(L) Asobi ni Ikuyo!/Cat Planet Cuties

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Ichijo

I think that the girls decided to quit their jobs a little too easy.

Do we even know for sure if Momiji "quit" or not ? Even assuming so, it would be more realistically to assume they were fired in such a case for botching up their respective operations by ignoring orders/helping an "enemy", rather than them quitting on their own.

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Do we even know for sure if Momiji "quit" or not ? Even assuming so, it would be more realistically to assume they were fired in such a case for botching up their respective operations by ignoring orders/helping an "enemy", rather than them quitting on their own.

Not exactly related, but Japanese have a practice of "voluntary" resignation after committing major mistakes, as a sign of taking up responsibility. How "voluntary" it is is up to debate. But the system is for preserving the reputation of those negligent employees, as being officially "fired" can make one very difficult to find a second job.

As for whether Aoi and Manami have left their original jobs for real, we will know in a week.

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Do we even know for sure if Momiji "quit" or not ? Even assuming so, it would be more realistically to assume they were fired in such a case for botching up their respective operations by ignoring orders/helping an "enemy", rather than them quitting on their own.

I believe Moji's words were "Now I have officially become a fugitive of the Japanese government."
Well I think doing something to become a fugitive status can be taken as a sign of resignation.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

I believe Moji's words were "Now I have officially become a fugitive of the Japanese government."
Well I think doing something to become a fugitive status can be taken as a sign of resignation.

That took place before the end of the episode though, before we got introduced to the notion that things have went back to normal. (And the fact she can freely lounge around his house rather than hiding away in some hole reinforces this). So ... yeah, however the situation ended up, it seems it wasn't nearly as bad as she expected, even if we don't know the details for now.

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Do we even know for sure if Momiji "quit" or not ? Even assuming so, it would be more realistically to assume they were fired in such a case for botching up their respective operations by ignoring orders/helping an "enemy", rather than them quitting on their own.

We still have no confirmation that Manami was tied to breaking Eris out of captivity, unless I missed something here. As far as I can see, once she handed over Eris her job was done, complete, waiting for the next assignment. They didn't imply either that she was revealed as the one to leak Eris' location, because seeing as how Eris broke herself out, that itself is a lot more embarrassing than an outside source leak, hence the accident cover-up.

As for Aoi-chan, she failed a mission, not like that's new, right? She's an asset, so whether or not she's still on the job depends on other little details too, like... if she has spare U-Haul trucks lying around with extra power suits, whether or not the scared driver will continue taking her home from school, etc.

Hmm... probably another detail tossed by the wayside, but I don't recall Kio finding out Aoi-chan is the blue power ranger... perhaps later on a secret to determine their relationship? Well, it's not like she went for his head, so....

[Midonin]

Another series of collage CD covers. I like it when the designers do this.

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by Midonin

Another series of collage CD covers. I like it when the designers do this.

Wow, you're right, I like it too. Another good reason to get them all. (that's how the RIAA needs to sell CDs, make it interesting!)

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by mangatron

We still have no confirmation that Manami was tied to breaking Eris out of captivity, unless I missed something here. As far as I can see, once she handed over Eris her job was done, complete, waiting for the next assignment. They didn't imply either that she was revealed as the one to leak Eris' location, because seeing as how Eris broke herself out, that itself is a lot more embarrassing than an outside source leak, hence the accident cover-up.

(Speculation)

Covering up the embarrassing incident in front of the media is one thing, but knowing who actually helped with the rescue mission is another. I guess there should be enough security cameras inside the base that managed to take a few pictures of the culprits. On top of that, the four surviving soldiers could probably recognize Manami.

Anyway it is too simple to have everything automatically "back to normal" after such a big incident. It may appear to be so in the eyes of the public, but the forces behind the scenes are probably clenching their fists, while the two agents are probably secretly drawing plans to protect their friends.

