Akuma no Riddle Speculation 2#

Hey everyone. What’s up? It’s Deven once again with a Speculation. It’s already a season passed? Wow it’s been some time. Time to revisit something from the Spring of 2014 anime! No it’s not Date A Live. Patience brothers and sisters all good things come to those that wait. I’m talking about Akuma no Riddle.

Now that the anime is over and I finally got some extra time on my hands(read: no internet so I have no choice but to work), I can finally get this Speculation done.

As you all know I did my first Akuma no Riddle Speculation while the anime was still airing so I didn’t really get to do all the characters and their flowers. I promised myself that after the anime I’d get to it but you know. Life gets in the way sometimes. But now I’ve got the time and more importantly the downloads so I’m adding all the ending songs for Speculation too!

Big thanks to Funimation for picking up Akuma no Riddle and subtitling all the endings! I’m going to one more Akuma no Riddle Speculation on who I think will get parts in this anime!

So let’s get going!

The beautiful Otoya(voiced by the even more beautiful Manami Numakura) will go first!

These are mountain lillies which mean joy of life which now that I have some hindsight works with Otoya’s personality. Someone that takes so much live would get their own jollies off killing.

At the beginning of Otoya’s song with that guitar rift(sorry if I got the term wrong. I don’t know music terms) it gives me a sight of a spider walking along a web. The theme of the song is basically you’re going to die so you might as well let Otoya have her fun with you. And Otoya’s fun hurts…a lot…all the time. Stay away until you want to die!

My cute little academic is second.

These are red spider lillies which have two meanings ‘looking forward to seeing you again’ and ‘sad memories’. We really get this a lot with Kouko because she really cared about her senpai Irina. Also to the fact that she was raised by a Christian orphanage so she must be a Christian so she would see Irina in heaven I guess. Sad memories also works since Kouko regrets her mistake with the car bomb that ended up killing Irina.

Kouko’s song quite simple in design. It’s her walking through in pace with the music. However the words are what get you. They describe Kouko’s life after she killed Irina, how she became so driven. Yet the song says that she wants to be saved from the life that she lives.

The better big sister is third and she’s really cool.

These are Verbena flowers which symbolize familial love. That fits perfectly with Haruki who loves her family so much that she became an assassin. You can guess that with the way she acts that if she wasn’t aiming to kill Haru then she’d be a pretty good person.

Now I look at the terms and searches that bring people to my blog and the most used one for Akuma no Riddle is Haruki Sagae!

Haruki’s song has a lot of yellows, blacks, and reds to it. However that’s not as important as the lyrics and the pictures. Haruki talks about how she wants to be free from the assassin life and is willing to give up her life to keep her promise to be there for her siblings. Now I said it in the original version of this post and I’ll say it again. This girl is the best big sister I’ve seen in an anime for a while. Now how many sisters are ready to kill for their siblings?

Every anime has one, the designated loli at fourth and her princely lover at fifth.

These are white and red roses which symbolize love for the red roses and purity for the white roses. You can see it in their relationship even without the yuri. Chitaru loved and respected her master so much that she joined the Black class to track down the girl that killed her daughter. Hitsugi has in her personality which is very innocent and kind minus the whole Angel’s Trumpet thing.

Even I can’t mess this up! It’s a tragedy song. It’s all about how Hitsugi and Chitaru are star-crossed lovers. Nothing else matter other than their pure Yuri love! I love it! It also talks about how if the world would reject them and their angels turn into demons they’d plummet into Hell. Sounds great!

She didn’t get much but here she is as number six.

These are thistles which symbolic of revenge. Now in the anime we can’t see this but in the manga we can see this through Shiena’s conversation with Otoya about how she hates bullying. So she could have been bullied while she was little so she could have become an assassin to kill the people that bullied her.

Note: Shiena did not get an ending song or a song on any of the character CDs which is odd since she was on the cover of the second one.

The Immortal Highlander comes in at number seven!

It’s over there in the corner of the shot

These are Red Tulips which symbolize declarations of love. It works well with Suzu because her life is all about love, losing it ,gaining, and losing it again. Seeing as she lost her first boyfriend because of her Highlander Syndrome and she has a massive shiptease with Kouko. I approve! Two of my favorite girls on this show with beautiful Yuri action? I’d faint from happiness! She also shows moving on pass lost loves. At the end of the anime you see Suzu moving on pass her lost love and vowing to make the best of her immortal life.

Now I look at the most popular posts on my blog too, And How Old Are You, Shuto-san? is one of the most popular post dealing with Akuma no Riddle. Thanks!

