I’ll just cut right to the chase: none of these shows are any good. But if you’re still curious…
The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest
At first, I was like, “This can’t be yet another ‘I got kicked out of my party’ anime, right? I mean, he’s a banished court mage! Not a banished adventurer! And the episode starts with a kid being trained by a court mage! No adventuring parties here!” Oh, how wrong I was. The only difference here is that the party is led by a prince, ergo Alec, our protagonist, is a court mage. Everything else is still the same. Alright, let’s start listing the tropes. Our hero is underappreciated because of course he is. He’s actually an amazing offensive mage, but he has to play support just to keep the dumbass prince alive. But of course, no one recognizes his efforts so they kick him from the party. Add in a bit of dash of classism for good measure. So what happens next? Naturally, a girl picks him up. It’s literally always a girl. Think back to every “I got kicked out of my party” anime you’ve seen, and you’ll always find a girl coming up to the banished hero and recruiting them. In this case, it’s a former classmate.
Yorha — yes, I also thought of Nier Automata when I heard her name — is more than happy to see Alec get fired as a court mage, ’cause it means they get to go on adventures again like the good ol’ days of four years ago. And what was the their old party’s name? Lasting Period. Pfffft. I imagine it’s supposed to invoke feelings of eternity or whatever, but all I can think of is some poor woman with the worst affliction ever. Basically, I had a good laugh. That was the first and last time I would enjoy anything about this episode. But yeah, this show is just your bog standard “I got kicked out of my party” anime. They go to the guild to have him register as an adventurer, but he has to start out from scratch, he shows off his powers anyway, blah blah blah. Boring shit, who cares.
Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota
So there’s a boy and a girl. Sometimes, the girl is quiet like a mouse, i.e. Aharen-san. Sometimes, she likes to tease the boy, i.e. Takagi-san. Sometimes, it’s the boy who’s weird, i.e. Seki-kun. Maybe he gets injured a lot, i.e. uh… dude, I literally just watched this show earlier this week. Don’t tell me I’ve forgotten it’s name already. Oh right, Yano-kun. Phew, thought I was losing my memory since I’m getting old. Well, this anime doesn’t have an honorific in its title, but it’s still a very familiar setup. The kids hang out, they play games, maybe eventually fall in love, so on and so forth.
The slight twist on the formula is already in the title, so it needs no explanation. You already know right off the bat what the characters are all about. It’s just whether or not their silly hijinks vibe with you. Essentially, Oota tries to get a rise out of Kashiwada since she hides her emotions so well. This sometimes leads to pranks that are kinda mean if you ask me. And when he doesn’t get the response that he wants, the boy gets all mad and petulant. But despite everything, Kashiwada has fun with him. I guess it helps that she always gets the better of him because he’s kinda stupid. My bad, he’s expressive.
If I sound disdainful, I’m really not. I actually enjoyed Aharen-san. Unfortunately, Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota isn’t really for me, because I don’t like loud, easily provoked boys like Oota. Like why do you care so much that she’s expressionless? What are you even angry about? Anyway, I started getting bored towards the end of the episode, and so I started reading about UCLA beating Penn St. Bro, what an upset! Uh, yeah, I don’t think I’m even gonna put this in the “Everything else” pile. The only thing that entertained me was a crayon drawing of Kashiwada dancing while wearing a top hat and fake ‘stashe.
My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!
This self-proclaimed average, efficiency-loving high schooler is actually a game developer who somehow already has viral hit under his belt, but that’s besides the point. The main draw of the show is supposedly how his best friend’s sister keeps worming her way into his life. She tries to get his attention because she likes him. Unfortunately for her, he feels as though he’s being bullied. Not that he’ll ever do anything about it. Whine all you want, but it’s pretty easy to shut someone down. Hell, he won’t even make her give back the key to his apartment.
Even though the title is all about the friend’s little sister, this is actually one of those shows where the main character has a bevy of cute girls to choose from. For example, his freaking cousin whom he walks in on. Where’s my banjo when I need it? In any case, we’ll never get to see the protagonist make a decision. He’ll just ping pong back and forth throughout the story, helping each and every girl out with their personal problems. Right off the bat, his uncle makes him pretend to be his cousin’s boyfriend. Yes, you read that right. The goal here is to agonize the audience because he’s too dense and insecure to realize that everyone likes him. Hell, I bet even his damn homeroom teacher will become one of those girls.
I obviously don’t care for the pseudo harem setup. Just pick a lane and stick with it. I vastly prefer romance series where there’s one and only one love interest. As you can see, I didn’t even bother to learn the characters’ names. While we’re at it, the animation’s also pretty shoddy, but we still get plenty of fanservice. Hard pass.
In a way, I’m kinda glad that I don’t like any of these shows. Earlier today, I was kinda worried that I might have too many shows to watch and cover, but that problem sure resolved itself real quick. I might still hate watch the painfully generic court mage, but I definitely won’t follow the other two shows.
