And with that, we have reached one month of Anime Check-In(s)! BANZAI!!! Here’s to the next one month and onwards! Time sure flies though.

I remember about a month back, before this whole Check-In started. Me and Guuzen actually had this idea for a podcast version of this check in. Somehow the idea fell through and it got converted to this written Check-In instead. It was then that we decided that we’d do this Check-In pretty informally, with some posts being essay length reviews, with others having just screen captures and others just have one liners.

Week 1 was pretty rushed for us, not knowing how to make the layout of this and all. Week 2 was busy for me. Week 3 Guuzen was busy but I had wayyy too much idle time, which led to an unbelievably long post. But, it was then that I decided that a post of that proportion is unsustainable. I wouldn’t be able to commit myself to that many series and to write that many reviews/impressions in 1 week. It is pretty exhausting, having to watch some shows twice.

Anyway, what this means, is that 1) We’ll only be covering the following series, (after the break), on a regular basis. 2) The following series, will be reviewed by either a long-post, short-post or picture-post style. 3) Any other series, will be covered on a block basis. That means to say, we’ll be reviewing the other series, if any, by each story arc or by a certain number of episodes, just not weekly. With that, enjoy this week’s check-in.

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This week, we are covering:

A-Channel (Episode 4)
Ao no Exorcist (Episode 2)
Astarotte no Omocha (Episode 3)
Bleach (Episode 319)
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (Episode 3)
Deadman Wonderland (Episode 2)
Fairy Tail (Episode 77)
Hidan no Aria (Episode 3)
The World God Only Knows S2 (Episode 3)
Nichijou (Episode 4)
SKET Dance (Episode 4)
Tiger & Bunny (Episode 4)
X-Men (Episodes 4)

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A-Channel (Episode 4)

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I’ve realized how hard it is to write out the events of what happened in each episode of A-Channel. Why? Because there are so many mini-events that even I have a hard time catching them all. I laugh at each gag and before I know it, we’re on to another gag. As such, this will be the first of a few series that I’ll stick to a pure image captures format.

Tooru: “OBJECTION!”

Run: “REJECTED!!!!”

Yuuko: “Eto……”

Yuuko: “IM NOT A GHOST. DON’T IGNORE ME” (in Kansai-ben)

Tooru: “Hmmmm….”

Tooru: “SORYAAAA!!”

Rub A Tooru for Good Luck #1

Rub A Tooru for Good Luck #2

NICE BODY!!!

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Ao no Exorcist (Episode 2)

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Yet another stellar showing from one of this season’s gems. This week’s Ao no Exorcist continues directly from last week with Rin and his father running from the minions of Satan.

It was a helluva crazy ride, what with ghouls/zombie dogs, Holy Water bombs and enchantment barriers. A truly exhilarating ride Episode 2 of this series was. If all action is not your thing, there is serious story progression in this episode as well. If you’ve been paying attention to the promotional posters of this show, you might have noticed that a large number of the main cast are well, still missing from the main show. Which is true. The end of episode 2 marks the end of this ‘arc’, and transfers the whole show to a ‘whole new world’.

Anyway, back to the main story of this week first. Astaroth, the demon from last week makes yet another appearance again in this episode, chasing down Rin and hoping to bring Rin back to hell. A crazy battle ensures between the demons of Gehenna and the exorcists of Assiah(our world) and when it looks like the exorcists had finally won, the true final boss, Satan, shows up. Let’s just say that the end result isn’t pretty, but it does move the story along to it’s true storyline. So yes, the last 2 episodes have been some sort of prologue, but it was a kickass prologue.

On a side note, this episode also introduced the katana that Rin has been wielding in all the promos. It’s name is the Kurikara and within the blade lies Rin’s power. Needless to say, for the story to progress, Rin accessed his true powers during the course of the episode and became a true demon, but at the same time, saving Assiah.

Oh, there was also a new character introduced at the end this week. Mephisto Pheles, a representative of the Japan branch of the True Cross Knight Order. From the next episode preview, it looks like that Knight Order is somewhat an exorcist school for teens so yeah. The show’s about to get a lot more interesting from here on out.

