Speeding our way to the end of the season.
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Ep. 10
Once again, Akira debates whether or not to assassinate Gram. It’s been weeks, folks. Make up your fucking mind already. This time, however, Amelia drops one doozy of an argument: “All people, even villains, have their own stories. And no one gets to end that for them.” Need I remind you, Gram has been trafficking young women and harvesting their organs. In other words, he has been ending people’s stories left and right, and if left untouched, he will keep doing it. BUT NO WAY BRO, YOU CAN’T END HIS STORY! HE DESERVES TO END HIS STORY ON HIS TERMS. What a crock of shit. Instant disqualification as a waifu. I couldn’t possibly date anyone this dumb.
Anyway, it’s the week to be angsty. Crow is angsty, because he’s been living for revenge. Akira’s classmates are angsty because they feel as though they can’t catch up to him. Well, it might help if you stopped picking on wild animals. Finally, Akira is angsty, because he thinks he can’t go back home to his family if he becomes a murderer. Yes, because your mother and sister would hate you so much for taking down a known trafficker and murderer. I fucking hate these people. I really do.
I’m not saying that killing someone is easy. Obviously, ending a life can be traumatic. Hell, I feel bad if I accidentally step on a bug. If Akira simply told us he was scared, I’d respect that. But sorry, every other reason they put forth in this episode, especially Amelia’s, is bullshit. Just pure sophistry.
By the way, how do his mother and sister even pay the bills? The mother is too sickly to hold down a job. As for the sister, she’s still a student. Even if she has a part-time job, there’s no way it pays enough to sustain two people.
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill S2 Ep. 10
Like always, the plot is nothing to write home about. Mukoda and a group of adventurers “team up” to take down an orc settlement. But in actuality, the familiars did most of the heavy-lifting. The adventurers can’t complain, because they still get their reward. But do they still get the exp? Ah well.
I can’t help but notice that, well, there wasn’t a single woman in this week’s episode. Guildmaster was a dude, butcher was a dude, the adventurers were all dudes. Weird. Sui is the only exception, and the slime is probably agender.
As for the food, we get a boring rice bowl with lots of okra (I don’t eat okra), another tsukimi burger, and then slices of meat that have been salt-baked. I’ve only salt-baked a handful of time, and it was always with fish. I guess meat could work, since the salt would also work as a tenderizer. He tops the slices of meat with a sauce seemingly made out of only egg yolks and mustard. I feel like it’s missing another ingredient or two. Maybe a bit of vinegar. Or honey if you want honey mustard. Just eggs and mustard sounds off.
I’m not gonna talk about the dessert, since he never makes any of them.
Yano-kun’s Ordinary Days Ep. 11
It’s the school festival episode, and it somehow manages to be a thoroughly frustrating viewing experience. First, Izumi obviously likes Hashiba, which we’ve known for a while now. Still, she’s constantly blushing around him this episode. We also already know that Hashiba likes Kiyoko. Even if he finally gives up on being a home wrecker, choosing Izumi now would only make it seem like she’s the consolation prize.
As for our primary couple, the story still refuses to explain why he always wears that eyepatch. And likewise, the story still refuses to explain Yano’s history with the mysterious, new girl. Obviously, something happened between the two of them. When taking her order, he pretends to not remember her. The story is setting Kiyoko up to be super jealous. She already has to deal with Yano’s newfound popularity with the ladies, but she’s trying her best to hold it in. She’s trying to relish the fact that Yano is enjoying a school festival for the first time. Unfortunately, the mysterious girl might actually be a threat to their relationship.
Thanks to Kiyoko’s friends, everyone thinks that if they hold hands with their lover in front of a bonfire, they will be together forever. Yano is still too embarrassed to hold hands with Kiyoko, so they settle for linking pinkies. That’s already weak enough to make me roll my eyes, but when he sees the mysterious girl staring at him with a sad face, he immediately breaks contact with his girlfriend and cowardly shuffles a few steps away. Pathetic. Losing my respect, buddy.
Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- Season 2 Ep. 10
To take stock, Aoi needs to help revitalize the northern lands’ tourism industry. As a result, Kiyo has tasked her with coming up with a dish using local ingredients. He then provides Aoi with a bunch of northern ingredients, which includes a huge wheel of cheese. Apparently, cheese is their speciality up here. This whole time, I’m thinking to myself, Don’t say fondue, don’t say fondue, don’t say fondue. So guess what? We’re making fondue, baby! I don’t hate fondue. It’s just… not very interesting. You put out a huge pot of cheese and tell people to dip stuff in it. In terms of revitalizing the tourism industry, I’m not going to go on a vacation just to enjoy specialty fondue with soy sauce. C’mon, man.
A third of the episode has Ginji reiterating to Ranmaru that his feelings for Aoi can never be requited. He won’t even attempt to get closure, which is honestly fine by me. I personally think closure is overrated. Just get over it. Which leads me to my next point: I can’t feel bad for Ginji, because I simply don’t understand love triangles. I could never love someone who has a hard time choosing me. I might have feelings for them initially, but as soon as they start looking at someone else, poof! Those feelings are gone. Life’s too short to waste your time on a supposed lover who doesn’t see you as their number one.
Then we get to Kasuga and her troubled marriage with Kiyo. What’s wrong with them? Well, the guy distrusts everyone, including his first friend. Loser. That’s all I’ve got. I mean, only a loser could say something like this. You’re the husband! It’s your fucking job to please your wife! Nevertheless, Kasuga wants Aoi to help her make a dessert for Kiyo that would remind them of the time they visited the apparent realm. According to her, it’s sweet, bitter, and has cheese in it. I was totally confused until they finally named the dish: tiramisu. Oh, when they said the dessert had cheese, they were referring to mascarpone. I mean… I know it’s called mascarpone cheese, but I don’t really consider it an actual cheese, y’know? Anyway, I guess that’s one way to make your paranoid husband trust you. Try it at home, ladies.
Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! Ep. 11
I’ve been pretty checked out on this anime, because there’s just nothing interesting to talk about. The plot literally boils down to “git gud.” Not only that, Arel has gone from hanging out with people his own age to a bunch of kids. Luckily, his time in the City of Magic has finally come to an end. After all, the headmasters of the various magical schools admit they wouldn’t be able to beat Arel even if they teamed up. He has nothing left to accomplish here except to defeat the most terrible slime from the demonic realm. And how will he do that? With the power of LGBT, of course! Just ignore the fact that hundreds of people just lost their homes.
So what’s next? Well, Arel didn’t completely destroy the slime. There’s enough leftover to become a second familiar. As a result, Arel is headed for the City of Monsters, so he can learn how to better wield his two slaves buddies. Again, there is no plot. Our hero just needs to “git gud” over and over and over.
Dusk Beyond the End of the World Ep. 10
To make a long story short, Towa screwed up and she screwed big time. She’s one of the reasons why the world is the way that it is. As a result, she disappeared from public eye out of guilt. Is she still alive? That’s still a secret. But like I said, she’s only one of reasons why the world is screwed up. Turns out human Akira didn’t die when he took all those bullets for his fiancée. In fact, he would go on to create OWEL. So yeah, he’s the other reason why the world sucks — why the world is now ruled by an Orwellian police force hellbent on suppressing all forms of technology. That’s just how it goes, isn’t it? Bad things happen, so we overreact, overcorrect, and trick ourselves into becoming fascists. It’s a tale as old as time.
But whatever, that’s all plot stuff. What we gotta ask ourselves is this: was it worth the wait? Was it worth having Yugure edge us for ten damn episodes (counting the prologue) before she finally revealed the truth? Eh, I don’t think so. Nothing she’s told us is particularly earth-shattering. We could kinda already predict that Towa had screwed up. She was pretty arrogant at the beginning of the series. She was especially dismissive when people voiced their totally reasonable concern about AI and how it would adversely affect their livelihoods.
Yugure’s other explanation, i.e. why she hid the fact that Akira has been an android this entire time, is even harder to swallow. She claims, “I want you to know that you’re the original you!” Yeah, I don’t buy that. Right from the beginning, Yugure easily could have said something like, “You were created to find Towa, but no one is making you do it. What do you want to do?” Then it would’ve literally been his choice. Second, until just now, he literally thought he was the Akira. Because he didn’t have all the facts, the man — that is, the android man — had literally deluding himself into thinking that he needed to find his lover. How was that any better? How was this giving him the chance to be his “original” him?