Now this song just puts all of Suzu’s feelings in one song and just goes all out with it. The image while she’s singing is of Suzu in her old Meiji Restoration kimono holding hands with her old boyfriend and as the song ends she shifts to the clothes she wears now. The song talks about how much she hurts about losing her lover because of her disease and she hasn’t forgotten him no matter how many years pass.

The girl with two minds is coming in at eight!

The ones on the left are Mahiru’s

These are Moonflowers and Japanese Bindweeds which symbolize bewitching and ties respectively. You can see the bewitching part very clearly with Mahiru. No one seems her a threat. They’re all afraid of Shinya who they think is the real killer. However Mahiru’s the one that wants to do all the killing. Shinya just does the deed. The only person that figured this out was Otoya ironically saying they have more in common during the day that what appears. As for ties, she wears a tie in her uniform…hahaha . I had to do that. Anyway ties represent how Mahiru and Shinya are tied together spiritually and emotional as well as physical all because they are two halves of the same person. One is dependent on the other.

Now this song is a contraster type. Mahiru’s voice is very soft and feminine. However the beat track is a strong drum beat with rock guitars. I kinda would call it techno. Of course it works with her voice but the idea is the constrast. For her voice you’d expect a ballad like music but we’ve got techno. As for the lyrics, she talks about lack of hope and trying to escape only to break down in tears at the hopelessness. Then it has the sound of glass breaking and the style of the lyrics to a lot more dark stuff. So it’s safe to say it’s Shinya’s lyrics.

The sex symbol for this anime comes in at number 9.

(Side Note: Some of you might not think that Isuke’s the sex symbol for this anime. Let me remind you of some facts. She wears a mini-skirt, thigh high boots, shows her middrift, wears a leather top, has some of the biggest boobs in this anime, and she’s the only one that jumps into a bikini when they go to the pool. Yep she’s sexy!)

 

These are Red Carnations which symbolize believing in love. However what’s unique about Isuke’s flower is that it’s a bud and not a fully grown flower. You can make the logical guess that Isuke’s still young about love. But you clearly see that the main reason that she came to Myojo Academy is to win money so her parents would have a nice life after they retired. However I guess it’s a young love because she thinks that money can buy happiness. It can but it only last so long.

Side note: Don’t tell me that new PS3 or PS4 you got didn’t make you happy! You know you’re lying if you said it doesn’t.

So she’s trying to make her parents happy by giving them things when she could just be spending time with them. Esuke outright said that they missed her while she was at Myojo Academy. So instead of doing the quick assassin jobs and being able to spend more time with her family, she did a long job with the possibility of getting paid more and stayed away far longer and nearly got killed by Tokaku.

This song does Isuke well. It’s perky and her Seiyuu has such a sexy voice. It’s talks about how basically how badass she is. But it also talks about how even Isuke has people she cares about. The ending really conveys Isuke’s personality.

The princess comes in at number 10.

These are Iceland Poppies which symbolize comfort and relaxation. Now for Hanabusa this is pretty easy to see. She’s rich so she can afford to take it easy and not have to stress herself. Also the fact that she can bring in her own furniture so she doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. She even rented an entire floor of Myojo Academy and altered it to suit her tastes. She’s used to living in comfort.

Hanabusa’s song has to be the best song this anime made! It’s freaking badass. The music is awesome rock but Hanabusa’s voice is just so calm and chill. This ending basically says what I’ve been saying since Hanabusa went after Haru. Sumireko Hanabusa is the princess of badass and we should all start bowing down. The song does talks about how futility of situations and how cruel life is. However Hanabusa ain’t going to give up. She’s going to fight and pull out her trump card at the last minute.
That’s it for the flowers since Haru, Tokaku, and Nio do not have any. I’m not going to do Haru or Tokaku’s endings since this was supposed to be a flower and song update thing.

The final ending goes to the the Queen of Misdirection and the Unexpected at number 11.

Nio’s Seiyuu is Yoshino Nanjo, also the Seiyuu of Eli Ayase and she’s the lead singer of FripSide and a member of Lantis’s Seiyuu made Muse. So it’s not any shock that she can sing like a goddess!

Nio’s song…just Nio’s song. Note that’s shivers of fear. The song makes excellent use of dark pauses and then Nio’s face comes up smiling with that toothy grin she’s got. A bit frightening.