To end off, here are some screencaps of the battle in the Church.

Holy barrier at work

Holy Water! By the Gallon!

This so reminds me of FMA.

I CHOOSE YOU!

SCARECROWMON!!! VS MUSHROOMON!

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Astarotte no Omocha (Episode 3)

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A pretty WTF episode with shocking revelations and unbelievable plot holes. That being said, there was no ecchi content this week which is a win. Another win, character development for Lotte and Asuha. This show doesn’t seem all that bad anymore if you can ignore the plot holes and revelations. Anyway, here are some screencaps.

Her face upon seeing the arrival of the over enthusiastic Asuha

Part 1 of flashback to why Asuha was at the castle. I know, my reaction was the same as well.

Part 2 of the flashback. And yes, this was my initial thought as well. Naoya looks as young as Hayate (Hayate no Gotoku reference)

Naoya’s Current Age – Asuha’s Current Age = Shameless Naoya?! No seriously. He was 13 when she was born?! Am I the only one who sees a problem with that? Morality issues man.

Some beautiful father-daughter time

Hmm. I guess supporting your child is still father-daughter points I guess

He looks….. subdued.

Omigod?! NO PAN?!

Asuha: “NO PANTSU DESU!!!”

Spot the outlier in the image. Hint: It’s Pink

Asuha: “Tsukamaiaeta!”

She looks pretty subdued too, just like Naoya

One last one for the random win. This…. is a human.

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Bleach (Episode 319)

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3rd Week into this arc, which is named the Gotei 13 Invading Army arc (or just Clone Wars to me), the action gets pumped up way high. For those who complained in the last 2 years that Bleach was nothing but long speeches and unbelievably long staring matches but still stuck along to watch it, you should watch this. I kid you not.

The action sequences, in this episode especially were top tier. From the fight that Ishida has with the new villain Inaba, to the heart pumping action of Rukia/Ichigo/Yourichi v.s. the Clone Army, it was way cool.

It’s also pretty good that the action scenes and this overall arc so far has animation quality on par to some of the series’ best. Which begs to wonder why more is spent on animating a filler than say, properly animating a canon-manga arc. But that’s not the main issue at hand.

Anyway, the long story short in this episode, is that the new villain of the series Inaba, has somehow managed to make a clone army of the Gotei 13 captains and vice captains by trapping them in the Dangai(Precipice World) and replacing them with Reigai(Clones). Pretty impressive feat. That’s not all.

His Zanpaktou, Raiku, seems to wield some kind of time-space displacement power that totally owned Ishida’s Hirenkyaku(Quincy Shunpou). That ain’t even the cherry on the top of the cake yet.

Because the Reigai possess the same/slightly higher power levels than the originals, it is assumed by Rukia that in order for Inaba to control them, Inaba first must possess Reiatsu(spiritiual power), at a level far greater than all of them in order to keep them under control. Geez, another Aizen that early?

To wrap up, this week’s episode is pretty awesome. The arc is pretty awesome. Go catch it now. Ending off this part with some awesome screens.

This is the clone army by the way.

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C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (Episode 3)

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This week’s C was very informative with a new character, Satou, taking center stage. An agent of the IMF, she was tasked with reporting on every detail within the Financial District after suddenly getting an invitation to it 2 months back. Having had 11 deals prior to the main storyline, she still considers herself a rookie Entre.

There were many theories and facts passed around during this episode. For instance, it was suggested by Satou that through some stories passed down, the Financial District may have been around even during the Middle Ages. Also, much like Mikuni, she seems to believe that Yoga will have a serious impact on the Financial District.

As for the facts, she has been trying to find out as much about Mikuni as possible, except that she’s been getting nowhere other than that Mikuni has a lot of influence and has a posting just about anywhere.

Details of the battle system in the Financial District were also revealed. Assets can’t move without the commands of their Entre. Assets attack using flations in three forms; Macroflations, Mezzoflations and Microflations. The attacks have an attack cost of 10mil, 1mil, 100k each. The idea is, the higher the cost, the stronger the attack. But you need the money to perform those attacks.

