For a show where the characters are anything but flat, the drama sure is a letdown. But we’ll get to Narumi and Kanata later. 

— Marissa, Emily and Claire’s mother, is here to help get Haruka and Kanata up to speed in time for nationals. Emily had personally requested this, too. Since she’s apparently a pro volleyball player, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity. How many people ever get to play their favorite sport with one of the pros?

— When Emily asks about their father, Marissa says to not worry about him. That’s hilarious, because this show literally does not portray male characters. No, seriously, they are nowhere to be found. But at least the characters don’t pretend as though they’re fatherless, I suppose.

— I always knew Kanata was short, but Jesus Christ, Marissa dwarfs her. Naturally, she’s even taller than Haruka.

— Meanwhile, Akari just ogles Marissa’s body. Well, hey, her daughters are teenagers by now, so she has to be at least in her mid-30s, but it’s much more likely that she’s in her 40s. If she’s got a stomach that toned in her 40s, hey, more power to her.

— Unfortunately, the poor girl doesn’t get to play with the rest of the kids. She kinda joined this club for nothing. I don’t know why the writer couldn’t just come up with one extra character. It’s not like these girls have super distinctive personalities. We probably could’ve jammed in another generic, happy-go-lucky volleyball lover into the story.

— Anyways, Haruka and Kanata’s first lesson is to try and block Marissa’s spikes. She’s not as strong as she used to be, but she still leagues ahead of the girls. So y’know, we get to watch the girls miss a lot of spikes in slow motion. Par for the course for this anime.

— Eventually, the duo finally realizes that they’re a team. You think I’m joking, but I’m not. They finally realize that neither person has to block or receive Marissa’s spikes on their own. Instead, Haruka can slow the ball down just enough for Kanata to get it in play. Dude, it’s the eighth fucking episode, and we’re only now realizing this? Ugh…

— After this oh-so-big epiphany, we take a break, ’cause Akari has returned with popsicles. Yep, she get sent on popsicle duty with Claire.

— While the girls enjoy their popsicles, we get a flashback. Kanata and Narumi first met the Eclair duo in a junior volleyball tournament. In fact, they played against each other in the finals. We’ve kinda seen this before, though. We saw a flashback where Claire was crying, so as you might expect, she and her sister had lost against Kanata and Narumi.

— Afterwards, the show gives a montage to convey the passage of time. The girls get their club officially approved. Everyone would continue practicing together. HaruKana go through the signs at home. And poor Akari finally gets coached by Marissa, but she still has no partner.

— Finally, the montage ends with everyone at a shrine for the new year.

— Like I said, there’s not a single male character in this show. It just looks odd. It’s not that we need a guy in a speaking role. It’s that they don’t even get to be extras in the background. What an odd art direction.

— When the girls draw their fortune, Akari is the only one to get something less than positive.

— Finally, we get to the one small source of drama in this week’s episode. Ayasa rings up Haruka to tell the girl that she and Narumi are currently in Okinawa, but not for long. They have to quickly catch a flight to Kyoto, but boy, wouldn’t it be cool if Kanata and Narumi could meet up again?! As a result, genki girl Haruka is determined to get her partner to the airport in time. Marissa even shows up just to drive everyone to the airport even though this is between Kanata and Narumi.

— When Narumi thinks about the last time she saw Kanata in person, she grimaces. It’s been months, but I guess she’s not over the fact that she couldn’t help her former partner get over her insecurities.

— So this is a classic setup, right? You see this all the time in stories. Someone has to leave soon via plane or train, and someone else has to race against time to see them off. This part of the episode even has an insert song and everything. Unfortunately, this entire sequence just doesn’t resonate with me. In fact, I got so bored with the episode that I paused it to go through my Twitter feed. And look, I only follow 20 people on Twitter, so it’s not a very interesting feed!

— Emily and Claire brace themselves when they get in the car, because their mom is apparently a wild driver. But hey, this 3-D car looks better than other 3-D cars in recent memory.

— As Narumi waits, she bemoans the fact that she can only wait. She’s still sad that she couldn’t do anything for Kanata. I guess the elephant in the room is that she regrets the fact that they ever “broke up.” This could lead to bitterness and frustration from Ayasa, but eh, not really? Not since the first episode? The show doesn’t really do the legwork to build up its drama, so this part of the anime just falls flat. It doesn’t do anything for me.

— Marissa can try to drive as fast as she wants, but there’s nothing she can do against traffic. As a result, the girls do yet another classic thing: they get out of the car and start running.

— Narumi is just about to step through security when Kanata finally calls out to her. The latter swears that she’ll keep her promise — she’ll keep her promise to become a national champion at volleyball. Unfortunately, she’s going to have to do it with Haruka. Even though her former partner ran all this way just to speak with her, Narumi doesn’t turn around. Maybe she’s in tears or something, who knows. Eventually, she holds up one pinkie, so she’s going to try and hold her end of the promise as well. But like I said, Harukana Receive is too drama-free in general, so this moment doesn’t resonate. I guess the takeaway here is that both girls need to move on — Kanata certainly has — but the scene isn’t as powerful as it should be. Narumi has had no character development since the first and second episode, so it’s hard for me to really care one way or the other about her.

— We soon see that the girls had stuck around to watch Ayasa and Narumi’s plane take off. Between checking in and take-off, the whole process can take quite a while, so I feel like this is a bit unrealistic. Who honestly wants to stand around and wait for a plane to take flight? I mean, I’m sure this shot looks poignant on at first glance, but if I try and think about it, it just comes off as silly.

Do I really want to watch this “special” episode? Not really. This is going to be a short post since this episode is, as you might expect, pretty inconsequential. 

— The episode opens with a news program about All Might’s earlier days. He used to hang out with a guy by the name of David Shield. Said guy is apparently a brilliant scientist. Want to know more about him? Watch the My Hero Academia movie that just came out! Oh, you’re not in Japan? Well, I guess you can just sit tight and wait. Supposedly, Funimation will screen the movie in the West next month. I’m not sure if I’ll go watch it. On the one hand, the subbed version is only screened on weekdays. On the other hand, I don’t actually mind MHA‘s dub. Hmmm…

— Anyways, Aizawa’s holding extra summer lessons, and only a handful of students can participate at any given time. So for our “special” episodes, we pretty much get the main characters of the series. I’d throw Momo in there, but eh, it’s no big loss.

— Dude, phrasing…

— The kids will try and approach a situation in which a robbery has gone wrong, and as a result, the villain has holed himself up inside a jewelry store along with three hostages. Naturally, all four characters are played by instructors.

— Uraraka is sent in first, because her ability to pretty much fly allows her to collect useful information. Also, I took this screenshot, because I thought it looked cute. She kinda resembles Kirby with her pink costume and puffed out cheeks.

— It doesn’t take long, however, before Bakugo loses his patience. Defuse a hostage situation? Puh-leeze. He’s here to fight. The kid ends up charging in through the front door, and the others have no choice but to follow his lead. I mean, what else can they do?

— Bakugo blows up the entrance with his Quirk. He claims that he is holding back, but isn’t this kinda dangerous for the hostage? Even if they hadn’t got caught up in the explosion, what if the villain had retaliated instantly by harming one of them? If I were Aizawa, I’d fail the kids right there and then. Or, at the very least, just fail Bakugo.

— But of course, we can’t cut this woefully boring episode short, so the show must go on. We thus have a mini-murder mystery on our hands. When the kids get inside the store, they find that the villain is dead from an apparent stab wound.

— Who could’ve killed the villain?! Everyone was barricaded in the store, so no one could’ve entered or left before Bakugo blew the front doors wide open! As a result, the killer must be in this very same room!

— At one point, Asui makes a rather reasonable suggestion in my honest opinion: why don’t we just leave this to the police? Yeah, why don’t we? They’re heroes, not detectives. Maybe some heroes are detectives, but not all heroes. Are heroes supposed to be able to play detectives too? I mean, don’t you think they have enough on their plate as it is?

— Plus, if you really think about, if the villain is dead, why wouldn’t they call the police to come in and start their investigation? The kids don’t have to bow out, but there’s no reason to keep the rest of the police force standing outside.

— You want to call it a forensics team, don’t you? I mean, c’mon, it’s a murder scene.

— Eh, whatever. I guess we’ll just play along. That is some dark ass blood.

— So like any closed room murder mystery, the kids start questioning the hostages, i.e. the suspects, one-by-one. I’m not going to get into the facts and details, because this episode is really boring to me. So let’s just cut to the chase: Deku concocts this elaborate story about how the villain was really in a relationship with the character played by Midnight. As a result, to avoid ruining her reputation, the villain committed suicide out of love. Love, you guys. Love. For once, I share Bakugo’s annoyance.

— And according to Aizawa, Deku’s theory was more or less correct. Unfortunately, they didn’t check to see if the villain was really dead or not. It turns out he was just playing dead. As soon as the kids turn around to check, the villain is gone. Y’see, earlier when Asui had checked the “dead body,” her hair tickled All Might’s nose so he giggled. As a result, he really wasn’t dead.

— I’m sorry, but this is kinda stupid. All Might can’t really be dead, because this is just a mock scenario. He’s just acting. Of course he wouldn’t really be dead. The kids reasonably assumed that he was playing a dead character. What were they supposed to do? Even if they checked his pulse, it’d be useless because of course he would have a pulse. He’s not really dead. Were they supposed to tie him up? What? Tie up what they thought was a corpse? Risk disturbing the scene of the crime without first calling in the forensics team?

— But therein lies the problem: if the kids truly thought they had a murder mystery on their hands, they should’ve called in the experts. Sorry, a bunch of freshmen in high school shouldn’t be trying to solve a murder. This whole thing was a waste of time from the very beginning.

— Anyways, in the aftermath, All Might reads an email from Melissa Shield, David Shield’s daughter. She invites the hero to I-Island, where a big science expo will be taking place. All Might quickly runs to Deku, because he wants to invite the kid to come along. Want to know what happens next? Watch the movie, the episode reminds us! Plus, it wouldn’t be My Hero Academia without all of the other wonderful characters, so you can rest assured that Deku won’t be the only person joining All Might on the trip.

— Unfortunately, when I look at the cast of characters, I see that Mineta is also included. You guys aren’t really convincing me to plop down fifteen bucks for this movie! Nah, I’m just kidding. If I get free time on a Saturday night, I’ll check it out. Usually, I got stuff with the girlfriend on the weekends, and convincing her to watch a MHA movie will be a tall task…

— I’ll be back later today with the Persona 5 post. If fansubbers get around to Sirius the Jaeger‘s latest episode, I’ll cover that too. On the other hand, while High Score Girl‘s latest episode got fansubbed pretty quick this week, I’ll still save it for tomorrow. I don’t usually have busy Sundays, so this means I’ll be able to give it the attention it deserves.

I have so many complaints about the Okumura section of the story. I’ve already mentioned Haru’s lack of presence in the overall narrative, so I won’t rehash those points again. The Phantom Thieves swoop in and change Okumura’s heart, and as they flee the palace, the disgraced CEO promises to change his ways. All good, right? Unfortunately, the culprit behind the mental shutdowns assassinates Okumura when nobody is looking. For some odd reason, however, the guy doesn’t die for a long, long time. According to Haru, he simply locks himself up in his study until the day of the press conference. Then of course, in front of the all the cameras and thus the entire world, the CEO suffers a gruesome, horrific death. But why did it take so long to kill him? I guess we can write this off as nothing more than a plot contrivance. It may very well be the case that it takes a certain amount of time before a mental shutdown can kick in. Unfortunately, this still isn’t a very satisfying explanation. After all, the player can beat Okumura’s Palace on the very first day that it is available, or wait till the very last minute. Either way, the CEO always dies at the press conference, so… yeah…

Still, this isn’t what bothers me the most about Okumura’s death. Rather, what irks me is Haru’s reaction or lack thereof. In the anime, they actually have her let out a bloodcurdling scream, and that makes sense. After all, the poor girl just had to watch her dad die on live television. Not only that, black bile is oozing out of his every orifice. What’s up with that? It’s bad enough to watch someone die. This is straight-up nightmare fuel. In the game, however, the girl’s reaction is subdued at best. She simply tells the team she has to go. I mean, c’mon, that’s so cold and unemotional. What I find unbelievable, however, is how quickly Haru recovers from the whole ordeal. At first, she keeps her distance from the team, but she eventually resolves to continue fighting as soon as it’s time to tackle the next challenge in the game. I don’t doubt that she would want to catch the person who murdered her father, but I just felt like she got over the tragedy way too quickly and way too easily. The plot has to keep moving, and the game doesn’t want to prevent you from using Haru in the very next palace. As a result, for gameplay reasons, she has to get over her problems and get over them quickly. But from a narrative standpoint, this was really weak and lame.

In a longer game, it might have been possible to hold Haru out for a month or two as she emotionally recovers from her father’s death. After all, the team does kinda get a new party member for the very next palace. Unfortunately, we’re near the end of the game, so Haru can’t really afford to sit out. We only have two and a half palaces left (if you want to consider the last dungeon as a palace of sorts). Plus, the game is long enough as it is. A lot of people went well over 100 hours just to beat Persona 5 on their first playthrough. Personally, I wasted about 80 hours in mine. Anyways, it’s hard for me to love this portion of the story. I didn’t mind Morgana’s mini-drama, but I know it bugged some people. Okumura’s Palace wasn’t my least favorite dungeon in the game, but a lot of people didn’t like it. And for reasons that I’ll explain in a bit, the boss fight here is probably the last inspired out of the entire game. Combined with all the narrative issues above, yeah, this probably is the weakest section of the entire story. Anyways…

Misc. notes & observations:

— So we got chibi Makoto and now chibi Haru. Why is Ann getting the shaft? Hell, anime Ren has maxed out his social link with Ryuji, Makoto, and Yusuke already. Ann’s still waiting to get her time in the spotlight.

— According to Haru, her father “enacted a policy that favored profits.” Afterwards, his business just became a runaway train immediately. Gosh, that was easy. Plus, I doubt a guy who is obsessed with profits would hold some silly burger-eating challenge that only costs 500 yen.

— This line is especially bad since it’s coming from Haru’s own father. Sure, it might be a twisted version of him, but this is how he truly feels deep down. I dunno, the idea of hating being poor so much that you’d be willing to sell your own daughter for favors is pretty hard to swallow. I suppose there are people like that out there, though. It’s possible.

— A cognition of Haru’s fiance serves as a miniboss of sorts. It’s really not all that memorable, though. After all, like Haru, her fiance doesn’t really have much of a presence in the story. Even though the biggest worry here is to complete the dungeon before she has to marry the guy, he just stops showing up after this point. He should’ve been a recurring figure who harasses Haru. This way, maybe I’d care more about saving her.

— Milady, Haru’s Persona, is kinda cool. Guns actually pop out from beneath her skirt. Unfortunately, we don’t really get to have a really good look in the adaptation. Either everything’s blurry or she’s really, really far away from the audience.

— Well, this splash doesn’t look half bad.

— Before the episode is even half over, we’ve reached the treasure. The adaptation leaves out a lot of the stuff that is annoying about Okumura’s Palace. There’s a section where you have to gather information about a miniboss in order to find and fight the right one. The right one drops a keycard you need to unlock a door. Every time I replay the game, I just brute force my way through this part, i.e. fight everyone. Someone’s going to drop the keycard eventually!

— The adaptation also leaves out the lame section with the conveyor belts.

— Back in the real world, the group sees that the Phansite is being hammered with comments encouraging them to take down Okumura. But y’know, if they’d just scrutinize those user IDs, they might find something fishy about this whole situation. “argh5ghj” is probably not a real person.

— Lots of 1% are happy, so…

— Okumura became evil because he didn’t want to be poor. There’s a middle ground between being in debt and running a sweatshop, though. Just sayin’…

— The problem with fighting Okumura is that you don’t really fight him. He’s a chump, so he hides behind his workers. That’s an interesting thematic idea, but in execution, we just find ourselves fighting waves after waves of boring, looking robots.

— Sometimes, you get tall, gangly robots, but they’re still robots you’ve already encountered.

— Eventually, you fight a big boy, but Haru’s fiance was also a big boy. Again, this feels like a retread.

— Last but not least, you have to take down Okumura’s right-hand man, but again, he looks like a palette-swapped enemy.

— So to make the fight interesting, you are actually timed. What the adaptation doesn’t convey is that the team has to get through these battles within 30 minutes. This is more than enough time to get the job done, but you might feel the pressure a bit… especially if you’re underleveled.

— Ren summons Hecatoncheires at one point in the battle, so he’s now at least level 42.

— Eventually, Okumura has no one left to protect him, so he’s just a sitting duck. This part looks kinda awkward, though.

— The whole team is looking good as always. Makoto, especially.

— There’s really only one person who could possibly be the culprit.

— So after another mission accomplished, the group hits up an amusement park to celebrate. I had no idea Ren would dislike rollercoasters this much. Hell, he suggested going to the amusement park in the first place.

— During a lull in the fun, Haru explains why her father’s treasure is a plastic model.

— Anyways, the terrible press conference happens, but I already talked about it up above. In the adaptation, when they cut the live camera feed, we see this pleasant field of flowers. It is not as amusing as what we got in the game.

— I see a #25, so we probably have quite a few episodes left to go.

— Well, if you’re wondering who’s next, this is a pretty big clue.

Man, how did we ever get through our awkward school years? 

— Koharu got a copy of Final Fight for the Super Famicom just so she can play with Haruo. You really gotta feel for the girl, but at some point, she needs to take the direct approach. I know we all want the object of our affection to naturally fall in love with us as if it is always meant to be, but that’s just not realistic.