Now this song has some stuff that you can speculate about. One scene is Nio on a stage being controlled by puppet strings. You can clearly see that means Yuri’s controlling her. My guess is with her Queen Bee ability. Some of the lyrics talk about how Nio wishes she could fly away from where she is. She talks about how no one ever was kind enough to tell her the truth. So that makes me guess that even at the end of the anime Nio still doesn’t know that she’s under Yuri’s Queen Bee ability.

The final part of the ending is the clencher. You see Nio at the top of some type of platform and then a scene or two later you see Nio’s shoes on the ground. Now that doesn’t mean anything in the western world but in Japan people take off their shoes before they commit suicide, particularly jumping in front of trains or buses.

Wow. She killed herself. You can clearly see that Yuri uses Nio and in some part of herself Nio wants her independence. So she takes back the only way she can.

Also I’m guessing Yuri has sex with Nio. Mostly because a lot of the promo shots that have Yuri in them have Nio in them as well. So we all know how this turns out in the manga(Not the anime, they were too scared to give the real yuri), all girl school, servant that will do whatever you say, freaking Yuri manga! It’s obvious.

So on that happy note, I’ll end my Akuma no Riddle Speculation now.

I need some brain bleach after that one. And I’ve got the good stuff! Love Live…wow I’ve done a lot of Love Live Posts lately. Maybe I should do something else? Nah you guys love Love Live. Next Love Live post will be about the OVAs that came with Love Live Endless Parade Concert.

So until then,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.

Love Live School Idol Project Snow Halation Comparison

I can’t stop doing Love Live Posts! Don’t help me! Don’t save me!

Hey everyone. It’s Deven coming at you once more with a…I don’t really know what to call it. It’s not a Speculation. I guess it’d be more of an anaylsis. Okay we’ll call it that. I’m coming at you with a Love Live Song Analysis of Snow Halation! One of Muse’s best songs.

Now if you don’t know Lantis which is the company that owns Love Live and produces all their songs and merchandise makes Love Live CDs. What makes them really awesome and you really got to love the voice actresses for this, they make both group CDs and solo CDs. So you can have your favorite girl singing your favorite song! Isn’t that great!

Now Snow Halation is one of the few songs that has every member of Muse sing it. So I’ll be doing an anaylsis of how each member of Muse sings the song.

Note: The order is no particular order. This is the order that my iTunes gave me when I looked up the songs.

First up is Honoka Kousaka!

Honoka(voiced by Emi Nitta) sings with a medium sounding voice and not the usual perkiness that you see her with in the anime. It’s more soothing. It reminds me of a flowing river, her words just flow out naturally.

Next is Umi Sonoda!

Umi(voiced by Suzuko Mimori) is what I call Elegance against Adversity. She makes every song she sings sound so sensual and beautiful. It reminds me of a nice cool night where the snowflakes are falling slowly. It’s so relaxing.

Next is Maki Nishikino!

Maki(voiced by Pile) is another example of Elegance against Adversity but with a little edge. When Maki sings Snow Halation, it sounds more lovely like she’s singing right to you. It reminds me a lot of a serenade. So Maki cute!

Next is Nico Yazawa!

Nico(voiced by Sora Takui) well sounds kinda like my little sister when she was about five(she’s about 16 now). Her voice is quite high more in that place where Nozomi, Hanayo, and Kotori’s voices are. Despite that it sounds very cute. It reminds me of playing around in the snow with my little sister.

She’s actually my godsister and a lot taller than me but we’ve been raised like family

Next is ironically Kotori Minami!

Kotori(voiced by Aya Uchida) has a very high voice but it works for her especially in this song. In the PV Kotori’s grouped with alongside Maki and Rin. Rin has a medium pitched voice and Maki has a more edgy lower voice so they harmonize well. Kotori’s performance reminds me of those good days making snow angels with my godsister.

Next up is Rin Hoshizora!

Rin(voiced by Riho Iida) is not particularly my favorite member of Muse in the anime. However when she sings she’s one of my favorites alongside Hanayo, Eli, Umi, and Nozomi in that order. Why? Because she clearly changes her pitch in the anime for Rin’s voice but while she sings I’m guessing she’s using her normal voic e and it sounds so much better. It sounds like a casual and nice conversation. I rate Rin’s singing voice like Umi’s, very sensual.

Next up is Hanayo Koizumi!

Hanayo(voiced by Yurika Kubo) has a very high voice. Probably the only member of Muse with a higher voice is Kotori but it works for her. It’s one of the main reasons that Kokuhaku Biyori, Desu! is one of my favorite Muse songs. Hanayo’s Snow Halation version just has one of those cuteness levels that makes you want to hug her. I love it so much. She’s one of my favorites on Muse because of this voice!

