{"id":4127,"date":"2014-06-01T17:58:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T16:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/?p=4127"},"modified":"2020-10-11T21:05:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T20:05:03","slug":"puella-idol-nozomi-magica-rebloveion-love-live-series-2-episode-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/?p=4127","title":{"rendered":"Puella Idol Nozomi Magica – RebLoveIon – Love Live series 2, episode 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThis week on Love Live\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get around to writing about it until mere hours before (or, at this point, after) the next episode airs. Whoops. Event travel decompression, compounded by Real Life Stuff and, well, a new iM@S game really served to eat way more time than it probably should have, and getting caught in a hail storm last weekend didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really help from a health point of view.<\/p>\n

Also, flying macarons.
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\nI suppose the big news this week, Love Live wise, is that they actually managed to get the Kotori\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sweet Holiday event going, albeit under a compressed time period compared to what it was originally supposed to be running under, in the English version of School Idol Festival. If you are already playing the game, you are probably well up on what this involves at this point, though – needless to say, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good time to be burning through your LP as frequently as possible!<\/p>\n

In other Love Live game news, I guess School Idol Paradise, the set of Love Live Vita games, have been pushed back again. Once again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perhaps concerning, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not too worried about it – the game is coming from Dingo, who have a good pedigree when it comes to making solid-playing rhythm games. Also it means I can defer having to pay that bill until after my summer convention season is over, though it does mean I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to find a new game for playing whilst on the move.<\/p>\n

In less game related news, I guess twitter chatter today, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not really had time to follow-up on properly, is suggesting that the full version Shocking Party is confirmed for being part of the OST release rather than being it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own A-RISE-related single, which is somewhat disappointing, honestly.<\/p>\n

(Also, I guess the English Weis Schwarz boosters for the series are in distribution channels now – I had a both a trial deck and a booster box ship from AmiAmi earlier in the week, but I saw the booster packs being sold in local comic shops whilst shopping yesterday)<\/p>\n

As for this weeks episode, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m weirdly torn on it. The first time I watched it, it sat a little oddly with me. I mean, for all that we joke about Rin having barely been a character, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve actually seen that much of Nozomi either, comparatively speaking. She gets a break compared to Rin because, whilst the show has never really delved into her character too deeply, she has been constantly seen running her machinations in the background, scheming and manipulating things, somewhat omnipresent in everything going on.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably why I had a bit of a hard time buying into what the episode was showing me the first time through. The episode is presenting Nozomi has some kind of socially awkward girl who has problems making friends and expressing her true feelings, yet that necessarily hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already been reflected in what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve actually seen in the show. Nozomi seems to know everyone – certainly, whilst not necessarily friends<\/i>, she was certainly on some<\/i> kind of terms with Nico even pre-mooo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s – and well enough to be able to manipulate them into doing what she wants. The confident facade she puts across is not something we’ve really seen crumble at any point.<\/p>\n

Also, she has no problem with sexually harassing girls she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only recently come to know.<\/p>\n

That being said, I did buy into it more on successive re-watches, so I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really want to come across as being too harsh on it, but I do think it pangs a little more of them stretching in order to find some kind of story they could write around Nozomi more than something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d necessarily been planned all the way up front, if you catch my meaning. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely one of those things which feels a little weaker when placed in it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s context than is necessarily reflected in its own, contained execution.<\/p>\n

Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been setting this up in the current<\/i> season of Love Live or anything – Nozomi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s melancholic looks make even more sense when you consider her impending separation from the friends she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally<\/i> managed to make if you consider if having been such a struggle.<\/p>\n

Anyway, some specifics…<\/p>\n

1) Dancing, Dancing Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Stop my Dancing<\/b>
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\nThis weeks \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thing in the animation to pick on\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the girls stage positioning here – we first see them lined up in an arrow formation, only for them to be more-or-less completely rearranged on stage<\/a> in the very next cut. Then they jump back to the original formation a further cut later. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a peculiar thing to be inconsistent about, and was immediately a little obvious (and jarring) to me. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re moving around as quickly as Quicksliver from that new X-Men movie, repositioning to confuse and confound the television audience like a bunch of jerks.<\/p>\n

(Is this where I bust out the Love Live Greater Esper Theory again? No? Fair enough)<\/p>\n

(Also, nice to see our friend the announcer back!)<\/p>\n

2) East Heart, Stage West<\/b>
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\nIt turns out that the Midnight Cats actually exist beyond being merely a poster in the idol research club room! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty funny that, even thought they technically turn up on screen frequently in the show, and even though they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only seen statically here, they actually have more unique art in this episode than they have had in the entire series up to this point.<\/p>\n