— Also, wasn’t the SNES version of Final Fight terrible? This was back when the Genesis (or Sega Mega Drive) was getting superior ports of all the arcade games.

— Haruo ends up asking if he could borrow the game instead of coming over to Koharu’s house to play it. Welp, I guess I’m not surprised.

— Akira still turns heads whenever she walks into a room. Too bad it’s anime, so it’s hard to tell if a girl is truly cute or not. I mean, I don’t really see a difference between Koharu and Akira when it comes to cuteness…

— Haruo finally finds out that Akira was the Akuma (a.k.a. Gouki) player that had mopped the floor with Koharu. Even when it comes to secrets, she finds out about them first. Y’know, he’s not so different from the others. He, too, is in awe with Akira’s apparent perfection. The only difference is that he knows about her secret love affair with video games and very few others do.

— When he walks out into the hallway, he sees Akira being mobbed by a bunch of classmates. She has to talk. There’s no way she doesn’t talk. She would be seeing a psychiatrist if she literally never talked. Hell, why would kids continue to try and be her friend if she doesn’t talk? Kids are cruel, and they’d probably start making fun of her if she literally never said a word. I’m just going to choose to believe that she just never talks with Haruo.

— During lunch, the kid fantasizes about filling up his room with arcade cabinets. I feel like a crusty, ol’ adult, because the first thing that comes to my mind is, “Damn, I wonder how high the electric bill must be.”

— I’m kinda torn on these sequences where Haruo goes off on a wild tangent about games. On the one hand, I don’t find them remotely interesting. Hell, I’ve never even heard of these games. But on the other hand, these sequences really do lend credence to the idea that the kid is one major gaming otaku.

— To be fair, I probably wouldn’t mind Haruo going off on the deep end if he was talking about games that I love. But I guess I’m too much of a normie, since I was playing Zelda and Final Fantasy in the 90s.

— Akira’s slowly walking towards Haruo’s location while he’s neck-deep in his video game fantasies. When he finally snaps out of it, he finds himself in an awkward situation: he has front-row seats to a boy attempting to ask Akira out.

— After Akira gives the kid no response, he suddenly turns around and confronts Haruo. He wants to know what sort of relationship he has with Akira, since there are rumors of the two of them hanging out together. Needless to say, I never expect a gaming otaku to have a way with words.

— What’s cute is that Akira is also eagerly awaiting Haruo’s response. Sadly, this just means he’ll probably stay something stupid. When the main character has such a golden opportunity to impress the girl that he likes, he’ll always fumble the chance.

— Haruo’s trying to be considerate of Akira. It’s not like he wants to be mean to her. He doesn’t want to reveal anything about the girl’s personal life without her consent. He can’t call her a rival either, because she’s way, way better at him at video games (as long as the game’s not scary). So after much deliberation, he finally settles on calling her a thorn on his side. Ah, youth…

— Judging by Akira’s reaction, we can tell that Haruo had given the wrong answer.

— Plus, we might find her angry reaction cute, but I feel for the girl. She’s been treasuring his ring since that day at the airport. Haruo doesn’t know that, but still, for Akira to come back after all these years just to hear the guy call you a thorn in his side… well, that has to hurt.

— Someone get this kid some help.

— Haruo chases after Akira, and she might have thought he had wanted to apologize for his insensitive remark. But instead, he asks her to show him how to unlock Akuma. Dude…

— Speaking of Akuma, do you guys like his current design? I think it looks stupid. He looks like he has a lion’s mane.

— As Akira continues to angrily walk away from Haruo again, he thinks to himself that the girl doesn’t make any sense. Long after school has ended, he’s still thinking about her. He’s so irritated with the fact that he can’t understand Akira, but he still doesn’t know why he feels this way. He’s going to look back to this moment one day and mentally kick himself. Maybe.

— All of a sudden, Miyao tells Haruo that he wants to try and confess to Akira, too. You guys are weird.

— Elsewhere, Koharu finally realizes that her copy of Final Fight is single player only. Poor girl…

— There’s always at least one train otaku.

— The kids are headed off to Kyoto for a school trip, and as expected, the teachers will confiscate any electronic devices. Haruo is specifically warned not to whip out a portable console and start gaming. So instead, he brought an entire goddamn system. This kid is incorrigible. At least he was considerate enough to bring enough controllers for his friends.

— “Even I know the appropriate time to play games!” You’re not fooling anyone, dude.

— When Koharu tells him to just try and enjoy Kyoto, he starts thinking about the last game he played that took place in the city.

— During a brief stop, Numata, one of Haruo’s teachers, asks him to buy him a drink. The kid takes too long buying too many drinks. He’s trying to be considerate and think of others, but he just keeps shooting himself in the foot. On the plus side, however, Koharu now gets to spend some time with him now that they’ve both been left behind.

— Still, those teachers are super irresponsible, don’t you think? Why wouldn’t you check up on your students two minutes before the train leaves the station? I think that’s just common sense.

— If Numata really needed that drink, he just got screwed. Damn. He gave Haruo a 5000 yen bill, too.

— Haruo’s so chill, though. Other than losing to Akira at games, nothing seems to worry him. Left behind on a school trip? Eh, whatever. Let’s just go sight-see!

— Sadly, sight-seeing for Haruo is finding a hidden arcade that is also empty. Convenient for him, but not exactly ideal for the industry. And even though Koharu has been wanting to hang out with Haruo all episode long, she’s too angry at him to enjoy it at this very moment. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t understand her either. He doesn’t get girls at all.

— Eventually, he suggests that they take scenic route and check out Lake Biwa. In doing so, they’ll eventually make their way to Kyoto if they catch a bus along the way. Haruo is a simple boy. Who else would be so impressed with a standard lake?

— When he hands her a drink, Koharu finally comes around and starts fantasizing about how this resembles a date. She even accidentally blurts this out. Eh, it doesn’t really seem like a date to me, but whatever gets your hopes up, girl.

— Koharu then tries to tell Haruo that she doesn’t mind being stuck with him, but he’s already gone off and found another hidden oasis in the desert. And by oasis, I mean more arcade games. Dude has a nose for games. He can sniff them out from a mile away.

— He’s such a gaming otaku that he’ll enjoy anything. The thought of playing a game like this one bores me to tears, but Haruo is having a blast. And yet, it is this pure obsession to a singular thing that draws Koharu to him. Maybe she’s impressed with his fanatical love for gaming. Or maybe — just maybe — she wonders what it would be like if she could convince him to dedicate just a fraction of his love for gaming to someone… someone like her.

— You could argue that someone like Haruo have a good chance at being successful in life, because they have the ability to be so passionate about a subject. You just gotta help point them in the right direction. If Haruo loves gaming this much, he could either become a successful game developer. Of course, that would mean learning a lot of new things that might not seem so fun at first glance. For example, programming.

— Games end up being a double-edged sword for Koharu. She can talk to the guy thanks to games, but that means they never actually talk about anything else that might be important to her.

— Well, now he’s shared bus rides with two different girls. There’s a whole lot less feelings in this one, though.

— Near the end of the day, the two kids finally make it to Kyoto. Koharu grabs his shirt probably because she’s seen or read one too many love stories. She wants him to slow down so they can spend more time together alone. She wants so badly for this to be a date, but it takes two to tango. When it comes to the matters of the heart, Haruo is clueless. He’s especially clueless with Koharu, since he only ever obsesses about Akira. He doesn’t even have a clue how much the blonde girl cares about him. Haruo thinks that Koharu is scared of being scolded, so he assures her that everything will be just fine. Since the romantic moment is lost on him, the girl has no choice but to let go of his shirt.

— Koharu has to be direct. She just can’t keep beating around the bush, because this is not one of those warm, fluffy love stories. The guy isn’t going to turn around and stare deep into the girl’s eyes as the world around them dissolves into pink sparkles.

— Even the hotel has an arcade, and who should Haruo find there? Akira, of course. She even looks like she’s in a good mood… like she’s happy that he finally caught up with the rest of the class. But her disposition quickly sours when he mentions being stuck with another girl — stuck playing games with another girl. Hell, this is the same girl she had seen him hanging out with in earlier episodes. From her perspective, it sounds like he’s rubbing it in her face: “Oh man, you should’ve been there! You would’ve loved it! We played games for hours while you guys were stuck on a train because of a landslide!” For a guy who has two cute classmates pining after him, Haruo doesn’t get girls at all. He thus gets a face full of hair. On the plus side, this is mild compared to what she’s done in the past.

— Just to make things worse, his PC Engine got confiscated.

— Meanwhile, Koharu treasures that drink that Haruo had given her. It’s not even open. Despite everything, she’s happy with how the day turned out. She didn’t get to play Final Fight with Haruo, but she did get to hang out with him anyways. Luck goes up and down like that. Whereas Haruo’s luck seems to have run out, things are looking up a bit for Koharu. But for how long? Plus, the more the show keeps trying to endear us to her and her quest for Haruo’s heart, the more painful it’ll be when he ultimately chooses Akira in the end.

— The harsh truth is that their relationship didn’t really make any progress. I’ve been in her shoes before. After, say, spending all day talking to the girl I’m crushing on, I would then feel over the moon. I would try to isolate this one day out of my entire life so that I could treasure it forever. I’d wake up the next day full of hopes and dreams. But when you look back on these halcyon moments long after the dust has settled — long after you no longer have a chance with that person — you realize that nothing really happened. Nothing really brought you any closer to the person you care about at all.

I don’t get what makes them tick. We find out this week that the sole reason Connie even came to Japan was just to see Ayano. Wait, that’s not quite right. She didn’t come here just to see the girl. She came here to ask Ayano if they could be family. Family. Yo, you’ve never even met the girl until recently! So she was a lonely child, and nobody ever talked to her until Uchika came along. When Ayano’s mother started paying attention to Connie, this left an indelible impression. From then on, the Danish girl has been obsessed with the idea of her, Uchika, and Ayano being one big, happy family. She even pushed herself to get insanely good at badminton just to live up to this seemingly mythological idea that Ayano must be even better at the sport (which is actually kinda true). So then why was Connie so mean to the girl at summer camp? Remember, she thought Ayano was hiding her identity at first. Then after their doubles match, Connie swore that she would beat Ayano just so that Uchika would acknowledge her. So what’s with the sisterly act now? And even if it was never her intention to hurt Ayano back then, why on earth does Connie think that the girl would suddenly be receptive to the idea of them being a family? Where’s the common sense? Or is she really so socially awkward that she honestly taught some heartfelt appeal would convince Ayano that everything’s all good between them?

I can’t really blame Ayano for shooting Connie down. She has no emotional connection to this girl whatsoever. None at all. She was just trying to have a nice summer camp with her teammates when some haughty girl comes out of nowhere and humiliates her on the court by winning 1v2. This stranger then proceeds to talk all this trash about how having a team is meaningless if your mother doesn’t acknowledge you. Gee, who was abandoned for years by her mother? Who had to see a picture of her mother posing for a photo with some new girl? Who gave up on a sport she loved because playing it would dredge up so many painful memories? Memories about how her mother must have left her because she wasn’t good enough? Whether this is actually true or not, who knows? But at this point, it probably doesn’t matter what Uchika has to say, because if I was in Ayano’s position, I’d be resentful too. I’d honestly cut Uchika out of my life completely. Unless she was literally forced to leave the country for some bizarre government conspiracy involving aliens and the Freemasons, she has no excuse for abandoning her only daughter just to shack up with another girl and feed her crazy ideas of them being one big, happy family! I’m sorry, but this is just wild. Who does that? Who? What reason could she possibly give that would wipe away all those years of tears and anguish?

Anyways…

Misc. notes & observations:

— During practice, Yu finds herself staring at Hayama a lot. I guess she has a crush on him.

— Ayano and Nagisa have yet to play in the finals. I still don’t expect them to play a complete match. It would just be career suicide for the latter. Part of being an athlete is understanding your limits.

— All of a sudden, Connie makes her grand entrance. How did she get up there without anybody noticing her? Who drew the curtains back?

— We learn that Connie and Yuika will serve as Inter-High representatives for their high school. I don’t think I’ve actually seen the latter play a match.

— Meanwhile, Ayano can’t help but point out that she can see up Connie’s skirt. Okay then. I guess this episode will start out by being a little silly and light-hearted.

— Connie insists on having a one-on-one with Ayano right there and then. Our heroine has a big match coming up, so it’s not necessarily in her best interest to push herself too hard in a random exhibition match. Nevertheless, she agrees to play Connie anyways since she’s currently in the zone. According to Kaoruko, Ayano is not quite back to her former levels of greatness, but she probably still feels that she’s good enough to beat anyone in this room.

— Unfortunately, her whale-themed bag accessory broke so they can’t play…?

— Yuika thus suggest that they hit up a nearby place that will have that silly whale mascot all over the place. Elena is reluctant to have her best friend hang out with Connie in the wild, and I can understand her trepidation. After all, the Danish girl kinda broke Ayano after their last meeting. This second encounter might turn out worse. Nevertheless, Yuika swears that she’ll keep things under control. Famous last words…

— Connie looks tough, but she’s actually rather submissive to her team captain.

— We get to watch Yu stare at Hayama some more, but the boys have barely gotten any character development in this series. As a result, it’s hard to understand what the girl sees in the guy. Plus, this is C-plot material. I’m only really interested in seeing what unfolds between Ayano and Connie. It’s hard to care about Yu’s little crush.

— Kentarou tells Nagisa that she needs to get some rest, but he isn’t firm about it. He ultimately lets her do whatever she wants to do even though he should know better than this. He should know that she’s still a child, so she might underestimate the strain she’s putting on herself. Look, kids always think they’re invincible. They always think nothing bad could happen to them. It’s up to the adults to protect them. Kentarou isn’t doing his job. Week in and week out, I find myself disappointed by this guy’s presence in the anime.

— At this amusement center, all of Ayano’s childish dreams come true. Well, almost all of them. She doesn’t get her mother back, but on the plus side, she does get to hug a mascot, play a crane game, and even cosplay as a Chinese communist!

— They’re pushing the nice Connie angle so hard when she was so mean the last time we saw her. The blonde girl actually steps off to the side at one point to win one of those bag accessories. She had intended to gift it to Ayano, but Yuika just had to go and upstage her teammate by winning this giant, ugly Wei-Wei backpack.

— Man, even the meat buns are shaped and colored like Wei-Wei.

— Yuika and Elena look like two mothers looking after their two bratty children. At one point, they leave Connie and Ayano alone. Yuika knows that her teammate has something to get off her chest, but Connie almost chickens out at the last second. Luckily, there’s a mother sitting with her two daughters at a nearby table. The two daughters are also conveniently fighting with each other. Seeing the girls make up and leave happily with their mother, Connie finally gets the courage to talk to Ayano.

— She finally tells the girl that she would like to be family with her. Well, that’s kinda sweet, I guess. A little forward, but a sweet sentiment nonetheless. Connie then adds, “Let’s live together!” Um, what?

— Ayano doesn’t immediately give Connie an answer. Instead, she drags everyone to a nearby sports center that is also plastered with Wei-Wei’s image. Oh boy, looks like our heroine’s response is a game of badminton..

— The match starts with Ayano taking a huge cut at the shuttle, which leaves Connie feeling somewhat shell-shocked. As it plays out, the Danish girl soon discovers that this isn’t the same Ayano she faced back at summer camp. This Ayano might not yet have regained her peak form, but she’s still winning easily. Part of that might just because Connie isn’t focused, though. She’s all emotionally torn up.

— Elsewhere, Yu asks Sora about the boys. Specifically, she wonders if Sora’s brother had convince Sora and Hayama to play badminton. The latter replies that it was actually Hayama’s idea. Upon hearing this, Yu cuts their hang-out short. We’ll find out later that she had decided to go to the park to see the guy she likes. She even creeps on him from behind a tree. She has a Pocari Sweat as an ice breaker, but unfortunately, she hesitated. As a result, he takes off on a jog without even noticing her. In the end, Yu decides not to stick around. Well, you’re not going to win if you’re not even try. Still, I wonder if she felt like she had to make her feelings known just in case there’s something going on between Sora and Hayama.

— But that’s enough about the C-plot. We briefly revisit the gym to see that Nagisa is still going at it. Riko can tell that the girl desperately needs to take a break, but she’s too soft. Her best friend says please, and she immediately falters. If you love someone, you can’t let them hurt themselves. Sometimes, that means temporarily being the bad guy. Besides, even if her knee wasn’t in bad shape, her body still needs to rest. When you’re tired, that means you need to stop.

— Imagine waking up at night, rolling over to look at your girlfriend, and seeing this face staring back at you.

— We get a long, extended flashback regarding Connie’s backstory, but I more or less went over that in the main body text up top. So instead, we’ll just focus on this match, which is definitely not going well for Connie. After a particularly bad point, that Wei-Wei bag accessory falls out of her pocket. Needless to say, Ayano won’t be accepting anything from Connie anytime soon.

— Ayano eventually walks up to Connie and tells her that it would be impossible for the three of them to be a family. After all, who ever said she even wants her mother back anymore?

— We don’t get to see how the rest of the match ended. Presumably, everyone just went their separate ways. The next time we see Connie and Yuika, they’re already headed home on the train. The blonde girl understandably looks defeated, but like I said up top, I really don’t know what she honestly expected. There was no chance in hell that someone you’ve never met would just instantly greet you with open arms.

— Luckily, it appears as though Yuika had picked up that Wei-Wei bag accessory. Yuika will later insist that Connie try again with Ayano in the future. This is anime, so there’s a solid chance everything will work out in the end.

