u/AHipsterMario

With how this episode frames the distance from the floor to the ceiling and how nobody could spot Kiyomaro up there is one thing. How everyone thinks Kiyomaro has the nose of a swordfish is another but here... With how this conversation with Kanchome goes, did Kiyomaro just LET FOLGORE PIN HIM TO THE CEILING?

Okay so Kiyomaro says that when Folgore and Kanchome first arrived to his house, they asked him to give up Zatch's book to them and he refused, this implies Kiyomaro was conscious for this whole interaction before they took him and stuck him to the ceiling with multiple latches that were nailed.

I know he's supposed to be "sick" in this episode but the way this is presented looks like this was only possible if Kiyomaro WILLINGLY got on Folgore's shoulders or something. It's not presented like he fought back at all, Folgore didn't knock him out because he would have had a bruise or something (and he doesn't) and with the way he is placed on the ceiling and how Folgore nailed him there, it's only realistically possible if Kiyomaro stayed completely still for him to allow him to do it because at any point, he could have tried moving around while Folgore was trying to do this and completely screw up their whole plan.

Plus with the fact they used a wheeled computer chair that's not exactly "stable", even while locked, and Kanchome helping by holding Folgore's legs, this only would make sense if Folgore picked up Kiyomaro and he didn't fight back while Folgore placed the latches on ANY PART OF HIS BODY. This part is making my scalp itch from how crazed it is!

Man, the comments by Shin about how Kiyo is the type of person that Shin's mother wanted him to grow up to be... And Shin is in his 30s and Kiyo is still a teenager. It really goes to show how the series props up Kiyo as the most "ADULT" character in the grand scheme of things, even more than the actual adults.

Honestly, a part of me believes that Kiyo wasn't always meant to be a 14 year old teen given how he's written in so many mature scenarios. He's as tall as most of the adults (at this point in time), he's constantly treated like he's someone who would be in college by now, he's responsible for a lot of people that go to him for leadership and guidance despite being younger than them usually, he does the right thing more often than not in spite of how he might word things.

It's a fascinating parallel to me.

I'll say it again; MAN, THESE KIDS SUCK. Okay, I understand being a bit timid or pacifistic can lead to bullying but do you seriously want to be the one who insults the GIGANTIC kid who clearly has natural muscles and could throw you over a fence if he wanted? Not to mention, at the beginning of the flashback, they force Shin, THE GOALIE of their soccer game, to leave to go buy them all sweets.

You do need a goalie to play soccer appropriately. And this guy was doing a solid job. These kids are dumb!

Yeah, I'm back again to do more observations from episodes. I have to take a break all the time due to life but now we got Episode 10 and one of the oddest things in ZB I always remember is how Shin and Eshros managed to get so many spells in their book but they never fight anyone until they challenge Kiyomaro and Zatch at the Elementary School building... Well, thanks to a line of dialogue, I think I got a theory as to how they pulled that off.

At this part when Kiyo is following them through the town, Eshros is talking to Shin on his shoulder and recounts how it's been a long time since Shin was in Mochinoki and how being here reminds him of anger and pain.

When he hops off of Shin's shoulder, Eshros makes a comment about how, in the time they have been together, they have destroyed multiple things that have caused Shin mental pain. Considering the books are tied between the users and moments of intense emotion cause the spells to manifest. Is it possible that for every "thing" that they have destroyed that had affected Shin in his life manifested a new spell each time?

Which also begs the question... How much TERRORISM have these two committed since the Battle Royale started and they hadn't found a single other opponent? They had how many spells? 8 or 9?

Minus the starting spell, that technically means they have destroyed at least 7-8 possible PLACES in Japan prior to coming back to Mochinoki City. And yes, I know there's a throwaway line where they talk about how often they trained spells together but I don't know if that ALONE is enough of a catalyst to unlock so many techniques in the spell book.

Percy's my favorite character and I love how he's just a tinkerer/"dude with a gun" fighting monsters all day but for the life of me, I don't recall a single moment in seasons 2 or 3 after he lost The List where he is shown reloading the Retort, his replacement pistol.

That is until an episode of season 4 finally showed that the Retort is a breach loading pistol as opposed to the List which was a muzzle loading pepperbox when the group is fighting the Cult of The Whispered One for the first time. It's a very miniscule element of the story and I know it's not relevant to anything but I love the fact we finally see him actually putting bullets in the Retort.

So, after going up to the quarry to train and figure out what the third spell does, Kiyo and Zatch head back into town where they are promptly attacked by Fein and his partner in broad daylight. Interestingly, when they're attacked in the manga, Kiyo actually took the family bicycle with him to the quarry but in the anime he went back with Zatch on foot, no bike. So at least it wasn't destroyed in one version.

