Gakusen Toshi Asterisk Episode 13: Divine Revelations

THIS IS THE ASTERISK WAR

Impression

I have no idea whether I’ll end up blogging this weekly, but I had stuff to say so I decided to go with an individual post for now. Asterisk is back, and it’s like Fall 2015 never left us. I absolutely love love love the new OP, by the way. I didn’t think it’d be on par with Brand-New World, but somehow it managed to be just as hype-inducing. ED2 is not as good as Waiting in the Rain, but it’s still Sakamoto Maaya and she always offers quality (when she does sing, that is). I wonder whether we can crown Asterisk the winner of that season’s school battle harem war by default, since it’s the only one left standing. Aniplex throwing money at this was, as they must have realized by now, a reckless and ill-fated misstep, but these are sunk costs and so it’s good to appreciate what we have. Hand-to-hand martial arts and Chinese flying lolis have never looked better. I like her, she’s another quality loli to add to this cast. I remember Volume 7 was about her, but it’s been so long since I’ve read the novels that I’m in a state of still remembering the major plot points of the story but having long forgotten everything else.

Ayato seems to have all the other schools scrutinizing him now, for better or for worse. The deceptively young-looking Chinese loli is interested in him, and so is Dirk (for much less benign reasons, given that it was Ayato who beat Irene and thus screwed up his chances of getting a wish from a Festa). So leaking info about Ayato is the very least Le Wolfe will do in retaliation. These school naming conventions are changing again by the way – I don’t care, I’m using what’s easiest for me to remember. Chances are, Ayato and Julis will have random people attacking him before crucial matches in underhanded ways in order to provoke him into releasing his seal and using up some of his power. It’s something that all Festa participants are at risk of to an extent, but more so for Ayato now that everyone knows of his time limit. And they’ll all think he’s capable of more than he really is, because the Irene fight had him stretch over what his limits safely should be, but everyone must think that that’s what he can do on a good day.

I kind of missed Julis, actually. Her mature-sounding voice is really pleasant, and I’m liking how she’s incorporating tactics and strategy into each fight knowing that Ayato’s secret is now in the open. It’s an uphill struggle, and it’s a nice change of pace from how battle harem fights usually play out (i.e. brute force). The Phoenix is a tag battle after all. Sadly we won’t be seeing the fight against the edgy-looking twins for a couple of weeks at least (the girl is a real qt, it’s a pity she has such a terrible personality), since it’s one of only three remaining fights, and they’ll have to drag things out somehow.

Asterisk is looking good though, it’s in surprisingly solid form for what it is!