If you want to watch Rinne no Lagrange this month with your fellow club members, will this be your first time?
| It's March! I hate March! Here's the I<3Y&SA Monthly Spotlight Show to make it more tolerable! This month the Spotlight is on Rinne no Lagrange (Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne) What is it?  A show about highschool girls, clearly. A high school club comedy, slice of life with mechs, war between ancient civilizations and a ghost (to spice things up a bit). Why should I watch it?  I wasn't prepared to answer this question. As is part of a fairly recurring theme, Rinne is primarily high school girl cast. Madoka, the star of the show is as lovable as she is ambitious. She's a sort of jack of all trades, full of spunk and cute as a button. She might remind you a bit of Marika Kato, from January Spotlight's Mouretsu Pirates. In a way, they could almost be sisters.  Madoka sitting with her sister Marika Kato. Wait a second, really? More on this in a moment. When the show starts, Madoka is the sole member of the never-say-quit Jersey* Club, an unofficial school club dedicated to serving the school and community of Kamogawa. A large portion of the show, especially the first season, is dedicated to her expansion of the club with a couple of "out of this world" (har har har) new recruits. These episodes feature some good zany humor and CGDCT type stuff. Characters are a huge strength of this show, as our the relationships between them. Ready yourself for some quality female bonding. Just a fair warning, this show does have its fanservice but it's kind of oddly distributed. Much of it comes in clumps. Sometimes you'll go an episode with barely a bounce and then sometimes . . . well, the opposite of that. Those episodes, which the first episode would be included, might give the impression that the show has a lot more of it than it really does. If you averaged out, I'd say it's probably . . . well, average.  well, that escalated fast If you're more interested in some action, this show's got you covered too. As it so happens, Kamogawa becomes a bit of a hot spot for an alien invasion. Naturally, Madoka does the sensible thing and becomes a mech pilot. Well, partially because the long inactive mech will only respond to her (you guys know how these type of mech shows work). What separates this from other mecha? I'm not sure, but I think this might be the only show where you'll get to see a Mech attack another with German-Suplexes, Enziguri Kicks and yes, Sleeper Holds (just think about that one for a minute . . . yeah). The rest of the show is dedicated to a big galactic war between too factions, the politics behind it and the revival of something big that threatens to destroy many civilizations, including the Earth. It's pretty confusing and even after it's all said and done, I'm still not sure I'm sure what everyone is fighting about but who cares? Cute girls and wrestling robots! Will there be Yuri?  Oh, I know exactly why. When I first watched this show, this was one of the hardest things to get a straight answer for and after watching it, I can understand why on a few levels. As I said above, relationships between characters is a huge selling point and this show actually has some unique ones, so it's a bit hard to talk about directly. I'll give it a shot. First, let's explain what "Rinne no Lagrange" means. It's actually a French phrase for "all the girls are gay for Madoka." Not really, but it would be a perfect title for the show if it were. Madoka has it all and does it all, so you can't blame any girls at school for fawning over her, and they do a plenty. In terms of subtext, we're talking near and some times exceeding Saki levels. Not just involving Madoka either, others get in on the fun too, including some of the more grown up women (there's a really great and blatant ship in that crowd, in fact). Indeed, pretty much every major female character in this show is into another female. Where is this Kamogawa again?  Madoka and her sister Marika Kato introducing each other to their respective girlfriends. Wait, really? I teased above a possible connection to Mourestu Pirates and you're probably wondering what that's all about. The real link between the two is that they were both directed by Satou, Tatsuo, were being made around the same time and both were said to be made with the intention of having girl heavy shows without involving romantic elements. Now, whether the quote about that last bit was lost in translation or not is up to some debate but it seems what was really meant, was that the shows wouldn't be about girls getting things done and not spending their time fawning over guys. In this sense, Rinne no Lagrange and Mouretsu Pirates are kind of sister shows. That's not to say they are too similar, they really are quite different shows in more ways to count but there is this sisterly . . . CUT TO THE CHASE ALREADY  First we're talking about sisters and now scissors? What's the connection?? Okay, so here's what to expect. Heavy heavy heavy subtext and some no doubt about "what they're really saying" moments. Maybe even some lip to lip action which I will not give any context to. I mentioned that one of the relationships was fairly unique and I believe it's the main reason most people don't want to answer questions about the relationships in this show. If you're already sold on watching the show, I recommend not clicking on this upcoming spoiler button until after you watch it. If you're curious and need something to push your interest a bit more, then hidden in the spoiler button might be what you need. What else to look for? 1.) Between seasons one and two, be sure to watch the OVA, Kamogawa Days. It's double the length of a typical episode, features some key information for going into season 2 and is possibly my favorite episode of the whole series. It's also got a lot of great . . . "subtext." all the girls are gay for Madoka. 