Do fairies not have spines or something? How can anyone sleep on a convex surface like that?
Overgeared Ep. 5
I hope no impressionable kid is watching this episode. Grid wants to quit his day job and put everything into blacksmithing within the game. Naturally, his parents balk at the suggestion, and I would agree. Why put all your eggs into one basket already? If you can truly make money from the game, prove it first, then make irreversible changes to your life. But no, Grid lies to his parents. He quits his job anyway, then does his blacksmith grinding during the day at a gaming cafe. Look, this is fiction, so of course he’s going to succeed. Of course, he’s going to craft a legendary item that earns him nearly 30 million yen. The funny part is, he could’ve made hundreds of millions of yen, but he got ripped off ’cause he’s clueless about business in general. Stay in school, kids. But back to my original point, I’ve seen so many people who think they can become streamers or influencers, so they quit their actual jobs. And you know what the median for viewers is? I seriously think it’s like one. At best, the vast majority of people are streaming to the one family member or friend who gives a shit. Otherwise, they have nobody. So don’t quit your fucking day job! You should especially not lie to the people who cared for you and kept a roof over your head for 20+ years!
Also, the family falls into massive debt, so Grid ends up having to use his newly earned money on them anyway. You might feel bad for him, but this is just the fifth episode. Dude’s gonna end up with like five bajillion wives to go along with his fat bank account, so no need to cry for the him.
The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life Ep. 3
We meet Margaret, who is the younger sister of a girl who used to be in Lily’s party. Basically, she has the bog standard resentment subplot where she despises Lily for being the only survivor. She thinks Lily abandoned her sister along with the rest of the party, so she’s pissed that Lily is no longer a useless shut-in. Yeah, I know grief clouds our judgment, but Margaret literally wants Lily dead. She’s just a horrible person who hasn’t worked out her issues in two whole years.
What’s funny, however, is that the girlypops are trying to have this pain-ridden conflict, but Rein is too fucking stupid to play along. As a result, he gets scammed into buying a useless, ugly set of armor. He’s so dumb, he briefly draws Margaret’s ire away from Lily and onto himself.
Yeah, I dunno about this show anymore. I get what it’s trying to do — mixing serious consequences with wacky humor — but the result just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For instance, Beast’s Fang is in ruins, because A) they no longer have their enchantments and B) they lost aura when the jerk-offs from last week’s episode had to run away from Rein’s enchanted rocks. News have spread, and people are leaving the guild in droves. That’s good, right? Unfortunately, I can’t forget the fact that Rein and Lily watched as members of Beast’s Fang killed two random adventurers for no reason. And now that I know they could’ve saved those without incurring any collateral damage onto the rest of the guild, it looks even worse! How are we gonna crack jokes and be all smiles when we let two people die?
A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Ep. 15
Why do anime characters have to hug like this? It looks so awkward and uncomfortable. Anyway, Desir has to attend a super important meeting between the head of various kingdoms while his party members participate in a tournament. Desir also meets a former party member in the form of a saintess. Going forward, I suppose we’ll be jumping back and forth between the scenes of diplomacy and the tournament. The main emotional thrust of the episode, however, is the team visiting Romantica’s home. Think of it as a semi-beach episode. This is one of those rare occasions where our female warriors have discernible abs. Unfortunately, they still have noodle arms and legs. But I digress. Everyone’s having fun except for Desir somewhat. In his past life, this was where Romantica died to a demon. So in this life, he makes the girl swear that she’ll run away when he tells her to. Yeah, well, if you’re not gonna give the girl any context, why would it stick? In fact, why is Desir still hiding the fact that he knows about future events? What’s the harm in telling them? I forget if this was ever explained.
Sasaki and Peeps S2 Ep. 3
Sasaki and Peeps manage to save Elsa, then the bird suggests having the girl hide out in Sasaki’s world. I was worried this would mean her living with Sasaki, but luckily, Shizuka will take the girl in instead. Plus, could you imagine what Otonari might do if she found out about Elsa? Sheesh. Peeps then wastes no time introducing the young girl to the internet. That sounds terrible, but they mostly just watch trashy soap operas. If the bird had shown her TikTok, on the other hand, that would’ve been child abuse.
Anyway, Sasaki goes undercover at a high school, because one of the people who died in that last Death Game was really just a kid. This is the same high school, however, that Hoshizaki attends, so Sasaki gets to awkwardly watch as she turns down a love confession from a classmate. Ugh, she has a crush on Sasaki, right? I can’t remember if that was a thing that came up in the first season. I try to memory-hole teenage girls gunning for old men, y’see.
Right before the episode ends, Sasaki finds himself in yet another quarantine space. I wonder if he’ll finally find out that Otonari is involved this time.
The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World S2 Ep. 3
By the time we’re halfway through the episode, the training is over. Visually, it’s hard to say if the girls got stronger. Amelia can control her butterflies better? Ariane can barely scratch Ray with Stella holding him down…? The only concrete takeaway is that Ariane is now definitely in love with Ray. Just anime and harem things…
You might think, “Great, the training arc is over! Now we get to have the tournament arc.” Nope. The anime just barrels through the entire tournament. Before you can even blink, Ray’s team is in the finals. So they trained for two and a half episodes just to skip automatically to the last round. This pacing, man… also, the animation quality is sinking like a rock. I think this is one of those shows that never should’ve gotten a sequel. It feels like they’re not even trying.
Magic Repo Man Ep. 4
Lent is finally going to meet his future waifu — y’know, the one that won’t betray him like that harlot Misa! But just in case you didn’t hate Misa enough, the show doubles down on the NTR. We see a flashback where a younger Misa keeps laying it on thick that she likes Lent. I get it, I get it, you don’t have to be so heavy-handed about it! Nevertheless, the flashback is more like a nightmare as Lent bolts up in the middle of the night, panting and heaving as if a girl falling out of love with him is the most painful thing in the world. We even get this flashback twice in case you didn’t get the memo. Sheesh, he’s never even kissed her. Get over it… which I guess he tries by kissing his fairy. Naw, you don’t get it, that’s how you transfer MP!
It’s also comical how the bad guys are both equally stupid and evil. Lent’s old party finally realizes that they’ll be paying off the MP loan forever. As a result, Misa and Elle, the elf healer, put on their most revealing outfits in an attempt to seduce some old wizard to join their party. The idea is that he has a decent amount of MP, so Lent’s curse would just hit him instead. Man, it would’ve just been easier to act nice to Lent. You don’t have to like him, but you could’ve just been cordial and you would’ve still had all the MP you could ever want. But these girls aren’t allowed to share more than a single brain cell, because the story demands that they be this dumb and stupid. But then why did Lent stick with them for so damn long?
Anyway, Lent only stumbles upon his new waifu because her party basically left her for dead. Even worse, they used magic to erect a wall, so she couldn’t even escape. Like I said, these wish fulfillment shows are full of comically evil villains. Writing decent ones would take too much time and effort when the target audience just wants cheap trash to consume.