Shugo Chara!! Doki – Episode 53

October 11, 2008 at 2:54 am | Posted in Shugo Chara! | 32 Comments
Tags: meh, ROFL, shipping

ROFL! It’s another recap! Because I had my expectations so low after last week, I don’t even care. It’s just freakin’ hilarious for me. Besides, the in between clips were better this time. Anime original Amuto is always welcome. ^_^

So, next week is when SC!! Doki really begins. The anime original plot seems to be starting next week for reals. But, lol, recap. At least there was some Amuto in the rain~!

Last week a recap could have been justified if someone wanted to start watching SC! for the first time for the “new series,” but that doesn’t change the fact the first episode was super boring.

Now then…Two recaps? That’s a bit excessive, Satelight. But it’s okay. I was busy again so less time on a summary is fine with me, I’m actually looking forward to seeing some stupid fangirls get mad, and you gave me Amuto. All is forgiven.

But seriously, I don’t think anyone knows how funny I find this. When I first found out I had a “wtf?” reaction, but then I kept laughing for about the next twenty minutes while I did other stuff. Twenty minutes. It’s just so funny after some fans tried to defend the recap last week. Defend it this time guys~!

I’m so glad I stopped caring about what would happen after last week. Now I’m just blogging it for the sake of…I don’t even know. Consistency? Maybe, I want to be able to come out of this thing and go, “Ha! Once I started I never stopped!” But mostly it’s for the commenters who are always thanking me for the summaries. You guys better stay grateful!

–

Summary

Recap again, but with a surprising amount of (anime-original) plot.

Ikuto’s skipping school again and Yoru makes some jokes and Ikuto actually laughs. At the royal garden the guardians are all having some super good doughnuts. Amu gives Tadase a vanilla one and they have another one of their chibi looking moments because she remembered he liked vanilla. Until Yaya comes out and ruins their chibi aura.

At Easter the loser scientists go over how they failed (and apparently are no longer in charge of looking for the embryo) and recap the way in which Easter’s plans have all failed.

Amu goes to talk to the First King on his request. Ran finds the picture book he wrote and asks him what would happen next (or something) and finds out that the eggs get a power-up or something which Miki and Su don’t believe at all. Amu asks why he had her come there and he pulls his random card stuff and Amu pulls out the Joker card. He says some things about shining lights going out with darkness (or random crap) which Amu doesn’t understand. He then says a new story is starting and the Humpty Lock can feel it too (or something). He says more foreshadowing things that really tell us nothing too.

It starts raining so Ikuto has to leave his spot on the grass (where he’s apparently been all day, lol). Amu runs through the rain and gets shelter under a tree in the same park where she sang with Ikuto’s violin, which she thinks about. And when she says his name out loud, Ikuto hangs off of the branch in front of her and causes her to freak out until she trips and Ikuto catches her. After a time-skip (cop-out Satelight!) Amu and Ikuto are both standing under the tree and being stubborn with each other. Yoru and Amu’s charas talk about rain, Yoru is anti-rain and Ran, Miki, and Su are pro-rain (I don’t really think this is important though) Something about how it’s romantic.

Tadase comes to the First King’s office with random guardian business and sees that Amu isn’t there. The First King says she already started to head home.

Back in the park Amu is thinking a lot about something (what to talk about I think) but is being stubborn as usual. Ikuto says that she seems different somehow. Amu replies that she might have grown a bit, but Ikuto calls her stupid since that’s not what he was talking about. Amu thinks about something the first king said before and starts wondering about the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key again. Then Amuto recap (with tons of stuff left out btw). Amu asks Ikuto where his violin is, but Ikuto doesn’t have it with him. Amu asks if it’s something important to him, but Ikuto responds by teasing her about how she’s asking a lot of questions about him then more stubbornness and teasing (lol, Miki asks where Amu’s Cool & Spicy character went).

Tadase comes running up with two umbrellas (one for Amu I assume), but Ikuto comes out and puts Tadase in his tsuntsun bad mood. Ikuto says some things to tick Tadase off, saying Tadase can’t open the lock (or whatever) and Tadase says that the Dumpty Key belongs to him and that he’ll get it back that day. And so a fight starts up when they each chara-change.

