Anime

Looping the Big Order OVA for 7 Hours Straight

Happy Groundhog Day! In anime, the most famous experiment in presenting a time loop story uniquely is without a doubt the Endless Eight from Haruhi Suzumiya, but it’s not the only one. What better way to celebrate this day that has become eponymous with time loops than experiencing, documenting and possibly torturing myself with a lesser known one?

The OVA for Big Order is a menacing beast that requires a flowchart to explain properly. It promises a never-ending experience which will eternally loop itself and yet always be different, taking advantage of randomization features you never even knew blu-rays had.

Originally bundled with volume 8 of the manga, the “Random Order OVA” is made of many segments that are picked at random and eventually loops back into itself following a specific logic illustrated by Discotek Media’s diagram below.

Rakugo and Undead Girl Murder Farce

Two episodes of this season’s Undead Girl Murder Farce have aired, and one aspect of the show has been largely overlooked in English discussion: the show’s connection to rakugo and Japanese theater in general.

You may know that the anime is directed by Shinichi Omata, who previously helmed Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. It’s clear that his experience there must have been one of the reasons he was chosen here, and is helping elevate this element of the show.

As an experiment, I searched Twitter for the show’s title or hashtags + “rakugo”. In English, I could only find mentions of Rakugo Shinju. In Japanese, however, that only accounts for a small fraction of the results since airing – the great majority of the comments are about lowercase ‘r’ rakugo. Here is why that is.