winter 2022 Archives | 100 Word Anime

My Dress Up Darling Episode 10 – Marin’s Not The Only Dress Up Darling

Posted on March 13, 2022March 12, 2022 by Karandi

My Dress Up Darling split its episode in two this week with the first half giving us the conclusion of the photoshoot and the second half focusing in on Marin and Gojo. Which meant the OP played weirdly about midway through the episode. Though bright side, I’d been so engaged with the antics of the characters as they took photos, had heart to hearts and had a wardrobe malfunction that I hadn’t actually noticed the OP hadn’t played so it caught me somewhat by surprise when it finally started.

My Dress Up Darling engages by being fun and somewhat relatable.

To no one’s surprise, Marin really struggled with the photoshoot. As much as she loved the character and wanted to do the photoshoot, staying in character proved to be a struggle as Marin’s trademark goofy grin kept threatening to explode from the sheer joy of getting to become the character and getting to work with Juju having a real photoshoot.

I loved that My Dress Up Darling didn’t turn this into a whole dramatic thing. As much as Juju has some thoughts about the matter, given she takes a far more serious approach to her cosplaying, ultimately they all just work through it and get some amazing photos.

My Dress Up Darling also took time to have Juju and Shinju actually talk about what they want and to really communicate. It was great to see but it kind of felt like the anime was shelving them at that point so it could turn its focus back to the main pair. When Juju was first introduced I’d have happily had her shelved but now I kind of want to see the group work together more so I’m on the fence as to whether I want these two to be in the next couple of episodes or whether I’d prefer the Marin/Gojo focus.

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And the Marin/Gojo focus has a few things it needs to deal with.

Yes we have Marin’s crush which also manifests a little bit as jealousy as Gojo explains how he and Shinju worked together on her cosplay. But we also have Gojo making a costume for Marin and then having to tell her he can’t help her actually wear it or take photos because of how revealing it is. Given he’s already measured her in a swimsuit there’s clearly more going on then exposed skin that’s making him feel a bit uncomfortable.

Also, My Dress Up Darling took a large chunk of this episode to have Marin and Gojo interacting outside of a cosplay setting with Marin trying to get Gojo some different outfits. For once he was the dress-up darling and Marin was thrilled with her efforts even if Gojo ended up passing and wearing his usual working clothes.

Still, we learned from the beach episode just how much fun these two characters can be when they are just hanging out together and honestly it makes me want them to become a couple more than watching them work on the cosplay together. It is one thing to share a common goal and get along to achieve it and another to get along in the day to day. These two get along regardless.

As usual, My Dress Up Darling is sweet and fun and Marin is definitely getting more forward in her flirting with Gojo. All things considered, with two episodes to go, it doesn’t seem likely this anime will make a wrong turn at this point so I’m looking forward to the conclusion. Though I can’t really say if I want them to be an official couple by the end or not because honestly this back and forth flirting and blushing is kind of fun.

Images from: My Dress Up Darling. Dir. K Shinohara. CloverWorks. 2022

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Karandi James

Arifureta Season 2 Episode 7 – Departure’s and Turning Points

Posted on March 7, 2022March 5, 2022 by Karandi

Arifureta continues to be a mixed bag of varying animation quality and varying amounts of care. At times there are scenes that look truly beautiful and then they are followed by a still image depicting everyone walking in for dinner with the sound of footsteps over the top to give us a sense of actual movement going on (unsuccessfully). Likewise we go from a silly game of tag where Shia’s bikini top gets stolen to full on conspiracy and murder at the castle.

As always, my feelings on Arifureta are mixed as the overall plot line is fascinating and all of these characters have moments where I truly do like watching them. Then there’s everything in between those moments and when that starts dominating the episodes I find myself wondering once again why I continue to push through with this anime.

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Definitely a case where reading is the better option for this story because you can definitely get through the more frivolous parts quicker and when you get to the meat the story is actually really good.

Those still watching Arifureta really have to just accept this is what it is.