Amu just stands by uselessly for a minute and thinks about how she doesn’t know what happened between them in the past, but she won’t let them fight (or something). She runs forward and still frame happens (with a shot of First King being all, “I knows everything~!” in his office) and the Humpty Lock starts acting weird. Amu does a new “powered-up” transformation into Amulet Heart which really just looks the same except there’s just a new transformation sequence.

This gets Ikuto and Tadase to stop fighting (boys are easily distracted by cheerleaders appearing a flash of light it seems). Ikuto notices the Dumpty Key having a reaction to what happened. Then the charas notice that it stopped raining and that there’s a rainbow. Ikuto disappears while everyone else is too distracted by pretty shining rainbow. And everyone continues to be distracted by the pretty shining rainbow (seriously…wtf…).

Meanwhile, the asshole director is talking to Gozen about their new plan. A girl is arriving from France (right?) that will get the embryo for Gozen. And surprises! It’s Lulu, the girl from the opening.

So…basically: Amu talks to the first king (and learns nothing), she talks to Ikuto (and thinks the same stuff as always), Ikuto and Tadase fight (for no reason and with no real outcome), and Amu gets a powered-up chara-nari (that looks the same). Oh, and anime-original villain girl showed up at the end and ultimately, she will have no impact on anything either.

–

Thoughts

My God Satelight is half-assing it now. I heard that a lot of the staff has changed and this episode doesn’t leave a single shred of doubt in my mind about that. Even with its fillers, the first season at least put in some effort. I’m just sitting here going, “wtf…” for a lot of the episode. Amu got a power-up for her Chara-Nari in the most obviously shoved in there sort of way. It was, quite frankly, lame.

The Amuto scenes were fun though. Nothing new was developed, but it was fun.

Meh…I took screencaps from Horrible Raw (which really isn’t so horrible anymore anyway), but because of my lack of enthusiasm I’m just keeping these screencaps.

lol. There’s like five places Ikuto shows up regularly and he’s in at least one every episode: in a tree, in front of a full moon, on his house’s roof, on Easter’s roof, or on this grassy hill.

Personally, I’m a fan of the hill and the trees.

Yoru~! He made Ikuto laugh and look how happy that makes him~! God why are all the charas so darn cute?

Okay, it’s not just me, right? This scene looks quite messily done. I mean, Tadase’s clothes seem weird to me (it looks like he’s slouching too) and Amu’s body just looks kind of weird. I’m not just saying that as an Amuto fan, it’s the first place I noticed a change in the animation. Things look different.

Now then…don’t get too happy Tadase. Amu remembers that Ikuto likes chocolate too.

I want an Utau puppet! I want it like there’s no tomorrow! An adorable tsundere puppet! Gimme! Forget plushies (for now).

*runs off to read puppet-making tutorials*

No one else is going to say it, huh? I have to be the one? *sigh* Fine.

The first king doesn’t do anything. He tells people the vaguest things that they usually figure out soon on their own anyway. Why bother telling the kids anything if it’s not going to help them? Why!?

Ehe~! I don’t know, Ikuto being hit with a raindrop just made me giggle.

Silly Amu. Hanging around a place where you’ve seen Ikuto and knowing what a sneaky catboy he is and you just decide to say his name out loud. Heh. Should have known better. Start expecting to see Ikuto at all minutes of the day already.

This is definitely the best screencap in the whole episode and pretty high up there on the anime-original moments list. However…

Dude it didn’t have any purpose at all? After this they went to a commercial break and when they came back they were both just hanging out underneath a tree. I mean, what happened? It’s like they just threw it in there as fanservice for the Amuto fans.

I don’t really mind though. Random Amuto is fine with me. This just goes to show that Satelight knows who is in control here. That’s right, you better keep us happy.

Aw…the stubborn couple returns. They’re made for each other. (Seriously, so cute the way they’re both being all stubborn and acting like they don’t care.)

