A slightly less intense week which was definitely needed. Thanks to everyone who has sent me good wishes or positive thoughts via twitter, things really have been a bit full on in the real world at the moment but there’s light at the end of the tunnel in that I know in about a month’s time I will be through most of the stuff I’m currently dealing with from a work point of view and things should resume some sort of normality. Just have to get through the next month or so.
As always, I’d love to know your thoughts on the shows of the season so please leave me a comment below.
Must Watch
My Hero Academia (Episode 33)
No episode last week.
Princess Principal (Episode 8)
Episode 8 feels better than it actually is. I really enjoyed watching it and felt the characters really carried the episode, and then I thought back and realised that in terms of the story, pretty much nothing happens in episode 8. It is filling in backstory (probably fairly crucial backstory), it is helping us understand the characters better, but it isn’t being a good story on its own which given this series has been pretty episodic is a little bit of a problem. Still, this show has been my surprise love for the season, so still having a lot of fun with it.
Usually Entertaining
This continues to build on all of those bread crumbs that were so irritatingly scattered around in the first half to deliver something that could potentially be a great ending (there’s a lot of ‘could’ and ‘potential’ in there though and I won’t count my chickens before they are hatched). Really keeping my fingers crossed that Kei’s plan delivers the ending this build up deserves.
Right, I’m still not going to argue this show is amazing and it is never going into the Must Watch category, but I’ve decided that I would love to own this show on DVD and be able to binge episodes at will. I’m really just having fun watching these incredibly awkward characters fumble their way through first love with enough gaming references thrown in to give it a little more appeal than the usual rom-com. Still, from a narrative point of view it is all over the place and the characters are all incredibly over the top so it isn’t going to appeal to everyone.
Okay, I Guess
In Another World With My Smartphone (Episode 8)
Still amused by this and still seeing very little point to anything going on. I guess not everything has to be deep and meaningful but I find it odd that this hasn’t managed to annoy me yet with how little purpose most events in the show seem to have. One minor gripe is that Touya didn’t make anyone slip this week but he did shoot two pickpockets with rubber bullets so that was probably much the same really.
Episode 8 of this is truly beautiful to look at. Okay, the story is every bit as dream like as previous ones, but it feels like we’re getting a little bit closer to something. Overall, this series remains confusing when thinking about the whole narrative, but individual episodes continue to be interesting in their own way.
Fastest Finger First (Episode 8)
This one is definitely consistent. It delivers low key entertainment week after week never getting any better but not doing anything to derail the basic premise or tone of the show. That makes it fairly fun to watch as you know more or less what you are going to get each week but also pretty unremarkable at the end of the day.
Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight (Episode 7)
Well, we’re pretty much back to formula this week. That isn’t actually a bad thing because the formula works pretty well. It just isn’t as interesting as what the last two week’s delivered so there’s a minor disappointment there. Still, I did enjoy seeing the guy get taken to hell this week. It just felt very satsifying.
Clean Freak Aoyama Kun (Episode 9)
This is starting to take a downward turn, or maybe I’m just over it. Basically, same old jokes, same old characters, and maybe I’m ready to let this go. It was never particularly good and its biggest strength was it wasn’t terrible and occasionally even managed to be kind of funny.
Look at that, last week I complained there was nothing for the characters to fight against and this week drops us head first into a war we know nothing about and have no reason to care about but the narrator will work hard to make you feel there is some sense of urgency here. This show makes me roll my eyes way too often.
Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Episode 9)
There’s some set up this week for something that may turn out to be some sort of plot point of interest but really this continues to be plagued by poor writing, poor pacing, and a really boring protagonist. It isn’t actually bad, but it never quite becomes good either.
They Made This
Vatican Miracle Examiner (Episode 8)
This was a surprisingly good conclusion to the mystery. They didn’t wrap everything up and there’s still loose ends, but the answers we got were actually kind of satisfying. That’s a step forward for this show and if it keeps going I may need to move it back to being ‘Okay’.
Katsugeki Touken Ranbu (Episode 9)
Another mission, another fight, zero explanations. Looks and sounds pretty still but I’m really checking out while watching now because they’ve given me nothing to care about.
There was an attempt this week to humanize Victo’s character (and sort out his name with the subs switching to Victor). It was an attempt and probably the best effort at making him feel like a person rather than a character template, but it is just a little bit late after 7 episodes of him being pretty much a painful brat.
Tried and Dropped
Restaurant to Another World (Episode 1)
Centaur’s Life (Episode 1)
Convenience Store Boyfriends (Episode 1)
Saiyuki Reload Blast (Episode 1)
Battle Girl High School (Episode 1)
Hina Logic (Episode 1)
Tsuredure Children (Episode 1)
Fox Spirit Matchmaker (Episode 1)
Aho Girl (Episode 1)
The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (Episode 1)
Does anyone have a favourite villain this season? I’m really struggling to think of anyone who fits the title (other than Stain from My Hero Academia of course).
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
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