For this post, I paired these two shows because… well, the title is pretty self explanatory. I came into this expecting to hate both shows, and well, I guess I don’t hate one show all that much? The other show, however…

*****

I’m Living With an Otaku NEET Kunoichi?!

Tsukasa is another sad sack of a salaryman, and for most anime series, this usually means he gets a one way trip to another world. Unfortunately, he gets a leech instead. One night, when death was all but certain, a hot kunoichi — that’s female ninja for you non-weeb plebes — saves his life outta nowhere. How did she know he was in danger? Probably stalking him. Probably a childhood friend he conveniently can’t recognize. Shizuri, our convenient ninja, promptly explains that he’s, uh, awakening to his “warrior’s blood” and he’s always been under attack from Yoma, ghosts from another world. It doesn’t seem to get any deeper than that, because this isn’t that kind of show. In exchange for her protection, all Shizuri asks is that he shelter her, cook for her, and let her play copious amounts of video games. After all, she’s an otaku NEET.

Bro, what does NEET even mean anymore. I know what it technically means: “not in education, in employment, or training.” She has a job, yeah? She’s protecting him. That’s her job. Am I going to walk up to the secret service and call them NEETs? Shizuri’s not even a very good shut-in either. During all waking hours, she has to be on high alert in case her precious Tsukasa gets attacked. That involves going outside. A lot. So the only degenerate things Shizuri’s got going for her is that A) she plays a lot of video games and B) she can’t cook for shit. Well, I’ve ranted about the cooking thing before on this blog. I’ll never understand it. I don’t expect everyone to whip up a multi-course Michelin-esque dinner. But surely, you can follow simple instructions and make goddamn rice porridge when your loved ones are sick. But apparently, our ninja can’t hack that. In stories, bad cooks always get the urge to improvise for no good reason.

Unless you have some sort of attention disorder, I really do think it’s weaponized incompetence. Especially these days, you have every tool at your fingertips to make cooking a breeze. Microwaves have been around forever. It’s not great cooking, but it’s still cooking. But air fryers are just as simple, and few would even notice the difference between a chicken that was air fried versus a chicken that was roasted in the oven. So yeah, I don’t get it. Cooking a basic meal is easy. Hell, plop rice into a rice cooker, then when the jingle plays, sprinkle furikake on that shit. But I’ve gone off topic.

Anyway, Shizuri and Tsukasa are pretty much both losers, so he welcomes her company even though she doesn’t really do much of anything when he isn’t under attack. As a result, she often feels guilty. He’ll say nice things which are easily construed as romantic, and then she’ll blush because she can’t handle that shit. Rinse and repeat for the three episodes that I watched. Usually, in this kind of show, they start introducing one girl after another. And this is exactly what this show does! But the problem — or non-problem, actually — is that none of the new girls end up falling in love with Tsukasa to my subdued surprise. What? No romantic rivalries? No silly catfights between four or five women over a forgettable loser who admits he can’t climb up in the world?

First, you have Ayame, another kunoichi who’s actually a very feminine man. He’s here because he has a huge crush on Shizuri that makes him a full blown creep. Basically, he’s a masochist who gets off on being threatened by Shizuri’s intent to kill? Whatever, you can have any kink you want behind closed doors, but don’t subject unwitting people to your bullshit. The typical character arc for someone like Ayame is the tsundere one. They’ll hate the MC’s guts, but the guy will do a heroic deed once and it’s all heart eyes and “b-b-baka” from there. Something similar happens here; Tsukasa helps Ayame protects his secret from Shizuri (I’d argue that our heroine deserves to know who is stalking her), but this doesn’t magically alters the latter’s sexuality or anything. Ayame hates him less now, I guess. Out of all the characters introduced thus far, Ayame’s probably my least favorite.

Second girl is Hina, who already has her own master. In fact, she’s in a relationship with her master. Her situation is an example of what Shizuri and Tsukasa could be if we didn’t have to stretch our heroine’s cluelessness out in order to keep people hooked until they get tired of the story.

Last but not least, we have a high school girl who lives in the same building as Tsukasa. She’s a huge romance geek. Hina’s relationship with her master tickles her silly. And that’s it. Just a bunch of wacky girls — some ninja, some not — in Tsukasa’s life. Shizuri even worries that maybe she can’t protect him all by her lonesome. So they could always call in more reinforcements. Tsukasa reassures her, however, that he wants to keep things as is; he likes their current dynamic and he doesn’t want to change it. Cue lots of blushing that goes nowhere. The point is that this is not a harem. This could change in later episodes, but… I probably won’t find out.

Yes, even though it’s not a stupid harem in the few episodes that I watched, I am reluctant to keep going. I don’t hate it, but there isn’t really any substance here. There are concepts of a romance, but Tsukasa is too dense and Shizuri is too much of a wuss. There’s humor, but mostly of the low hanging fruit kind. Like “Haha, I’m such a silly gacha gamer addict, so I’ll eat bean sprouts in order to make a lot of pulls. Oh no, I’m hungry, master save me.” Or the boyfriend hoodie. Everyone knows the boyfriend hoodie. I’m glad it’s not a dumb harem, but that’s the only nice thing I can really say about it. Low stakes, low rewards.

*****

Beheneko: The Elf-Girl’s Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster!

Our next show is about a knight who dies in battle and reincarnates as a behemoth. Not just any behemoth, though; he’s a behemoth who looks like a cute, cuddly cat. You then get a lot of boring genre conventions like him figuring out his abilities, fighting mobs in a dungeon and eating the spoils to gain more abilities, he has an “item box” of sorts, so on and so forth. Eventually, he meets up with an uber stacked elf, and that’s when the show goes off rails. Let me preface this with the fact that I’m not remotely surprised that this is a harem anime. I am surprised, however, at the number of women who straight up want to suck down cat semen. And they can’t get cat semen, it’s straight up lusting for his furry balls.

First, every woman is stacked in this anime so they can constantly carry the cat like boba tea. Every day and every night, our cat Tama finds himself on or between his master’s breasts. It’s non-stop cat paizuri every episode. I get the shota thing kinda from the male’s perspective. You’re a fat ugly otaku, but if you were somehow a young, cute boy, then women wouldn’t reject you. That’s the idea, right? But really, a cat? Who wants to imagine being a cat? You can’t even bang the women you’re lusting after. But that’s the problem: his master Aria and the other women in this show do want to bang him. As a cat. Dressing up as an animal and doing it with other like-minded adults is whatever. But bro, a cat?

You also get weird oddities like the guild/restaurant being run by a muscle-bound guy in assless chaps. Is this supposed to be a play at equality? Like “Yo, we got eye-candy for both men and women!” C’mon. Doesn’t change the fact that every episode has a bathing scene (which is full of fanservice that, frankly, aren’t even drawn well). They try to explain the cat lust thing away with a backstory. A bunch of demons were gonna kill Aria as a child when an elemental cat saved her. Yeah, no. You don’t start lusting after an animal because it saved you. That’s fucking bonkers. You also got an earth dragon who dies to Tama, magically reincarnates into a hot woman (because it’s okay for the MC to be a cat but his harem sure can’t be anything else but humanoid), and now wants Tama to impregnate her because power turns her on.

There isn’t really much else to say. It’s a story about adventuring, so as far as that bit is concerned, it’s pretty by the numbers. Aria is an up-and-comer (no pun intended, you sick cat fuckers), so naturally, it’s up to our burly male (cat) to protect her from other men! Y’see, unless explicitly gay like Mr. Assless Chaps and his twink boyfriend, all men are perverted predators one twitch of a penis away from assaulting innocent (cat-lusting) women. What is this? Persona? Even male dungeon mobs are out to rape your women. Meanwhile, all these girls wanna do is frolic in the bath and rub titties! Don’t girls do that all the time at sleepovers! Anime taught me that. There’s one terribly predictable subplot involving a guy who challenges Aria to a duel over Tama. If she wins, the cat lives. If she loses, she becomes his wife and Tama dies. So of course, our hero protects her. Yawn.

The rest of the story isn’t worth talking about. You can take the formula above and repeat it over and over with slight twists. Aria gets stronger, but she’s still a dainty elf girl with big tits who can’t save herself. So Tama jumps in heroically and gets rewarded with paizuri. And one by one, we introduce more to the harem, each more infatuated with Tama than the last. Christ, get me out of here.

Like a broken record, I’ve always said that there’s little to distinguish isekai anime from just regular adventuring ones. And well, these two shows pretty much prove that point for me.

*****

Bogus Skill ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~

So two childhood friends — a girl and a boy — are eager to learn what skills they’re going to get. ‘Cause y’see, in this world, when you are old enough, you’re supposed to visit the church and eat a fruit. Consuming said fruit will bestow a skill upon you, thereby determining your profession. For the rest of your life? Well, if you’re not good at anything else, it might as well be for the rest of your life. But that’s the thing, isn’t it Why are these shows so obsessed with this format? It doesn’t have to a fruit. It could be a crystal ball or whatever. I’ve seen plenty of shows where the main character puts his hand on a dumbass ball just to figure out what spell, power, whatever-thingamajig he has. There was a show where a guy gets the rare light magic, so he becomes a healer. Did I say “show” and not “shows”? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure there are tons of anime like that. What is so attractive about this sort of fantasy? A world where people’s worth is determined from the day they were born (or through fruit gacha, apparently). Is this what people think life is like? Because I don’t think it is. But whatever, I’m belaboring the point.