You’d be forgiven early on for feeling that episode 7 of Arifureta was just going to be more filler time with fan-service as Hajime and the girls delay leaving Myu and her mother due to Hajime suddenly having sentimental feelings toward leaving Myu behind. Admittedly, it is a pretty decent character progression point given other than Yue, Hajime had cut himself off significantly from others after the initial betrayal that led to his fall so seeing him so connected to another is actually a great step forward.

It doesn’t make watching them play tag in bikinis any more interesting. Nor does it make morning wood jokes actually amusing.

However, for all that Hajime and gang seem to be in a holding pattern this week, events back at the castle involving the other students are in full swing. We finally get to see Aiko in her prison and admittedly she isn’t doing a whole lot other than fretting about things. It would have been nice to see her plotting escape or trying to get a message out or literally anything to show that she had grown beyond just wringing her hands and hoping, but at least we’ve finally seen what happened to her after her abduction.

Of course, it does leave you wondering why she isn’t just dead. All well and good to say she’s been taken off the board but the problem is she could be placed back on it if you just leave her where she is.

Aiko isn’t the main point though. What we see this week is that huge numbers of people in the castle are being influenced and this leads to an attack on the Knight Commander and pretty much only decent guy there. While a fairly common criticism I’ve had of Arifureta up until now is that we don’t spend enough time on this aspect of the story, leading to only having a vague sense of any of these characters, the Knight Commander has managed to make an impression so the attack upon him definitely carried weight and it definitely has huge implications for the safety of the students going forward.

And just to ensure that the plot is really hopping along we also get a cut of the demons declaring that their god has spoken and they are going to war. This could potentially lead to a very violent climax if all of these plot threads actually come together.

All that is really left is to see what Arifureta decides to do with all these plot points. Hopefully something good. Or at the very least, explosive.

Images from: Arifureta 2nd Season. Dir. A Iwanaga. asread & studio MOTHER. 2022.

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Karandi James

My Dress Up Darling Episode 9 – Yes It Can Be More Adorable

Posted on March 6, 2022March 5, 2022 by Karandi

Last week I asked whether My Dress Up Darling could get any more adorable. Episode 9 answers with a definitive yes. I’ll admit, cute isn’t the be all and end all for me and if that is all an anime has then eventually it is going to run into the problem of holding your interest (platelets and little mummies are an exception to this rule). My Dress Up Darling is so cute and yet a lot of the cuteness comes because these characters are awesome.

However, leaving aside cute and adorable, there were just so many moments this week that made me smile. My Dress Up Darling has managed to build a decent working relationship between Juju and Marin that has enough chemistry even while Juju maintains her distance as a little more stand-offish. I loved it when Marin expressed that she seldom got comments on her photos on social media and Juju pointed out it was because mostly she took pictures of food (and then proceeded to diss Marin’s cooking though she didn’t know it).

Sure My Dress Up Darling is cute but it’s also grounded.

One of the things I really am liking about My Dress Up Darling is that all of these characters feel like real people. They have flaws and concerns and they make mistakes and they get excited over really little things and they are just great to watch.

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I’m also loving that Marin and Gojo are both in a way acting as proxy’s for the audience as they are both new to actually cosplaying (while Marin new a bit about it she’d never tried it properly before meeting Gojo and he knew nothing about it). That means there’s plenty to learn about costumes, make-up and wigs and yet it feels organic and not like a massive info-dump.

If I was to have one complaint this week it would be around Shinju’s character. Now Shinju is a great addition and I loved her chemistry with Marin last week. This week, Gojo realises she actually wants to try cosplay to and decides to help her out which naturally leads to some fan-service and poor comedy moments revolving around the size of her bust given the character she wants to cosplay is actually a guy.

Much like Juju’s initial introduction, My Dress Up Darling seems to just push that little bit too far when first establishing this new character. Hopefully, as we saw with Juju, now that they’ve gotten that out of their system, they might start treating her a little less like a gimmick and just let her be who she is going forward. I mean, Marin still gets plenty of fan-service moments (like lifting her skirt to show off her bathing suit and even flashing her bra) but those moments feel more ingrained with the character and story rather than tacked on extras.