We then get yet another time skip. How can we tell? Because Amoru has clearly grown up. See? The writers knew all this time that Amoru was a kid. But now that she’s old enough, are we going to get ourselves a Xenoblade Chronicles 2-esque ending?
Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! Ep. 10
For a show about eating monster meat, there’s a weird dearth of food in recent episodes. Instead, we spend half of this week’s episode talking about how Melphy is a genius, and as a result, someone might try to take advantage of her research for their evil ends. It’s all very nebulous, though. What evil ends? Just for war? That’s not specific enough. And who are these evil doers that Aristide has to keep away from his dear fiancée? What are their aims? What motivates them? Has Aristide had to deal with them in the past? If you’re not going to ply me with anime food, then you need a compelling replacement. You need something to keep me tuned into the story. This ain’t it.
At the very end of the episode, we finally see Melphy work her magic on some fruit… and, well, that’s it. That’s the end of the episode. This show has been thoroughly disappointing. It’s not a good love story, it’s not a good cooking show, and it’s not a good fantasy series either. The anime has nothing going for it.
Tougen Anki Ep. 21
Another boring fight where the participants talk way too much. If you gotta explain your moves and gambits, then maybe your visual storytelling sucks.
Also, the cliffhanger is meaningless, because Kougasaki doesn’t seem like a character who can honestly die this early into the story. He’ll probably end up sticking around until the end of the series.
My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha Ep. 10
It’s the same shit as with the dog guy from episodes ago.
“I’m level 7777!”
“Impossible! You’re lying! I’m not even going to check, ’cause I know you’re lying!”
So the badder guys act arrogant for half the episode only to evetually find out that they’re way out of their league. They then proceed to piss their pants in fear, get destroyed, and ultimately tortured. It’s almost the exact same setup over and over and over again. Fine, one of the elves doesn’t try to run away. The end result is the same, though. We can’t even be creative about it. Watch me step on these ants. Now watch me do it again. It’s like that meme with the kid who has to share something with the class, but he keeps bringing the same damn thing over and over.
A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Ep. 11
First, we gotta talk about the newly summoned Japanese dude. He gets a whole ass backstory just to end up watching helplessly on the sidelines as Lufas fights the Devil King. He seems kinda pointless? Why create this character? Why add him to the story? What purpose does he serve?
Next, we get even more exposition. This time, however, it’s like flipping the game board completely. The story is no longer about Lufas recruiting the former Heavenly Stars and thus defeating the Devil King. Instead, we’ve gone meta. Y’see, they’re all just pawns trapped within the Goddess’s Scenario. Demons exist to kill or they die. If they die, they become mana which allows the other races to cast magic and thus avoid being completely wiped out. The cycle of death and violence is thus self-perpetuating. According to the Devil King, the original Lufas tried to break free from the Goddess’s Scenario but failed. Okay, that’s great and all, but why reveal all of this now? Why did you have me watch ten episodes of a generic isekai series just to completely switch things up at the 11th hour? It feels like we’ve slammed the brakes in the middle of a story just to introduce another one. But the first season is about to end, so we’re doomed for an unsatisfying cliffhanger. I’m not saying that we suddenly have a good anime on our hands, but this premise is miles more interesting than the original one. So why didn’t we just roll with it from the get-go? Does the bait-and-switch add anything to the overall narrative experience?
Last but not least, Dina being a villain might be in the cards again. Maybe she just straight up lied last week. Maybe she isn’t a beta tester. After all, the Goddess’s name is Alovenus. and Dina is also known as Venus. Hmm, kinda suspicious. My initial thought is that the Goddess might be one of the devs. After all, as long as an MMO exists, it has to perpetuate an eternal conflict between good and evil, light and darkness. Gotta give the players something to play after all, i.e. our Goddess Scenario. But besides Lufas and now Sei, there are no other players. So what’s the point of this never-ending conflict?
Oh well, there’s just too much missing information at the moment to speculate.
My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! Ep. 10
This anime would be so short if Iroha could stop playing games. But she’s dumb and the show is dumb, so we keep on truckin’. Yes, he would’ve turned her down if she had confessed to him, but that’s what I want. Get over this loser and find someone else who will actually like you back.
In any case, the sticky situation with both Mashiro and Iroha is finally resolved, so we can get back to what’s truly important: fixing the drama club. Oh boy.
