Daemons of the Shadow Realm Ep. 4: Hot-blooded

Someone like Yuru wouldn’t have much to do in the modern world. It’s not like he can hunt. Maybe TV would blow his mind, but my point is, he’s restless. So he immediately sets off on his own to find Asa. Already, the “parents” have allowed Yuru to wander off on his own. Can they keep an eye on him 24/7? Probably not. But you think they would sit him down with a smartphone, and give him like a crash course on how to use it. Then you could just turn on the location tracker and always know where the kid is. Even if it’s too much information for Yuru to handle at the moment, then fine, just tell him to literally carry the device with him at all time. Or give him an Apple tag. If it needs to be a legally distinct product, uh… Orange tag. Just do whatever, y’know? It’s the 21st century. Keeping tabs on someone — anyone — in this day and age is honestly trivial. Instead, the dog has to track Yuru’s scent, and then the cat (tiger?) tracks the dog.

Continue reading

An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess Ep. 4: Bertia playing matchmaker

Guess we’re doing stories for the capture targets already. But there’s a good reason for this! To avoid Heronia falling for anyone but the prince, Bertia needs to eliminate Cecil’s competition. In other words, she needs to start playing matchmaker. The funniest part, however, is that she’s the biggest reason why Heronia and Cecil won’t get together. On the other hand, what will Cecil do? Apparently, she’s been trying to fix him up with the heroine for a year now. Surely, he must be tired of this by now. He clearly has no desire to even get to know Heronia. I would personally like to see him take a stronger stance. I would like to see him make it very, very clear to Bertia that he will not entertain the thought of getting to know Heronia. Yeah, yeah, it might be amusing to watch Bertia screw around and fail. But I’m a “cut to the chase” kinda guy, so I want to see the prince be more active than passive.

Continue reading

The Ramparts of Ice Ep. 4: Imprisoned by the past

We pick up where we left off last week, so Miki confronts Minato directly and asks him what he thinks of Koyuki. At first, he says he pities Koyuki, which is partly true. Miki proceeds to call him “sanctimonious,” so he quickly course corrects and says he’s interested in Koyuki for some other reason. It’s totally not love, though! Hmm. Well, I do agree that the pity thing doesn’t explain the whole story. After all, Koyuki is happy with Miki and Giraffe Guy, so she isn’t alone all the time. If Minato merely pitied her, then he could probably find sadder, more pathetic targets lurking around the school. So why does he insist on knowing whether or not Koyuki is dating Giraffe Guy? Why does he want to personally worm his way in when Koyuki already has friends? Not only that, she has been relatively indifferent to Minato’s attempts to close the distance between them. It’s not love, he says. But he’s being real fishy.

Continue reading

Everything Else: Spring 2026, Week 3

Wow, that’s messed up.

Continue reading

I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class Ep. 3: Yuu, the interloper

Again with the peanut gallery caring way too much about Yuu simply greeting Maki. Oh yeah, sure, kids totally react this way to two people potentially being friends. I’m sorry, but I don’t find this scenario remotely realistic. This is anime’s form of humble-bragging. “Ugh, now everyone thinks I must have done something to her! Being friends with the hottest girl in class is just so hard!” But fine, we’re in bizarro world where kids can’t even have lunch in peace. Taira in You and I Are Polar Opposites complained about school having a social hierarchy. This show takes that concept and pushes it to the extreme. As a result, Maki has to take the two hottest girls in class somewhere quiet — a place where they can eat their immaculate bento boxes in peace. See, you gotta hang out with the losers from time to time, ’cause they would totally know all the best lunch spots! On the other hand, if their classmates were that surprised to see Yuu and Maki simply inteact, one of them probably would’ve tailed the group there. But shh, let’s just brush that aside for now!

Continue reading