Certainly the smiling, happy photos of the three ready to start their first cosplay photo-session were a welcome close to the episode and honestly it was great seeing how excited they all were to get started. I hope we get to see the actual posed photos from the shoot because those costumes looked amazing.

Minor complaints about character introductions aside, My Dress Up Darling remains the feel-good show of the season and one that really appeals to me as an anime fan. Actually, I’m really hoping covid has settled to the point where my plans to cosplay as Sailor Jupiter might actually happen later this year. Though there’s a lot of maybes around that, watching this has definitely made me keen to go for it and honestly I’m now getting inspired to put a lot more effort into it then I originally intended. We’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I’m loving this anime and hopefully it continues to make me smile until the end.

Images from: My Dress Up Darling. Dir. K Shinohara. CloverWorks. 2022

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Tokyo 24-ku Episode 7: Time Moves on But The Plot Seems To Be On Hold

Posted on February 28, 2022February 27, 2022 by Karandi

Tokyo 24-ku seems like it was running low on steam this week. Either that or it is a lull before a storm however when the characters are all dispersed the way episode 6 left them, a lot of the charm of this anime seems to be missing in action. Maybe it is a case where if I was able to binge watch and move straight to the next episode it wouldn’t be so obvious but really all I got out of this episode was that Shuta is pretty useless on his own (and we already knew that) and bread is apparently awesome.

Not that Shuta is actually on his own. None of the characters in Tokyo 24-ku are. Shuta has Mari and his mother to support him as well as his father returning at the end of the episode. Kouki has a whole organisation around him. Even Ran has a group on the run with him. The problem is, other than Mari, none of these supporting cast members have really done much to feel like more than background noise.

Tokyo 24-Ku felt a little underwhelming this week.

For an anime that has given us one trolley dilemma after another and life or death stakes every other week, an episode that just looks at the reality of growing up felt very flat. Yes, childhood friends grow apart. They connect with others and their goals move them down different paths and eventually they may no longer connect even if they want to.

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And as much as Shuta seems to think there is, there’s no magic moment when you stop feeling like a kid and realise you are an adult. You just kind of keep going and one day you look back and wonder how it is you got where you ended up. Maybe that’s a really cynical way of looking at it but really Shuta seems to be agonising over his own lack of progress but he’s working in the bakery and improving his skills and still helping people out. Seems like he’s doing what he actually wanted to do.

His dream of being a hero isn’t so much squashed as taking a new form and finding ways to help people within his actual means.

Of course, I probably have another reason to feel down about this episode of Tokyo 24-Ku. For whatever reason they felt the need to nearly drown Shuta is the public bath after he took a bath while exhausted. I’ve mentioned before on this blog I have issues with drowning and here it felt like such a pointless scene. Not to mention both of the characters who went to perform CPR did so terribly.

First we get Kinako, Ran’s friend who has been left behind now that he’s on the run, who went for the usual cliche kiss approach to CPR and didn’t even try to hold his nose or literally anything that would actually make it effective. Fortunately she dithered so long Shuta’s father turns up. However he just goes for some super glowy mystical chest slam forcing the water out of Shuta’s lungs (though in reality probably cracking a rib in the process) and Shuta coughs himself awake. As usual, no ongoing effects from nearly drowning.

Honestly, I shouldn’t be annoyed at an anime for not accurately representing reality particularly in a show where magical phone calls increase abilities and give visions of the future. It isn’t like Tokyo 24-ku has tried to be particularly grounded. Still, poorly demonstrated CPR bothers me.

Anyway, the one actual plot point we get from this episode of Tokyo 24-ku is that the new phone alert system is spreading through the ward and arrests are up. Whether that ends up being a good thing or the next step toward the loss of freedom remains to be seen.

Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022

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My Dress Up Darling Episode 8 – Scouting Locations For Photos and Dates?

Posted on February 27, 2022February 26, 2022 by Karandi

Can My Dress up Darling get any more adorable?