Therefore it is difficult to tell whether they will be staying in their jobs. By now their supervisors probably know that they treasure friendship more than the orders from above. Allowing them to stay may not be exactly productive as they may switch side any time and sell out confidential information. While firing them is only pushing them to Eris' side: a loss of intelligence sources regarding the life and activities of the Catians.

On a side note, the staff blog of the anime has been updated with a bit of trivia about ep3. Since it is publicly accessible info on the official site I guess it is okay to post it here (or not? ).

Spoiler for Sakigawa @ AIC PLUS +02:

(...)

さて、写真は作画資料として、シリーズ構成の高山カツヒコ氏からお借りした、ドラグノフのPS O-1ライフルスコープ 赤外線探知フィルター付 ソビエト製の本物です。
第三話でアオイが使用しておりますよ！
なんだかんだ言いましたが、第三話は私も大好きなお話なので、絶対に観てくださいね！

(...)

Spoiler for English translation:

Well, the object shown in this picture is an authentic Soviet PSO-1 Optical Sight with an infrared filter for use with Dragunov sniper rifles. It has been borrowed from Katsuhiro Takayama, the script director of the series, as an animation reference material.

Aoi will be using it in episode 3!

Anyway, episode 3 is also one of my favourites. Remember to watch it!

The full blog entry, which also talks about the TV censorship stuff, can be found here.
http://www.asoiku.com/blog/archives/259

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by Doraneko

(Speculation)

Covering up the embarrassing incident in front of the media is one thing, but knowing who actually helped with the rescue mission is another. I guess there should be enough security cameras inside the base that managed to take a few pictures of the culprits. On top of that, the four surviving soldiers could probably recognize Manami.

Sometimes details like this go by the wayside. Even when knowing this information, they'll probably drag the blond woman into this, since she made the delivery, which leads me to think anyone would view it as working together, and seeing as how Mr D.I.A. treats the CIA, that wouldn't be a surprise. But going after the culprits would mean they would have to avoid the public eye when doing so,

... but the forces behind the scenes are probably clenching their fists, ...

Pretty much what I figured. They'll have to stay behind the scenes if they don't want to embarrass themselves.

[Itlandm]

Episode 2 went a long way toward redeeming the series in my eyes. The problem with the first episode was that it portrayed friends, and specifically female friends, as secret enemies acting friendly but ready to betray or even kill you unawares. This is just what an otaku does NOT need, to be pushed right over the edge into full-blown hikikomori mode. (I am talking about otaku in the Japanese sense here, not the English meaning of "any random person viewing anime or reading manga", as this would likely include all Japanese over the age of 3.)

In contrast, ep.2 shows a heartwarming triumph of friendship over allegiance, although it takes some time. Perhaps fans will dare leave their room again now...

[Bonta Kun]

Originally Posted by Itlandm

Episode 2 went a long way toward redeeming the series in my eyes. The problem with the first episode was that it portrayed friends, and specifically female friends, as secret enemies acting friendly but ready to betray or even kill you unawares. This is just what an otaku does NOT need, to be pushed right over the edge into full-blown hikikomori mode. (I am talking about otaku in the Japanese sense here, not the English meaning of "any random person viewing anime or reading manga", as this would likely include all Japanese over the age of 3.)

In contrast, ep.2 shows a heartwarming triumph of friendship over allegiance, although it takes some time. Perhaps fans will dare leave their room again now...

I don't see how the way ep 1 went would be something otaku do not need, I get that some people may not like it or really do rage over such things but then I'd just say they have no appreciation for what this is, it being something interesting.
I've seen other stuff that is way more over the top in themes and what not, this honestly hardly registers up there in that respect, just it has it's little doses of wtf here and there.
Hell if anything I would have thought the japanese would be better opened minded about this than other cultures.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by mangatron

We still have no confirmation that Manami was tied to breaking Eris out of captivity, unless I missed something here. As far as I can see, once she handed over Eris her job was done, complete, waiting for the next assignment. They didn't imply either that she was revealed as the one to leak Eris' location, because seeing as how Eris broke herself out, that itself is a lot more embarrassing than an outside source leak, hence the accident cover-up.