Next up is Nozomi Tojou!

Nozomi(voiced by Aina Kusada) has a voice similar to but not the same as Hanayo and Kotori but it’s a inch lower. However it doesn’t make her less awesome. I think that Nozomi puts the most emotion into this song and makes it a song you want to dance to.

Last but not least is Eli Ayase!

Eli(voiced by Yoshino Nanjo) has a such a beautiful voice. It sounds so mature and soft yet filled with energy. I can’t just listen to an Eli sung song once. It must be listened to at least five times.

Now that I’ve looked at the girls solo. Let’s look at things as a whole.

Now I’m an absolute idiot with Music Theory but my younger cousin who’s a bass singer taught me one thing. You have the soprano, the alto, and the tenor in group based songs. Then again he sings in church but I think that it still applies.

However in this case we’re dealing with girls so it’s more of the highest, the medium, and the mature low.

Now the group’s divided(at least in my eyes) into three groups during this song which I think work that dynamic well.

One group is Eli, Hanayo, and Nico acting as the center. I think that Eli takes the mature, Hanayo the medium, and Nico the highest.

The next group is Kotori, Maki, and Rin acting as the center. Maki takes the mature, Rin the medium, and Kotori the highest.

The final group is Umi, Nozomi, and Honoka acting as the center for the group and the entire song as a whole. Umi takes the mature, Honoka the medium, and Nozomi the highest.

And it all comes together to make one of Muse’s best songs in my opinion.

Now I’m going to be super nice here. Since you listened, or in this case read me, ramble about music. I’m giving you my copies of the nine versions of Snow Halation for free as well as my copy of the Snow Halation PV(the original not the 2014 anime version).

Just click on the two Snow Halation pics below and download them from my Dropbox.

And that’s all for this review…hmmm…I think I can push out one more Love Live Post. I’ll let it be a surprise though.

Until the next one(you won’t have long to wait)
Later Days.

You can ask me as many questions as you want onAsk.fmand you can follow me onTwitterto know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.

Let’s Look:Rail Wars! Episode 2:And…Boom Goes The Dynamite!

We’ve got a good show here. Shipping, fighting, explosions, what’s not to love!

So we start off the episode with this.

Does everyone in this anime have huge boobs? I’m not complaining just asking…

So after a quick talk about the coicendence that they’re all on the same squad, Nana the Squad Leader makes her introduction.

I have to say that it’s very refreshing to Yui Horie’s voice not coming out of Carla from Fairy Tail. I haven’t seen much of her in anything else so it’s good for me to see her in a new role.

Also Nana makes a pun. See since they’re the Fourth Peacekeeper squad, they are called K-4 but it’s pronounced K-Yon similar to the anime to the K-On!

So after the still awesome opening by Minori Chihara(which character is she going to be?! I need to know.) we see a train called Black Star getting preped to go.

Looks like someone called in a bomb threat at the station in Yokohama and Gonou, being the commander of the Riot Police, is going there to check it out.

Note:They are currently in Tokyo which is in the Tokyo Prefecture of Japan. They’re traveling to Yokohama which is in the Kanagawa prefecture. Kanagawa is pretty much Tokyo’s neighbor and a journey between the two takes thirty minutes either way because they are in the same region of Kanto. Yes the name is the same as Pokemon I know.

So after they leave, Naoto whines about how he was supposed to be a train driver and not a peacekeeper. Quit whining man! You stopped a purse snatcher and used some pretty creative ways to catch up with them.

That’s right time to get into action.

Ooh What is it?

So your job is basically hold down the fort until Gonou stops being a sexy badass? You’ll be at that fort for awhile…

Aoi complains how can they be PSF members if they aren’t even in the action?

After that an old lady asks how to get to the platform and Aoi just points her over to the place while Naoto walks her over.

Look at you man. Being all chirvilous and what not.

After that we get a crying kid and guys try to get him to stop but of course things like this need a woman’s touch. So Koumi comforts him.

Lucky brat. Reminds me of Momonosuke of One Piece. Come on! He’s a boy. He knows what he’s doing!

So we cut to Aoi complaining to Nana that they’re basically like mall cops.

Hahaha! Good one!

Nana gets out of her seat and explains that they are protecting the people. It’s just not in a flash and obvious like Gonou does. They’re needed in a different way basically.

She stands kinda sexy like that.

