The Waifu Paradox

Today is Valentine's Day.

For the first time in four years, I don't have a significant other to celebrate the holiday with. And that's okay. As much as I treasure my memories of my past relationships, they ultimately weren't the best for me or either of the lovely ladies I dated in the past, and I believe that we are all better off now than we would have been if we had forced either of those relationships to continue. 

Either way, I find myself in a position where I don't have any commitments for the holiday. So, naturally, I've spent the day doing what I always do: watch anime and play Fire Emblem. And, being the kind of person that I am, I find myself thinking about something that doesn't really matter in great detail and am now compelled to talk about it: the concept of waifus.

Pro tip: Do NOT search the word waifu on Google images.

So, what is a waifu? Simply put, a waifu (or husbando) is a fictional character who you are attracted to and view as a substitute for real romantic interaction. They don't necessarily have to be anime characters, but the term is typically associated with anime fans. And I find the concept fascinating. While anime is more popular now than it has ever been, I've always remembered it as a fandom for the outcasts. I do believe that the fact that anime comes from such a different culture than what western fans are used to is what makes it so appealing for those who don't feel like they fit in. At least, it was a factor in what drew me to the medium. And, well, if you don't fit in, then romance feels so unattainable that obsessing over a fictional girl becomes preferable. 

And, honestly? There's nothing wrong with that. Finding a fictional character's design and personality so appealing that you can imagine yourself dating her is just a more extreme way of saying that the character is appealing. Expressing appreciation for a character you love is something that I am all about. But, well...that sort of extreme appreciation has led to some more....questionable and degenerate habits in the anime community.

Look, I understand that fanservice doesn't hurt anyone. If you want to look at drawings of naked anime girls, that's your prerogative. I don't even have a problem with actual narrative-driven anime including ecchi moments in their story. That kind of sexy fun has it's place and is fine for some good adult content. With that in mind, wouldn't it be great if all the waifu shenanigans didn't involve any children?

I don't mean to be a prude or anything. I'm okay with fanservice for adult characters, and I have a list of my own waifus that I plan to share with you later on, but I need to get this off my chest. Underage characters being sexualized is not something that I can abide. Shows like Eromanga Sensei, Island, and Kiss x Sis make me feel like I need to be put on a list just for even being aware of them, and even good shows like Food Wars, Highschool of the Dead, and Kill la Kill radiate teenage sexuality. At least those characters are drawn with more adult bodies so that you can hold your nose and pretend you're not a creep when you watch them. But it goes even beyond the shows themselves, with the sheer amount of hentai and body pillows and such for characters from anime that have NOTHING TO DO WITH SEX OR FANSERVICE! Without even particularly trying, I've found ads for body pillows of Sakura Kinomoto, and that's just plain wrong.

Even if we could look past all of that and pretend that waifus are not inherently gross and fetishistic, the trend of anime fans latching onto female characters and declaring their undying love and desire to protect them has not gone unnoticed by the anime industry. If the concept of waifus didn't exist, then maybe I'd never have to complain about cute girls being used as a substitute for an actual narrative instead of a way to enhance an already good story. If anime fans didn't have waifus, maybe we wouldn't have had abominations like Tachibanakan Triangle, Pastel Memories, or Anima Yell. I'm not going to say something as controversial as "waifus are ruining the anime industry", but I can't shake the feeling that the concept has been taken a bit too far.

And yet, it would be wrong of me to say that I am above the concept of waifus. I have had several waifus throughout my time as an anime fan, from the teenagers I was attracted to when I was younger to the adult characters I quietly obsess over now. I remember staring at Dorothy from MAR as a middle schooler, constantly rewatching scenes of Saeko Busujima from High School of the Dead, especially her apron scenes, when I was in high school, and even now, I was way too excited to see Fujiko Mine in a wedding dress in the Lupin III Part V ending sequence last year. I understand that waifus come from the same primal desire to live a romantic life vicariously through a fictional character that makes romance stories popular in the first place, and ultimately, there's nothing wrong with that. Just, you know, try not to be weird about it, okay?

Also, Nami will always be best girl.

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 5

The Weekly Roundup rages on, and we have almost reached the halfway point. Three shows have fallen so far, and now only 10 remain. Will any more fall by the wayside, or have we finally reached the desired state of having only nice things to say? Let's find out!

The Price of Smiles

Uh...why is there a random square in the subtitles?

First up, we have Code Smiles: Stella of the Rebellion. In episode 5, Soleil and the Empire are caught in a stalemate. If the Empire can break this last line of defense, they will have a clear path to the capital. However, Soleil's forces manage to hold them back with their superior mechs. Frustrated with the current state of affairs, Imperial High Command orders Owens's squad to lead a surprise attack on the enemy base from the rear. Things go awry when they are spotted by the rear guard, and an intense firefight breaks out in the woods behind the base. The Empire takes heavy casualties, especially from one lone unit, and Stella only survives thanks to the intervention of Lily, repaying the favor from when Stella had saved her life on the battlefield 2 years ago. The lone unit escapes, and Lily's damaged mech is forced to withdraw as the battle rages on, with Soleil's base now surrounded.

I gotta say, so far the episodes being told from Stella's perspective are the best episodes of the series. Maybe it's the fact that we're looking at the war from the perspective of actual soldiers instead of a royal court and elite knights. The interactions just feel more human. Nobody is putting on any airs, you know? Or maybe I'm just not spending the whole episode screaming at the screen because Yuki's advisers suck at their job and Ensign Owens seems to know how to actually be a leader. Either way, I loved everything about this episode. It really speaks to the history nerd in me to see that no matter how advanced the technology may be, the entire strategy of these advanced militaries hinges on the geography and the terrain. Soleil has the high ground and has collapsed nearly every bridge over the ravine that separates the two armies, which, combined with their superior range, allows them to just pick off the Imperial mechs one by one as they are forced to climb down one side of the ravine and then climb back up the other side to even stand a chance. However, Soleil had to leave a bridge to the rear undamaged in order to receive supplies from the capital, so the Empire just decides to attack via that bridge and throw the enemy into disarray. Thus, everything hinges on the battle in the forest, where the few sentries Soleil could spare has to contend with the few soldiers that the Empire could deploy without arousing suspicion and giving the plan away. It makes the battle feel that much more gritty and real, where one slight mistake by one single soldier can determine the fate of both nations for years to come.

And speaking of lone soldiers, what was up with that solo mech making mincemeat out of every Imperial soldier it came across? While it probably is being piloted by Yuni Vanquish, a character we've seen before who swore to avenge Joshua, I actually had a sinking suspicion that it may be Joshua himself. I don't really have any solid evidence to go on to support this, but I did notice that this unit had a small sun symbol painted on its shield, while the other Royal mechs had blank shields. And while it may just be a reference to Soleil being the French word for sun, my immediate thought was that it looked similar to the stuffed lion that Joshua gave Yuki back in episode 1. It would totally be in character for a hot-blooded type like him to paint a symbol that reminded him of her on his shield if he survived that last battle somehow. Though, as I'm typing this section, I remember seeing Yuki scream upon seeing Joshua's dead body, so he's probably still dead. At least, I hope he is. Cheating death like that would really hurt the credibility of a war story like this. But still, I thought that I should just mention that that was my gut reaction upon seeing a lone mech tear up the Empire like he was Suzaku Kururugi or something. Here's hoping that Price of Smiles will avoid that potential pitfall.

Boogiepop and Others

I couldn't decide what the best screenshot would be, so here's a picture of Aya.

Next up, we have episode 6 of Oh My God, My Head Hurts! Masaki sees the stranger, named Spooky E, threatening Aya and charges in to save her. However, Spooky's non-human nature gives him the upper hand, and he erases Masaki's memories of the encounter. Meanwhile, Aya and Anou arrive at Shinyo Academy for their operation, and Aya has a moment where she shares her doubts with Suema. Suema has been investigating Asukai's movements, and tells Aya that even if she has to fight against Boogiepop (who Spooky has ordered her to investigate) that she has to keep fighting, because the struggle is what makes life worth living. When Suema explains that Boogiepop is someone who protects others, Aya asks Masaki to be her own personal Boogiepop.