Basically, Light gets the Fruitmaster skill while his childhood friend slash love interest gets the the Sword Saint skill. That’s how wildly different these skills can be. She gets to be come one of the premier adventurers in the land while he has to become a fruit farmer. Just like that, true love is separated (only temporarily and even then, she wanted to stay with him but that dastardly holy sister forces her to become an adventurer anyway). If the anime had stuck with with this, it might have been interesting. I mean, how often do you get to watch an anime about being a fruit farmer? But hey, even if you gotta go on adventures, maybe Light could use his fruit farming powers creatively. Like cultivating a fruit that gives you lots of energy or something. Or cultivating a fruit that explodes with a stinky gas. Some kinda magical durian fruit, maybe. I dunno, be creative. Run with it. Become a fruit alchemist or whatever. But of course, if the MC of one of these damn shows isn’t OP by the end of the first or second episode, hell would’ve frozen over.

So naturally, Light does just that: become super OP. One night, his helper Ayla, who might as well be his adoptive daughter because isekai/adventurer MCs always gotta have a daughter figure even though they’re practically kids themselves, accidentally made dinner with one of those magical skill-bestowing fruits. You’re only allowed to have one; this ensures that no one but the MC can be super powerful. Eating more than one of these fruits normally kills you. But because the MC is the fruitmaster, he can have as many as he wants (apparently, it puts a strain on him but no lasting side effects yet). Wow, color me surprised! You mean to tell me the MC’s useless skill is not actually useless after all? I’m shocked. This is only, like, the umpteenth show to do this exact premise!

Light gets the amazing Sword God skill. How is it different from Sword Saint? I’m not sure. The anime probably explained it, but I wasn’t paying attention. I know Isshin was a Sword Saint, but considering how overrated his boss encounter is, I’m sure the skill is overrated here too. But I digress. Now that Light is powerful — and become more powerful whenever he decides to chomp down more fruits — what totally unoriginal genre convention are we going to explore next? Ah yes, it’s time to save our girlfriend from an evil man, because what love interest isn’t a damsel in distress?

Even though Lena is an S-rank adventurer, she still needs to be saved. Y’see, this whole time, she has been forced to work with a party full of other S-rank jerks. The problem, however, is that none of these dudes really care for the people. They’ll happily complete quests, but it doesn’t matter to them if in doing so, they wreck everything in their path. Y’know, when the police chief goes, “Goddammit Carter, you destroyed the city block!” Yeah, that sort of thing. But in this anime’s universe, nobody cares. Lena is disgusted by her party’s apathy, but she can’t leave. Not only does the holy sister not allow it, neither does her party leader. He straight up beats her up for even attempting to leave. Apparently, her Sword Saint skill can’t do anything against his super speed. See? Sword Saints are overrated. But somehow, our MC, who only started adventuring and hasn’t mastered his Sword God skill, can save her. He just whacks the dude with a broom Eat your heart out, Sword Saint! Just stay still and let a man liberate you!

Now that Lena is free to go back to Light, she can adventure with him instead! Holy sister is sus, hatches a scheme to try and kill Light off, the newly forged trio visit an evil looking castle full of zombie adventurers, yadda yadda yadda. It’s been like four episodes, and the show hasn’t shown me anything interesting, so I think we can all it here, yeah? In fact, I’m surprised the pacing is so fast. I half expected Light to take at least half the season to get his girl back, but he accomplished that by the end of the second episode. I’m also surprised that Lena’s former party leader wasn’t trying to steal her for himself or whatever. I thought anime loves NTR!

*****

Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest

You can at least buy into the idea that the fruitmaster skill isn’t the best, but appraisal? Isn’t that super useful? Isn’t Deckard Cain the GOAT because he can identify stuff? But that’s exactly Ein’s problem in his own romp to “overpoweredness.” In his world, you don’t even get to eat a fruit; you’re just born with it. And jobs are even inherited? What does that even mean? If you were born to be a janitor, you literally can’t do anything else? But whatever, I don’t care that deeply about the metaphysics of these shows. The point is that Ein is “useless,” so he gets treated like shit. And boy does the first episode really love to hammer that home. It’s non-stop despair as his party sneers at him, as his party sacrifices him so they can live, as the evil anime dogs bite and tear into his flesh, as he gets diced and smashed to bits, so on and so forth. I get it, I get it! Poor Ein has suffered so much, so why not a lil’ pinch of overpowered ability here and there? Why not sprinkle in a harem as well? As a treat!

Ein’s fortunes completely turn around when falling down a seemingly bottomless pit somehow has him end up next to one of the hidden World Trees. The anime quickly hammers with exposition about how there was one big one, then it disappeared, but mana hasn’t, so people thought there must be a world tree somewhere, but nobody ever found one… ugh, who cares. What you need to know is that the World Tree, the one that Ein finds, is personified by Yuri, a hot elf girl with large breasts. And she’s already in love with him! Because, uh… he is… *checks notes* …thankful. Apparently, Ein isn’t the first adventurer to end up here, but he’s the only one who didn’t immediately try to loot pieces of the World Tree in order to benefit himself. Presumably, all those losers died trying to leave the dungeon. Ein thanked the tree and now he’s got his first harem waifu. Neat!

What follows is a training arc, because, again, what MC isn’t overpowered by at least the second episode? It runs contrary to all my instincts as someone who plays JRPGs nonstop. The best part of the JRPG for me is the journey. It’s watching my little bonsai grow and flourish over time. Hell, I only play Honkai Star Rail, because I like to watch my characters get stronger. I don’t even like HSR’s story. But this is rarely reflected in these adventuring anime series. They seem to borrow every JRPG (or D&D) convention except the actual growth of the hero part. Instead, we Game Shark our way to the top immediately. So what does Ein get? Because he lost his one of his eyes, Yuri and her mother/guardian Ursula replaced it with part of Yuri’s spirit core. This means he has godly appraisal powers now! Naturally, he can read his opponents’ moves and react at superhuman speeds. Naturally, he can absorb their powers after defeating them like all the other MCs before him. Naturally, Yuri will now accompany a man she’s just met, and in doing so, constantly heal him so he might as well be immortal. Naturally, Ursula teaches him an ultimate magic spell by the third episode. Great, so what’s a guy to do now that he’s overpowered and has a hot anime waifu? Collect more waifus! Of course this is a harem. What did you expect?

Hm, lemme order a… “carriage gets attacked in the middle of nowhere.” And um, I’ll have a “the person inside the carriage is a hot princess.” And finally, let’s add “princess is now in love with me for saving her.” Hoo boy, we’re being bold tonight! To be fair, a guy also “falls in love” with Ein. More like his eye, to be precise. Our hero meets Jasper, who has a thing for gems and thus spirit cores. Jasper quickly notices that Ein has a spirit core for an eye, so he wants to… marry Ein too? This scene is a bit odd, because why doesn’t Jasper have more questions? Hm, spirit cores come from World Trees, and Ein has one… maybe I should ask the hero for details? But no, it is our MC who asks Jasper for details. Since the latter is so obsessed with spirit cores, he must surely know where to find more. And because Yuri wants to see her family, aka sisters because haha who’s ever heard of a male tree, we’re on a quest to find more waifus World Trees.

Yeah, I dunno, I guess this show is slightly more interesting than fruitmaster boy up top, but barely. I don’t think I want to waste my nights watching this for the rest of the winter season, so I’m going to drop it as well. Part of adventuring is beholding new sights, drinking in the scenery, plumbing the depths of those dark, dank dungeons full of treasure. But right off the bat, this show commits the same cardinal sin as every other generic adventuring anime: the dungeons are boring as shit.

*****

I’m almost done scoping out new shows, so I’ll eventually have to decide which winter anime I want to follow all the way to the end. And man, I don’t know if any of them are good enough for that. I still have a few new shows left that I haven’t touched. Sorairo Utility looks to be a golf anime, and I don’t find golf interesting. Flower and Asura looks like slice-of-life romance? I’ve seen positive word of mouth for Zenshu. It sounds like it’s technically an isekai, so in hindsight, I should’ve covered it already. Momentary Lily sounds terrible. Ave Mujica looks terrible. I don’t even want to give AQUARION Myth of Emotions a shot. I’d rather just play Farmagia than watch an anime adaptation. But yeah, we’ll see.

Our heroine Natsuko gets isekai’d into her favorite childhood anime, but that’s not all. She’s also a director who is really up against the clock. Even though she’s already had her breakout work — some mahou shoujo series that looks as silly as can be — her house of cards can all come tumbling down if she goofs up her next big project, a romance anime film about first love. But unfortunately, Natsuko’s got a creative block. For whatever reason, she can’t put pen (or pencil) to paper. Why? Is it because she’s never experienced love so she can’t craft the storyboards necessary to get the film started? Maybe, but I don’t know if firsthand experience is all that necessary. I mean, is the romance in Twilight remotely realistic… or even healthy? But it has spawned a hit series of books and movies nonetheless. It’s no more realistic than, say, a romance between a young girl and a goddamn spirit of the Kohaku River. In saying this, I’m not trying to debase Spirited Away or lift Twilight up to one of the best anime films of all time. I’m just saying that realism doesn’t really matter. Go pop in a Makoto Shinkai movie or whatever. Or park yourself in a manga cafe and check out a few fresh series. Inspiration can come from anywhere and it doesn’t need to be real.