I thought Marin was the sweetest and nicest character ever and then we meet the more introverted by equally sweet Shinju and no surprise, the two get on amazingly well as they discuss the camera, different ways to take photos and explore an old hospital as a potential shoot location. My Dress Up Darling is spoiling us by giving us nice characters who are also interesting (a combination that is harder to come by then it seems).

Though it was great seeing Gojo getting a chance with the reaction faces this week. Normally Marin dominates in the facial expression range but I think episode 8 definitely had Gojo come out on top for sheer number of facial expressions pulled throughout the episode.

My Dress Up Darling is planning for a cosplay shoot and for Marin’s summer of dating Gojo.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the first half of My Dress Up Darling episode 8. Despite Juju’s initial poor impression as her character seemed to be used for terrible fan-service fodder, she’s actually not a bad character now that they’ve settled down a bit. Admittedly, she’s still hitting all the clichés for anime girls as she cowers in the corner after their abandoned hospital exploration gets interrupted by a storm.

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Still, there was some pretty good chemistry between Gojo and Juju and Marin and Shinju hit it right off and were having a great time as they explored. The only thing that really confused me is they said they were going to a studio and that the hospital had been converted but it just kind of looked like an abandoned hospital. Not a big issue but it just made me wonder.

The second half of the episode focuses in solely on Marin and Gojo and after they finish their exams she proposes going to the beach. Innocent that he is, he assumes it is to scout locations for photos but turns out Marin just wanted to go to the beach. However unlike so many other anime, My Dress Up Darling doesn’t unleash another bikini scene on us or even an accidental drowning or similar beach scenario. Instead we just see two high schoolers letting off steam on the beach and having their food stolen by a bird.

It’s nice that even though My Dress Up Darling does lean into some anime tropes it knows when to subvert your expectations. Besides, we’ve already seen Marin in her bikini so a beach scene wasn’t going to show us anything new from that perspective. Rather, it used the scene to advance Marin’s feelings toward Gojo and she not so subtly invites him to hang out with her all summer.

I kind of hope she just tells him how she feels soon. I mean, they are super maxing out the cuteness as Marin experiences Gojo’s first time at the beach and the two of them share food, looks and the occasional blushing red face that the other one conveniently doesn’t see.

Really, My Dress Up Darling just continues to be the feel good show to watch this season. The fan-service was way down in this episode on prior episodes with far more focus on the character relationships. The saddest part though is there’s only four episodes left and honestly I just want more of these characters. It has been such a great anime to watch each week and I can’t help but smile while watching it.

That said, I am really looking forward to seeing the outfits Gojo is going to make for Juju and Marin. Hopefully we see that completed before the season ends.

Images from: My Dress Up Darling. Dir. K Shinohara. CloverWorks. 2022

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Karandi James

Arifureta Season 2 Episode 6 – Another Labyrinth Down

Posted on February 22, 2022February 20, 2022 by Karandi

When Arifureta directed Hajime onto his quest to conquer each of the Labyrinths, initially as a goal to maybe get home and then apparently to bring down the gods of the world, or whatever, I wondered how they would keep this scenario interesting.

The first Labyrinth (in season one) was brutal for Hajime given his weakness when he fell into it and transformed him entirely teaching him a huge range of skills along the way. Subsequent labyrinths have been less impressive. While the second presented some challenges, mostly they’ve been a walk-through for Hajime and gang and while they’ve learned a new magic at the other end there’s been little personal growth associated with the journey.

If the journey is giving diminishing returns, what will Arifureta do next?

I guess if someone was determined to attempt defending the Arifureta anime adaptation they’d point to Kaori’s understanding this week as she accepted her position in the party and that Hajime was in love with Yue. I’m not entirely sure that was a winning decision but I guess it counts as character growth.

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For Hajime though, this latest Labyrinth really didn’t do much for him other than give him the token that means he now has conquered enough labyrinths to go back to the one in Shea’s forest. I’ll admit though, as Hajime himself points out, the visions in this Labyrinth would have been much harder to deal with if you were from the world originally. As it was though it really was as Hajime put like “watching a bad play”.