— After the train ride, Connie doesn’t say anything. She just wants to sulk in silence. Her teammates won’t let her, though. They’ve all come out to welcome her back with open arms. It’s super sweet if you ignore the context. Even though her mission to become close to her “big sis” didn’t quite work out, she still has another family to support and love her. It’s just horribly unfair if you think about it. Uchika left Ayano and spent years raising Connie. And now that Connie’s in Japan, she told Ayano that having a team was pointless… just to turn around and have her own team pick her up after a painful experience.

— Connie’s VA’s crying performance was not… well, it was not very convincing, I’ll just say.

— And what does Ayano get? When she gets home, she gets to meet the woman who abandoned her.

I get how the kid feels. I just wish his sentiment had come in a better package. Planet With has its moments, but it’s hard to love. 

— The episode opens with Benika attempting to recruit Hideo to her side. The guy doesn’t understand what she means, because he no longer has his vial. She explains, however, that the vial isn’t the source of the power. Rather, it merely helped them unlock what they already had within them. When Hideo is ultimately not persuaded, she activates her own powers without the need of a conduit and blasts off.

— Be that as it may, Benika is not a great villain. After all, she’s trying to recruit the one former teammate who is least likely to be a baddie. Hideo just looks and sounds like a generic anime good guy, y’know? Not only did she try to recruit the wrong guy, she even tells him how to unlock his powers should he ever need to. It’s almost as if she’s sabotaging herself.

— Uh, no comment.

— As for the vial that Benika gave up, Ginko had apparently stolen it at some point.

— We cut to the school where Nozomi is excited to go on her first date with Soya. But to her chagrin, he’s already forgotten all about it.

— And since this is anime, Nozomi’s first choice is the aquarium. Sadly, with all the nonsense happening around them, the place is closed for an indefinite amount of time. Soya can’t help but blame himself. Sure, he protected the city, but what did he manage to protect? In the end, people are fleeing anyways. In the end, the city is turning into a husk of its former self.

— Still, the two kids try to make the best of a bad situation, and this is enough to drive Kogane crazy. She’s spying on Soya in order to study her enemy, but instead, she got an eyeful of teen love. This makes her seem silly, but that’s because she is silly. Other than the Dragon committing genocide on a planetary level, no one else on this show really fits the bill of a true antagonist. The Sealing Faction simply wants to lockdown humanity’s evolution. That makes us stagnant as a race, but eh… we’ll still be alive.

— Anyways, Kogane insists on ruining the kids’ fun, so I guess that’s kinda evil. In the meantime, Generalissimo wants to grill Benika about her motives. In order to foster trust between the two of them, he has a rather curious suggestion that involves an onsen.

— But surprisingly enough, Benika goes along with it. She’s certainly not shy about her body. Hey, more power to her.

— Benika begins to spill the beans about her past. To make a long story short, she became a police officer because she admired (and loved) an older detective. Unfortunately, he lost his life in the line of duty. She then joined the Grand Paladins to attain greater power, but when she saw Harumi nearly lost herself, Benika was convinced that allowing humanity to unlock its psychic potential was far too risky for her tastes. Well, I’m glad she thinks she can decide for the rest of us.

— I guess I can kinda see where Benika is coming from. Sure, we have a lot of destructive power at our disposal, but it’s not something that any random schmoe can dredge up whenever you want. Yes, a kid could tragically pick up a gun and foolishly murder a score of people. But on the plus side, no one can just create a dirty bomb in their basement. That’s a little more difficult than acquiring a firearm. What if humanity unlocking its psychic potential meant each and everyone of us having the ability to level cities on our own, though? Maybe the Sealing Faction has a point.

— On the other hand, however, how come we can trust the Sealing Faction to hold onto their own psychic abilities? Why can’t we teach humanity to control themselves the same way? I just feel like Planet With isn’t ready to follow through with all of the questions that it raises. The show has a decent premise, but the execution is far too simple and mundane to really tackle what it could honestly say.

— Back on Earth, Kogane tries to ruin a date for no other reason than that she’s probably petty. Unfortunately, there are limits to her deception. You can’t fool a boy’s heart when it comes to breasts, apparently. And just like that, Kogane can no longer fool Soya.

— After Generalissimo is done listening to Benika’s sob story, he gives her a sealing device. The girl doesn’t hesitate to attack either. She’s almost too eager to fight. The problem is that Soya isn’t going to give her one.

— Nope, the kid refuses to fight. He’s done. And in one short but painful speech, Soya explains perfectly why he’s throwing in the towel. Revenge didn’t get him anything. Revenge won’t bring his brother back, but it’s more than that. After he defeated the Dragon, the full extent of what he lost finally dawned on him. He won’t ever see any of his family again. He won’t ever see any of his friends again either. It’s just all gone, and no amount of revenge is going to change that. He can’t even protect this city, because people (e.g. Seigi) are leaving no matter what. At the end of the day, Soya is just a kid. Kids aren’t soldiers.

— Oddly enough, it’s Kogane who insists that Soya continue on with his mission. Apparently, Generalissimo does not want to win if the other side is just going to roll over and accept defeat. Sensei and Ginko, however, aren’t going to try and push Soya to do what he doesn’t want to do.

— Plus, Nozomi definitely won’t let Soya keep hurting himself. She insists on protecting him since he’s protected her. The problem here, however, is that she doesn’t really have a clue what’s going on. She has no idea what she’s being protected from.

— Anyways, Hideo is driving around the city, warning people to get to evacuate. But when he sees that he’s speaking to all these familiar faces, he also wants to know why Soya doesn’t want to fight. He readily accepts the kid’s answer, though. He even pats Soya on the head as if he understands that it’s his responsibility to protect others, not a young child.

— As a result, Hideo is now determined to fight in Soya’s stead. He carefully recalls Benika’s words, and just like that, he’s able to reactivate his psychic armor.

— Even though Hideo is the opponent that Benika expected to fight, she leaps into battle without hesitation. From afar, Harumi and Miu are surprised to see what’s unfolding before their very eyes. I suspect they, too, will join the battlefield before this series is over. We just need a bigger threat to compel them into action.

— In the meantime, that strange being from last week’s episode suddenly appears right before the kid. No one else can see him, though. He or it continues to look like Soya’s brother, a fact which pisses our hero off. This almost awakens his psychic powers, but in the end, he manages to calm down enough not to make a huge mess.

— In the end, however, the guy manages to overpower his former teammate. He even adds that she’s not really fighting at her max potential. Essentially, Benika’s begging for someone to stop her. She says she wants to seal away humanity’s evolution, but her heart doesn’t really seem to be in it. Maybe she just wants someone stronger than her to show her the way. She lost that someone when the detective passed away, and maybe she thought Takashi could fill that gap. As a result, it’s not all that surprising that Benika appears happy to see that Hideo is strong and determined enough to stop her.

— Anyways, Hideo shatters Benika’s psychic armor and flies off to deal with the sealing device. Yosuke shows up in time to catch the girl before she falls into the ocean, but he appears to lament the fact that Hideo is strong like the man Benika used to love. Well, it’s not too late to change yourself, buddy.

— Was Hideo really going to let Benika fall into the ocean, though? Did he know that Yosuke was going to show up? I can’t really imagine that he was going to let her die. Ah well…

— Even though Hideo has taken care of the sealing device, all is not well. The representative of the People of Paradise tells Soya that the Dragon is not dead. Instead, it’s just sleeping on the moon of all places. Not only that, it will return to threaten Earth. Christ, I was just thinking about this minutes ago. When I saw Hideo jump right back into action, I was wondering, “Gee, what’s next? Takashi suddenly coming back to life?” Well, the Dragon returning from the dead doesn’t necessarily mean that the former leader of the Grand Paladins will be making his triumphant return, but it wouldn’t surprise me either if he did.

— In any case, the strange being wants Soya to finish the job this time. Take the Dragon out for good. Are the People of Paradise not able to do it themselves?

— In the end, Soya still insists that he’s done fighting. I understand his frustrations, but at the same time, it’s just not entirely convincing. Because we’re watching a rather light-hearted anime, it’s hard to brush aside the plain and obvious fact that Soya will eventually rejoin the fight — he will eventually admit that he loves Earth and swear to protect it. Maybe he just needs to spend more time with Nozomi, who is obviously gunning hard for his heart. It’s not a matter of if but when. As a result, this drama doesn’t have enough punch behind it. So sure, let’s waste another episode with the kid acting like he’s down in the dumps. He’ll come around, though.

When creepy men stick random objects in your mouth, spit it out! 

— According to Wikipedia, this anime series is 26 episodes long. I was under the impression that I was almost done! Noooooooooooo~

— Aoi, Ginji, and the crane twins are still trying to figure out a menu that would delight the umi-bouzu. The ceremony calls for dishes made from ocean treasures, but that didn’t work 300 years ago. As a result, Ginji hilariously presents us a block of fancy beef. Look, I love fancy beef, but I’m just tickled by the idea of serving red meat on what was originally a seafood menu.

— By the way, the reason why Raiju is staying at Orio-ya is because he can tell us whether or not the toad’s Hourai gem branch is authentic . Unfortunately, he’s being a huge prat, so he’s refusing to say anything until he’s sufficiently entertained. Hideyoshi’s trying his best, but let’s just say he’s a little too special in the head. As a result, he eventually tries to ask for Aoi’s help. Ginji refuses to waste our heroine’s time, so he sends the crane twins instead. But c’mon, this is Aoi’s story, so there’s no way the crane twins are going to get the job done either.

— But let’s get back to the fancy beef. Aoi whips up some garlic rice to go with the sauteed beef, but I dunno, this looks a little overcooked to me. Plus, if the beef is so well-marbled, do you really want to mask its flavor with so much garlic?

— Ginji is so cringeworthy.

— Somehow, the topic turns to relationships, and both Aoi and Ginji confirm that they are single. Well, that’s plainly obvious to us, but I guess these characters are kinda clueless.

— Aoi then admits that she’s never really had a boyfriend. Instead, she admits that she was grandpa’s girl. Ew.

— Nevertheless, she did crush on someone in the past, and as you might have guessed, the mysterious ayakashi that had saved her life was her first love. Look, she met him once… for like what? Five minutes? And all he did was give her food. I can understand that she was grateful to be saved. I can understand loving someone in a platonic way because they are so nice to you. But romantic love? Sorry, but this makes no sense.

— Now, you might be thinking, “Yo, this is the perfect chance for Aoi to ask Ginji if he knows anything about that ayakashi!” You’re right! This is the perfect chance! And of course, Aoi never bothers to ask him. What a dork.

— Ginji then changes the subject to Odanna, but she’s insist that he’s still nothing more than the master of Tenjin-ya. Harsh but true. Odanna flirts with Aoi a lot, but that’s superficial. It’s also easy to brush his behavior off as playful and thus non-serious. As a result, not only does she not understand him, she doesn’t really know how he really feels about her. If he really wants to romance her, he will actually have to try and be serious for once. Maybe that’s the only way to get through the dense heroes and heroines that plague anime.

— To be fair to Odanna, however, Aoi often gets herself into too much trouble. Combined with the fact that the ogre is busy with his own set of responsibilities, they often have very little time to spend together.

— Hell, right now, she’s stranded in the southern region all because of some dumb ceremony. Sorry, but it is dumb. The idea that you have to appease some jerk ayakashi or else it’ll ruin the lives of everyone in the area is ridiculous. We should just slay the monster instead of entertaining it every 300 years.

— Anyways, Aoi is drunk after just a few sips of alcohol. She’s a lightweight for sure. Nevertheless, in her drunken state, she comes up with an idea: let’s take the fancy beef and make roast beef out of it! Really? You’re going to take something that high in quality and just roast it? Eh, whatever.

— The crane twins return to report that the thunder god didn’t want their food. I’m not surprised. We all know what he wants, and that is to toy with Aoi.

— The next day, Aoi is wandering through the halls of Orio-ya when she runs into Raiju being a big creepazoid. He starts going on and on about her late grandfather, too.

— Aoi tries to make her escape, but unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to run away from a dude who can fly and teleport around. Also, he’s the thunder god, so I’m going to assume that he’s fast.

— Last but not least, the girl still has a phobia of thunder and lightning. It definitely doesn’t help that the weather has turned (probably thanks to Raiju as well).

— Raiju doesn’t understand why Aoi wants to help with the ceremony, because the ayakashi abducted her and forced her to work off her grandfather’s debts. Well, he’s not wrong…

— But at the end of the day, Raiju’s an ass. At first, he’s like, “Oooh, girl, I wanna try your food.” When she says, “Yeah, sure, I’ll whip something up,” he laughs in her face. He calls her gullible for thinking that he would actually want to eat her lower class human food. Uh, you asked. My bad for thinking that you were serious. His behavior just reminds me of this comic.

— He’s so bored with this world, so all he wants to do is mess things up. What a giant baby. But hey, there are rich, spoiled brats like him out in the real world, so I guess I’m not too surprised by his behavior. He also sounds like he was in love with Shiro.

— Anyways, Raiju eventually says that he literally wants to eat her. Nothing would delight him more. He tells Aoi that she’s only good for marrying or being eaten. Then while she screams in fear or whatever, he slips something into her mouth. Why did she swallow? Did the morsel instantly dissolve in her mouth or what? Hell, as soon as something touched her lips, she should have recoiled instantly. Even babies have better survival instincts than Aoi. Nothing bad happens for now, but you know Raiju is up to something nefarious.

— Eventually, Aoi tries to run away again, and now she’s back at the inn? Okay.

— This time, however, she runs into Ranmaru. Even though the dog continues to be a jerk to her, he does try and protect her from Raiju. After all, he hasn’t forgotten that the thunder god betrayed them 300 years ago.

— And now we’re back to cooking.

— Ai’s even here to help!

— Before Aoi is allowed to feed the umi-bouzu, Ranmaru is going to have to give his approval. As a result, they’ve arranged a tasting dinner for the inugami as well as some of the other Orio-ya staff members.

— As soon as Aoi takes a sip of the alcohol, however, her mind is spirited away to a dreamlike field of flowers. It doesn’t take long, however, for the world around her to turn dark and scary. Back in the real world, her body has fallen unconsciousness. Needless to say, Raiju’s candy has taken its effect.

— Oh boy, who’s going to save Aoi this time? We haven’t seen Odanna in a while, so I’m gonna root for him. I don’t really like either of the two main love interests on this show, but between him and Ginji, I guess I gotta go with the ogre. Ginji’s a little too soft-spoken.

The anime series could’ve left this episode out and it wouldn’t have impacted our understanding of the story one bit. 

— The episode opens with Luke backflipping across the rooftops of London, so I already know I’m in for a treat.

— Ton is finally awake, and her hair still looks crazy. More importantly, she no longer remembers who her BFF is. Man, these girls ain’t loyal.

— Luke nevertheless assures us that Shinyao is perfectly safe, because she’s with his brother. He just doesn’t exactly know where those two are right now. Riiiiight. Perfectly safe…

— So what happened to Ton? Well, if you recall — and you probably don’t because why on earth would you watch this show? — Shinyao was thrown out the window of a skyscraper. As a result, Ton thought her BFF had died. To cope with such a traumatic experience, her mind is simply going to suppress any memory that has to do with Shinyao.

— What do we do now? Well, therein lies the problem: Vlad and Luke can’t agree on what they should do with Ton. Toryu and Wayne are easy; they’ll just go with the flow. They’re minor bishies so they have no real opinions on anything. Vlad and Luke, however, are divided. The former wants to leave Ton as she is right now, because he thinks she’d be safer this way. Ton has a tendency to do too much on on her own, and she might push her body too far next time. Luke, however, wants the old Ton back. He thinks it’s up to the girl to decide what she wants to do with her powers. I’m inclined to agree with the werewolf even though I think vampires are obviously cooler than dogs.

— This is where the episode starts to really feel pointless, though. When nighttime rolls around, Toryu once again asks what they should do. As a result, the bishies once again deliberate over what they should do with Ton. Likewise, Vlad once again insists that they do nothing. This is going nowhere. It’s absolutely going nowhere.

— So one by one, the bishies decide to pay Ton a visit. Vlad goes first and basically tells the girl that no matter what happens, he’ll always be there for her. As a result, he would like her to lean on them more.

— Next up, Luke tries to ask Ton whether or not she’d like her memories back, but he does it by posing a hypothetical situation. Obviously, the girl has no clue what he’s talking about, so she just thinks he’s asking for relationship advice.

— Man, what a lame thing to say.

— Finally, Toryu drops by to brush Ton’s hair. Why doesn’t Wayne visit her as well? Beats me.

— We then cut to see that Shinyao and Chris are not safe at all. In fact, Midnight Sun are after them even more than ever. Why? Because the surveillance camera had caught the girl absorbing Kabocha-kun into herself. And for some reason, this means that Ton’s BFF might have more magical potential? Man, I don’t even know anymore. Needless to say, Haysin now has two different girls that he’s interested in. What a two-timing creep.

— At one point, Shinyao places a hand on one of Chris’s thighs. Lewd.

— Haysin suffered a few injuries after his last encounter with Ton. I wanna say he got beat up by a girl, but that’s not nice.

— For some reason, Midnight Sun’s best hacker also recorded a video of Van Helsing dying. So yeah.. there’s that.

— Anyways, we soon learn that Kabocha-kun is not entirely gone from this world. Shinyao can still communicate with him in some form or fashion, a revelation which puzzles Chris.

— The girl then suggests what they both should’ve done a long time ago: go to Cafe Forbidden and ask for help. Finally. I mean, seriously, why would anyone think that sleeping in abandoned buildings every single night is a good idea?

