She’s just like me, fr fr…
Wash It All Away Ep. 12
Wakana keeps finding the same stain around the crotch area whenever she examines her landlord’s clothes. She thinks this might be a sign of trouble, but the old woman immediately leaves in a huff. Aw, she’s embarrassed. Well, when Wakana pays Aji a visit later, she finds the lady collapsed in her own home. Don’t worry, nobody’s dead. But imagine that — imagine a show where Wakana goes around solving actual problems via people’s dirty laundry.
Instead, we got a nothing anime. It was full of eye candy and little else. Obviously, I know I’m not this show’s target audience. That’s not lost on me. Even so, for a show that is all about washing threads, none of the scant plot threads amount to anything in the end. Wakana’s amnesia and forgotten past? Nada. Her inappropriate moments with the high school boy? Other than some fanservice, absolutely zilch as well. Throughout the course of the series, we meet a lot of local faces, but we never truly get to know anyone on an intimate level. All of sudden, here’s the finale with plenty of cakes to go around. Well, I suppose that’s somewhat apropos. Cakes are full of empty calories, after all. Wash It All Away is exactly that: sweet on the eyes but lacking any real substance. It has been a thoroughly inconsequential 12-week affair.
There was a Cute Girl in the Hero’s Party, so I Tried Confessing to Her Ep. 12
While Yoki is away helping Yuga with some quest, Cecilia entertains her suitor, who happens to be a Hero from another country. At first, Cecilia tells him that she has no intentions of getting married, because she’s still in training. Already, she’s not being honest. If she has feelings for Yoki, she should just say so. The guy then makes some grand speech about how every nation needs to put aside their differences and stop fighting, so a marriage between him and Cecilia would symbolize peace and mutual cooperation! Cecilia still doesn’t agree to the marriage, but she doesn’t outright reject him either. He then parlays this into a not-quite-a-date as he asks her to show him around so he can get to know her country. Ah, the classic foot in the door technique. Cecilia is so naive.
Yoki eventually finds out about the arranged marriage from Yuga, so he tries to hurry home. Unfortunately, his emotions get the better of him, so his demon form re-emerges. This gets him in trouble, ’cause y’know, he’s a demon. As a result, he slinks away all dejected. No matter what he’s done, he’ll always be judged by his appearance. As a result, he comes to the conclusion that he and Cecilia are not meant to be, ’cause the next day, he gives her the cold shoulder. After all, she failed to mention anything about the arranged marriage. In his mind, she’s just not into him. Well, she is. She’s just a wishy-washy person, which I can’t stand.
There are two possibilities from here on out. One, Cecilia finally summons up the courage to solidify her relationship with Yoki. Or two, she gets all sad and mopey over Yoki being sad and mopey, so she agrees to the arranged marriage. Everyone else will then have to knock some “sense” into Yoki and force him to once again fight for the woman he loves. The first scenario is far more preferable than the second, because I really think Cecilia needs to do something to make it up to Yoki. Not telling him about the arranged marriage was pretty dang shady considering how upfront he’s been about his feelings for her.
But personally, I’m already turned off from the romance. After all this time — and after all he’s done — Cecilia still hasn’t emphatically chosen Yoki, so fuck it. She ain’t it, bro. Like I said, I don’t like wishy-washy people, especially when it pertains to something as serious as love. It shouldn’t take this long for her to choose him, and that’s the crux of the matter. Your partner shouldn’t have this many doubts about you. On the first or second date? Sure. After twelve fucking episodes? Nah, bro, nah. Ultimately, there are other fish in the sea–fish that wouldn’t hide an arranged marriage meeting from you.
Tune In to the Midnight Heart Ep. 12
It just struck me how quaint it is for… fuck, I can never remember these girl’s names without looking them up. Right, so Inohana is the aspiring singer. And before she allows herself to express her true feelings to her former best friend Aiko, she must first pass her own test: sell 50 CDs. Well, as I was saying, I think the whole thing is quaint, because I literally would not be able to do anything with said CD. Supposing I was in the audience and I was charmed by her music. Her CD would be nothing more than a useless piece of plastic to me. I don’t own a single device that can play a CD.
A legit band suddenly shows up and throws an impromptu concert right next to Inohana. As a result, the entire crowd ditches her for the band. But hey, some of them bought her CDs, right? So I’d say today has been pretty successful. You can come back another day and build on today’s results. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. But that’s not dramatic enough, so of course, Aiko shows up (thanks to Yamabuki). She first listens to Inohana’s song, then they both sing together for the first time since forever. Meh, I guess that’s nice outcome if a little contrived–a little too storybook for my liking.