I notice, of course, that Natsuko isn’t very good at delegating. She isn’t supposed to be a grunt; she’s the goddamn director. That isn’t to say that grunts aren’t to be respected. The reality is that we can’t all have big ideas. Someone has to do the actual work. Personally, I’m not very attracted to the idea of climbing the career ladder, because I know what’s in store for me as a senior engineer: meetings after meetings after meetings. Meetings with stakeholders, meetings with department heads, meetings at 5am with folks in Europe, meetings at 5pm with junior engineers who can’t grasp a simple RxJava concept. I don’t want to do it, man. I just want to write code. Every organization needs grunts, and I’m happy to be one. But Natsuko can’t delegate; she doesn’t trust others to do her work which then exacerbates the mounting pressure. And when the pressure is bearing down on you, sometimes you want to put it off. Let future me deal with that bullshit; I’m going to go play Dragon Quest 3 for forty hours and fuck holy shit I need to have this build ready by the end of the sprint. Well, now I’m off-topic, because Natsuko is still at her desk. She isn’t trying to procrastinate. She just can’t draw.

So getting isekai into a world on the brink of an apocalypse is a boon, because our heroine is no longer under any pressure to deliver. She can sit back, relax, and gorge on anime food all day. Sure, Natsuko might die because, y’know, there are giant, invading insect-like monsters called the void, but she’s also got a cheat: she already knows how the story unfolds. This is her favorite childhood anime, and she knows it frontwards and backwards. And oh yeah, Natsuko can conjure up all sorts of whimsical powers by simply drawing them, i.e. getting rid of her creative block. In a sense, it’s like a game, and often times, the best way to deal with life is to sit back and make a game of it. And there are a lot of early lessons even if they’re not explicit. Natsuko has no real fighting ability herself; only her creations do. And it takes time for her to draw. Every time there’s a situation, we have to go through the same song and dance. She has to transform like in one of her favorite mahou shoujo anime series, and then the drawing begins. Someone (usually QJ) tells her to hurry it up, but you can’t rush genius! In the meantime, someone has to tank the mobs. Someone has to play support. Someone has to… do whatever it is they gotta do. The point is that she’s already delegating. And who needs realism when you can unmask the insidious enemy with a silly dance? Or when you can stop cultists by getting one of them, a super mega obaasan by our human standards, to fangirl over a rose-wielding bishounen? Okay, fine, this world full of hopeful children can live for another day.

Who’s going to feed my cat?

My biggest beef with the isekai genre is that I can’t relate. Even if you promise me the largest harem full of short-haired tomboys with abs, all the riches in the world, and powers to make everyone bend their knee, the first thing that would come to my mind is, “Fuck, what’s going to happen to my cat?” But isn’t that funny? Isn’t it strange how in all these isekai series, no one ever worries about their pets? Forget loved ones. They’ll be sad of course (I hope) — maybe even devastated — by your sudden, inexplicable disappearance, but they’ll likely live. They’ll pull through and continue on with their lives. What about the pets though? You mean to tell me isekai MCs don’t have pets? But this isn’t the only reason why the concept of isekai doesn’t appeal to me; it’s just the very first thing that comes to mind. What about my bills? What about the food that will spoil in my fridge? I’m totally fired when I can return to my own world. And if I’m going to a fantasy world, I don’t exactly want to shit in an outhouse or whatever. I’m also terminally online. Yes, yes, a fantasy world is new and exciting… to a certain point. Then what will I do with the rest of time? It’s not only about your loved ones or your all-too-dependent-on-you cats and dogs. It’s the logistics of it all, man. So when our heroine Natsuko finally has time to assess her situation, I was initially pleased to see that she wanted to go home. But it doesn’t really last all that long, does it? At some point, when there’s nothing you can do about a problem, you gotta roll with the punches. But I wish these characters would ruminate on their situation for a little longer. What about her deadlines? Doesn’t she have a movie to finish? Maybe time stops in the real world, but she doesn’t know that. We don’t know that either!

Never meet your heroes

Idolizing celebrities was never something I understood, because you don’t really know them. It’s not that they are hiding skeletons in their closets; it’s that they have money to project a certain image so what’s actually real (i.e. natural) and what’s manufactured? Celebrities are selling an idea of themselves, but they’re not the only ones. A common refrain about social media is that we only see what people want us to see. I can’t even idolize my favorite influencer; one minute they’re feeding the homeless, another minute they’re pushing moldy lunch meats on our kids (just kidding, that guy is not my favorite anything). But what about fictional characters? Surely, the heroes of our fantasies can’t hide anything from us, can they? So of course, I find it funny when Luke and his gang start things off by not being very heroic: right from the get-go, they can’t be assed to give poor Natsuko a ride back to the city. Why bother saving her just to let the poor girl wander through the desert alone? At the time, they thought she was a gremlin, but even then, are gremlins not deserving of pity? Apparently not, because everyone can hear Natsuko’s growling stomach in the celebratory dinner afterwards but she doesn’t get a single morsel to chew on. Even the great hero from our heroine’s favorite childhood anime isn’t someone that she truly knows. Even Luke’s characters have layers that are yet to be revealed.

I actually don’t mind plot holes all that much

But if this isekai world is faithful to that childhood anime of “yore,” where are these layers even coming from? Natsuko often remarks that a lot of the surprising details about these characters and the world around them cannot be found in the “reference sheets.” She makes it sound like the all-knowing bible of her favorite anime. Well, maybe our hardcore fan isn’t as knowledgeable as she thinks she is. Maybe there are interviews with details that Natsuko has never seen or read before. The most damning thing about Luke so far is that strange outburst of misogyny in the second episode. He initially rejects the idea of recruiting Natsuko into the Nine Soldiers simply due to her gender. His excuses are nothing women haven’t heard before, so I won’t bother listing them. The point is, maybe this is who he was always intended to be, but his creator can’t exactly go on interviews or write in the reference sheets that, yeah, this guy is a douchebag who has kinda sketchy ideas about women. You could argue that Luke’s a dumbass who thinks misogyny is the best way to reject Natsuko, but even if you’re trolling, why do those bigoted thoughts come out so naturally? But I digress; the original question is about the hidden depths to these characters and from where they arise.

Maybe — even more plausibly — these new details are due to that dastardly thing called subtext. Natsuko recounts that in the original movie, when Luke defeats the “Ultimate Void,” it suddenly turns back into Memmeln. It seems like a “plot hole,” our heroine says, because it’s never explicitly spelt out to the audience that the elf and her ilk are plotting the demise of civilization. But is that really true? Naturally, the elves of this world are like other fantasy elves in one crucial respect: they tend to live for a really long time. So it’s easy to imagine that they’re tired of this never-ending conflict against a faceless horde. It’s not only about fighting for centuries and centuries on end, but living with the anxiety of an impending apocalypse sounds like torture. Tomorrow might be their last days alive. Or even worse, the last days of their comrades, while you, the long-living elf, have to soldier on in perpetuity. I can’t even imagine going through my day-to-day routine with that hanging over my head much less for hundreds of years.

But the one thing that struck me as most odd about our traitorous elf was actually back in the second episode. It is (again) that incident involving Luke’s outburst of misogyny. Memmeln is cold to him in the aftermath, so it’s easy to assume that she was offended by his words. But as you observe Memmeln throughout the four episodes that we have thus far, it isn’t difficult to notice that she barely reacts to anything at all. With her long elvish life, it’s easy to reason that she’s probably seen it all. As such, Luke’s attitude is nothing new; if she hasn’t seen or heard him say those words before, it’s likely she’s probably seen or heard someone else say worse. But Memmeln seems detached in every situation. At the end of the second episode, after they’ve managed to overcome flying bugs and survive to live another day, everyone is hugging and cheering. Why wouldn’t they? They fought hard and got a new lease on life. But Memmeln is expression-less, her true feelings concealed behind a mask. Obviously, I don’t expect her to be happy since she’s part of a death cult, but she’s not angry, frustrated, or annoyed. Rather, Memmeln seems depressed. I’m not saying something like, “Oh wow, depressed elf girl! Ergo, she’s the evil mastermind! No plot holes here!” But we can imagine. We can infer. We can draw our own conclusions and form our own interpretations.

Natsuko is right in that the original story contains a plot hole. At the same time, however, we are conditioned to see or hear the words “plot hole” and immediately think “there’s a flaw in the story.” But a story can have gaps in it for deliberate reasons. The most boring answer is that the writer made a mistake. Whoopsie. It’s unlikely that you could make one of the Nine Heroes a villain and mistakenly forget to justify it to (at least) yourself, but it’s possible. Another boring answer is that it was simply left on the cutting room floor. Maybe they felt that the movie was bloated, so they had to cut a few things out like Memmeln’s subplot.

