dunk shoot: yukkuri de iisa

As the title suggests updates are going to slow for a while (not that anyone cares) mainly because I got Odin Sphere (sense a reoccurring theme?) for cheap and will likely be busy with that.

Finally finished watching Kaleido Star New Wings and it was masterfool (sorry it came up in Extra Wings). While not as amazing as the first season’s finish it was a satisfying conclusion to the series. Extra Wings felt like it should have been an arc on its own but it also demonstrated that Rosetta couldn’t have carried the series as the lead as she kept on running away from her problems- literally. Arguably Sora was the same at times but she had relentless drive that kept her going. It was also pretty obvious from the beginning Extra Wings was targeted at the otaku crowd with the OP featuring a bunch of shots that would suit an issue of Megami and the subsequent low angle shots in the show.

Next on the table of series to finish GiTS SAC2ndGIG – I’ve had volume 6 on my shelf for over a year but was too cheap to get volume 7 for some reason and it has been neglected ever since fortunately I was able to pick up a copy from the library though I’ll likely have no idea of whats going on.

One Outs 5 thoughts

Tokuchi sure talks loud.

Kaleido Star: New Wings Episodes 11-15

Episode 11

May gets a speech from Doc Rivers (her mentor) where (s)he mentions not giving up about a hundred times. May proceeds to develop a totally new move despite her injury – the Demon Spiral which, the animators really skimp on. If there is one part of the show that falls short from the first season it’d be the choreography; not sure if it has anything to do with Junichi Sato not directing this season. Anyway the new move totally impresses Leon and she ends up taking Sora’s place at ICF (International Circus Festival).

Episode 12

Sora is bound for Paris to try and convince Yuri (who has tickets) to pair up with her. Incidentally it’s been way to long since I watched the first season so I can’t even remember what kind of character Yuri was but at least for this arc it doesn’t really matter. Needless to say he agrees but before that she meets Mute and Alice fellow competitors at the ICF. Later they offer to help Yuri and Sora with their training only this comes BEFORE Yuri’s long winded speech about how the ICF (admit it ICF sounds better than festival, festival sounds like a place with long queues, public bathrooms and fireworks) is cut throat and not to trust other people.

Episode 13

The ICF begins… the ends rather abruptly. Sora and Yuri get ready to perform the Angel Maneuver only to find out that Mute and Alice stole their routine. However Mute and Alice fail and were really doomed from the start I mean Sora only had a week to master it and they would’ve only had time to practice it in between helping Sora and Yuri. Sora and Yuri are up next and while they perform beautifully Sora is torn up by all negativity saying that this wasn’t the kind of stage she wanted to perform in and the pair withdraws. After all the build up I thought they’d milk this arc for more but it makes sense to end it here as Sora’s vision of a performance is different to that of the ICF. Oh May and Leon win the festival.

Episode 14

Sora is down in the dumps after her latest failure and decides to leave Kaleido Star for good. She flies back to Japan and returns home explaining that she wanted to come back for New Years. She bums around at home for a bit and her mother can see something is wrong. Fool, who, sekusu hara jokes aside has been pretty useless this season is still around and there are 12 episodes to go so something has got to give. Sora’s friends come to visit one who made a brief showing last season, another a seiyuu and the plain one who likes drawing manga. Anyway the one from last season cheers her up and Sora finally knows what she wants a Kaleido Stage where people are happy and there are no battles. With that she returns to Kaleido Stage with renewed vigor. Oh and Ken comes to Japan only to get cockblocked by Mr Policeman.

Episode 15

This episode got me thinking about the economics of Kaleido Star. A quick google search revealed Cirque de Soleil (which is as close to a real life equivalent I can think of) pays its performers a yearly salary ranging from $30,000 for an apprentice to more than $100,000 for an established artist. I wonder where Sora would fit on the pay scale? On the one hand she hasn’t been on stage for very long but she is pretty well accomplished having performed the Legendary Great Maneuver and held the top star crown (albeit a short time).

Anyway babbling aside Kalos has cut her contract but Sora returns as a gofer doing odd jobs around the place. Cathy and Layla are on hiatus from Broadway and have come over to help out with the Romeo and Juliet show. Cathy wants Sora to try out the Juliet role but she refuses having decided never to battle again. This pisses May off no doubt because she thrives in the competition. Leon likes the girls hard to get apparently as his RAEP eyes are turn on. I guess Sora reminds him of his (most likely) dead partner Sophie.

Kaleido Star: New Wings Episode 8-10

Episode 8

Layla finally makes her reappearance! She invites Sora to New York to perform on stage with her only May tails Sora and invites herself to perform (well she’s definitely not bashful). Layla opens up the competition and they both perform only to be overshadowed by Layla (as expected).

Mainly the episode highlights Sora’s biggest weakness of relying Layla – for her goals, motivation etc. and Layla realizes this and doesn’t get too chummy with Sora.

Episode 9

Another fillery type of episode. This time its about Marion’s return to the stage and the trampoline.

Episode 10

The International Circus Festival is nearing and Layla has automatic qualifying tickets from winning it 3 years ago. She decides to give Leon the choice of partner and he decides that he hasn’t been sinister enough lately and decides not to catch May during a show. The ad lib costs May her chance as she injures her shoulder. With May out of contention the number of candidates is reduced to one. Sora is put through special training that involves improving her fundamentals, either that or shameless bullying.

This arc looks to be good with Sora returning to her HARD WORK AND GUTS routine.

Kaleido Star:New Wings Episodes 6-7

Episode 6
May continues to try and impress Leon this time with her ice skating skillz. He is unimpressed but on a whim he decides that Dracula will be on ice. Sora and May are to compete and whoever wins is to be Leon’s partner. Of course Sora doesn’t know how to ice skate and her inline skating skills prove unhelpful. So she gets May’s ex-trainer to train her in 3 days. While training Sora May’s trainer goads her former pupil into thinking that Sora could surpass her and that helps push May’s performance over the top. Although May is more skillful Leon begins to see Sora’s intangibles.

Episode 7
Rosetta tells the boss that she will perform in the trapeze show in 3 days or quit Kaleido Stage. Only it is revealed that she has never been on a swing before. Sora skillfully talks her into taking it slow and the boss gives her 3 years to become a trapeze star. This episode was mainly filler but Rosetta is a lot cuter this season so thats fine by me.

Kaleido Star: New Wings Episode 3-5

I’ve finally got around to watching the dvds after picking up the thinpack months ago. Anyway straight to the action.

Episode 3

Two characters are introduced in the episodes – Leon who is like having a pre 07-08 Kobe Bryant as a teammate only 10 times more contemptible and May Wong who sees herself as a superior Kaleido Star to Sora. The former has been set up as the heel while the later is still merely a comical character, breaking a Muteki Kaban Musume-like SD face every time she sees Sora.

Episode 4

Rosetta makes a comeback to the show and is having agent problems but its revealed that her agent is her mother and everything is cool before I can hand her OJ Mayo’s agents number. Also Leon is cutting on everyones minutes and May gets a cake to the face.

Episode 5

May and Sora compete to be Leon’s partner by seeing who can perform the spinning screw thingy and their rivalry is finally shaping up. Being a Kaleido Star doesn’t give you much clout at least in Sora’s case as she is bumped to training in the rain because May got to the gym first. This causes a fever and she screws up her audition while May completes the maneuver however Leon shows that he is on a different class and won’t acknowledge either. To rub salt into the wounds Leon calls out Layla and Sora goes apeshit deciding to make him eat his words.

Also it is revealed that May calls out all her special moves be it on the stage or not including when moving furniture and cooking.