Tune in as I mostly complain about Kaiju No. 8‘s most recent episode.

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Dealing with Mikadono Sisters Is a Breeze Ep. 10

Like her sisters, Miwa has been struggling in her field of expertise, i.e. shogi. Like Niko, Miwa has someone in her life who is displeased with her recent performance. Said person isn’t a threat to Yuu, though. She’s just a very tsundere friend who might even serve as a bit of a foil to our MC. Y’see, Sakura isn’t naturally talented either, but she doesn’t take it lying down. She works hard in order to keep up with prodigies like Miwa, so in her eyes, someone like Yuu is kinda pathetic. I can see both sides.

A lot of us compromise and settle for potentially less than what is theoretically possible. Am I always putting my nose to the grindstone? Am I trying to be the best blogger I can be? Or the best programmer I can be? No, of course not. I’m happy with where I am in my life and what I’ve achieved. So in a sense, we all have a bit of Yuu in us. The kid genuinely enjoys being a complete gofer, and hey, who am I to tell him how to live his life? It’s none of my business what he wants to do with his limited time on this earth.

At the same time, however, I also can’t help but root for Sakura. After all, I know whose story I’d rather watch, read, or listen to. Give me a choice between Sakura or Yuu, and I’d pick the former every day of the week. Yuu might be realistic, but Sakura is more aspirational and frankly more entertaining. There’s nothing wrong with playing support and just being a house husband, but as a piece of fiction? It’s personally not my cup of tea. But this isn’t Sakura’s anime, so she’ll probably get some life lesson about how it’s cool to be gofer. Again, I don’t necessarily disagree. It’s just not an exciting story, and the proof is in the pudding. The last ten episodes have not been exactly a must-watch experience.

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The Water Magician Ep. 10

We get a bit of a setup episode as the story introduces a couple of new faces from another country — an empire, in fact. First, there’s a princess who also doubles as a commander somehow. At least she puts her life on the line along with her troops, I guess. At the end of the episode, however, we see her lil’ soiree under attack. Second, we get Oscar, the “Inferno Magician” who has supposedly slain a thousand men or whatever. Kinda weird to be famous for killing people, but whatever. We naturally gotta prevent the princess from being assassinated, but you can already tell that Ryo and Oscar are destined to clash. Testing himself against the infamous Inferno Magician sounds like a golden opportunity to make Ryo look cool. Having said that, this seems like an odd way to conclude the season. First, Oscar’s not supposed to be an enemy unless he’s secretly behind the attack on the princess. Otherwise, they’ll probably fight over a misunderstanding. Neither of these sound very compelling at the moment. Second, it feels like we haven’t built up to anything. What’s even the overarching plot of this entire series? This show feels aimless.

Oh yeah, we also see Sera missing Ryou, so just elf waifu doing elf waifu things: failing the Bechdel test. I mean, why does she look so dead on the inside? He’ll just be gone for “another week or so.” Don’t tell me she’s already codependent.

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Tougen Anki Ep. 12

The kids are on standby during a snow storm, so it’s basically a sleepover. This is supposed to be a bonding exercise, but Shiki and Jin eventually get into a fight, because… uh, lemme check my notes… Shiki offered Jin an extra helping of food. Right. Meanwhile, Homare apologizes for everything, but what’s even the joke here? Haha, you have a cripplingly low self-esteem? Kuina is still smothering Rokuro, who is still an anxious mess. The narrator calls it her “current fixation,” which implies that she’ll move on from him eventually when he no longer triggers her maternal instincts. Moving along, the pervert wants something perverted to happen, so that’s nothing new. Just another trash character like Mineta. The teacher talks to his students like he’s always perpetually annoyed, so he is being a dick like usual. Dude needs to get the stick out of his ass. There’s one more character in the room, but I can’t even bothered to remember what his schtick is. Oh right, he’s the annoying stickler for rules. Charming. Very charming. Let’s be real, there’s no one remotely likable in this entire group, which is quite a feat for a shounen. There’s usually at least one person worth rooting for.

This lovable cast of characters eventually get around to telling ghost stories, ’cause that’s what you do at sleepovers. Shiki ends up destroying the whole building they’re in just because he’s a scaredy cat. Maybe the Momotaros are right about onis being a menace to society after all.

I would say this feels like a bottle episode, but every single episode so far has felt cheaply made.