For me, however, plot holes can be intriguing by merely existing. Do I find this particular revelation about Memmeln to be intriguing? No, but I’m also not a fan of the original fictional movie like Natsuko. But I am a huge fan of Soulsborne games, and if you have any passing familiarity with the storytelling in those games, then you know that they are full of plot holes. Jam-packed with plot holes. And it’s all deliberate, because Miyazaki, the creator and inspiration for most of those games, are trying to recapture a feeling from his youth. As a child, he tried to read English novels with his less than perfect English comprehension, and in doing so, he often came across plot holes — literal gaps in the story due to his own limited understanding. Rather than being deterred, Miyazaki brought this very idea to the games that would make a name out of him. For people who want to know all the answers, this oblique sort of plot construction can be maddening. C’mon, tell us who the Gloam-Eyed Queen is! But as long as plot holes aren’t signifiers of bad logic, then what they can do is make you re-examine what you think you know and don’t know about your favorite stories or characters. Memmeln isn’t just a supporting character living in Luke’s shadow. She’s her own person with her own goals and motivations. What are they? And have hardcore fans like Natsuko given Memmeln’s character the due consideration that the elf deserves?

The humanity of it all

I quite like the animation when Natsuko summons her creations. I think Natsuko’s English VA is doing a remarkable job, which adds to my enjoyment of the overall series. I like the fact that Unio looks so out of place. I’m not a fan of his Teddie of Persona 4 coded energy, but that’s no bearing on the actual show itself. And honestly, the episodes do fly by when I sit down and watch them. Basically, I’m not bored. The pacing is solid enough that my attention span — not quite destroyed by decades of living on the internet but it is nevertheless full of hideous scars and pockmarks — is still able to cope. And yet, I feel like there’s something missing in Zenshu — something that would help me really embrace the story.

What I’ve been enjoying a lot over the past year have been Youtube channels about creepy stuff. Y’know, strange incidents (for Christ’s sake, stop telling me about the Russians drilling a hole to hell), bizarre mysteries and disappearances, disturbing stories about killers and whatnot, so on and so forth. It tickles the macabre, morbid part of my brain. But a lot of these stories, especially the ones about serial killers, can often lose sight of what really matters, and that’s the people affected by the tragedies. I’m not quite concerned about the killer and his stereotypical bad childhood. Instead, tell me more about the husband with a heart defect who always thought he would die first only to come home and discover his wife’s body. Or the detectives who must drive themselves to obsession, combing over every frayed piece of string or fragment of dirt left on the crime scene lest they be critical clues that unlock the mystery. Or the amateur internet sleuths who stay up until 2am on Discord, dreaming — hoping! — that they can somehow glean a hidden truth that a professional cannot. This is why a death’s a tragedy. Forget the killers, man. I don’t really care that a killer’s messed up brain chemistry meant he can’t feel guilt so he spent his youth torturing rodents or whatever. Rather, I want to know how people, despite all the madness, still manage to pick up the pieces and carry on in the aftermath of wanton, senseless destruction.

And maybe this is unfair of me, but so far — this whole setup with Natsuko’s favorite childhood anime, a talking unicorn, a rich girl turned masked wrestler, etc — it all feels like a game to me. And yeah, I suppose it’s not supposed to be all that serious. But if it ain’t all that serious, I’m not all that emotionally invested either. My mind drifts to Solo Leveling, where a guy goes from loser to chad who now drops liners in battle like, “Looks like it’s over… I said it’s over!” Wow, so cool. What an alpha, sigma, or whatever Greek alphabet I’m supposed to be nowadays. My point is that it was kinda interesting when this guy could barely make ends meet, but his mom is in the hospital slowly withering away and he’s got a little sister and her education to worry about. Now that those concerns are less… concerning, what are we going to do all day? Pose with your back to the audience and make quippy lines all day? Moreover, he survives, and the cute girls and the one token sappy dork survives, but everyone else dies. Everyone else who had a family (or a cat!) is fodder, so we can prove that the mobs are strong and thus our hero is even stronger by defeating them. And this brings me back to the serial killer thing above. There are people here. Tell me their story. How are they coping in this harsh, cruel world where a random gate can turn red (whatever that means)?

Sure, Zenshu isn’t really that kind of anime. Even when the death cult is singing for the end of days, it’s quite comical and humorous. Ultimately, Zenshu’s pretty light-hearted despite its setting, and it doesn’t need to be anything else. It absolutely doesn’t need to cater to me. Hell, we don’t even know if what Natsuko’s seeing is even real. It may very well be the case that she’s stuck in her own tired Reddit theory-crafting nightmare, i.e. she’s in a coma (from the spoiled bento?) and it’s all a dream. And even if this is actually real, it’s still based on a dinky anime that was panned by both critics and audiences alike. Only our heroine is quirky enough to love it. But personally, having said all of that, I still wish Zenshu would slow down and tell me more about this last city that is on the brink of being completely wiped out. What it means to live here. What it means to hear the bell that signals an attack. What it means to pin all your hopes on heroes who can sometimes be petty, sometimes be misogynistic, sometimes having a bad day so you and your girlfriends in the choir might meet up and plan a little world-ending ritual. But then again, maybe I take things too seriously. For what it is, Zenshu is fine. I wish I loved it.

I think of romance as a guilty pleasure. It’s something to make you smile and feel all warm inside, especially when the past few days have been nothing but a relentless assault of not just bad news, but absurd news. But I won’t get into that; this isn’t the time nor place for it. Rather, I want to talk about my ambivalent feelings towards Honey Lemon Soda. I always go into every new season hoping for a chill, relaxing romance to follow, but as I watch this show, I find myself frequently rolling my eyes at Uka’s love life. But am I being unfair? Do I have a problem with taking shojo romances seriously?

At one point in the second episode, the teacher calls Kai out for sleeping during class: “I bet you live everyday without thinking.” Uka wants to defend him, but she’s too shy to speak up. Instead, she’ll do it in her head as her brain rattles off a bunch of Kai’s good traits. One particular thought of hers stood out to me: “…he’s so honest about what he thinks.”

Does she mean blunt? Is she confusing his bluntness with honesty? ‘Cause yeah, he is blunt with his words. But I don’t think he’s even honest with himself. Just earlier in the episode, the gang, i.e. Kai’s gang, had asked Uka why she decided attend this high school. If you’ll recall, she’s a smart kid so she could’ve gone somewhere a little more academically inclined. Uka, however, was terribly lonely in junior high (I guess middle school for us Americans?), and as a result, she wants to turn a new leaf. She tells her new friends that she wants to “dawdle” after class, hang out with friends for hours, maybe even sneak into the school at night, and do all the idyllic childhood activities that she wouldn’t normally be able to do if she has her head buried in a book all day. So how does Kai respond?

“Forget it.”

“As if.”

“Do you actually think you’re cut out for that?”

“Give up.”

Kai does have a reason (sigh, I guess) for being a dick. Just earlier, he overheard Uka’s helicopter dad talking to one of the school’s staff members. I think the old man was worried that her new school might not be up to snuff academically. So as a way to show his concern — to convince Uka to go home early and thus not worry her overprotective parents — Kai had to act like a total jerk.

Why couldn’t Kai just explain what he meant? Well, he does. Later. When the mean girl bully literally phones up her boyfriend so that he can come to their school and pick on Uka (nobody has anything better to do, I guess), Kai gets to redeem himself by saving our damsel in distress. I am actually somewhat disappointed in Uka here. She fought back in the first episode. Granted, all she did was spray her bullies with soda, but at least she did something. Here, she simply lets the mean girl’s boyfriend drag her away. She eventually cries out for Kai, and yes, I understand that there’s a strength and size difference, but I dunno, at least try to pull away? But whatever. My point is that Kai strikes me as a guy who has trouble expressing his thoughts and feelings unless they’re filtered through this facade of detached, aloof grumpiness. Even his friends remark that he never compliments girls (until Uka comes along ooooohh~~~) and he never smiles in pictures (until Uka comes alo–… ahem). We’re probably due for a tear-jerking reveal of his past near the end of the season.

Over and over again, Uka internally “squees” with delight when Kai looks at her. When he gives her his hat. When they get to sit next to each other in class. When she’s the only one who knows his secret sleeping spot. When he rests his head on her shoulder on the bus trip home. Hell, she’s just happy that she gets to exist within the same reality as the guy. It’s downright corny. It’s so corny that my eyes are rolling out of my head. But the pendulum swings just as heavily in the other direction. Teens have a penchant for overthinking everything, and the cast of Honey Lemon Soda is no exception. For example, thinking that your perfectly normal photo from junior high is too weird to show your friends. But there’s an even more dramatic case later on.

Despite the undeniable fact that Uka now has a skip in her step, one of Kai’s friends — I think it’s Tomoya — ominously wonders if Uka is truly better off having met Kai. After all, lot of girls are in love Kai, and some of them will naturally see Uka as not just a rival but an enemy. One girl has already tried to sabotage our heroine’s reputations by screwing with their school trip to the mountains. Kai’s friend thinks that more childish retaliation will becoming Uka’s way. Is he overthinking things? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it’s the rival girl who is overthinking things. Or maybe it’s Uka when she reacts to Tomoya’s words as though she’s taken a shot to the heart. It’s a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows. We’ll learn later that she’s caught a cold due to being out in the rain. Nevertheless, there’s no shortage of drama in Honey Lemon Soda, and that too is a form of corniness.