Basically this Labyrinth revealed that a year after peace was forged between humans, beastmen and demons, the human king got all the delegates from the beastmen and demons onto a boat, went off on a religious extremist rant before executing the lot of them. Go figure it was a human who broke the peace treaty and did it because he was hiding behind religion.

Although, I guess we are potentially being led to believe that he was being manipulated behind the scenes. With the end scenes showing us what is currently happening in the palace where clearly people are having their minds controlled, it is certainly possible.

And certainly they remind us at the end of this episode of Arifureta yet again of things going very wrong for the students waiting back at the palace. While Hajime and his group are out doing and as a result continuing to gain magic and skills, the rest of the summoned heroes have kind of stagnated and seem to not even be venturing out from behind the walls anymore.

Even as they worry about their teacher who has not come back and others who have gone missing, they still simply sit at a table and wring their hands rather than taking action.

Honestly, we’re very back to Arifureta just kind of being adequate. We’ve returned to the murky visuals at points in the Labyrinth making it difficult to see what is happening. We’re also back to seemingly little to no challenge for Hajime and his gang as they simply walk through one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Even the one potential threat that may have challenged them was easily dealt with due to the arrival of the talking fish Hajime randomly rescued way back when (and how many viewers had just forgotten about that).

That said, there is a sense that this season of Arifureta is actually moving us toward something. The ongoing saga with the other students suggests that Hajime isn’t going to be ignored for too much longer and it makes me wonder where this season will end.

Images from: Arifureta 2nd Season. Dir. A Iwanaga. asread & studio MOTHER. 2022.

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5 Supporting Anime Characters The Winter 2022 Season Could Do Without

Posted on February 21, 2022February 20, 2022 by Karandi

It takes a lot to make a great and memorable anime. Visuals, plot, and characters all play a role. But sometimes, even when you have a great central cast there’s a couple of supporting anime characters the story might have been better without (or maybe they just rub me the wrong way).

Which supporting anime characters do you like or hate the most this season? Or who could a show do without?

Now let’s be honest, supporting characters play a really important role in all stories. It doesn’t matter how great your protagonist is if every character around him is about as effective a limp piece of seaweed on the screen. And there are some great supporting anime characters this season as well (I’d look to most of the cast of Sasaki to Miyano for how have a good supporting cast), but there have been some real duds as well.

Here are 5 supporting anime characters I’d happily see deleted this Winter 2022 season.

No. 5 Falanya Elk Arbalest

Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu Episode 3

If your first thought when you read the name Falanya Elk Arbalest was ‘who?’ you probably aren’t alone even from people watching Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu. Falanya isn’t an overly annoying character for a younger sister trope. If anything, her greatest flaw is that I cannot see any plausible reason for her existence as she’s contributed pretty much nothing to the plot and is barely present. Yet somehow we’re supposed to find the cut scenes to her doing whatever endearing and her appearance is enough to make Wein suddenly stop throwing a tantrum and at least pretend to act like a prince momentarily.

Honestly, this is one supporting anime character that you could cut from pretty much every episode so far and it would have no discernible impact on the story.

No. 4 Wataru Chikushi

Despite making appearance so far in pretty much every episode of Tokyo 24-Ku, Wataru Chikushi strikes me far more as someone who simply keeps plot points connecting by interacting with each group involved in the story rather than a real character. At times it seems he might be plotting something or somewhat more sinister but mostly he just seems like he’s wandering around and conveniently wherever he needs to be to prod another character into taking some sort of action.

While his role to the plot is critical with several key moments probably not happening without his presence, that’s all he is. I have no sense of who he is as a character and we’re now half-way through the season. Most of his role could be divided between the other supporting anime characters in this story, all of which have made more of an impression so far.

