This week, Hirotaka and Narumi both realize that they’ve never actually, well, gone on a date as a couple. At best, they only ever hang out. Isn’t that odd? Dating is not difficult. One of the simplest dates is to just take someone out to dinner. You pick a nice-looking restaurant, then you take your date to it. Done. Anyways, starting from the beginning…

— So there’s inclement weather, and this makes Narumi act all chuuni. I have no clue why it’s translated as “angsty” here.

— She forgot her umbrella again? Didn’t we already have this gag?

— It turns out Hirotaka is afraid of thunder. Why? Because he has bad memories associated with it… like, y’know, losing his game saves. Haha… I swear, the jokes here are so lame. Nevertheless, his fear is bad enough that he even switches seats for the day. Not that it helps. Eventually, the guy goes on a “SAN check.” What’s that? A sanity check?

— Eventually, Narumi is worried about him, so she decides to take a break at the same time. Just talking to her takes his mind off of the bad weather. In fact, he’s even reminded of a moment in his childhood. He was sick and alone back then, but Narumi came over to check up on him. They were both scared of thunder, but because they had each other, they were fine in the end. That’s sweet, I guess. Of course, this is a memory that only Hirotaka can apparently recall. Narumi never seems to remember anything about their time together as kids. It’s a matter of importance, really. He may look emotionless, but the guy has been pining for her all of his life. Every moment he has with her is important to him. I don’t believe that she feels the same way.

— We even see a flashback where Hirotaka pierced one of his ears for the first time. He doesn’t really look like a guy who wears an earring, huh? Well, it turns out he only did it for Narumi. He saw Narumi with a boy with piercings, so he tried to emulate the guy. Yeesh. This goes to show you how much Hirotaka actually likes her. Unfortunately, he seems unable to communicate the depth of his feelings to the girl, so she just writes him off as another stereotypical game otaku. I like to believe that she truly cares about him, but does she actually see him in a romantic way? I don’t think so. Not yet, anyways. I find that kinda sad. I just think couples in a relationship should be enthusiastic about each other. Of course, if Hirotaka is happy with this arrangement, then so be it. If this half-hearted relationship with Narumi is what he wants, then hey, who am I to say that they should break up? But maybe he isn’t as content as he lets on.

— This is Hirotaka trying to show his friends that he’s been practicing how to wink. Yep…

— As usual, Taro and Hanako like to bicker in public. I find their relationship exhausting, but they’re still together so whatever…

— Narumi actually has Taro pegged. I’m actually surprised by her astute observation. Still, she thinks that those two are deeply in love, which I find a little harder to swallow.

— Hirotaka wants to know if Narumi would be bothered if he ever got drunk and flirted with another woman, but the girl doesn’t take the question seriously because she can’t even picture it. Yeesh. She’s not just saying that she can’t picture him acting shady. She’s also saying that she can’t picture him flirting at all. And to fair to Narumi, I can’t picture Hirotaka as a flirt either. Still, it always hurts when your girlfriend doesn’t take you seriously. These words actually linger with Hirotaka. He can’t help but think about it long after the dinner. He also can’t help but think back to all of the other insensitive things Narumi has said to him. Of course, she never says any of these things out of malice, but y’know… if you were in his shoes, you’d be hurt too. But Hirotaka has to take some of the blame, because he’s not very proactive either. He became complacent after they started dating. He doesn’t take her out, he doesn’t flirt with her, he doesn’t do anything!

— The next day, Hirotaka sees Taro and Hanako bickering again, so he wants to know what they’re like when they’re alone. Do they act like a couple? Hirotaka just wants to know. He wants to know who he should in order to move his relationship with Narumi forward.

— Taro tries to act all casual about it, but it sounds like he’s been taking the relationship for granted as well.

— Needless to say, he manages to smooth things over by promising to take Hanako out at the next available opportunity. She still ends up slapping him, though. What an exhausting relationship…

— Still, this gives Hirotaka plenty of things to think about.

— Meanwhile, Narumi pays Nao a visit, because there’s a new frappe flavor or whatever. When Nao asks the girl how she and his brother are doing, she also realizes that they don’t really act like an actual couple.

— When Narumi is finally walking home with Hirotaka later that night, she thinks about their relationship. Unfortunately, she’s content to be passive. I guess we all still expect the guy to make the first move, and since she can’t picture him being a romantic normie, she just assumes that they’ll never go on a normie date. Again, I think a healthy couple should communicate more. If she wants more from this arrangement, then she needs to let Hirotaka know about her feelings. But maybe she doesn’t really care if their relationship takes the next step. I doubt Narumi has ever really sat down and consider whether or not this relationship has any future. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: she seems to be only dating Hirotaka out of convenience.

— Anyways, Hirotaka has had all day to think about this, so he finally decides to ask Narumi out on a proper date. The girl is left in a state of shock as the episode comes to an end. After eight weeks, these two might finally start acting like a couple. I still don’t really care for either of them all that much, but Narumi in particular kinda bugs me. I just think she’s a little too laissez faire about this relationship. She’s not fully committed, and I don’t think that’s fair on Hirotaka. She’s just content to be on cruise control, which is why I don’t find her remotely endearing.

Eia versus the Creepazoid. It’s the battle of the century! 

— So the big get now is the star guy. Every master shows up as a circle, but this guy is special so he gets a star! No doubt it’s the evil scientist.

— Since he seems to be hanging out at a school, Ryuuou sends in Julia disguised as a student. I find it hard to believe that she could actually pass off as a teenager, but then again, Asians tend to look young until they reach a certain age. The whole scenario is still unbelievable, though.

— These two are actual teenagers. The one on the right looks like she’s in her 50s.

— Meanwhile, Fujiko has also infiltrated the school as a nurse. The real nurse is coincidentally out with a sickness, but this is even more difficult to swallow than Julia masquerading as a student. Wouldn’t one of the faculty members question why there’s a substitute nurse running around?

— In any case, the creepazoid eventually shows up because he’s been anticipating their every move. In fact, Creepazoid’s gonna be his name from now on. Good god, he’s fugly. It’s like someone beat Yoko Ono with an ugly stick.

— Julia also runs into this kid, because we’re still introducing new characters to this story even though we’re eight weeks in. I’m going to give up on learning their names, so I’m just gonna call her Braces. Don’t ask me why she has a streak of white hair. Maybe she thinks it looks cool.

— Before Braces could duel Julia, however, Creepazoid interrupts her. Julia tries to run away, but she quickly discovers that Fujiko has already dueled and lost to Creepazoid. How? Why? Why didn’t she just refuse to duel the guy? Why didn’t Ryuuou just command her not to duel the guy? Then again, Yuuga had told Seiya the same thing, and it didn’t work so… the rules just don’t matter in this universe.

— Fujiko then stabs Julia with a syringe and down the girl goes.

— When Julia wakes up, she finds herself tied up in some metallic room. God only knows where these characters always manage to find such empty dungeons in the middle of modern Japan.

— Creepazoid goes on a vague rant about humanity, but he doesn’t really have anything substantive to say. It’s just your bog standard megalomaniac speech. You can feel the lack of effort permeating itself throughout this entire anime. It’s completely devoid of heart. No one’s even trying.

— Anyways, Creepazoid has a fancy black SCM that he wants to demonstrate on Julia. Maybe it gives him the special power to duel anyone that he wants. Or maybe it just straight up enslaves other slaves. Who knows? The problem is that Julia refuses to put in her SCM, so we can’t see the black one in action. Darn.

— Oh look, here’s yet another new character, because why not? Nerdo over here is apparently associated with Eia’s newest slave. Y’know, the girl with the tan look? I don’t think she’s a ganguro girl… I’ll just call her Tan-chan.

— Braces gets a quick backstory, but it’s nothing special. You know it’s nothing special since it only takes up like five minutes of the episode’s run time. Basically, her grandfather is Mustachio, and he’s very overprotective of her. So she got into this whole SCM nonsense just to enslave him.

— Finally, Eia gets to do something. We’ve been watching a bunch of losers run around for way too long. Our heroine challenges Mustachio to a duel. Whoever earns the most money in two hours will win. Since he owns so many business, he’s inclined to accept the duel. Surely, he will win easily, right? Everyone always accept duels right on the spot. They’re so hilariously dumb.

— Mustachio quickly tells his henchmen to collect money from all the nearby businesses. He then puts on an earpiece so that he can listen in on Eia. Our girl has gone to a park to sing for money. She’s not just singing any random song, though. She’s singing the OP! I rolled my eyes so hard at this moment.

— There’s no way she can earn enough money this way, right? That’s when Tan-chan shows up with a fat envelope full of cash. There isn’t remotely any drama here, because I know that Eia has plot armor.

— Yuuga also shows up to Mustachio’s office disguised as a loan shark. He offers up 10 million yen for a loan, but this is obviously just a misdirection. Besides, if you acquire the money via a loan, does that really count as “earning it?”

— When Yuuga tries to leave, he finds himself surrounded by Mustachio’s goons. The guy on the right doesn’t really look that tough…

— The dog’s just watching Yuuga get his ass beat, and I can’t blame it for doing nothing. Fuck Yuuga.

— When Eia returns, Mustachio acts all cocky because he thinks he’s seen through her ruse. She has 1 million yen, but he has 10 million yen. Surely, he’ll win, right?! Again, Eia has plot armor.

— Mustachio turns around to find that the 10 million yen is suddenly on fire! Oh no! He should’ve checked the bag, ’cause there was actually a bomb in it!

— His henchmen only managed to scrounge up 900,000 so Mustachio loses. Sad trombone noise.

— Wait, did they really burn through 10 million yen and not just fake money?

— Eia announces with pride that she intends to free everyone from the whole SCM nonsense. Even Yuuga is proud of her… I thought he wanted to test his limits and all that nonsense, but maybe becoming Fujiko’s slave for a brief second scared him straight.

— Mustachio now believes that Eia might have the chops to go up against Creepazoid. At the start of the series, however, Eia told us in a voiceover that she regrets ever getting involved in the first place. So I have to wonder if things are going to go bad real soon.

— As for Ryuuou… eh, forget him. What a dumb kid.

How nice of our heroes to stand in one straight line. 

— Now that the three major factions have stopped fighting each other, we need a new enemy: the Mage Academy. It’s an all-out war between them and the Lords. Unfortunately, we know almost next to nothing about these bastards. It would’ve been nice if the story had built up the Mage Academy slowly throughout the course of the series, but we can’t have nice things.

— I really don’t know all that much about the Grancrest either… other than that its wielder gets to rule over everything. But don’t forget the Holy Grail! Remember, Priscilla is apparently the Holy Grail. Unfortunately, I’ve practically forgotten what the Holy Grail does. I just know that Pope Leone declared himself the Holy Grail… wait, is Pope Leone aligned with the Mage Academy? Holy moly, I can’t make heads or tails of this story.

— Get ready for a lot of exposition in this week’s episode. First, our trusty mages will have to get rid of their wands. Apparently, these wands are being used to track their locations. Not only that, the Mage Academy has been using the wands to listen in on all of the mages’ conversations. Surely, Siluca can just fashion herself a new wand… right? Maybe not. I don’t know anything about how this world works.

— Why all this focus on Aishela? She’s not a mage, right? I actually don’t know much about her. She showed up one day because Siluca needed help and… well, that’s it. Anyways, Siluca is getting everyone all caught up on the terrible news, but the anime keeps cutting back to a concerned Aishela. The show is telegraphing real hard that something is up with Siluca’s dear friend. Normally, I’d be like, “Oh no, not Aishela!” But because their relationship is so woefully underdeveloped, I don’t know what to think of this eventual betrayal. It just feels like it’s coming out of left field.

— Theo is now the Emperor. That’s right — he’s the Emperor with a capital “E.” I know his ascension officially happened last week when both Alexis and Marrine pledged their loyalty to him, but it still feels so sudden. Two months ago, the guy could barely defend himself against Milza, and now he’s the Emperor. So does this come with special powers? Does he get to shoot lightning from his fingertips or what?

— With the newly formed Imperial Army, Siluca hopes to march on Eramu. Does the Mage Academy even have a standing army? I guess this might be where the demons come in.

— According to Theo, this will be a “grueling battle” even though the Imperial Army is made up of Union, Alliance and Altirk forces. But if the Mage Academy was always this strong, why did they wait so long to strike?

— A lot of the mages in the room reaffirm their loyalties to their respective Lords. That’s sweet, I guess.

— This guy, however, wants to void his contract to Alexis. I’ve never even seen his face before this week’s episode though, so uh, see ya?

— Mages can’t cast any magic without their wands? They’re just sitting ducks, then! Sure, they can still function as advisers, but they’re useless on the battlefield now.

— Even though Siluca just explained to everyone that the Mage Academy is out to kill them, a bunch of the Lords still end up bailing on them anyways. They were willing to come all the way out here to fight each other, but marching against the Mage Academy is apparently one step too far. I don’t get it. Maybe they don’t think they can win without their mages, but that’s still pathetic.

— What? You guys just said that you couldn’t cast magic without them! Now you’re backpedaling already? Oh well, at least the mages won’t be completely useless after all. They just won’t be able to communicate with each other through their wands anymore.

— But y’know, they’ve been hyping this Grancrest thing all series long. It’s the one plot device that has been consistently talked about, so I think it’s time for Theo to actually fight like a hero. He’s talked the talk, he just hasn’t really walked the walk. Even against Milza, all he did was defend until the Dartanian Prince tired himself out.

— Siluca is happy that she finally gets to work together with her adopted father. To Aubeste’s credit, this almost looks like a smile on his face. Almost. I guess there is genuine love between these two. But like with Aishela, this scene fails to resonate because the relationship between this man and his adopted daughter has almost no development. This adaptation is just too short to explore any of these characters’ relationships to any satisfying extent. These final scenes have no payoff.

— Aishela shows up looking for Siluca, but her face turns sour as soon as she sees Aubeste. The warrior takes a seat at the table and pouts. She’s mad at Aubeste, because he didn’t protect Siluca back at the Mage Academy. I vaguely remember something about our heroine breaking a rule and being sentenced to death. God, I must have heard that months ago.So all three characters have an extended history. In fact, the two girls refer to each other as sisters, and Aubeste refers to Aishela as one of his daughters. Christ, there’s so much history between these three characters that we know nothing about.

— Even this dumb cat thing is back. He’s been MIA since like… episode three, I think.

— Back then, Aubeste chose to follow the rules instead of protecting Siluca. So how come he’s willing to stay with Marrine and march against the Mage Academy? Can we really trust this guy?

— According to Siluca, Aubeste held her and sobbed… a powerful moment that we’ll never get to see.

— Aishela: “But I’m not a Meletes anymore.” I had no idea you were ever one!

— So I’m watching Siluca stare at Theo, and I can’t help but wonder if they’re actually sharing a bed every night now. They have to, right? After all, they’re engaged. But this is anime, so you never know if they want to keep Siluca super pure for whatever reason…

— She seems so content right now, so it should feel like a punch in the gut when Aishela betrays her. But again, woefully underdeveloped characters means everything else will fall flat.

— Oh come on, she’s gonna fall asleep at her desk instead of just snuggling up to her fiance.