The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest Ep. 10
Anyway you look at it, Melea’s character is dumb. If all he desires is strength, then why did he waste decades raising and loving the child of someone he murdered. “Uh, that’s because he wanted to create a strong opponent!” Do you know exactly how dumb that sounds? Rather than continuing to train or seeking out actual strong opponents, I’m going to pretend to be a father instead. Bro, c’mon. Plus, what if Olivia just doesn’t have the natural talent to give him precious exp? What if she dies long before she ever finds him again? What if, like we see in this very episode, she’d rather sacrifice herself to protect her friends than keep fighting him? So the whole “I raised her in order to create a strong opponent” motive is moronic. There are so many ways it could have failed and did fail.
The only other possibility, however, is just as stupid: he wants to die, but he’s too much of a wuss to off himself. As a result, he raised, trained, and betrayed Olivia just so she can one day kill him. This whole plan, however, hinges on him mentally scarring a girl to the point where she’s blinded by hatred. So again, it can easily fail. This whole plan also requires him to align himself with the Shadow Guild and potentially commit evil deeds. Can you imagine committing to all this simply because he doesn’t have the guts to kill himself?
In order to defeat Melea, Alec is going to cast a risky spell that requires him to combine all of the elements. Apparently, this is very dangerous. But he’s also the main character, so you’d be naive to think he’s actually putting his life on the line. Yawn.
Hands off: Sawaranaide Kotesashi-kun Ep. 10
Basketball girl sprained her ankle, which a massage can’t fix. But at her insistence, the MC gives her one anyway. Since when did she start liking him? When his advice worked and thus helped improve her game? Ah well. The episode tries to make a big deal out of the MC failing to address basketball girl’s emotional needs, so they’ll probably have a heart to heart talk in next week’s episode. Then it’s right back to orgasmic massages, I’m sure.
Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! Ep. 10
In the first half of the episode, Suzume has been super stressed lately, and one of the side effects is the build-up of static electricity. She has so much built-up static electricity that she can no longer hold her dear robot daughter. Kids, don’t take your science lessons from anime. The family eventually figures out a solution to Suzume’s stress: canoodling with Enji. Yeah, this is just Temu Loid x Yor.
In the second half of the episode, Alma and her friends become streamers. They even manage to go viral and hit 100,000 subscribers. As a reward for their fans, the girls throw an idol concert. Yeah, I’m going to press x for doubt on their audience being nothing but young girls. Unfortunately, the trio’s streaming careers are cut short when an excited Machina detaches her head from her body in front of everyone. I dunno, I feel like Hololive fans would probably dig an idol who can pull this stunt. Hell, there probably already is one. I stopped paying attention once the entertaining English members kept graduating left and right. I was never into the mediocre singing anyway.
Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I’m a reincarnator Ep. 10
It’s the rescue mission, which goes perfectly because we have both the hero and the Spirit Queen helping out. It’s like walking up to a bunch of beginner mobs outside the starting town and casting Ultima. Ellen does, however, end up revealing to the prince that she is the “Healing Princess” that they’ve been searching for. Along with that, we perhaps confirm that the king had something to do with Rafilia’s kidnapping. I’m guessing that a confrontation with Ravisel will wrap up this anime’s first (and maybe only) season.
Mechanical Marie Ep. 10
Arthur is now worried that he might be guilty of sexual harassment. Oh, brother. First, he should have worried about this before he found out Marie is human. It might not be illegal to harass a robot, but that’s only because the law hasn’t caught up with reality. Plus, even if a robot doesn’t have sapience, I would still feel bad abusing it. In any case, Arthur is overreacting. He can still do all the same lovey-dovey stuff as before. He just has to have Marie’s permission, which he has in spades. If the girl is clearly offering up her lap to be your pillow, then what’s the problem?
Unfortunately, we go from sexual harassment to encouraging a 14-year-old girl to marry Arthur. He’s not the problem, though. Rather, it’s Marie this time. Worried that Isabel might spill her secret — which isn’t even a secret anymore — Marie encourages Isabel to get with Arthur. When her boss actually makes it clear that he finds Isabel annoying, Marie still advises the girl to never give up. I think the show wants us to see this as our heroine being kind like she’s some kind of big sister role model to the Isabel. But isn’t she being a little selfish here? Arthur clearly doesn’t like Isabel, so Marie’s just protecting her own ass.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because Isabel isn’t actually in love with Arthur. She likes the guy who keeps trying to kill Arthur instead, ’cause y’know, murder is cool.