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No. 3 Juna or Carla

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 18

If I could have, I’d have also thrown Tomoe onto that list of supporting anime characters that as members of the would-be harem in Realist Hero just aren’t necessary. Unfortunately, while Tomoe has been mentioned in season 2, she so far hasn’t even made an appearance so maybe the writers also figured out that there were far too many unnecessary characters floating around the screen at times.

Both Juna and Carla feel very much on the periphery of Souma’s growing harem with Liscia and Aisha now having dibs and Juna being asked to ‘wait’. When you throw in Jeanne and the Amidonian Princess as well as all the supporting male characters honestly Realist Hero just suffers from bloat (among other things this season). Trimming down the cast might help it regain some focus, though I guess then we have to decide which girls would get the axe. Either that or let them be true supporting anime characters and given them something to actually do rather than just being there.

No. 2 Iris

The Strongest Sage With The Weakest Crest Episode 5

As supporting anime characters, dragon girls are cool right? Right?!

Or at least The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest really wants you to buy into that because they certainly haven’t spent any time making Iris an interesting character in her own right. Of course none of the supporting anime characters in The Strongest Sage are really coming out all that great. And that’s probably because protagonist Mathias is more or less amazing at everything and doesn’t need a support cast (and so why bother).

It makes for a fairly flat viewing experience though. At least Lurie and Alma get to grow their own strengths even if they ultimately end up standing behind Mathias when the real fight comes but Iris, outside of occasional comic relief moments (oh look, the little girl is super strong, oh, she doesn’t know how that works because she’s actually a dragon) really doesn’t serve any purpose.

No. 1 Jim

Anyone who has followed my reviews of Love of Kill so far would have seen this coming. Jim. Oh, Jim.

As far as annoying supporting anime characters go Jim just pushes all of my buttons. From his character design (why doesn’t he have a mouth and why is he comically shorter than every other character) to his voice acting (I don’t know if he’s supposed to have an accent or be from somewhere other than Japan as it hasn’t been made clear but wow I cannot stand listening to him), everything about Jim annoys me.

Unlike most of the other characters on this list, I’m pretty sure Love of Kill wouldn’t function without Jim, but it would be so much better if Jim were a character I was interested in or at least one I tolerated. As it is, his appearance on screen almost always brings the mood down for me.

So there we have 5 supporting anime character that the Winter 2022 season could do without. At least in my opinion. I guess historically we’ve had significantly worse characters along the way who have seriously derailed stories (and at some point I guess I should do a list of worse supporting anime characters ever) but focusing on the here and now, these are the characters I am watching week after week and wondering, ‘just why are you even here?’

But as always, I’d love to know your thoughts so be sure to leave me a comment and share which supporting anime characters you could do without this season.

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Karandi James

My Dress Up Darling Episode 7 – I’m never going to get tired of Marin’s facial expressions.

Posted on February 20, 2022February 19, 2022 by Karandi

Before the Winter 2022 season began, my thoughts on My Dress up Darling were pretty meh. It looked like it could be fun enough but I wasn’t exactly counting the minutes until it began airing. Now it is the highlight of my watch week and honestly I think I’d happily just watch a looped reel of Marin emoting.

That said, this week we got to watch part of the anime that Marin and Juju are going to do a combined cosplay of and I absolutely loved how My Dress Up Darling presented it in the older style format. Honestly, anyone who grew up on Sailor Moon and other magical girl stories would have fallen in love with what we saw of it and can I just ask if they’ll actually make it a real anime because I think it would be awesome.

My Dress Up Darling brings all the characters to the party.

One of the things that I had been a little concerned about so far was that Gojo seemed to be being dragged along by Marin. This week, we clearly see that Gojo is actually really enjoying the process of making cosplay and learning new things and his new connections and experiences are actually improving his core dream of making a better Hina doll.

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While Juju was reluctant to cosplay with Marin at the end of last week’s episode, this week Marin found the winning phrase that would get her exactly what she wanted, she offered to share the cost of the photo studio. However, unprompted, Gojo (the guy who has been doing all this work for no pay) also offers to put some money towards it. It kind of shows he’s motivated even without Marin pulling him along and it was what My Dress Up Darling needed to address if we were ever going to get to a romance that made sense. Gojo needed to be involved by his own choice.