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Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 23

Initially, we get more aura farming as Ashiro snipes kaijus from 20 km away. I guess that’s impressive? But according to the peanut gallery, her targets are “supermassive,” so I mean… I dunno, man. It ain’t exactly hard to hit a giant sitting duck that doesn’t even know you’re there.

Anyway, victory is short lived when the second “wave” attacks. Wave? More like exactly five big bosses — one for each of the oh-so-awesome main characters to fight (just pretend Shinonome is a main character because we’ll deal with her later). The kaijus are even kind enough to clear the battlefield so there are no distractions. Only the faceless grunts have to die, so don’t worry. And in case you couldn’t tell from these foot stumps, the peanut gallery is here to explain that the grunts’ “vital signs have gone dark.” Man, what would I do without these shitters in the command room? Watch the anime? Fuck that. I get all my info just listening to it.

I love how one of them doesn’t even look like a typical kaiju. I mean, what is that supposed to be? A book with faces? And according to the peanut gallery, they’re all fortitude 9.0@#@#@#@!@!!@! That’s a big deal, y’all. Big numbers equal big trouble! The math doesn’t get any simpler than that! And this is bad because they’ve always fought numbered kaijus together. But since there are five of them in five different places, none of the big shots can team up. Everyone else in the Defense Force just sucks too much to even participate.

So we get to “watch” Kikoru’s battle first, and I put “watch” in quotations, because the anime can’t help itself. “She’s amazing!” “We are watching the strongest rookie in the history of blah-dy blah blah blah.” Jesus Christ. Yeah, there’s action, but there’s also a lot of inane chatter. Kikoru gets smacked into a building, so the peanut gallery has to tell us exactly what injuries she’s sustained.

As soon as Kikoru starts losing, we cut to everyone else just to see that they’re losing their fights as well. Hell, Narumi is standing completely still, wasting his ammo on a kaiju that doesn’t seem the least bit phased. Even kiddies playing Fortnite know how to strafe. What’s Narumi’s problem?

There’s so much redundant information in this show. Hoshina can’t believe he’s struggling against an opponent who’s also using blades like him. Ah, so this is No. 9’s strategy. Got it. But the anime doesn’t think you’ve got it. So it doubles down. “It fights exactly like him,” says the peanut gallery. Okay, thanks for the clarification. “It’s like… it was built for a one on one battle with Vice Captain Hoshina.” Alright, I heard you the first time. But Keiji needs to chime in as well: “Our foe is using our strategy against us. They’re engineered for the singular purpose of destroying the Defense Force.” Wow, couldn’t have guessed that. Thanks, gramps.

At this point, the POV jumps to Toku and a lot of survivors huddling up in a bunker. People are losing hope once they hear the news — I’m surprised the government didn’t censor it just to prevent widespread panic — but Toku immediately gets up and helps distribute aid. The guy just had to deal with his own daughter almost being eaten, but he’s not throwing in the towel. And you know what? I don’t mind this scene. After all, this is new information. This shows us how the kaiju attacks are affecting the regular Joe Schmos like you or me. Not only that, we get to see the resilience of the human spirit. Not a bunch of nobodies glazing the combatants in a command center. Nor is it a bunch of nobodies telling us exactly what we’re already seeing with our own eyes. No, we’re getting something human and emotional. Nothing in this scene is original, but it’s better than the first half of this episode.

When I watched Ashiro level entire buildings with her shots, I couldn’t help but wonder how the country was supposed to deal with all the infrastructure damage. It’s not just about surviving the immediate kaiju attacks. It’s the aftermath that is also horrific. There’s a side to this conflict we rarely get to see, because it’s all about big guns and big monsters most of the time.

Elsewhere, Kafka tries to herd more civilians to safety. He sees a girl help an old woman who’s trembling with fear. Heartened by her kindness, Kafka gives the girl a pep talk of his own as well. What if we had a show where Kafka just stayed in the cleanup crew? What if we just saw these attacks from the perspective of the helpless civilians trying to cope with losing their homes, being displaced, not having running water or electricity, so on and so forth. I dunno, this sounds a little more interesting to me that “IT’S FIGHTING LIKE US!!!” I know, I know. It’s a shounen, so it needs action. Well, does it? Does it really though? I mean, it’s not like we’re even getting good action. Can boys not sit through a show with a bit more humanity in it instead?