2.) The great Jersey Club vs Sweats Club fansub war. So, one of the reasons I didn't do this show back in January is because the subs for this show are quite frankly, kind of a mess. Your two big options were Underwater and Commie and both use fairly different terminology. One of the big differences, one that much blood has been shed over, is the name of Madoka's club. Is it the Jersey Club or is it Sweats Club? The name comes from the clothing associated with the club and neither word works entirely correct. In my opinion, having seen a mix of both Underwater and Commie, I feel Underwater did a better job and so I go with Jersey. But Underwater never finished the show. Fortunately, recently released is the Dmonhiro 720p BD rips. These use Underwater's subs with modified Commie subs for the remaining episodes. This is what I personally recommend, it includes all of the picture dramas from both seasons, the OVA and since it only came out about a month ago, should be easy and fast to get. Update: As it so happens, the first season will be released officially on DVD in Australian this month. You can also pre-order the second season, releasing in May. If you're interested, seasons 1 and 2. There is a dub out there, I haven't personally heard it but my understanding is that it even further confuses things by changing more terminology and even some names. So that's this March's Spotlight Show. Use this thread to talk about any of these shows you intend to watch if you wish. Tell us if you're going to watch the show this month, tell us how you intend to go about watching it and keep us updated as you progress, being mindful of using spoiler tags for people who aren't where you are yet. I'd love to see your favorite promo, fan art and videos for the show. Most importantly, have fun with watching with your fellow members! Have suggestions about the Spotlight threads or what shows should be featured in the future? PM me or send me a message on my wall. Previous Spotlights 2014 2013 |
removed-userJun 6, 2014 8:29 PM
| First time watching here... Cute girls and wrestling robots, so that is what they call it now. ;) |
| Was already planning on watching this show. Now that I know of the yuri subtext, I'm even more excited. Season 1 is getting release on DVD over here later this month so I might have to pick it up. If not, I can always download it of course. |
 |
| Completed Episodes 1-3: |
| Katy Perry - Firework http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw When the OP starts with fly away and Katy Perry starts baby your a firework. I don't know, it is what came to mind when I heard the lyric and the way it was sung in the OP. |
| Found a torrent with the first season dual audio and with all the specials. Just waiting for it to download. It says here that the US release has the specials (The Australian release also has them according to Madman's website) but they are indeed sub only. |
|
| 3 episodes in. This is pretty cool. I especially like the mech fights. Lan and Madoka's character interaction is nice as well. Lookin' forward to their teaming up with the orange girl. I also really like the OP. Reminds me of the Mouretsu Pirates OP and I feel like after a few more episodes, I'm gonna be humming it constantly. Nice choice, yo. Back to balancing this with Precure and Aikatsu. I need more time on my hands. |
| I just finished watching the first episode. Not much yuri apart from a few jokes and some light undertones but I can definitely see it developing further. Yuri aside though it looks like it'd be a fun mecha series and the cast is likeable. I eventually decided on watching the English dub version. Can't say what the purists might think about it but as someone whose generally fine with English dubs I'd say it's a perfectly fine way to watch the series. |
|
| Just finished the first 12 epis and so far I am enjoying the show. I do have to say I was a little sad with the last episode... Looking forward to more moments with all three ladies. |
| I was a bit confused when you mentioned name changes since I was almost certain it would be uncut so I'm glad we could clear up that misunderstanding. And just for the record Viz Media licensed the show, not Funimation. The torrent is going super slow at the moment but episode 3 is now downloaded so I'm going to watch it now |
|
| Hoho, finished S1 and the OVA. Pretty good watch. Not groundbreaking but it was entertaining. I'll probably hold off a bit before watching S2. Cool show overall. And that OP is still catchy as hell. |
More topics from this board
» Happy Sugar Life discussionLilac_warrior - Mar 22, 2018 |
12 |
by LalaYuriLove
»»
Apr 19, 2023 2:41 AM |
|
» Best yuri couple of all time???Lilac_warrior - Mar 24, 2018 |
22 |
by TanyaTheEvill
»»
Feb 10, 2022 9:07 AM |
|
» Deleting my account.removed-user - Nov 14, 2021 |
1 |
by Sabishii-Luisana
»»
Nov 14, 2021 3:47 PM |
|
Sticky: » Introduce Yourself ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )SuiNoByakko - Jul 17, 2014 |
523 |
by kenchin01
»»
Sep 14, 2021 1:46 AM |
|
» Yuru Yuri ~ HolidayEmceePinks - Oct 30, 2018 |
0 |
by EmceePinks
»»
Oct 30, 2018 3:36 PM |