Of course though, the highlight of the episode comes when Gojo visits Marin at home. Sure we get some fan-service along the way but mostly what we get is a wholesome ‘home date’ with Gojo largely oblivious to Marin’s growing crush and the two just hanging out, watching anime, and eating food that… well Marin tried and at least My Dress Up Darling didn’t go the full cliché and make some sort of potion looking purple swill.

It’s just such a sweet moment between the two and most anime fans should be able to relate to the first time they’ve watched anime with a crush and where you end up spending more time watching them and their reaction than you do the anime. Also definitely understand the feeling of only eating pudding and then realising that real food is probably a good idea.

Basically, the whole sequence was sweet and relatable.

About my only real criticism of the sequence was that somehow they managed to watch an anime that apparently has 126 episodes through to some fairly climatic moments in a single sitting. While an 11 episode show I could understand binge watching in a single sitting. A 24 episode one I’d accept if they pulled an overnight. 126? Nope. Unless it is a short form anime with 4 minute episodes I’m not buying it.

However when I have to pull real world timing in order to find something to criticise its probably good evidence that My Dress Up Darling pretty much nailed its tone this week. While last week the fan-service plunged into the slightly uncomfortable, here the episode was fun and light and largely adorable and it was exactly what I needed this Sunday.

Images from: My Dress Up Darling. Dir. K Shinohara. CloverWorks. 2022

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The Strongest Sage With The Weakest Crest Episode 6 – Nothing Left To Learn?

Posted on February 16, 2022February 15, 2022 by Karandi

The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Episode 6 Review

The Strongest Sage With The Weakest Crest reaches the halfway mark and decides the wrapping up the whole demons and monsters attack the capital arc is a good idea. So in quick succession the girls defeat a diversionary team of demons, the students of second academy delay the first demons who arrive at the capital, Mathias proves once again he’s potentially the most violent and bloodthirsty character in the show, the barrier goes up, and the monster horde is defeated. All before Mathias decides to pack up and leave to explore the dragon veins.

The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest Episode 6

The thing is, I am wondering why he ever went to the academy. I don’t recall him learning anything in particular there, other than the demons had infiltrated human society, which wasn’t exactly on the curriculum. In terms of plot, he met the girls on his way to the academy so could have just as easily met them on his own journey.

And the headmaster saying Mathias had nothing left to learn just more or less reinforced that he’d learned basically nothing while he was there. He taught quite a bit but that never seemed to be his main goal. That he chooses to leave now more seems like the writer realised the school setting was not exactly exciting and wanted to move on, so why start there at all?

The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest neatly wraps up its first arc.

If I’m being a little less petty, it was kind of nice to see Lurie and Alma facing off against the initial demons alone. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest has done a pretty decent job of building these two up incrementally. Admittedly, like everything else in this anime, it seems to have happened way too fast, but the girls have gone from learning new techniques, to facing off against lower class enemies, to fighting demons while supervised by Mathias, to now standing alone against at least weaker demons.

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Their genuine happiness after they successfully took out those first few demons was actually pretty fun to watch and honestly Lurie and Alma may be the best things about The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest. Except as soon as Mathias comes back onto the scene the two become decidedly more damsel in distress like, often hiding behind him.

So let’s turn our attention back to Mathias, given he is the title character, the actual Strongest Sage.

Mathias is not a nice person. He’s proved this again and again. Basically he’s obsessed with power and getting stronger and that was the catalyst for his reincarnation in the first place. Though as he uses a range of painful and nasty tricks to dispatch his enemies, you have to wonder if he wasn’t the ‘hero’ of the story what your impression would be of him. For demons, Mathias doesn’t just kill them, at times he can be quite awful in trying out new techniques against them.

Even this week, as Mathias makes his dramatic appearance as the students of second academy were about to be overwhelmed. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest essentially gave the demons two choices and both were to die at his hand. I’ve said it before but it is hard to get behind a main character who is quite this arrogant and cruel at times.

