Yeah, we skipped week 1, but what can I say? A lot of these shows had their season premiere rather late. If I had done a week 1 post, it would’ve just been Overgeared and a link to a Magic Repo Man first impressions.
Overgeared Ep. 2 & 3
Even though Grid did nothing to help, he still gets the credit for saving the cult victim. Still, I’m somewhat tickled at the thought of a self-important c-suite exec sitting at a conference table, discussing the goings-on of some random guy in their player base.
In the first episode, we didn’t get to see Grid do any actual crafting even though he inherited the title and skills of a legendary blacksmith. Well, the second episode seeks to rectify that problem. Unfortunately, Grid can’t quite make any of his desired overpowered items yet. Not only does he lack the materials, he also lacks the know-how. As a result, we see him do a few menial tasks to win the trust of a local NPC blacksmith. Y’know, stuff like chopping wood or yearning for the mines like the children do. Eventually, Grid manages to worm his way into the NPC’s heart — this is the only truly amusing part of the second episode — so he gets to learn how to make arrows. Thanks to passive buffs, he inadvertently crafts an epic arrow… which honestly seems like a waste. After all, arrows are consumables, so they disappear after use, right? Well, I don’t know how this game works. Maybe you can keep the epic arrow around or whatever.
Grid eventually travels to another village where he’ll learn more blacksmithing skills? But he gets embroiled in a conflict between the next blacksmith and a bunch of thugs trying to steal the forge for themselves. The thing is, this is one of those shows where the protagonist doesn’t start out very heroic. After all, he was a total chickenshit last week with the cultists. I mean, it’s a game, right? Who the fuck cares if you die in a game? It’s not like this is SAO. I always see streamers wuss out in the middle of a challenge, and it’s so weird to me. It’s just a game. If you die, you just respawn and try again.
Anyway, Grid was reluctant to help the new NPC, but the old man reminds him of his actual grandfather. As a result, Grid takes on a new quest that might have the local politician pissed off. He gets a fancy new sword for his troubles, though. See, kid? Being kind pays off!
So… how can you tell who is an NPC and who is an actual player character? ‘Cause earlier in the episode, we see one of the waifu candidates marvel over the epic arrow. Is she a player character?
Moving onto the third episode, Grid finds himself in a competition where he needs to win in order to save another player. That sounds odd, right? Why can’t the player save himself? Well, we meet Huroi, who is quickly arrested for treason and imprisoned. This is all a ploy by the evil NPCs to scam the blacksmith NPC out of his forge. Man, some of these NPCs sure are vicious! Now, MMO games do have something called GM jail. If you break the rules, like griefing people, conducting real money trading, or just being plain rude (i.e., using too many “gamer words”), then a GM might forcibly remove you from whatever you’re doing and stick you in virtual jail. They will give you a warning if you haven’t really done anything bad, but if you break a major rule, you can be suspended for weeks if not outright banned. But it’s different in Satisfy. In this fictional VRMMO, NPCs can throw you in jail on a whim. So then what happens? Is your player character just stuck there? That would suck, wouldn’t it? Imagine paying for a sub just to be confined to a jail cell not because you actually did anything wrong, but simply because the NPCs don’t like you. Fuck that.
Nevertheless, Huroi gets a quest where he has to stay in jail for 192 consecutive in-game hours. That means being logged in, by the way. The quest text even warns the elderly and the young to abandon the quest. Because this is a VRMMO, staying logged in for too long puts a strain on both your physical and mental state. Even though Huroi is a relatively healthy Mongolian man in real life, Satisfy has a local team on standby in case they need to extract him from the game should his condition significantly worsen. What does that even mean? Did he preemptively give them permission to break into his home or what? Furthermore, why would you create such a stupid fucking quest? Like what are we even doing here? This is the disconnect for me when it comes to fictional MMOs. The point of most games is to be fun. Fun! Some can be artistic, but that’s not usually a label you would apply to an MMO. So how fun is it to stay logged in and trapped in prison for eight days? But fictional MMOs are always trying to be some shitty simulacrum of real life where you have to do shitty things just to end up with shittier real life consequences. And look, I get it. There are people who mod all sorts of realism into games like Fallout. Stuff like a hunger meter, thirst meter, sleepiness meter, when was the last time you jacked off meter, and so on and so forth. But this is extremely niche. Satisfy is supposed to be a worldwide phenomenon, played by billions around the world. There’s no way a game like this would reach those heights. People just want to jump in and play. This is why the biggest titles on the market are casual theme parks like WoW and FFXIV. Granted, the tiny fanbases for hardcore MMOs are really dedicated to their games, but big emphasis on the word “tiny.”
Anyway, Grid has to beat some girl in a blacksmithing contest, but she has the epic class Duplicator. She’ll probably win.
The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life Ep. 1
First impressions: The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life
A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Ep. 13
I binged the first season while gaming, and I don’t think it left any impression on me. The thing is, I normally have an affinity for “time travel to clean up the mess” stories. Our hero not only gets a do-over, he retains all of his memories from his previous life. He gets to right everything that went wrong and create a better future. Even at their worst, I’ve always kinda enjoyed these stories (Re:Zero notwithstanding). Nevertheless, I came away from the first season of A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special with nary an opinion. I think it’s because everything was just standard. It’s like popping into any random diner and getting a burger. You just ate something. It made you less hungry, but you sure as hell don’t remember the taste after a few hours. Can the second season do better or will it be more of the same, i.e. consume and forget?