I laughed at Roadway Marie 2 as well as the breaking of the fourth wall.
Li’l Miss Vampire Can’t Suck Right Ep. 9
The school festival is coming up — yes, it’s another anime with a school festival — so Luna and Otori pitch in to help. You see all the usual stuff: crafting outfits, painting decorations, carrying stuff to and fro, etc. At one point, Luna worries that Otori is taking on too many responsibilities, so she tells him to lean on her more. That’s pretty much all the “drama” that we get in this week’s episode. It’s the classic “please depend on me” subplot that you see in practically every anime.
Gachiakuta Ep. 22
Normally, when a villain dies, you get their sad backstory. I was waiting to get one for Noerde. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see much of her past. Zodyl presumably complimented her hair, handed her a comb, then his next words are completely silent to us. Why is she so loyal to him? Why is she willing to sacrifice her life for this man? Shrug, the mangaka doesn’t want us to know. Instead, we get to see the mysterious Watchman do… something to her. It looks like she’s being absorbed by the monstrosity. But right before this happens, she wants to warn Zodyl that crossing the border will rob him of everything he holds dear. What does that even mean? Does the Watchman steal your precious memories? Can you even feel such a thing as it happens to you? Oh well. On a related note, I expected more from Bones. I expected such a harrowing moment to be better animated than this. It’s just a blurry mess.
Guita’s transformation is pretty cute.
Last but not least, these subs, man. Either that or Bundus had a stroke mid-sentence.
Everything else about everything else:
I recently played through both Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia. The soundtracks by Mili are a large reason I am interested in this series in the first place. I posted my detailed thoughts on both games on Bluesky, and I’m too lazy to paste them here. The gist is that I immensely enjoyed my experience and would love to see a third game. If I have to pick between the two, however, I think Ender Lilies is the stronger game.
Anyway, my Metroidvania December continues with Nine Sols. It’s currently kicking my ass. The levels haven’t actually been challenging. They’re honestly pretty short, and you usually don’t have to go very far before you find another rest spot or a shortcut back to the last one. In fact, exploration seems to be the weakest aspect of the game. The bosses, on the other hand, are wrecking me. For some reason, I’m having a way harder time with the parrying here than I did with Sekiro. Maybe I’m just getting old. I don’t mind waking up to a few more strands of grey hair or gaining an extra thirty seconds on mile run time, but losing the ability to beat hard games is a little depressing. Every time I boot up the PS5, all the JRPGs and story-heavy indie games are whispering, “Come back! You don’t gotta try hard with us! You just gotta press X over and over!” But let’s see if I can push through Nine Sols to the very end. I kinda want the platinum trophy…
On the other hand, my appreciation for reading has steadily grown as the years go by. I’ve finished over 30 books this year already. So at least I’ve got that going for me as I get older and older.
I do still want to finish Atelier Resleriana one day only because I’ve beaten every other Atelier game. It would be weird to leave Resleriana hanging. I just wish the characters and crafting were more interesting. Unfortunately, I finally got my copy of Octopath Traveler 0, and people have been saying that the main quest alone will take nearly 100 hours to complete. People tend to exaggerate, but if we’re even in the same ballpark, that’s Persona 5 long. Even after I’m done with Metroidvania December, I still have a long way to go before I get back to Resleriana.
Oh yeah, Playstation’s 2025 wrap-up just came out.
I dunno about those Honkai Star Rail hours. I mostly logged in to do dailies. Maybe Sony rounded up. I just don’t think I spent more time on HSR than, say, Pirate Yakuza. Also, I’m pretty sure I put more than 60 hours into Silksong, so where is it? Anyway, Sony’s recommendations for me are bonkers:
Sorry, but I wouldn’t play any of these games. Celeste has an outside chance, but I’m not huge on platformers.
As for anime news, did anything notable happen recently? Well, I heard that there’s going to be a Love Is War special around New Year’s Eve, but are we ever going to see the rest of the manga adapted? Other than that, nothing else has caught my eye. I’ll probably start checking out what’s coming up in the winter season. I already have two shows I know I’ll cover. Just need a handful more to fill out the schedule.