The other group here, standing furthest away from our heroines, has to be East Heart, the other qualifying group from this particular Tokyo regional, purely by process of elimination. I do kind of wonder if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see more of any of these characters in coming episodes or not.<\/p>\n

(I’m kind of surprised Nico and Hanayo aren’t freaking out a bit here, though – I’d have to presume at least one<\/i> of them is a Midnight Cats fan, and there’s been no suggestion that they’ve ever been in their near vicinity before)<\/p>\n

3) Shippity-do-dah<\/b>
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\nUmi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to the suggestion of writing a love song, and the pressing of the other members upon her when it comes to determining her previous romantic experience, amuses me for mostly meta-related reasons. The problem with having a unit with nine members is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an odd number, so when the yuri-goggle-equipped members of my twitter timeline come to start pairing people off, it inevitably leads to having one member left unallocated.<\/p>\n

More often that not, in the case of Love Live, the left-over tends to end up being Umi. I mean, there was some movement in the first series early on with a UmiEli pairing that eventually got overridden by a preference towards NozoEli, generally leaving people to reach beyond mooooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to Eli\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister Arisa (little seen in this second season, by the way). But then, what do you do with Yukiho, eh?<\/p>\n

Not that all this shipping stuff is generally<\/i> my thing, but given I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen more than a couple of comments regarding what to do with Umi in recent weeks, this kind of just amused me on that level.<\/p>\n

4) Sorry, I’d prefer an interesting girl…<\/b>
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\nThis week on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They Missed A Trick Here\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, the mock romantic present-giving scenes are a little<\/i> reminiscent of those in the Mogyutto “love” de Sekkinchu!<\/i> PV – particularly Hanayo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s effort – but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite<\/i> on the mark enough to be really seen as being particularly referential. Given how weirdly specific they’ve been with some of this stuff previously, it seems oddly lazy for what could have been an easy win from an amusement point of view.<\/p>\n

Of course, we also have Nozomi being an upfront, camera-wielding pervert (of sorts) here, though in the context of the episode, I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s capturing precious memories that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll treasure for life or some other kind of sappy, super-laden nonsense.<\/p>\n

Also, Nico totally made the best effort, and her compatriots quite clearly have no appreciation for quality acting.<\/p>\n

(Also, Nico should totally wear her hair down more often<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(Also also, the comedy scene climax music stinger continues to be hilariously goofy)<\/p>\n

5) Cafee?<\/b>
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\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not really sure what caused Rin to make the particular leap of logic (or Hanayo to follow along with her – shared telepathic delusion or something?) that would lead to her thinking that Eli was plotting to join A-RISE, nor what possessed her up to leap upon her chair, simply from the information that Eli wanted to perform a new song.<\/p>\n

Of course, store name changes aside (though, given that at least 75% of the population of the Love Live universe seems to be female, changing Burger King to Burger Queen<\/i> seems like an entirely sensible alteration), it turns out that this is a real-world Japanese location, that was scouted and throughly photographed the moment that sunlight permitted access.<\/p>\n

And I promptly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find the relevant comparison photographs for it. Whoops.<\/p>\n

6)In Soviet Russia, Candy Eats You<\/b>
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\nI’m kind of wondering how this candy works – I half expect that you unwrap it only to discover a series of successively smaller candy wrappers, ultimately discovering that the sweet at the end of the process is but the size of a pea.<\/p>\n

7) Merry Christmas!<\/b>
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\nOh, the things you could imply from Honoka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sweater here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

I mean, clearly, with the show getting up towards December, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just getting into the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, however, it would seem the Japan hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite gotten the grasp of how laughing works in the English language, and have truncated Mr Claus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic Ho Ho Ho<\/i> to but a single iteration.<\/p>\n

Or Honoka just likes to wear clothing that suggests her own name.<\/p>\n

8) Q-tec?<\/b>
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\nEither Honoka has a terrible television, or this is a really awful video transfer of whatever movie it is that they happen to be watching. It’s a BD, but pixels all over the place!<\/p>\n

Of all the reactions to the movie, whilst Umi has the most violent, I actually find Honoka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to be the most amusing. Given that she apparently fell asleep just three minutes into the movie, citing it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being slow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the problem, one has to wonder exactly what kind of movies she actually enjoys. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have suggested maybe the stereotypical efforts from Hollywood super-director Michael Bay, but perhaps even those may not exactly be event laden enough in the opening minutes to hold her attention. Infact, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wondering if only something as hyperactive as The Lego Movie could hold Honoka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention.<\/p>\n

