Update to Updates Received/Not Received 5/25/17 :: Spectrum :: Albany, NY :: Zip Code 12203
No change: Azumanga #24, Bakuon #7, and Chivalry #10 from 5/25/17 and everything from 6/1/17 is still missing.
Since there’s still no programming, how about a fourth irrelevant programming note?
In the absence of my regular shows, I watched Undefeated Bahamut Chronicles this weekend, along with some of the other shows I hadn’t been watching, and I found it a perfectly serviceable, watchable, painless little show. But does it strike anyone else that Bahamut seems like it was assembled out of bits and pieces of other shows? I mean, even more than most other shows are?
Now I know that this is a horribly unfair and stunningly unoriginal observation, because it’s largely an artifact of (1) the order in which I happened to encounter these shows, and (2) the fact that by their very nature tropes repeat; they get used and reused, alot–that’s how something gets to be a trope. And so I could play this same game with any number of magical girl or mecha or survival game or zombie or romance or my-magical-creatures-fight-your-magical-creatures shows. But still, consider: …
[details=long, with spoilers](With thanks to Wikipedia for the publication histories, and especially to tv tropes for helping me flog my failing memory of some of the finer details of these shows.)
…even just limiting ourselves to a few of the shows currently available on AN,
Lux, a soft-spoken white-haired boy abandoned by his family, is unfairly saddled with a huge debt and has to support himself by doing numerous odd jobs; he’s about to have a fateful meeting with a slim, blonde, pony-tailed tsundere (Hayate/Hayate the Combat Butler),
Estranged from his noble family, he bears the disparaging title, “The Weakest Undefeated” (Ikki, rejected by his prominent clan, dubbed “The Worst One” for his weak magic/Chivalry of a Failed Knight), but he happens to have a close relation with the headmistress of the Royal Dragon Knight Academy (Ikki/Hagun Academy/Chivalry again; also Kamito/Areishia Spirit Academy/Blade Dance of the Elementalers; Ichika/Infinite Stratos Academy/ Infinite Stratos ; even Kazami/Mihama Academy/Grisaia).
One day, Lux accidentally sees Lisesharte Atismata, the Crimson War Princess, naked in the bath (Stella, the Crimson Princess, changing in her room/Chivalry; Claire Rouge, former Princess, bathing in a forest lake/Elementalers).
The outraged Princess forces him to fight a duel (Stella/Chivalry), during which his skill with his substandard mecha is such that she is forced to resort to her supermecha’s special Divine Power (Ikki’s swordsmanship forcing Stella to resort to her A-rank Blazer powers/Chivalry).
The duel is interrupted by a rampaging monster, but Lux’s heroic actions are such that the Princess falls for him, and tends to his wounds (Stella, uh, “tending” to the bedridden Ikki after he defeats her in their duel and falling for him/Chivalry).
When the Princess asks Lux what he saw in the bath, he says “Everything. It was…pretty,” causing the Princess to flush in pleased embarrassment (when Stella accuses Ikki of having looked upon her lustfully, he apologizes, saying she was so beautiful he couldn’t tear his eyes away; cue Stella’s steam-out-the-ears explosion and flush of flattered embarrassment /Chivalry).
The mecha suits (Infinite Stratos and too many other predecessors to list) that give the Knights their power are summoned by swords called “devices” (Blazers’ powers manifest as weapons, most often swords, called “devices”/Chivalry; Spirit Contractors’ bound spirits take on the form of weapons, often swords, hence the “Bladedance” in Bladedance; the special IS suits are summoned by small objects worn by Ichika et al/Infinite Stratos).
As a result of the duel, Lux is enrolled as the only male student in the Academy (Ichika/Infinite Stratos, Kamito/Elementalers, Kazami/Grisaia).
His white-haired, soft-spoken, snarky little-sister-with-a-brother-complex Airi also attends the Academy (Ikki’s white-haired, soft-spoken, snarky little-sister-with-a-brother-complex Shizuku becomes a student at the Academy/Chivalry).
Lux is assigned to be roommates with his all-grown-up childhood friend Philuffy (Ichika is assigned to share a room with his all-grown-up childhood friend Houki/Infinite Stratos).
There’s a schoolwide contest where whoever grabs the special red workorder sheet from Lux gets him exclusively to herself for a week (a contest where whoever grabs Ichika’s crown gets to be his roommate/Infinite Stratos).
Lux has a secret identity–he’s really the Black Knight who single-handedly toppled the corrupt and tyrannical Old Empire to pave the way for the New Kingdom (Kamito is really the legendary Bladedancer Ren Ashbell/Bladedance; also, if you stretch it just a little, Kazami, the secret government assassin/Grisaia; even Chifuyu, who is secretly the White Knight who saved Japan/Infinite Stratos).
Same of his female classmates delight in dressing (a futilely protesting) Lux up as a girl; he makes a pretty one (Hayate/Hayate the Combat Butler).
There’s more–a lot more, if we expanded the set of shows we’re comparing. For example, to add just one show from outside of AN, Unlimited Fafnir also has “the one lone male with powers/sent to the all-girl Academy for people with powers/where on the first day he accidentally stumbles upon a naked girl who will become a love interest/these powers manifest as materializing special weapons/and his powers are the very weakest/though he’s extremely skilled at combat/meanwhile, he has an (adopted) sister-with-a-brother-complex who’s also at the Academy/…” But I think that’s enough to make my point.
The weird thing is that while the original light novels of Infinite Stratos started in 2009, and Bladedancer in 2010, Chivalry and Bahamut started at practically the same time–Chivalry in July 2013 and Bahamut the very next month, in August 2013. Unlimited Fafnir also launched in July 2013. So the latter three apparently weren’t cribbing off each other. Guess it was just in the zeitgeist–or the tropes.
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As ever, thanks for your kind indulgence!