So to show her takes her gun in the most sexual way possible.

After that we cut to Naoto and Koumi at the lost and found with the cute pup from yesterday. Then we go to our group hanging posters but what’s weird is this.

Magic!!! Someone’s casting magic on them! Or someone wasn’t paying attention during final edits. I’ll go with the first one. Makes the anime director sound less stupid.

So anyway Nana invites the girls out to lunch while the guys keep on the job.

Wow that looks good and apparently they spray it with liquid nitrogen to make it cold and crunchy.

So after that we go back to Naoto and Iwaizumi hanging up posters. Boring right…

So other than some scorch marks and a broken locker, there wasn’t any casualities, nothing’s broken, and apparently Iwaizumi’s a freaking psychic because he was able to pull Naoto out of the way just in time.

After that we basically get a break down of what happened: the terrorist made a fake call so to pull Gonou and her team to Yokohama and get rid of the A-Team, leaving the kids to take care of it. So it worked perfect to catch them off guard.

The stationmaster states that terrorists want a 100 million yen for telling them where the bomb is. Wait a second…that’s about 986,729 dollars. It’s kinda low if you look at this way but then again a lot of yen.

Oh my god, that’s a lot of money! Imagine what I could do with that much cash…

I need to try not to think about it.

If they don’t give them the money then they’ll set off a massive explosion. Naoto immediately says they have to do evaculate the customers. One of the assistants say that since this is the Tokyo Station, and not any small little stop, it would cause a massive panic. And we all know what happens when people panic. Theft, death, trampling , and general havoc. My kind of party but it tends to be bad.

So they say that they’re going to give in to the demands but Aoi argues back.

Naoto says that if they can find the bomb before Gonou comes back or the bomb goes off they might not have to give the money away.

Nana explains how they’ll go about searching but if they can’t find the bomb by 2:50 then they’ll give into the demands.

We go to the group checking the lockers and Koumi comments that there are 3000 lockers in the station.

So after checking 368 lockers, Aoi gets an idea.

Then Koumi gets a phone call saying that the dog they turned into the lost and found last episode just started barking and won’t stop. Iwaizumi gets the idea that the bomb must be in the Lost and Found.

Aoi tells Koumi and Iwaizumi to evacuate the area and tell Nana about the bomb.

So it looks like with fifteen minutes of the clock, it looks like Gonou’s going to come back to a small crater where the lost and found was.

Can you say badass?!

Side Note: This is how you get yourself blown up when dealing with a bomb. Any smart bomb maker knows to keep the real wires that do anything out of sight and out of reach. You can’t trust the clock. The timer can speed up, show the wrong countdown time, and whole lot of other things.

Aoi says that if Naoto wants to get out he can run but he stands firm with her.

While cutting the wires, Aoi and Naoto have to line up some wires so she can cut them at the same time. So this ends up happening…

It’s not his hand but it’s just as good right? Side note: Whoever said more than hand full is a waste is deluded. Bigger is better.

So the clock hits near three and Aoi and Naoto are down to the last two wires, one pink and other red.

If that ain’t ship teasing I don’t know…that gives me an idea for another meta post. God I create more work for myself.

Aoi decides to cut the red wire but then this happens.

And the clock starts diving. Aoi dips out to go to do something and Koumi asks if she can do anything and Naoto says to help Iwaizumi.

Naoto has a vision of him driving a train in a void. Looks like he’s going to the big train yard in the sky…

And Aoi comes in and saves the day with the liquid nitrogen.

Side Note: This is actually how it works if you ever see a bomb. The liquid nitrogen freezes the electrons in the bomb and stops the electric from flowing.

So we cut to the platform with the stationmaster and then this happens…

They swarm him like they were playing Ride of the Valkyries in the background.

Such a sexy serious voice.

So after that Aoi explains how she managed to beat the bomb and then she collapses.

If this isn’t fanservice and shipping, I’m clearly blind.

After that we head back to the K-4 room where Naoto’s made Deputy Squad Leader.

Now I barely get it. Aoi did the actual save by freezing the bomb but what Naoto was more important. He made the command decision to take care of the customers and delagated responsibilies well. That’s better in a leader than Aoi’s more hotheaded style.

Indeed you are man. Indeed you are.

And with that, the episode is over. It’s definitely an okay episode but there’s a few flaws to it especially with the posters.

All in all, I’ll give this episode an 6/10. It had some good parts but it wasn’t enough to get a better score.

 Bonus Pic!

You can click for full size.

So that’s the episode so until the next one,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.