Eh… getting crows to help you is still cooler than whatever this is.
Black Torch Ep. 2
So what’s up with our newly formed cat-man duo? Well, an explanation is in order. Nothing too exciting, mind you. Ninjas still exist even in the modern day, mononoke will keep coming after Jiro, so they’re going to keep an eye on him, blah blah blah. Ryosuke flat out says that the kid has no rights, and he has to take responsibility. This is what you get for loving animals!
Well, you can’t keep a shounen hero down, so Jiro breaks out of his hospital room anyway thanks to his animal friends. I know he’s going to get all these awesome shounen powers thanks to Rago, but his ability to talk to animals is way, way more interesting and fun to me. All of the other stuff is meant to kill or, at the very least, defeat big, bad foes. It’s one-note.
Jiro knows he can’t elude the ninja dudes for long, but he wants to at least let his gramps know what’s up before he becomes a missing persons report. Little does he know, however, that gramps used to be pretty badass. In fact, gramps was a former ninja. As such, he knows what awaits Jiro, so he’s all “I’ll destroy you to spare you the hell to come, then destroy myself!” Bah, he doesn’t mean it. No half-decent grandfather can truly kill his own grandchild. Jiro’s doing a good enough job of that anyway. Why the hell would you block the punch with your head? ‘Cause it looks cool? CTE ain’t cool, bro. Go ask NFL players.
In the end, you get the typical shounen resolution: gramps sees Jiro’s resolve so he admits defeat. Jiro and the tsuntsun ass cat possessing him have a little bonding time. What else, what else…? Oh yeah, I guess I should mention Ichika, or more specifically, Ichika’s ass. I swear, if she’s in a scene, the camera has to pan to her booty at some point or another. Even when she’s sitting, she has to briefly get up to flash it. It’s like she exists just to shove her butt at us. Everyone else gets pants. Meanwhile, Ichika has to obey some unwritten rule that she must show off the zettai ryouiki at all times. Other than that, however, she just bickers with Jiro non-stop. Welp, no cutesy romance that won’t develop into anything until the very last episode for this show!
Daemons of the Shadow Realm Ep. 14
Hana initially had no plans to spill the beans about the dead shaman and the message carved onto his body. But when she returns home and sees that the hotpot ingredients were still uneaten — the rest of the gang was and still are waiting for her — she decides to fill Dera in. Aww… wait, are these two actually gonna become a real family at some point? But what about her love for Jason Statham?! In any case, Dera meets up with Jin for a little info-sharing. That’s pretty much it with these three — the adults of the show, if you will.
Elsewhere, it’s just more goofy “let’s learn how to adapt to modern Japan” fun time with Yuru. He has to learn that he can’t just grab fish from a nearby creek. He has to learn that he can’t just shoot down pigeons with his bow and arrow. Most of all, he has to learn that self-defense is still a crime if you go too far. I guess it makes sense. We have some “stand your ground” laws in America, but people often use it as an excuse to kill people.
For some reason, we are introduced to two alien-looking daemons? And their master is a pug? I don’t really know what the point of this was. They’re not affiliated with anyone — again, their master is a dog — and they don’t seem to offer up anything useful to any particular faction. It’s just, “Here you go! Two more friends!”
After this strange, “close” encounter, horse lady Oshirasama finally arrives with Danji in tow. Ah, even if Hana doesn’t tell Yuru about the dead shaman and the attack on the village, Danji can! Unfortunately, Yuru’s now former best friend gives himself away. Immediately, Yuru clocks him as a daemon. How? Because he doesn’t cast a shadow (or rather, he forgot to). Huh, I never noticed that daemons don’t cast shadows. To be fair, how often do you look at people’s shadows?
Anyway, Yuru proceeds to have a minor crash out, and it’s probably justified. After all, he got confirmation that practically everyone in the village was lying to him. Even his childhood friend had been lying to him. Yuru even turns around and confronts Left and Right. They amusingly reply with “I thought you knew!” But on a more serious note, the whole “you must die to unlock the power of Seal” is weighing much more heavily on Yuru than he normally lets on. Must be weird to wonder who has been trying to murder you all this time.
As a result, Yuru slinks off into the woods to be alone with his thoughts. Sure, sure… just don’t take too long. I mean, the little girl — I think her name was Azami — is probably too young to lie. If you don’t wanna forgive the village, so be it. I wouldn’t either. But I hope they start the rescue operation soon, ’cause I mean, the poor kid has lost her parents and seen people murdered before her very eyes. Give her a fucking break.
Also, Hana drinks straight from the carton? Ew, no. Get your backwash outta my drink.
Tomb Raider King Ep. 1
When I first caught a glimpse of the main character, I thought I had loaded up an episode of Solo Leveling. So I looked the show up and quickly found out that Tomb Raider King is based on a manhwa. Yeah, yeah… it figures. It’s just like how every kpop star looks the same, every male protagonist from South Korea also seemingly look the same. Even the action looks like something straight out of Solo Leveling — y’know, before Jinwoo started becoming massively overpowered and could summon a small army.
But wait, wait, before I judge the anime too soon, I should at least hear it out. Let’s see what the premise is. Well, this show takes place in an alternate universe where dungeons tombs started appearing all over the place. In said tombs, you can find rare weapons relics that will grant you amazing powers. As a result, people threw caution to the wind and plumbed the depths of these tombs. At the start of the episode, our protagonist Joo-Heon goes into one of said dungeons tombs and nearly dies; he was betrayed by his evil corporate boss. That’s when a mysterious voice rings out and tests his character. Satisfied with the results, it sends Joo-Heon back in time. Y’see, he had mentioned earlier that he was 38. When I heard that, I was like, “Daaaaaamn, since when do they allow the elderly to be action heroes?!” But of course, we can’t have that, so we turn back the clock fifteen years. Ah well, at least he’s not a teenager? Anyway, along with his newfound powers, Joo-Heon starts seeing menu screens like he’s in a video game. Whoa, no show has ever done that before! Especially not another series based on a manhwa about a guy who nearly died in a dungeon! More importantly, it’s now time for revenge! We kick things off by beating up lowly thugs in the streets — people who used to look down on him.
Sarcasm aside, at least this shows that creative bankruptcy isn’t limited to any culture. Rather, our complete lack of originality transcends national barriers. We’re all cooked regardless of who we are or where we’re from, and that’s comforting in a way.
One last aside: I’m not sure if Tomb Raider King can technically be considered a shounen, but eh… close enough. I didn’t know where else to put it anyway.