And that’s the theories and facts part of the episode. There is also character development this week for Yoga. He learns that his father was also involved in the Financial District and in the end went bankrupt and hung himself without informing anyone. Pretty serious stuff.

The episode starts off with Yoga’s 2nd deal and too, ends off with Yoga’s 2nd deal but we never actually get to see it cause lots of this week’s episode was made up of flashbacks and character development events. Next week would be a good time for action.

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Deadman Wonderland (Episode 2)

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Following up exactly after last’s week ending where Ganta used his new found strength to prevent that giant boulder from smashing him and Shiro, this week’s episode introduces him to more of how the prison works as well as new people.

The new person would be someone who was introduced briefly in last week’s episode but never did get a proper name and all.

Takami You. Good guy? Nah. It’s apparent that he is working for the bad guys that run the prison. Think of him as the snitch. Speaking of the guys who run the prison. Last week I introduced the warden, now here’s the guy that seems to be the one pulling all the strings.

Tsunegana Tamaki. He is the one who represented Ganta in court and as such, was the person who framed Ganta into looking guilty. Not much is known about him at the moment, but I predict things will be revealed in due course.

As I mentioned, much about how the prison is run was revealed in this episode. For one, the inhibitor collars on each convict’s neck slowly feeds poison into the convicts’ bodies. The only way to remedy that? By ingesting a special antidote candy every 3 days. Here’s the catch. Each candy piece costs 100,000 CP. The only way to earn the CP? By participating in activities at Deadman Wonderland of course.

One such activity, as highlighted in this episode, is the Dog Race. Which top prize is 100,000 CP. It isn’t an easy race though. Think Ninja Warrior except totally deadly. Despite looking totally useless, Ganta makes it through to the end of the race with Shiro’s help.

The race was a good point to showcase the brutality of the prison and the overall show. So far, the show has done well showing that there are a large number of jerks in the prison. Looks like things are going to be more interesting in the weeks to come.

For now, enjoy the OP that started this week:

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Fairy Tail (Episode 77)

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This week’s highlights:

* Gajeel complains that he is the only dragonslayer without a cat
* Elfman and Mira visit the church as it’s near Lisanna’s death anniversary

* More details of Lisanna are revealed
* Mystogan returns with a shocking surprise
* The concept of Edolas and Earthland are explained briefly
* Anima is explained briefly
* The entire guild, save for Happy, Wendy, Charles and Natsu get transported into a gaping hole in the sky

This week’s episode left a lot of questions unanswered, such as why is there Anima, why is Mystogan’s secret as such and why the cats were left behind. Of course, that is unanswered if you have not read the manga. But I will say this much, next episode will be a shocker. Truly. Anyway, enjoy some screencaps.

Gajeel pissed that he has no Neko-nakama

Happy with a fish for Charla

Then again, Stuck Up Kitty says NO!

Cue Mystogan

Wendy, shocked at his Big Reveal.

Meanwhile, back at the guild, this happens.

Fire V.s Ice

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

Guild is fading away!!!!

The aftermath. No more guild. A shocked Wendy.

The survivors of the Anima attack

Not forgetting the stuck up Neko

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Hidan no Aria (Episode 3)

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Kinji and Aria go on their first mission, saving a bus full of Butei’s from the Butei Killer, who placed a bomb under the bus which explodes if the bus slows down.

Wow, Speed much? That plot has been reused so many times I’m not even sure if this was intentional. That was part 2 of this week’s episode by the way. Part 1 is way more light hearted so I’ll talk about it only at the end.

The whole mission was so that Aria could see Kinji’s true abilities, aka. his Pro mode. In that made he attains S-Rank Butei abilities above Aria but at the same time, his personality changes into a true douchebag, which is probably why he’s constantly reluctant to change to that form. What’s more, as was seen in Episode 1, he needs to be… ‘aroused’ in order to activate that mode. Long story short, Kinji did not enter that personality and ended up letting the day get saved by a new character, Reki, The Super Sniper.