Though at last the barrier is complete and the demons stop coming though that still leaves the horde of monsters. I kind of though The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest had set it up so the monsters would arrive first, distract the city, before they attacked, but in this instance the demon attack came first. It doesn’t make a lot of sense from the point of view of the demons but apparently we shouldn’t worry about that.

I will say the barrier was kind of pretty, though we didn’t actually get to see something trying to get through it so I’m not sure if it physically stops things or not given the students clearly pass in and out of it.

Anyway, halfway along and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest has been consistently ordinary. It isn’t bad by any means and there’s nothing here to really point to and say it is broken in terms of characters or plot. It just isn’t very exciting and the main character isn’t very likeable.

Images from: The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest. Dir. N Akitaya. J.C.Staff. 2022

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James

My Dress Up Darling Episode 6 – I Feel… Hungry?

Posted on February 14, 2022February 12, 2022 by Karandi

My Dress up Darling did something I didn’t quite expect this week. Actually two somethings but one of them was much better than the other.

After the cosplay event, Marin returns to Gojo’s home and they begin the task of cleaning the wig and the costume before Gojo’s grandfather comes home and throughout this process Marin realises she actually likes Gojo and the reaction is pretty priceless. Anyone who is still in doubt that Marin is one of the most expressive anime characters of the Winter 2022 season needs to take another look. Her expressions are amazing.

My Dress Up Darling takes the plunge.

You have to appreciate an anime that doesn’t go for the heroine wandering about wondering if they have heart arrhythmia rather than a crush and My Dress Up Darling really just has it happen. Now we just need the other half of the equation, Gojo, to wake up to the fact that Marin isn’t just beautiful in cosplay, she’s a great person who is totally there for him and he should absolutely ask her out.

Yeah, that will happen… I guess eventually.

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Anyway the other interesting thing that happens at the start of the episode is that Gojo’s grandfather returns home and finally finds out that Gojo has made a cosplay. Much like Gojo, he is strictly business and soon the two are happily discussing the outfit and how it might be improved.

The seriousness of the sequence is cut down though when Marin’s stomach lets out an earth shattering rumble, the likes of which only anime can produce and the three sit down for a meal. And here’s giving props to the grandfather: after learning Marin lives on her own and eats a lot of convenience store food he invites her to eat with them. Best matchmaking move ever though not really his intention I guess.

Though there is a reason I’ve spent so long on the first part of the episode and that’s largely because the second half, while it all works well enough, has a number of things in it that I’m not a fan of in anime. You know, introducing a new character and instantly having the story treating her like crap and thinking it can get away with it because she isn’t the main character.

Sure, Marin has been used for fan-service in My Dress Up Darling but with the exception of the wind blowing up her skirt last week she’s been the one in control of the situation and it has never felt like she’s been cheapened for the sake of hitting a type.

The same cannot be said for newly introduced Juju who looks younger than she is but in her introduction is naked in the shower and slips and falls into a compromising position that we see reflected in the protagonist’s eye.

Its an awful introduction to a new character and it certainly adds to the story that My Dress Up Darling is just about fan-service and undermines how much heart this story has had up until now. And it is also really unnecessary as this character could have been introduced literally any other way without having a noticeable impact on the story.

Throw in that as soon as Marin meets Juju, who it turns out is the cosplayer Marin was a huge fan of, she pretty much has her pinned up against a wall underneath her.

I kind of hope Juju gets a chance to be more than just the fan-service extra or even a rival and rather gets to become a character because otherwise her presence is going to definitely bring down the fun of My Dress Up Darling. I guess we’ll see what her character gets to do next week.

Images from: My Dress Up Darling. Dir. K Shinohara. CloverWorks. 2022

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James

winter 2022

My Dress Up Darling Episode 10 – Marin’s Not The Only Dress Up Darling

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Which supporting anime characters do you like or hate the most this season? Or who could a show do without?

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No. 1 Jim

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