This gives a whole new meaning to siblings being a pain in the ass.
PSYREN Ep. 2
Yeah, I’m not vibing with the show, so I’ll be covering it here instead. The premise is too much like one of those death games. Upon arrival, assuming you don’t get killed by man-eating monsters right off the bat, you and other unlucky participants are given a goal: reach the gate. You have to run through a small area, dodging monster attacks, and find the other payphone. This is presumably how you make it back to the real world… for the moment, anyway. It’s obvious that Sakurako has been through several of these ordeals, and participation is compulsory. She looks and sounds like she’s at her physical and mental limits, especially because other people would never heed her advice. Anyone would slowly lose their grip on their sanity if 1) their lives are in danger and 2) no one believes them.
Why do people not listen to Sakurako even if they’re all trapped in the same dangerous dimension? I assume that’s because they’re all greedy bastards hoping to make it rich. That’s the feeling you get from the current crop of participants. But y’know, I feel like even the greediest bastard around would piss his or her pants if answering a phone call drags them into another world, and they haven’t even seen the monsters yet! But sure enough, all of the other contestants for this round — all men, of course — laugh when Ageha tries to warn them about the monsters. So there you go. It’s like a death game, the throwaway characters act stupid just for the sake of the plot, and the monster designs are uninspiring. That’s a trifecta that leaves me rather underwhelmed for the future of this story. And when I say that these characters are stupid, they’re really, really stupid. One of them manages to get the jump on one of the monsters and knock it over. So they all start running away while it’s down, right? No, just step on it. Yeah, just keep stepping on it like a fucking idiot.
The cherry on top, however, is Ageha’s brash decision-making. Yes, I know shounen protagonists are supposed to be good guys who never give up. I don’t mind the fact that he still wants to save the other contestants even though they laughed at him. But he also puts Sakurako’s life at risk for his ideals. At one point, one of the other dudes suggests that they split up. He’ll head to the gate with Sakurako, who isn’t doing so well. Ageha can go off on his own to try and save some poor bastard who took an arrow to the back. How can you just trust a random stranger like that? How can you leave your weakened, barely conscious friend in the stranger’s care, especially to save another stranger? Luckily, it looks like the other dude was actually honest about helping them all escape. But still, this could’ve gone pear-shaped real fast! Also, the guy Ageha tries to save ends up dying anyway.
TOUGEN ANKI: Nikko Kegon Falls Arc Ep. 3
Homare’s big sis can now come out in a smaller form and interact with her friends. She can also bite Homare whenever the girl gets too down on herself, but why in the ass? Not all of the kids have made it to the summit, though. Edgelord and the slightly less edgy-lord are cut off by both instructors. This means they fail, right? Nah. Thanks to the power of teamwork, Shiki can snipe the instructors from super far away and through a raging blizzard. As a result, Jin and Ikari manage to reach the summit. Naito proceeds to deliver this spiel about how their bonds made them stronger, they need to continue nurturing their hearts, blah blah blah. Nothing I haven’t heard before in my JRPGs. Nevertheless, Ikari remains unconvinced. He will not be filing down his edges, so he’s determined to ditch the school and get stronger on his own. Ah well, there always has to be at least one black sheep. He’ll just get his ass in trouble, so his friends can inevitably save him. Then maybe one of them gets hurt real bad in the process, forcing Ikari’s black heart to finally give a damn about how his selfishness negatively impacts others. Classic anime storytelling.
Tokyo Revengers Ep. 53
Unsurprisingly, Mikey isn’t there when the rest of the former gang digs up the time capsules. Everyone reads the letters that they wrote to future selves. They also read Mikey’s letter, because Takemichi hopes to find a clue or two in it concerning Mikey’s current whereabouts. Takemichi is also the last to leave, so he finds a mysterious VHS tape left in the capsule. I’m sure if he watches it, it’ll lead him to keep foolishly pursuing Mikey. He was already kinda planning to. Shounen protagonists are not known for giving up on their friends, no matter how stupid it might seem.
Earlier in the episode, several of Takemichi’s friends told him to just straight up get over it. It’s been years and he’s got a happy life with Hinata ahead of him. Like I asked last week, why risk everything for one guy? Isn’t Hinata more important? Isn’t your future family more important? I suppose you could argue that we feel differently because we are realists. We know we don’t get do-overs. We know if we fuck up, we have to live with the consequences. Meanwhile, Takemichi is allowed to fuck up over and over and keep time-jumping to fix things.