It was pretty meh the entire episode. There’s nothing new we haven’t seen before in another series so yeah, this loses points for originality. The only saving grace? Part 1′s light hearted moments at the arcade, as would be told via screencaps.

The day starts off at a game center

Funny. The arcades around my place don’t look so bright and populated with that many females.

o.o What has gotten Aria salivating for.

Nekopyon?!

Oh yes it is!

About to fail

The starting stack

The ending stack. You know, when I play these games, this always happens as well.

Wtf? 2 In 1? Spot the 2 In 1 catch!

Here’s your prize if you found it.

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The World God Only Knows S2 (Episode 3)

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The Haqua arc begins this week and I must say, things are looking interesting.

Haqua was classmates with Elsie back at their academy for loose souls and apparently, she was top of her class, unlike Elsie. And in the current timeline, she is the section chief while Elsie is merely a member of a section. Pretty impressive aye. Well, Elsie was impressed. :D

That aside, this episode has to deal with the introduction of Haqua and Haqua’s mess. As it turns out, Haqua made a mess of her first loose soul capture and it escaped to the school where Keima and Elsie are at. Not wanting to lose face and admit her mistake to Elsie, she sends Elsie away from her and enlists a reluctant Keima’s help to help find the loose soul.

It is then, an interesting revelation is revealed. While Haqua was laughing about Elsie having 5 loose soul captures, Haqua lied about having captured 10 loose souls when in actuality, she has captured none. Brilliant.

The result of that stubborness to work together with Elsie and her pride? The loose soul grew real big and at the end of the episode, formed some type of cocooned mess.

Well, that’s what this episode was about. The first non-human girl arc. Pretty impressive stuff, but I did wish they’d move on to my fave character already, who has a spot later this season.

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Nichijou (Episode 4)

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For some reason, this week’s Nichijou seemed to move at a really slow pace. As usual, there were moments where I went LOL and laughed uncontrollably, but most other times I couldn’t help but yawn.

Anyway, I figured that for a series like Nichijou, it’d be best if I just highlight the key points through screencaps.

o.O Is that steak and wine in school?!

o.O. Big guns

Hmm. What has gotten Yuuko so shocked about?!

:-o Who is that?!!

Mai-chan desu~

Are?!?!?! INAI?!?!?! MAI-CHAN WA DOKO DA?!?!?!

::shock:: (what’s going on?!)

O_O!!

Double :-o

Sakamoto-san, tsukamaiaeta!

To end off as usual, here’s this week’s Jan-Ken-Pon clip:

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SKET Dance (Episode 4)

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As usual, there were 2 chapters worth of content packed into 1 episode. Not surprising because the pace of each chapter is actually quite fast. And thankfully they didn’t stretch each episode or it would have been a snoozefest.

Anyways, this week’s 2 chapters are the Saotomoe Roman chapter and the Chiaki ‘CAPTAIN’ Takahashi chapter.

In Captain’s chapter, she requires the SKET Dan’s help in locating a prize-winning Pelolilpop Candy wrapper that would be able to redeem a Pelolin plushie. Apparently the plush reminds Captain’s younger brother of their dead mother. So Captain bought a whole bunch of Pelolipop candys in order to try and win the plush. Touching story right? These guys below seem to think so too!

Hahaha. One Piece style crying. Anyways, this chapter also recycles Jougasaki, an antagonist from Episode 1. In this chapter too, he once again becomes an antagonist when he realizes that the plush can go for up to 100,000yen on online auctions. So yeah, the SKET dan put him in his place, only to realize much later that…..the wrapper Jougasaki found was not the one Captain one was looking for, and that Captain had already found hers. >.< So yes, Himeko kept the wrapper, as seen below.

Now, the Roman chapter I felt, was way more eventful. It all started out one day in the rain where Roman saw a bishounen picking up a stray dog on the roadside and as such, enlists the SKET Dan’s help in locating him. However, she has this Otome Filter that distorts reality for her. Pretty trippy stuff.

Not to mention, her drawing skills suck too. As can be seen by her impression of the ‘Hilltop Prince’ she met that day in the rain.

