Bitchin’ Space Pirates 24 – Best Crossover Ever?

This Pirate Hunter is Blue Rose from Tiger and Bunny. Prove me wrong.

So lots of stuff happening in this episode! Let’s start with Blue Rose up here since her screenshot is up there and everything. In the grand tradition of Mouretsu Pirates villains, she’s an arrogant fucking idiot. She’s basically toying with the Bettenmaru, because she has so many advantages that she could crush the ship any time she wants. What we know: 1) Her ship can zig zag like a mofo, although Marika has apparently figured out some sort of trick to avoiding bombardment. Maybe this is one of those dumb ships that can fire only from the bottom. 2) She has stealth and is skilled enough to sneak wherever she wants. She proceeds to use this power for taunting. Very imaginative. And 3) She has a stupid name (Quartz Christie).

Bitchin’ Space Pirates 23 – The Password Is: Moe

Haha, OK, I have to hand it to the show for the silly handwaving this week regarding the Parabellum and its silly, theatrical technology. First off we find out that the image of the captain, who goes by Ironbeard, is actually a hologram. The thing that perplexes me is why the episode went out of its way to hide that at the end. Obviously if you think about it, Ironbeard isn’t actually standing on top of his ship in the middle of space and shouting. The image at the end of the previous episode is clearly different than the image we see here, however. I suppose it’s to make Ironbeard seem even more larger than life; really, though, it made me realize more how silly this show is that I actually thought for a moment it would have a pirate standing on his ship exposed to space and shouting.

Popee the Performer – Logical Lunacy

There exists a clown who plays with knives and swords. So dexterous and fearless is he that he can swallow these tools of death with nary an injury. But one day the clown becomes too cocky. He tosses a claymore skyward and swallows it whole. The massive blade runs through the clown, emerging from his backside. He is stuck to the ground.

The clown’s friend, a wolf, panics. He sees the fear in the clown’s eyes. The music in the background swells beautifully, highly appropriate for the harrowing situation. No matter how hard the wolf tugs on the sword, he cannot pull it from the clown’s body. Clearly there is only one solution: tie the clown’s legs to poles hammered into the ground, tie the sword to a truck’s bumper and rip it out with sheer horsepower. Unfortunately, this brilliant plot goes awry. The clown is dragged all around the circus until finally the truck crashes. The sword is magically loosened from the clown’s body, but he is furious.

The clown must have vengeance.

He chases the wolf around the circus grounds, fretfully hacking away, hoping to lop off a limb or two. The wolf desperately leaps into the air, hoping to get away, but it is then that the clown sees his opportunity. He opens his mouth wide and positions himself under the wolf, who tries to flail out of the way but is sucked into the clown’s gaping maw. Inside the clown’s stomach is a lonely pit of despair. The clown’s mouth is the only source of light, the tiniest sliver of salvation.

The wolf tries to climb out, but this serves only to infuriate the clown. He tosses the sword into the air once again and drives it through his mouth and into his stomach, piercing it through the wolf as well. The clown is stuck in place again, but he is satisfied with his bloody revenge.

Hunter x Hunter 34 – Gon Is a Troll

SUCH a troll.

Our new Nen-powered acquaintances are dispatched rather easily after Gon and Killua power up via training montage. You wouldn’t think Gon and Killua would level grind so hard during this training, especially since one of the non-metal tracks plays during the montage. You can’t have a proper training montage without crazy music to pump up the audience! Did we learn nothing from the 1980s?

Bitchin’ Space Pirates 22 – Dropping in from G Gundam

Oh, this fucking pirate.

I’m of two minds about this goofball: First, I think the conflict at the end of the episode is actually legit dangerous, even though we have a total “Boy Who Cried Wolf” situation going on with this series. I refuse to believe this situation will resolve itself in any way other than anticlimactically. It doesn’t matter how big and impressive this pirate hunter ship looks while slaughtering pirates. (Possibly for the government? I do agree this is strongly hinted at throughout the episode.) But at least for now there’s some excitement going on, which has been true for basically every storyline so far in the series. It’s kind of like Index in that the arcs start out cool and then fizzle out at the end, except there’s no Touma constantly opening his fat fucking craw here.

Another OVA – A Moment of Awesome Atop a Mountain of Stupid

Much like the series proper, the recently released Another OVA is pretty dumb and silly. There’s lots of shopping, naked groping, and general farting around (but not literally). It largely exists to build the relationship between Mei and another character whose existence is a spoiler that I’ll kindly reveal below the jump because I’m a nice guy like that. It succeeds to the point where you see that these two characters have a mostly normal relationship (groping aside). Nice and all, but fairly boring. I’d probably care more if the events of Another had actually gripped me instead of making me grip my sides while laughing uproariously.

However! Shockingly enough, there are a couple of moments that are not only worth noting, but also made me not regret the 20 minutes I spent watching this one-shot episode. Sometimes a rose is capable of growing in a shit pile, you know?

Hunter x Hunter 33 – Killua Is Batcrap Crazy

Oh, Killua, you crazy motherfucker.

I’ll be honest: I totally forgot about this stuff and the stuff to come in the next episode, even though it involves Gon in a rematch with ol’ Pogo Stick Peg Leg. Those dorks are just that dumb and forgettable; mere stepping stones on the way to Gon and Killua getting their Nen on. But, hey, for all I know the fight in the next will be awesome. No use in me being a Negative Nancy.