I officially have no idea what is going on. Even after watching the episode twice, I'm still not sure if my summary was accurate, because this episode loves to play with the audience a little too much. So may things are presented out of order and the characters only talk in vague metaphorical statements instead of anything resembling expository or character building dialogue. Everything was confusing as hell and it stopped being interesting and started being frustrating. We have a scene of Asukai doing...something... to his students and I'm sure that there's a hint of what the Imaginator is up to in Suema's speech, but I can't for the life of me figure it out. My best guess now is that Asukai and the Imaginator are removing people's personal inhibitions in exchange for creating an army of devoted followers, but for what purpose I cannot begin to guess, and I'm probably way off base. This is the first episode I actually disliked, since it seems like the show just wants to confuse people instead of actually telling a story, but maybe that's just the nature of being a tv adaptation where you have to watch it in chunks every week instead of a book series that you can read through all at once. Hopefully things will start making sense soon.

Dororo

I just met her and I already love her more than life itself.

Next up is The Oldest Profession. In episode 5, Hyakkimaru is struggling to get used to all the noise in a world that used to be silent. The distraction of sound leaves him vulnerable in a fight against a monster, and he is gravely wounded. However, he and Dororo are taken in by a girl named Mio, who looks after children who are orphaned due to the petty wars of the samurai. Mio works every night for the men who serve under Lord Sakai, who is preparing to go to war against Daigo. When the blind priest finds a potential safe haven for the children that is guarded by a demon, he and Hyakkimaru go to drive it off while Dororo follows Mio as she plans to work for both armies at once to double her money. Dororo is horrified to learn that Mio has been selling her body to the soldiers, and Hyakkimaru regains his voice from the demon, just in time for him to scream in pain after losing his leg in the battle.

This is our first multi-episode story for Dororo, and it's off to an excellent start. Things moved at a bit of a slower pace this week, what with the majority of the episode dedicated to our main characters getting to know the orphan and waiting for Hyakkimaru to recover, but I would argue that that's a good thing. If Hyakkimaru just steamrolled his way through every demon without any consequences, the story would lose all impact. Having him struggle to adjust to his new body parts humanizes him, and stories need downtime between big moments so that audiences can have a chance to breathe. And Mio is an absolute treasure and I hate myself for immediately guessing that she is a prostitute. Do the children know, or do they think she's just serving drinks or something? I'm not sure which answer I want to be true. Also, hey, Hyakkimaru has his voice back! I don't know who his actor is, but damn, can he scream. If it seems like I'm all over the place with this one, it's because I am, and that's a good sign that I really like this episode. Usually, I try to compose myself and write something coherent, but this episode has me too excited to do anything other than gush randomly. God, I can't wait for next week!

Run With the Wind

Oh my God, this show is so pretty!

Next is episode 16 of Dash With the Gale. Haiji narrowly manages to avoid the upturned table and continues running, though it seems that doing so has aggravated his old injury. As the race continues, though, he and Kakeru pull ahead, with Kakeru finishing 3rd overall and Haiji finishing 6th. As the rest of the team finishes the race in their own time, things look increasingly dicey for the Kansei University team, as their total combined time needs to be among the top ten schools in order to move on. But when all is said and done, they qualify with less than a minute's difference between them and the next team beneath them. As the team celebrates and Haiji prepares to train them for the Hakone Ekiden proper, the twins start to panic upon seeing the 7 minute gap between them and the top team's qualifying time, and ask Kakeru if winning the Ekiden is even possible for them.

You know, if this were any other show, I might be mad that last week's cliffhanger ended up being ultimately pointless and only existing to mess with the audience. However, given this show's track record (oh, Lord, I just realized that that was a pun), I'm inclined to believe that it's highly probable that we just haven't seen the long-term ramifications that that little incident will have on Haiji's leg. Besides, this isn't any other show. This is Run With the Wind, where every inch gained feels like a mile because you watched the characters bleed, sweat, cry, and puke on their way to where they are, and this lucky break feels earned because of it. The way their faces contort in pain and fatigue, the way some of them literally have to be carried off the racecourse after finishing, too tired to walk or breathe properly on their own...this episode really was something special. It wasn't quite the tearjerker we had two weeks ago, but it was damn close and I couldn't be prouder of our boys. The only negatives I have this week are the CG models for the background characters -- which is understandable when you need to animate so many characters running simultaneously  -- and the fact that these last few episodes have been so good I'm now questioning if I ranked this show too low on my best of 2018 list.

Rising of the Shield Hero

Next up is Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: The Animation. On episode 5, news of the royal conspiracy against the Shield Hero has reached a mysterious woman who also appears to be of royal descent, and she dispatches her masked servants to monitor the situation. Naofumi and Raphtalia purchase a monster egg from the slave trader, which hatches into the giant bird-creature Filo. As Filo grows and Naofumi and Raphtalia train for the next Wave, Myne and Motoyasu arrive at Lute Village to announce that Motoyasu has been named the village's lord, whose first order of business is to place an extremely high toll of fifty silvers for entering and exiting the village. When Naofumi speaks up against this, the masked servants from earlier deliver a message to Myne, who suddenly calls of her soldiers and puts the fate of the village up to a race. As Naofumi rides Filo and Motoyasu rides a dragon around the border of the village, Myne's royal knights attempt to sabotage the competition. When Naofumi wins anyway, it's thanks to the pressure of the masked strangers that Myne has no other choice but to accept the results, and Naofumi accepts an old, broken-down carriage as his reward from the insistent villagers. After the carriage is repaired and our heroes leave the village, Naofumi and Raphtalia wake up the next morning to the shocking surprise that Filo has transformed into a tiny naked anime girl.

I'm going to try to be reasonable for a second. This episode, on its own, wasn't that bad. It told a competent story that was self-contained, included many elements to advance the overall narrative, and introduced a new faction who may prove to be interesting moving forward. We even got a little bit of development for the other Heroes, as Itsuki and Ren prove to be reasonable people who adjust their positions on issues when presented with new evidence while Motoyasu turns out to be so self-absorbed that he is incapable of accepting that the royal family is playing him for a sucker. And the music this week was fantastic as always. I can see why many people would enjoy this episode.

Personally, I hate it. 

This is such a reversal in tone and structure that I feel like I have whiplash. Shield Hero is billing itself as a semi-dark fantasy about an encroaching dark force that threatens the world while political infighting and corruption distracts the common populace from the true threat. Like, the Mass Effect of isekai, you know? With that in mind, what's this cutesy Chocobo doing here? She sticks out like a sore thumb even before she turns into a naked underage girl (and don't even get me started on that idiocy), and I found the race on magical creatures while enemies set up pitfalls along the race course more entertaining when it was on my Pokemon VHS. I have never been so bored by Shield Hero up until this point, and I'm worried about where this story is going.

The Promised Neverland

Exodia?

Halfway there, everybody! Next up we have Prison Break: The Animation. In episode 5, Norman reveals to Ray that the information about the ropes was actually a trap meant to expose him as Mama's informant. Ray admits to the truth: he had actually known about the demons for the past six years, and has been using that knowledge to act as a spy for Mama in exchange for his freedom. However, he had also purposely manipulated events to reveal the existence of the demons to Emma and Norman, and had been planning to control both sides in order to guarantee the trio's escape. Things went awry when Emma and Norman expanded their plans to include everyone else, though, and he has been considering ditching the others and saving himself. Norman asks Ray to become his spy and Ray agrees on one condition: Norman has to trick Emma and leave the others, sans Don and Gilda, since they're in too deep now, behind. Either only the five of them escape, or he sells them all out to Mama. Emma reports to the others that she and Gilda have discovered the existence of a secret radio room in the office that Mama uses for daily check-ins with Headquarters, but Ray and Norman decide that investigating it is too risky. However, Don and Gilda decide to investigate the room anyway, and just as they discover that the door is locked, the office door starts to open and they are about to be discovered.