At the end of the day, Inohana admits that it hurt when her crowd ditched her for the popular band. Sure, that’s natural, but you just gotta let those feelings ride. They’ll eventually fade. Again, she managed to sell some CDs as a relative nobody. I think that’s successful. Nevertheless, Yamabuki starts crying because he thinks he failed her, so now she has to comfort him. I think it’s all about perspective. If I get 20 readers for this post, I think that’s amazing enough. But if I’m going to compare myself to one of those big anime sites out there, then yeah, I’m complete dogshit. You just gotta change your outlook.
The problem with ongoing series is that they often cop-out and neglect to give us a proper conclusion. So yeah, this is the end of the first season. It kinda just ends. We didn’t even get a tease about Apollo. Well, I’d still pick the vtuber for her silly cat form.
So what do I think of this anime so far? It doesn’t really do anything to distinguish itself from all of the other “MC meets a bunch of girls and solve their problems” series. What makes it special from, say, that quintuplets show? Or the one where the MC has to tutor a bunch of failing girls? Or the anime where he takes over his dead grandma’s restaurant? Or was it a cafe? Bah, it doesn’t matter. Or how about the one with the aspiring doctor who has to marry one of three shrine maidens? My point is, these shows all feel the same to me.
Will I tune into the second season when it rolls around? For “Everything else,” sure. This show isn’t good, but I’ve seen worse. Assuming I’m still blogging by then, of course.
The Case Book of Arne Ep. 12
Dude, it’s just a straight up action episode. First, they fight Vlad’s army, then they fight Vlad himself. We have all the warriors! Nachzehrer even gets his true form back just so he can throw hands at the big, bad Dracula himself. But seriously, this isn’t what I expected for the final episode of a mystery series. Sure, The Case Book of Arne has a penchant for bucking expectations, especially when it pulled the bait-and-switch on us with Louis Hartmann. But defying expectations just for the sake of it doesn’t automatically make your story good. It’s just the start. You still gotta deliver on the actual good story. And I’m sorry, but I’m not remotely interested in a shounen battle against Dracula. Sure, Lynn has to perform a really minor deduction to find the location of Vlad’s heart, but that’s really weak. That’s really, really weak. Just like the show in general.
Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None Ep. 12
So when we last left off, Orhun was faced with a difficult choice: finish off the dragon or leave now and save Sophia. “Was” is the keyword here. Now that we have no need for dramatic cliffhangers, Orhun practically demolishes the black dragon all by himself. The funniest part was when one of his party members screamed out, “Did we do it?!” What do you mean “we”? Pfft. And again, Jack-of-all-trades? More like Jack can do it fucking all. What’s even the point of Orhun being in a party?
Elsewhere, Sophia awakens to her special telekinetic ability, which allows her to save Log. But they still can’t take on the big oaf by themselves, so Orhun unsurprisingly shows up in the nick of time to play hero. And as I expected, he takes everyone out with ease–everyone but Sion, that is. The chumps are not challenge for Orhun at all. A single spell was all it took to severely cripple their fighting ability. Then a follow up spell finishes the job. Yawn. Other shows have already done this sort of thing. You gotta step your game up. Seriously, if you’re going to reuse the same scenario, at least add a twist to it. But anyone who has watched any shounen anime ever can see how this would play out from a mile away. It’s so by the numbers, it’s just sad.
Sion, the childhood friend, puts up a better fight, but as I suspected, it’s destined to be an unfinished fight. ‘Cause again, she’s the precious childhood — one of them, at least — so as soon as she realizes whom she’s fighting, she immediately backs off. We don’t even get a good explanation for why she’s doing this. All she says is, “…the original was defeated, and the replica has fallen into enemy hands.” Wow, that clears everything up! Thanks for that!
Like every utterly forgettable anime ever, the season finale never actually finalizes anything. All it can do is hit the reset button. Oh sure, Sion knows that Orhun is still alive. And that’s it. Orhun is still clueless about his own importance in the grand scheme of things. We then cut to a bunch of people all rambling about shit we have no context for. Sion swears to get her revenge on some woman (?) for separating her from Orhun. Some guy talks to himself and says that he’ll finally forgive Orhun for some sin (?) if Orhun truly manages to clear the great dungeon (?)! Oliver swears that he’ll reclaim his hero title in some upcoming tournament (?). Bro, try defeating a black dragon first. Orhun is up 2-0 on that front. Meanwhile, Orhun just swears to get even stronger! Whatever, man. What a nothing anime.
Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord Ep. 11
The war rages on as the good guys hope to retake Scudet. The enemy’s secret weapons are wyverns that can drop black balls. Yup, just black balls. They don’t really specify what the black balls are. Probably just magical bombs or whatever. Plus, the wyverns look more like birds than wyverns. If you squint, you might see a pterodactyl, but again, not wyverns. Somehow, all Van needs to do to counter the enemy’s air force is a bunch of catapults. Now, I’m no expert on medieval warfare, but I’ve always been under the assumption that catapults are siege weapons. I would never consider using them as anti-air. But whatever, this isn’t all that important.
The problem with shows like Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord is twofold: not only is Van awesome and flawless, his detractors are all incredibly stupid. Take his father, for instance. Over and over again, he denies the possibility that Van might have accomplished anything. Even though the literal king is heeding Van’s every word with care and attention, Jalpa continues to be a dick to his own flesh and blood. It’s just uninteresting writing.
When it comes time to retake the city, the enemy commander is easily fooled by the good guys simply splitting up their forces. Again, complete idiocy. How is this even fun to watch? Our hero is like Superman. Meanwhile, his opponent doesn’t even have object permanence. What is this? To top it all off, you have some of the laziest animation all season long. Action scenes are basically vibrating screenshots of screaming soldiers with action lines all over them. I can just feel the adrenaline!
Anyway, the good guys win, Van’s father slinks away in shame, and they find out that Arte’s hometown is the third and last target. Welp, I guess that’s going to be the final episode. Let’s go save your childbride’s home, woo!
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife Ep. 11
It’s Yako’s turn to meet the parents, and they’re a bit quirky. But other than that, they have little to say about the whole affair. When Tonome announces that he and his girlfriend plan to move in together, they simply think it’s “fine.” That’s it? You don’t want to get to know the girl or anything? If things work out, she’s going to be your daughter-in-law. Do you even care?
Since the parents have nothing to offer, we instead fill the time by meeting Tonome’s best bud, a.k.a. the former model who made a splash by tattooing or just plain drawing distinctive patterns onto his body. Kinda cool, I guess. And through him, we get yet another story about how Tonome was a crybaby as a child. Sheesh, talk about patterns…
They really try to play up the fact that being an invisible person in society is really, really hard, but it’s not really working. Being a minority myself, I feel like it should resonate with me, but eh…
Alas, even the best bud isn’t enough to fill up an entire episode, so we get a short scenario at teh end where Yako’s brother thinks Tonome is cheating. Without even asking questions, he’s ready for violence. Kind of a terrible kid.
I think the episode is a dud, but I do appreciate the attempt at visually depicting Yako’s auditory world. I just wish the characters were interesting or had anything interesting to say.
The Holy Grail of Eris Ep. 11
We knew going into this episode that Constance’s family, friends, and allies would pull out all the stops to save her, and that’s pretty much what we get. The problem is that it’s all very trite. Everything unfolds as you expect it to. Her friends are having people sign petitions to stop the execution. Scarlett haunts the religious guy to have him conduct an investigation into Rufus. Randolph is still trying to find the missing prince. Luckily, he gets help from a certain Farisian princess. Last but not least, Constance’s father isn’t a complete loser like Scarlett’s father.
Then of course, we get the 11th hour backstory for Princess Cecilia (what’s with all the Cecilias) in case she starts feeling guilty. Apparently, she sees herself and her dead childhood friend in the two kidnapped children. This is a show about mostly shitty dads, so her own father tried to have her killed. After all, she’s an illegitimate child born from a tryst with a prostitute, and he didn’t want that sordid detail coming to light. Unfortunately for him, Cecilia survived thanks to her childhood friend’s sacrifice. As a result, the girl has been hellbent on destroying an entire nation outta revenge. But somehow, one look at Lucia and the Farisian prince is going to reverse decades of obsessive hate and resentment!
Again, like everyone trying to help Constance, this whole bit with Cecilia feels mechanical. At this point, I fully expect our villain princess to be like, “Muh dead friend wouldn’t want this,” then proceed to let the kids go. Basically, she’s going to completely flip-flop on her decades-old quest for revenge at the drop of a hat. This is exactly the sort of conclusion you would expect after the woefully perfunctory backstory we just got. Gee, why couldn’t you find your conscience before all the dead bodies started piling up? If only Daeg Gallus would’ve kidnapped Lucia from the start, we might have avoided this whole mess to begin with.