— Chris, of course, is reluctant to ask for help. He claims that he’s caused huge problems for Ton’s bishies, so he feels awkward around them. Right, so you’re going to risk both of your lives because you feel awkward. Pfft.

— Back at Cafe Forbidden, Ton finally remembers what she needs to do. As a result, she gets up, puts on her outfit, and marches downstairs to greet the boys triumphantly. Oh yeah, her hair is back to normal.

— So what was the point of this episode? I thought Luke and the others would need to go on some sort of quest in order to restore the girl’s memories. For instance, maybe they’d track Shinyao down for once, and when they bring her to Ton, the latter would finally get her memories back. But our heroine just went and did it on her own. We sat around and basically watched the bishies tell her that she’s important to them. Great.

Even if they threaten to destroy the whole world just because you’ve stolen their waifu, you must be merciful! 

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ep. 8

Plot Content:

— This is the anime trying to convince us that the pale-skinned hydra can actually be a threat to Diablo. Shera even tells Diablo to run, because there’s no way he could possibly defeat the elves’ royal treasure. But look, if it truly has the power to destroy the world, then our demon lord may as well try and do something about it, right? Keera can’t even control his summon, so we can’t exactly have a rampaging hydra doing whatever it wants.

— Oh hey, look at the thing open one of its mouths. For once, something actually looks somewhat gnarly in this anime.

— And like any hydra ever, if you cut off just one head, it’ll just grow back.

— In fact, the way to defeat this beastie is to destroy a core… which moves around. That sounds silly, but whatever.

— Needless to say, Diablo wins anyway.

— So now that Keera has nothing left to throw at Diablo, our hero can finally take out the rapey bastard who literally wanted to start a war over the chance to impregnate his sister. Makes sense, right? Unfortunately, Shera still begs Diablo to spare her brother. That’s just stupid. This guy is so unhinged that if you leave him alive, he might try something even dumber in the future. More lives — both human and elven — could be at stake. Sorry, but family doesn’t trump justice.

— Being a softie, Diablo lets Shera have her way. Luckily, the rapey bastard doesn’t get very far before someone else finishes the job anyway. Oops.

— That’s when Galford and his army reveal themselves. The Lord of Faltra essentially wanted Diablo to weaken himself against the elven army. He would then use this as a pretense to invade Greenword. He probably would’ve gotten away with it too if he didn’t go and threaten to steal away one of Diablo’s haremettes. Tch, that’s where you erred, man. Never, ever try to steal another man’s slave!

— At first, Alicia tries to stop Galford, but he’s so fast, he breaks her sword without her even realizing it. Look, no one’s allowed to look cool and save the day except Diablo, okay? Stop trying. Just stand in the back and look pretty.

— Well, that’s not very pretty at all.

— Anyways, according to Diablo’s analysis, Galford must be at least level 120. In the end, however, he’s still no match for the demon lord. I won’t go through every little detail of the fight, though. I mean, there’s nothing particularly new here. Diablo simply casts some spells and win. Yawn.

— And like before, our hero will spare yet another life. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough.

— In the aftermath, the show tries to make me empathize with Shera, but it doesn’t work. After all, I’m not going to forget the fact that Keera literally summoned a hydra that could destroy the world just because he wasn’t allowed to nail his sister.

Harem Content:

— Just one very quick scene at the end of the episode.

— Diablo is low on MP, so he has no energy to even get out of bed. So why not just drink an MP potion? Well, they’re broke right now.

— This is when Sylvie, the bunny girl, comes up with a brilliant idea: give Diablo alcohol that also has the curious side effect of restoring MP. Hey, he’s a demon lord, right? And there’s no way a demon lord would be a lightweight, right?

— Wrong.

— A drunken Diablo proceeds to grope and molest Sylvie because he thinks she’s a dakimakura (body pillow).

— And naturally, said groping quickly leads to the DANGER ZONE. But this isn’t the real world, so fake bunny girls don’t get mad. Instead, they just ask you to take responsibility.

— Harem ethics are very simple: don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. And when in doubt, blame it on the alcohol.

The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar Ep. 8

Plot Content:

— The first half of the episode concerns Effy, who is being ignored by all of her classmates at school. Why? Because the queen bee of the class is jealous of Yuuto doting on Effy. Even little girls want to his attention. Gross.

— Instead of teaching the kids that bullying is wrong or that you shouldn’t blindly follow someone just because they’re popular, Christina instead decides to becomes the next queen bee of the class. In doing so, she isolates the previous queen bee. Tit-for-tat, basically.

— In the end, the problem is only solved by Effy taking the extra step to reach out to the other girl.

— In the second half of the episode, Christmas is fast approaching, but obviously, you don’t celebrate the yuletide in Yggdrasil. Nevertheless, Yuuto wants to hand-make some presents, so he’s enlisted the help of Ingrid.

— He eventually manages to make two rather shoddy-looking presents, but he keeps butting heads with the somewhat tomboyish Ingrid. So to smooth things over, he gives her a magatama.

— Right before the episode ends, we see that the Lightning Clan and the Panther Clan will team up in order to bring Yuuto down.

Harem Content:

— Barely anything to speak of in this week’s episode. The episode opens with Sigyn having sex with Loptr, but since she’s not one of Yuuto’s haremettes, I guess this doesn’t really count.

— What convenient censoring.

— A convenient gust of wind allows us to see Felicity’s shiny legs, but Yuuto isn’t even paying attention.

— When Ingrid finds herself alone with Yuuto, she tries to turn up the charm. But instead of being seduced by her, the patriarch simply gives the poor girl a lecture on how she needs to be more feminine. What a dick.

— Still, Ingrid insists that she doesn’t care about getting married. After all, she already has a guy she likes.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Ep. 7

— The episode opens with Genshiro, a new character, prowling about for concubines. Unfortunately for him, Oboro, his retainer, won’t allow him to run off with just any regular ol’ women. He needs to find a girl with great spiritual power. Well, you know what that means.

— By the way, Oboro may look like a boy, but it’s a cute boy. Also, the character’s seiyu is obviously a woman. If Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs truly wants to be a proper harem, then I expect Oboro to be a woman who eventually falls in love with Kogarashi.

— Speaking of Kogarashi, he finds himself in yet another sticky situation in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, he can’t extricate himself from this one, because he somehow went and got one of his legs all tangled up with her panties. Needless to say, he soon finds himself being defenestrated yet again.

— The next morning, Yuuna is sad that she keeps dunking Kogarashi into the river. They obviously like each other, but this is a harem, so he’s not allowed to pick any of the girls until the story has been run into the ground. But considering how the source material has had eleven tankoubon volumes (well over 200 chapters), it doesn’t sound like Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs is ending anytime soon. Christ, I didn’t expect it to be so popular. I guess people are just that hungry for classic harem series, huh? They used to be all the rage back in the day.

— Later that day, Yuuna accompanies Koyuzu, the tanuki, on an errand. This is when she unfortunately catches Genshiro’s attention. Not only can he see her, he’s absolutely smitten. He quickly declares that he will take her as his wife. Also, thanks to weird scales on his body, he is spiritually strong enough that she can’t just repel him with her own poltergeist powers. Apparently, he’s got the power of the black dragon, whatever that means.

— Koyuzu tries to tell Genshiro that Yuuna already has a man. In fact, she and her man engage in ecchi activities every night! Well, the tanuki technically isn’t wrong.

— When the little girl then tries to save Yuuna, Oboro threatens to seriously hurt her. As a result, Yuuna agrees to quietly leave with Genshiro as long as nothing happens to Koyuzu.

— Even later that day, Kogarashi and Sagiri return home from school to find the tanuki quietly sobbing to herself. She finally tells them what had happened. Geez, do none of you guys have cellphones? We could’ve started this rescue mission hours ago.

— Naturally, the guy will do everything he can to save Yuuna. The ninja-wannabe will also help.

— Back at Genshiro’s castle, Yunna’s already dolled up. Nevertheless, this doesn’t satisfy her kidnapper, so he uses a spell that, uh, basically forces her to cosplay. As a result, we get to see her in bloomers, as a bunny girl, as a maid, as a nurse, and finally, in a Chinese-style dress. The cosplay party only ends when Oboro comes and disciplines Genshiro. Y’know, she’s pretty cheeky for a retainer.

— Yuuna is dumb as hell. Why do I say that? Well, Oboro manages to convince her that it would be beneficial to Kogarashi if the girl willingly marries Genshiro. She truly believes that she’s bad luck for the harem lead. What? All because she dunks him in the river every once in a while? Get a grip.

— Apparently, Genshiro and his clan lives way, way underground with a bunch of fish people.

— And in order for Sagiri to get into the mindset of a ninja, she also needs to cosplay as one. As a result, we now see her in this ridiculously skin-tight bodysuit that allows her breasts to sway all over the place.

— Even in the middle of a rescue mission, she and Kogarashi share an ecchi moment.

— So the strategy here is to have Sagiri infiltrate the castle by herself and retrieve Yuuna. In order to draw any potential attention away from her, Kogarashi will march right up to the front gates and taunt Genshiro.

— Unfortunately, he quickly finds himself captured and bound in stocks.

— And even if Genshiro is busy dealing with Kogarashi, Sagiri will have to deal with Oboro who has stayed behind to guard Yuuna.

— Will our heroes be able to rescue their favorite ghost girl from the fish people? Tune in next week!

Same. 

Cells At Work! Ep. 8

In this week’s episode, Red Blood Cell is determined to circulate without getting lost, so we get to see her go through all sorts of silly obstacles. It’s nice to take a break from all the shounen-esque battles against killer pathogens. What Red Blood Cell doesn’t know, however, is that White Blood Cell is following her every step of the way to make sure that her journey is successful. Then at the end of the episode, we get a cute, little moment where she recounts her adventures to him.

This is what I initially wanted from Cells At Work! Fighting bad guys is fun, but it doesn’t need to happen every week. I read some fan theory about how Red Blood Cell is actually a sickle cell, and this is why she gets lost all the time. I don’t enough about that to comment, but it seems like a fun theory to think about.

Chio’s School Road Ep. 8

Eh, it was a decent episode overall. I didn’t care for the part with Momo, though. The tone suddenly got way too serious.

Grand Blue Ep. 7

Iori gets beaten up because the guys think he’s living with and/or dating Chisa. Kinda dumb. I know it’s supposed to be a joke, but I don’t really see the punchline. Haha, we have crab mentality?

Holmes of Kyoto Ep. 8

Near the end of the episode, Holmes gets a second chance to say something to Aoi only to be interrupted again. Do we really think he was going to confess to her, though? I mean, if it’s really that important, then why wait? Hell, it’s Christmas! This is the perfect time to confess! Just shoo Rikyu away and get the job done. It’s not like Holmes is lacking of confidence. It’s not like Holmes is one of those sniveling, weak-willed anime protagonists. Nevertheless, yet another episode of Holmes of Kyoto ends without much fanfare. The girl even tells us, “That night on Christmas Eve, I wonder what Holmes-san was going to say. I couldn’t find it in me to ask because I’d decided I’d draw a line.” Oh ho ho, is our heroine not as smitten with the guy as she lets on? Or has she been too recently hurt by her past relationship that she would rather put a temporary hold on all things romance for now? I get it. She’s a little gunshy. Nobody wants to put themselves out there just to be disappointed, especially after they just got cheated on. Well, if a confession is gonna happen, it’s gonna happen in the last episode anyways. Then again, the show is based off of a series of light novels, so I really have to wonder if we’ll even see a confession.

Anyways, some miscellaneous observations:

— When Aoi hears about a hunk cafe — a place where hot guys serve you coffee — she’s actually a fan of the idea. Amusing.

— Speaking of amusing, here’s a funny line: “Um, please excuse my mother’s aggressive politeness earlier.”

— Look at all these ladies lining up just to order coffee from a “hunk.” I know they’re thirsty, but coffee isn’t exactly going to quench it.

— Aoi freaking out in front of said ladies is pretty cute.

— The story involving Izumi and her fiance just shows that lies — even if you tell them with good intentions — can still hurt. I know that all too well.

Island Ep. 9

Setsuna ends up in a dystopian future in which 99.99% of the world has supposedly frozen over. There is only one inhabitable patch of land on the entire planet and — you guessed it! — it’s on our favorite island. Why have things turned out this way? We don’t know yet. Still, you’ll be glad to know that the three main girls have also reincarnated into this bleak timeline. Rinne is now a scientist/engineer of some sort, and she’s just as lolitastic as ever. We learn that she’s been working on a familiar-looking device. Maybe this one will send Setsuna back into the past. Sara, on the other hand, is a representative of a religion that pretty much controls the island’s entire operation. Sara is still nice, but her people definitely are not. Also, she’s all grown up and stuff. Yep. Last but not least, Karen is still a child. More importantly, she’s an “untagged” child. The Church keeps track of who’s allowed to procreate and who isn’t. Karen and her ilk are children that were never allowed to exist. Anyways, a bunch of pointless nonsense happens that I don’t care about because this depressing future is going to be rewritten anyways. All that’s important is that by the end of the episode, Setsuna finally remembers why he’s even here. Please don’t tell me that saving Rinne in the past will somehow avert an apocalyptic event in the future. Please don’t.

The episode kinda sucks, because even though the show is presenting us with a depressing subject, there are still stupid harem-y moments galore. Hell, there was less groping back when the world hadn’t gone to complete shit. I don’t mind a story switching between dead seriousness and silly humor. There’s a reason why the Yakuza games make up one of my favorite series ever. But you can bet your ass that Kiryu has never accidentally groped some poor girl’s chest in the middle of a serious cutscene.

Overlord III Ep. 8

Ainz agreed to show Arche some “mercy” by allowing Shalltear to kill the poor girl “painlessly.” Even if she died so fast that she couldn’t feel any physical pain, fear was driven into her heart. More importantly, she felt the emotional anguish of not only leaving her party behind, but also disappointing her younger sisters. Yes, she’ll never return to save those two from their spendthrift parents. The fools will spend themselves into ruin, and Arche’s two sisters will probably end up being sold into slavery or something. As for the other members of Foresight, they’ll probably be tortured for the rest of their lives. Yeah, Ainz is a right bastard in this week’s episode. This is the first time that he truly seemed inhuman. Sure, Foresight was a bunch of filthy thieves, but the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Also, all of these soldiers lost their lives for no other reason than to intimidate their ruler. On the one hand, this makes Ainz a far more compelling character to follow. He’s finally living up to that overlord moniker! He’s not just some wannabe dictator who is actually a decent person underneath. But on the other hand, now I hope someone does him and the rest of his sycophants in one of these days. I can’t root for evil bastards, so I can only hope that he gets too arrogant and loses everything as a result of his hubris. It’ll probably never happen, though. Even if we do ever see a definitive conclusion to his story, it won’t be for a long, long time. The author of the light novels is gonna milk this story for all its worth.

We Rent Tsukumogami Ep. 6

The young master accidentally loses a valuable item in the river, and when someone else picks it up, he enlists Seiji’s help in buying it back. Unfortunately, the other guy is a jerk, so he reneges on the original agreement of 30 ryo (10 ryo is apparently equivalent to a million yen in the present). He thus demands 50 ryo instead. In any case (no pun intended), the tsukumogami finds its way back into the right hands by simply biting the jerk’s nipple. If he had just stuck to his word, he’d be 30 ryo richer by now. Instead, he gets nothing. Whoops. Remember, kids, greed doesn’t pay–… well, no, that’s not true. We shouldn’t delude ourselves. There are tons of people who get away with being greedy. That’s why we have to make up these stories to cheer ourselves up.

We also learned this week that Seiji had helped Oko even though this meant possibly losing her to another guy. In order to prove herself worthy of marrying Sataro, Oko had to turn a simple comb worth about 10 ryo at most into 80 ryo. After much pleading, she finally convinced her brother to lend a hand. He took the comb and traded it for a 15 ryo netsuke. By continually trading up, he should in theory be able to hit the 80 ryo mark. I’m not sure if he ever got there, but considering how Oko’s still unmarried, something obviously didn’t turn out correctly. Either they fell short or someone (e.g. Sataro’s mother) didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. It’s also possible that Oko may have backed out, because she never agreed to marrying Sataro in the first place. He was the one pursuing her, not the other way around. She only agreed to the whole comb nonsense, because Okono, Sataro’s fiancee, insulted her.

Anyways, I still don’t know if I wanna root for Seiji. He’s just not very appealing as a protagonist. I’ve always maintained that if he likes Oko that much, he should confess. He’s kinda wimpy, though.

Yamishibai 6 Ep. 8

So… the sacrifices are still happening?

Quick & Dirty Weekly Rankings (That You Should Totally Take Seriously)

1. High Score Girl
2. Asobi Asobase
3. Persona 5 the Animation
4. Holmes of Kyoto
5. Chio’s School Road
6. Hanebado!
7. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
8. Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs
9. Grand Blue
10. We Rent Tsukumogami
11. Cells At Work!
12. Banana Fish
13. Planet With
14. Shichisei no Subaru
15. Island
16. Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi
17. My Hero Academia
18. Harukana Receive
19. Yamishibai
20. The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar
21. Phantom of the Twilight

• Once again, Sirius the Jaeger‘s latest episode hasn’t been subbed, so I can’t rank it. If I have to go off of the sixth episode, then I’d probably rank it second right beneath High Score Girl.
• Steins;Gate 0‘s latest episode has been delayed a week.
• I skipped both Dude of Red and Happy Sugar Life this week just because I didn’t feel like watching them. Maybe next week. At the end of the day, I’m still watching a ton of shows.
• That TV-only episode of My Hero Academia was pretty bad.