— Siluca eventually wakes up to Aishela calling to her. When she emerges from the tent, her friend makes an attempt on her life. Thankfully, Irvin comes out of nowhere to save the day.

— Aishela isn’t hiding anything. She even tells them that she was planning on killing Theo. She’s been spying on them this entire time. Her eyes are full of regret and conflict.

— Lots of exposition, but I guess this is kinda juicy exposition? Eh.

— Priscilla also shows up. Oddly enough, no one cares to kill her even though she’s the Holy Grail.

— Oh come on, there’s now another organization to learn all about. It’s the 20th damn episode, man.

— So this mark on Aishela’s breast means she can’t disobey her masters. If she tries to ignore their orders, she will die. But she can still do a bad job! That’s the American spirit!

— And now she gets to die! Red light means bad!

— Wait, this doesn’t look like dying at all.

— All of a sudden, Priscilla looks like she’s possessed as she decides to heal Aishela. The Holy Grail emerges from Priscilla’s chest and pours blue light onto Aishela’s breasts. The priestess then falls to her knees as if she was never in control of herself that entire time. I have no clue what’s going on anymore.

— But wait, she was in control! Oh my god…

— So Aishela’s saved, but she no longer has her superpowers. Uh, I’ll gladly take that trade.

— Theo is so annoyingly pure. He reasons that Aishela failed on purpose, so as a result, he holds her no ill will. In fact, he still trusts her; he won’t punish her at all. He then uses roundabout logic that Aishela had actually protected him and Siluca. Goddamn, dude. Even these characters find him exasperating. I assume Aishela doesn’t really approve of Theo as Siluca’s future husband, but there’s really nothing she can say or do about it… other than killing him, of course. Theo is almost a Mary Sue. Almost. He’s just not that awesome in combat. Like, he can’t dual wield or chop bullets in half, but goddamn, is this guy a saint or what?

— So Pandora is behind everything. They are even responsible for the incident at the very start of the series. What makes this funny is that they’re just made up of “back-alley Mages” and “dropouts.” They don’t want the Grancrest to come about, because it would mean a peaceful world without magic. The last thing they want is to lose their powers. Makes sense, I guess.

— They’ve been assassinating anyone who might become the next Emperor, but Theo is such an unassuming man that they never expected him to make anything of himself.

— In the middle of the night, a soldier drops by to deliver the bad news: people are literally just going nuts.

— Siluca doesn’t really lay any blame on Aishela either. She embraces the warrior woman instead. What a bunch of softies. As long as you’re not ugly, anime protagonists seem to operate on the philosophy of “No harm, no foul.” But remember, you gotta be hot. If you’re not hot, then you’re evil.

— I like the sentiment being expressed here, though:

Aishela: “I would risk my life any time if it’s for my adorable little sister.”

Siluca: “I don’t think even real families would do that.”

Aishela: “That’s because they’re only related by blood, nothing more.”

— When we see Theo again, the fighting has already come to an end. A bunch of soldiers and mages have lost their lives. Welp. We’re out of time, so we don’t even get to see any of the action. Gotta keep trucking along!

— Dude, that is exactly what I wanna know.

— Despite everything, Theo insists that they march on Eramu. We only have three episodes left, right? This is it, folks. This is the final chapter.

Looking good there, Kaname. Let’s find out how it got to this point. 

— Yakuza Girl takes everyone to her home, because it’s the safest location they know. But honestly, you need magic to defend yourself against magic. I don’t think a security system’s going to stop anyone, especially not a site administrator.

— See, I don’t remember this girl’s name either. I just know that she can run fast.

— Nijimi is still head-over-heels in love with Kaname. He, however, decides to turn the creep factor up a notch. Aya’s brother quickly reveals his true colors and commands the dog idol to kill herself. Nijimi is inches away from death when Athletic Girl slams herself into Kaname. Nice. Unfortunately, there’s too much time left in the episode, so I have a bad feeling about this. I think these girls are about to find themselves in a world of hurt.

— Apparently, Kiyo is in control of Athletic Girl. I thought this was a way to prevent Kaname from mind-controlling Athletic Girl, but I quickly find out that I’m dead wrong about that.

— Athletic Girl lands another painful blow on the bastard, but I don’t know why she isn’t using her strength to finish the guy off. Surely, she can do more than throw punches, right?

— Things quickly go wrong for the girls. When we snap our attention back to Nijimi’s apartment, the dog idol has suddenly turned on Athletic Girl. It turns out Kaname had foreseen this, so he already gave Nijimi instructions to protect him.

— The bastard then overwrites the mind-control on Athletic Girl, and before Kiyo can even blink, she finds a forearm right through her fucking chest. Dude. DUDE.

— But that’s what I’m confused about. If Athletic Girl could do this, why didn’t she finish Kaname off earlier? I guess these girls are all softies. These girls don’t know how to truly protect themselves from evil people. Even though Kiyo knew that Kaname was dangerous, she couldn’t bring herself to use Athletic Girl to kill Kaname. Man…

— Rich Girl flies back to the rest of the group, and I guess the fastest way to do so was through the window.

— Kosame tries to save Kiyo before it’s too late, but I don’t even know how you don’t instantly die from a gaping wound in your chest — a gaping wound the size of a goddamn arm.

— Kosame doesn’t have enough blood to heal such a massive injury, so Aya steps up to the plate. After all, it’s all her fault. She wanted to protect her asshole brother for no reason. No, I get it; family is super important. But c’mon, there are exceptions, and surely, this guy must count!

— Kaname slowly makes his way through Yakuza Girl’s compound. None of her henchmen could stop the kid. I guess he just mind-controlled all of them and made them punch themselves. I still don’t understand why using the panty stick doesn’t make him bleed. It’s draining his life, right? But boys don’t have to bleed when they use a stick? Is it because boys don’t get periods or what?

— Tsuyuno tries to be all sympathetic, but when everyone’s life is on the line, yeah I think that’s when you tell people that your brother is a shithead.

— Ugh, this still looks so gross. Nevertheless, Aya manages to save Kiyo.

— Unfortunately, her brother is here and he quickly mind-controls all of the girls. They can’t move an inch against him.

— He then goes and drinks his imouto’s blood. After all, Athletic Girl probably fractured his collar bone earlier. This is about as intimate as these two will ever get.

— Kaname commands Nijimi to collect all of the girls’ sticks, but when she gets to Kiyo, her mind-control is overwritten. It’s that easy, I guess. Kiyo tells Nijimi to wait for an opening to attack Kaname, but the dog idol is losing it. She’s always had a bad temper. I just don’t know what she expects to do other than looking like she’s going to go SSJ. Oh wait, she collected Athletic Girl’s stick first, right? She might be able to punch a hole through Kaname if she tried.

— I like how the hole in Kiyo’s shirt is also gone. I guess Aya’s blood can also heal fabric.

— Sadly, Kaname slices Nijimi across the chest with Yakuza Girl’s sword. Man, the one time I’m actually rooting for the dog idol, she fucks it up.

— Ooh, I think she might actually die for real, because we’re suddenly getting her backstory. It’s like when I watch Top Chef and the episode starts going into a contestant’s past, you know they’re about to get kicked off the show.

— Apparently, her dad owed a lot of money, but instead of paying it off, he committed suicide. As a result, the burden fell on her poor mother. Is there a single male character in this show who isn’t a shithead? I’m hoping that detective with the weird hair might be a good guy, but at this rate, he’s probably an evil bastard too.

— With her last ounce of strength, Nijimi somehow manages to jam this broken bottle through Kaname’s throat. Welp, at least she did something good before she died.

— Aya’s brother is desperately trying to use the healing stick to save himself, but out of nowhere, an invisible silhouette of a foot steps on his arm. What?

— He looks up to see an invisible silhouette standing over him. Seriously, what? Is this the goddamn Predator?

— Gas fills up the room, and the next thing we see is Aya waking up to the girls surrounding Nijimi. The girl wants to sacrifice more of her blood, but she quickly learns that you can’t heal the dead. Yep, the healing stick can’t bring people back to life. It can only save someone if they’re still alive. Man, this is all her fault. Aya better toughen the hell up, because I’m going to be so disappointed if she continues to be a naive softie after this week’s episode.

— Also, Kaname is nowhere to be found. Who the hell took him?

— For such a crappy show, this episode was alright. It was almost all action from start to finish. It paused for a second to delve into Nijimi’s backstory, but that didn’t end up eating too much of the runtime. Most of all, it gives Aya the perfect opportunity take a step forward in her character development. If she’s not gonna learn from her mistakes now, she never will.

— As for Nijimi, I never particularly cared for her character, but at least we now know that semi-important characters can die. More importantly, this helps to trim the roster, which was starting to get unwieldy. I gotta give credit where credit’s due, and I enjoyed this week’s episode.

Well, since there’s no DARLING in the FRANXX this week, I suppose I’ll get started on My Hero Academia first. 

— I dunno if it’s the subs or if Aizawa just doesn’t want to be combative, but I feel like he’s not defending himself as much as he could. For instance, when the reporter asked him why he urged the students to fight, I thought he should have corrected the reporter’s wording. He urged the students to defend themselves. Why not make that clear?

— Reporter: “You don’t call 26 victims and one abducted the worst possible outcome?” Uh, of course not. Obviously, this reporter is just being belligerent. He smells a juicy story — especially one where he gets to claim the moral high ground — and he’s out to get it.

— Of course, I don’t think Aizawa’s instructions were 100% ideal at the time, but they weren’t bad. I thought the decision to have the camp out in the middle of nowhere was way, way worse. Why would you assume that the bad guys have no idea where you are? Why can’t the students just train their quirks at school?

— This guy is just being an ass now. UA needs to hire some professional stonewallers to get rid of pricks like him.

— Oh for fuck’s sake, he’s still going. I’m droning him out. I’m ready to move onto the next scene already.

— Aizawa believes in Bakugo, which just gives the kid even more strength to resist the villains. Maybe the bad guys shouldn’t have the TV when they’re trying to break the kid. Oh well, maybe Shigaraki thought that the instructors would flub the press conference.

— See, I don’t think kidnapping Bakugo is ideal. Sure, he’s got a temper, and his Quirk is powerful. But he’s also way too headstrong and prideful. And a temper doesn’t mean he’s personally conflicted. He’s not angsty like Sasuke. He’s not on some quest for revenge. I don’t like Bakugo because he often loses his shit for no reason, but that’s exactly it. Oftentimes, his anger is goofy. This isn’t something that evil can really prey upon.

— Kurogiri wants Shigaraki to calm down, but I’m the opposite. I actually want Shigaraki to do something, because c’mon, when’s the last time he actually lifted a finger. Back in the first season?

— Boooooooo.

— This looks so stupid.

— Maybe this guy can stop hiding in the shadows and finally do something. I just want at least one badass villain. Stain didn’t count, because I thought his philosophy was dumb. C’mon, gimme one badass villain. Gimme someone that I would love to root for, but I know I can’t because they’re evil.

— The kids arrive at their destination, but it doesn’t look like they’re standing outside the bar. The tracker was only planted on a Nomu, right? So yeah…

— Endeavor doesn’t want to clean up after UA? Uh, forget UA. What about saving a kid?

— Oh yeah, Ragdoll was also kidnapped. I keep forgetting about her, because I just find it odd that they even bothered.

— I like how the kids are trying to be sneaky, but there’s nothing inconspicuous about five individuals standing around one vending machine. They should have Momo create a drone or something, but maybe she doesn’t know how to. At the very least, they should have her create earpieces so they can split up and still communicate with each other. I don’t think it’s very smart for all five of them to move together.

— Oh boy, they came looking for Bakugo, and they got an entire warehouse full of Nomus instead. This sort of thing is just sitting in the middle of a city, huh…

— Compress: “I can’t believe [Bakugo’s] such a bad listener.” Maybe you guys should have done a better job at mentally profiling him.

— Before anyone can lay another finger on Bakugo, the pro heroes literally crash the party.

— Yo, a lot of these guys better be arrested if the pro heroes manage to get such a huge jump on the villains.

— Okay, Bakugo.

— Meanwhile, Mt. Lady is going all Godzilla on the Nomu factory. Man, for all the drama, Deku and his buddies are completely useless right now. They’re not needed for anything… unless All For One manages to turn everything in the villains’ favor by simply showing up.

— Oh, Ragdoll was also in that abandoned warehouse? Why were they just keeping her there?

— This is going too smoothly for the pro heroes. They even have time to stand around and talk shit at Shigaraki. You know something bad is about to happen real soon, ’cause if this was over, they’d just haul all of these guys off to prison. Why are we still standing around talking? I guess they want Shigaraki to reveal All For One’s location, but do we really gotta interrogate him here?

— I guess Shigaraki was a victim of the bystander effect — one that has been warped by a world in which heroes exist. Still kinda stupid to blame that on heroes, though. That’s society’s fault as a whole. But I guess he never stood a chance with an evil guy like All For One whispering bad stuff in his ears. See, you need angst to corrupt someone.

— Welp, here’s where things go pear-shaped: even though Kurogiri is unconscious, Nomus are still appearing out of nowhere. All For One must have some kind of ability to transport people as well. The guy must still have like 20 Quirks or something.

— The hell? The black gunk is also coming from Bakugo’s mouth?

— It’s almost like he’s being spirited away.

— Damn, All Might is taking this hard.

— The Nomus are now causing mayhem in the streets and overwhelming the police. More importantly, Deku and his friends won’t be useless after all. This is their time to shine.

— So we get to see what happened two minutes ago. Mt. Lady sticks her tongue out at these Nomus. I find it amusing. Her colleagues are all trying to be professionals, but she’s just straight up disgusted.

— Poor Ragdoll. It turns out All For One stole her powers. I don’t see him going down anytime soon, and even if he did, that doesn’t mean that she’ll get her powers back. This is pretty much the end of her pro career. Plus, didn’t they say that like 80% of the population has a Quirk? Either way, it must feel crippling to suddenly lose something that you’ve had all your life — something that you actually identified with. Her Quirk was essentially her, and now it’s gone. Ragdoll’s going to need a lot of support after this incident, because I can’t imagine how she won’t be devastated when she finds out that she’s Quirk-less.

— Best Jeanist tries to subdue the guy, but he’s clearly outmatched. But before we can see what All For One just did, the credits roll. Boooooo. Booooooooooooo.

— Wait, what? All For One’s spirit gave them visions of death? I dunno, man… that feels like we’re overdoing it a bit.

— Still can’t get a good look at the guy. Oh well, I guess that’s reserved for next week’s episode.

Like Makoto, Sadayo is so close to being the best girl. What a shame. 

— C’mon, Ren… a Slime? You recruited a Slime? You know it has two elemental weaknesses right? While we’re on the topic, there are some pretty badass low level Personas like Neko Shogun that I hope we’ll eventually get to see. Black Frost is also pretty overpowered in every SMT game. I just got done playing Strange Journey Redux, and I think I used Black Frost for about 20 levels.

— At least the adaptation captures Yusuke’s eccentricity.

