lathspel

Thanks, Sandman87, that makes sense. I figure there are some gaps in my knowledge from missing the end of Naruto. And when I try to research stuff on the web, I tend to get spoilered, so I've avoided researching it too closely.

I suspect Lady Tsunade got played here. Why does she think a Black Ops guy will help her keep tabs on another Black Ops kid? So are the Leaf Advisors similar in role to Lady Chiyo and her brother at the Sand? Want to bet that if Lady Tsunade came up with a different code name for Yamato, he might've revealed a different face? His current one looks so purposefully nondescript.

I expect it will turn out to be handy that Granny is alive and on good terms with the Marines. I like that everyone takes her at her word that it's a cat.

I forgot to mention the incongruity that Yoko is the only woman from Littner who dresses in a bikini top, short shorts, scarf, and hose. It's either a loner thing, a sniper thing, or just because. Also, I like that she's just so nice. Maybe it's Black Lagoon talking, but somehow I expect attractive women in anime to have some negative qualities also. So far, she doesn't.

That episode was pretty hot-blooded. Hopefully they have some spare parts for Gurren, it's missing some limbs now.

I liked catching up on Natuto's former classmates. Too bad everyone grew up except Hinata. Didn't we meet older Ino at the beginning of Shippuden S1? Or am I imagining it? Not sure I'm going to like Sai, but I am intrigued by the art-based attack.

The Chief Justice is like Goldilocks. I bet he returns a lot of split decisions. Looking forward to seeing the Straw Hats start their own fights. I'm slightly surprised we didn't pull the joke where Zoro gets lost on the way to the gate, but I guess Grandma was driving and we trust her sense of direction. Not that there was much she could do to steer anyway. I am slightly disappointed that after all the buildup about how unstoppable Rocketman was, it only took a medium sized giant and an iron fence to stop him. I figured it would take at least a couple CP9 guys to do it.

I'm really liking this show so far. It definitely has that zany Gainax vibe and over the top characters. I'm looking forward to what happens next. It's hard not to see it as a coming of age show like FLCL, with the young teen protagonist, lots of drills, and of course Yoko. Favorite moment (for it's sheer unexpectedness): Kamina's quick change of mind after finding out that Yoko wasn't a surface girl after all: "Move it, thunder thighs!" I don't think she quite gave as good as she got in the first episode, but hopefully it improves.

I find the Titan science fascinating, so I wish I'd been there instead of Eren. We still don't know what Hange wants Eren for, but my thought is that she wants to experiment on a "friendly" Titan. Although he may not stay that way if she tries the same experiments.... It's hard to see the killing of the research titans as anything but a warning to Eren.

Partly Spandam is having a good day because he's underrated his guard casualties by two orders of magnitude, though. I liked how the one guy gave a rundown of the CP9 depth chart. I'm predicting he'll bounce off of the Straw Hats in a while too, for comparison, but maybe will underrate the ones who aren't physical fighters (the big three).

I am missing the first intro already, but maybe the second one will grow on me.

I didn't realize any random guy could start yelling during a court martial. The premier was pretty easy going about all the interruptions. The section chief who does the sniffing is the premier's son, isn't he? I think I caught the same last name.

It was a nice touch having the food-obsessed Sasha involved in cleaning up the Titan hairball. I'm glad the authorities also had the idea that the Colossal and Armored Titans might be humans too. Now the only question is - are they humans that are aware of what they're doing? The Colossal, at least, seems to show up in a somewhat predictable pattern.

Is it possible the portrayal of Jake was intended to be from KKW's perspective? It didn't totally look that way, but maybe? I liked that KKW apparently married a bear, and already has a bear/dog/rainicorn hybrid daughter. This is based on the photo on his end table at the end.

I think if I already knew this crew, Foxy wouldn't have bothered me. But because it was my first arc, and because the stakes didn't seem that high, it just felt weak and oddly paced to me.

[as] started the series with the Foxy Pirates, and it was hard to sit through as a new viewer who didn't really care about this crew. In contrast, Water 7 really made me care about these people, and as a result I am looking forward to Enie's Lobby a lot more. This looks like it's going to be awesome! So does Franky have the blueprints on him or in him? Because I can't imagine CP9 is planning to run back out to Water 7.

There are so many soldiers shown in the crowd that I wasn't sure it was Sasha. I suppose it probably was though. Pixis (in my head he's General Peixes) really gave a good speech, didn't he? It was practically Henry V or Churchill. Eren had a green glint in his eyes - that can't be good. Maybe that's what the problem is. So how long before people start asking if any other humans can turn into Titans? I wouldn't give it much longer after the battle of Trost is over.

Yeah, that was a little easier than I thought it would be. The good news is - Kekashi and Naruto pick it up next week, I hope.

This episode was a little talky for me, and I had to laugh at Armin shouting a long speech about maximizing military strategic value. Looking forward to next week though, seems like Eren is going to turn it around.

Shoot, that's the second time I've messed up the number. I thought "27" but managed to type "26". I like the reverse Pinocchio theory. There are also parallels to other fictional characters who see themselves as more complete as they strip away their humanity. Sadly, they are almost always portrayed as villains, maybe because of their reasons for doing so.

I'm not sure where this episode was really going, it did seem a bit zany to me. I suspect Madja's ability to derive power from caring will interact with Finn eventually. We never really found out her true agenda, did we?

Sasori uses a sword to torture Sakura, but she shows her true grit by healing herself with a sword still inside. Meanwhile, Lady Chiyo figures out that Sasori is just a meat plug that can jump between puppets, and uses this to trap him (not exactly sure what the runes on the floor did?) plus ambush him with Mother and Father. After a few flashbacks we learn that Sasori saw her trick coming but still walked into it. My theory is that he just wanted one more hug from Mom and Pop. It still didn't explain to me exactly why he became such a bad egg, but I suspect that's all we're going to get. All in all, I liked the arc and was almost hoping we'd get Sasori as a recurring villain. Meanwhile, Kekashi decides to quit messing with Naruto and unleash his master plan. Apparently he has an even better Sharingan?

I'm pretty amazes that Sasori could attack with 100 puppets, move his flesh tube to a different puppet, and continue to manipulate his original body all at once. That was amazing! I'm worried that we've seen the absolute best puppet master, and now the show won't include much more of it. I find it pretty interesting, but I can see that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Good episode. What was the deal with the Engineering Corps building a wall out of Titans? So has Eren always had the key? Obviously he didn't remember his Dad's words until now.

I don't think it was quite as good as those, but any Fionna and Cake is good. I liked that LSP kept making Ice King change the voices. LSP's "handsome face" put me in mind of the main guy in the racing episode of Space Dandy. (Can't wait until that's back, btw.)