Yuliy is going to go after the Ark all by his lonesome? Boy, that’s gonna make it hard for Ryoko to continuing courting him. Unless… 

— Our hero was about to face both Kershner and his own brother, but Willard has finally returned to the mansion. Not only that, he’s enlisted the help of Iba and the Japanese army. This scares Kershner enough to fall back, leaving Yuliy to Mikhail. What I don’t understand, however, is why the vampire proceeded to stick around and not flee the scene.

— The battle between Yuliy and Mikhail begins, but it’s a short one. The brothers obviously don’t want to kill each other. Moreover, it seems as though Mikhail is just testing Yuliy’s resolve.

— Baron Naoe is kinda dumb. Seeing the army roll in, he suddenly wants to stick his head out from his safe spot. Dude, have you forgotten that there are vampires out there?

— But back to the werewolf bros, Mikhail admonishes his younger brother for being so simple-minded. Getting revenge won’t help all those lost souls rest in peace. Rather, Yuliy must do what the Sirius have always done: protect the Ark. Their father left the village with this invaluable artifact, but it sounds like he may no longer be alive: “Make use of what my vampire blood has taken from me, and do the thing that only you can do.” But what is the Ark? Well, we’re find out later.

— There’s a small problem here, though: if Yuliy is the only Sirius left, then even if he tries to protect the Ark, he won’t be able to do it for long. He’ll eventually die one day as well. Sure, he could shack up with a wife, but his offspring would be half-Sirius, half-human. And when they form their own families, the bloodline would continue to dilute. Maybe you don’t need to be a full-blooded werewolf in order to protect the Ark, but at this point, all we can do is speculate.

— Anyways, after dispensing invaluable information to both Yuliy and the audience, Mikhail conveniently disappears behind a wall of smoke. Um, okay.

— When Dorothea and Fallon finally get back to the mansion, our hero leaves Philip to those two so that he can chase after Kershner.

— On the mansion’s rooftop, we see that the vampire has stuck around. Why? Maybe he’s surrounded on all sides, so he can’t escape. I would hope that a vampire can turn into a bat and just fly away or something, but maybe this isn’t possible for him. Either way, the first person to greet him on the rooftop is actually Willard.

— It becomes quickly apparent that these two have a shared history. Kershner, however, quickly gets the upper hand on the professor. Luckily for him, Yuliy is finally here.

— Kershner then reveals the oh-so-horrible truth (not really): in order to locate Dogville, the vampires had turned to Willard to help them translate an ancient text. This, of course, led to the massacre of Yuliy’s village. But we can only blame the professor if he knew that the vampires were up to no good. Since we’re lacking that information, it’s hard to fault him.

— Nevertheless, this new bit of information enrages Yuliy, and yeah, he doesn’t look so hot here. Hope Ryoko isn’t looking!

— Kershner manages to disarm Yuliy and stab him through the shoulder, but the werewolf’s raw strength overpowers the vampire in the end. And just like that, Kershner meets his ignominious defeat. Tsk tsk. Neither he nor Agatha were long for this series, huh?

— Yuliy then quickly turns his attention to Willard, but he stops just short of ending the professor’s life. The latter obviously feels guilty over helping the vampires destroy Dogville. He also feels guilty for leading Yuliy down the road of vengeance. As a result, he always intended to die. Once his mission was finished, he would reveal the truth to Yuliy and allow the kid to end his life. If you ask me, that seems kinda cowardly.

— Plus, he underestimates Yuliy. Yes, our hero is mad. Yes, our hero feels betrayed. But at the end of the day, Willard saved his life and treated him like a son. He’s not going to kill the only father figure he has left.

— The next day, Iba is reprimanded for his stunt. After all, it’s kinda hard to prove that vampires exist when they turn into ash immediately after dying. So from an outsider’s perspective, it looks like Iba mobilized a bunch of tanks for nothing.

— Ryoko’s mentor returns to find the mansion in complete ruins. The girl is perfectly okay, though. Plus, V Shipping will foot the bill. After all, it’s their fault the vampires attacked Baron Naoe in the first place.

—  Of course, Ryoko is worried about Yuliy, but again, they go through another episode without having a single conversation with each other.

— Off to the side, Willard finally tells Yuliy and the audience all about this mystical Ark that everyone wants so badly. It’s apparently a treasure trove of “knowledge and technologies.” So why is it being guarded so closely by the werewolves? Wouldn’t this information be beneficial for the entire world? Wouldn’t you be able to save countless lives with the “knowledge and technologies” contained within the Ark? Or is it, like, just destructive knowledge? Knowledge of weapons and stuff like that?

— Plus, what good is keeping the Ark around if you’re not going to use it? It’s like buying a book just to put on your shelf and never read. What’s the point? Moreover, what good is keeping the Ark around if evil people like the vampires can use it to subjugate humanity? If you’re not going to do anything with all this power at your fingertips, wouldn’t it be more practical just to destroy the damn thing? Or is it not possible to destroy the Ark?

— We then cut to Yevgraf, and it sounds like a deadly disease is threatening to kill the vampires off. Maybe that’s why they want the Ark so badly. If they weren’t such murderous bastards, the werewolves probably would’ve helped them too.

— Anyways, the loli vampires burst into the room with news from Tokyo. They inform Yevgraf that Kershner is dead, but as expected, no one in the room gives a hoot about that guy. Instead, they’re happy to learn that Mikhail will soon be rejoining them. Well, who doesn’t love the family pet?

— Later that day, Willard goes to deliver his report to headquarters. In order to do so, he drops by his late friend’s bar. When he gets there, he finds Iba casually waiting for him.

— The two men proceed to exchange information. Top brass within the Japanese military now wants their hands on the Ark as well. In fact, they’ve known of its existence for a quite a while, but they just, well, stopped caring until recently. But y’know, retrieve the Ark for the Empire’s sake, yadda yadda yadda.

— In return, Willard tells Iba all about Yevgraf and how the vampire is in Sakhalin, a Russian island just north of Japan. So that’s where the Ark is, huh? That’s not too far for our heroes. Just a stone’s throw away… kinda.

— Nevertheless, Willard later tells his team that they have been ordered to return to London. Yuliy, however, has other designs.

— In the after credits scene, we see Yuliy board a ship that will take him directly to Sakhalin. You can tell that he obviously cherishes his “family” — he refers to them as his pack — but he now feels that he has a mission that only he can fulfill. He must find the Ark and protect it from the vampires. Welp, I doubt the Jaegers are just going to let him do something so dangerous all by his lonesome.

— Plus, what about Ryoko! Yes, what about her? In past episodes, she was crazy enough to hop on a train just to follow Yuliy. Will she be reckless enough to join him in Sakhalin? Well, this would be tough to explain to her bewildered father. And sure, she wants to see the world and broaden her horizons, but I doubt Sakhalin is high on her list of priorities. On the other hand, if she doesn’t go on some mad quest for werewolf love, then how else would the show justify her existence within this series? If she stays in Tokyo, wouldn’t she just, well, fade out from the story altogether? I won’t lie: she amuses me, so I hope she sticks around.

Well, it can’t get any worse, right? 

— As a quick aside, I got curious and checked the manga, but only the parts that have been adapted. In other words, I haven’t spoiled anything for myself. Anyways, I found out that the anime actually toned a few things down. For instance, Jessica, Max’s wife, was definitely raped by the Chinese mafia (she said so herself). When she called her husband for help, we saw her in her underwear. In the anime, however, she still had her black dress on and the word “rape” was never explicitly used. I haven’t read through every single page, but I can only imagine what else has been adjusted for the viewing audience.

— Alright, let’s get started. As soon as Golzine arrives, his men immediately overpowers Shorter. I mean, what did the guy honestly expect? Did he really think he could protect Eiji? I don’t know if he’s dumb or just trying to allay his guilt even though he knew he was attempting the impossible.

— For what it’s worth, Golzine also approves of Yut-Lung.

— Eiji is such a naive boy. He also refuses to believe that Shorter had betrayed Ash. There’s a sense in that he’s a virgin in more ways than one, and as a result, cruel men like Golzine can’t help but target him. It’s all about power and submission.

— Long after Shorter and Eiji have been dragged away, Golzine reveals his bitterness and resentment over Ash’s betrayal. But of course, he blissfully ignores the fact that he had abused the kid beyond belief. Classic narcissist.

— We later see Abraham preparing to inject Shorter with his latest iteration of Banana Fish. Y’know, I’m surprised that Shorter is surprised. Again, what did he expect? Oh hey, this guy invented Banana Fish. Oh hey, I’m strapped down to a chair. Gee, I wonder what they’re gonna do to me!

— The bad guys also let Eiji watch the whole thing go down just because they want to be extra evil? Shrug. I always enjoy a good “YAMERO~!!!!” Unfortunately, Eiji’s performance would score maybe a 4/10. Not enough anguish and desperation behind the scream.

— Once the drug is in Shorter’s system, Abraham proceeds to plant ideas into the guy’s head. He tells Shorter that Eiji is his enemy, and as a result, Shorter can’t help but want to murder his former friend. I have a lot of issues with Banana Fish as a concept, but I’ll get to them in a bit.

— The next time we see Eiji, he is tied up in Golzine’s bed. It sounds like the bastard was going to have a forced threesome with the kid and Yut-Lung, but Ash’s arrival forced him to put things on hold. Sounds like.

— Yut-Lung reveals that he hates Eiji just because the latter has had an easy life. ‘Cause that’s what we need. When bad things happen to you, don’t try to prevent them from happening again. Rather, drag everyone else down with you instead.

— We soon see Max and Shunichi dressed to the nines in fancy tuxes. I guess Golzine got their exact measurements and everything. What’s the point of pulling this stunt? Who knows? Maybe the guy fancies himself a showman. It’s really quite pointless if you think about it.

— Ash is the last person to arrive, and when he finally does so, he identifies the wine along with its vintage. Again, we are shown that the kid has many talents. He’s practically perfect for all intents and purposes. His only weakness thus far appears to be his relative immaturity and anger issues.

— Golzine also bought Ash a jade earring that is worth $400K. I’m just having a hard time seeing what any of this adds to the overall story. After the man is done showing off his power and wealth, armed men burst into the room and drag Ash away. He didn’t even get a bite to eat! Rude! The food looks so good too, and now it’s just going to go to waste.

— Elsewhere, we see Ash’s loyal gang meet up with Shorter’s gang. They intend to team up and break their respective leaders out of Golzine’s prison. Good luck with that. Well, they’ll probably succeed, because if they don’t, I’m having a hard time imagining how Ash is going to escape all by himself.

— The next time we see Ash, he’s all chained up in Golzine’s… dungeon. Yeah, the guy literally has a dungeon beneath his mansion. I wonder how he got that commissioned without raising any eyebrows. Then again, if he’s got the government eating out of his hands, I guess building a dungeon wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

— Abraham goes on a rant about how he hated the soldiers for picking on him. One of the show’s biggest weakness seems to be the lack of compelling characterization for the bad guys. They’re just clownishly bad. There’s nothing interesting about either Golzine, Arthur, or Abraham.

— So what’s the game here? The bad guys are going to turn Shorter loose on Eiji and demonstrate the effectiveness of Banana Fish. The former won’t be able to resist killing the latter. Sounds good, right? Well, Abraham adds, “Once he’s devoid of a target, he’ll break and start hurting himself.” Oh.

— On paper, I can understand why the government might be interested in Banana Fish. You can convince a soldier to kill anyone! Even his own parents! Talk about following orders to a T! The execution, however, leaves me wanting.

— First, how exactly are you going to administer the drug on a large scale? Are you gonna strap multiple soldiers down at a time and inject them with it? But that’s not enough. You also need to plant suggestions into their heads. How’s that going to work across the entire army? And how are you going to keep this all quiet? How will this not leak out to the press and thus cause an uproar with the public?

— Secondly, the victim is going to hurt himself after he kills his target? Uh, how is that useful? You want soldiers to start killing themselves in the middle of a war?

— Third, the victim is haunted forever by memories even if he does survive. Great. Now he’s fucking useless for future battles.

— Fourth, Shorter might be able to overpower a defenseless kid like Eiji, but he doesn’t look like a killing machine to me! Someone in that state would be easily shot down in an actual battle.

— Maybe Banana Fish isn’t for the army. Maybe it’s for assassinations. Well, even if this is the case, I highly doubt someone suffering from the drug can be an effective hitman.

— Maybe Banana Fish will be used on enemy soldiers to turn them against each other. Again, how would they administer the drug on a large enough scale? How would they plant the idea in the enemy soldiers’ minds that they need to start killing each other? I dunno, the idea of the drug just seems infeasible.

— Anyways, Arthur drops a gun in front of Ash. Our hero will have to kill his own best friend just to protect Eiji.

— For a brief moment, Shorter is lucid enough to beg Ash to kill him. He no longer wants to suffer like this. Add this to another list of the drug’s many flaws. I would not be very impressed if I was that colonel!

— When Shorter is just seconds away from killing Eiji, Arthur releases Ash’s chains just enough for the latter to grab the gun. Our hero has no choice but to then shoot his best friend right through the chest. Thoroughly powerless to prevent this senseless tragedy, all Ash can do is cry. The episode then ends on that note.

How on earth can you guys be this hung up on a crush after spending six years apart? I’m so tired of this show. After last week’s ridiculous revelation to this week’s melodrama, I’m about ready to throw in the towel. The only thing that keeps me going is that there are only three episodes left after this. Ugh.

— The episode opens with a quick duel between Takanori and Clive, because this is apparently the only way for a boy to verify another boy’s identity.

— Afterwards, Clive explains what he’s been up to, and it’s what we already know: he’s been watching over Asahi at Elicia’s behest. The girls then start grilling Haruto about Elicia, because unfounded jealousy sure is funny.

— Haruto then tells them about the alternate timeline. Y’know, the one where he had gotten a game over six years ago instead of Asahi. Naturally, his friends find this all incredibly hard to believe. No one seems to really bring up the fact that Senses can be used in the real world, though.

— Finally, it’s Takanori’s turn to contribute to the meeting, and he announces that Nozomi has finally returned from overseas. He then tells Haruto and Satsuki to visit the girl without him. Why is he not going? Well, he claims that she was often uncomfortable around him. Welp, there you go: a clear-cut sign that Nozomi likes Takanori.

— So she likes him, and he likes Asahi, but Asahi likes Haruto. Who does Haruto like? Nothing’s been confirmed yet, but c’mon, you know he’s going to pick Asahi. The Asahis of the world always win over the Satsukis of the world. I don’t make up the rules, man. It’s just true. These weird ass writers love their sweet but dumb loli princesses. The loli-er, the better. I don’t hate Asahi, but she’s clearly a child in both appearance and mentality.

— I’d be sad, but I don’t really care for Satsuki either. She’s rather annoying. When she realizes that Takanori has no clue about Nozomi’s feelings for him, she just goes, “You guys are all so clueless!” Why don’t you correct them instead of just being all pissy in the corner? Use your words, young lady. Either communicate or just shut the hell up.

— The problem with this show is that all of the characters suck. Haruto doesn’t really have a personality. He’s just your generic anime lead. Asahi is, again, sweet but childish. She clearly hasn’t matured a bit in the past six years, and while that’s perfectly understandable, what’s not understandable is how a pair of guys in high school would still be fighting over her. I just went over my dislike of Satsuki. Takanori is creepy for obvious reasons. C’mon, who obsesses over a dead girl for six years? And Clive? Well, we know nothing about him other than the fact that the writer is trying too goddamn hard to make him seem cool.

— So in the real world, Haruto and Satsuki go to meet Nozomi. So far, she seems normal enough.

— In fact, she’s become a model. That’s why she’s always so busy. And like a lot of anime characters who go into this industry, Nozomi started modeling to get rid of her shyness. This trope has been run deep into the ground.

— The girl also blushes at the first mention of Takanori in case you needed more evidence that she likes the guy.

— But in the end, she disappoints her former friends by telling them that she no longer plays games. Uh-huh. Sure.

— When Haruto and Satsuki return to Re’Union, the latter tells Takanori that he must come with them next time to see Nozomi. As you can tell, this episode is not very exciting… unless you love pointless love polygons between a bunch of immature kids.

— And right on cue, there’s going to be a dance party. A sweet one, in fact. What a great name.

— It’s basically a prom, and all the girls are excited. Haruto, on the other hand, pretends to be oblivious as usual. Or maybe he’s truly that dumb. Who can really say?

— In the real world, we see Satsuki mentally torture herself in her room, because she obviously wants to go to the dance with Haruto. Eventually, she logs herself into the game to meet up with the guy. She even tells him to come early, because she wants to speak with him alone. Uh, you guys know you can communicate in the real world, right?

— So is Satsuki going to finally grab the reins and ask Haruto out? Of course not. Instead, she tells him to ask her out. Sigh.

— Still, I gotta give the girl credit for finally confessing her feelings. It only took six damn years and nine mind-numblingly boring episodes, but here we are. Haruto is then given a day to think about it.

— Later that night, he gets a rather ominous message from Takanori. It’s a message in the real world, though. See, Satsuki? Some people know how to talk outside of the game.

— At Asahi’s grave, Takanori announces his intentions to ask the girl to the dance. He also insists that he’d be the one to protect Asahi. Blah blah blah, I’m better than you in every way, so how come she keeps picking you over me? I dunno, man, but I bet you girls don’t find it attractive when you’re still in love with a supposedly dead girl from elementary school.