— The dirty equipment is a nice addition, too. But honestly, I rarely bothered with them in the actual game. I wasn’t going to waste my time doing the laundry, and by the time a certain someone could do it for me, I had stopped really worrying about equipment.

— Oh my…

— Leave it to the adaptation to outshine the game in only one area: fanservice. In the game, she definitely declined the invitation. I guess the anime simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

— Looking over some of these LPs, we’re still missing the trip to the TV station as well as a handful of scenes with Makoto. I imagine we’ll get the latter soon enough, but I’m wondering about the former…

— So this is how Ryuji caught wind of the maid service…

— Look at these minor characters that we’ll probably never see again. As I was going through the game, I thought the aspiring reporter would have a larger role. Unfortunately, she didn’t.

— This girl is kinda fun. There’s a similar thing in Persona 3 where a girl likes a guy all year long, but when he finally takes an interest in her, she stops caring.

— Oh hey, a Haru sighting. If the adaptation wants to get a leg up on the game, it should try and introduce her a little earlier. Haru’s biggest problem in the game was that she joined the team so late, and as a result, all of her character development occurs within her social link. She never felt like she became a proper member of the team. You only ever really get to know if you bothered to garden.

— That’s another thing that bugged me: gardening would’ve been so useful at the start of the game. By the time it was available to me, however, I already had plenty of ways to recover SP. A few of Persona 5’s mechanics are poorly implemented, which is surprising considering the game’s overall polish.

— See, the maid service makes me think of escorts, and y’know, escorts imply sex… but I’m not entirely clear whether or not sex is involved here. Are these prostitutes or not? I really wish games like Persona would stop beating around the bush.

— Mishima looks really scrawny here. Kid needs to eat some protein.

— At least Ren is showing a bit of personality. He’s still way too soft-spoken. If you think about it, Tae is the only person he’s been talking to aside from his teammates. This guy isn’t bothering to level up his social links at all.

— Operation Maidwatch is finally underway.

— Awesome, I picked the same dialogue option too.

— Sure sounds like she’s offering sex…

— I also picked this line as well.

— So as much as I would like to woo a hot teacher, being able to date Sadayo is so inappropriate especially considering we just dealt with Kamoshida. Sure, sure, Kamoshida was a creep who threw unwanted advances on his female students. On the other hand, there’s nothing but consent between Ren and Sadayo. In fact, he’s the aggressor if you play out the social link. He has to convince her to be with him. But again, considering how a teacher just got busted for sex-related stuff, Sadayo is a special kind of stupid for getting involved with one of her students. If Ren was a college student, I’d be all for this relationship. I even like Sadayo’s character design. Her regular hair is far superior to Becky’s. I guess I kinda like the semi-messy look. Nevertheless, the fact that he’s only a high school student, though… yeesh. He’s not even a senior who’s going to graduate! Like most anime protagonists, he’s a second year, so she has to wait even longer to be with him… not that she waited at all if you went after her.

— Plus, this is a huge departure from the previous games. I couldn’t really date Ms. Toriumi in Persona 3 even though I guess Makoto kinda had a relationship with Maya in that online game. And as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t date the hot nurse in Persona 4 either. As a result, I was really surprised to learn that Sadayo was actually an option. In fact, all of the adult characters are. Neither Makoto nor Yu could even get anywhere close to the adult women in their games.

— After he helped Sadayo with Ms. Chouno, she was supposed to give him the okay to start requesting her personally from the maid service, but I guess that can wait.

— I guess we’re finally leveling up a social link with our party members, and Ryuji gets to go first. I don’t remember Ryuji’s side story being very interesting, though. Just more drama with the track team. I remember not finishing it on my first playthrough, because you needed to wait for Ryuji’s invitation to scope out a restaurant. By the time I got the invitation, I was already in December. Whoops.

— Wuuuuut? Ren’s going to call Sadayo anyways? Despite everything I said above, however, leveling Sadayo’s social link is well worth it. The benefit you get when you max her out is probably the best one in the game. Basically, doing Mementos or a Palace leaves you too tired to do anything at night. Sadayo lets the player have their nights back. That’s a huge boon in a game where you have a limited amount of time to get stuff done.

— But interestingly enough, the adaptation uses this opportunity to merge a bit of Sadayo and Ryuji’s story. Ren calls her up because he wants to learn more about the disbanded track team. That’s taking liberties with the story that I don’t mind so much. Better than him calling his teacher just to have her clean his room and subtly flirt with him for money.

— Oh man, speaking of the restaurant that I had to scope out… Like I said earlier, you had to wait on Ryuji in the game. In the adaptation, however, Ren takes the initiative even if he wants to act all cool about it. Eh, I like the change. He’s being more proactive about helping his friends. One of the biggest complaints people had about Persona 5 was that the group never felt as close to each other as Persona 4’s group. Then again, I’d argue that Persona 4 had too much fluff. I don’t want any hypothetical Persona 5 Special Edition to come with another painful idol concert.

— Damn that former coack.

— At this rate, however, it looks like we’re going to max out Ryuji’s social link in a single episode.

— I dunno, though… wouldn’t Ryuji’s breakthrough make more sense at the end?

— Sadayo’s far off to the side, but nevertheless, the adaptation includes Sadayo in this scene. I think this makes sense. In the game, she starts trusting Ren too easily. Seeing the kid go to such lengths to help Ryuji out, however, is a strong argument in his favor. She can’t ignore that. This should also move Sadayo to be a better teacher, because up until this point, she’s been writing both Ren and Ryuji off as troublemakers. Obviously, you can’t judge a book by its cover (even though that’s what covers are for…).

— Then again, she’s smiling as she listens to Ryuji’s former teammates beat on him. Japanese teachers are weird, man.

— RYUJI WILL NOW TAKE A MORTAL BLOW FOR YOU BUT JUST ONCE SO DON’T GET CARRIED AWAY

— Ren finally has a crappy novelty item to decorate his room with. I can’t wait until he puts up the chocolate fountain that runs all day and all night.

— Why are you guys talking like that at school?

— Well, she said she’d do his laundry.

— Okay, okay, next week’s episode is gonna be all about Makoto.

— And we’re probably headed for the TV station while we’re at it. The writers must be antsy since Akechi hasn’t gotten any screentime lately.

— Oh hey, Ren is at least level 20 now.

— I don’t remember this.

— Personally, I think they made Kaneshiro look too chubby to be intimidating.

The show really wants us to believe that Pito is a dangerous psychopath, but I can’t shake the fact that she’s probably just a bored idol in real life. Ah well. 

— So the tournament begin, and the new battlefield is just as drab-looking as the last one. Lots of faded colors everywhere. GGO is one ugly game. I guess it’s going for realism in its environments, but why bother when nothing else about the game is realistic?

— When Karen and Miyu check the map, the girls find themselves isolated in the upper right-hand corner of the battlefield. There’s literally nobody near them. Likewise, Pito and M are all the way in the opposite corner. Looks like Karen’s going to have to murder a bunch of nobodies before she can throwdown with Pito. After all, we still got like five episodes left counting this one.

— We also get a glimpse of some of the other teams. The high school gymnasts are mostly interested in just fighting Karen. Maybe Karen should’ve told them that she needs to kill Pito. Unfortunately, she didn’t bother to mention this fact, so they’re just going to get in her way.

— Oh hey, these dudes get to hide in the snow. At least that’s slightly more interesting than abandoned houses and broken up concrete.

— Anyways, these losers get to be Karen and Miyu’s first targets. Unfortunately, the latter blindly stumbles into a trap.

— Wait, what? Miyu lost her feet and she only lost a quarter of her life?! What’s even worse is when Karen assures her friend that everything will be okay. Why? Because Miyu’s legs will eventually grow back. This is so stupid.

— In the meantime, Karen goes 1v5 and takes out four of the enemy with ease. ‘Cause, y’know, she’s technically an SAO protagonist, so she’s still overpowered as hell.

— Even without her feet, Miyu helps Karen out with the last generic nobody. Hell, he got a good chunk of of his head lopped off. Hopefully, that killed him… but I dunno, maybe it only took half of his HP, and his head will grow back!

— Uh-huh…

— We then briefly visit the other squads to see what they’re up to. There’s just a bunch of bad action.

— People rain down suppression fire as if they have infinite bullets. It looks about as dumb as it sounds.

— Oh hey, this map has a vineyard. Why? Beats me. It’s just a mishmash of stuff. Here’s a railroad, here’s a stadium… why not a vineyard!

— Remember that team with the lone girl? Well, she’s still as bored and unhappy as ever. What’s her deal? I guess I’ll have to wait even longer for an explanation, because we’re definitely not getting it this week.

— Pito is bored, but M is the leader so he’s calling the shots. He’s content to sit in one place until the rest of the map thins itself out, because he’d rather have Pito go all out against Karen than a bunch of generic nobodies. But what’s the point of playing a battle royale if you’re just going to do nothing? They should’ve just fired up CS:GO instead of wasting god knows how many minutes doing nothing.

— Yep, this is what it looks like when your legs grow back.

— I wanna like Miyu, because I think her character design outside of the game is cute, but she’s kinda special in the head.

— Meanwhile, the leader of the high school gymnasts has a bit of a potty mouth.

— Pito is just begging to die, but we’re not ready to fight her yet. We have more faceless goons to kill. This time, however, Miyu wants to prove her worth, so she has Karen serve as her eyes and ears. This way, she can just hide behind a bunch of buildings and lob grenades towards their enemies. For some reason, however, Karen acts like this is the first time she’s ever heard of lobbing grenades, so Miyu has to explain the basic strategy to her friend. It’s ridiculous.

— A cute girl with a grenade launcher between her legs is probably someone’s fetish out there.

— Eventually, seven teams decide to band together to take out Pito. They really think she’s that dangerous, I guess. But I mean, has she ever won a Squad Jam before? Heh, I think not.

— Nevertheless, Karen turns on the jets, because she’s now worried that Pito will die before she can kill her. Hoo boy, that last sentence would make no sense without the proper context, huh? Miyu, however, assures her best friend that Pito’s team would retreat if they knew they couldn’t survive.

— Needless to say, Pito and M are going nowhere. We cut to Pito just cackling her ass off, because she’s, like, really badass you guys. You just don’t know it yet! But that’s the end of our episode, so you’ll have to tune in next week to see how Pito and her boys will take out seven teams in a row.

Oh man, this show is just full of twists and turns. 

— Essentially, Sawazaki is no longer in charge of his team. Instead, this guy will be leading the F Squad. Yay, more new characters to add to the story! Don’t get me wrong, though. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with introducing new characters to the story. It’s just that this adaptation isn’t long for this world. It’s only got a few episodes left, but the story is nowhere close to being finished. It feels like an all-out war against CCC is just about to get started, and we still have no clue what’s going on with ONLO. There’s literally a mysterious organization that creates hybrid vampires and experiments on them, and they’ve barely gotten any attention. Devils’ Line is nowhere close to being finished, but the adaptation is. And since it’s always doubtful if an anime adaptation ever gets a sequel, I guess we can forget about ever finding out what happens next… unless I read the manga, but why the hell would I go and do that?

— So yeah, I’m not particularly interested in meeting new characters if the show’s just gonna end without any satisfactory resolution.

— Anyways, Tsukasa is happy as a clam that she no longer has to wait for Anzai to crash through her window every night. We’re making relationship progress!

— But the rest of the team eventually gets the bad news when they are introduced to their new boss.

— So what’s Ishimaru’s deal? Is he a devil too? He looks like one. But he’s a devil in charge of a squad? They’d really let him do that?

— After the brief introduction, Tsukasa takes Anzai aside and wants him to contact Zero Nine. She thinks they should work together with Nine and Seven. May as well, I suppose. They have information on CCC, and they also need protection now that they’re on their own.

— Ishimaru overhears everything as he somehow manages to sneak up on both Tsukasa and Anzai, though. I guess his gimmick is that he’s sneaky. Nevertheless, he likes Tsukasa’s plan, so he doesn’t seem like an unreasonable.

— Oh… he’s not a devil. He’s just an otaku.

— If you’re wondering about Zero Five, no, they’re not going to out him as a CCC member. They’ll let him stay in Division 5, because they think this is the best way to keep an eye on him. Okay then. I mean, why can’t they just arrest the guy first before outing him? Ah, whatever.

— Apparently, Zero Nine didn’t tell his partner at all that he had extended an olive branch to Tsukasa. Zero Seven is not the least bit happy about this. God, I’m so tired of referring to their code names, but I guess there’s no better alternative. I haven’t exactly gone and remembered their actual names. I know Tsukasa, Anzai, Hans (Moleman) Lee. That’s about it.

— Speaking of Lee, he needs to ask for permission just to leave. He probably needs to get more blood since he ran out of it in a previous episode. Nevertheless, I’m surprised that he’s cooperating with the police like this. He didn’t ask to be in their custody. He just showed up one day to save Anzai’s life, and this is the thanks he gets.

— Sure enough, the guy goes to get more blood. In fact, he has a nice doctor who is happy to donate her own blood to him whenever he needs it. What’s up with that? Is she interested in Lee romantically?

— We get a bit of Lee’s backstory, and it’s more of what we already know. Basically, ONLO scientists are bastards who experiment on children. Lee broke out one day just because he wanted to see the sky. That’s kinda cliche, isn’t it? But it looks like the person who helped him escape was none other than Anzai’s mother. I mean, I guess we’re supposed to think she’s a nice person, but she’s with these ONLO bastards, so y’know, guilty by association.

— Despite Lee’s carefree nature, he’s actually kinda insecure. It’s obvious that Tsukasa sees him as a friend. As for Anzai…? Eh, the guy’s just overprotective of his girlfriend, but he probably trusts Lee now. Nevertheless, the white-haired half-vampire acts as if they don’t really care about him.

— Aw, look, they’re waiting for him.

— Then the anime goes and ruins the mood with this stupid-looking shot.

— Eventually, Ishimaru’s negotiations with Seven and Nine take place. And no, I haven’t really memorized Ishimaru’s name. I had to write it down somewhere just to write this post, and I’ll probably forget it as soon as this post goes up.

— Ishimaru is willing to offer the ex-CCC members a whole lot. A safe apartment, protection, blah blah blah. But Seven is still suspicious. Or rather, she wants some information too. Information on a guy by the name of Morisawa.

— Look at the dork Anzai trying to be all discreet by wearing sunglasses indoors.

— Sounds like this Morisawa guy was the one who raped and killed her mother. Tsukasa and Anzai casually discuss the fact that Seven probably had a crush on her mother’s killer before all the bad stuff went down. Yeesh. And now she has a crush on Zero Two (don’t we all?). In fact, Zero Two targeted her since she was a teenager, and filled her head with anti-devils indoctrination. Not that this would’ve been hard. After all, a devil stole her mother’s life. Nevertheless, the sight of a grown man manipulating a young girl adds an extra creep factor to Seven’s backstory. Plus, you can’t forget how he gave her the tongue the last time he saw her. This show is just full of messed up relationships.

— Afterwards, we see the nerdy, soft-spoken Nine ask Seven if she actually likes Two. The girl vehemently denies it, but in fiction, this just means that she still likes him. Ugh.

