Man, why am I wasting my beautiful Saturday mornings watching these shows? Ah well…

Black Torch Ep. 8

Just the highlights:

• Rago is lost in his thoughts; he worries that him possessing Jiro will eventually lead to detrimental effects. The ever delicate Jiro proceeds to yell directly in the cat’s ear to get its attention. But I guess there’s nothing to worry about, because you probably can’t damage a Mononoke’s eardrums anyway. As for Rago’s concerns, eh, what can either of them do about it? Not fight? Then Jiro’ll die. Fight? Then Jiro’ll die. Life is a fuck.
• Ichika captured her Mononoke, so that’s that. This just leaves Reiji.
• Reiji’s brother Shinji tells him that he hasn’t changed. He’s the same guy he’s always been! He has always resented his brother, because their father would abuse him whenever he lost a duel. He resented Reiji even harder when he felt like his younger twin was losing on purpose — was patronizing him. Right, so you’ll just side with a bunch of freaks dead set on enslaving humanity. Makes sense. I mean, this guy is clearly nuts, so there’s no point thinking any harder on this.
• Somehow, Reiji blames himself, loses his spirit, so Shinji spares him. The older twin wants a duel to the death, so this isn’t remotely satisfying. We’ll do it some other time!
• I know family is family, but like… their dad was an abusive fuck, and Shinji wants humanity to suffer over his own personal issues. Like c’mon, pull up your big boy pants and fight. But instead, we get the “look up into the rain and scream” pose. Maybe I’m just too cold and impersonal.
• If Reiji versus his brother isn’t the top billing, then now what? How ’bout meeting the big bad way before you’re meant to clash? Basically, the big bad is just here to taunt the duo: “You’re going to have to eat him! That’s what it means for a human and a Mononoke to coexist!!!” Okay, so Jiro will die a little earlier than he normally would. That doesn’t mean anything. Could be death at 85 rather than 90. If he goes down fighting, then it’s still a life worth living.
• Well, the big bad wouldn’t be the big bad if he couldn’t put Jiro to the ground in an instant. But like the previous fight, he’ll spare the kid as long as Rago pledges his loyalty. As a result, two new faces have time to come to Jiro’s rescue. Ugh, weak. I can’t believe the biggest villain out of all the shows this season has been a merchant lady who sells beauty products to rich people… nah, that tracks. Capitalism has always been the true big bad.
• Unfortunately, the big bad gets his hands on Rago. Or rather, Rago let go of Jiro in some misguided attempt to keep the kid alive. Okay, well, the big bad clearly thinks he needs the cat to advance his plans of enslaving humanity. So in the long run, Jiro gets fucked anyways. Man, the cat is just as dumb as its master. But the cat did leave behind its tail. Great, Jiro can still be a furry. And I guess. world domination will have to wait, because that’s where all of Rago’s power is.
• Damn, this is their home? It’s so sparse. The Mononoke have no taste.
• I don’t love Demon Slayer at all. I got tired of the constant “let’s stop and blast the audience with a sad backstory” after every demon encounter, and Zenitsu is probably the most annoying character I’ve ever encountered in a shounen. But man, it’s like night and day in terms of… well, aura. Muzan is a billion times more threatening than this guy who literally lost a war against humans and now has to beg a cat for help. Not only that, his home is just… some shrine in the middle of nothing, a far cry from that infinity castle thing or whatever it’s called. Well, maybe this guy in Black Torch isn’t the big bad. Or rather, there’s an even bigger bad after him. Guess we’ll see…

Daemons of the Shadow Realm Ep. 20

I can’t believe we had multiple episodes of buildup just for the fight against Ivan to end like this. The assassin’s trump card is some move that can absorb the enemy’s essence, which is what he used on Left. He basically had them dead to rights, but apparently, chugging Left’s energy is like downing a six-pack of Monster. Actually, I’ve literally never had an energy drink in my life, so I have no clue what sizes they come in, but you get my point. As a result, Ivan makes a hasty retreat. So anticlimactic.

But hey, Asuma has his uncle captured, so the Kagemoris can at least torture him for juicy info, right? No, Ivan magically zaps into the room and kills Shingo (as well as Asuma’s poor Daemon). He would’ve killed Asuma too, but again, the energy backlash conveniently stops him from doing anything that might impact the plot too much. Fucking cop-out, man.

So what happens next? Ivan contacts a Mineyama, who appears to be a high school girl (she mentions cram school). We then see said girl gather up all the blood and dead bodies in the warehouses into a ball, shrink said ball down, and store it in a jar. Basically, these factions can throw down all they want without having any real effects on the rest of the world. At best, you just have one traumatized security guard. Meh. Ultimately, there are no consequences. All the tension gets sucked up into that ball with the dead bodies.

Now that the danger is over, Asa carelessly dumps the village girl back into the real world where she is surrounded by strangers. Yes, she knows Dera, but he looks like a stranger without his beard. What a poor girl. I know Asa doesn’t give a fuck about Higashi Village, but it’s a little kid. Have a heart, damn.

Meanwhile, Yuru, Asa, and the Zashiki-Warashi siblings are about to have a chat in Asa’s pocket dimension. And I mean, I’m fine with this being the ultimate conclusion of this arc. But I’m still annoyed that the Ivan fight ended up being one big, fat “to be continued.” It didn’t even conclude in one big, bombastic clash. Ivan just clutched his chest, then decided he needed to run.

Tomb Raider King Ep. 7

MC beats up his former boss, but fails to kill him thanks to some immortality relic. You still get your bones broken and stuff, though. MC also breaks his relics in the process. So the rest of the episode is all about recruiting a guy who can repair them. Our MC is a jerk, so he tries to force the repair guy into a slave contract. At the same time, however, the repair guy was planning to scam him. Basically, almost every single character sucks in this show. Irene is probably the only person who doesn’t have a problematic personality.

Watching this, I kinda forget what the goal of this series even is anymore. Oh yeah, he’s trying to claim all of the relics for himself. Hm. Yeah, I dunno, I think I’ve run out of things to say about this show. MC doesn’t undergo any sort of character development. Neither does anyone else. There’s no tantalizing mystery behind the relics. You don’t even have a super compelling revenge story like maybe his former boss killed his mom or whatever. So far, this has been a completely empty and soulless anime.

Edit: Oh man, I’m so bored with this show that I initially forgot to even add in screenshots.