She was there in the base together with Aoi during the process of breakout though. Assuming she was recognized by someone during the escape (and even if she wasn't, being in the car and all, they would still later find out who the two guys were from security footage later, which wouldn't be exactly hard to link with her), it wouldn't exactly be surprising if she was "relieved from duty" ... providing information for an enemy is not a light case - assuming she was found out, the only reason she would get to walk away free at all would be because government would deny such a mission existing in the first place (Not like they could continue with that little scheme after the mothership came knocking), so ... yeah. Still no confirmation either way, but i wouldn't be surprised to find out she is out.

As for Aoi ... well, much harder to say, as her organization seems much more shady so who knows under what ruleset they operate, and what she can get away with (she can apparently shoot messengers on a whim after all for no other reason than feeling like it ), and we still don't know how integral she personally is to the project. Once again to be seen i suppose, but if anything i find it much more likely that Aoi would stay in business of the two.

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

As for Aoi ... well, much harder to say, as her organization seems much more shady so who knows under what ruleset they operate, and what she can get away with (she can apparently shoot messengers on a whim after all for no other reason than feeling like it ), and we still don't know how integral she personally is to the project. Once again to be seen i suppose, but if anything i find it much more likely that Aoi would stay in business of the two.

Aoi is clearly working for the government, as seen from her mission in ep1 part A. She was initially staying on a SDF ship and then "shot" to the suspicious boat.

As for which department she is working for, it should be pretty clear to manga and novel readers after the in-car gun shot episode. IMO anime watchers should have a right to know too. But then I am not sure if minor but important details like this are also affected by the AS no-spoiler-in-spoiler-box policy .

(Speculation) Anyhow regardless of who their immediate bosses are, apparently the dog aliens are the mastermind who gave the orders.

Btw it seems like Kio's harem (?) is consisted of solely civil servants . Eris is the elite Catian diplomat, Manami is the wannabe US agent while Aoi is the veteran Japanese agent.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Doraneko

As for which department she is working for, manga and novel readers should be pretty clear after the in-car gun shot episode. IMO anime watchers should have a right to know too. But then I am not sure if minor but important details like this are also affected by the AS no-spoiler policy.

The more accurate ep 1 subs at the end, had stated Momiji's standard mission is to remove "illegal immigrants". You can pretty much guess which department she is in from that alone.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Doraneko

...As for which department she is working for, it should be pretty clear to manga and novel readers after the in-car gun shot episode. IMO anime watchers should have a right to know too. But then I am not sure if minor but important details like this are also affected by the AS no-spoiler-in-spoiler-box policy....

I know from personal experience how tempting it is to tell all, but anime-watchers have no "right" to know anything that isn't in the anime, major or minor. Fortunately, some things can be speculatively inferred from what is in the anime, as Vallen Chaos Valiant points out.

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

I know from personal experience how tempting it is to tell all, but anime-watchers have no "right" to know anything that isn't in the anime, major or minor.

The AS spoiler policy disagrees with you. Note the first three points under "Exceptions." But then I think the mods in practice exercise a high degree of discretion. So this point is not helpful.

How about if I say anime fans have a right to choose get spoiled or not, and an independent mind to resist the temptation to click the spoiler button if they don't want to be spoiled? Okay this is clearly off topic and the mods will be chasing after us soon.

On a lighter note, back to Asoiku merchandise news!



The Assist-roids will be selling for 5250 yen. Pretty cute, except that the hands a little bit bigger than expected.

Eris' figure looks totally perfect and awesome though. I look forward to its release day (yet to be announced).


EDIT: Sorry for the ranting... Sometimes I am repeatedly asked similar questions about the series through private channels. I just think it would be much more economical and effective to have a mechanism to publicly answer those questions, while not affecting the others... Such as letting the good old spoiler box to resume its original function.