GOD, Ray and Norman are both so cool! The way they talk circles around each other, each trying to find leverage over the other, each mixing truth and lies so naturally, each clearly thinking 20 moves ahead in their conversation...it's just the best. And the best part is, we finally get to see Norman, who up to this point has been presented as the most intelligent and savvy thinker in the cast, be defeated by Ray, right after the last episode ended with him backing Ray into a corner. Ray has him trapped now, and he has no choice but to agree with leaving the others behind for now, lest they are all sold out to Mama or Krone. That's how you build on a cliffhanger right there! It's hard to believe that that scene took up almost half of the episode, it felt like it went by so quickly.

In fact, that scene, in a nutshell, is why Promised Neverland is so captivating to me. The escape is progressing so slowly, with each second wasted effectively meaning a noose tightening around the necks of the children, and yet there is so much happening in terms of strategizing and manipulation that it never feels drawn out, and it always leaves you surprised when the episode is over and the credits are rolling, because it doesn't feel like 22 minutes have passed at all. When people talk about pacing in a story, this is a perfect example of how to do it well. The story is walking on a tightrope here; if it went any slower then the audience's attention would start to wander, but if it went any quicker then the suspenseful atmosphere that is this show's main selling point is gone. It may seem weird that I'm focusing so much on just one scene, but that scene is so good that it makes the rest of the episode -- which WAS good, don't get me wrong -- feel inconsequential in comparison. Plus, I'm afraid that if I keep talking about the new dynamic of Norman and Ray lying to Emma and the trio lying to Don and Gilda while everyone lies to the adults and the other children, I'll end up spoiling something big from the manga. 

Domestic Girlfriend

Not satisfied with the war against the magical girls, the Disas Beasts have begun their invasion of another anime world.

Up next is Better Citrus. In episode 5, life inside the Tachibana/Fujii household is getting more comfortable, though Natsuo and his sisters are still awkward around each other. Rui makes a new friend at school named Momo, who has an infamous reputation as a slut and even admits to having had over 30 sexual partners in the past. When Momo sets her sights on Natsuo, Rui starts to feel uncomfortable and comes down with a fever. Natsuo ignores Momo's first invitation to go out as he takes care of the sick Rui, but decides to go to her house the next day in order to try to move on from his attraction to Hina. But when he hears about Momo's distant parents and sees scars on her wrists from a previous dark period in her life, he realizes that she doesn't need a new sexual partner and instead just cooks her dinner and offers to be her friend.

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This has been my favorite episode yet, and it all comes back to Momo. My heart just aches the more I learn about her and I just want to give her a hug and tell her that everything is going to be okay. And props to my man Natsuo, putting aside his own feelings and doing what's best for the person in front of him, someone who is clearly depressed and lonely and tries to use sex to find someone who can meet her emotional needs. All jokes aside, it really does remind me of the best parts of Citrus, whenever Yuzu put aside her own attraction to Mei and just tries to be a good sister because she refuses to take advantage of her and wants Mei to actually want to be with her. In fact, Domestic Girlfriend is shaping up to be a better version of Citrus. It draws you in with its trashy and taboo premise of an incestuous ecchi harem show and then keeps you invested with its sympathetic characters and gripping drama. Never before would I have expected an episode that includes a boy who has to insert a suppository into his sick sister (who he had previously had sex with, lest we forget) to end up being so wholesome.

I get the feeling that when Kei Sasuga started working on the original manga, she wanted to grab the attention of the more degenerate nerds out there and remind them that the objects of their lust are still people who have their own lives and struggles and hopes and dreams, and that they deserve your respect even as you admire just how attractive they are as they keep finding new reasons to be naked for your viewing pleasure. Rui, Hina, and now Momo aren't just disposable waifus to her. They are characters first and vehicles for fanservice second. And that attitude is really reflected in Natsuo, who is very much an atypical harem protagonist. He may keep falling into contrived situations and sees the girls in varied states of undress, but he also has a clearly defined personality, he isn't afraid to admit that he is sexually attracted to these girls (trust me, a lot of harem protagonists seem to be either unaware of or pathologically afraid of sex for some reason), and still fights against his more base urges in a desire to find the right solution for everybody involved. It's not the best harem show this season -- that would be The Quintessential Quintuplets -- but it's a very close second, it has potential to overtake its competition as it goes on, and I'm so glad I chose this for the roundup.

Hinomaru Sumo

Cool image, dumb attack name.

Next up we have Worse Captain Tsubasa. See what I did there? In episode 17, Hinomaru has rejoined the active roster of Dachi High, and they continue their momentous climb up the ranks on their way to the finals. But two major obstacles remain in their way: Tennoji and Kuze, along with their respective teams. As the two incredible wrestlers face off in the individual tournament -- one an undefeated champion and the other a prodigy from an illustrious lineage at his first official tournament -- Dachi High prepares to face both of them by sparring with the Ishi High sumo team. As Hinomaru stuns them all with a new technique that is kept hidden from the audience, Kuze surprises the world and barely manages to force Tennoji out of the ring, knocking him out of the individual tournament and giving him his first official loss.

You remember two weeks ago when I said I was a little uneasy about the idea of Hinomaru being matched up against Tennoji so early on? My worries seem to have been unnecessary. Hinomaru's latest bout of introspection and acceptance have matured him, and he seems to have a healthier attitude about losing now, treating it as an opportunity for growth. Seeing that payoff in the way he talks to the others now really is the episode's only saving grace, because they hype that should have been in the Kuze-Tennoji fight just wasn't there. Just like last week, the show keeps cutting away from the action to show us what Hinomaru is up to, and it's just not welcome here. This episode would have been so much better if had started with Hinomaru and Sada agreeing to spar with each other, then showed the fight between Kuze and Tennoji in its entirety, and then cut back to the aftermath of Hinomaru and Sada's sparring match. You don't need to show characters in another room talking about why Tennoji and Kuze are such great sumo wrestlers when you already have Kirihito, Reina, Chizuko, Shibakiyama, Yamatokuni, AND Shun in the stands all doing the exact same thing already! What little we actually got to see of the fight was great, but it just wasn't enough to make this a good episode. I can't see myself dropping this series since I like the characters so much, but these last few episodes have been very disappointing, and if it hadn't been for another show's awful performance, I might have pulled a Honda-san and dropped Hinomaru Sumo from the roundup and just watched it on my own time, since it's not fun to talk bad about a show that I still highly enjoy.

Magical Girl Asuka

Magical Nui Harime vs Anime Clara Barton. God, I love anime!

Two more to go, and since any shows being dropped are last, you know that Cardcaptor Bloodbath is safe. So, on episode 5, as Asuka battles and eventually kills the Russian mercenaries, Kurumi successfully regrows Nozomi's arm with magic and sends her to a hospital for treatment. And just in time, too, as Abigail attacks her with two Halloween-class Disas Beasts in tow. Kurumi manages to defeat one of the Beasts on her own, but is then overwhelmed by the other two opponents. Luckily, the soldiers of M Squad come to her rescue and successfully defeat the other Halloween Beast, and Asuka swoops in and drives Abigail away soon afterwards. Just as Asuka is about to capture Abigail for interrogation, a new magical girl arrives on the scene, easily repels both the soldiers and the magical girls, grabs Abigail, and escapes. Later, Asuka and Kurumi visit Nozomi in the hospital, only to see her terrified at the mere sight of any magical girl, thanks to her trauma. After Nozomi passes out, Kurumi removes her memories of the past week in order to heal her PTSD. Realizing that her inaction was partially responsible for Nozomi's capture, Asuka agrees to join M Squad full time. Iizuka asks for permission to relocate Nozomi for her own safety, but his superiors refuse, planning to use her as bait to draw the enemy out again. Thankfully, Asuka is keeping a closer eye on her friends at school, and Nozomi seems none the worse for wear so far.