— After she gets her info on Morisawa, she confesses to F Squad that Kikuhara is none other than Zero Two. Unfortunately, they only have her word to go on, so they can’t exactly arrest the guy.

— Things go from bad to worse, however, when they see an entire parade of anti-devils protesters marching down the street. Even if you take out CCC at this point, the organization have already kinda won; they managed to stoke the public’s hate for devils.

— These assholes are literally waving around bags of blood to try and out devils.

— This poor lady can’t help but transform in public. C’mon, man, she’s just trying to do her grocery shopping! I don’t know why she has such a difficult job running away from the protesters. I thought devils had enhanced speed and strength. Nevertheless, Anzai ends up having to come this woman’s help.

— When Anzai fights off the protesters, he meets a familiar face: the rapist professor from the second episode is back, and he’s got a bone to pick with our hero! That’s hilarious, by the way. Argh, you stopped me from raping a woman, so now I hate all devils! Damn them and their anti-rape ways!

— So I guess the moral of the story here is that devils aren’t that bad. Sure, if they lose control, they can murder you in a split second. So that’s pretty bad. But controlling their bloodlust is actually relatively easy, but since knowledge about devils is so poor, even devils themselves don’t realize that they’re shooting themselves in the foot by ignoring blood.

— But again, as I’ve stated in previous post, can you really compel humans to donate blood just so devils won’t murder them.

Oh no Ritsu, what are you doing? 

— Looks like the PS4 remaster of the game isn’t doing so hot in Japan. 20,000 copies is pretty low for a debut, isn’t it? I doubt it’ll get localized, but what do I know? Maybe Western sales might help recoup some of the development costs. Why am I keeping an eye on the game? Because I feel like it’s the only way I’ll ever come close to understanding this show’s story.

— When the episode begins, the entire Go-Home Club are together, walking through an abandoned building. Why? At the very top of the tower is supposedly a door that connects Mobius to the real world. Yep, they can leave this simulation through said door, but only if Mu helps them. I’d like to know how we got here or even learned all of this information, but let’s face it, this is just a bad adaptation.

— The club members discuss what they might do when they return to the real world, but all this does is remind me that I know next to nothing about these characters. As a result, Naruko’s desire to become a novelist means pretty much nothing to me.

— At some point, the group suddenly hears a lot of tortured screams, so Kotaro runs off to play the hero. He finds a pair of Digiheads kicking around a locker with this poor sap trapped inside it.

— Shadow Knife finally reveals himself, and he’s the big, bad villain of the week. Apparently, this entire building is chock full of people being tortured by this guy. Why? Well, we’ll find out soon enough.

— But first, we need to watch this scene where Thorn is talking to a completely new character who goes by the name of Wicked. We don’t get to see Wicked’s face, so this makes me think that she must be someone we know. But who? The only person who isn’t here is Marie.

— Also, Thorn has a bone to pick with Shogo and Shogo specifically. That’s fun.

— The entire group is worried about Kotaro… minus Ritsu, that is. In fact, the guy is oddly silent in this week’s episode. He barely has anything to say. Even worse, he looks bored out of his mind. I can’t make any heads or tails of his character development, because we just jumped from him being determined to save Mu to… this… whatever this is.

— During Kotaro’s battle with Shadow Knife, we see a quick flashback which seems to imply that the former was often bulled in real life. I guess this is why he’s so motivated to help others in Mobius. After he saves this random schmoe, however, he quickly learns that Shadow Knife was also often bullied in real life. And all of these torture victims? They were his real life bullies.

— So the gist with Shadow Knife is that he entered Mobius in order to become an anime hero. Yes, he’s literally based off of an anime hero within the Caligula universe. But unlike Kotaro, he isn’t interested in using his newfound powers to help others. He’d rather punish the evildoers instead. So I guess he and Kotaro are kinda like foils.

— Gee, I don’t know about that, man.

— Shadow Knife then proceeds to hilariously reason that Kotaro must be evil because he’s helping evil people out. The Musician then calls Kotaro’s form of justice shallow. Ironic, isn’t it?

— Anyways, the rest of the Go-Home Club finally catches up to their buddy, but before they could do anything, Wicked pulls the trigger on a bomb. Everyone’s engulfed in an explosion, but don’t worry. They’re perfectly fine. Can you even die in Mobius?

— Yes, yes you can. Shadow Knife is about to fall to his death, but he would rather rant about his shitty life than grab Kotaro’s hand. The Musician then proceeds to fall to his death and… well, he literally dies. How do we know he’s dead? Aria says so, so I guess it must be true. She also reveals that if you die in Mobius, you die in real life. Gee, that would’ve been nice to know from the beginning.

— Thorn shows up for a brief moment and Shogo does his best impression of “The Scream.” Yeah, I don’t know either. I guess they have a deep history. He must have wronged her real bad since she’s only interested in him.

— We suddenly cut to the Go-Home Club standing next to the door that should take them back to the real world, but again, they need Mu’s help. Unfortunately, neither Mu nor the Musicians are nowhere to be found. The group starts accusing each other of being traitors, because someone must have leaked their plans to the bad guys. But uh, what exactly were they planning to do? Ambush Mu and the Musicians in this tower?

— The entire group minus Ritsu just end up walking home dejectedly. But speaking of Ritsu, we see him doing some shady shit to that door we just left. So… is he the antagonist now?! I heard something about how the PS4 remake added the option to betray his friends. It would be interesting if the anime adaptation was the same, but… I dunno… I just can’t imagine the show ending with the bad guys winning.

— Eventually, the Go-Home Club are called to the clubroom, but Ritsu is, again, missing. They try to leave, but they find themselves trapped. Uh oh.

— We then cut to that magical door mysteriously closing. Did someone just leave Mobius?

— Basically, I have no clue what’s going on, and I doubt the last three episodes will give me the answers that I need. I just have to cross my fingers and hope that Atlus (or whoever) decides to localize the PS4 remake.

Oh, do they also have ugly pugs in the hidden realm too? 

— Are these supposed to be croissants? This reminds me that I haven’t had a good croissant in a long time. They’re not easy to master, so it would actually be really impressive if it turns out Aoi actually knows how to bake a good one.

— Oh, they’re just rolls. Aoi hands Byakuya a few so that he can feed them to the the cat ayakashi. I guess inhabitants of the hidden realm can eat anything. After all, I wouldn’t dare feed bread to my cat. In any case, the guy is oddly depressed about the whole situation.

— When Aoi isn’t paying attention, Byakuya tells Ginji that a certain Orio-ya might have been involved in the girl’s kidnapping. I don’t think we’ve ever met Orio-ya. Hell, I don’t even know if Orio-ya’s even a person. Anyways, Odanna isn’t the only one who treats Aoi like a child. All of these guys seem content to tell her nothing about the fact that she’s got a huge target on her back for no apparent reason. Her life is potentially in danger, but eh…

— Tanabata comes up so often in anime, but I have to confess that I know almost nothing about the holiday.

— Outside, Aoi runs into Ritsuko, the lady who had just dined at Moonflower in last week’s episode. She wants to thank our heroine for such an awesome meal, so as a gift, Aoi gets… uh, whatever the hell this is.

— That’s a shawl? Dude, that’s a tacky-looking shawl. I thought it was maybe jello. Why is it all neon-colored? Is she going raving? Meh, I guess it goes with Aoi’s silly pink bowl.

— The shawl is actually changing colors as it sits in that box. All this magic but no internet. Tsk tsk.

— These characters are so damn casual about their situation: “I’ve also had someone try to kill me before, so…” Aw, it’s no big deal! If someone doesn’t make an attempt on your life at least once a week, you’re not really living life!

— Makes sense: Ritsuko got married to someone in the hidden realm because humanity was kinda busy with world wars back then.

— I don’t really have much to say about Ritsuko’s love story. It’s just flat and uninteresting. She met a dude, fell in love, and he rescued her from a shitty, war-torn situation.

— Ah, so there it is: hidden realm food lets humans become more like ayakashi and thus age slower. Damn, the fountain of youth is right beneath our nose this whole time. We just need to invade the hidden realm.

— I don’t think I could ever marry someone who dies much earlier or later than me. I know you can’t predict illnesses or accidents, so there’s really no way of preventing this, but I’m just saying… hypothetically, if I could marry an ayakashi, I wouldn’t do it. I’m gonna be a wreck when my cat inevitably dies from old age, so I can’t even imagine what this would feel like with a loved one.

— It’s kinda weird that Aoi is now talking about how she hasn’t decided whether or not to marry Odanna. I guess repaying her grandfather’s debt is now mutually exclusive to their courtship. If she’s going to fall in love with him — and this certainly looks to be the case — I just wish he would meet her halfway. Like maybe he spends a bit of time with her in the apparent realm, and she can introduce him to all sorts of fun stuff like… I dunno, those crazy ramen commercials they have on TV nowadays. This show, however, is nothing but a love letter to a made up universe, so Aoi may as well throw away her old life. Don’t even think about it. Don’t even bother with your old friends, education, job, etc. Whatever dreams she had before she came here are now in the trash can.

— I could never live in the hidden realm. No games, no internet, no anime, no sports, so on and so forth. Also, there’s that whole deal with ayakashi wanting to eat humans. Yeah, that’s no good either.

— Apparently, the rainbow shawl can cover up for Aoi’s human weaknesses. That’s convenient. Ritsuko won’t specify exactly what human weaknesses she’s referring to, though. Nevertheless, Aoi now has this, Odanna’s pendant, and the tengu’s pot leaf. By the end of this series, she’ll probably have enough artifacts to conquer the hidden realm if she wants.

— I prefer Ritsuko’s shawl to Aoi’s. Its colors are little more tasteful.

— Fresh homemade somen noodles, huh? I’m jealous.

— So… does the hidden realm have the same stars as the human realm? Can you blast off into space in the hidden realm as well? Just curious.

— Welp, Odanna mentions the Milky Way, so it must be the same stars and the same universe around them.

— You know what would be cool? A counter at the end of each episode that tells us how much debt Aoi has managed to knock off. Amagi Brilliant Park had a counter for the park’s accumulated visitors, and this was a nice way to keep track of the hero’s progress. Our heroine needs the same thing… if she even cares about her grandfather’s debt anymore.

— Other than dragging her into the hidden realm without asking her first, Odanna’s been pretty nice despite being the girl’s main love interest. I’m used to the top guy in these reverse harem always being a humongous jerk (but with a heart of gold).

— Maybe you should stop getting into trouble then.

— Why don’t you tell him about it then?

— Aoi looks as if she’s about to tell the guy about her past encounter with an ayakashi, but then Odanna cuts her off to talk about his meal. Oh come on, is Aoi really going to shelf the entire conversation over somen noodles?

— The next thing we see is Odanna lying down to sleep, so the girl never tried to bring the subject up again. Amazing. This is such a stupid anime trope. Let’s just delay an important conversation just because I was interrupted once!

— God, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this flashback. We probably get a version of it in every single episode.

— Dude, gross: the ayakashi had promised chibi Aoi that they’d meet again once she became an adult. This is like those dudes waiting for a teen celeb to turn 18 so they can start openly talking about her sexually. Plus, why would any normal person be so interested in a kid that they just met? Ooooooh, I’m totally gonna waifu you. Later, though! When you’re legal! But ooooh, even though I’ve only met you once as a child, I’m still gonna keep tabs on you and set an alert on my spirit phone for when you turn 18! Sorry, but that sounds fucking ridiculous to me.

— Sasuke hates bread, so I hate Sasuke.

— Apparently, Shiro used to give Sasuke doggy treats. They’re actually just hardtack, but hey, it wouldn’t surprise me if Aoi’s grandfather had really tried to feed the guy doggy treats!

— So far, this episode has been about nothing. Aoi is now going to indulge herself in a kaiseki meal that she had been promised. That sounds boring. It’s like I’m watching a slice-of-life episode.

— Aoi also learns that Odanna likes to go to different realms to work. So he does visit the human realm on the regular… just not with Aoi.

— “…please use the phone in your room…?” There are phones in these rooms?!

— Oh wow, you can even see the old-timey phone in the back. Yo, why don’t you guys just steal a few more technology from the hidden realm. A TV and a gaming console would be real sweet.

— Why is the bathwater so yellow? Why does it feel thick?

— Maybe the color comes from the citrus that they like to add to the water. I could never do communal bathhouses, though. I don’t want to see anyone naked, and I don’t want anyone to see me naked.

— This episode feels so aimless. Now Aoi runs into Odanna because he just wants to spend time with her. I’m hoping he’s doing this because he wants to personally protect her from assassins or something, but at this rate, he’s probably just here to have another boring and dry conversation about their sexless romance.

— Oh, we’re just gonna watch as Aoi eats a bunch of food. Great.

— Aoi is amazed that the chef can make corn tempura without the corn popping. Um, someone should tell Aoi that not every corn pops.

— Yeah, I’m too squeamish to eat seafood that is still moving. Have you seen those moving squid dishes from Japan or Korea? Ugh, no thanks.

— Here’s an indistinct stew.

— And now, fruits trapped in jelly. For such a fancy inn, the food is rather homey. It’s also not very distinct from what Aoi serves at all. No wonder they felt threatened by her eatery. Aoi’s gimmick is that she’s serving human food, but these dishes all look like human food to me. I wish the anime had done a better job at distinguishing the inn’s food from what our heroine serves.

— At the end of the meal, Odanna gets up to leave. After all, he still has his trip to the human realm. That unfortunately means that he didn’t come here for anything cool. He just wanted to hang out with Aoi. God, nothing important happened this week. Nothing at all! It was just one boring, slice-of-life episode.

— I guess this is what you use since you can’t use smartphones in the hidden realm.

— Odanna tells Aoi to let him know if she ever has a problem. The girl replies, “I wonder if something like that would happen.” You mean like how a ninja tried to kill you? Or how you got trapped in a storeroom that was slowly flooding? Gee, I wonder if anything bad would ever happen!

— Odanna: “Be sure not to act recklessly.” Hah.

— As soon as Odanna leaves, a pair of assholes and their ugly dog shows up. But that’s it. That’s the end of the episode. Absolutely nothing of note happened until Odanna left.

This time, Sugimoto needs to put down a raging boner with his own hands. It’s harder than you think. 

— There are few things worse than going to the bathroom and finding a dead body in your toilet. Very few things. When Asirpa tries to warn Sugimoto, however, the notorious serial killer Henmi had already dragged the ex-soldier away. Oh boy, here we go.

— The problem here is that Sugimoto can’t really win. If he doesn’t kill the guy, then Henmi gets to run free and hurt more people. If he does kill the guy, well, that’s exactly what Henmi wants. The ideal situation is to have the serial killer arrested, but Sugimoto doesn’t really want to draw the authorities’ attention to himself.

— Speaking of the authorities, the 7th Division are here. Henmi thinks they’re after him, but I’m not so sure about that. After all, Tsurumi said he’d leave the gathering of the tattoos to Sugimoto’s team.

— Tsurumi’s just going around, soliciting business owners for money? Luckily for him, this fisherman is probably as crazy as he is. All he knows is herring, and yet he’s got this snazzy-looking machine gun. And unfortunately, Henmi takes Sugimoto right to the very same house where this is all going down.

