It’s time for the hate-watch of the week.

— When we last left off, the entirety of Class 1-B tried to ambush Class 1-A’s leader, but it was to no avail. They only managed to scratch him. So what now? What now is that we ditch the teamwork strategy and split up like you’re supposed to in a regular shounen. This way, we can have 1v1 fights. The ambush last week was kinda clever, but it was never going to work on a meta level. If it did, the current arc would’ve ended too soon. We want to milk this competition between 1-A and 1-B as much as possible even though it’d be a lot more compelling to see these exorcists-in-training go up against actual ghosts instead.

— Glasses-boy goes after Kasubata, ’cause y’know, leader versus leader. The anime then gives us a snippet of his backstory. Perfection is muh family motto and all that jazz. Ironic, ’cause dude doesn’t even have perfect vision. Also, I like to think being a nice person is a crucial part of being perfect.

— Glasses-boy looks down on Kasubata for being a delinquent in the past. Also a waste of time, because if a delinquent wants to reform and do good, you should encourage that. But glasses-boy is a dumb child, so you can’t expect him to understand such things.

— Elsewhere, we get rage-baiter versus rage-baiter. Pretty much expected. Are we going to see Urusugawa against the other team’s lone female student too? But then who will Haijima fight? I guess her dolls means she can go up against anyone.

— Why do the characters in this show keep sticking their tongues out like this? I’ve never seen so much tongue in my life.

— Some guy in Class 1-A has the ability to summon virtual pets to fight for him. Yeah, I’d say digimons are just as ugly. Seriously, I tried to get into the latest game ’cause it’s a JRPG, but all of the digimons you get are just so ugly. Game Freak phones it in with every new Pokemon game, but at least pokemons are actually cute.

— More sad backstory. This time, it’s for… ugh, gonna have to check Wikipedia for his name… Wagari, the guy who can teleport people. What’s the gist of the backstory? Comically evil parents wanted their boys to awaken to their powers. Unfortunately, they thought torture would somehow do the trick. Something about reaching your limits through pain and suffering. I think there was a French horror movie along those lines. What was it called… ah yes, Martyrs.

— In the end, Wagari’s brother died, so Wagari ran away from home with Kasubata. That’s how the two of them became delinquents. So… that evil family is still out there, huh? I can’t blame kids for being kids, but they really should’ve reported his parents for, y’know, child murder. Instead, his evil parents probably just made another kid to torture.

— Wagari awakened to his powers the first time he touched a smartphone. His family abhorred cyberkinesis, so that’s why they never considered this route. I guess this is supposed to be profoundly ironic or whatever.

— In any case, Wagari is rushing to be by Kasubata’s side — then why did you split him up from you in the first place? — so he whips out a pipe and knocks cyberpet guy out in one hit. Aw, c’mon, don’t tell me this 1v1 is over already! You gotta milk it more. More sad backstories!