Other than Hinamatsuri and Hisone to Maso-tan, the rest of these shows are kind of a drag… but I may as well finish what I started.
3D Kanojo Real Girl Ep. 10
Hikaru finally does what he should’ve done episodes ago: confidently declare his love for Iroha. So all’s well that ends well, right? Well, she’s still leaving in three months, so there’s that. But in this day and age, long distance relationships are pretty common. Plus, they’re in high school, so it’s not like they need physical intimacy. It wouldn’t kill them to act like hormonal teenagers once in a while, but you know what I mean. They can survive a long distance relationship since all they do is just talk anyways. Still, is this really it? We still have a couple episodes left, and I can’t imagine Iroha moving away is the only conflict left. I bet she has a terminal disease or something. After all, she often visits the hospital, right?
Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory Ep. 7
This is what I was afraid of. Sousuke is hellbent on saving Chidori, but anyone who comes near him will be dragged into a huge mess. What stings even more is that he couldn’t help but think of Chidori while Nami’s life is in danger. I’m not asking him to fall out of love with Chidori or anything silly like that. But he’s partly responsible for the predicament that Nami is in right now, and I’m not going to enjoy this arc’s conclusion. I know what’s coming next, and it won’t be pretty.
Hinamatsuri Ep. 9
I laughed at Mao’s perfect impersonation of Hina, but the entire time I was watching the episode, I couldn’t understand why it took her so long to finally decide to make a boat with all her telekinetic powers. Ah well, I’m glad they finally introduced her to the story. Ever since I saw her at the very start of the series, I had wondered when we’d see her again. After nine whole episodes, we still don’t know what that opening was all about.
Hisone to Maso-tan Ep. 8
The show finally tells us what the Ritual is all about, but honestly, we just end up with more questions than answers. These dragons have to escort an even bigger behemoth for three days and three nights to a specified location or else very bad things will happen? Like why? Why does this have to happen? How does this happen? Every 74 years on the dot? And even though Sada played such a key role in protecting Japan 74 years ago, all she does nowadays is hang around the base and peddle joie? At this point, I’m pretty disengaged from HisoMaso‘s universe. All I’m really interested in is whether or not Hisone and Haruto ends up being a thing, because I think their interactions are pretty cute. But other than that, meh.
Shokugeki no Soma S3 Ep. 21
Every Soma episode is ridiculous, but this one even more so. It’s just one big tribute to how much Joichiro owns. He singlehandedly defeated 50 competitors in a shokugeki! His dishes are so revolutionary that they’ll be remembered for decades (c’mon, it’s just food). But the pressure, man! The pressure got to him! Cooking was no longer fun! He broke down and had to leave the school altogether! Ahhhhh!!! But you know who saved him? You know who? His son! But I’m just like, “Yo, what about the woman he knocked up?” Surely, he must have fallen in love with Yukihira’s mother, right? But it’s all just about the kid, huh? He’s so awesome, he saved his dad by just being born, huh? It’s funny, ’cause the show also makes no mention of Erina’s mother. Where are the two leads’ mothers?! And I couldn’t help but laugh at Joichiro taking pride in Yukihira’s ability to lose 490 times in a row to his old man. I get what the show is trying to say. For our hero, cooking is always fun even when he’s losing. That’s what makes him special. But I still laughed because in my mind it’s like, “I whip this kid’s ass 490 straight times, and he’s still smiling — what a sucker!” Whatever, I hope they got their Joichiro lovefest out of their system and we can get back to moving the story forward.
Toji no Miko Ep. 21
Hiyori thought she had defeated Princess Tagitsu in what looked like a pretty anticlimactic battle, but then the evil aradama re-emerges outta nowhere and absorbs the raven-haired girl in return. What a twist, right? Yawn. I think where I’m sorta lost is how Kaname suddenly got so powerful. Like, why didn’t she just save the day over and over if she was this strong? Then again, her mother seems to imply that she always had this power laying dormant within her. She just never believed in herself or something. Ah well. She has three episodes to figure out how to save her BFF.
Tokyo Ghoul:re Ep. 10
I think it’s sad that even when the episode focuses on Ken’s/Haise’s mental anguish, it’s still uncompelling. There’s nothing inherently wrong with an amnesiac trying to discover his or herself, but this just feels cheap. It feels cheap because the story started out with Ken trying to understand who he was and what he wanted to be. Was he still human? How human can he afford to be be in this cruel world full of bloodthirsty ghouls and heartless humans? Could he get over his fears of loneliness? Could he ever get over his mother’s death? Unfortunately, because we’re hacks, we decided to just erase his memories and make him start over. I know I’m Ken, but I wanna be huuuuuumaaaaaaan. Waaaah. For fuck’s sake… it’s just too one-dimensional. Look, it’s too late to save this iteration of Tokyo Ghoul. Too many characters, too little progress. There seems to be no end in sight for either the ghoul vs. human conflict nor Ken’s/Haise’s issues. We just keep rehashing the same nonsense but with dumber action each time.
Moe Sucks 
“All I’m really interested in is whether or not Hisone and Haruto ends up being a thing, because I think their interactions are pretty cute. But other than that, meh.”
Yessir. While I’m not always engaged by HisoMaso’s writing, I do think it does a good job of not only articulating the vibrant personalities of our main cast of girls, but also making character interactions feel pleasant and (at times) surprisingly naturalistic. Case in point Hisone and Haruto in this episode: something about the way the two of them almost immediately know what the next person is going to say while naturally having a conversation is conveyed so convincingly; which is made all the better by their co-workers practically looking at them with grins on their faces like: “OH THEY’RE FUCKING!!”
The writing has this intuitive understanding of how to illustrate the natural progression of people subconsciously growing closer together and becoming endeared to each other. Hisone wanting to buy the Zombie film on blu-ray and just spend time watching it with Haruto was such an display of unbridled earnest affection that i couldn’t help but D’awww at her adorkably cute suggestion. Of course she’d start thinking that they’re that close after going on a date; because of course she would start associating that movie with her burgeoning relationship with Haruto; because of course these two dorks would naturally grow closer after going on a date and everyone with working eyes would see this oozing off of them. If anything, Okada has a decent grasp on human behaviorism in regards to depicting how people grow fond of one another. Modern anime (mostly looking at your run of mill romances and harems) have a tendency to hit the reset button on their characters’ interactions even after a big event that should, for all intents and purposes, change the way they interact for good. “Oh these two just had a heart to heart?? Well let’s milk it for dramatic effect for this particular episode and then forget what sort of natural consequences should arise from such an event two episodes later. Oooooohhh you thought that the relationship between X and Y would progress in a sensible way??? Well fuck you, you silly, naive anime viewer; welcome to romantic mediocrity.”
See, I don’t know if Hisone sees their movie date as an actual date. I think right now she’s super eager to make friends, and he’s maybe the first male friend she’s ever had. Of course, the introduction of this Natsume will probably force her to really consider what her feelings towards him are. Unfortunately, since that slimy dude wants to break all of the D-Pilots’ hearts, I’m dreading the classic romantic misunderstanding potentially rearing its ugly head.
Yea I’m dreading that shit real hard too because where else can a plot thread like this potentially go, you know? Regardless, I just hope HisoMaso handles it with some restraint and self-awareness…..the good kind of self-awareness. Out of the shows you cover in your “everything else” section, Hinamatsuri, HisoMaso, and FMP are the only ones I actually enjoy. I used to be able to bear 3d kanojo but its grew vapid very fast; I’m only into food war for the food trivia, and tokyo ghoul has spiraled into such monotonous tedium that I ask myself if this is the same series i once liked….oh well