— This is Asirpa’s best “I need to poo” face, apparently.

— What the fuck? The old man just opens fire in his own goddamn house. What if he hits a loved one! Ironically, however, all this mayhem somehow gives Sugimoto an opening to escape.

— Man, I’m just about done with Henmi and his voice. I’m hoping that Sugimoto takes care of the guy by the end of the episode. The portrayal wants to make the serial killer come off as exceedingly creepy, but it’s just kinda annoying now. Both his speech and mannerisms are a bit too over-the-top.

— Good thing Shiraishi still recognizes Henmi’s face.

— And good thing Asirpa always has the hero’s back. Would the Immortal Sugimoto have died if she hadn’t shot that arrow? Maybe.

— Henmi can’t go down yet. Unfortunately, someone went and spoiled it for me that a CGI whale will eventually rear its ugly head in this week’s episode, so I’m waiting eagerly for that visual spectacle.

— Oh boy, here comes the gleaming boner.

— Despite what I just said about him not being allowed to die yet, I’m nevertheless amazed that Henmi is still putting up such a good fight despite taking an arrow to the shoulder and two knife stabs to the chest.

— wut

— Yo, this ain’t CGI at all! I’ve been had!

— I thought Tsurumi would let our hero gather up all the tattoos, but I guess not. He’s dead set on chasing Sugimoto all the way out to sea.

— The whale is tossing Henmi around like a beach ball.

— I hope that’s just the sun and not his gleaming boner.

— Asirpa tried to cover her eyes when Sugimoto stripped naked, but I think she still ended up seeing too much.

— Do we need all of the tattoos, though? Is it impossible to determine the location of the gold with all but one of the tattoos?

— Ahhhhhh, this is just too comical. But the speed of the whale lets our heroes escape Tsurumi and the 7th, so this ends up being clever thinking on Asirpa’s part.

— Also, Sugimoto is finally on Hijikata’s radar. This is already the ninth episode of what is presumably a one-cour anime adaptation. I think the manga is still ongoing, so I don’t know if we’ll get a very satisfying ending when the anime is all said and done. It’ll probably conclude on an open-ended note, which I’ll really dislike. I like resolution to my stories, but I’m not exactly keen on reading the manga. After all, the source material doesn’t look like it’s ending anytime soon.

— Looks like Nikaido, one of the surviving twins, has gone rogue. Not just him either. Ogata, the guy who nearly froze to death, is also missing. I guess Tsurumi must not have a very tight grip on his men. Tanigaki speaks glowingly about the man, but it makes sense that not everyone would give a shit about his dream of establishing a new country with the Ainu gold. Plus, Nikaido clearly wanted to avenge his brother, and Tsurumi stopped him from doing so.

— Whoa, how did they manage to kill the whale with just a single spear?

— I dunno why Sugimoto is so hellbent on honoring Henmi’s last wishes.

— Tanigaki looks like he’s getting on well with the Ainu villagers. At the very least, he and Osoma see to have become friends. Maybe he’ll turn a new leaf and become of the good guys. I also always forget that Osoma is a girl.

— Unfortunately, Tanigaki finds Nikaido and Ogata hanging out with Asirpa’s grandmother. Man, I hope none of the Ainu villagers end up dying because of Sugimoto. This is why he wanted to leave Asirpa behind in the first place. Maybe the girl should’ve respected his wishes.

— After a tense scene, however, Ogata and Nikaido eventually get up and let Asirpa’s grandmother go. The former claims that he was just trying to gauge Tanigaki’s reaction. Huh…

— Oddly enough, Osoma doesn’t want Tanigaki to leave the village. Have they really bonded that much? I guess it must have happened offscreen.

— Suddenly, a shot rings out and had it not been for the kid, Tanigaki would’ve taken a fatal bullet to the head. We soon see Ogata sniping at the guy from a distance. He actually doesn’t want to kill the old woman at all. I guess we can look at the bright side and take solace in the fact that Ogata’s not a completely evil bastard?

— Tanigaki has no means of fighting back, though. Plus, even though Ogata and Nikaido won’t hurt Asirpa’s grandmother for now, he can’t be sure that they won’t change their minds in the future. Fun.

— For now, however, the attention jumps back to Sugimoto and gang. Asirpa finds herself nodding off even though they’re in the middle of a rather loud inn. She must be exhausted from all the whale killing.

— Is… is that Hijikata?

— Yo, old man, you can’t just go around picking up random children.

— It is Hijikata. Man, Sugimoto doesn’t suspect a thing.

— Oh come on, Sugimoto must have seen and heard the old man whispering to Shiraishi. You can’t tell me he didn’t! They’re sitting right next to each other!

— Dammit, man, are you really that dense?!

— Right before the episode ends, Osoma hands Tanigaki a gun, so it’s gonna be an all-out battle next week. Dude is ready to throw down.

Other than Hinamatsuri and Hisone to Maso-tan, the rest of these shows are kind of a drag… but I may as well finish what I started. 

3D Kanojo Real Girl Ep. 10

Hikaru finally does what he should’ve done episodes ago: confidently declare his love for Iroha. So all’s well that ends well, right? Well, she’s still leaving in three months, so there’s that. But in this day and age, long distance relationships are pretty common. Plus, they’re in high school, so it’s not like they need physical intimacy. It wouldn’t kill them to act like hormonal teenagers once in a while, but you know what I mean. They can survive a long distance relationship since all they do is just talk anyways. Still, is this really it? We still have a couple episodes left, and I can’t imagine Iroha moving away is the only conflict left. I bet she has a terminal disease or something. After all, she often visits the hospital, right?

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory Ep. 7

This is what I was afraid of. Sousuke is hellbent on saving Chidori, but anyone who comes near him will be dragged into a huge mess. What stings even more is that he couldn’t help but think of Chidori while Nami’s life is in danger. I’m not asking him to fall out of love with Chidori or anything silly like that. But he’s partly responsible for the predicament that Nami is in right now, and I’m not going to enjoy this arc’s conclusion. I know what’s coming next, and it won’t be pretty.

Hinamatsuri Ep. 9

I laughed at Mao’s perfect impersonation of Hina, but the entire time I was watching the episode, I couldn’t understand why it took her so long to finally decide to make a boat with all her telekinetic powers. Ah well, I’m glad they finally introduced her to the story. Ever since I saw her at the very start of the series, I had wondered when we’d see her again. After nine whole episodes, we still don’t know what that opening was all about.

Hisone to Maso-tan Ep. 8

The show finally tells us what the Ritual is all about, but honestly, we just end up with more questions than answers. These dragons have to escort an even bigger behemoth for three days and three nights to a specified location or else very bad things will happen? Like why? Why does this have to happen? How does this happen? Every 74 years on the dot? And even though Sada played such a key role in protecting Japan 74 years ago, all she does nowadays is hang around the base and peddle joie? At this point, I’m pretty disengaged from HisoMaso‘s universe. All I’m really interested in is whether or not Hisone and Haruto ends up being a thing, because I think their interactions are pretty cute. But other than that, meh.

Shokugeki no Soma S3 Ep. 21

Every Soma episode is ridiculous, but this one even more so. It’s just one big tribute to how much Joichiro owns. He singlehandedly defeated 50 competitors in a shokugeki! His dishes are so revolutionary that they’ll be remembered for decades (c’mon, it’s just food). But the pressure, man! The pressure got to him! Cooking was no longer fun! He broke down and had to leave the school altogether! Ahhhhh!!! But you know who saved him? You know who? His son! But I’m just like, “Yo, what about the woman he knocked up?” Surely, he must have fell in love with Yukihira’s mother, right? But it’s all just about the kid, huh? He’s so awesome, he saved his dad by just being born, huh? It’s funny, ’cause the show also makes no mention of Erina’s mother. Where are the two leads’ mothers?! And I couldn’t help but laugh at Joichiro taking pride in Yukihira’s ability to lose 490 times in a row to his old man. I get what the show is trying to say. For our hero, cooking is always fun even when he’s losing. That’s what makes him special. But I still laughed because in my mind it’s like, “I whip this kid’s ass 490 straight times, and he’s still smiling — what a sucker!” Whatever, I hope they got their Joichiro lovefest out of their system and we can get back to moving the story forward.

Toji no Miko Ep. 21

Hiyori thought she had defeated Princess Tagitsu in what looked like a pretty anticlimactic battle, but then the evil aradama re-emerges outta nowhere and absorbs the raven-haired girl in return. What a twist, right? Yawn. I think where I’m sorta lost is how Kaname suddenly got so powerful. Like, why didn’t she just save the day over and over if she was this strong? Then again, her mother seems to imply that she always had this power laying dormant within her. She just never believed in herself or something. Ah well. She has three episodes to figure out how to save her BFF.

Tokyo Ghoul:re Ep. 10

I think it’s sad that even when the episode focuses on Ken’s/Haise’s mental anguish, it’s still uncompelling. There’s nothing inherently wrong with an amnesiac trying to discover his or herself, but it just feels cheap. It feels cheap because the story started out with Ken trying to understand who he was and what he wanted to be. Was he still human? How human can he afford to be be in this cruel world full of bloodthirsty ghouls and heartless humans? Could he get over his fears of loneliness? Could he ever get over his mother’s death? Unfortunately, because we’re hacks, we decided to just erase his memories and make him start over. I know I’m Ken, but I wanna be huuuuuumaaaaaaan. Waaaah. For fuck’s sake… it’s just too one-dimensional. Look, it’s too late to save this iteration of Tokyo Ghoul. Too many characters, too little progress. There seems to be no end in sight for either the ghoul vs. human conflict nor Ken’s/Haise’s issues. We just keep rehashing the same nonsense but with dumber action each time.

Not even yoursel–… wait… 

— Rintaro wakes up to find himself in a hospital. According to his friends, he had collapsed at a party along with Nakase. It’s odd that it’s just those two. Is this implying that Nakase might have the potential to tap into the Reading Steiner ability?

— We also learned that someone had broken into Maho’s room, and there was even a gas explosion in an office. Feels like we missed a lot while we were away.

— So this is Nakase. She kinda looks like Chie from Persona 4…

— The doctor blames Nakase’s collapse on a bout of encephalitis, but that seems too convenient. I like how casual she is about it, too. Nothing to worry about, she says. I’d be freaking the fuck out if my doctor told me I had encephalitis. Any -itis, really.

— Nakase speaks of a vivid dream. She had seen a world where Mayuri was dead. That sounds like a perfect world to me. I kid, I kid. In all seriousness, it sure sounds like she has a bit of the Reading Steiner ability, too. I wonder if Rintaro is gonna tell her all about the world lines and such. Wouldn’t hurt to have an ally… if we can trust her.

— I know Amadeus is bad news, but if we can’t have Kurisu, we should have the next best thing. But according to Maho, they’re still trying to restore the AI’s functionality. Boo. I’m only saying this because I’m already kinda annoyed with Mayuri’s voice in the background. I want her to hush and let the adults talk.

— Russia’s back at it.

— Mayuri: “All we have here is fried chicken and bananas.” Must have been a wild party.

— Oh, I had forgotten that Moeka’s personality in the real world is totally different from what she’s like on LINE. She and Rintaro are standing in front of each other, but like in the original series, she still prefers to communicate through texts. This must be what it’s like to try and talk to a teenager.

— As Rintaro stares at Mayuri, he tells the audience that he’s determined to save this world without using the time machine. Lame. What about Kurisu? Looks like we’re still far from reviving the mad scientist. This Rintaro is too content to compromise.

— Rintaro gets Maho to room with Faris for the time being. I feel like Faris is just a convenient plot device. Need a place to store a time machine? Don’t worry, she’ll help out! Need to room a friend for a while? Faris won’t mind! Must be nice to have such a rich friend on hand.

— As for Kagari, not much has changed on her end.

— The only issue right now is that Suzuha wants to speak to Rintaro privately. Considering how the Russia thing is back in full gear, she must be freaking the fuck out.

— As soon as Rintaro gets onto the roof, Suzuha wants to know if the world line has changed. When he dances around the question, she pulls a gun on him. Welp.

— Suzuha wants to drag Rintaro back to July 28th, but he continues to whine that there’s nothing he can do. She finally fires a shot that barely misses him. She wants to show him that she means business, but honestly, it’s a tough situation.

— Let’s be practical for a second. Suzuha clearly doesn’t know what it feels like to be in his position. Dealing with Rintaro must be frustrating, and she feels absolutely powerless. She just sits around and does nothing all day. At the same time, however, she doesn’t know what it feels like to fail over and over and accomplish nothing. He saves one girl, and the other one dies. He saves the other one, and the first girl dies. This Rintaro insists over and over that the future cannot be altered, and to be fair, he has no evidence to suggest otherwise. We have the benefit of episode 24 of the first season. As a result, we know that there’s a happy ending. The guy doesn’t know jack shit. All he has is his evidence, and he can only work with what he’s got. Yeah, WW3 is bad, but unlike Suzuha, he hasn’t lived it. So yeah, what if they do make things even worse? It’s a legit question. Unless he has some bullshit ability to quickly comb through 14 million possible futures for the one possible path that leads to the Steins Gate, a.k.a. the true end? What can Rintaro really do but truly believe that it’s hopeless?

— Since Rintaro tried over and over to save Mayuri, we might naturally wonder why he’d throw in the towel on Kurisu. Hell, I wondered that. But if she’s really his true love, maybe Rintaro just can’t bear the thought of seeing her die more than he already has. Maybe it would hurt even more to see Kurisu die as many times as he has seen Mayuri die.

— But screw practicality! Let’s now look at the situation from a hero’s point-of-view! No matter how hopeless it seems, if there’s even a glimmer of hope that you might succeed, why would you ever, ever give up? Yeah, I don’t want to make things worse… but I can’t abide by any future in which Kurisu doesn’t exist! Well, easy for me to say. I don’t get to be the hero. I just get to sit on my ass and pick apart every single thing Rintaro says and does. I dunno, man, I dunno. 80% of me wants to slap the guy and tell him to keep fighting. 20% of me understands that he’s going through some tough shit.

— Anyways, Daru eventually shows up and talks Suzuha down from the edge of the proverbial cliff. As she breaks down and cries, this allows Rintaro to leave quietly.

— It’s so hard to take Daru seriously with that voice. He sounds like Barney trying to be a weeb.

— Our hero will continue on with his compromise: he’ll try and prevent WW3, but gosh darn it, he still won’t use the time machine. We’ll see, dude. We’ll see. He goes and has another conversation with Yuugo, who tips him off about DURPA. Yeah, more shadowy organizations. As Rintaro thinks about the situation even more, a new Kurisu appears. This time, an imaginary Kurisu emerges from our hero’s brain, and he bounces ideas off of her. In reality, Rintaro’s just talking to himself, but hey, whatever gets him through the day. He eventually realizes what we’ve long suspected: Kurisu’s time-traveling theories are still located in Amadeus’s memories, and that’s what DURPA (or whoever it may be) are after.