[Itlandm]

Anyway, now that the anime is moving in a more upbeat direction, I want to reflect a little on Catian sexuality. In the future, when mankind will be looking for its place in the galactic community, it is necessary to understand that there are differences between intelligent species from different worlds. While some fundamental traits are the same, others are subtly different.

From Eris' mention of her upcoming mating season, we can reason that Catian women are not in heat all year long. They seem to have a more pronounced estrus or rut. Limited in time, it is probably stronger while it lasts.

I believe the limited mating season explains Eris' relaxed attitude to clothing, postures, and sleeping together. Catian males probably don't react sexually to females that are not in heat, just as most non-human mammals don't. Eris may have a theoretical knowledge that Earthlings are in heat all year round (based on her library research and her research under the bed) but she may not yet have drawn the conclusion that Earth males are also excitable every day of the year.

[wingman32x]

This is a keeper for me. I really liked the first two episodes and I plan to follow this weekly. Episode two was great. I liked seeing everybody team up to get Eris out. Don't know how long this group is going to last, though.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Itlandm

Anyway, now that the anime is moving in a more upbeat direction, I want to reflect a little on Catian sexuality. In the future, when mankind will be looking for its place in the galactic community, it is necessary to understand that there are differences between intelligent species from different worlds. While some fundamental traits are the same, others are subtly different.

From Eris' mention of her upcoming mating season, we can reason that Catian women are not in heat all year long. They seem to have a more pronounced estrus or rut. Limited in time, it is probably stronger while it lasts.

I believe the limited mating season explains Eris' relaxed attitude to clothing, postures, and sleeping together. Catian males probably don't react sexually to females that are not in heat, just as most non-human mammals don't. Eris may have a theoretical knowledge that Earthlings are in heat all year round (based on her library research and her research under the bed) but she may not yet have drawn the conclusion that Earth males are also excitable every day of the year.

There are a number of animal species that engage in sexual activity regardless of it being "heat season" or not (Sex serves both as a recreational activity and means to prolong the species, and i would say Catians are intelligent enough to recognize the former as separate from later ), so i wouldn't hasten to draw a conclusion that Eris is necessarily "limited" in the period she can be active in (She still manages to blush and express worry about her first time, i would imagine a species that don't have the concept of mating outside of a specific period for the purpose of creating offspring are unlikely to have those emotional attachments), just that there is a period where she is more likely to jump the gun (Obviously to increase the friction on romance side between the three females if she moves on the offensive )

I would attribute her not being 'that' fussed about clothing to her being Eris - she is simply obscenely friendly and doesn't overreact even when havings a gun pointed at her or when bound and locked inside a containment chamber, so that's just her personality, and i wouldn't necessarily call wearing a shirt around the house for night being overly lax with clothing - while it makes a fine piece to ogle indeed, it isn't like it would be an overly revealing piece of clothing that would show any private parts, it's a fairly typical thing to wear to bed ... normally people wouldn't be very fussed about many things which we often see blown out of proportion in anime for comedy/dramatic effect, if anything i find her (And Kio, who also has wonderfully managed to avoid over-reaction thus far) more "down to earth" that many of supposedly human anime females ).

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Itlandm

Episode 2 went a long way toward redeeming the series in my eyes. The problem with the first episode was that it portrayed friends, and specifically female friends, as secret enemies acting friendly but ready to betray or even kill you unawares. This is just what an otaku does NOT need, to be pushed right over the edge into full-blown hikikomori mode. (I am talking about otaku in the Japanese sense here, not the English meaning of "any random person viewing anime or reading manga", as this would likely include all Japanese over the age of 3.)

In contrast, ep.2 shows a heartwarming triumph of friendship over allegiance, although it takes some time. Perhaps fans will dare leave their room again now...

aye, not hikikomori myself - but not a fan of "vast overlapping conspiracies that can be pulled out of a hat" to explain plots. ep1 was both interesting and disappointing in some ways but ep 2 appears to be cleaning up the "illuminati are everywhere" route a bit.