I have lost count of how many times I shouted "Holy shit!" while watching today's episode. The combat is brutal and fast paced, the gore is applied in just the right amounts, and the mix of military tactics, martial arts, and traditional magical girl silliness really works here. And it means I got to see a magical girl point at a sniper bullet and cause it to freeze just inches away from her and then dissolve in the air! I don't care how silly it may be, that's just AWESOME! Not to mention how nice it is to see a unit of soldiers backing up the magical girls and actually being useful, since I expected them to just stand around since this is a show about magical girls and, well, they are not magical girls. The operation scene that followed the battle was also well done, in spite of the way it just goes back on what happened to Nozomi last week. I found myself tearing up as Nozomi screamed in horror, not even recognizing her two friends. I mean, I'm a big crybaby, so your mileage may vary, but I found that scene really effective, since of course she would be terrified of anything magical at this point. I'm surprised that Asuka and Makino agreed to erase Nozomi's memories though, since this show seemed to be about healing from trauma and, while I'm no expert, magically erasing all memories of the trauma doesn't seem to be a healthy way to handle that sort of thing. Maybe the show will show an unexpected side effect later on, though, and the way if affected Asuka was good enough that I'm willing to let it slide for now.

Before this week, I was kind of meh about Asuka overall. I liked the things that the show was doing, but it didn't really stand out as more than a novelty up to that point. But now, I'm all in. The characters are well-defined, the show has a clear identity, the story is going in interesting directions, and it's all just really really cool. The whole thing just reminds me of Killing Bites and Golden Kamuy in how it indulges in silliness like magical girls and giant monsters and over the top violence, and then gives it meaning, and that's just the sort of thing I love in fiction.

Girly Air Force

What did I say about giving the hentai writers such low hanging fruit?

Finally we have Me Trying Not to Bang My Head Against the Wall: The Animation. In episode 5, Gripen and Kei may have managed to stay airborne by working together, but their performance as a unit still leaves something to be desired. Kei's human body inherently limits Gripen's mobility, as the more elaborate movements would create too much pressure for him to withstand. Yashirodoori promises to research a potential solution, but there is a more pressing matter: the arrival of a third Anima named Phantom and the formation of a new independent unit consisting of Kei and the three Anima. Yashirodoori holds a mock battle between the three Anima (which I wrote as Anime in my notes because I can't bring myself to care anymore) in order to evaluate their combat ability, and Phantom easily wins thanks to her decision to falsify her position on the radar, which is a brilliant strategy that the rest of the cast naturally labels as cheating. The characters yell at each other and then the episode abruptly ends.

I really only have myself to blame at this point. I chose this show to be on the roundup thinking it would be good for a laugh. I chose to keep it alive for this long when only the second episode has been any good. I told myself  "No, it's fine, the production values aren't bad, just flat, only the story is bad. That's no reason to cut it when this or that other bad show exists." And maybe that still rings true. I don't know. All I know is that I've watched almost half the run of a show where I don't like any of the main characters and the actual story squanders what little potential it has when it comes to the Xi in service of a trio of girls being catty and rude to each other for no discernible reason. I mean, Gripen I understand, since the other two talk smack about her and she has some resentment that stems from being a defective unit and all, but why the hell are Eagle and Phantom so mean to her and each other? Literally just seconds after Phantom introduces herself, she and Eagle start trading insults. It's sad that the only reason I relate to Kei at all in this episode is that I'm just as confused and exasperated about the whole business as he is. But then he gets mad at Phantom later on because "in a real fight, allies don't share false information with each other"? You moron, you weren't allies at that point! You were enemies in a mock battle! Your argument couldn't be any more invalid!

And I'll admit, I was taken in by Gripen's antics earlier on, but this episode has officially lost me. I don't care if she's a machine with no sex drive or sense of modesty, if she understands the need to wear clothes outside of her room, then there is no reason that she wouldn't understand Kei feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of seeing her naked. She's sheltered, yes, but she isn't stupid! She knows humans wear clothes, so she can easily extrapolate the issue with removing them in front on one from there. 

But logically consistent storytelling and character actions aren't what this show is about. There was a chance to get Gripen naked, and, by gosh, the staff wasn't going to let it slip through their fingers! Because the priority here isn't telling a good story, writing meaningful characters, or even having fun action scenes. This is a harem show that is ashamed of being a harem show, and thus tries to hide its true nature behind a paper-thin war story disguise. Why else would the girls immediately start competing for social dominance? It's so the male audience can imagine them fighting over his affection. Why else would Gripen invite Kei into her room, start changing in front of him, and then play dumb when he freaks out? It's so the male audience can imagine having sex with her and the show can still have plausible deniability because it isn't trashy, it's a "character moment". I might not be the biggest fan of trashy harem stories, but at least commit to your gimmick! This wishy-washy pseudo-harem garbage is putting me to sleep, and I'm not taking it anymore. I'd rather watch another episode of W'Z than this! At least that show has some kind of vision and doesn't feel like a paint-by-numbers product designed to sucker in as many viewers as possible, hiding behind cute girls and fanservice but then also dangling promises of action and story because it's too ashamed to even be the best version of itself that it could be. It's one thing to be bad in an interesting way because you tried something new, but Girly Air Force, you are just forgettable, and that's unforgivable. Consider yourself dropped.

Supposedly, this Winter 2019 show about anime girls and planes is better. Maybe I'll check it out.

Phew, rant officially over. And that wraps up the latest Weekly Roundup! What will happen next week? Will the Empire's invasion gain momentum? Will Hyakkimaru regain his sight next? Will the twins want to back out of the Hakone Ekiden with victory seeming more unattainable than ever? Will Naofumi gain an even bigger harem and lose all anti-hero credibility? Will Don and Gilda be shipped out to the demons early? Will Asuka regret rejoining the military? Will Rui get a character arc of her own? Will Hinomaru Sumo have a good episode again? Will Boogiepop actually make sense!? Find out the answer to all of these questions, or none of them, next week!

Patrick vs Popular Anime

As I was writing my notes for the upcoming Weekly Roundup, I noticed something: all the anime I'm super excited about watching on the roundup are the less popular ones. With the exception of The Promised Neverland and Dororo, the actual shows I really love writing about (Run With the Wind, Domestic Girlfriend, Price of Smiles, and Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka) all have less than 100,000 members on MyAnimeList. And even then, Promised Neverland and Dororo aren't even close to being as popular as Rising of the Shield Hero, which is the only anime this season that has more than 200,000 members listing it. And, as far as Shield Hero goes? I don't hate it per se, but, well...

Seriously, I have no real positive or negative opinion about Shield Hero. It's not terrible at all -- the production values are pretty high, it has two strong main characters, and it has a pretty strong hook with Naofumi against the world -- but I have so many complaints, large and small, about the series that I cannot say that I like it either. If I'm being honest, if it weren't for the new one elimination per week on the roundup, I don't think I would still be covering it after the 3rd episode. Granted, that would have meant that I missed the 4th episode, which was great, but I still have a very middle of the road opinion of the show overall.

But as we all know, there are no neutral or nuanced opinions on the internet, so that means I just hate Rising of the Shield Hero, just like I obviously hate Goblin Slayer and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, which are even more popular than Shield Hero right now. Now, I think that if anyone actually read my reviews of any of these series, they would understand that the only show I truly dislike is Goblin Slayer, which I decided was worthy of my worst anime of 2018 list, and even then I didn't say that it was an abomination like the other 9 shows on my list, instead describing it as merely "mediocre." And it's also interesting that these three shows all share a lot of similar elements and all leave me feeling kinda lukewarm. Is it just that I don't care for the genre? Well, I don't think so. I love fantasy stories, and Overlord shares a lot of those elements as well and I like that show quite a bit.