Also fascinatingly, JESUS, THAT'S A LONG TRIP TO GO ON FOOT. In the official Mochinoki City map, the battle between Zatch and Fein had occured at "Echo Building #3" at the bottom of the picture. The quarry is all the way at the top left of the map so Kiyo and Zatch went FAR, regardless of whether or not the trip was made on bike or on foot. Kiyo definitely got his cardio in that day lol

Side note, the fighting occurs outside the building and in broad public daylight where Fein and his partner attack civilians. If you look at where Echo Building #3 is, it's down the street from the POLICE STATION lol

The episode after 8 gave me an eyebrow raise almost immediately! That's actually impressive! Lol

The very beginning of the arc with Fein, the little clown bastard who can spit tornados, Kiyo wakes up Zatch to reveal the next page of the book is readable now but I noticed something odd: a bookmark in the spell book. WHY?

This was something Toei added because in the manga, there's no bookmarks and it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Why does Kiyomaro need to put a bookmark in the spellbook at this point with only THREE spells? If I'm remembering correctly, the spell books generates new spells in order, right? The next spells comes next in the pages that the bookkeepers need to read to use them.

Zaker was on one page. Rashield was on another page, the one directly next to Zaker in the book. This third spell, Jikerudo, is on a completely new page which is supposed to be directly AFTER Rashields.

Unless this is implying Kiyo has short term memory loss (which is possible, he gets hurt a lot as we've established 9 episodes in), because he wouldn't need a bookmark for one page AFTER the part of the book he always is able to open to.

In prior episodes, I was able to view and see some peculiarities in the choices the anime made involving story framing or bad artwork or something like that but... Yeah, I got nothing out the Kolulu episode, it's done very well functionally speaking. I couldn't find any oddities.

I mean, you could argue the anime doubling down on recycling Kolulu's speech at the end over the entire series to be a fault but that's a post episode thing, not an internal oddity.

Anyway, good ep ;P

Suffice to say, Mochinoki General Hospital is probably one of the most messed up places in all of Mochinoki City, especially when it comes to workers and staff. Not even counting the nurse assigned to Kiyomaro's room that he had to deal with, this whole moment above is straight up insane and incredibly censored from the original Japanese manga and probably for good reason. IT'S ALMOST A MURDER LOL

When Zatch chases Yuuta at one point, he crashed into the nurses station and caused havoc like he had been doing since him and Kiyomaro got there. Cue a horde of genuinely angry medical staff chasing the six year old demon child with random objects to punish him for his behavior but then next we see of Zatch, he's in the elevator confronting Yuuta with an ice pack on his head. MAN, THE MANGA VERSION WAS WAY DARKER OF THIS MOMENT.

In the OG manga, instead of just an ice pack, there's full-blown scalpels and even a syringe sticking out of the kids head. These nurses straight up STABBED Zatch and the scalpels are one thing but an unused syringe? That's going REALLY FAR.

Hypothetically speaking, let's say that syringe had air in it. A syringe with air or gas inside it can actually kill someone via something call an "air embolism." When one or more bubbles of air or gas enter the circulatory system, it can block the blood flow and then lead to enough tissue damage to cause someone to die. And this syringe is injected straight into Zatch's head with it sticking out enough to look like it pierced the skull and probably entered his brain, where the circulatory system IS connected to in our bodies. Whomever was the nurse who did that to Zatch, this hospital would be tied up in so much litigation from malpractice, all of the workers GRANDCHILDREN are going to need lawyers because DAAAAAAMN, that's messed up.

No wonder the anime version toned it down. It's actually kinda nuts when you spot this comparison with the original work.

Think about this for a minute, the main premise of this episode was Yuuta stealing the spell book and putting it on the roof extension and then riding off to destroy it with fire, we have the whole chase, yadda-yadda-yadda. But when you think about HOW Yuuta stole the book and the placement of events... He did that faster than Usain Bolt could have.

Kiyomaro goes out of the room to get juice from a vending machine on the same floor, right? Walks back to the room while thinking about previous events and then comes back to discover the book is gone and starts to scramble looking. Next we see of Yuuta, he's in his bed behind the curtain while they're panicking.

While Kiyomaro was gone, Yuuta: took the book off his bed, wheelchair-rolled to a closet to get a crutch (he got one during the chase sequence so he has to need it to climb), took the elevator on the same floor up to the roof, climbed the roof extension, drop off the book, climb back down, take the elevator back to the original floor he's on, return the crutch to the closet (because he's shown getting it again during the chase) and then roll back into his bed to hear Kiyomaro and Gash freaking out that the book is missing... HOW LONG WAS KIYOMARO GETTING THAT JUICE FOR?