— We also cut to Suzuha and Daru having a nice father-daughter conversation. They don’t discuss anything we don’t already know. Daru still believes that Hououin Kyouma will return to them one day. Suzuha continues to be worried about the future, but she will apologize for nearly killing Rintaro just earlier. We also learn that all her attempts to refuel her time machine has failed. She really is short on time. If she runs out of juice in the middle of a jump, she might end up being lost forever. But compared to WW3, Suzuha wonders if it’ll even be all that bad. Yeesh, everyone is slowly succumbing to a defeatist attitude. I hope something changes soon.

— The next day, Rintaro pays Maho a visit. He’s only left her for a day, and the short scientist has already turned one of Faris’s room into a mess. Is this supposed to be moe? A smart but sloppy genius girl?

— Anyways, our hero tells Maho about his theory — his theory concerning DURPA and what might be locked away in Amadeus’s memories. He wants to know if Kurisu had left behind any sort of notes or data that shadowy organizations might wanna target. Maho says no, but after Rintaro leaves, she turns on a laptop that clearly used to belong to her former friend. Yo, what’s up with that? Maho can’t be trusted now? Or maybe she doesn’t think she can trust Rintaro? Either way, if Steins;Gate 0 is like the first season, then we’re probably near a bad ending before we can hop back on another (hopefully more fruitful) route.

Win or lose, Joe and Nanbu can’t escape their troubled pasts. 

— For some reason, the mob boss doesn’t want Joe to continue any further. He only wanted the kid to reach Megalonia. I hope we find out why soon.

— Nanbu’s forehead looks really weird. He’s just got a bump that protrudes out from the rest of his skull.

— Oh, Fujimaki wants Joe to throw another match. Of course, this is supposed to be the “biggest fixed match ever,” but I’m kinda disappointed nonetheless. It makes sense that a mob boss would only care about money, but I was hoping for something a little more compelling than just rigging a match.

— Joe has a lot of fans, but are people actually betting on him to beat Burroughs? I guess they must be if this fixed match is supposed be super profitable. But why not think bigger? Joe is a superstar now. Even if he doesn’t win Megalonia, people love rooting for the underdog. They could continue marketing Joe and reaping the benefits. Why risk it all with a match-fixing scandal?

— Of course, there’s still a super good chance that Joe ends up dying at the end of this series like the other Joe. I mean, he’s pissing blood for Christ’s sake.

— Haha, that dumb earpiece again. Nanbu has to know that Joe would never listen. The kid’s gone too far to turn back. Also, I didn’t mention it back then, but you know it’s super dangerous to box with an earpiece, right?

— I want to say that Nanbu doesn’t believe what he’s saying. I want to say that he’s just scared for his life, so he’s doing his damndest to tear Joe down. We’re frauds, we can’t be real deals, blah blah blah. That’s what I hope, anyways. I hope he’s just putting on a show, because Fujimaki is standing right there. It’s always about appearances. There’s a certain intonation to Nanbu’s words that makes me think he’s just lying, but maybe I’m just being naive.

— At first, Joe acts all cool, but he ends up riding off on his bike, so you know he’s hurt. He’s mad and frustrated. He only ever goes on his joy rides when he needs to let off some steam.

— Again, Fujimaki tells Nanbu that Sachio’s life is at stake as well. Guess I can’t expect mob bosses to have a heart.

— Well, there you go. He is mad.

— What a character. Does Pepe really need that entire get-up? I guess it’s part of his brand.

— Damn, Burroughs’ English is pretty good. I usually expect some Engrish out of any foreign character.

— The team is fragmented. Joe has returned to one of his previous haunts, and Sachio is sadly all on his own. I guess we can’t expect Joe to care for the kid as if Sachio was his own little brother. Nevertheless, since Nanbu destroyed the team, he’ll have to put it back together. I’m surprised, though. I’m surprised that Megalonia officials haven’t dragged Joe kicking and screaming to every single promotional event. Him not being there hurts their image, and I can’t imagine the Shirato Group being happy about that.

— Nanbu tells Sachio that the kid was using Joe as well. I hate this false equivalency nonsense. Hey, look, when I hang out with my girlfriend, it makes me happy. Guess I am just using her! But in all seriousness, yeah, sure, Sachio was getting something out of his working relationship with Joe, but he sure as hell never told the guy to be a sellout.

— But it turns out Sachio’s dad used to be an engineer for Shirato. It’s not a very extensive backstory. It almost feels like an afterthought, honestly.

— Nanbu ends up dragging the kid to a garden party at Yukiko’s joint. He tells the kid to go get his revenge, but the kid’s not a killer. He just wants to bet on Joe. So Nanbu reveals what he’s really after: he wants Yukiko to protect Sachio. He just keeps asking her for favors, but maybe she’ll be sympathetic for once since a child is involved.

— In any case, Nanbu already knows that Joe won’t throw the match. He wouldn’t be arranging for Sachio’s protection if this wasn’t the case. He may very well end up dying, though. Nanbu’s got no one to protect him.

— Yukiko brings up the idea of having Joe withdraw from Megalonia, but that sounds terrible. Either they move forward without one of the big matches, or they have to quickly look for a replacement. And I doubt they’d ask Mikio to be the fill-in.

— More glimpses of Yukiko meeting with military leaders. It looks like a potential contract with the military will hinge completely on Yuri’s victory. I guess that’s what Yukiko meant back in the first episode. I still find it a bit silly, though. What the military brass should really concern themselves about are data. Data from tests and data of the Gear’s performance in the field. You want to know how soldiers would cope with it in actual combat situations… not a goddamn boxing match.

— We also see Yukiko looking into Sachio’s past. Her secretary finds evidence that Shirato was responsible for the death of the kid’s father. As a result, Yukiko intends to enact justice, but punishing the wrongdoers won’t be enough. Someone needs to take care of Sachio. A kid shouldn’t be sleeping in the streets. I’m still not sure what to think of Yukiko. So far, she seems cold and business-like. Whether or not she has strong morals or not, who knows? Whether or not she’s got a heart or not, who knows? Even the slightest hint of a romance between her and Yuri has pretty much been shelved ever since he indirectly rejected her weeks ago.

— Why is the 1st seed going up against the 2nd seed?

— Well, the guy certainly has style.

— Meanwhile, Yuri is nowhere near as flashy as his opponent. He walks out alone in a straightforward robe. He won’t waste his time with unnecessary flourishes.

— The fight between them begins, and at first, it plays out much like their introductions. Pepe likes to dance around the ring. Yuri only throws punches that he feels are necessary. Pepe manages to land the first hit. Unfortunately, it is the only hit he’ll ever land. As if a switch had been flipped, Yuri suddenly gets serious and before you know it, Pepe is down for the count. All it took was two shots. An uppercut and a left hook. The audience definitely did not get their money’s worth.

— Joe is in attendance, and he looks forlorn. The match, however, gets him going. Just being able to watch a maestro in action will do that. You can see the respect and awe that he has for Yuri.

— Yuri’s dog runs into Joe, which starts up a conversation between Shirato’s top man and the people’s hero. This metaphor is a bit on-the-nose, though. Yuri’s the kept dog while Joe is the stray dog. They’re both two sides of the same coin. Yuri’s dog is friendly with Joe, because the animal is just like its master. Yuri himself is oddly very friendly with Joe. On the other hand, he seems to feel nothing but apathy towards the other fighters.

— Joe gets a kick out of fighting Gearless. It’s the best way that he can prove himself, so he’s going to try and go as far with it as he can. It sounds like he won’t even regret dying as long as he gets to give it his all.

— Meanwhile, Yuri wants to fulfill a dream. Unlike Joe, someone believed in Yuri. That someone sounds like Yukiko. This appears to be a reversal of the original series. The Yukiko here has absolutely no regard for this Joe at all. In any case, Yuri feels indebted to Yukiko even if he knows that she’s “using” him. But we all have transactional relationships.

— Oh look, Nanbu is just being a drunk bastard. He’s back to lying again. I think he knows Joe won’t throw the match. Sure, he still wants Joe to throw it for both of their sake, but he knows the kid won’t do it. But for now, he needs to keep Fujimaki off their backs, so he tells the mob boss that everything is proceeding smoothly. Both he and Joe have spent the last few days getting themselves mentally prepared with the possibility that they’ll soon lose their lives.

First date at the amusement park, huh? I actually haven’t been to an amusement park in decades. I don’t think there’s one anywhere near me, so it’s not even an option for dates. Anyways, onto the rest of the episode…

— Narumi runs off to buy churros, and knowing amusement parks, they probably cost an arm and a leg. I recently checked prices at Disneyland, and they’re insane. Even if I were to ever return to Orange County, I wouldn’t even consider going to the so-called happiest place on earth. I’d rather save my money for dinners.

— They look so normal outside of their work clothes. Too bad we don’t see them like this more often. Hirotaka comments on Narumi’s ability to turn off her “otakuness.” In a way, I guess this is like code-switching.

— Amazing. He has a piggy bank that she has to put money into whenever she acts like an otaku or brings up otaku subjects. But what’s wrong with Narumi being herself? Just because they’re on an official date doesn’t mean she should hide who she is. I don’t stop talking about video games when I go on dates, especially when the girl I’m seeing also likes video games. Why limit yourself?

— I guess Hirotaka’s being insecure. He brings up the fact that Narumi was able to hide her otaku nature on dates with her previous boyfriends, so he just wants her to treat him the same way. But maybe she acts like an otaku around him because she’s comfortable being herself with him. So I dunno, I think he’s being unreasonable. I’m not the biggest Narumi fan, but I don’t like what Hirotaka is doing here.

— She’s not allowed to act like a yaoi fangirl either. Likewise, she won’t let him play Pokemon Go or any game for that matter. Fair’s fair. Plus, we get to see who cracks first. Speaking of which, the only people I know who still play that game are hardcore Pokemon fans.

— As a side note, I wouldn’t mind an entire episode without either Taro or Hanako. Their fighting wears me out.

— The problem here is that anime and games are so important to both Narumi and Hirotaka, so if you ban those subjects, what would they even talk about? Like if I banned those same topics on my dates, I guess I could still talk about movies and sports, but ehhh… if the other person isn’t into those same topics, you’re kinda boned.

— Must be a pain in the ass to carry a piggy bank everywhere.

— Watching these two, I can’t help but realize that I have no memories of Disneyland anymore. All I can remember is having tired feet.

— This reminds me of the haunted house at Disneyland. It has the exact same setup where everyone gathers in a room. It’s like the least scary haunted house ever.

— Narumi gets anxious about the haunted house ride, so she accidentally drags a random dude with her instead of Hirotaka. The random dude ends up being Taro of all people. Oh come on. Naturally, Hirotaka ends up with Hanako.

— Both Narumi and Taro are scaredy cats. For a guy who acts tough, however, this is pretty pathetic of Taro.

— Oh yeah, I guess if you go back and look at that large gathering, you can spot Taro and Hanako. After all, they have special colored hair unlike the generic people around them.

— Hirotaka sounds disappointed that this date is going like how he planned, but to be fair, he’s not making any moves. If he wants them to act more like a couple, then lead her. It’s like a dance. Sometimes, you have to lead your partner. That doesn’t mean he always has to do everything, but he has to at least communicate his needs and wants. He’s not doing that right now. He’s just holding up a piggy bank and pouting.

— Hanako tells Hirotaka that it’s okay for his relationship with Narumi to proceed slowly. After all, everyone works at their own pace. But hey, if he’s unhappy, he should do something about it. He took the first step and asked her out on a date, but c’mon, hold her hand or something. Put an arm around her shoulders. Kiss her and not just on the way home. Oh wait, this is Japan so no PDA. Whooooops.

— Hanako makes it sound like he’s a robot.

— Dude, stop staring at her hand and just hold it.

— Oh come on. What a wimp. Hirotaka chickens out at the last second. On what date does the girl walk two steps ahead of the guy? They’re both grown-ass adults with 9-to-5 jobs.

— Nevertheless, Hirotaka comes to the realization that the only person he has to blame is himself. Narumi willingly went outside of her comfort zone and grow up. He always shut himself away just to play games. If this date isn’t to his satisfaction, it’s because he still feels awkward around his own girlfriend. He’s having a hard time holding hands with her for Christ’s sake. There’s nothing wrong with being an otaku. There’s something wrong with letting it consume you entirely, though.

— Hirotaka’s feet end up bleeding from walking too much. Apparently, he can’t even buy himself comfortable walking shoes.

— Hah, what a notion!

— Look how far apart they’re sitting! He’s so insecure.

— Narumi finally convinces Hirotaka to scrap the otaku ban, and now she’s back to having fun. Again, they’re on a date. When you’re hanging out with your SO, you’re supposed to feel comfortable. What’s the point of an SO if you can’t be yourself around them? Why does this even need to be spelled out?

— The girl ends up getting him a pair of earrings. Boring.

— But hey, she also got matching earrings for herself. They’re clip-ons, but whatever works. The gesture touches him, so I guess he’s happy again.

— Whoa, whoa, whoa…

…what are we doing! What are we doing!!!

Kids working adults, these days…

— Anyways, instead of the two of them taking the next step in their relationship, Hirotaka simply decides to recalibrate his expectations. He’s now fine with the pace that they’re moving at. Okay. Sure. As long as he’s happy. But there’s nothing wrong with kissing your girlfriend either. Or holding her hand as you walk together. If you never communicate your needs and wants, then nothing can change. He shouldn’t forget that.

— In the end, the piggy bank ends up funding Narumi’s love for souvenirs, so all’s well that ends well.

It must be hard to be a dense teenage boy. Over and over in this week’s episode, Tada is on the verge on falling for Teresa, but he can’t quite get there. And even if he could, it’s not like he would ever confess his feelings. Not yet, anyways.

— In this week’s episode, Mitsuyoshi and Teresa go on their first date. Unfortunately, the guy has no clue that they’re on a date at all.

— More importantly, she intends it to be their last date as well. It’s such an anime thing. She’ll share one last shining moment with him in the hopes that it’ll give her the closure she needs. She thinks that she’ll be able to leave Japan behind once she spends this last day with him. Hm, we’ll see.

— Oh hey, are these two cats finally getting along now? I guess persistence is the key. Mitsuyoshi could probably learn a thing or two from his cat.

— So Teresa drags Mitsuyoshi to a big Rainbow Shogun show, and it’s got everything that a hardcore Rainbow Shogun fan would want.

— Mitsuyoshi even manages to win Teresa a can of Rainbow Shogun candy.

— In return, she tries to win him a rainbow fan, but she’s not quite a sharpshooter herself. Luckily, Teresa has someone looking out for her. Yep, it’s that guy from the coffee shop. He must be the original Rainbow Shogun actor or something.

— To be honest, Teresa’s cheerfulness is kinda infectious. Even I couldn’t help but smile at her antics. Mitsuyoshi, on the other hand, is no fun.

— When they attend a live show, they get swept up in the action. In the end, the girl gets to do her favorite pose on stage, but the guy is being a total wet blanket. C’mon, put your heart into it! You’re not gonna win the girl at this rate!

— At one point, a staff member refers to Teresa as Mitsuyoshi’s girlfriend, and he acts all embarrassed and uncomfortable. I know Teresa likes the guy, and the heart wants what it wants, but man, I totally cannot understand what she sees in the guy. He’s just so stiff and joyless.