Roll Over and Die Ep. 11
I hate how dark some of the scenes are. I hate the inane narration even more. They must think we’re braindead idiots. Flum starts crying when she hears that Sara is still alive. Gosh, why is she crying?! Won’t some disembodied voice chime in and explain everything to me?! Gladly, says the disembodied voice! This is what this scene means. This is what that scene means!
Sadly, the dialogue between Flum and Dein isn’t much better. It’s so hamfisted. “I was meant for greatness! How can a slave beat me!” “Cuz you sacrificed your friends! I would never do the same! REVERSAL!” I’m cringing at the edge of my seat.
Roll Over and Die‘s premise has potential, but it’s terribly squandered by the execution.
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar Ep. 11
Even at 4x speed, this episode was a chore to watch. Bad guy is on the verge of winning. Good guys are in despair. Don’t worry, because I’m sure the good guy’ll pull something out of their ass for the season finale. Or maybe Sooha will finally lift a finger and do something for once. Meanwhile, lemme just laugh at the animation.
HELL MODE: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing Ep. 11
Last week, I wasn’t sure why Cecil (not quite Cecilia at least!) would try and run away. I hadn’t realized that she would also be sent to die one day since she has a talent. So not only did she lose her brother, she probably feels as though she’ll meet the same fate. Unfortunately, we resolve this conflict rather quickly. After Allen talks to her — and even offers to help her run away from home if she so desires — the girl steels her nerves and heads on home. Cecil then tells her parents that she will follow in her brother’s footsteps. Welp, that solves nothing. Just for bodies for the death machine!
So with that emotional subplot out of the way, it’s back to basic ass grinding. I’m just going to skip all of that, because I really don’t care about Allen’s war against armored ants. Children sent off to die in a war isn’t original, but at least it has some heart. Bored gamer wanting to grind endlessly for exp, by comparison, is not compelling. In the first half of the series, you could at least empathize with the kid trying to make ends meet for his poor serf family. There’s nothing remotely similar in the second half of the series. Has Allen grown at all over the past few episodes? Has there been any real character development to chew on? And no, I’m not talking about his exp bar.
Right before the episode ends, the bad guys kidnap Cecil because they want to pressure her father into giving up the precious mining rights. Needless to say, it’s up to Allen to save her again. Man, this poor girl sure has some luck. First, she loses her brother, and now she’s being held hostage over some pretty (and useful) rocks. She has another brother, y’know. Spread the misery around. Don’t just pile it onto one kid.
Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling Ep. 11
Oh, the black lizard still recognizes the dragon protagonist. He probably still smells the same to her or whatever. Without any context, their reunion is pretty sweet. Kinda like when you return home from a trip, and your pet is all excited to see you. But with context, we know that the “pet” is in love with the dragon protagonist, so yeah… no, a black lizard is not fine, too.
The dragon protagonist initially planned on leaving the forest entirely, because his mere existence is probably a danger to every single life form in his vicinity (maybe even the black lizard). But he soon spots the weirdo slime thing, which is oddly hellbent on wiping out the human village. Like what is so special about the village? Is the slime just evil for evil’s sake? Or is there a specific reason why it needs to kill everyone there? That’s the problem with this show. For like 90% of it, it had no real plot other than the dragon protagonist leveling up, evolving, and trying to befriend some human girl. When we finally get an antagonist (not counting the system voice that chimes in every so often), it’s a slime with no characterization, backstory, or personality whatsoever.
Well, a fight breaks out, and the black lizard gets itself in trouble yet again. Pfft, even in the animal kingdom, female animals have to play the damsel-in-distress.
Scum of the Brave Ep. 11
Jougamine can read Yashiro’s mind, but she still took a massive blow for him — a blow that takes off a good chunk of her face. Uh, is that going to heal back up with E3? More importantly, did she do it because she knew what he was planning and disagreed with said plans? Or was she just acting reflexively like the heroine that she? Unfortunately, we’re privy to Yashiro’s thoughts, and not the girl’s.
Yashiro admits that Jougamine bugs him because she is the goody-two-shoes he can never be. Ironic since she seemingly wants to be him. Well, I don’t know what to say about Yashiro’s epiphany when we’re balls deep in Demon Lord territory. I wish he could’ve had these revelations episodes ago before he dragged a bunch of students into danger. Just for revenge, too. Well, he got what he wanted. He literally spills Ishino’s murderer’s guts with Jougamine’s help, so now what? Is he going to go after Levy next? There’s still one more episode left, after all. More importantly, has the world become a better place now that Ido is gone? No, I suppose Yashiro wouldn’t care about that. I usually root for protagonists who are trying to make life a little less shittier, so I don’t really know what to make of Yashiro. Usually, anti-heroes are at least charismatic, but this guy…
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk Ep. 11
To Takiguchi’s credit, she runs to tell Ouji that she can’t return his feelings. But then she asks herself afterwards if that was the right thing to do. What do you even mean? Of course it was!