Near the end of the episode, we see Shinonome getting smacked around by her designated kaiju. She’s kind of the odd wo(man) out. Between Kikoru, Narumi, Hoshina, Ashiro, and her, it’s like… why are you even here? Who invited this supporting character to the aura farming squad? No, I don’t care what the peanut gallery says — “OMG, 73% unleashed combat power!” — your “please notice me, senpai” having ass ain’t a big enough deal to win a shounen fight on your own. Shinonome tries to deliver an emotional speech about how she’s going to hold out in order for her captain to take over, but I’m sitting here thinking, “Sweet summer child, they’ve set you up to fail. You’re just meant to be a damsel in distress.” This is all made worse by the fact that tears and blood are streaming down her face. This scene arguably would’ve had potential if it wasn’t so obvious what was going to happen next. Plus, it’s hard to take everything seriously when these well trained members of the Defense Force keep standing completely still or walking towards the enemy in a straight line. I guess all the budget went into animating the Kikoru portion of the episode.

Well, we soon discover Shinonome’s true role in this arc: nearly dying in order for Kafka to swoop in and look all badass. And that’s exactly what he does despite her futile protestations. “Nuuuu, you must run away shounen protagonist! We can’t afford to lose you! Just leave me to die instead!” Uh huh.

Oh yeah, this is supposedly the season finale. Pfft. Okay.

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Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra: World Conquest Starts with the Civilization of Ruin Ep. 13

Oh lord, there’s one more episode. I’m not interested in dragging this out, so we’ll just do this quick and dirty. The enraged twins were about to destroy the JRPG demon lord (who kinda looks like a shrew?) as part of their revenge, but some dude with a weird Slenderman-esque profile suddenly shows up outta nowhere and steals the kill. He’s pretty much another isekai protagonist, so he naturally has a slave girl. Well, I guess that’s a pretty common isekai trope. Gotta give the show credit for that small bit of self-awareness at least.

Back to our “heroes,” Atou initially claims that Isla can’t be revived, but Takuto, who has been useless all this time, is finally determined to do something: conquer the world. That’s right, this whole damn season was just one long setup for the words “world” and “conquest” in the title. But why now? Somehow, fulfilling the victory conditions will allow them to bring Isla back. Yeah, we’re going to conquer the world because a bug we met a few episodes ago just died. And we’re going to do it with the power of GUN.

Look, I already gave my final thoughts last week, and this episode didn’t change my opinion one bit. Basically, this anime is shit.

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Gachiakuta Ep. 12

Geez, what an uncomfortable episode. Thanks to Tamsy’s ability to restrain people and Remlin’s painted spells, the Cleaners don’t waste any time subduing their mind-controlled friends. It also turns out Enjin has been playing possum this entire time, so he manages to sneak up on Amo and swipe her precious item. She thus has no choice but to surrender. Fight’s over, right? Unfortunately, Rudo snaps and proceeds to beat the living shit out of the girl. He gets quite a few hits off too before anyone even bothers to restrain him, so I’m kinda questioning the group’s collective judgment. Boohoo, the girl made a lot of them relive a deeply personal loss. Part of being an adult is making the right decision regardless of your emotions.

Anyway, according to Semiu back at base, Rudo harbors something deeply dark and terrible within him. It’s probably why the bad guys are so interested in him. If they can break his mind permanently, he can… do what? Be evil but for what ends? Shrug. Obviously, for the Cleaners’ sake and his own as well, Rudo needs to work his anger issues out fast, because his assault on Amo was part projection. Whatever he did to her, he wants to do to his childhood friend. It’s not about whether or not you should hit a girl. Rather, it’s about proportionality. Did Chiwa betray Rudo? Yes, in a sense. Enough to beat the shit out of her? No. Does Amo deserve to be punished for messing with the group? Sure. Does she deserve several bloodletting haymakers to the face though? Of course not. The sad thing is that Tomme manages to get the information they originally came here for by simply being nice and maternal with Amo. Man, this whole thing went to shit because Enjin was a bad communicator.

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Everything else about everything else:

Not much to say on the gaming front. I’ve been putting heavy hours into Silksong and only Silksong. Sadly, I won’t beat Act 3 before the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster is out, but that’s okay. My experience with Silksong is weird in that all of the small, nimble bosses are piss easy. Meanwhile, I struggle with all the big, hulking fat asses. I first-tried the second Lace encounter, but then spent probably an hour on Chef Lugoli. What can I say? One of his moves is literally throwing his ass at you, which I’m just terrible at dodging.

As for books, I bought something called The Moe Manifesto. Sounds like a fun read for someone like me.