On the one hand, I think I get it? We’ve all been teens once. And teens are stereotypically self-centered. Everything is a big deal to them. Every parent is the worst parent ever. Every day is the worst day ever. So on and so forth. A delicate combination of having a limited perspective plus raging hormones will crank everything up to 11. Multiply that by another factor to account for the fact that we’re watching a TV series meant to toy with our feelings. But wait, was being a teen actually like that? I’m afraid I can’t recall anymore. It’s been nearly two decades since I’ve stepped foot in a high school. Hell, I’m not even sure if I’ve spoken to a high schooler since then. So what do I even know of the teenage experience? What qualifies me to speak with any authority about it? I can’t even remember my own. Frankly, I’m too old to understand Uka, Kai, and the rest of these kids.

But what really got me to write this post was watching more episodes of The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World right after Honey Lemon Soda. Red’s kind of a huge dork. Not kind of. He is a huge dork who thinks everyone can be his friend. And as a result, everything can be defeated through the bonds of friendship. You might even argue that his adventures are just as corny as the teen love in Honey Lemon Soda. In most isekai anime, you expect other men to act as threats to the main character’s love life. He’s got a hot babe (or multiple), and everyone wants a piece of that pie (or multiple). Things look to be headed in that exact direction when Red and Yhidra have a little contest against two experienced adventurers in the second episode. If the former pair wins, the latter has to apologize for insulting Yhidra’s father. If, however, the latter wins, she’ll do anything they want. Uh, that’s a bit disproportionate, don’t you think? Why bet that of all things? But naturally, the seasoned adventurers immediately have lewd thoughts. To make a long story short, Red’s earnestness convinces former enemies to ignore their baser instincts in order to work together as one. It’s the power of friendship, y’all. It’s so strong that they even have to strike a pose. And y’know what? I laughed. I genuinely laughed.

So what’s my problem anyway? Why does Honey Lemon Soda’s corniness make me roll my eyes but Red Ranger’s corniness make me laugh? Well, I want to say it’s a bit like comparing apple and oranges. I want to say that Red Ranger doesn’t take itself seriously — that the show knows that it’s stupid and embraces that identity. But that’s also an assumption on my part — a convenient defense against the charge of bias. And we always have to pause from time to time to re-examine our biases, because they do exist. I don’t think anyone has such clarity of thought that they can approach every single situation with pure objectivity. We are human after all. We are a product of not just our upbringing and culture but also thousands of years of genetic memory.

I have to think carefully if I’m biased against Honey Lemon Soda, because maybe it’s just as earnest as Red Ranger. Maybe even more earnest. It captures a teen spirit I don’t and can’t remember anymore. I roll my eyes because I’m trying to walk in Uka’s shoes, but because I’m so far removed from those halcyon days of high school, I can only do so as an adult. And as an adult, I would never leave a job just so I could work with my crush. As an adult, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with the first person who is nice to me. As an adult, I am wary of anyone who yells at me with good intentions. But Uka’s not an adult and neither is Kai. The boy doesn’t hurt her feelings (we hope) because he’s trying to take advantage of her. Rather, he can barely express his own feelings contrary to Uka’s assertion up top. Point is, I would never do what Uka has done through the first four episodes, but as they often say, kids need to be able to explore their independence in order to carve out their own identity, and in the process, make and learn from their own mistakes.

I can’t say that I enjoy Honey Lemon Soda. But I do have to remind myself not to put too much stock in my initial reactions. Especially when there’s so much variance between shows of similar, well, corniness. Sometimes, you should trust your gut feelings, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reflect on them after the fact.

Why am I writing about this show again? It’s not that I like it, but sometimes, my brain will draw a connection that I can’t ignore. Luckily, this blog is a ghost town nowadays, so I can write down whatever nonsense I come up with. But first, let’s get the boring plot out of the way.

Not much has changed, because this is one of those series that is all about the mundane. Ah, but y’see, because the mundane is happening in an isekai, it’s suddenly exciting. Man opens a shop and sells ordinary goods like clothespins and zirconium necklaces. An absolute nothingburger in real life (hell, he’d probably go broke), but it’s the tits in an isekai. Man builds himself a home complete with a plain ass white picket fence. A rather boring pipe dream in real life (hah, becoming a homeowner in this day and age?), but super duper amazeballs exciting in an isekai. Eventually, the daughter of a rich merchant gets kidnapped by a bunch of bandits. A noble had hired them to commit this dirty deed, because that’s what the super rich and corrupt are wont to do: kidnap girls and do terrible things to them. Mind you, I’m not even being flippant. Judging by Epstein and his ilk, this stuff happens all the time in real life too. We just don’t call them nobles anymore. What is the term now? Oligarchs? Sure.

So naturally, it falls on our dull as white bread Kenichi to amass a group consisting of a bloodthirsty knight, beast cats who wear clothes even though they’re completely covered in fur, a bobcat (not to be confused with the aforementioned beast cats), a has-been mage who can only get it up once a day, and an old lady who can cook a mean stew. Why such an eclectic bunch? Because everyone else is literally too scared to do anything about it. Bandits steal our wives and daughters? Welp, back to our daily lives! But our hero has a laser pointer, so we’re off to save the damsel in distress. Make sure you make it official at the guild, because we can’t forget procedure during a crisis. In the end, Kenichi will also have gained a daughter. Put that on the list too; “having a daughter” is yet another ordinary real life thing nobody in Japan wants to do, but is somehow fascinating and obligatory in an isekai. If only Shinzo Abe and his cult had isekai’d his nation…

So what am writing this post for if the plot is so boring? Because Kenichi is also so boring. He’s so, so boring. He’s yet another mundane modern isekai protagonist in a backwater fantasy world — a world where people are impressed by clothespins, a fact that I will forever reiterate whenever I talk about this anime. And I guess he can draw? Those two traits are all he needs, really. He now gets to fend off female admirers left and right. A cat girl randomly snuggles up on his chest at night. The buxom daughter of a well-known merchant has already fallen for him. And oh yeah, he can always have a tryst with the young innskeeper every time he goes to town. There’s no doubt that as the story progresses, he’ll meet and collect more and more paramours. And the only thing these women will have in common is that they’re mind-blown by his ability to procure ordinary modern conveniences. Y’know what this reminds me of? A passport bro.

What are passport bros? I’m not actually sure who came up with the term or where it was coined. I simply know that there’s a subset of men (sometimes middle aged but not always) posting and seeking support on how to find wives overseas. Why overseas necessarily? Well, let’s not beat around the bush. These men often complain that the women around them are too difficult. Too ideologically “tainted.” Too unbound by hierarchical structures where one partner dictates most of the household decisions. And so they huddle together on these message boards or Discord servers in order to hope, pray, and commiserate — hope that they can afford to go to certain countries, pray that they can find women with “traditional” values, and commiserate over the oh-so-unfair criticism levied their way. Why can’t anyone just understand that modern women are the devil? And as I watch these fantasy isekai women throw themselves at Kenichi, I couldn’t help but think of passport bros.

Was Kenichi also turning women down left and right in his own world? Doubtful. If he had a family or even just a lover, he wouldn’t have adapted to his newfound life so easily. It’s almost always implied if not outright stated that these protagonists have no strong emotional ties to their previous worlds. Family? Friends? Pshaw. Especially not lovers. The modern isekai relies on the premise that these things simply don’t exist or matter. That’s why they almost always embrace their new lives with gusto. Show up with a smartphone and blow the natives away. Or order a cheap bathrobe from Amazon and now they think you’re fit for royalty. The harsh truth is that these heroes can’t build a life worth regretting in the real world; if they could or did, they wouldn’t be so happy to leave it all behind. So they have to level the playing field drastically.

I can imagine a bunch of single, lonely guys pattering away at night on Discord or Reddit. Just a couple tips between bros. “What’s the best way to get isekai’d without too much pain?” “How to convince the evil goddess to give you a seemingly useless on paper but in practice absolutely bonkers OP skill.” “How to score a harem of waifus in five easy steps.” “How to always find a former slave girl to adopt as your daughter or sister.” “What you must know before you inevitably defend your waifus from other rich, greedy (usually corpulent) villains.” Well, have you considered ordering pepper spray for your harem? And thus a new series is born: “How the D-Rank Adventurer Solo’d the A-Rank Dungeon Boss With Pepper Spray In Another World!” Which isn’t even satire, because Kenichi recently learns that he’s not the the only isekai hero in his world. There is actually another hero who (as you can see in the screenshot above) literally defeated a dragon with mayonnaise. At least pepper spray can actually be considered a weapon. Well, I guess non-Americans seem to think mayo is a weapon too.

Natsuko is pretty unlikable in the latest episode. With her help, the city is surviving through every recent Void encounter without a single casualty. Pretty big wins, right? The problem is that they’re Natsuko’s wins. It doesn’t look like the rest of the Nine Soldiers get to do much of anything. Hell, the only other contributor at this point is QJ’s radar and only his radar. Sadly, our heroine isn’t the least bit gracious about her spate of good fortune, posing like a huge dork before the adoring crowd. Oh, how quickly she’s adapted to her new post-apocalypse home. Sure, the henshin stuff is amusing since Zenshu airs on the same day as that sentai isekai. But in general, her behavior is not a good look. I personally don’t find it endearing. Naturally, pride comes before the fall, so Natsuko quickly finds out that her latest creation is no good when the Voids attack again at the very end of this week’s episode. Past conflicts have been introduced and resolved in one tidy episode, so it’s about time we end on a cliffhanger. But that’s not really the point. The main problem here is that our heroine’s hubris is finally biting her in the ass, and this has been predictable from the first moment we met her. We already know that Natsuko has no leadership skills; she simply refused to delegate work, and as a result, her grand film project is in trouble. This week’s episode follows up by piling it on rather thick with yet another glimpse of what it’s like to work with our rising new star. Where’s the HR department when you need one?