Besides, if it was something as simple as just hating fantasy stories with video game elements than I would feel just as positive as the rest of the community about every other popular anime, and I just don't. I mean, I understand that these numbers are just the averages of thousands upon thousands of people's viewing habits and it's impossible to say how well I match up compared to the average anime fan in terms of opinions on any given show, but still, there's a niggling thought in the back of my mind when I write up my thoughts on Rising of the Shield Hero each week, silently wishing that I could just swap it out for Kaguya-sama. Am I being too harsh? Am I turning into an elitist who looks down on the common anime fan?

Is this how you imagine me when you read my posts?

I immediately dismissed the notion at the time. How could I hate popular anime when I'm loving Mob Psycho 100 and The Promised Neverland? How could I hate popular anime when my favorite anime of all time is One Piece, the best selling manga series of all time? But I couldn't shake the idea as I read through the reactions to the various shows I cover on social media. I couldn't understand how so many shows had opposite popular opinions to what I held, and I started to wonder if I was reflexively hating on shows because they're popular and being a contrarian makes me look above such normal plebians.

So, I did a little research on the matter. I compared my top ten favorite anime of 2018 against the seasonal charts on MyAnimeList to determine where my tastes compared to the popular anime of any given season. Here were the results:

1. A Place Further than the Universe: 7th place, Winter 
2. Megalo Box: 8th place, Spring 
3. My Hero Academia Season 3: 1st place, Spring
4. Planet With: 25th place, Summer
5. Lupin III Part V: 40th place, Spring
6. Golden Kamuy: 13th place, Spring (Season 1), 22nd place, Fall (Season 2)
7. SSSS.Gridman: 10th place, Fall
8. Major 2nd: 42nd place, Spring
9. Hinamatsuri: 7th place, Spring
10. Violet Evergarden: 1st place, Winter

So, only 2 of the best of each season's anime by popular vote made my top ten. Four more are in the popular top ten of their respective seasons, but then things get interesting. I'm honestly surprised that Golden Kamuy's first season did so poorly, comparatively speaking, but Spring 2018 was full of really good shows and highly anticipated sequels, so I guess it makes sense, especially since the CG bear in the first episode probably turned a lot of people off. 

But the other three outliers? I just don't understand it. Island, my 4th worst anime of 2018, has more than twice as many viewers on the seasonal chart than Planet With! And my absolute least favorite anime of 2018, and possibly of all time, Tachibanakan Triangle has over twice the viewership of Lupin III AND Major 2nd! On one hand, I can understand how sequels will naturally have less viewers than new series (even though both Lupin and Major 2nd are very newbie-friendly) and Planet With starts out kind of insane, so I can understand how new viewers would be turned off.

Actually, no, I don't understand how this isn't the most popular anime of all time.

As reasonable as I try to be while trying to explain these insane numbers, this doesn't change the fact that these numbers are INSANE! I don't understand how some of these shows can get so many viewers when Lupin III, one of my favorite series of all time, struggles to maintain relevance, with only the original tv anime and the Miyazaki movie having more than 50 thousand viewers on MAL.  To put that in perspective, Kampfer, an anime from 2009 about a gender-bent magical girl protagonist with a yuri harem and a series of mascot characters represented by stuffed animals that committed seppuku that I honestly thought I dreamed before finding it again while putting together my own MAL profile, has 193 thousand viewers.

And that's just by list of MAL members who have watched the shows in question. When it comes to scoring? Well, according to my research, the only show on the Winter 2019 weekly roundup that I have given a higher rating than the average viewer is Run With the Wind, and even then, that difference is only by .05, since we Run With the Wind viewers recognize quality when we see it.

That is the face of quality right there.

Everything else, though? Promised Neverland: .68 points below average. Boogiepop and Others: .12 points below average. Dororo: 1.46 points below average. Hinomaru Sumo: .49 points below average. Domestic Girlfriend: 1.62 points below average. Magical Girl Asuka: .55 points below average. Girly Air Force: 1.1 points below average. Rising of the Shield Hero: 2.5 points below average. These aren't just minor differences in opinion. There is a consistent pattern of shows becoming enjoyed by the greater anime community leaving me less than impressed.

But what does that mean? Am I just a stupid elitist that hates popular anime? Well...no. Just because my favorites aren't the most well loved doesn't mean that I hate popular shows. But at the same time, I think I am a bit harder on anime as a whole than the average viewer may be. And that's hardly surprising. The average anime viewer probably doesn't maintain a blog where they recap and review the newest episodes for several series at once, try to watch 16 shows simultaneously, and loves to pick stories apart and try to figure out what they mean and why they succeed or fail to elicit emotion.  My choice to be someone who critiques anime has naturally left me more critical as a result.

Does that mean I would enjoy Rising of the Shield Hero more if I never started this blog in the first place? Maybe a little bit, but I honestly don't think I would have ever watched it past the first episode if it wasn't for this blog. I honestly find the entire premise of the false rape accusation ruining Naofumi's life to be incredibly problematic, not because the idea is impossible, but because it has been so commonly used by less than reputable individuals to intimidate actual rape survivors into silence and discredit those brave enough to come forward and share their stories with the world, and it's highly probable that the disgust with that outside baggage has forever ruined any chance of this show being in my good graces. I really do try to keep my own personal beliefs out of discussing the merits of this show, and there is plenty of good in that show. In fact, I currently have Shield Hero at 6/10, which, lest we forget, is a positive score overall. 

Let's all agree on how great Raphtalia is, at least.

So, what was the point of all this? I mean, honestly, there isn't one. I'm not trying to convince anyone about the quality of any given show or make a grand conclusion about anime here. Today was more about confronting a personal demon and sharing my thought process about how I approach anime in general these days. Clearly I'm complaining about nothing that actually matters, even by anime fan standards, but I just had to get this off my chest.

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 4

Another week has come and gone, and before I knew it, the time has come for me to reflect on the latest batch of episodes. After the tragic death of W'Z (it's only tragic because it couldn't die sooner), 11 shows remain for our viewing pleasure. And in the meantime, I've also finally bit the bullet and started watching Black Clover!

So far, it's just okay. Once I get further in and have a handle on what this show is about, I'll share my thoughts on this polarizing series in depth.

But enough stalling! Are any of the new episodes a true epic that will be remembered for years to come? Will any shows be consigned to the trash heap of shame? Let's find out!

Rising of the Shield Hero

Now this isn't as cool as it looks. It's much much cooler.

Let's start things off with a bang, shall we? On episode 4 of Suddenly: Quality!, with the first Wave of Catastrophe safely behind them, the Heroes are invited to a celebratory banquet at the castle. However, the party is derailed when Myne informs Motoyasu of Raphtalia's status as Naofumi's slave. Enraged, Motoyasu challenges Naofumi to a duel with Raphtalia's freedom on the line. Though both Naofumi and Raphtalia protest at first, the king captures Raphtalia and orders Naofumi to accept the challenge at sword-point. In the duel itself, Naofumi resorts to "less than honorable" tactics in order to gain the upper hand. But then things go south when Myne interferes by firing a spell at Naofumi, knocking him off balance and leading to his defeat. When Naofumi asks how the duel can be legitimate in light of such blatant interference, the king and his court remain silent as Raphtalia's binding curse is removed. As Naofumi sinks into the depths of despair (and ignores a message that he has unlocked the Shield's "curse"), Raphtalia, Itsuki, and Ren confront Myne and the king over the interference, shaking Motoyasu's confidence and revealing a royal conspiracy against Naofumi, as Myne is actually the princess of the realm. Raphtalia returns to Naofumi's side, fully pledging her loyalty to him once and for all, and Naofumi truly smiles for the first time since being summoned to this world.

Now, I know I was pretty harsh on this show last week, so I want to be clear on this: I never thought that Rising of the Shield Hero was bad. In fact, I think that the first episode was actually pretty damn good. But overall, I never got more than an "okay" vibe from Shield Hero in the first 3 episodes. It had interesting story concepts and I like Naofumi and Raphtalia (especially Raphtalia) as characters, but the tone felt less gritty as intended and more mean-spirited, the action sequences failed to engage me, and the story felt more focused on the mechanics of the world and less on its characters and themes. Overall, I had it on about the same level as Price of Smiles; Smiles resonates with me more on a narrative level and Shield Hero is more competent with its visuals and presentation.

