Anime/Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Yep. Students in countries other than Musashi just never graduate.

As for Juana, she's both the Vice-President and the Treasurer of Tres Espana. Felipe is the President, but he hasn't taken an active part in running the nation in decades, so Juana's effectively has that job as well, making her 3/4 of the student council. Well, a bit less than that, since Felipe can totally just overrule her in the rare cases where he wants to contribute.

Episode 23 highlights:

• The whole episode was generally awesome battle after awesome battle.
• Tres Espana's Chancellor turning the tables in a battle they're supposed to be losing via sly interpretation of history. Brilliant bastard.
• Malga shielding Tenzo from the gravity spell. Plus Kimi defying said gravity spell just because she can. Funny dialogue between Tenzo and Malga too.
• Neito making good use of the full moon. Also the reveal about the cute OS the enemy doll had. Oh and Neito crushed an energy cannon with her bare hands!
• Margot going the old fashioned route in communications.
• Ship vs ship, witch versus jet, the naval battle is simply glorious. Musashi would have lost if Toori hadn't been there to snap Adele out of her funk.
  • Can't neglect to mention the support troops! The maid corps, the witch squadron, mecha, and even the friggin' cargo ships that Shirojiro has somehow managed to get his hands on.
• Neshinbara using the Macbeth curse to win against Shakespeare by making a usurper that will take out King Lear (which is also the condition for the release of his curse, so he cure himself in the process too!). He essentially wrote a Shakespeare fanfic. Another brilliant bastard. Oh and of course romance brews. It's kinda cute actually. Okay, not just kinda.
• The OST for this show has always been really good, and I felt like mentioning it because the use of the soundtrack in this show really enhances the experience.

is shakespear a half elf? she seems far too childish for her physical age. such a great episode. anyone know how sales or pre-orders are looking?

It's quite possible, consider she appeared to be the same age as Neshinbara both in the flashback and present day. A pure elf would've aged slower than him, and she certainly has those elven ears.

Well, that's one way to end the new episode.

Yeah, I had feeling at the time it would come back to bite them in some way. Didn't expect it to be this way in particular, though.

On the other hand: Felipe X Juana: I was fine with the ship tease with them before, but now that we know more about their shared backstory, the idea of them as a couple is pretty creepy. I'm not sure if it's made better or worse by the fact that if she was the age she's claiming to be as part of pretence of being a full elf, they'd be much less wrong with it, and therefore random bystanders wouldn't see anything wrong with it.

edited 18th Sep '12 6:27:43 PM by Gilphon

Well, that was yet another creative way of making sure the re-enactments continue. I forgot how historical Elizabeth's nephew James eventually ruled after her... So what better way to ensure it will happen by making sure a James with a connection with the crown gets born to begin with?

edited 19th Sep '12 6:28:58 PM by MyssaRei

This anime actually makes me want to study history again.

Good point. How old is Joana, mentally?

As a half-elf, it would be half of her actual age. If she's in her thirties physically, then she's barely a teenager mentally... which doesn't really make sense, since she's been more or less running things ever since Felipe went hands-off on the management side of Tres Espana.

I guess she's a child genius then

I don't think she's been around quite that long. They would've noticed she was aging at human speed rather than elf speed if she's been at the top for more than a few years; there must've been somebody in charge between her and Felipe.

Sounds like something for Zeroblade to answer in his Tumblr page again. Hmm, first time I'm going to ask him for trivia, but oh well.

Answers from Zeroblade via Twitter, which I used to bypass the usual stuff the Kyoukaisen tumblr.

So there we have it. Queen Juana is mentally and emotionally still a teen, and she's been getting help from the other members of the Tres Espana student council, foremost our resident Eroge writer.

What is with this show and epic confessions?!

I laughed out loud at the end. You know what I'm talking about.

Tonbokiri is going to pay hard for that misunderstanding.

And indeed, well you know how the first love confession in the show went... "Hey, Seijun! When did my love confession turn into a declaration of world conquest?"

Felipe mentioned that Lepanto was 25 years ago. Chibi Juana looked at least 6 or 7. so physically she is in her early 30's but since we haven't been told the exact rate of mental growth compared to physical growth for half elves, her mental age is anyone's guess. Felipe however, looks like he is pushing 70, so yeah, that is a rather creepy relationship. or maybe all the stress and heartache he has suffered just aged the crap of out of him. Meanwhile, Tenzo is a boss and i love the guy. i wanna see Shirojiro's face when he see's the repair bill for the Mushashi. if i read the status screen right, then the front two ships are totally screwed. Tori's desire to be the most pessimistic person in the chat was funny.

Actually, we have, just not in-show. Half-elf mental development is half of that of normal humans, so yes, Juana's basically a teenager in a 28-32 year old's body. It's apparently one of those things that was casually mentioned in the books.

ok that make sense, but does it slow down the more they age? Chibi Shakespeare seemed to be at the right mental age at that school, but current Shakespeare looks 17ish but acts like the age she looked like while at the school. i guess i am asking: when they are very young, does their mental age match their physical age, and at some point mental growth start lagging behind physical growth?

I feel like it's possible that the thing about their mental age being half their physical is just a rule of thumb/product of racism, and the truth is more complicated than that.

Like, puberty happens at the same time it does for humans, and that implies a certain degree of mental shift at a time when elf children don't have any, so it can't be completely identical.

edited 23rd Sep '12 5:39:22 PM by Gilphon

Futayo ... >_>

This show is weird. Why do I enjoy it so.

Speaking of Futayo, her fight scene in episode 25 is fantastic. Poor Gin detached her arms so Futayo wouldn't be able to cut them off the way her husband did. That's kinda sweet. Probably helped that Futayo did a lot of psychological damage by going into detail about her encounter with Muneshige.

It will probably be interesting to note that the Tachibana couple will probably lose their titles because of their defeat. Is it possible for them to join Musashi the way Mary joined them?

I wonder what the incubus did in that one ship...

Suzu does something! :D

Toori has quite the gift for motivational speeches. Tres Espana doesn't hold back either! A win for the mooks on both sides! Special mention to the squad of Tres Espana mooks who tanked Shirojiro's attacks and that one Musashi mook who explained to his fellow soldiers what it means to fight for Musashi.

Shirojiro knows how to spend his money— by turning it into chainmail... and a frickin' railgun! His opponent isn't one to scoff at either! He manages to block all of Shirojiro's attacks and at one point decides to not block an attack so he can go in for the kill! (Also because he was in a hurry for plot reasons) I felt sorry for the guy when they lost the fight. Dude had to be saved by his subordinates 'cause he couldn't accept they lost the fight and was on a desperation attack.

So you know how Naomasa's maus is the one in Jizuri Suzaku? Well it turns out that it's her little sister. Whoa. "She told me to use her, so I'll use her!" ;_; The BGM in that scene was very, very fitting.

Margot lost her techno broom thing too. Though I guess it puts her at equal ground with Malga again.

I managed to say something coherent instead of gushing like a madman!

Well the TV Tropes page, which has apparently been done by people who've glanced over three of the volumes and said "hey that's cool", already spoiled those two joining Musashi. I still wish half of the secondary cast did more than just being comic relief though.

There's a lot of opportunities for them to bask in the spotlight in future episodes.

And about that spoiler: a-ha! Knew it!

sure they could join, but can they fight? im pretty sure they are both over 18, so they cant be students. so many epic fights, and poor Gin

So how is this show? I've been trying to think of some anime to give a fair look at.