But Natsuko’s hubris isn’t the only topic of discussion in this week’s episode. While combing the slums for kids — for Destiny’s orphanage, mind you, so nothing nefarious — Natsuko meets Justice, a disgraced former member of the Nine Soldiers. He quietly left the team because he suffered an injury to his wings in his last battle with them. Rather than letting Luke feel guilty over his injury, however, Justice left without explaining anything. So now, he makes a living as a bouncer and, uh, a skeevy drunkard? Seriously, he spends most of his scenes hitting on Natsuko. She also admits in return that he’s hot, so yeah. In fact, he’s hotter in her eyes now that he’s all destitute and shit. Yeah, I don’t get it. It’s like that Garrus thing from Mass Effect. People can get so dirty when they talk about the galaxy’s favorite turian, but I guess my tastes are a little too normie. As someone who enjoys vanilla ice cream, I can’t imagine how a scaly dragon man can be attractive. But I assume Justice isn’t here just to play romantic rival to Luke. If I had to guess, he’ll probably leap in and save Natsuko from the new Voids at the last second, have a painful discussion with Luke about what really happened, et cetera, et cetera. But even if it does play out differently — maybe Luke or someone else in the Nine Soldiers takes the hit for Natsuko instead — it wouldn’t change my opinion about this week’s episode all that much.

Truthfully, I’m a bit disappointed with this week’s episode, because the story is playing it too safe. Looking back at Natsuko’s journey thus far, it’s been a touch conventional: hero shows up and surprises everyone with their powers. Hero racks up victories. Hubris sets in. Hero suffers a blow to the ego and learns their lesson. Hero presumably learns the power of teamwork in next week’s episode and can take that lesson back to her actual job. It’s a tried-and-tested character arc, and that’s fine in your average story. And you could argue that at least she has a weakness unlike most anime protagonists these days. But Natsuko isn’t supposed to be your average John Isekai. She’s not just an “anima-ma-tor” either as Luke often likes to flub the word. She’s also a storyteller — a storyteller who has years of experience working in the anime-manga industry. I want a bit of that experience to come into play. Natsuko has been winning so much that the timeline of her favorite film has changed completely. She admits that she doesn’t even recognize the new Voids that are showing up. So… any further thoughts about the current situation?

As a storyteller in the industry, where does Natsuko think the story will go next? Maybe she can pause and reflect on how storytelling is different now in anime compared to what it was when she was a kid. As someone who is a huge fan of the original film — and has probably consumed all of the extra content related to the film such as interviews, deep dives, etc. — where does Natsuko think the creator would have taken the story if the film hadn’t flopped — if the film had been popular enough for sequels? Zenshu doesn’t necessarily have to explore these exact questions. Rather, my point is that I don’t want or need a standard isekai. A ton of new ones crop up every damn season. We’re up to our damn necks with isekai. The only reason I’m watching and writing about Zenshu is because our heroine isn’t yet another typical sad sack loser graduating from their dreary life in order to score easy-to-impress babes in a power fantasy specifically tailored to their (read: author’s) personality quirks. So give me more meta commentary. Give me more than the conventional character arc outlined above. Sadly, there isn’t much else worth watching this season (at least on Crunchyroll and Hidive).

Anyway, Red Ranger didn’t make me laugh this week, so I have nothing to say about it. Hell, I’m kinda annoyed that the team’s just going to gloss over Lowji attempting to get Togo killed because he’s got an unhealthy stalkerish fixation on Teltina. I saw an article about how M.A.O was joining the cast as Kizuna Silver, but it was literally a short scene and nothing else. So much for that. Eh, I might drop the show. I guess I could see how next week’s episode shapes up.

I have a draft going for the Bureaucrat isekai, but since the next episode airs tomorrow, I might as well just hold off on it until I see what happens next. So instead, I guess I’ll briefly ramble about what I’ve watched over the past year.

Forgettable power fantasies

It’s no secret that the isekai genre is immensely popular, and as a result, they also tend to get dubbed. Sadly, when I’m gaming, I don’t have the ability to appreciate a good story, i.e read subs and also explore a dungeon in a JRPG. It’s why some Netflix shows are the way that they are. The giant streaming service realizes that people tend to just listen to their shows; users are treating shows like audiobooks. You just want some noise in the background while you’re doing what you really want to do. For me, it’s gaming. For others, it might be doomscrolling. Either way, there’s a trend towards crafting stories that aren’t too complicated lest the “viewing” audience lose track of the story.

Sadly, I kinda treat these anime power fantasies the same way. They are popular, so they’re consistently dubbed. But at the same time, the stories in these show never gets too complicated.

Boy hero is overpowered, boy hero saves girl, saves another girl, saves another girl, saves another girl… and yeah. So it just goes in one ear and out the other. I don’t retain any of it. I’ve “seen” Arifureta, Seirei Gensouki, Eminence in Shadow, Reincarnation of the Strong X where X can be anything like exorcist, Reincarnated as the 27th or whatever Prince, blah blah blah. It’s all the same.

“Actually, X has a really deep plot and–“

Sure. And it doesn’t have to be an isekai either. As long as the hero is incredibly OP, it feels like the plot always plays out the same way, always the same interpersonal drama. Like I can’t really tell you how the banished former hero is any different from the banished healer or the banished a-rank hero. They always don’t appreciate him, but it turns out he was actually doing all of the dirty work nobody else was doing, and then the party can’t function without him, but nobody learns their lessons, and in fact a pathetic guy is actually super jealous and maybe he’ll try to rape one of the hero’s love interests. That last part is optional, but everything else is required. It’s totally me fr fr. I’m so underappreciated! Look, I love a good quitting story — a compelling stick it to the man story. But these ain’t it.

The slice of life romance can be forgettable too

They’re like donuts; they’re sugary sweet in the moment, but they won’t sate your appetite. You’ll definitely get hungry later. Shows like this are Hokkaido Girls, 365 Days to the Wedding, Pseudo Harem, etc. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten initially felt kinda novel because the two characters are into each other immediately. But then it’s just that the rest of the way.

The first decent show of a genre kinda spoils the rest

I think I’ve only really enjoyed one villainess series: Tearmoon Empire. Then I tried to watch more, but like most genres, they’re just all variations of the same themes and characters. I’ll discuss this a bit later about shounens, but it’s the same idea. It’s not that I think Tearmoon Empire is the best in class. Nor do I think DBZ is the only good shounen. But once you’ve tried something, it just loses its novelty. If I had grown up with Naruto instead, I’d probably feel the same way, i.e. “Yeah, I’ve seen Naruto, I don’t really need to watch the rest.”

Sniveling boys

So often in these shows, you have the dweebish protagonist pairing up with the attractive, popular girl. Most of the time, the protagonist is a nice guy deep down, but way too socially awkward. So they spend much of the early episodes sniveling or stammering. Like the senpai in Nagatoro. Or even Okarun in Dandadan. Then it’s up to the extroverted, outgoing girl to pull the boy out of his shell kicking and screaming all the way. It feels like the girls always have to do the emotional labor — all the heavy-lifting. And it’s one thing when the guy is a little quiet or maybe he says something a bit weird or insensitive. Fine, I can work with that. But when Okarun walks past Momo without saying hi to her because he’s terminally in his own head, I can’t help but groan and slump down in my seat. I want to grab the kid by the shoulders and shake him violently. It’s your friend, man! You’ve been through live-or-die situations with them. More than once too! All you gotta do is say hi. Or wave. Or do something. Or nod like most western men do. Anything. Even if she’s actually waiting for someone else, so what? No, really, so what? You can’t say hi to someone if they’re waiting for another friend? In what fucking universe, Okarun?

“Um, it’s called character growth? They’ll learn to overcome their weaknesses and get better.”

Not when it feels like I keep seeing the same nerdy, shy boi~ over and over. it’s difficult to watch namely because it’s just such a tired character arc. I’m so bored of it. Especially when it’s the same low self-esteem, self-deprecating crap over and over. Sometimes, they come with a twist that often just makes them even worse in my eyes. Like Kyotaro in The Dangers in My Heart. Yeah, sure, maybe the relationship really blossoms later. Maybe the romance is really sweet. But I don’t wanna have to walk barefoot through a minefield of lego pieces just to get there. And that’s how I felt about our misanthropic little prick. Does he grow as a person? I’m sure he does. And the show is acclaimed and highly rated. But I just can’t do it, bro. The early episodes were such a turn-off.

Difficult to root for

Which segues nicely into Chainsaw Man. Feels like everyone on the internet loves it. And sure, the animation is great, the devils concept is intriguing, etc. But dude, Denji is so unlikable. So gross. So pathetic. I got to the episode where he gropes Power and I just couldn’t continue. Am I missing out?