But you know what? You can throw all my old complaints out the window this week! This was what I was hoping for from this show all along! The fight between Naofumi and Motoyasu was great from start to finish, with a strong ebb and flow as advantage shifted from one to the other over and over as tactics changed, strong character moments from both participants, and much better animation than we've seen so far. The reveal of a royal conspiracy finally addresses the issue I had with everyone spruning Naofumi even though he's supposedly just as vital to protecting the world from the Catastrophe. Though it doesn't actually answer the question of WHY there would be a conspiracy in the first place, at least it acknowledges that there is one, so I have a good feeling that the why will be explained in time. It's also gratifying to see that the other Heroes aren't mindless jerks after all, and I'm overall okay with Motoyasu still in denial for now if it means that Itsuki and Ren will actually do something meaningful soon. But, of course, I'm not talking about the main highlight of the episode. Raphtalia's speech about Naofumi being the only one who cared about a slave like her was fantastic, and it gets to what may be the core theme of the story. The show is arguing that intent does not matter; your actions are either beneficial or harmful, and those are the only true indicator of whether you are a good or evil person. It's a surprisingly positive message for a show that had such a grumpy and slightly misogynistic tone early on. This episode definitely surprised me and was worth the awkwardness of the last two weeks. Here's hoping this upswing continues!

Domestic Girlfriend

Uh...are we not going to address that somebody took the time to draw this, and somebody else approved it? 

Next up we have Soap Opera Nonsense: The Animation. In episode 4, after a week of following Hina and planning their next move, Rui and Natsuo are caught off guard when they run into her and her boyfriend Shu at a nearby cafe. As Shu introduces himself and tries to explain that he plans on leaving his wife for Hina one day, the two of them lose their temper and walk out on them. Seeing their siblings' reactions opens Hina's eyes and, realizing that she has been used for 2 years, she dumps Shu. Later, Hina and Rui join Natsuo at his mother's grave and introduce themselves to her spirit as his new sisters.

You know what's surreal? Hearing everyone talk about how Motoyasu in Shield Hero is such a horrible person even though he is just as much a victim of Myne's manipulation as Naofumi, while this jerkass Shu is walking around playing games with Hina's heart and hardly anyone says anything. I mean, I get it, Shield Hero is more popular than practically anything else airing this season, so the voices of its fanbase will drown out anyone else, and from what I can tell from lurking on Reddit, those who are actually watching this hate Shu just as much if not more. It's just a weird feeling having both these episodes air in the same week. 

Anyway, this was a pretty good episode. There wasn't much to it outside the scene in the cafe, but that scene was so good and so tense that it didn't really need much else. Though, obviously, more would have been nice. The only thing that really needs to be addressed here is the big question: Did Hina really break up with Shu, or is she lying to get Natsuo and Rui off her back? Personally, I think she's telling the truth, if for no other reason than I don't think she'd do something as horrible as lie during a special moment of being there for her stepbrother while he's mourning/honoring the memory of his dead mother. But, well...we don't actually see the end of her conversation with Shu, so things are still technically ambiguous. If it does turn out she was lying, I don't expect it to come up until several episodes later. The time has come to move on to a new arc, after all, and two of the girls in the opening still haven't been introduced yet. So, I think the show's gonna put this story on hold for a while, if there still even is a story here.

Girly Air Force

Have you never seen an anime before, dude?

Up next we have episode 4 of Darling in the Planes. Gripen's test flight has failed and now she is set to be scrapped. When Kei hears the news, he leaves Minghua in the middle of their day out and rushes to her side. Kei and Yashirodoori want Gripen to run away from the base and lay low until they can work out a solution for her problem, but that plan is rendered moot when the Xi launch an attack on the base in numbers too great for Eagle to handle on her own. When Gripen insists on joining the battle, Kei comes up with the stupidly obvious solution -- so obvious that the opening doesn't even bother hiding it -- he goes out to fly with her. As they fly together, Kei's brainwaves fully synchronize with Gripen and they pilot the Daughter together with some mind meld shenanigans.

The only reason I'm not cutting Girly Air Force this week is because worse shows are still in the lineup. But let me be clear: this was a terrible episode. It may seem like a good episode on the surface since it has a big climactic moment where the main characters overcome a major obstacle and form a bond that is stronger than ever while an insert song designed to tug at your heartstrings plays in the background, but the big moment falls flat because the show didn't earn it. I mean, it may sound unfair and repetitive, but compare this to Darling in the FRANXX. Just like Gripen, Zero Two is a bioweapon with incredible power and a massive drawback that is solved by piloting her vehicle together with a male lead who is somehow the only one who stabilizes her. However, FRANXX takes 15 episodes to tell this story, fully fleshing out Hiro and Zero Two as characters and actually explaining WHY they have such a strong connection. They have multiple roadblocks and stumbling points on their quest to be recognized as official partners and there is a legitimate question as to whether or not the idea will even work as we see that Hiro is physically suffering due to Zero Two's parasitic condition. Add in some good animation and a supporting cast worth a damn, and you have a huge arc that drives the first two thirds of the series, and all that buildup makes the climax that much more powerful. Or, for a contemporary example, Prince finally getting his qualifying time in Run With the Wind wouldn't have meant anything if he got it in episode 4. Girly Air Force just wants to skip the big moment when the groundwork hasn't even been properly set. Not to mention that a quarter of this episode, supposedly about Gripen and Kei, is dedicated to Eagle, who may be the most annoying character this season. And lest we forget, this season has Ryusei Midorigaoka, Spudio XXII, Yukiya Araki, and the entire cast of Pastel Memories! You're on thin ice, Girly Air Force! Either make Eagle tolerable or expect to get cut next week.

Magical Girl Asuka

The prettiest magical girl of them all.

Next up we have History of Trunks. In episode 4, Babel Brigade initiates their plan and sends a video of Nozomi being tortured to the Japanese police. Even though her father wants to mount a rescue mission, his superiors decide that they don't stand a chance in the even that the enemy has any more monsters at their disposal and discreetly sends the information to the magical girls. Frustrated with the politics, Asuka and Kurumi go after Nozomi themselves, knowingly setting off a trap laid for them by the evil magical girl Abigail and her magical Russian mercenaries. Even though Abigail cuts off her arm and has her on the brink of death, Nozomi is rescued by the magical girls anyway, and Kurumi flees while carrying her as Asuka stays behind to hold the enemy off.

There comes a point where merely being darker and bloodier than a typical magical girl anime would be stops being surprising. I mean, when the first episode already introduces the themes of terrorism and post traumatic stress disorder and the following episodes show the terrorist Kim Kanth being subjected to very gruesome implied torture, how much more explicit can this get? Well, Asuka hasn't managed to stop being surprising yet? After all, the next step from implied physical torture is to show it on screen, and while Nozomi's experiences are different enough thanks to the use of magic, seeing her effectively get waterboarded and watching the villain CUT OFF HER ARM is still shocking and horrifying. 

And you know what's the worst part? None of it was necessary. Babel Brigade doesn't care about her or her father; they just want to capture the magical girls and transform them into weapons of mass destruction. And while the torture was partly a means of appeasing their more fanatical underlings, I don't doubt for a second that Abigail could have handled them another way. She chose to torture Nozomi for fun. And her voice actress sells that insanity so well, it gives me chills. I do feel like things were dragged out a bit too much this week, though maybe the intention was just to make the viewer uncomfortable now and get us ready for cathartic violence next week. If so, then it worked, cause all I want is to see Asuka bust some heads!

Boogiepop and Others

Not this again...