— Hm, she might actually look better with black or dark brown hair than blonde.

— God, that’s a tasty looking bowl of food.

— Anyways, somehow Teresa starts talking about Rachel, her nanny. Her real name is Reiko, i.e. she’s Japanese. Not only that, it looks like she used to work at Mitsuyoshi’s grandfather’s coffee shop. We suddenly cut to Alec handing Mitsuyoshi’s grandfather a letter from Rachel/Reiko. Odd. I wonder if they were simply friends or perhaps something more. Either way, she ended up falling in love with a man in Larsenburg and became the royal nanny. Maybe she taught Teresa perfect Japanese.

— What a harsh thing to say. But apparently, Mitsuyoshi only said this because he’s deathly afraid of flying. At first, Teresa is sad, but she eventually breathes a sigh of relief. Still, it’s not like she expects him to follow her anyways.

— Back at the coffee shop, Kaoru shows up and starts flirting with Alec like usual. But instead of getting mad at him, she’s being unusually patient with his antics. That’s no good. Not only does her behavior throw Kaoru off, it feels like she’s ready to leave Japan, and if that’s the case, Teresa is ready to leave as well. Mitsuyoshi has no clue what he’s about to lose. Throughout this week’s episode, he stares at Teresa as if he’s about to fall for her, but he just can’t quite understand the fullest extent of his feelings for the future Larsenburg queen.

— When Alec leaves the coffee shop, she lingers for a second at the front door before finally walking away. Yep, she gone.

— Eventually, Mitsuyoshi summons up enough courage to climb the tower, but by the time two of them get to the top, the weather has turned sour. All they can see is an endless expanse of clouds. The future ahead of them is hazy at best. It almost feels like a bit of foreshadowing. By the time Mitsuyoshi ever does anything, it’ll be too late. Hell, short of a grand gesture that sweeps Teresa off her feet, it’s probably already too late.

— Mitsuyoshi sees a young child being photographed by his father, and this dredges up some painful memories. But for once, he’s ready to open up because he feels a certain connectedness with Teresa. Essentially, he blames himself for his parents’ death. He knows it’s illogical, but he can’t help but feel as though he could’ve slowed them down if he hadn’t been such a brat that day. If he had slowed them down for just a few minutes, maybe they wouldn’t have died. Of course, that’s silly, but guilt’s a powerful thing.

— Teresa then gives Mitsuyoshi the same advice that he had given her: “You should just try not to repeat the same mistake.” Basically, if he has feelings that he needs to express, he should do it before it’s too late. But he’s doomed to make the same mistakes, ’cause he has no clue what his actual feelings are. Mitsuyoshi needs to tell her he loves her before she disappears from his life, but he doesn’t even know if he loves her yet. He won’t know until she’s gone. We often don’t know how much something means to us until we no longer have it. Ironic, isn’t it?

— After that, a rainbow appears across the sky, but Mitsuyoshi isn’t ready to take flight quite yet. The girl slides over closer to him and says something totally romantic and heartfelt, but unfortunately, the guy isn’t even paying attention. Oy vey. Naturally, she plays dumb afterwards. He missed his chance, and you just wanna smack him upside the head. But he needs to learn, and he can only learn from his mistakes.

— Mitsuyoshi then looks down and notices the clear glass floor. Time to freak out. I guess that marks the end of our date. To sum things up, Mitsuyoshi is making progress, but he’s still hung up on the past. He’s inching forward, but time is not on his side.

— Later that night, Teresa does not look happy as she walks home with Mitsuyoshi. Despite having such a fun day together with Mitsuyoshi, she knows she has to leave her first love behind. When he hands her a photo of them posing with the Rainbow Shogun, she looks like she’s about to cry. If she wants to get over the guy, having that photo isn’t going to help. I mean, just imagine her marrying Charles… would she still gonna hold onto that photo? Anyways, the ever perceptive Mitsuyoshi is right in front of the girl, but he just cocks his head to side as if he can’t comprehend human feelings. He looks through the viewfinder of his camera everyday in order to capture beauty, but he can’t understand a thing with his own two eyes.

— As Teresa slowly starts to leave, Mitsuyoshi calls out to her one last time. She seems to perk up at this. Maybe she’s hoping for a last second confession. After all, the guy needs to throw a Hail Mary pass if he’s going to keep her from leaving. Unfortunately, he simply offers her to join him for a drink of coffee. She turns it down and watches him enter the coffee shop. When he is finally out of earshot, she pretty much says her goodbye. She gone.

— Kaoru eventually emerges from the coffee shop, and he notices that Teresa isn’t stopping at her hotel. Instead, she’s walking off into the distance. For those of us who want a happy ending, the show’s just rubbing more salt into the wound.

— Oooh, those manju look nice. This show’s animation isn’t mind-blowing or anything, but it’s just well executed. Nice use of color, consistent work through and through.

— Mitsuyoshi has souvenirs for everyone. Even Nyanko Big gets a new toy.

— The next day, he tells Kaoru that he has decided on a photo to enter into the contest. He just needs Teresa’s permission first, which means he wants to use the photo he had taken of her that night. Unfortunately, neither she nor Alec are anywhere to be found. The guy is devastated, but… eh… I’ll explain my issue with Mitsuyoshi in just a bit.

— The preview for next week’s episode suggests a down-in-the-dumps Mitsuyoshi doing a whole lot of soul searching. Maybe his grandpa will have some sage advice for him.

— I think Teresa pretty much carries this anime. She’s super cheerful, but not in a cloying way. Like I said, it’s almost infectious. She’s grown on me over the past few weeks, and I sincerely hope that she finds her happiness — whatever it may be. The problem is that I still can’t understand the appeal in Mitsuyoshi. He’s got the personality of a solid side character, and that’s precisely the problem. I want to root for Teresa, but I don’t necessarily care if things work out for Mitsuyoshi. I don’t wish him ill or anything, but I’m not all that torn up that he’s heartbroken, y’know? I usually empathize with the main character, but I feel nothing for the guy. Hell, his rival is more appealing than him! Maybe I’m being too harsh on the guy, but eh… he’s just so uninspiring as a lead.

— Anyways, we still have three whole episodes left if the info on Wikipedia is accurate. There’s still a whole lot of time for Mitsuyoshi to right this ship. Ideally, he would conquer his fear of flying, hop on a plane to Larsenburg, then declare his love for Teresa in the middle of a foreign country. And y’know, Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai is such a happy-go-lucky anime in general that this might just happen. Another possibility is that she simply changes her mind and returns to him one day, but that would be a lame ending. After all, Mitsuyoshi would have undergone almost no personal growth. After all, he needs to take his own advice and say what he needs to say before it’s too late. It’s too late to keep her in the country (presumably), but it’s not too late to prevent her from marrying Charles (again, presumably). The most bittersweet ending is if Teresa simply accepts her marriage to Charles, and everyone moves on with their lives. This might be more suited for a more melodramatic series, but I can’t see it happening here. I could be wrong, though. After all, I still want a happy ending for the girl, so I might be allowing optimism to cloud my judgment. Oh well, all we can do is wait and see.

Eia is the least bad thing about this show, right? And that is precisely why we’re going to spend this entire week on two (arguably three) new characters. Yay! 

— Meet Gekkou, the guy in the screenshot at the very top of this post. His whole gimmick is that he’s delusional and worships a certain “Maria-sama,” a live chat with a doll. Basically, if you’re a sad sack like Gekkou, you go to Maria-sama for advice. After listening to what you have to say, she berates you. That’s simply it. And because you’re a masochist, you enjoy being treated like shit.

— Oh yeah, to show your devotion to Maria-sama, you gotta do this hand thing. Gang signs, man, gang signs.

— Anyways, it’s a small world, so Maria-sama has a bone to pick with Ryuuou. As a result, the woman tells Gekkou to spy on Ryuuou’s henchmen, a.k.a. Julia and Fujiko. We then learn what had happened between the latter and Creepazoid. Creepazoid’s black SCM lets him control anybody. Well, something like that. He calls it the judgment SCM, but I don’t know how passing judgment on people means they have to become your slave. Apparently, you just auto-lose when he “judges” you, but there isn’t even a game involved. Ah well, the show has a dumb premise anyway.

— So Gekkou freaks out and runs to Maria-sama for help. Yep, this is what Maria-sama looks like in real life. She targeted Gekkou because he apparently has a special power. Meh. Nothing is imaginative anymore. Afterwards, she tells him to go and look for Kiyo. Yay, another new character!

— Or is it? When Gekkou gets to the specified location, all he finds is Ryuuou and Zero. At the mention of Kiyo’s name, however, Zero’s personality suddenly shifts dramatically. Zero and Gekkou engage in a mock duel, then afterwards, Ryuuou tries to issue a command to Zero. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Why? Because Zero is Kiyo now. Yep, having a split personality means you can regain your autonomy. That… that sure is something. Kiyo then takes Ryuuou hostage just as Chuo and Taiju arrive.

— Unfortunately, Gekkou is useless and can’t even take a punch from Taiju. As a result, Ryuuou is able to free himself from Kiyo’s grasp. Nevertheless, Maria-sama arrives just in time to save both Gekkou and Taiju.

— If you can see one of Zero’s eyes, then Kiyo is in control. If you can see neither of his eyes, then the pathetic Zero is in control. Yep…

— So what’s Maria-sama’s deal? She went to jail one day and met Kiyo. They became fast friends, but tragedy struck and she died in an accident. That’s it. That’s the grand ol’ backstory.

— Shortly after he lost a duel to Chuo, Zero shows up at Maria-sama’s apartment claiming to be Kiyo. At first, the lady doesn’t believe his words, but it doesn’t take long to convince her that her dead BFF is still alive. Amazing, isn’t it? According to Kiyo, the SCM somehow surfaced her from within the depths of Zero’s psyche. But nevermind that, because if Maria-sama was so close to Kiyo, how come she never knew that her best friend had a son?

— It sounds like Maria-sama is still in love with Kiyo.

— In any case, the two women hatch a plan to free Zero from Ryuuou. Honestly, I have no idea what to make of this subplot. Forget having a compelling backstory, because they barely even have one. I don’t care about any of these characters. I just want the focus to return to Eia. Actually, I just want this whole series to be done and over with. It’s not even remotely fun to watch anymore.

— Oh look, Kiyo is about to turn back into Zero.

— Aaaaand… bam… Zero’s back. Both eyes covered!

— This whole time, Creepazoid is watching everything unfold from the numerous cameras that he somehow has installed all over the place. Like how?

— Also, Julia is losing her grip since she refuses to wear her SCM, but again, I don’t care about her and her sick shota fetish at all. This show is just full of characters that we have no reason to give a shit about.

This is the episode where Priscilla finally makes herself useful by dying. 

— Y’know, the evil pope man isn’t wrong. The Lords do fight all day and night. I’ve been told, however, that the people support Theo. I haven’t seen it, but that’s because this anime rarely ever shows anything. We’ll just have to take the anime at its word.

— Evil pope man ends up declaring a holy war on Theo. I’m still kinda surprised that he would have an army strong enough to resist the combined might of the Lords. Like I’ve said before, if his faction was always this strong, why did they wait so long to make their move? Why did they allow Theo to consolidate so much power?

— Okay, just to keep things straight in our heads, we have the evil Mage Academy and the evil Order of the Crest. The Order of the Crest are religious and fanatical. Also, there’s Pandora, a shadowy organization within the Mage Academy. The last thing they want is for magic to disappear from the continent, which would happen if Theo gets the Grancrest and eliminates Chaos from the world. I think I have this right.

— 5000 warriors and 70000 crazy followers? Wow, that’s rather lopsided. But I guess this is why the evil pope man thinks he can win against Theo. Plus, our hero is naturally hesitant to fight. After all, he doesn’t want to spill the blood of innocent women and children. Yep, there are children in the pope’s army. I’m surprised to hear that too.

— Priscilla claims that no fighting will be necessary. She’s going to talk to Sir Leone and convince him otherwise. Wait… who is Sir Leone again? Is that the evil pope man’s actual name?

— Man, Theo is getting super worked up about Priscilla’s plan. Unfortunately, as a viewer, we’re lacking a ton of context. Just how close is he to Priscilla? Just how dangerous is this Sir Leone? In any case, Theo doesn’t want to send the priestess in alone, but he ultimately relents when Siluca volunteers to accompany her. So… uh, he’s less worried that his future wife might be in danger? ‘Cause I’d still be freaked out in his shoes.

— Who is the One God? This seems to imply that there might be other Gods, but this “One God” is the only one we should worship. Man, I know next to nothing about the religion in Record of Grancrest War universe.

— In any case, the villains are laughably arrogant as usual. They’re certain that they’ll win. After all, even if they lose the battle, Theo’s reputation will suffer for murdering non-warriors.

— Apparently, the evil pope’s followers are also hesitant to fight Theo because the Holy Maiden Priscilla is on his side, but since when did she garner such a following?

— But y’know what? We have yet another episode full of people sitting around in a room, talking our ears off about their plans. At least they’re not walking around each other in a circle, I guess.

— Siluca won’t be going completely alone; she’ll have her two followers Irvin and Aishela on her side. I still wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea of sending my future wife into the lions’ den, but I guess Theo has no other option. Also, she now has a broom to replace her wand. It sounds like they can cast magic without a wand, but having some object helps them concentrate. I think.

— These guys seem more like a cult than a proper religion. I know, I know, the distinction isn’t exactly huge.

— Leone wants all of the Crests for himself. Naturally.

— You can tell how poorly news travel in this universe. Siluca tells the entire crowd that Theo has no wish to monopolize the Crests (obviously). He simply wants to eliminate Chaos (naturally). Nevertheless, these fanatical followers are just hearing this for the first time.

— Fake news, fake news!

— If the followers are this easily swayed, why did the evil pope man even allow them to attend this meeting between him and Siluca? Arrogance again? Are we gonna blame the villains’ downfall on arrogance each and every single time?

— So Priscilla reveals herself, and Leone is shook! Shook, I tells ya! Why did he allow her to attend the meeting without checking her identity first?

— Priscilla says they should all be equal before god, but I mean… she’s serving the emperor.

— Priscilla’s father is the founder of the entire order? Is this the first time we’re learning this? It sure feels like it! I still have no clue what Priscilla is about. No, no, I understand that she’s the Holy Grail. But she just showed up one day, pledged to follow Theo, then disappeared for months and months on end only to suddenly become the big, shiny MacGuffin at the very end of the story.

— Speaking of the big, shiny MacGuffin…

— It turns out Leone is also a member of Pandora. The bad guys cut straight to the point: let’s just murder Priscilla and be done with it! So much for appealing to the evil pope man.

— Leone’s going to try and kill her in front of everyone. Ballsy.

— But Priscilla gives Irvin one look and that’s enough to stop the guy from stepping in and protecting her. Did she stop him with magical powers or something? Sure enough, Leone stabs her right in the stomach. Priscilla actually wants to die. Maybe she gets to be a martyr this way.

— Oh come on, how can you just declare her a heretic? She literally just summoned forth the Holy Grail! Leone still doesn’t believe that he’s standing before the real deal.