…eh. I think I’ll live.

Fighting bores me

Unfortunately, it does. The older I get, the less I care about the combat scenes. I can’t sink my teeth into any shounen because of this. All the discussions about powers and abilities. All the long, drawn out battles with inner monologues from the combatants. It just doesn’t do a thing for me. I’m not trying to say I’m Mr. Sophisticated who only watches high brow anime, because that’s not remotely true. I gobble down substance-less feelgood romances every now and then. The problem is something I mentioned up above: I think growing up on DBZ simply means I’ve gotten it out of my system. Again, not that DBZ is the best or anything. But I don’t crave it anymore. And yes, I enjoy Dandadan, but mostly for the character dynamics outside of the battle scenes. Sure, I do like the creative storyboarding and trippy animation that Science Saru employs from time to time. But these scenes are by far the least interesting for me compared to the banter and (usually) strong character dynamics. So as a result, I only waded a few episodes deep into Demon Slayer. I haven’t even tried Jujutsu Kaisen. I got about 100 episodes into My Hero Academia at the height of its popularity years ago, but I haven’t watched any of it since. And honestly, the combat stuff kinda ruined Frieren for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Frieren is a bad anime or anything. In fact, I quite enjoyed the first half. I loved all the stuff about her revisiting old friends, old locales, meeting kids who are now grown adults, etc. Essentially, I loved everything about reflecting on her past experiences with Himmel and the rest of the party, and coming to grips with the mortality of the all-too-human characters around her. This includes both the dead (Himmel), the old and will die soon (Heiter), and the young (Fern). Even the little girl who is practically her daughter will become a shriveled, old woman who will leave Frieren behind, her physical state remaining forever in statsis. But that’s not true of her mind at all, and that’s the beauty of growing old: recontextualizing our memories. Age and experience has a funny way of making us look back and see things in a new light — gleaning meaning from a past once long discarded. That part of Frieren was brilliant.

Then we got to the arc with the exam, and they gotta compete with other mages thus introducing a slew of characters I have no connection with. Then they get put inside a dungeon where they have to fight magical clones of themselves or whatever. It was all this talk about how magic powers work, how to defeat the enemies by exploiting weaknesses, so on and so forth. And I got so bored. I couldn’t finish it. I stopped just a few episodes short of the ending. I still think Frieren is worth watching for the early episodes, and I got what I needed from them. It’s okay to leave things unfinished. You don’t have to clean your plate, gorge down every meal, so on and so forth. Of course, I’ll still keep an eye on the sequel. If the next season returns to the more contemplative tone of the first season’s early episodes, I’ll definitely watch it. I just don’t care about Frieren’s power levels.

So close and yet so far

In the past year, I think the anime series that I enjoyed the most from start to finish is definitely Insomniacs After School. It’s a sweet, slice of life romance between two kids who (as the title states) suffer from insomnia. But somehow, they find kinship and thus comfort in each other’s presence. Mix in a bit of photography and astronomy, and I was hooked. But it wasn’t a perfect story by any means. The characters are still cut from the same cloth as a lot of anime protagonists: Ganta being the nerdy, somewhat antisocial kid (hard to be friendly when you’re running low on sleep) who needs Isaki’s help to open up to others. The biggest problem, however, is that I couldn’t help but feel as though the story peaked midway through the season. It’s a big deal in anime whenever characters touch. It’s why the “hand-holding is lewd” meme is even a thing. But the solution to their insomnia is actually intimacy.

It’s the courage to overcome social and cultural norms in order to rely and confide in one another. To stop putting up barriers. To lean on each other and unburden ourselves. To stop hiding your fears and trauma. To allow yourself to be vulnerable even if it’s means being in someone else’s embrace. And that’s exactly what happens during the school trip when the two kids sneak off, Isaki listening to the beat of Ganta’s heart, and they eventually fall asleep in each other’s arms. But as I said, it pretty much peaked there. Sure, there’s the confession down the line. And the rest of the story is decent. But it never pushes the envelope any further. And I’m not saying the kids need to escalate to anything risque. It’s not about that. But the romance started off so unique and fresh only to pull its punches in the end.

This week’s topic of conversation is Kai’s ex Serina. Serina, Serina, Serina. We can’t seem to get enough of her, apparently.

Seriously, there’s so much here that I don’t understand. The last time I talked about this anime, I mentioned how high school and everything about it is nothing more than a distant memory for me. But even when I dig deep down into my gray matter, I still can’t find anything that helps me relate to these kids. Like why do they fawn over people so much just for being attractive? Sure, there were popular kids back in my day. But it didn’t mean that the vast majority of the student body did nothing but talk about said popular kids. But all throughout this episode, it’s Kai this, Serina that, Kai used to date Serina, why did they break up, blah blah blah. Bro, who the fuck cares? Where are my nerds at, geeking out over whatever dweeb stuff we like to talk about? Where are the goth-equivalents at, always looking down on the “sheeple?” How about the jocks who can only talk about sports? Some anime — big emphasis on “some” — makes Japanese high schools seem so damn monotonous, and Honey Lemon Soda is one of them. NPC is the apt description for everyone not named Kai or Serina, because that’s what they are; they don’t seem to exist for any reason other than gabbing about the two hot, attractive people.

And what is wrong with Uka? Well, a lot, actually. That sounds mean if you take those words as a judgment of her character, but I’m simply trying to be descriptive. She’s a textbook overthinker and she also has cripplingly low self-esteem, a dangerous combination. She says something like, “Oh, the one who truly deserves to be with Kai is Serina. Why did he break up with someone so amazing?” And this is at the start of the episode before she even know anything about the other girl other than that 1) she’s pretty and 2) she used to date Kai. Seriously, that is so weird. Who does this? Serina could be a raging bitch for all we know. Or maybe Serina and Kai had a really toxic relationship. Or neither of those things are true, but it wouldn’t matter because people date who they date, people love who they love. This whole “She deserves to be with him” or use whatever gender you want is bizarre to me. Nobody deserves anybody. Being a good person doesn’t entitle you to date anyone. You are compatible with them or you ain’t. It didn’t work out between Kai and Serina. End of story. But Uka’s not alone. Even the NPCs can’t help but violate Serina’s privacy by snooping on her phone, discovering that the girl still has a pic of Kai from middle school, then proceeding to tell Kai that he should date her again. Not “I should date her!” No, even when they have a choice, they choose to lose to the hot guy. Seriously, why the hell do you all care so much? I don’t understand. I really don’t.

My inability to understand doesn’t stop there either. Why do people choose to hang out with the people that they do? Serina’s group of friends can turn nasty on a dime. When they see Kai and Uka at a diner together, they can’t help but walk up and bug the guy about — guess what? — Serina! OMG, what a fascinating topic! I can’t wait to discuss this again and again and again and again… When the gang learns that Uka has a very early curfew (5PM), they start bullying the poor girl. This time, it’s Serina who steps up to the plate and defends our heroine from the peanut gallery… by completely flipping out and splashing a drink on her friends. You could’ve just told them off, but let’s move on. So the mean girls turn on Serina the next day at school, prompting Uka to heroically jump in the way and take the slap. If you can move your body that fast, why not just… catch the arm? Still, looks like things are irreparable between Serina and her former group, right? Nope. They go right back to being friends afterwards even though Serina doesn’t even sound like she thinks very highly of the trio all that much. And it’s not her either. Kai has a group of annoying, nosy dudes who buzz around him, constantly pestering him with questions about Serina. He doesn’t even look the least bit happy either. But he’s still there. He still hangs with them. Sure, I get peer pressure and all that. Sometimes, kids fear being ostracized, so they cling to bad influences. But does that sound like Serina and Kai? They can pick and choose who they want to hang out with. So why do they hang out with the people that they do? There’s a saying that goes, “You are the company you keep.”

When I watch this show, I feel like an alien observing the human species in action from a distance. ‘Cause all of that stuff above? Completely bizarre to me. I hung out with people I liked. I had fun with people I liked. I never had to tell my friends off. I never had to stop them from bullying anyone. I never bugged my buddies about their love lives. Sure, we had arguments, but we never got physical. There are some things in this anime that I can relate to. I do get Uka’s self-deprecating, doomer attitude — so self-deprecating that it kills the conversation^*. I totally understand having a crush on someone, then deciding that you probably have no chance with them anyway. I never literally looked up the definition of “vibes,” but I get not understanding social dynamics. It’s one of those things that you just have to experience for yourself. I understand not knowing how to make small talk. So despite all of that, go Uka for stepping out of her comfort zone, signing up for the cultural festival, so on and so forth. I wouldn’t say she’s courageous, but she certainly has enough courage for now. Granted, Kai had to throw her a bone by showering the girl with a slew of compliments at just the right moment — just as our heroine was about to sink to the bottom of her self-despair (’cause Serina is so superior). But hey, we all need help. But everything else about this episode? So goddamn baffling to me.

^*Like when you make one of those “Ugh, I suck so much that I want to kill myself” joke (haha, yeah, joke) around the wrong group of acquaintances, so they just look at you like you’re a freak.

