Kin'youbi Mosaic: 9/13/13 Moe Didn't Change Edition

It's weekly rambling time again. News, commentary on stuff I'm watching, and other random stuff, it's all here. And again, "kin'youbi" is Japanese for Friday.

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So, some time ago, the following picture made its way around Tumblr:

Actually, pre-moe Bones is still pretty moe.

Now, cherry-picking one not-moe-looking title from a studio's earlier portfolio and one moe-looking title from their recent portfolio does nothing to make any sort of point, so I was amused to see the following image, composed by Mike Toole of ANN's The Mike Toole Show:

Cue "Lupin is so moe!" comments.

The point is, shows about cute girls have been around forever, and aren't a recent phenomenon. That said, I'm not going to pretend there isn't some upward trend regarding moe, but what exactly that trend is is hard to pinpoint.

But hey, as a fan of moe, I'm perfectly fine with it.

(And for the record, this week's subtitle is based on this OVA. Which I have not seen, but hey, it provides a good title pun.)

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Being incredibly late to the party, I've finally started watching Space Brothers and the current rendition of Hunter x Hunter. I've seen two episodes of each so far, and I figure if I watch at least two episodes of each a week... I probably won't catch up before the shows stop airing. Perhaps a marathon or two are  in order.

Well, one way or another, both have interested me so far, so onwards I go with these long-runners.

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It's frequently amusing when shows make a shout-out to something, especially when it's something pretty out there that you weren't expecting a shout-out to, for example, Space Brothers making a reference to the Zidane headbutt incident in world soccer in 2006.

The most recent episode of Chronicles of the Going Home Club also had a reference to a sports incident, in this case, the 2012 Olympics badminton match-throwing scandal. I certainly wasn't expecting that.

Something else I wasn't expecting to be referenced: IV breeding and EV training in Pokemon. Pokemon references are common in anime, but IV breeding and EV training are obscure aspects of the game that only concern the most competitive players.

Moving on to WataMote (which Going Home Club also referenced via a magazine page featuring both shows), the latest episode of that had Tomoko talking about eating lunch in the bathroom, before deciding against it because only losers do it. This is actually a reference to original mangaka Nico Tanigawa's earlier manga, Choku!, in which the lead male does exactly that. Choku! isn't quite as black or depressing as WataMote, being more of an absurdist comedy involving a girl who claims to be the guy's friend/girlfriend, but has no idea how to actually go about it. It's a fun manga, though, if you want to look it up.

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The first of the many shows I'm following this season has ended: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. It's a fun show that I enjoyed a lot. There were some fun actions scenes, some fun comedic scenes, and while there were some aspects that emphasized the real danger that the girls were in, it avoids being a dark show, making it a good show if you want a more light-hearted magical girl romp.

And the best news is, it's not over! The end of the last episode reveals that production of a second season, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei, has been greenlit. Which means, in due time, there will be more of Illya and Miyu in this alternate Fate-verse. So that's definitely something to look forward to.