— After Takanori pushes enough of Haruto’s buttons, our “hero” finally admits that he loves Asahi too, so he isn’t willing to just give her away. And with that, the latter turns and leaves. That was all he wanted to hear. He just wanted Haruto to just be upfront about his feelings and stop leaving everyone in the state of limbo.

— After Haruto leaves, Takanori buries Asahi’s ring. As creepy and obsessive as Takanori might have been over the course of the series, at least he’s finally taking the proper steps to move on.

— The next day, we see a dolled-up Satsuki patiently waiting for Haruto. Unfortunately, he has nothing but bad news for the girl. She takes it on the chin at least. After all, she’s known for a while now that she could never win. This would all be very sad if I gave a damn about these characters, but I don’t.

— As a consolation prize, Takanori will be accompanying Satsuki for the rest of the night. Things are platonic between them, but that doesn’t mean them dancing together won’t cause any misunderstandings, though!

— Anyways, Haruto asks Asahi to dance, and whatever. I just don’t care. These two are so unappealing to me that I literally don’t care.

— Back in the real world, Nozomi considers logging in. Uh-oh. You think she’s gonna freak out when she sees Takanori with Satsuki? Hah, you bet your ass she will.

— But how will she log in? She says she doesn’t play games anymore. Apparently, her equipment from six years ago will work perfectly even now.

— But first, we need a dumb, pointless flashback to “explain” why she likes Takanori. Yeah, there’s nothing that the show can do to convince me that any of us should still be hung up on a crush from six years ago. Dude, I don’t even like the same goddamn food that I liked six years ago.

— After the lame flashback scene, Nozomi finally logs in. Conveniently enough, she’s also right outside the “Sweet Dance Party.” And what should she immediately find when she enters the joint? Takanori and Satsuki dancing together. Oh no, this must mean that they’re a couple! Why else would two people dance with each other? Only couples do that! I definitely shouldn’t say anything to either them! I definitely should overreact and storm out of the place! I definitely should sob and call myself stupid for even logging in! Wait, do do that, because this is stupid. Like the title of this post suggests, it’s been six fucking years. Six fucking years, and you guys are still this worked up about a goddamn crush.

— In Nozomi’s moment of emotional weakness, she’s suddenly transported away to… some place. These two clowns then emerge from the shadows to greet the girl. Seriously, one of them is literally a clown. Who are we? Gnosis. What do we do? We’re trying to awaken a mindbendingly powerful ability within a girl that will allow us to reshape history. And as a result, we look like clowns. Great.

If I could use a word to describe this show, it would be just that: “simple.” The show is simple in all respects. There’s just nothing here to chew on. Each episode is pretty much 24 consecutive minutes of flavorless air. In fact, this post will be short precisely because the show is so simple. The qualifier tournament is coming up, and Akari is worried. Why? Well, everyone initially thought that the island could send two teams to nationals. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Akari is worried that if her friends end up playing against each other, this will tear the club apart. Um, really? Aren’t we being a bit hyperbolic here? But yeah, that’s the crux of the drama for the first third of the episode. The girls simply rally around Akari and assure her that nothing could get in the way of their friendship. And in return, she gives them all scrunchies. Meh.

We waste the next third of the episode on tying up some loose ends. At the tournament, Kanata is pleased as a peach that she can compete in a real event. Cool. Haruka and Kanata meet up with Mai and Ai, but the latter two won’t be playing. After all, Ai has already graduated so that’s that. Maybe they can play in college or something. Our heroines then proceed to win their first match with ease. They win so easily that we don’t even get to know who they played. The opponents were simply not that important. In their second match, they get to go up against the Arakagi sisters. The Aragaki sisters had lost to the Thomas twins in middle school, so they’ve been training hard for the past few years just to get their “revenge.” But this is Harukana Receive, so there truly isn’t any bad blood between any of the girls. Plus, they’re going to have to get through Haruka and Kanata, and we already know that they won’t.

Nevertheless, the last third of the episode is devoted to this very match. Unfortunately, it isn’t even a close one. Our girls quickly race out to a 7-0 lead in the first set. The Aragaki sisters can only get on the board by pulling out their secret weapon: the top spin serve. So top spin on a ball makes it drop suddenly. In tennis, a top spin shot allows players to hit as hard as they can without worrying about the ball going long. Also, when the ball bounces off the court, it tends to kick up real high. Pro players can make the ball bounce up around your shoulder level, which makes it difficult to return the ball. This is how players like Nadal have dominated the sport. Well, in volleyball, the ball isn’t allowed to bounce to begin with, so I’m not sure what other advantages you get other than making the bottom drop out of the ball’s trajectory. Generally, flat shots are faster in tennis. I assume the same is true in volleyball. That doesn’t mean that a top spin shot has less force behind it, though.

Anyways, enough of that nonsense. Even with the top spin serve, the Aragaki sisters lose in straight sets. They also lose pretty badly both times. They’re not too bothered about it, though. Hell, they probably could’ve scored more points if they weren’t so deadset on breaking Haruka’s blocks. So basically, Haruka has learned a lot from Claire, and as a result, her game mirrors the blonde twin. This is why the Aragaki sisters got so fixated with just getting pass her blocks. But Haruka still has Kanata behind her, and blah blah blah teamwork owns. And with their second win under their belt, they just have one match left: the finals against the Thomas twins. This is for all the marbles, boys. Whoops, I meant girls. Silly me, there are no boys on this island. Like I said, there isn’t much to this episode. There isn’t much to this show either. Unlike other sports anime, Harukana Receive doesn’t have the animating chops to show us the action that we desperately crave. That’s why the anime has to rely on slow motion and close-ups all the damn time. It’s just too simple.

In the middle of a rescue operation, Todoroki and Yoarashi have the dumbest beef ever. 

— First things first, it’s curious how the  “Heroes Public Safety Commission” is comprised entirely of men. Curious…

— Back at the provisional exams, some of the kids are losing their minds over the fact that they have to deal with both the rescue operation and fending off villains. Kids like Mineta. Hint, hint, maybe you should drop out of the test.

— But look, it’s really not going to be that complicated. At the end of the day, the kids will just have to divvy up their efforts. The ones who have good combat quirks should assist with holding back Gang Orca. Everyone else should continue to ensure the safety of all the injured. If done correctly, very few people will have to juggle their responsibilities. You just have to swallow your pride and carry out your responsibilities no matter what they are.

— Another curious observation: all of the judges are male. Look, look, I know what some of you are thinking. Just because they’re all males doesn’t mean they can’t be objective and fair. Sure. But when major scandals like this one suddenly surface in the news, it’s hard to imagine that, y’know, perfectly fallible humans won’t somehow make a mistake and allow their biases to come into play. And even then, to call it nothing more than a mere mistake is being incredibly generous.

— And if you say, “Not everything has to be inclusive,” sure, but how hard is it to draw a single woman? Is it gonna kill you? Really? Is this really the hill that you want to die on? Look, you got all sorts of cute girls down there in hot, sexy outfits like Momo, Mina, and even Camie. But you can’t draw a single woman in a suit who doesn’t have any lines? Bruh.

— Anyways, let’s move on. Gang Orca’s… uh, gang charges in, but Shindo immediately disables them with his ability to create tremors. Neat crowd control. Unfortunately, it won’t work on the big, bad boss himself.

— Still, this buys enough time for both Todoroki and Yoarashi to show up, and I guess they’re two of the most capable fighters out of all of the participants here. It’s just too bad that they kinda hate each other. As a result, they can’t coordinate their attacks at all. When Todoroki tries to attack Gang Orca with a stream of fire, Yoarashi inadvertently divides it in two.

— Alright, fine, let’s find out why they dislike each other so much. Back when Yoarashi was a kid, he tried to get Endeavor’s autograph, but the latter rudely knocked the pen and paper out of the kid’s hands. When Yoarashi looked up into Endeavor’s eyes, he saw nothing but “cold, cold anger!” Wait, that’s it? You’re gonna beef with someone’s kid over that?

— But wait, there’s more! When both of them were still planning on enrolling at UA, Todoroki also brushed off Yoarashi’s efforts to become his friend. Unfortunately, Endeavor’s kid was still a jerk back then, so he rudely dismissed Yoarashi. When the latter looked into the former’s eyes, he saw the same “cold, cold anger!” Sorry, sorry, but I need to catch a breath, because I’m laughing too hard. The idea that you would endanger a mission just because someone has eyes of “cold, cold anger” is fucking ridiculous to me. It’s childish and petty as shit. You know how many people have to work with someone they dislike? You know how many people don’t like their jobs but still pull it together at the end of the day? So yeah, these two deserve to fail for even arguing with each on the battlefield.

— Unfortunately, they’re not just arguing on the battlefield. One of their uncoordinated attacks almost hits Shindo, who is still trying to recover from Gang Orca’s attack. Had Deku not swooped in and carried the guy out of danger, he might have gotten hit by friendly fire. This should instantly disqualify both Todoroki and Yoarashi, but the exam isn’t over yet.

— By the way, Deku also yells at the other two to cut the bullshit and stop arguing.

— Todoroki admits that he still has lingering issues regarding Endeavor that he needs to work through. Unfortunately, the battlefield is no time to brood. Before he realizes it, Gang Orca has already closed the distance. The pretend villain proceeds to disable both Todoroki and Yoarashi.

— This allows Gang Orca’s goons to continue pursuing the evacuees, but then Shindo crowd controls them again. Wait a minute, haven’t I seen this before?  Oh yeah, he crowd controlled them the last time too. Wow, what a coincidence! Shindo is able to crowd control these goons in the exact same way twice! Amazing Quirk! What a talent!

— Anyways, now that Todoroki and Yoarashi have thoroughly humiliated themselves, they finally decide to work together. By combining their Quirks, they manage to trap Gang Orca in a prison of fire.

— Deku is forced to fight instead of assisting with the rest of the rescue mission. Luckily for him, however, everyone else manages to get the job done, so the likes of Mina and Tokoyami can now join the fight as well.

— Gang Orca eventually manages to break out of his prison, but Deku lands a surprise attack that is strong enough to crack the pretend villain’s armguard. But before any serious fighting can happen, the bell rings. The exam is over.

— I have no clue what Bakugo has been doing this entire time. Did he even manage to rescue a single injured person?

— The results have already been tabulated, and the kids can look up on the big board to see whether or not they’ve passed. And of course, this is where the episode comes to an end. But look, it’s obvious that Deku is gonna passed. He made one small mistake and that’s it. There’s no way Todoroki and Yoarashi can pass after that embarrassing display. As for Bakugo, I dunno… maybe he did something offscreen.

— Either way, those who don’t pass can just retake the exam, right? So it’s not like any of this truly matters in the long run. All it means is that they’ll have to wait a bit longer to their provisional license. Big whoop.

— So uh, what was up with Camie? I thought she might try to muck things up with Deku again in the second part of the exam, but she was nowhere to be found.

The side characters need lovin’ too, y’know. 

— It’s interesting to see Haru’s father in the ICU. He did not die immediately at the conference. I was under the impression that he did. Maybe I’m mistaken or maybe this is another liberty taken by the adaptation. If it’s the latter, it doesn’t really make sense. Everyone else seemed to die on the spot.

— Y’know, even though this old man is one of the bad guys, he’s really not all that memorable. It probably doesn’t help that he doesn’t even have a name. Yep, for a game full of characters, the writers refused to name this guy for some reason. He’s simply known as the SIU Director. Sure, he’s probably just a pawn, but it’s odd nonetheless.

— Anyways, he puts Sae in charge of the investigation into the Phantom Thieves, but we all know she’s just a puppet. Still, the woman jumps at the opportunity, because he’s promising a promotion should she succeed. The problem here — and this is true of both the game and the adaptation — is that the writers never really flesh out Sae’s backstory. Sure, she’s one of the social links, but we level it up by simply progressing the story. As a result, we don’t really learn much about her or her struggles.

Yes, I can certainly imagine that it is very difficult to juggle a career and raising your kid sister on your own. But what stands out to me during this scene is when Sae goes, “You’re giving the case to someone as inexperienced as me?” Y’see, I had been thinking this whole time that she was experienced. I know she wants to shatter the glass ceiling and all, but a few extra scenes to establish her hardship would’ve really gone a long way. For instance, letting us see a flashback where she had been passed over for a promotion because of sexism or something. This would help us understand why she’s willing to compromise her values just to climb the ladder.

— Elsewhere, Haru had overheard that investigators had found a calling card in the principal’s office, so she goes and confront the team about it. Of course, they deny ever targeting Kobayakawa. They never really had any reason to. He’s a loser, but not pure evil by any means. Still, I find it a bit strange that Haru never presses the Phantom Thieves on the matter. She seems to just trust them at their word. Considering how she hasn’t known them for all that long, she should at least be a bit more skeptical, don’t you think? But maybe this isn’t really in her nature.

— What’s kinda cool here is that public opinion has suddenly turned on the Phantom Thieves. This goes to show you how fickle people can be. But not only that, they are also gullible. Both traditional media and social media have such a huge sway over public opinion. People don’t bother to seek out the truth. They just believe whatever they are told to believe, and this is an issue that is very relevant to our current political climate. Unfortunately, like many stories, Persona 5 can only raise the issue. It never seems to offer any real solutions.

— Later that night, Sae tells Makoto that she’ll be staying overnight at her office from this point on, because she has a very important investigation. Yes, yes, she needs to succeed at all cost, but we’ve already been over this.

— The next day, the police have come to Shujin Academy and started questioning the kids. I can’t tell if they’re onto the Phantom Thieves or just being complete idiots. Would you look at that? This kid seems to hang out with all of the other kids who are linked to the Phantom Thieves incident! What a coincidence!

— After school, Futaba reveals that the Medjed they had faced in the summer was nothing more than a fake. How does she know this? ‘Cause code is like fingerprints, she says! No… just no.

— In any case, someone had messed around with the Phansite to make Okumura rocket to the top of the rankings. Basically, the conspirators wanted the Phantom Thieves to go after the burger-peddlin’ CEO. They were being set up right from the get-go. Y’know, I’m surprised that the team continues to let Mishima run the site. Hell, I would think someone with Futaba’s chops would’ve just taken over the site as soon as she joined the team.

— The team thus agrees to lay low for now. Don’t do anything that will make them stand out. That makes sense on paper, but they carry out most of their operations in the Metaverse. Other than sending the calling cards, nothing they do is supposed to stand out in the real world.

— Still, this gives Ren the opportunity finally level up a few social links. For instance, he strikes up a friendship with Haru. It’s nice to hear her speak in Japanese. Her voice is still very high-pitched, but it’s better than that English monstrosity. I’d be nicer, but I doubt the voice actress would ever stumble across this blog anyways. And besides, it’s not her fault. I’m sure she’s more than capable of sounding normal. Rather, it’s the director’s fault.

— At the arcades, Ren learns a few tips on how to bust a cap in them fools by watching Shinya play a game. Yes, in the game, you learn fancy gun skills by befriending the kid. I feel like the Tower arcana is uncompelling in every game. Eh, maybe the old man in Persona 3 wasn’t so bad, but for 4 and 5, they keep giving us these bratty kids that I don’t want to know period. And although gun skills look cool in Persona 5, they’re not really super strong or anything, so you can totally pass on befriending Shinya.

— Afterwards, Mishima tries order Ren around. To manage the public perception of the Phantom Thieves, which is declining as we speak, the Phansite operator wants our hero to go after a guy just because he’s popular. This is an abuse of power for sure, but it was bound to happen. Mishima was a pushover until he met Ren. Thanks to the Phansite, he got a taste of power, and he’s letting it get to his head. He just wants to be important even though he’s clearly riding on someone else’s coattails. Out of all of the social links, Mishima is one of the better ones.

— Plus, leveling up Mishima’s social link is very beneficial. He allows party members on the sidelines to receive equal EXP as the active party. I hate the alternative. All this does is make me grind twice as much (one of Octopath Traveler‘s few but major drawbacks). Realism is never more important than fun when it comes to gameplay. Mishima is also super easy to level up, so it always baffles me when people manage to end the game without maxing him out. Other than this one slip up, he’s a loyal kid.

— Ren then bumps into Hifumi. Her mother used to care about shogi, but lately, all she wants to do is pimp her daughter out. She cares more about exploiting her daughter’s image than anything else, which, as you can imagine, is bewildering for Hifumi. She is normally so reserved, so it isn’t in her character to become an idol within the shogi world. Her fiery side only comes out in the heat of competition.

— A lot of people want Hifumi to be a party member — and hell, this was originally in the cards — but eh, I think her personality is redundant. We have enough of her kind. Still, her social link benefits are pretty good, too. They give you special advantages in battle, but since this isn’t a post about the game, I won’t go into detail about them.

— Last but not least, we finally give Ann some much-needed attention. The thing about Ann’s social link is that if you ignore it, you never hear about Shiho again. So if you befriend her, you get to talk to Shiho one last time. The girl opens up about that painful day she tried to commit suicide, and how much she’s grown since then. Nevertheless, her mother is putting her in another school, so this is goodbye… kinda. Of course, she and Ann will stay in touch, but you may as well never see her again.

— This line is a bit odd for the adaptation, because other than a single run in with Mika, we don’t actually see anime Ann spend all that much time modeling. There’s a bigger focus on that in the game.

— So in the adaptation, Haru overhears Ann’s words, and this seemingly convinces her to keep on fighting. This is a nice way to tie these two stories together.

— The problem here, however, is that anime Ren doesn’t have a single romantic bone in his body. His relationships with all of the girls are strictly platonic. Even though he seems to have spent the most time with Makoto, it’s doubtful that anything will come of that. And because anime Ren is so boringly lame in the love department, we miss out on what I feel is one of the cuter scenes within the game. Ann’s social link has a lot of issues, but I like its ending. She gets super lovey-dovey, which is nice to see because Japanese heroines tend to be so coy when it comes to romance.