If Yuuta had done all that in the span of time it took for Kiyomaro to get that juice, either the kid is a superhuman Paralympian or Kiyomaro is a slow walker because at most, that only could have taken 5 minutes to get a drink and then head on back to a room Kiyomaro knows the location of. And yes, I know Kiyomaro is supposed to be "injured" too so that could explain a "slow walk" but the doctor at the beginning of this whole episode said he's perfectly fine aside from some flesh wounds because of how well he patched himself up.

The whole idea of the episode is centered around Yuuta not taking care of himself with proper nutrition or physical therapy for his broken leg but if he could pull off all that in the span of time it takes to walk back and forth between a vending machine, there's definitely something else wrong with him to make him stay in that hospital for 6 MONTHS.

I also love how Kiyo and Zatch forgot Suzy was here again just like in the previous episode lol

Did Haru have a hidden tolerance for electricity or was he wearing insulated clothes because he managed to run away and shake off Zatch's lightning like a champ! 🤣

Hey everybody, I'm back to doing the observations on the episodes again for oddities and am now doing episode 7 (I could have done 6 but I talk about that episode way too much lol)

So, this happens in the manga too where Haru and Sugino are in the botanical gardens practicing the spell attacks they have during the night and then discussing working on moving targets the next day. We see Zatch, Kiyo and Suzy there and after a bit, Kiyo spots the damage they did to one of the trees, confirming it's the very next day with how fresh it looks.

It does beg the question with Tsukushi there and this being a major public venue for people to come to and most likely has security cameras, how the heck did they not spot Sugino and Haru being there since last night? The structure of when they start attacking doesn't imply they went home and came back, it moreso implies they were there since the previous night. So, were they just hiding out in the broom closet until enough people showed up for them to practice attacking people with vine spells? I know you have to do all you can to win but I didn't think squatting was such a viable means lol

Side note, add the botanical gardens to ANOTHER dangerous location in Mochinoki City if it ain't got security cameras to deal with squatters. This whole town has practically no standards when it comes security or public safety lol

We all know the moment I'm talking about, where Iori admits he finds Nanaka sexually attractive and she hears about it and everything gets awkward like usual. It kinda makes you wonder if Nanaka either "regrets" allowing Irori to sleep with her and Azusa at that house the diving club stayed at OR it further puts into perspective that "taking responsibility" thing she called Azusa about later on.

Because SHE was the one who suggested that and was okay with it and knowing now that Iori thinks of her like that, it either draws attention to the idea that either she was asking because she isn't sure if Iori would do something that he would have to take account on... Or it's an acknowledgement that SHE isn't sure she might have done something to Iori while in her sleep given how close they were when they were sharing a bed for several DAYS and they never talked about it once, before the comment made by Iori of how he views her.

Mildly fascinating.

Ever since the first chapter of FTRF, I noticed a lot of people going down the rabbit hole of discussion concerning the reoccurring "gag" Mashima has made about Mest and the possiblity of people viewing him as a creeper in-universe, especially when it comes to Wendy.

Look, I don't really care for the joke one way or the other, it's honestly not that funny in a general sense but... Okay, I can't be the only one who remembers Cosmos, right? The Garou Knight executioner who fought Wendy in the Grand Magic Games arc who ACTUALLY creeped on her?

Like, with Mest, it's an observational opinion thing. With Cosmos... This girl was straight up talking about Wendy's "grace and beauty" while fighting her, wanting her to share pickled plums with her and getting hostile at the possibility of Wendy "tricking" her when she thought she was dead and declaring to no longer be "IN LOVE" with her.

Even if you want to say some things were added in the anime, you gotta remember that Mashima pretty much confirmed all the filler content like the Dragon Cry movie and the Key of the Starry Heavens arc happened via mentions in 100 Year Quest. I don't think it's out of the realm of acceptance that the "expanded content" in the anime is the full version of events.

More or less, I just feel like no one remembers Cosmos being objectively WEIRDER than Mest in earning that "creeper" moniker.

I like how it's based on a flintlock pistol and used lead ball rounds in comparison to later when she and her husband use more Wild West inspired firearms like revolvers.

I also love how the trigger seems like a metallic variant of a matchlock trigger AND it's able to be pulled back for the "Fan the Hammer" style shooting to be done with it.

Don't know why the ramrod is basically a bendy straw though, considering the gun can fire over a dozen shots without reloading but I digress lol