Well, he can no longer time-jump. Not with Naoto, at least. Naoto is happy with the current state of things, so a handshake with him is simply a handshake. All this means, however, is that Takemichi has to find someone with regrets. Could that someone be Mikey? The thing is, he’s really up to no good nowadays. We’re no longer dealing with teen boys pummeling each other with their fists. His men are murdering people execution-style. They are monstrous pieces of shit, so by extension, so is he. Your mind can go to all sorts of dark places, and you can shut your heart off from the world all you want. You can’t, however, turn around and harm others. You gotta keep that darkness to yourself or else you’re just a weak, pathetic man. But I never respected people like Mikey.
I think this is what my disdain for gangs (or any similar-minded organizations like the yakuza) really comes down to: they can preach brotherhood and honor all they want, but they come together precisely because they were weak. I look at the recent scandals involving fraternities the same way. These types can’t navigate the world on their own, so they huddle together and, more often than not, enable each other. They amplify each other’s weaknesses rather than make up for them. And yes, families are technically smaller, discrete “gangs.” But like with any social structure, it becomes a serious problem when a group grows too large and thus cultish. When people swear loyalty and bow deeply to a select few. When initiation means debasement and dehumanization so you look at your future brothers solely for support. When gangs destroy each other and absorb the remnants, leaving no one left to keep them in check. But I digress.
The point is, an encounter with the current Mikey could be Takemichi’s last moments alive. He’s about to get married. If I were in his shoes, I’d take Hinata and leave for another city, away from all this blood and mayhem. But maybe this is what it’s all about. What better way to raise the stakes for the final arc than to say, “Okay, you can time-jump one more time, but if you fail, you won’t get a second chance.”
Black Clover Ep. 173
You know the drill: the good guys attack the bad guys, so the bad guys counterattack, so the good guys counter-counterattack. By the end of last week’s episode, the bad guys managed to open the gate, allowing actual devils to come on through. At the start of this week’s episode, we find out that the bad guys also get a power-up, which slightly alters their appearance. Worst of all, a ginormous demon — this show uses devil and demon interchangeably, and I’m not sure there’s any difference — is unsealed, and it’s headed straight for the Clover Kingdom. Despite everyone’s best efforts, which includes the Wizard King temporarily aging himself back to how old he used to be, they can’t stop it… which is just setup for a hype moment where Asta returns at the last second to slay the demon and thus save everyone. Even so, Noelle’s brother has to be a jackass. The commoner-noble conflict in this show is stupid.
Speaking of Noelle, she also gets a “oh no, the situation is dire–… oh my god, who just saved us” reversal of fortune scenario. But she’s not the main character, so she doesn’t get to hog the spotlight alone. Instead, she and the rest of the kiddos strike a pose.
Speaking of new forms, what do fans think of them? I feel like I can’t really judge, because I’m not the target demographic. I would never look at something like Asta’s new form and think, “Whoa, that’s badass!” Truth is, I’m kinda neutral about it. I don’t really care one way or another about his “glow-up.” I do think, however, this other guy suffered a massive loss in presence. I dunno, man, I think he just looks hella dumb. On the other hand, these demons are merely mid-level, so they die like chumps. I still think they look more fearsome than the other goon, though.
Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Ep. 1
The only time I watched Dragon Ball Super was when Goku and friends had to fight Jiren, probably one of the most boring antagonists in the series. But again, I don’t follow the show closely, so who knows? There could be others who are even worse! My point is, I was a bit confused as to why the gang needed to fight Beerus again. I thought he was on their side! In fact, didn’t he train Vegeta? Even though I didn’t read the manga or watch the anime, I still knew a few basic things about the plot through cultural osmosis. So I looked up the premise of the new show, and it turns out this is a remake-slash-enhancement. Bro, the original release was only 11 years ago. Do we need to reimagine it already? Is it just me or is this silly? Well, I didn’t watch the beginning of Super, so if they changed anything, I wouldn’t know anyway! It’s like getting a remake of a PS4 game on the PS5. You guys are killing me with this!
Well, we more or less know the story: this universe is full of sickos who just want to fight and fight and fight in order to kill their boredom. No need for me to elaborate. I might comment if a character does something crazy, but meh… I’m just watching this series because I can. I’m much more interested in new shows.
On that note, I like how Chichi is fine with Goku fucking off to do his own thing, because he brought home 100 million zeni. Where did Mr. Satan get that money anyway? Is it dirty money?
One thing for sure, the visual fidelity is a bit jarring for me, since I mostly know the franchise from the original Dragon Ball Z series. It’s like jumping from blurry, 24fps VHS footage to a pristine 4k, 60fps footage on a blu-ray. It obviously looks better, but my eyes aren’t used to it. Blowing up a planet shouldn’t look so pretty.