Ichimura’s childhood friend Yoshiko suddenly shows up outta nowhere. She even pays a personal visit to his home. It’s platonic between the two of them, but you know what generic romance anime series love? Gross misunderstandings! Gross misunderstandings due to a keen lack of communication! Yay! So of course, the person Yoshiko is crushing on is none other than Takiguchi’s father. As a result, she and Ichimura hit up the curry shop. Immediately, Ouji stares at them and starts jumping to conclusions. Naturally, he thinks Ichimura is cheating on Takiguchi, because two people of the opposite sex can’t have dinner together without it meaning something. But seriously, not everyone is a slimeball. I mean, I don’t personally like Ichimura, but there’s nothing to suggest that he would cheat. But then Ichimura finds out that Ouji confessed to Takiguchi, which she never told him. As a result, he confronts her about it later. She didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, but she also isn’t, y’know, communicating. Let’s not forget how she passed up an opportunity to spend time with him just so she could help Ouji buy a gift, a task he’s more than capable of doing by himself. Again, this is yet another thing she didn’t communicate about! So now there’s drama on top of drama… and I’m just exhausted. I’m glad I’m not a teenager. I don’t have the energy for this shit.
Kunon the Sorcerer Can See Ep. 13
People doubt Kunon, so he exceeds their expectations. It’s the same pattern we’ve seen all series long. First, it was his tutor, then it was everyone he met at the royal castle, then Zeonly, and now the three factions. Hell, he even uses the same trick to defeat Zeonly on the four students challenging him. It’s one thing to have pretty much no plot or conflict to speak of, but it’s another thing entirely to just recycle the gimmick ad nauseum. Welp, at least it’s over.
Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary Ep. 11
It’s the big reveal-all episode. Essentially, the older Ebisumori sisters always become shrine maidens, and the younger Ebisumori sisters always sacrifice their lives to enrich the family. Not only that, Nana was essentially the golden child whereas Mirai was thoroughly neglected. Basically, Mutsu deserved her horrible death and more. But it sounds like the Ebisumoris are on their last legs. Who’s even left other than Nana and Namu? I guess Mirai still blames her older sister for all the bad things that happened to her. After all, feelings aren’t always rational. But if we’re going to talk about feelings, then what about Kaya? Does Mirai have no love for her daughter at all? And what about her husband? Does she really have no attachment left in this world? Is she really going to abandon them just to complete her revenge?
Unfortunately, we gotta wait a week to see how this all plays out. Who will die and who will stay alive? Kaya’s more than likely safe, but I wonder if there’s any hope of redeeming her mother. Why redeem her? Well, in a way, she has only killed a terrible person. You could argue that this is a net positive!
Noble Reincarnation: Born Blessed, So I’ll Obtain Ultimate Power Ep. 12
Albert can’t even stage a coup properly. None of his men are loyal to him, so when push comes to shove, they literally hold him down and feed him poison (that they got from Noah). Y’see, if it looks like a suicide, his soldiers won’t be branded as traitors to the empire. So that’s that. We then get a time skip where Noah looks much, much older, but they didn’t bother changing out the voice actress. As a result, he still sounds like a kid whose voice hasn’t dropped. Nevertheless, his future wife is already dying to marry him. Meh. This show is just so… clinical. There’s no real emotion behind anything that happens. Noah and his father are completely soulless.
The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor(ing) Kingdom Ep. 11
Last week, Pearl acted like an irrationally jealous woman. This week, we learn that a former human lover had dumped her for someone else. Now that I’m equipped with this knowledge, I realize that Pearl is… still just an irrationally jealous woman. When covering other shows, I often joke about how men would rather turn into supervillains instead of getting therapy. Well, it’s no different here. Pearl is content to wreck the ocean just because she got NTR’d. Good lord. The thing is, it’s such a basic ass backstory. This show is like trashy romance 101.
Anyway, Aquasteed literally stabs himself to free himself from the effects of the love potion. Has Tiararose ever gone that far for him?
Everything else about everything else:
I’m near the end of Monster Hunter Stories 3. It’s a decent game overall, but nothing special. The gameplay is flawed but fun. The story, however, is incredibly basic and somewhat underdeveloped. I’ll have more detailed thoughts once I roll credits.
I should probably start planning out what to watch and cover next season.