— Anyways, the group soon see that Mishima has gone too far, so Ren decides to check Mementos. He has a hunch that he might just find a shadow version of the kid lurking about in that palace.

— I like that the group just walks away from Mishima in the end. He’s not that far gone. He has issues, but he can fix it himself. So back in the real world, Ren finds a contrite Mishima who will devote his energy into a new project instead. A documentary full of details about vigilantes does not exactly sound like the brightest idea, but as long as he keeps it to himself, it can’t be too bad, right? Well, in our day and age, nothing is truly secure if you stick it online.

— Up next is the Shujin Culture Festival — I’m sorry, the Culture “Fastival” — so a certain someone is about to make contact with the Phantom Thieves.

— Not only that, Sae reveals that the next calling card was sent to her of all people. No way! Can Sae truly be evil? Well, there are some shady public prosecutors out there…

Ryoko is as crazy as I had hoped her to be. The girl tells her father that she’s headed for London, but she’s on the same train as Iba. Curious. Look, I doubt we’re going to see London anytime soon. I’m just curious to see what our spunky maiden hopes to accomplish in the middle of nowhere.

— Anyways, we learn right off the bat that Yevgraf had been the one to turn Mikhail into a vampire. So how does that work? Does vampirism trump lycanthrophy? Do you automatically cease to be a werewolf just because someone turns you into a vampire?

— Back in the present, Mikhail meets up with Yevgraf at some kind of ancient Siriusian temple. We’re told that they had an advanced civilization back in the day, but like always, they suffered a massive decline. Yuliy’s tiny village was probably the last surviving remnants of said civilization. Why is that? Look, it’s one thing for the glorious Roman Empire to decline, but it’s not as though all Romans disappeared along with them. But in fiction, ancient civilizations just disappear at the snap of the fingers. It’s ridiculous.

— Yevgraf does not have his loli vampires by his side. Instead, we have a dude who sorely needs a haircut. Needless to say, he’s here to provide the muscle.

— As Yevgraf and Mikhail journey into the depths of the ancient Siriusian temple (or shrine — whatever you want to call it), the former questions the latter’s inability to kill his kid brother. Well, considering what happens next, he should probably be thankful that Mikhail couldn’t carry out his mission.

— We’re told that Yuliy and Mikhail’s father had taken the Ark here, because this holy land is the only place where the all-important artifact can be sealed. But why seal it at all? Like I said in the last post, if you’re not going to use the Ark, why is it necessary to keep it around? What value does this provide? I know it’s important to your people, but considering how potentially dangerous it would be if the Ark fell into the wrong hands, sentimental value can only go so far.

— Anyway, we finally arrive at an ominous pond full of red liquid. I doubt it’s blood, but you never know. Apparently, Yuliy and Mikhail’s father had sacrificed his own life to create this place. Odd.

— Elsewhere, Yuliy has finally reached Sakhalin. I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m a bit surprised to see that the place is as developed as it is.

— The rest of the Jaegers finally discuss Yuliy’s sudden departure from the team. Philip is the least happy of the bunch, which goes to show you that he’s come a long way. He used to butt heads with his werewolf companion, but now he’s the most passionate about going after Yuliy. Meanwhile, Dorothea and Fallon try to keep a level head. Despite all of Philip’s assumptions, it does sound like Willard intends to assist our hero in some form or fashion. Well, Yuliy’s like his own son, right? So you can’t just leave your son to die alone.

— Unfortunately for Yuliy, all he knows is that Yevgraf is here. He doesn’t have a clue where to find the Ark. Luckily, this guy in a cowboy hat is here to assist. He goes by the name of Bishop, and he’s a fellow Jaeger. He and his team had been trying to track down Yevgraf. Sadly, he’s the only remaining survivor. He had called for backup, which is why he assumed that Yuliy is here to help.

— Back in the dank red pit, Mikhail tries to retrieve the Ark, but every single step into the pool pains him. Despite his pleas, whatever’s left of his father is rejecting him. It’s clear that the Ark will not fall easily into the hands of the vampires. Still, Mikhail persists, because he hopes that the Ark will allow him to kill Yevgraf. The vampire, however, tires of this nonsense, so he forcibly pulls his servant back. A blood pact pretty much allows him to boss Mikhail around.

— Mikhail tries to retaliate, but Yevgraf overpowers him easily with just mind powers. The guy with the bad haircut then proceeds to deliver a blow strong enough to knock Mikhail out. Welp, that’s that.

— Still, this is why Yevgraf shouldn’t be mad about Mikhail allowing Yuliy to live. If Mikhail can’t get his hands on the Ark, Yuliy certainly can. See? We shouldn’t just to kill everybody that we see.

— Anyways, Bishop claims that he knows someone who might be able to tell them more about the Ark. The guy intends to break the Ark and kill Yevgraf. Yuliy, however, wants to protect the Ark. I don’t understand it, but it is what it is.

— Back in Tokyo, Baron Naoe hopes that his daughter will behave now that foreign influences aren’t around to corrupt her. Unfortunately, he soon receives a letter from Ryoko where she confesses her intention to travel to London and learn more about the world. More importantly, she wants to learn more about the vampire threat. What a crazy girl.

— We soon see where she gets it from, though. Baron Naoe sort of relents by agreeing to let the girl travel to her heart’s content. He, however, will follow her. Yep, just like that. On a mere whim, Ryoko’s old man will try and accompany her to London. The only problem is, is she even headed for London?

— We next see Iba on a train, griping about his latest mission. On the same train, just seats away from the guy, sits Ryoko and her bento box. Hmm.

— This old man in the woods is probably the person whom Bishop was referring to. Unfortunately, the Jaegers won’t be the only ones to pay him a visit tonight.

— During a car ride, Yuliy wants to know why Bishop has the stench of vampires on him. The latter claims that he’s killed so many vampires over his lifetime that he can no longer rid himself of the stink. Is that so? Hm, we’ll see. It wouldn’t surprise me if Bishop ends up double-crossing our hero.

— When these two near the old man’s cabin, they see that they’re almost too late. The old man is busy fending off a bunch of vampires all by his lonesome. Yuliy thus hops out of the car first to try and assist. It just won’t be easy; he has vampire lolis to contend with.

— The girls proceed to taunt our hero about all sorts of things, i.e. being the last of the Sirius (this piques the old man’s interest), seeing his mother die before his very eyes, meeting his brother Mikhail after all this time apart, etc. More importantly, they seemingly want to form a blood pact with Yuliy. But that can’t be what Yevgraf wants, is it? Doesn’t he need a true Sirius to retrieve the Ark after Mikhail’s failure?

— But it doesn’t really matter, because this blood pact isn’t going to happen. There’s just no way Yuliy’s going to turn into a vampire. We’ll just have to wait till next week to see what happens next.

I thought the Sealing Faction would just, y’know, seal mankind’s evolution. I didn’t know that this involved literally putting everyone to sleep. Humanity may as well be dead in that case. Anyways…

— Because Benika was exposed to the Sealing Field in last week’s episode, she has been placed into a deep sleep. Naturally, she’s dreaming of a world in which her senpai, a.k.a. Yosuke’s brother, is still alive. I really wish the show had leaned more on these dream sequences. Not only are they far more compelling to watch than most of the real world stuff, they also help to flesh out these paper-thin characters. The problem is that most of the time you only ever learn about these characters when it’s finally time to do battle against them. The results are mixed at best.

— Why did she lose all her clothes?

— Yosuke’s kind of pathetic.

— Back on Earth, our hero is still despondent, but Sensei believes in him. Nozomi eventually drops by to check up on Soya.

— Nozomi’s parents look adorable.

— Elsewhere, we see people questioning Takezo about his son. He’ll likely have a role to play when the Dragon returns from the moon.

— Anyways, when Benika finally wakes up, that’s Yosuke’s cue to “finish the job.” He’s going to try and seal humanity, because… well, Benika was his world and she got sealed. But lest you think that’s it, let’s just say he gets even more pathetic with every single line that he utters.

— I really can’t stand sad sacks like Yosuke. They sit around and mope all day. They mope all day because they don’t have the guts to fix their own problems. Then when all that negativity builds up within them, they become melodramatic as hell. Oh no, my world is gone! Give me a break. Okay, his brother died, and I feel for him. But then he claims that he has no reason to live without Benika. That’s just dumb, yo. If you want to commit suicide, do it on your own terms. But to drag everyone down with you because the woman you love — whom you’ve never even bothered to confess to, by the way — is now gone is just pure selfishness.

— Back on Earth, Nozomi proceeds to say a few nice words to Soya. Something she says particularly struck a chord: “I’m on the side of the people I want to befriend.” It’s the corny, schlocky nonsense that you can expect from a show like this.

— So Yosuke descends to Earth along with this giant ram. His photon armor also resembles a ram. Benika was his world, and because he lost something that big and important to him, this gives him a lot of psychic ability? And as such, he is able to absorb the entire sealing device and become this huge monstrosity? Eh, whatever.

— The point is, he’s far bigger than Hideo, so the latter doesn’t even stand a chance. Miu and Harumi eventually show up to lend a hand, but three ants aren’t much better than one.

— And now that everyone has been defeated — the Pacifist faction doesn’t even show to the battle — Yosuke proceeds to give the entire planet one big hug of death. His arms just keep going and going and going until they’ve surrounded the whole planet.

— And with this, all life on the planet has been extinguished. Kinda.

— People are technically still alive, but they’re all locked in blissful dreams. In my opinion, they may as well be dead. Anyone can strap themselves to a happy machine and dream their life away. That’s not the same as living. To live is something completely different.

— Also, like I said up above, this is not what I expected at all. I thought they would just seal human’s psychic potential or something. Let humanity stagnate in its current form, y’know? But instead, this is… this is death, man. Yosuke forced everyone to commit suicide with him, just because 1) he’s sad about his brother and 2) he’s sad about Benika. That’s so lame. Like if you’re going to go down this route, you need a character with a more tragic backstory. You need a character who tried his best to save the world, but was betrayed in the end or something. A character who’s lost more than just his brother and a woman he never even bothered to confess to. You need more than a sad sack like Yosuke.

— By the way, Sensei got sealed as well, but Generalissimo doesn’t seem to bothered by this.

— Anyways, Soya is the only person not to get sealed, and it’s not hard to imagine why. Yes, the People of Paradise (since we only ever see one of them, can’t I just call him the Person of Paradise?) had protected him.

— Our kid hero starts remembering all of the good times, especially with Nozomi. Y’know, how she befriended him, how she stuck with him, how she defended him when everybody wanted him to fight. So in the end, he decides that he wants to protect this planet. In exchange for help, he promises to defeat the Dragon later. We all knew this would happen. It just took two long episodes.

— The Person of Paradise then enlarges Soya’s mind, and this allows him to speak to the entire planet. The kid then asks if people still want to return to their regular lives even if this means giving up their blissful dreams. Everyone starts raising their hands, so yeah, people want to live. People want to experience life.

— For a scene like this to work, you gotta pretend that everyone’s normal. That nobody’s doing anything weird. But let’s be real: some schmuck out there was probably busy jerking off to loli hentai or some shit when they got sealed, and now they have to raise their hand to return to their degenerate life. But no, let’s be serious about it. Some poor sap was about to be executed by members of a drug cartel and now they have to return to his sad life. Some poor victim got caught up in a sex trafficking scheme, and now they gotta wake up. Basically, it’s easy to tell others to take the good with the bad, but some people have to endure horrible acts of atrocities at the hands of others. At the end of the day, I’d always argue against this stupid sealing idea, but man, there’s a whole lot of people who wish they could probably keep dreaming. But I digress.

— After Soya’s words touches everyone’s hearts, color is restored to the entire planet as humanity collectively wakes up with tears in their eyes.

— The three amigos try once more to take Yosuke down, but they’re still ants. I mean, nothing’s changed as far as that is concerned.

— But when Yosuke readies another punch — one that would probably shatter Miu and Harumi’s photon armor — Soya and Sensei finally show up to the battlefield to protect them.

— The dog looks mad, but he’s just being tsundere.

— It seems that Soya’s words also reached Benika. I’m still wondering why she’s naked, though. I mean, she wasn’t naked at the end of last week’s episode. Who stripped her down and why did they feel that this was necessary?

— Even though they have a giant, rampaging ram to fight, Hideo still finds time to ask the kid why he’s fighting. Blah blah blah, I am on the side of the people I want to befriend. Cool.

— Soya finally discards as his mask as there’s really no reason to hide anymore at this point.

— Ginko then joins him and Sensei, and together, all three of them hop into the Sensei-shaped spaceship. In doing so, they transform into a giant samurai cat big enough to subdue Yosuke’s ram. Our trio also strike a pose.

— Yosuke hilariously tells Soya and company to stay out of Earth’s problems. He then whines that he and Benika can only be spared from their emotional baggage by sleeping. Okay…? So go to bed by yourself. Why does everyone else have to go to bed too? This is exactly why the good guys have to get involved despite being aliens. A couple of selfish idiots have decided that 7 billion people on this planet must do what they want to do. Planet With isn’t without potential, but its characters are so weak. If we had a single antagonist who wasn’t hilariously childish and myopic, then this conflict wouldn’t be so flaccid. Unfortunately, we get Yosuke.

— With his Tera Cat Hammer, Soya defeats Yosuke in one blow. And now it’s Benika’s turn to catch the guy before he falls into the ocean.

— Soya then points up to the sky and challenges Generalissimo directly. I guess we gotta take care of him before we deal with the whole Dragon on the moon nonsense. But y’know, Kogane and Shirashi were no match for Takashi, so I’m not exactly sure how they’re supposed to pose a threat against Soya and his bigger and improved mecha. But this is anime, so characters can always pull hidden power levels out of their asses.

Man, I can’t believe I have to watch these two bomb out of the prelims. It’s not that I don’t care about Hayama and Isehara. It’s that I had been waiting all week to hear what Uchika could possibly say to her daughter. Unfortunately, she probably has less than ten lines all episode. The episode instead focuses on Nagisa’s decision whether or not to forfeit her upcoming match against Ayano, and the two boys’ quest to understand just how much they love badminton. These are both find subplots, but Ayano and Uchika, man! That’s the good stuff, and you’re gonna make me wait another week to see what develops next? Bah.

— So we pick up where we last left off, and Ayano has nothing to say to her mother. After taking off her shoes, she coldly walks away from Uchika. I can’t blame her; I wouldn’t wanna talk to a mother like that either. I mean, c’mon, I can’t believe she has the gall to show up after all these years and act as if everything’s okay. The real problem here is that Uchika is refusing to acknowledge her daughter’s feelings.

— The girl stays in her room and skips out on dinner. Her food looks delicious, too. I’ll take some.

— Meanwhile, Uchika has an awkward encounter with… her mother and father-in-laws? I forget… the point is, they don’t act as if they’re her parents.

— The obasan asks if the woman would consider moving back home. Uchika thinks about it, but she doesn’t respond to the question. She just changes the subject. Lame.

— The next day, we see Ayano practicing against Kentarou, and it’s a close match. He barely eeks out a 21-17 victory over a high schooler. Granted, he’s probably out of game shape and she’s uber talented, but there’s also the strength and reach advantage.

— Ayano insists on a rematch, and this is a bit of a slight against the other girls. After all, none of them can really push her. Nagisa can probably make Ayano sweat, but they have a match coming up.

— It looks as if Nagisa is about to accept Ayano’s challenge, but Kentarou finally steps in and calls an end to practice. That’s pretty much all he does for the entirety of this episode, though.

— The boys’ prelims are coming up, and of course, qualification for Inter High is on the line. It would be too unrealistic for both Isehara and Hayama to represent their school, so I’m not expecting much from them.

— Off to the side, Yu continues to look troubled whenever Hayama is brought up.

— In the girls’ locker room, the atmosphere is tense, so Riko tries to lighten the mood. It doesn’t take long, however, for Ayano to start running her mouth and talking shit for no apparent reason. Nagisa just walks off without a single word. Meanwhile, the other girls sigh, but they don’t reprimand Ayano or anything. I don’t get that. That’s not what you do on a team. When someone gets out of line, it’s your responsibility as a teammate — as a metaphorical brother or sister to said person — to say something. You protect each other. You also correct each other. I don’t understand why they’re allowing Ayano to be such a brat.

— More importantly, I just feel as though I missed something somewhere along the way. Yes, I know that the summer camp changed Ayano adversely. I know that she now cares too much about winning. But why did she go from being a sweet, pleasant girl to trashing her teammates? I don’t see the connection between winning and “LOL U SUCK WHY ARE YOU EVEN TRYING?”

— Anyways, Nagisa goes to meet with Kentarou and Miyako. They want to check up on her health, i.e. her one problematic knee. She tells them that it feels “tense,” but she’ll still be good to go. Uh, no. If her knee is really that messed up, you don’t rely on a kid to tell you the truth about her condition. You get her checked out by a medical professional.

— After Kentarou leaves, Miyako revealed that the man had also had to deal with a bum knee. And because he sat out of a tournament, he failed to qualify for the Olympics. Nagisa also doesn’t want to let her chance slip away. But what chance? This match is just for bragging rights. She and Ayano have already qualified for Inter High, so this match doesn’t really have any important on the line.

— Later that day, Riko also offers her two cents. She also remarks that Ayano has been acting strange lately. Gee, ya think? But in the end, Nagisa’s best friend takes her two cents back, because it’s not her decision. Um, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give you opinion. I dunno, I feel like these characters are too concerned with being nice to each other. Other than Ayano, that is.