— Her stab wound is glowing! Oh shiiiiiit, here comes the plot twist, right? Hell, I don’t even know anymore.

— Magical wisps of whatever emerges from Priscilla’s body as she tells her friends that it was her duty to die. Huh. So there won’t be a plot twist? She literally came here to die? Why even drag Siluca, Irvin, and Aishela into this then? Priscilla must have been 100% confident that her friends would survive. Otherwise, she needlessly endangered them if her plan all along was to die. It’s either that or she doesn’t think death is really that grave of an outcome. Still, I’d be hella pissed in Theo’s shoes. He agreed to this plan because he thought Priscilla wouldn’t die. It turns out Priscilla died anyways, and his future wife was put in peril for no reason.

— Even a weakened Aishela appears to have no trouble murdering all these soldiers. The events from last week’s episode didn’t seem to impact her all that much. Blood seeps from her lips, but I don’t know if that’s because she’s weaker or what.

— So the “plot twist” here is that Priscilla’s Holy Grail won’t turn into a Chaos Core like every other Crest. In other wordds, she’s the real deal, you guys. Dying was her only way to prove that she was the Holy Maiden all along. Whoopsy.

— The other evil guy tells Leone to just take the Holy Grail for himself. Bet you he can’t. But look at the evil pope man. He’s actually feeling guilt! Evil pope man is not actually that evil.

— I can’t really get too worked up about Priscilla because I hardly knew her. Like I said, she was barely in the story at all. At this point, the only characters I really have any emotional investment in are Theo and Siluca. The rest of them could lose their lives, and I’d just shrug.

— Well, I guess we could spare Lassic. He’s always been a bro.

— As suspected, Theo is devastated to hear the bad news. Again, if the adaptation had bothered to flesh out his relationship with Priscilla, I could understand why he’s so worked up about this…

— Theo blames himself, but I’m just like, “Dude, you were literally the only person who didn’t agree to her plan. I think you’re in the clear.”

— So the Holy Grail is floats there until someone grabs it? I’m surprised no one else has made an attempt on it. Nevertheless, yet another powerful thing falls into Theo’s hands.

— Oh no, he can hear Priscilla’s voice after absorbing the Holy Grail. She’s not gonna keep watch on the guy, is she? Imagine trying to consummate your relationship with your wife only to have Priscilla’s disembodied voice telling you to stop sinning.

— Siluca actually tells these religious followers to now worship Theo. Yeesh. That’s going a bit too far, isn’t it?

— Snark aside, Priscilla did a great thing. She traded her one life for the lives of tens of thousands. If a battle had broken out, who knows how many people would’ve died? Theo’s hands are stained with the blood of the people. Sure, he’s fighting for a just cause, but at the end of the day, he lets the people do most of the fighting for him. He only shows up to fight the likes of Milza and whatever. Priscilla, on the other hand, actually managed to protect the people’s lives.

— But enough about that. We only have two more episodes left! We’re almost done with Record of Grancrest War.

It figures that after last week’s action-packed episode, we’d spend the vast majority of this week’s episode twiddling our thumbs. I hope you like crybaby Aya telling you how much she’s going to mamoru everybody, ’cause that’s all you’re getting.

— Alright, we pick up where we last left off, and Aya is sad. Aya is very sad.

— Nijimi looks rather peaceful in death, though. Plus, even if the girls manage to take Nana down, there are a bunch more behind her. Not only that, you have assholes like Kaname and maybe even the person who kidnapped Kaname to contend with. This is a sick, sadistic universe that delights on torturing these poor schoolgirls. Nijimi is probably better off dead.

— Apparently, Yakuza Girl had her gang cover up Nijimi’s death. As a result, people think the dog idol merely died of… wait, how do they think she died? Sadly, the news report doesn’t mention the cause of death. The girl took a huge katana slash to the chest, which would be pretty hard to cover up. Don’t you think the police would at least want a coroner to take a look at her body and make sure there wasn’t any funny business? Ah well, maybe the police have been paid off too.

— Look at Tsuyuno. Look how mad she is. She’s determined to get her revenge on Kaname. The girl isn’t satisfied with just torturing one person slowly to death.

— Nevertheless, this scene with her and Rina just goes on and on and on. A lot of scenes in this week’s episode is like this. Characters standing around, talking about their current situation. It’s a far cry from last week’s concerted effort.

— Basically, the girls want to recover their magical sticks, but we already know Sarina has Rina’s backpack. Speaking of which, I love how she’s trying to look all bad ass in that cloak.

— The detective with the funny hair drops by the Asagiri household to look into Kaname’s sudden disappearance. He wants to speak to Aya, but the dad gets all huffy because he deems his daughter irrelevant to the situation. Um, why don’t we let the detective decide that? Unfortunately, the guy doesn’t actually press Aya’s dad on the matter, which I find extremely odd. What responsible investigator would just take Aya’s dad at his word?

— Finally, we get to Aya, and she’s just holed up in her room. Wait, that’s not all! I hope you like flashbacks, ’cause here’s a flashback of Nijimi!

— And now, we have a flashback of Tsuyuno telling Aya to toughen up! What I really love is how the show doesn’t even bother to slap some shitty filter on these scenes to differentiate them as flashbacks. Let’s just reuse the scenes as is and call it a day!

— After bombarding us with recycled material, Aya rushes all the way back to the site of that collapsed apartment building. She’s determined to find those missing magical sticks… except we already know who has the magical sticks, so this is pointless.

— We cut to the administrators being evil… and yeah, that’s about it. They just wanna know what Nana’s going to do about the current situation. There’s really no new information to glean from this scene at all other than that Nana’s about to do something. But c’mon, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that.

— Also, this is another super cheap scene to animate, because most of the administrators barely move! Their mouths definitely don’t! You may as well be watching a series of still images.

— After the boring scene with the administrators, we cut to Aya sitting on a riverbank. Again, she tells us that she’s going to mamoru the fuck out of her friends. Great.

— That’s when Sarina shows up with Aya’s stick! Oh no, what’s gonna happen next!

— The next day, it’s storming real bad as… holy shit, look at all these people standing in line just to mourn Nijimi’s death. The detective even refers to her as a national icon. A national icon? The goddamn dog idol was one of Japan’s national fucking icon?!

— Yeah yeah, you guys are sad over a dog idol.

— Everyone has shown up to pay their respects. Everyone but Aya.

— Heh, we “covered up” her wounds with flowers!

— Finally, Aya arrives fashionably late to say her goodbyes to Nijimi. I still can’t believe we’re making such a big deal out of a one-dimensional character. Nijimi didn’t have a modicum of character development. Not a single one. To me, she was pretty much a gimmick character. For Christ’s sake, her stick was a pair of panties. She wanted to get her revenge on Rina and that was it. She had nothing else to offer to the story. Nevertheless, the story is treating Nijimi’s death like it’s a national tragedy.

— The girls demand to know where Aya’s been. All of a sudden, our girl whips out her stick and aims it at her friends. Is this a heel turn? C’mon, of course not. Aya’s too pure to be corrupted.

— Out of nowhere, a giant explosion rocks the funeral. So much for paying the dead our respects.

— It turns out Nana is behind the explosion. Not only that, the detective with the funny hair is working with the evil administrator, which is a shame. I really wanted one mature adult to come in and just sort out this huge mess, but he’s an evil prick too. In fact, is there even a single well-adjusted male character on this show?

— Oh yeah, the detective is also responsible for Kaname’s disappearance. To make matters worse, he has Aya’s brother chained up naked in an abandoned warehouse. Yo, I disliked the guy, but I don’t want to see him get raped. Do we really have to do this? Mahou Shoujo Site says yes.

— We eventually “learn” that Aya had teleported her friends to safety. I put the word “learn” in quotes, because again, there is no chance in hell that Aya could ever go bad on us. Sarina is more likely to join the good guys than it is for Aya to break bad.

— Speaking of which, that is exactly what happens.

— Unfortunately, even though Aya’s heart is in the right place, her next move is controversial: she wants everyone to hand over their sticks. And by everyone, we really mean the new girls who we barely know. Aya intends to fight the administrators with just Sarina by her side. Since she wants to mamoru the fuck out of everyone, she doesn’t want them to help her. She says this is her way of atoning for Nijimi’s death. But isn’t that selfish? You don’t take the less optimal path just because you want to atone. There’s too much at stake. We can’t just concern ourselves with Aya’s feelings.

— Furthermore, she’s naive if she thinks the rest of the girls could just go back their happy-go-lucky lives. First, they only became magical girls in the first place because their lives sucked. Without their sticks, they’re sitting sucks. They’re sitting ducks to the administrators, and they’re sitting ducks to any evil magical girl that they might come across. Not only that, they’re sitting ducks to your bog standard schoolyard bully. If Aya hadn’t gotten her magical stick, she would’ve gotten raped and possibly killed by now. If Tsuyuno didn’t have her stick, she also would’ve gotten raped.

— Anyways, Tsuyuno slaps some sense into Aya. We get yet another flashback. This one reminds us that Aya had promised to never abandon Tsuyuno.

— So in the end, Aya is embraced by her BFF, and everyone is determined to fight.

— For once, I agree with Sarina.

— Plus, Sarina’s heel turn is hilarious. Why has she decided to betray Nana? Because the administrators don’t look at magical girls as people. Um, who bullied Aya to tears? Who nearly got Aya raped? Who helped play a part in the death of an innocent kitten? So get outta here with that “wah wah they don’t see us as people” bullshit. She thinks she can roll up in here with a dope cloak and that moe fang and everyone’ll just embrace her? Not me, man.

— After that, everyone poses with their sticks, but it’s kinda cringey. But that’s the end of our episode. Yay…

I woke up early, so let’s get this show out of the way first. 

— Bakugo isn’t the only person to magically disappear in front of the heroes. All of the villains slip out of their grasp as well. I guess if you give All For One every single convenient power, you can never really shake up the status quo. He’ll always have a way to rescue everyone. I just think it’s kinda lame that they don’t manage to arrest a single person. Not a single one.

— All For One’s suit (but casual without a tie) combined with the music in the background — the slow piano and the operatic singing — is too over-the-top for me. This aesthetic combination might be better suited for a sophisticated villain like, say, Hannibal. For your bog standard supervillain, however, I find it hilariously silly. Of course, they paint All For One as a calculated genius, but I’m not feeling it. I’m just seeing an evil mirror of All Might.

— He takes a clean shot at Best Jeanist, and it looks painful. In fact, it looks fatal, but with anime, you never know. He’ll probably survive this attack. I don’t have anything against the number four hero, but I really want the show to finally raise the stakes. Can someone important finally die? Of course, we’d have to wonder if Best Jeanist is actually important or not…

— We finally get a close-up of All For One’s face (not really) and it’s… eh. I’m not loving it. In any case, he doesn’t want Best Jeanist’s Quirk, because it doesn’t fit Shigaraki’s disposition? But shouldn’t utility be the biggest concern? ‘Cause y’know, I’d grab Mt. Lady’s Quirk. I think it would be cool as fuck if one of the villains went Godzilla on the heroes. Unfortunately, All For One will probably just claim that becoming a giant doesn’t fit Shigaraki’s disposition either.

— Plus, if Mt. Lady loses her powers, then she will no longer be able to fulfill our giantess fetish. Let’s face it, that’s pretty much half of the reason why she exists.

— Deku and the rest of the kids want to run, but they are still frozen with fear. All For One’s aura is just that frightening. Luckily, Bakugo and the rest of the villains soon show up. This means Deku will have to stay and do something about it. He didn’t come all the way out here just to do nothing. He just has to come up with a good plan. Otherwise, Iida won’t let him lift a finger. If only there was a distraction…

— Oh hey, it’s All Might to the rescue!

— All For One’s got this father-son love for Shigaraki. He really sees something in the guy. It’s the same way that All Might dotes on Deku. But of course, we follow the kid, so we know everything that there is to know about the him. We know why he deserves All Might’s Quirk and tutelage. Shigaraki has honestly never impressed me, so it’s hard for me to see why he gets to be All For One’s heir apparent.

— Look at these two… just a pair of geriatric old men begging to hand the reins off to the next generation.

— All Might gives great speeches. All Might sounds very inspiring. Unfortunately, he’s got such a boring Quirk. He’s the prototypical superhero in a story full of imagination, so even though he’s the top fighter, all we ever get to see are boring punches.

— On the other hand, All For One is like an evil Mega Man. You never know what Quirk he has up his sleeve, which works to the story’s advantage. Whenever he needs to get out of a pinch, he just needs to summon up a Quirk we never knew he had!

— For instance, he can stab people with these black-and-red vines and forcibly activate their Quirks! Even though Kurogiri is unconscious, All For One can still warp everyone to safety. Convenient!

— The villains can’t leave just yet, though. They still want Bakugo real bad, so the kid ends up having to fight off six of them at the same time. I only have Himiko pictured here, because she’s like the least lame jobber of the all the Vanguards.

— And because Bakugo is still in danger, All Might can’t get serious. But I mean, even without the kid, he’s not in the clear, is he? Best Jeanist, Mt. Lady, and that whale guy are still here. They’re still in danger. They could still get caught up in a big, blowout fight.

— This is a visualization of Deku’s thought process. So is he hands down the smartest person in 1-A? Or just the best battle strategist?

— In the end, he hatches a plan that relies Kirishima to call out to Bakugo, because they’re lover bois. Deku and Iida will use their powers to carry Kirishima across the battlefield. Todoroki will create the giant ice ramp that launches them high into the air. Last but not least, Momo will… Momo will… goddammit, the girl gets to do nothing again.

— Good ol’ Bakugo and his one-track mind.

— Look at these jobbers still try and do something. Compress gets launched into the air as well, but he runs right into Mt. Lady. Yep, she has probably been awake for a while now, and when she saw the kids swoop in to save their friend, I guess she decided to lend a hand. At least a woman got to do something. She quickly passes out afterwards, though. Eh.

— Finally, Gran Torino shows up to lend a hand. Plus, with Bakugo out of the picture, All Might intends to go all out. But again, nothing is going to change. None of the villains will get captured, because All For One forcibly activates Magne’s Quirk and makes his guys to escape through the warp.

— All Might tries to throw another punch, but All For One teleports Gran Torino in front of All Might’s fist. At least that’s clever. Plus, friendly fire is always funny.

— But it doesn’t stop All Might from punching All For One again, and this time, it lands real hard. Unfortunately, we already know that Deku’s mentor is at the end of his ropes. He’s ready to sunset his career and leave the rest to his successor. Even though he’s trying all he can right now to stop All For One, even the bad guy can sense that something is amiss.

— Still, All For One can talk shit all he wants, but he’s the guy laying smack dab in a crater. Maybe he’s the only one who will get captured. I mean, there’s no one else around to help him… right?

— But even if All For One gets captured, it’s kinda whatever. After all, all he did before this arc was sit in the shadows, so if you throw him in prison, all he’s gonna do from that point on is sit in the shadows. So what has changed? Nothing.

— Also, the last badass One For All user was a woman, and she’s dead. Maaaaaaaan…