season was the introductory story arc, so perhaps I can get a better appreciation of how the world of Horizon works as the show continues.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 14

Flit and allies continue to attack the UE hideout at Ambat.

Time for ace pilot vs ace pilot.

Let's make this a handicap match.

Funnels are no trouble if you can dance like a maniac.

Summary:
After destroying the UE carrier ship, the Diva and allies continue towards Ambat. The plan is break a hole in the UE defenses so the Diva can dock and launch an assault team into the base. Mukred returns to his space station factory and plans on providing repair support for Grodek and allies. Flit and the other mobile suit pilots continue to battle the UE in space, but Flit is then drawn away from the main battle by Decil's telepathic messages. Decil appears in his Zedas and starts battling Flit and the Gundam. The battle is fairly even at the start, but then Decil summons his "special weapon": a pink UE mobile suit with remote gun barrels with Yurin strapped inside. Flit is reluctant to attack because Yurin is inside the suit. Decil only needs Yurin's presence and he can use the X-rounder resonance to control Yurin's mobile suit, and Decil uses this to his full advantage to deal damage to the Gundam. Flit is in deep trouble and Decil flies to finish him off, but Yurin momentarily takes control of her mobile suits and takes the hit for Flit.

Can't say we didn't see this coming.

Goodbye, Yurin. We hardly knew thee.

Yurin is killed in the resulting explosion and Flit is devastated. The feeling soon turns to anger and Flit takes it out on Decil by cutting off the Zeda's limbs and disabling its controls, but Flit doesn't kill Decil outright and lets the Zedas drift off into space. After defeating Decil, Flit returns to the main battle and re-equips with the Titus pack. Flit then takes the Gundam Titus and uses its full power to force open a docking bay door on Ambat, and in the process the Titus pack suffers heavy damage. The Divas flies into the bay and docks, and Grodek leads an assault team into the fortress. Flit returns to Diva to re-equip with the Normal pack, but he is unresponsive to Vargas' calls. After launching again, Flit vows to make the UE pay for what they've done.

That's the least that you deserve.

I'm pretty sure being left to drift in space is losing a fight, Decil.

Flit still needs something to fight next episode, so lets bring this out.

Somewhere in Ambat, Geera Zoi gets into a ancient but powerful mobile armor to get ready for battle.

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Operation "Kill Off Yurin" went off without a hitch. Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the Gundam franchise could see this coming. It's something of a tradition in Gundam to kill off a love interest in battle, and even the supposedly "kid-friendly" Gundam AGE isn't exempt. Everything went off the way you'd expect: Decil brings out Yurin as his secret weapon; Flit gets beaten down, but Yurin sacrifices herself at the last moment to save Flit, and then Flit uses the power of rage to beat Decil down. It's kind of sad that Yurin's main purpose in the series is to die in front of Flit, but that's just how Gundam likes it. We finally saw the use of remote gun barrels/funnels in the series, and chances are we'll get more funnel spam in what remains of the series. I guess Decil's whining at the end of the fight was what prompted Flit to spare his life. Decil is probably done in this part of the series, but chances are he'll be back when Flit's son takes the helm.

Now that Yurin and Decil are out of the way, the battle will likely end next week when Grodek leads the ground assault team into the fortress and Flit takes on the big mobile armor. I'm confused as to is Yark Dole the same person as Geera Zoi (the guy who got into the mobile armor in the end)? I assume the guy with the mask was Yark, but then the guy who got into the mobile armor didn't have the mask. Regardless, Flit will defeat him anyways. The main question remaining is the UE's motivation in attacking Federation colonies, but we probably won't get the complete answer given that this is only the first of three arcs in the series.