— Also, I’m too busy watching Yu hide behind a tree during this same scene.

— Afterwards, we see Yu hit up the local park once more. And of course, she finds Hayama working his butt off. He likes to crack jokes during practice, but he truly, truly wants this. His jokes — like many jokes — are probably just a defense mechanism against his insecurities: he’s not as talented as his best friend. It probably hurts doubly so because he taught Isehara how to play the game.

— When Ayano gets home, we see Uchika on the phone with Connie. The woman tells her other “daughter” that the girl can leave “it” to her. Not sure what “it” is, but if I had to guess, “it” probably has to do with all three of them being a family.

— The boys’ prelims are finally underway, and for some reason, Isehara has fans from other schools. It’s not surprising that a hot guy would have admirers. It’s just odd that girls from other schools would care so much.

— When Hayama cheers for his bud, Yu notices that the guy has callouses (or blisters?) on his right hand.

— Hayama and Isehara seem like decently fleshed out side characters. They don’t get as much development as the main characters, but they fare better than side characters that you might find in other anime. And this is precisely why I find it so odd that these two aren’t even listed as characters on the official site. Hell, even Miyako gets an entry and she barely does anything. Yu doesn’t get an entry either, but she seems just as important to the story as, say, Elena.

— After Isehara’s match, his sister Sora tells him not to get cocky. Yeah, I don’t get what her deal is either. Maybe she didn’t like seeing all those girls cheering for him.

— Hayama gets to play next, and everyone’s trying to encourage him to win. Out of nowhere, Yu yells out that he doesn’t try so hard. This confuses everybody, but I’m starting to get why she’s so frustrated. She thought that she and Hayama might be the same, and she might be right. They’re both not naturally talented at the game. She didn’t get very far in the tournament, and he won’t either. But despite what he lets on, Hayama cares a lot. He cares so much that he’s hurting himself by practicing so hard. This kinda calls out Yu’s dedication to the game. On the one hand, she respects his work ethic. It’s probably the most attractive thing about him. But on the other hand, this same attraction makes her feel bad about herself.

— Hayama’s match begins, and his opponent is heavily favored. Still, he manages to win the first three points, which gives his friends hope.

— What I like about Hanebado! is that I can actually see some decent action. You can witness how a point plays out.

— Unfortunately, the other guy starts to get into the game, and it doesn’t take long before Hayama finds himself on the losing end of the match.

— Yu is in attendance, but she can’t bear to watch once the guy starts losing. She eventually gets up and excuses herself. Nagisa will later convince Yu to return to the gym, but there won’t be any fairy tale ending here.

— Isehara also leaves, but that’s because he has an upcoming match. He still tries one last ditch effort to pump his friend up.

— Hayama remembers how he had taught both Isehara and Sora how to play the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for his best bud to surpass him. What’s good is that he doesn’t seem to hold any ill will towards his friend. Instead, he just tries to push himself harder and harder to win.

— Hayama eventually loses the match in straight sets. He might have worked hard, but was he practicing the right things? Is he receiving enough coaching? Who can really say? We don’t know enough about these him or Isehara. I just don’t want to dismiss effort, y’know? I don’t want to fall back on the age old excuse of “Oh, so and so is just so much more naturally talented than me.” You still need to cultivate talent, and it’s not impossible for athletes to win out of sheer grit and will. If you can’t make a shot, practice until you can. No one comes out of the womb with the ability to hit a smash perfect. Some people just get a head start.

— We later learn that Isehara had lost in the quarterfinals. Still, he confesses that he’ll stick with badminton even in college.

— We immediately cut to Hayama practicing hard in the park again. Since he has nothing left to play for in his high school career, this must mean that he’ll also keep up with badminton, right?

— Yu shows up again at the park, but this time, she has the courage to confess her feelings. The problem, however, is that things have changed.

— The girl tries her best to articulate her feelings. In essence, she used to think it was pointless for her to keep trying, because she’s not as naturally talented as either Ayano or Nagisa. But when she sees Hayama’s passion for the game, she understands that the game can be fun even if you lose after struggling so hard.

— So does she like him or not? The guy offers his two cents, and with that, the girl happily calls it a night and goes home. Hell, she even salutes him. You don’t salute someone you like. Still, the guy doesn’t seem to fazed. Rather, he voices his intention to also stick with the sport, but we kinda already knew that.

— The next day, Ayano continues to talk trash with no repercussions. Well, kinda. Nagisa immediately tells Kentarou that she intends to play in the finals. The guy goes, “There’s no need to rise to Hanesaki’s provocations,” so he’s aware of her bad behavior. He’s just not doing anything about it!

— In any case, Nagisa justifies her decision by arguing that she doesn’t want to give up. She lost badly to Ayano in their last official match, because she had given up. She doesn’t want to defeat herself anymore, so she’s going to play in the finals even though this might irreparably screw up her knee. Sorry, but I still don’t agree with her.

— Look, protecting your knee is not the same as mentally giving up. It’s just not. Nagisa promises that she won’t push herself past her limits, but you can’t 100% protect yourself against injuries. You just can’t. I’ve seen a countless number of athletes suffer freak incidents from doing something as deceivingly harmless as just jogging. Sometimes, things just snap. Sometimes, muscles, ligaments or what have you will fail on you because they’ve been pushed to their breaking point. And as a result, the next physical activity — no matter how safe it may seem on paper — will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

— Nagisa might not walk again because she insists on playing on her bum knee. That’s not smart. She’s not being brave or courageous by refusing to forfeit the match. She’s just being short-sighted, and I’m amazed that her coach is letting her go through with this. It’s downright irresponsible.

— Back in the Hanesaki household, relations are still ice cold between mother and daughter. You might get a warmer reception in Antarctica. Still, Uchika has the perfect icebreaker. And now, we get to wait another week.

— Even if Uchika has good intentions, I still think her invitation is pretty selfish. She wants to uproot her daughter from the only home the girl ever knew and for what? To be one big family with a stranger?

Your boy doesn’t realize how much you care about him? Punch your way into his heart! Sorry for the super long post, but longtime readers should know my shtick by now. I’m a rambler. It’s what I do. In my day job, I have to be concise and precise. This blog is my outlet to scream as many words as I can into the void. Anyways…

— Onizuka claims that her ass is too big for the pillar hole. I dunno, it must be really big if that’s the case, ’cause the actual hole in real life looks pretty sizable. I’d like to think any normally sized human being should be able to squeeze through that. But who knows, maybe it’s a smaller than it looks. Koharu manages to crawl through, but not without some effort.

— Miyao continues to voice his intention to confess to Akira. I wonder if he suspects something between her and Haruo, and as a result, he’s trying to subtly push his best friend towards taking action. I mean, it is pretty pitiful that Akira is even all by herself on a school trip. Haruo looks a bit worried, but I don’t think he’s put two and two together. And by that, I don’t think he realizes why he’s worried. Miyao doesn’t really stand a ghost of a chance in winning Akira’s heart, but if he did, Haruo would lose his inspiration, his muse, his raison d’etre. Well, maybe not that dramatic.

— Haruo quickly changes the subject. Since this is their free day on the school trip, he wants to escape to a Street Fighter II tournament that is an hour away by train. When Koharu overhears this, she wants to know why he has no interest in the local culture. After all, all of the major Japanese cities are special in their own little ways. That’s true, but at the same time, it’s not everyday that you get to compete in a tournament with other like-minded gamers.

— Still, the crux of problem here is that these kids are still too young and too embarrassed to voice their true feelings. Hell, they can’t quite articulate it even if they wanted to.

— For instance, Koharu wants to be able to spend even more time with Haruo. It is their free period, after all. Even though she did just spend an entire day with the guy in last week’s episode, we always want more, don’t we? But for a girl her age, it’s much more natural to nag a guy for caring too much about video games than actually confessing her true feelings. Everyone fears rejection. The thing is, however, is that she can’t wait too long. Once Haruo understands just how much Akira means to him, it’ll be too late for Koharu to get through to him.

— On the other hand, Haruo wants to show Akira how good he’s gotten at Street Fighter II. This is his way of communicating to her that he’s been missing her all this time. It’s the same as saying, “While you were overseas, I couldn’t stop thinking of the day you came back.” But he can’t just come right out and say that. He still doesn’t know what love is.

— I also think Haruo’s desperation hints at a certain level of deep insecurity, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

— Ooh, Miyao with the direct hit to the girl’s heart: “So what made you for such a guy, Hidaka?” I think he knows more than he lets on, especially regarding Haruo and Akira.

— On his way to the SF2 tournament, Haruo’s hands tremble with anticipation. So as usual, he starts seeing and hearing his favorite video game characters speak to him. I dunno, that’s a little scary to me.

— The kid would probably get pretty far in life if he’d just devote a fraction of his passion for gaming into his studies. He doesn’t have to like school, but someone should try to convince him to consider the big picture. If you want a lot of free time later in life to play games, it would behoove you to maybe study.

— And of course, Akira is here. I initially thought that she just came because she overheard Haruo talking about the tournament with Miyao. But it turns out you need to apply ahead of time to participate, so maybe not. Still, if they both win out, Haruo will finally get the rematch he’s been wanting so badly. The only problem is that she won’t understand why he wants it. They may very well be soul mates, but we still gotta use our words from time to time.

— The same goes for her too, obviously. But she’s a little harder to understand (again, for obvious reasons). I’m not sure how she’s feeling towards Haruo right about now. I guess I’ll just have to keep watching in hopes that I find some clues.

— I am actually curious now: when was the first official Street Fighter II tournament?

— For real? The grand prize is a bath set? What gamer wants a bath set?

— It must suck to come out here all dressed up for the event just to lose to a middle schooler.

— Haruo and Akira are even on opposite sides of the bracket, so they won’t meet until the finals. What a nice setup.

— Honestly, I hate the commentary in every sporting event (with some rare exceptions like Tony Romo), but the exaggerated sort that you find in Japan are the worst. This reminds me of something I’m currently playing, actually. In Yakuza 0, there’s a fun minigame where you manage a caberet club. The minigame is back in Yakuza 2 Kiwami, but for some damn reason, they just had to add a wacky, over-the-top commentator to spew dumb nonsense for every single action I take. There are manchildren who speak in silly voices and gyrate spastically on camera for money, and it works. It really, truly works.

— It’s cute to see Akira try to hide herself in her hoodie to no avail. She’s always at the center of attention in every arcade that she visits. It’s hard not to when you rack up a 100-match win streak as a girl in the 90s. As a result, one would assume that she’s used to having so many eyes on her, but I guess being on stage changes everything.

— Miyao had said earlier that Haruo is an idiot, but he’s actually warm and kind-hearted. Too bad we’re now seeing our lover boy point and laugh at Akira. Is this the sort of thing where you like someone, but you don’t know how to deal with your feelings, so you pick on them instead? Or is he trying to cut her down to his level? Maybe he’s truly just an idiot. Well, I guess these things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

— Every time Haruo tries to show off his elite SF2 skills, it’s just the same as him crying out, “Notice me, Akira!” This is just his form of peacocking. Instead of having the most magnificent plumage, the kid wants Akira to see how big his combos have become.

— Oh wow, that guy really wanted that bath set.

— I’m sure Akira is rooting for Haruo. I just wonder if she actually wants a rematch anywhere near as badly as he does.

— Are you really allowed to use Gouki (Akuma) in a tournament. I know some tournaments will declare a character too imbalanced to use. I guess this one just doesn’t care. I actually don’t remember how good Gouki was back then. I know he’s pretty good again for some reason, but there was a time (I want to say around SF3-ish?) when he wasn’t top dog. Not bad, but y’know, not in the top three.

— The other kid screws up and gets stuck with Ryu. It’s kinda interesting, however, that he would own with Gouki but be completely clueless with Ryu.

— Finally, the match we’ve all been waiting for.

— Haruo is winning, but as a result, he can’t shake the uneasy feeling that Akira is treating him differently. She’s not playing as well as in her previous matches. So of course, he starts jumping to conclusions. Is she not taking him seriously? Is she ignoring his feelings? Even in this world and on this stage, he’s still not good enough for her? But all of a sudden, the girl takes the second round, so maybe not.

— The pressure is getting to him, and there’s nothing quite like a 250-pound Russian man bearing down on you.

— In the end, Haruo wins the trophy, but his triumphant moment is soon cut short when Akira has her usual non-reaction. Again, he missed her when she was overseas, so now that she’s back, he wants her to realize how much he’s been thinking about her. You have to care a lot about somebody to practice as much as he did. Hell, he didn’t even know if she’d ever come back, but he never stopped believing, did he? But these feelings get lost in translation when two individuals can’t use their words to communicate, so she doesn’t see that. She just sees a guy who cares a lot about beating her in a game.

— I said up top that I think Haruo is insecure about Akira, so I’ll explain what I mean now. By all common standards, Akira is untouchable for a “commoner” like Haruo. She’s rich, she’s pretty, she’s popular, she’s smart. She’s essentially out of his league.

Even if she does like him — and she does — the moment he shows up to her household, he’d be thrown out on his ass by her servants. In her world, Akira’s meant to marry another equally rich, hot, smart, popular dude one day. Sure, she can try to buck convention, but that’s easier said than done. So this is Haruo’s struggle. This is what truly bothers him. Yeah, he misses her. But deep down inside, whether he’s able to articulate it or not — and the answer is probably not — he knows that he can’t have what he really wants. He’s able to be so carefree up until now, because all he has really wanted was to play games in his free time. But thanks to Akira, he finally has to consider things beyond the limited world of gaming: “If I want to get closer to this girl, I have to be more than what I currently am, but I’m not capable of that.” So in a way, this rematch is kind of like a concession. It’s like, “Look, look, I know I don’t deserve to even breathe the same air that you breathe, but if I can just be your equal in just one thing, I’ll be happy.”

— The backbreaker comes when the kid overhears a staff member say something about how the buttons on Akira’s cabinet are broken. Basically, Haruo eked out a 3-round victory over someone who couldn’t even punch. He thought he had finally closed the gap between them in the SF2 world, but apparently not.

— For Haruo, the rematch was his feelings laid bare, and because Akira didn’t complain about her broken cabinet, the guy feels slighted. But let’s be fair to the girl. First, she doesn’t talk, so why would she start now? He should know that she’s not going to vocally complain about her cabinet. That’s never been her style. More importantly, she probably didn’t even realize that her buttons were broken until the match had already started. Akira likely doesn’t know exactly why this rematch means to Haruo, but she’s not so dense as to not realize that this whole thing means a lot to him. She just didn’t want to ruin his moment.

— So like in the past, when words fail, it’s time to get physical. Every time he says something incorrect, she retaliates. Was this fight not serious for her? Wrong.

— Haruo tells Akira that he’s been practicing hard just to fight her on equal terms. Eh, still not good enough. He’s still not getting the heart of the matter. That’s not the real reason why he practiced so hard. Not only that, this means nothing to her. He needs to be honest. I truly do think he feels insecure. Just listen to his words: “…your grades are amazing as ever, the guys fawn over you, and your gaming skills are so over the top that you can go on a 100 battle win streak!” This is why Haruo was so worried when Miyao kept talking about wanting to confess to Akira. He’s thinking, “God, I could really lose her.” He just hasn’t quite gotten to the point where he understands why this bothers him so much, so he says something dumb again: “I knew it. All you are is a thorn in my si-…”

— He says something wrong again, so she hits him. Twice, actually.

— Haruo finally gets physical with the girl, but pinching her cheeks is about all he can do. It might be double standards, but you’re not going to see him punch a girl.

— The girl only stops punching when he finally confesses that he’s been wanting her to return all this time. He could’ve saved himself so much pain and frustration if he had just used his words right from the start. Ah well.

— And in return, Haruo notices that she still has that cheap but priceless plastic ring. Every time she sees it, she’s reminded of Haruo. So needless to say, she was also thinking about him the entire time she was overseas.

— Long after the dust has settled, Haruo finally realizes why Akira didn’t raise a stink during the finals. But of course, he needs “Guile” to tell him this. Guile is his SF2 main, so this may as well just be an alter ego of him.

— It looks like Akira used the bath set to clean herself up. On the other hand, Haruo’s face is still covered in bruises. Ah well, a memento to remember her by? I still don’t really care for the violence, but I just have to assume it wouldn’t really happen in real life. The only reason we see the violence is because this is an anime at the end of the day.

— For once, she actually seems to feel bad about hitting him. That’s something, at least. Baby steps.

— Haruo tells Miyao that Akira is like his master, so he’s given up on the rival thing for now. At the very least, they are friends. In any case, Miyao gets the hint. He knows his best friend shares something with Akira that he could never truly approach. I doubt he was ever really serious about her anyways.

— The next day on the train ride home, Koharu can’t help but remark on a certain change within her crush. Despite all his bruises, she feels as though something good has happened to him.

— That’s not the most interesting part, though. Miyao brings up the fact that Samurai Shodown III is coming out, so he thinks his bud must be excited about that. But instead, Haruo looks wistfully away from his friends and starts talking about his education. Yo, whaaaaaaaat? Is our boy really gonna do it? Has he finally realized that he needs to take the rest of his life a little more seriously in order to get closer to Akira? If the girl’s willing to hold onto a cheap, plastic ring for this long, then y’know what? Maybe he can close the gap between them, and I’m not just talking about SF2.

— Miyao and Koharu can’t believe what they’re hearing. Maybe Akira’s punches concussed Haruo. Maybe this is just punch-drunk love.