Well, it opens with an extended fight scene. I don’t know who they’re fighting or even why. It just keeps going and going, though. Watching Azest clash with some dude, I started to get distracted. After all, the Yankees just got swept by the Rays, and… well, to be quite frank, seeing Yankees fans crash out about Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman is a little more entertaining to me right now than this anime, especially when I don’t know what the conflict is about. Granted, that’s partly my fault. I don’t exactly remember how the first season ended. I know Desir’s team full of commoners won a competition against a bunch of nobles, but that wasn’t actually the last episode of the first season. Something else happened later, and I completely memory-hole’d it. My bad!
Only later, when Desir explains to a lord what he was doing the previous night, does the show finally jog my memory. Right, a Shadow World appeared, and his party was deployed to handle it. Welp. I don’t think I quite grasp what these Shadow Worlds are. It’s like stepping into a video game, which shouldn’t be surprising, I guess. This is anime, after all. Almost all of these fantasy stories are inspired by video games. But Shadow Worlds just randomly appear, then you gotta go into them and start questing? And only by questing do you prevent these Shadow Worlds from destroying our real world? What a bizarre premise. Did the first season explain why it works this way? Or why there are shadow worlds to begin with? I’d like to say I would’ve remembered all that exposition, but shrug, guess not.
Anyway, Desir manages to broker a truce with an invading clan, but now they have to deal with refugees. In the meantime, Azest is happy to pose as his girlfriend while they’re in this fantasy world, much to Pram’s chagrin. Normally, these fantasy protagonists will build themselves a harem, but I didn’t expect a boy to be one of his many admirers. Last but not least, Romantica is nowhere to be found. Well, not exactly. She’s just in a different location, forced to play a merchant. Desir explains that you have no control over where you end up when you enter a Shadow World. Strange. I thought she would be the deuteragonist when I first started watching the first season, but Azest seems to have claimed that role.
Sasaki and Peeps S2 Ep. 1
Like always, this show has to have everything in its bag of tricks. Alright, we already know about the fantasy dimension that Peeps is from. Back in the real world, Sasaki works for a psychic organization. Oh yeah, there are magical school girls as well. What more could you possibly want? How about the minor next door forming a contract with a demon and thus entering into a death game? Let’s also give her a super sad story where her father abandons her, her mother is abusive, and her mother’s boyfriend tries to rape her. This way, you create a girl who hates the world so much that she can watch her demon murder someone and have no reaction whatsoever. What is wrong with this show? Why does it feel the need to throw the kitchen sink at its audience? The worst part was when Otonari had her demon give Sasaki a boner, because she wants the old man to assault her. This way, she will parlay his guilt into a relationship. I know people are going to say that Sasaki has never done anything weird to any of the young girls around him. But that doesn’t absolve the author. What on earth were they thinking when they came up with this story?
Uh, some political stuff goes down in the other world, but everything involving Otonari in this week’s episode makes me side-eye Elsa’s friendliness with Sasaki. I dunno if I’ll stick with this show for the entirety of the season. I’m suspicious of its intentions.
The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World S2 Ep. 1
Ah yes, another show I watched a really long time ago but remember nothing about. So color me surprised when a little girl saves the princess from her captors only to reveal that “she” — the rescuer, not the rescu…ee? — was a younger Ray cross-dressing the entire time. Welp, when you need a refresher, Wikipedia usually comes to the rescue! No, I don’t need spoilers of future events. I just need a rundown on who the main characters are and what their personalities are like. Aaaaaaaand… nothing. There are no character descriptions whatsoever on this show’s Wikipedia entry. Damn, is it really that unpopular? Well, considering how I remember literally nothing about the anime, I guess it must not have had much of an impact on anyone else either. There are, however, episode summaries of the first season. I’ll probably scan through that once I’m done with this episode. Might as well…
Basically, the princess misses him. Amelia is already in love with him; I don’t actually know that — because I remember nothing — but I can easily make this assumption without it biting me in the ass. We then see Ariane blush when he tells her that she has mucho potential, so she’s got dem feelings, too. But I suppose I don’t really need character or episode summaries for this. If there’s a generic fantasy anime with a male protagonist, you can bet your money that all the girls want to jump him. Naturally, he bumps into Rebecca the next day, who is disappointed that she doesn’t get to be on his team for the Magicks War. Is anything interesting going to happen in this episode? Or are we just going to make the rounds and hit up all the haremettes? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. I already know the answer.
Amelia and Rebecca form a non-aggression pact in order to prevent Ariane from getting any closer to Ray. Despite their newfound alliance, however, Rebecca has her assistant spy on Ray and report everything back to her. Last but not least, a little girl emerges from a field of sunflowers and hugs Ray; she is apparently his imouto. Right… Christ, I definitely didn’t remember this show being quite so vapid. Welp, this has certainly been an inauspicious start to the new season.
Magic Repo Man Ep. 2
This episode is actually one massive PSA in disguise, so it’s probably more beneficial to kids than any other anime this season. Thanks to Lent evolving his skill, he now has a fairy familiar who proceeds to school him on how interest can bleed you to death. Not only does she help him get his mana back, she creates a contract wherein the interest is just high enough to screw over Lent’s former party members. They’ll be in his debt forever with no recourse. How can you complete a quest when every single mana point you regenerate is needed to pay down the interest? Of course, this invaluable lesson requires a dry PowerPoint presentation full of numbers. But everything that the fairy yaps about this week can be applied to money. If even a single person walks away from this episode with a tangible fear of credit cards and predatory loans, then the show will have (inadvertently) done its job. Usury should be a sin, folks!