I’m not entirely sure why (since I’m not entirely sure what happened here), but this was my second favorite moment in the episode. Ikuto said that Amu changed (if my Japanese doesn’t suck today) and I want to know how. I think I may have missed something.

But even though I think I missed something I still feel like I got it somehow. I’m not really sure how to explain it, but…yeah.

Return of the Amuto bg. I’ve missed my blue to pink gradient. (Also, this is just a nice Amuto image, right? ^_^)

Oh! Amu let her Cool & Spicy chara slip and started asking Ikuto questions. Can’t pretend like you don’t care when you’re asking him what’s important to him and stuff. Silly girl~!

Of course Ikuto catches it right away and forces Amu back to tsuntsun (and completely shatters her Cool & Spicy act as well btw. Even Miki notices).

>_< A smiling Ikuto makes me such a happy fangirl in these dark manga times. Ah~! This is probably the main reason I keep watching the anime. Even when it pisses me off, the fluff is still a good balance for the manga right now.

Boo! Tadase showed up and ruined my smiling Ikuto fun by making Ikuto act all cool and confrontational (well, Tadase did just challenge him in the last episode…). But boo!

Now personally, I’m not one of the fans who hates Tadase just for getting in Amuto’s way. That’s stupid. On CR they created a thread complaining about how Tadase saved Amu and Ikuto in episode 51. What the heck? Dumbest thread on CR right now (because it’s the one where shipping wars are taking place). But this episode it bothered me specifically because it’s really rare that we get to see Ikuto able to just enjoy himself. Even when he’s been around Amu it’s because something Easter-ish has happened.

So…for today it bothered me, but I blame Satelight for that because they made the situation stupid.

Lame. This fight was so lame. Honestly. There wasn’t even a real fight. Episode 01 was a real fight. Episode 42 was a super real fight. This was just…nothing. But I can just blame that on the definite decrease in animation time.

I’ve said this before, but they used to plan episodes 6 months ahead of time, now it’s something like 3 months. New staff probably doesn’t help either.

I mean this. It was just a still image of Amu with her lock glowing as they did a scroll-panning thing. What happened to that wind effect from episode 29 when her lock started to glow? Hmm?

Well, I suppose I can just say it’s a recap, but I can’t be greedy anyway. With less time, I can’t expect the same quality.

What the hell. This was so pointless. It’s just a new transformation sequence. Is there anything even different about Amulet Heart? Her roller blades haven’t shown up yet. It was so overdone and it kind of happened for no reason too.

It ticks me off because this is kind of standard in mahou shoujo anime, a power-up, but usually even that it’s for some real reason. Make it happen after Amu fails to beat the enemy next week. That’s how mahou shoujo works! Make her need the extra power before you give it to her!

And make it apparent what that power is, because right now it’s just Amu feeling like she has more power it seems.

But I love that this was the image right after. To me it looked like both of them were thinking, “Um…isn’t that just the same thing as before?” and “What’s the deal with all the extra sparkles?”

Of course, that might just be because that’s what I was thinking, but even though it got them to stop fighting neither of them really seemed too impressed (to me).

I did like the music during this part though (thought I’d mention it).

Ah. Well then. At least we finally got to this point. The Dumpty Key reacting when the Humpty Lock does something. Now do it when Amu makes a mahou shoujo speech too.

I think this is where my slim belief that this arc won’t just be cliche mahou shoujo crap devoid of Cool & Spicy flew right out the window. It’s also where my enjoyment in the episode kind of just fell. I was kind of just going through it easily, then I got really happy for my Amuto, then the lame fight kind of deflated that and then this just made me end up back with my low expectations.

A rainbow? I mean, I like rainbows too, but why would that distract you from your new power-up and the fight that was going on just five seconds ago? Can anyone say short attention span?

Ikuto seems to be in character most (if not all) the time now. Amu on the other hand, has me quite worried with this scene (and a couple small moments before this). Please don’t screw up my Cool & Spicy heroine Satelight. T_T

One last dig at the quality. The whole design of the characters feels different sometimes. People commented last week on Tadase’s hair seeming longer (which it does) and the faces in general just seem a little different too.