(On a related note, on my recent flight to Chicago, I ended up watching The Lego Movie in Japanese. I only put it on with the intention of seeing if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d dubbed Everything is Awesome (yes, they did. Subete wa Saikou!). I ended up sitting through the whole thing, though, mostly because I was spending the entire movie wondering if that was actually Miyuki Sawashiro I was hearing as WildStyle (or WildGirl in Japan)\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6)<\/p>\n

(Also, I do like the casual dress in this episode. Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but notice that Rin is wearing shorts, rather than a skirt, for the first time in a while though)<\/p>\n

(Also also, STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT)<\/p>\n

9) To Be Corrected on BD<\/b>
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\nThis is where I was going to make the title-justifying joke about Madoka Magica, but aside from not really having enough time to suitably doctor an image, it started to feel somewhat less necessary upon rewatch.<\/p>\n

I mean, the comparison with Madoka is in regards to Mami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apartment. When the TV broadcast version aired, people were somewhat impressed by the set design – whilst it was certainly designed<\/i> in the sense that all Shaft locations tend to be, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sparse and desolate nature was seen as being a pretty great mirror of Mami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character as it was revealed in the following episodes. She was a lonely, isolated child who struggled to find anyone she could share her situation with, and the cold, spartan and empty apartment seemed reflective of that.<\/p>\n

Nozomi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s situation, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s put in this episode, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually too<\/i> far from that, albeit with fewer malevolent white alien-rats, but the joke is that, when they did their usual updates for the BD release of Madoka, Shaft filled Mami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s homestead with all sorts of arbitrary tat<\/i>, completely changing what people had assumed was the entire point of the set design.<\/p>\n

Honestly, though, on rewatch, whilst I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little of that going on in Nozomi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apartment, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more in the way they chose to light in to evoke a mood in this scene, rather than the actual decoration. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sensible amount of stuff in there, without it being particularly cluttered, and she has some cute artefacts. I mean, heck, her kettle is a goddamn pig<\/i> – that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awesome and I totally want one!<\/p>\n

(Except we all use electric kettles over here because they are actually practical)<\/p>\n

They actually change the lighting of the environment post-flashback, when Eli and Maki decide to take to their ‘phones, which is successful in completely changing the atmosphere of the scene, alongside the sense of mood switching to something rather less melancholic.<\/p>\n

10) How long does it take to read a book?<\/b>
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\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably be easy to look at the flashback scenes, notice that the cover of the book Nozomi is reading doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change, and laugh at the fact that she seems to have been reading the same thing across several different schools – is she transferring on a daily basis, or is she just a really, really slow reader?<\/p>\n

In reality, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably one of those things that never really took off over here – a book cover. Whilst I have no idea if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually used<\/i> all that commonly over in Japan, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not uncommon to be able to get generic dust covers that you can wrap around any particular book you happen to be reading to protect it from damage.<\/p>\n

Or more realistically, disguise the fact that you are reading something nerdy (or probably lesbian porn, in Nozomi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case) that you perhaps shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in public. This does rather make me wonder why you sometimes see anime-related book covers given away as store-bonuses for anime-related products, though – wrapping your book in something inherently nerdy seems to rather defeat the point.<\/p>\n

11) HO-BALLS<\/b>
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\nIt sounds kind of like snow-balls, and it sure is winter. Terrible pun is terrible, I guess.<\/p>\n

Nozomi thinks they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re delicious, though.<\/p>\n

12) Kinda pointless writing about this now…<\/b>
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\nOf course, in the duration of writing about this episode, the ninth episode of the series has actually aired, likely rendering commenting on how completely transparent<\/i> what this scene was suggesting as coming up was to anyone with any grounding in Love Live outside the anime a somewhat fruitless exercise.<\/p>\n

I will say, though, going back and re-watching some of those old, pre-TV anime Love Live PVs again for comparison purposes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 boy, those look rough. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even talking about the CG, either – I genuinely can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand the character art in the 2D cuts. As such, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to the obvious thing happening so that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less future need to look at the thing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s replacing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week on Love Live\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get around to writing about it until mere hours before (or, at this point, after) the next episode airs. Whoops. Event travel decompression, compounded by Real Life Stuff and, well, a new iM@S game really served to eat way more time than it probably should have, and getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4140,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions\/4140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beta-waffle.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}