On episode 5 of Answering Questions with Questions, Masaki used to live in Cambodia, but moved to his home country of Japan in order to experience school life there. Living with Nagi, he started his final year of middle school in a new country. When he is confronted by bullies who were jealous of his popularity with their female classmates (that he was unaware of), he is rescued by a girl named Aya, who offers to have sex with the bullies in order to stop them from attacking Masaki. Masaki tries to prevent this, and that is when Asukai intervenes, thus providing additional context to the supposed attempted rape scene from last week. In the weeks that follow, Aya and Masaki start going out, but Aya is strangely quiet about herself and always worries about Masaki abandoning her. Meanwhile, a boy from Masaki's class with an interest in him named Anou has been stalking the two of them, only to be attacked by a mysterious stranger who rewrites his memories and tells him that he is a slave of the Towa Organization. Anou's new orders are as follows: get accepted at Shinyo Academy and await further instructions. However, Asukai notices the compulsion and removes it. When Anou later finds a love letter asking to meet, the girl who left it turns out to be Boogiepop, who had also noticed the programming during their hunt for the Imaginator and decided to set a trap for the Towa Organization member. Sure enough, the stranger takes the bait, but he manages to escape before Boogiepop can kill him. Later, as Aya waits to meet Masaki for another date, the stranger appears and demands to know why she is acting without his instruction.

Alright, so this episode answered none of my questions from last week. We still have no idea what is up with Asukai or the Imaginator, and if that weren't enough, we now have more mysteries to worry about. Who or what is the Towa Organization, and why are they concerned with planted spies at Shinyo Academy? There has been no mention of this faction before, but since Boogiepop called the stranger an "artificial human", I think I may actually have a theory about them. See, if they made one artificial being, who's to say they haven't made others? My guess is that this Towa Organization is the group that tried to clone Echoes before and ended up creating Manticore as a result. There's no evidence to support this theory one way or the other, so I'm probably wrong, but it would be a neat way to tie this arc together with the previous one.

Either way, this was actually my favorite episode so far. Frustrating lack of answers aside, the story of Masaki and Aya was really sweet, and Anou is just an interesting character to me. I would love to see all three of them again later on, but I'm still waiting for Nagi to make another appearance (this week's cameo doesn't count), so who knows? Recurring characters don't seem to be this show's thing, what with its semi-anthology style of presentation where each episode essentially has a new set of protagonists with Boogiepop being the only common thread. It makes sense when you consider that this is based on a series of light novels -- the first three episodes are based on one book and these last two are probably part of another book -- but it's still not a structure I'm used to in anime. The only real comparison I can think of is Darker than Black, but since this is an anime I really enjoy, I'm not going to complain about that.

Hinomaru Sumo

Next up we have episode 16 of Well, That Was Anticlimactic. As Hinomaru undergoes an unusual treatment for his arm from an eccentric doctor, the rest of Dachi High has to face off against Hikage and his team on their own. While Ozeki and Yuma easily win their matches, Chihiro has his work cut out for him when he faces down Hikage -- a "national treasure" who intimidated Hinomaru earlier -- in his bout. And even though the onlookers in the crowd all believe him to be doomed, he stuns them all by utilizing a rarely used sumo technique (so rare, in fact, he didn't even know it had a name) and pulling off a major upset, after which he dubs himself the "National Treasure Eater."

Once again, Hinomaru Sumo has me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, having a rival school that was just hyped up in the previous arc go down so easily that Hinomaru didn't even get to fully settle the score with his rival is a good way to surprise the audience. And no, I don't count their little skirmish during the training arc as settling the score. If anything, everything about the past few episodes (last week notwithstanding) was presented as buildup for a final confrontation between Hikage, a fighter forced to confront the way he settled for being a mid-tier participant in his league, and Hinomaru, an underdog who refuses to accept the status quo and plans to overthrow the tier list. Swapping out Hinomaru for Chihiro at the last second here, combined with what happened last week, feels like this show is just making weird decisions for the sake of being surprising. Like I said last week, it's too early to tell if these twists are bad, but I don't have a good feeling about the way this arc is going. 

Then again, I would be lying if I said that I didn't like this matchup. While I do worry that Chihiro is starting to win a little too often, the actual bout was entertaining enough when it was actually on screen, with plenty of changing power dynamics and moment to moment decision making from both Chihiro and Hikage. It's too bad that the action kept cutting away to flashbacks that show things we already knew about or Hinomaru telling the doctor -- who is the most boring cliche old anime pervert -- about how great his team is. And squeezing 3 bouts in a single episode really backfired to the point where I actually said "That's it?" out loud at the end of the bout. Once again, Hinomaru Sumo is falling back into is old habit of rushing things too much, but even more worryingly, it may have picked up a new bad habit of pulling out random twists just for the hell of it. It's been a while since we had a bad episode of this show, but I still really like it and we're almost to the end, so I'm giving it the Honda-san rule: one more misstep, and it will be considered for elimination.

The Promised Neverland

I swear I had a joke planned when I grabbed this screenshot, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. I'm not very good at this.

We're halfway done! Next up is Plot Twists: The Animation. In episode 4, the search for the traitor is on, and Norman decides that playing by Mama's schedule will hinder their ability to escape undetected. He thus decides to move the escape date from one and a half months out to ten days out. To further their preparations, Emma and Norman tell Don and Gilda the truth about Grace Field House, only replacing the demons with human traffickers in order to ease them into accepting the need for escape. Norman leaves a trap with false information for Don and Gilda in order to determine which is the traitor. Gilda proves her innocence by telling Sister Krone that her earlier worries about Emma were nothing and pleading ignorance right to her face. But when Don's information is seemingly leaked to Mama, Norman surprised everyone by accusing Ray of being the traitor!

Oh, NOW I remember this story arc! This twist was already really good in the manga and the anime builds it up even more with its great use of tracking shots, first person perspective, and sound design to build up the sense of paranoia. But as good as that final scene was, I actually much prefer the opening scene. Seeing Mama smugly tell Krone "I know what you're up to and it's not going to work. If you stay out of my way and know your place, I'll give you what you want." is oh, so perfect. These two are professional liars and each has their own agenda. Mama needs to meet her shipment quota without causing a panic in the demon community so she needs to keep a lid on things. Krone wants Mama's job, so she is trying to find definitive proof of the truth being leaked and plans to use that to discredit her rival. Sure, Mama offered Krone the job after the leak was taken care of, but does Krone know that she can trust her? It's a really strong dynamic, and it really makes any comparison to Death Note all the better. Everyone has an agenda, and nobody knows where anyone else stands. Except Emma. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and that's what makes her my favorite. I want to talk about how good Norman's reveal was, but I can't do so without spoiling future episodes! Argh!

Dororo

Next up we have Durarara Bo-bobo. In episode 4, Tanosuke was a samurai who left home to fight in a war. But when his lord ordered him to choose between executing innocent prisoners and committing seppuku, Tanosuke picks up the sword given to him and murders everyone around him, including his lord. It turns out that the sword is cursed and possessed by a demon named Nihiru, which has now fully corrupted Tanosuke and turned him into a remorseless serial killer. Five years later, Hyakkimaru and Dororo encounter Tanosuke, and though Hyakkimaru manages to separate the man from the sword, Nihiru ends up in Dororo's hands and takes control of his body. As Tanosuke's estranged sister begs him to come home with her, Nihiru drags itself back to its partner using Dororo's body, and Hyakkimaru has no choice but to kill Tanosuke and destroy Nihiru. After doing so, he regains his hearing. Meanwhile, noticing the damage to the shrine where he made his deal so many years ago, Daigo begins investigating the possibility of Hyakkimaru's survival.

