Imagine seeing this and deciding that you gotta bully the hell outta your sister.
PSYREN Ep. 5
Another twisted game of Psyren has begun, and it lowkey cracks me up that Sakurako is the token female participant. There’s this subreddit called Why Women Live Longer, and it (jokingly) documents all the various reasons why men die young. Well, we can now add one more to the list: women don’t go chasing after shady rumors like Psyren!
Like before, the good guys try to warn the idiot extras about the immense danger they’re in. If they want to make it out alive, the group needs to work together. And like before, they refuse to listen (probably because it came from a girl). As a result, a giant worm monster shows up and gobbles all of them up. Well, almost all of them. Two of the guys survive, and whatya know! It’s the same two guys standing with our trio in the ED! Welp, I guess this is the final group of protagonists.
What we find out this week is that Hiryu’s friend is still alive, but he’s hunting them. He has clearly been brainwashed. Sakurako plunges into his memories and learns that he was taken to a mysterious facility where weird monsters injected mystery fluids into him. Tokyo’s future is freaky, man.
TOUGEN ANKI: Nikko Kegon Falls Arc Ep. 7
Watching this show is a good way to understand how people can develop voter apathy. Both sides are fucking horrible, and I can only watch with disinterest. I don’t really care who comes out on top here. Yaoroshi has to stop his new captain from murdering a pregnant woman. In fact, they’ll probably come to blows in next week’s episode. But then you remember that the Momotaros are experimenting on Onis Mengele-style. You then realize that the woman isn’t wearing maternity clothes despite being quite far into her pregnancy. She has to wear the Momotaro uniform that, realistically speaking, is tailored to fit her belly, because the audience needs to know that she’s a Momotaro. Without it, she’d just be any regular ol’ human. No, no, no, it’s okay to murder the defenseless because of the clothes they wear! And in amidst all this genocidal sentiments, we get these rote ass flashbacks about children losing their dying mothers. Ugh, the story wants to manipulate our heartstrings, but it can’t even put in any effort.
Anyway, it sure is taking Shiki and his buddies their sweet ass time to catch up to this rampaging Oni squad.
Tokyo Revengers Ep. 57
I guess Takemichi can see glimpses of the future now…? But the glimpses aren’t always useful. For example, he thinks he sees blood on himself in one of these visions, but it turns out to just be tomato juice. Yo future vision, why are you showing me this shit? At the end of last week’s episode, Takemichi did see Senju dying in front of him. He realizes this week that it’s gonna happen during their “date” at the amusement park (I feel like he’s spent more time with Senju than Hina lately). So of course, Takemichi manages to save her, but we get a cliffhanger where Draken may have died instead. See? Man, this ability to glimpse the future is useless. First, we get false positives, and second, even if we do change the future, it’s a trade-off at best.
Black Clover Ep. 177
As usual, it’s despair, despair until the calvalry arrives. Gaja will be fiiiiiiiine. Just rub some Windex on it! What I don’t like, however, is mixing defeat with fanservice. C’mon, it’s bad enough that Noelle has to lose to the same devil who killed her mother, but do we really gotta threaten to have her be naked too?
Thanks to Asta showing up and rescuing Lolopechka (I always have to Google how to spell her name), Noelle gains the resolve to keep her clothes on. Everyone else is still fighting. Even Gaja somehow has recovered. So of course, it would be embarrassing for Noelle to bow out now. She thus keeps her clothes on, finally admits that she’s a tsundere (too bad Asta will never love her back), then goes in for one final attack. That’s when Nozel swoops in. Honestly, I would’ve been hella pissed if he got the killing blow. Sure, it would’ve been a very low, low chance, but it was still a possibility! And no, this fucker is not forgiven. What a stupid backstory. To protect my sister, I have to torment her~~~! Yeah, fuck off, dude.
In the end, Noelle destroys the devil’s heart, but it probably just goes back to hell or wherever it came from. Her mother then emerges and says one last goodbye to her children… well, half of her children. The others don’t really count; they don’t deserve their mother’s love. Nozel sucks too but… pfft, I guess he gets a participation award.
Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Ep. 5
Watching Goku and Beerus fight, I couldn’t help but wonder… does technique matter in Dragon Ball? Does skill matter? Is there such a thing as a bad matchup? In sports, a player can have all the physical talent in the world, but it doesn’t matter if they can’t harness it. Or do Dragon Ball combatants just punch faster and harder as they power up? In other shounens, fighters would often have to think through their matchups, figuring out ways to best their opponents that don’t rely on raw strength. On the other hand, Goku seems to just scream or grunt louder or faster depending on the situation.