They’re also using a lot more shortcuts than before (but I kind of expected that). It’s going to take some getting used to because I think we’ve all been spoiled by the first series, which had its awkward moments, but did quite a bit more than you’d expect from a mahou shoujo anime, especially a long one.

But this is still a recap. Perhaps my judgments are premature. It’s not like it’s bad either…just takes some getting used to.

Ikuto image…because. I want to make up for the ranting before I even get started.

And here we go! Lulu shows up officially next week. I still find her annoying even though she hasn’t properly appeared.

First off, I know she was designed by Peach-Pit or whatever. I don’t care though. Creators save all their good material for their actual story. And anyway, I don’t have a problem hating characters created by Peach-Pit. I hated Tadase for a long time for being too shallow and not well-developed. This girl is just someone brought in to fill time so the manga can get ahead. I doubt she’s going to have that much depth.

Sure, she probably has her story we’ll find out and that will make her friends with Amu in 20 or so episodes, but what’s that story going to be? She’s rude because her family situation sucks? Sorry, Rima’s got that. She does it because a close family member asked her to? Kairi’s got that. She does it for love and simply lost her way? Utau’s got that. She’s trapped in the company and doesn’t even want anything to do with Easter? Ikuto’s got that.

I’m not saying there’s no other “excuses” for her, but most of the good ones seem to be taken up. The rest of her story is so cliche anyway. She’s from another country? Okay either America or France (BAM! I’m almost certain I heard France). As soon as I heard that, I couldn’t help but go, “I knew it!”

And judging by that smile, she doesn’t mind what she’s doing. We saw Utau do her angsting right from the beginning. You either have a blank expression or you show sad faces early on. You can’t be evil girl and have all your development thrown it later. In anime (especially with filler characters) it’s done too hastily that way.

Ah…and I’m brought to my main problem with this girl. The poses and expressions they’ve been giving her remind me too much of Utau. The confidence just with some added ojou-sama instead of tsundere. She’s an Utau rip-off. You don’t rip-off Utau. You just don’t. And that pisses me off.

Also, if Peach-Pit did her character design, they didn’t do a good job making her blend in. She doesn’t fit in with the other characters because her hair…is weird. It makes her stand out and very clearly say, “I don’t belong here!”

But that’s that. I’m done now. That’s just my opinion on it for now.

–

Now then, to end this on a positive note…I really enjoyed the Amuto scene. It was nice seeing them just talking with each other, because it’s at times like that where I tend to enjoy Amuto the most and can remember why I have so little doubt of them being the OTP in my mind.

Just talking comfortably with one another, eventually just acting like their real selves, and really having a conversation. It just makes me smile somehow.

So for that alone I can be happy and say that this episode wasn’t a waste of my time. I can sit through the crap for these small moments, because not much makes me smile like Amuto during these tough days. There’s still other things, but not many. It’s another reason I’d like to keep blogging as well. Other people who want to see this stuff but just don’t have the time to watch fillers every week deserve to see it as well.

And if I must be the one to sift through some crap, then so be it! I don’t really mind.

–

Preview

Lulu makes her official entrance in an episode titled “Eh? A New Friend?” Which kind of makes me wonder if Lulu is going to pretend to be friends with Amu. The betrayal thing was already done with Kairi, so I hope now.

Anyway, Lulu is going to be making people do random ugly chara-nari’s when she forces a crazy smiling question mark on their eggs or something. I don’t know. All I know is it’s stupid. I couldn’t be any more reminded of various Sailor Moon villains.

People have already mentioned that maybe Lulu will become a romantic rival (or try to be one) for either Ikuto or Tadase, but eh. I’ll comment on that next week, but even if I think it might provide some entertainment for now, it’ll make me even more meh-ish on the cliches. And it always feels weird when an original character likes a regular character to me.

But one last thing. Let’s start taking bets now. Who wants to bet that Lulu is going back to whatever country she came from once her arc is over? Really making the next 20 or so episodes even more useless than the fillers of the past.

…I do. And I actually hope I’m right because I don’t want any interference in Ikuto’s arc, thank you very much.