Anyway, the chapter ends when the group heads back to the same street to try and find more information, only to find out that Bossun is the Hilltop Prince. LOL! Yeah. Like I said, the Otome Filter is trippy.

That aside, it was a pretty eventful chapter, enjoy the rest of the screencaps.

Yes. This is still SKET Dance

Example one of Otome Filter at work. Guess who the bishounen is?

Eien ni Jyu-nana sai desu!

Roman sketched her Ouji-sama down

Switch guessing what the drawing would look like. :-o

Time for the big reveal

TADA!!

The crowd’s overwhelming response!!

Back on the street where the Hilltop Prince was spotted. Oh wait. What’s that in the background!!!

Bosssun!!! SAVES THE DAY AND THE GIRL

Reassuring Roman, after the traumatic experience.

But this is what Roman sees through Otome Filter

Roman’s impression of a Cat!!!

Himeko Style!!!

Switch Style! Not bad if I must say

And the winner of the cat drawing contest. BOSSUN!

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Tiger & Bunny (Episode 4)

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This week’s episode was focused on Blue Rose/Karina.

The focus shed some light on characters other than the titular Tiger and Bunny characters which is good, because aside from Tiger, Blue Rose is my 2nd favourite character of the series. Not to mention that she’s voiced by the voice-sexy Kotobuki Minako. Mm.

Karina, in her civilian life, is still a student, who apparently has a teacher that knows her secret identity. Her friends however, are not privy to that information. What?! That’s like Spider-Man telling J.J.J his secret identity but not telling say Flash Thompson. That just ain’t right.

The episode also showed how Karina joined her company’s hero program in order to use it to catapult her debut as a singer, her real passion. This was highlighted briefly last week when she performed in the bar with a piano. The juicy bit of the episode is when Tiger explains to Karina what a hero is all about, that it isn’t just about the glamour, but about saving lives.

Also in this episode, Karina had to make a choice. Her civilian job or her Hero obligations. While initially choosing her civilian job at the bar, in the end, she came to the rescue of Tiger, Bunny and Rock Bison when they were about to be crushed by a clunkering heap of metal.

The episode is one of the better ones, showcasing a ‘With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility’ theme in the backdrop. Excellent stuff. Anyways, enjoy more Blue Rose fan shots.

Oh and one really random shot.

Pew Pew

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X-Men (Episode 4)

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Remember last week, when we were left with a cliffhanger on the fates of Hisako and Emma? Well, X-Men savants would have seen this coming long ago, but for those new to the franchise.

Tada! Presenting Emma’s secondary mutation:

DIAMOND EMMA! No, that ain’t the official name. :( But it is her diamond form. Invulnerability the form provides but at the cost of her telekinetic powers. And yes, she is able to change back and forth her 2 forms whenever she likes.

Emma’s diamond form saves Hisako from a remnant U-Man, which gives the rest of the X-Men time to scramble him up before he could kill the other young mutants.

After the incident, the whole team heads back to Weschester (where the X-Mansion is located) to find out more about Emma’s secondary mutation and to vaccinate Hisako from manifesting it. However, back in New York, it is discovered that the Cerebro block on to Tohoku region has not been lifted yet. This probably means the X-Men will be going back to Japan pretty soon.

Ah well, that’s about it I guess. There was that mini-fight scene en route to the X-Mansion against a berserk secondary mutated mutant but the fight was so messy I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it.

Anyway, I noticed something interesting while watching the ED this week. There are images of Juggernaut, Stryfe, Mystique and Magneto in the ending. That many enemies and with only 9 episodes to go? Get out of here. It ain’t happening. Just wondering why they’re there though. Oh wells, till next week.

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And with this, this week’s check-in has ended. We now have 13 series covered on a weekly basis which is a nice number. Not too many series and not too few. I think Guuzen has some in mind as well, but he’s currently tied up with other things. So for now, this is THE weekly lineup. If you’d like to add another series to the lineup, post in the comments, and we’ll see if it’s workable. (aka. if anyone’s watching, and if anyone feels there’s something to write.)

Till next week!