So, I will admit, one of my few complaints about Dororo so far was that the titular character wasn't really an active participant in the story. Initially, I was happy to see him more actively involved in this week's episode. I'm not sure this is what I wanted, though. I mean, take away all the supernatural business and his role basically amounts to a kidnapping victim who needs to be saved by Hyakkimaru. Doesn't matter either way though because this episode was fantastic! This easily has the best action scenes so far, and we got to see two of them! And the effect of the sound suddenly becoming louder once Hyakkimaru regained his hearing? Perhaps it was a little obvious in hindsight, but it was certainly effective. Not to mention that the dynamic between Dororo and Hyakkimaru may change a little in the future now that Hyakkimaru can actually hear what is being said to him, so that's pretty cool. The story wasn't particularly as deep or as interesting as previous episodes, and I certainly wasn't expecting one of the demons to be inside a sword since the last three were all moving around on their own, but I'm willing to roll with is since I was so thoroughly entertained this week. This has taken an early lead as my favorite show of the season, with only Promised Neverland and Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 as its competition. If you aren't watching this yet, I highly encourage you to check it out!

The Price of Smiles

Up next we have Why You Shouldn't Lie to Your Children. In episode 4, the Imperial Army has begun its attack on the state of Caldarth. But as Yuki has forbidden the use of the new chrars on the mechs, the Knights of Soleil are forced to fight a defensive battle with evacuation as their only course of action. Yuki's adviser Layla remembers the day that both she and Yuki lost their families. During the unveiling of a joint research project of chrars created by both Soleil and the Empire, terrorists attacked and clashed with the Imperial Army. After seeing her husband and daughter Stella die, Layla put her life on the line to protect the infant Yuki and was made a member of her court after she woke up from her coma one month later. Soleil officially blamed the Empire for the death of Yuki's parents, and relations between the two nations have been confrontational ever since. Back in the present, Yuki decides that, as princess, she has a responsibility to participate in the war effort, where she learns that Harold and Izana have installed the chrars without her permission. But when a group of civilians refuses to evacuate and tries to fight the Empire on their own, Yuki orders a unit of the new mechs to rescue them, only for the soldiers to get overwhelmed and die with the civilians. Helpless, Yuki now truly understands the cruel nature of war, and all she can do is scream.

This isn't following the trend of being better than last week's episode, but it is just as good as last week, so at least we aren't backsliding. Everything Yuki did felt so natural to what we've seen of her so far, and I'm glad that we got to see her stupidly rash decision (which I don't blame her for since none of the adults responsible for her actually trained her for this sort of thing) backfire on her. This show really did fool me with the saccharine tone it had in episode 1, but, now that that deception is over with, it's really proven that it's not afraid to hold back and the effect is palpable. What's really interesting about this episode, however, is the reveal that Stella is Layla's daughter and, presumably, a citizen of Soleil. Does she know that? It's tough to tell how old she was in that flashback since her face was hidden, but I'm guessing around 6 or 7 years old. Unless the explosion gave her amnesia, she has to have some memory of her life before then, right? Wouldn't it be interesting if she believes that her mother abandoned her and resents her for it? I mean, it's more likely that she either has no memory or was told her mother died by whoever rescued her (presumably someone from the Empire), but still. Also, now we have an idea as to how this war may have started. It seems that after the deaths of the Royal Family, Soleil chose to keep the chrars that it developed alongside the Empire as "punishment" for causing the tragedy. From what I can tell, the best and brightest of both nations were devastated, so it's not as if the Empire can easily replicate the advanced technology on their own now. Thus, the struggle for these invaluable resources and the animosity between the nations as a result of the anger felt over the bombing festers and eventually the Empire feels that the only option that will give it a chance at survival is invasion. It's an incomplete narrative, as most backstories to war are during the war itself, and the version we see comes from Layla, who naturally favors Soleil over the Empire. Still, it is a plausible explanation as to how this all began, though given this show's track record, I'm expecting it to only be a piece of the whole story.

Run With the Wind

I remember someone else telling me that.

Two shows left, the end is in sight! Next up is episode 15 of The Running Man (man, now I just want to watch Running Man. I love that movie). As the Hakone Qualifying Race draws near, the Kansei University team's underdog story has made them local celebrities, with a picture in the paper and a segment of them being filmed for television as they train. But before they know it, the big day arrives, and the race begins. In order to qualify for the actual Hakone Ekiden, each member of the team needs to finish the 20 kilometer race in just over one hour. And when a runner collapses just in front of Haiji early in the race, the team's chances are already in jeopardy...

Okay, obviously, that was a strong cliffhanger. In fact, everything from after the starting gun being fired was pretty good. But the majority of this episode was kinda bad. I get that every sports anime needs buildup between its events, but this particular example of buildup feels rushed and drawn out at the same time. I don't care about Musa and Kakeru gossiping about Hana potentially being attracted to one or both of the twins and I don't care about this tv reporter being confused by Kansei's unusual approach to training. When the purpose of these scenes is to hype the viewer up for the race, silliness like that is not appropriate. It's not all bad, though. The reactions to the newspaper article, Haiji expressing doubts about his coaching ability to Kakeru, and Yuki arguing with his mother about something over the phone were all good ways to build up the event. The problem is that those scenes were really short and the goofy scenes went on for way too long to be funny. Then again, I'm probably only being hard on this show because I know it can be so much better. But, well, I guess the runtime had to be filled before we could get to that sweet cliffhanger.

Dimension High School

How could anyone approve this? His hand is phasing through his body during what is supposed to be a dramatic scene!

Finally we have I Don't Even Care Anymore. In episode 4, Ryusei intimidates the gardening club into locating a specific plant for him. When they complain to Shiroyama, who was once Ryusei's best friend, he volunteers to get the plant for them, hoping to use it as a means of opening conversation between the two of them and patch things up. See, when they entered middle school, Ryusei invited Shiroyama to join the tennis club with him, but Shiroyama turned him down because he was more interested in a biology or gardening club. Ryusei, being the calm and rational person he is, freaked out and declared their friendship over from that point on. Back in the present, Ryusei refuses to even look at Shiroyama at school, and Spudio transports the two of them and Tsuyoshi to the 2.2D world to battle Paramesos's older brother: Sphinx Dictis. Even though Ryusei solves the first puzzle, he is one second too late and is eaten as punishment. After Shiroyama and Tsuyoshi correctly answer the second puzzle and rescue Ryusei, they learn that his pride was taken as punishment for being incorrect before.

The people making this have to know it's bad, right? Nobody can be this unintentionally hilarious. The staging of the flashback scene with Shiroyama and Ryusei playing catch and Ryusei just letting the ball fall as the music cuts out to signify the moment of "betrayal" seems like it wants to be dramatic, but everything is so amateurish that I can't help but laugh. I'm not going to say that it isn't believable for middle school kids to turn on each other because they don't want to join the same club -- I worked with children for years, and I've seen them turn on each other for far less -- but the idea of Ryusei instantly changing his personality like that and holding onto a grudge for so long is so petty that it would make Bakugo say "Dude, calm down." I get what they're going for here: Ryusei is defined by his pride and he can't admit that he was wrong, so he thinks his only option is to double down and be a huge tool for the rest of his life. Him losing his pride could be an interesting way to facilitate character growth, but at this point in the story, after we saw Tsuyoshi literally get erased from history, it just doesn't have any impact and seems like a bad joke. The only good part in this whole episode was the two gardening club members. Every second of their scene with Shiroyama was genuinely funny, and I suspect it has more to do with the actors' performances than any of the writing since the lines were pretty generic. It may have taken four weeks, but I think I've solved the greatest puzzle of all: Dimension High School is not so bad it's good. At least, not for the whole season. Consider this show dropped.

And that wraps up another installment of the Weekly Roundup! Only ten series remain! What will happen next? Will Soleil mount a counterattack against the Empire? Will Haiji finish the race? Will Mitsuashi get to have another match, and maybe even win for once? Will Boogiepop stop the Imaginator in time? Will Asuka defeat the Russian mercenaries? Will Daigo learn about Hyakkimaru's survival? Will Norman be forced to kill Ray? Will the other Heroes actually treat Naofumi with respect? Will Natsuo move on from his crush on Hina? Will Girly Air Force actually turn itself around? Will Kingdom Hearts 3 be spoiled for me before I can buy a compatible system!? Find out the answer to all these questions and more or none of them at all next time!