All it took was less than two episodes for these two kids to stop hating each other. Maybe they never really did. So to recap things a bit, Saito and Akane are forced into an arranged marriage by their star-crossed grandparents. Because those two boomers couldn’t have the love story for the ages, they’re trying to live vicariously through their grandchildren. Each kid is threatened with severe consequences should they choose otherwise: Saito will be disinherited, and Akane won’t receive any help with paying for medical school (hopefully, the odds won’t still be stacked against her even with money). Imagine that. Imagine screwing your grandchildren over on their education unless they play house. Or so we’re told. Knowing how cheesy these stories can be, there’s a good chance that the two grandparents have secret, slightly more wholesome motivations for pushing Saito and Akane together, but we won’t find out until the last episode (if ever).

Still, it’s a big gamble. The boomers are lucky that their grandkids are so pliant. I got through higher education on my own, so had I been in their shoes, I would have told them to take their money and shove it. Granted, I don’t know what it’s like in Japan, i.e. what sort of financial aid you get, if it’s reasonable to work part-time and attend university, etc. But you get my point. Hell, maybe the story would’ve been a lot more interesting if Saito and Akane had rebelled. But we get two teens playing house instead, and the results are… well, not as bad as they could be, but not that great either.

Like the title of the post implies, the premise is a lie. Of course, this is a romantic comedy of sorts, so I never expected Saito and Akane to hate each other’s guts from start to finish. They still bicker, but it’s clear almost immediately that they’re developing feelings; Saito admits that Akane is beautiful when she smiles (groan), and Akane is jealous if Saito is too nice to other girls. Conflicts arise from the growing pains of cohabitation. My perspective is skewed, because I’m used to the whole “date someone for a while, then live together for a while, then you finally marry if everything goes well” dealio. I would never consider an arranged marriage; I would never consider a relationship that isn’t born from love. My parents brought arranged marriages up once and I immediately shot it down. Nevertheless, arranged marriages are still a thing in a lot of cultures. And if you’re neck deep in those cultures, rather than fight it, you might as well learn to cope with it. That’s what we get over and over in a few of these episodes. Two very different people have to learn to compromise and cohabitate. Rather than “I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class,” it would have made more sense to call this show “I’m Getting Married to a Girl Who is a Massive Tsundere.” Actually, make it “A Massive Tsundere Has To Teach Me How Not to be a Complete Slob.”

I’m not against basing the show around the growing pains of cohabitation. Even though I’m against arranged marriages for myself, god knows people need more examples of non-toxic relationships and how to resolve relationship problems in a healthy manner. So sure, bring on the compromises. But a compromise only makes sense when you’re caught between two reasonable positions. If, for example, one side wants to kill minorities, and the other side doesn’t, you don’t compromise on that. Yes, my example is extreme, but I often feel that Saito is the unreasonable one in this relationship. The guy’s original plan was to eat cup noodles and gulp down vegetable juice mixed with protein powder. That’s just nasty. You’ll either be constipated or have the runs; I don’t know which but that diet can’t be good for the ol’ digestive system. So naturally, the wifey has to save the day by cooking every single meal. The least he can do is wash the dishes, right? Nah, he’d rather let them stack up, because it’s more “efficient” that way. He also treats doing the laundry and taking the trash out the same way. I’m sorry, but he’s a textbook pig. Actually, that might be an insult to pigs. Dude’s just downright gross. Imagine telling your granddaughter to get into a relationship with a guy like that and then telling her to compromise.

Of course, the story tries to make Akane seem equally unreasonable like when she tells him there won’t be video games in the house. She quickly relents when she tries video games for the first time, so if you have a gun to my head, I’d say Akane is easier to live with than Mr. Vegetable Juice Protein Shake. I’m just not exactly sure what he really brings to the table other than being the stereotypical male protector. He had to save her from the bath when she falls asleep, which naturally results in a classic bit of anime misunderstanding. C’mon, don’t stop there. Let her whip out a hammer and bash his head in while you’re at it. And then in another episode, Saito had to physically carry Alane to the hospital when she had a cold and was exhausted from studying too hard. Love how taxis magically won’t work when there’s an opportunity to be romantic. And finally, uh, I guess he brings her snacks during study time? Yawn. To be somewhat fair, he’s kinda nice like most generic male anime protagonists, he can help her study, and he’ll sit through three hours of cute cats frolicking. That’s what true love is made of, I guess.

Unfortunately, like a lot of bog standard romantic comedy anime series, it can’t just be about Saito and Akane. It has to be a harem of sorts. If this show was simply about water and oil trying to co-exist with some good banter and amusing scenarios that couples can relate to (the supermarket scene wasn’t bad), it could have been a sleeper hit. But no, we gotta have multiple girls fight over a dweeb who has to be harangued into doing the dishes. And the first rival is none other than Himari, Akane’s best friend. The problem is that Himari knows nothing about the arranged marriage. She even checks with Akane first before openly pursuing Saito. This is where the annoying tsundere shit kicks in: “Uh, I totally don’t like that guy! In fact, I’ll help you out by telling you everything about him.” But in reality, Akane is mad jealous. Talk about mixed signals. In fact, I feel bad for Himari. She’s chasing after a guy who has no interest in her — a guy who is literally married — and she is more or less encouraged to do so by her own best friend who doesn’t actually want to give the guy up! Himari can’t win; you might even say she’s one of those losing heroines.

But most of all, I just hate how standard the show ends up being. Fine, Himari likes Saito, but he shoots her down. Let her move on gracefully then. That’s what most normal people would do. Sorry, but a girl and her best friend gyaru aren’t going to fight over you in real life. Neither will a vampire and a werewolf. Just give it up. But this is a harem, so we can’t have that. Himari will keep putting her hand on the stove over and over until we’re literally at Saito and Akane’s actual wedding. And even then, she might not give up. But you also know that it won’t stop at Himari either. If you look at the key art, there are at least two girls we haven’t met yet. I’ll bet you anything that one of them will end up developing feelings for Saito as well. So when Himari is done fulfilling her role as one of the haremettes, we’ll move right along to the next one. And that’s not even counting Shisei, his cousin. Even though she’s more comic relief and relationship guru than love rival at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if her inappropriate closeness to Saito is rooted in more than just sisterly love and silly hijinks.

I found out that “Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms” has an English dub, so I “watched” a couple more episodes while doing pointless guild requests in the “Fairy Tail” JRPG^*. You could make the case that Mona is just sexually harassing Medaka at this point. If you flip the genders around, the creepiness in her actions would become a lot more apparent. But other than that, I have nothing to say about the show. For the three episodes that I watched, it’s just super boring. And like the anime above, it’ll probably introduce more heroines to compete for the boring male protagonist’s affections.

^*The game sucks if you must know. But I bought it, so I will finish it. Yeah, yeah, sunk cost fallacy… I’m just trying to kill time until “Trails Through Daybreak 2,” “Pirate Yakuza,” “Monster Hunter Wilds,” etc.

That’s not how the saying usually goes, but if it fits, it fits. Natsuko was a little too arrogant in last week’s episode, so she got a taste of humble pie and a good dose of tough love from her teammates. QJ and Memmeln even get to play key roles in taming the gremlin, which is nice since they tend to fade into the background in most episodes. Luke and Justice finally get a chance to talk and at least get bottled up feelings out into the open. The former also learns that he doesn’t have to be jealous of the latter, because Natsuko simply likes to draw new things. As a child, she drew every conceivable angle of Luke, but Justice is new to her. Last but not least, the blob-turned-giant-centipede is eventually defeated by the entire group. After seeing the light, our heroine draws stairs to help her teammates rather than yet another badass creation to win the battle all by her lonesome like in previous bouts. The rest of the Nine Soldiers — Luke, Unio, Memmeln, QJ — have all been sidelined since Natsuko discovered her powers, but they each finally get to play a role in saving the day this time. Even Justice is crucial in attaining victory this week. This will likely be the team dynamic going forward even if Natsuko remains the primary catalyst for victory. So just like that, everything is wrapped up in a neat and tidy bow. Eat your heart out, one-episode conflicts! We can do two episodes now!

I’m being snarky, but it’s fine. Like always, Zenshu‘s fine. Its straightforward plot beats are carried by good production values, solid directing, and decent voice acting. It might be my favorite anime of the season if only by default (not counting Netflix shows because I’m too cheap to pay for them). Now, don’t get me wrong. Subversion for the sake of subversion doesn’t automatically make a story good. Nor is it about throwing out nonstop unpredictable plot twists that turn everything you know upside down. Like I said last week, it’s not about that. Again, I don’t feel as though Zenshu leans enough into what makes it unique, which is the fact that its heroine is a creator. Sure, it’s cool to see her drawings come to life and kick bug ass, especially when the solution to the problem is zany and whackadoodle like winning over cult members with a bishounen. Nevertheless, this is honestly just a small part of the bigger picture, which is that Natsuko’s insight as a mangaka, a director, and an obsessive fan about this anime world doesn’t really amount to anything other than “She’s brash and thoughtless because she’s scared that you guys will die!” Well, join the club; I’ve yet to meet an anime protagonist who isn’t concerned about their friends. At best, Natsuko’s knowledge and expertise get us a quip about Unio and his penchant for death flags. Hell, the timeline has changed so much, knowing the movie backward and forward no longer really helps.

I’m also not really looking forward to any potential romantic connection between Luke and Natsuko. I was kinda hoping that he would end up with Destiny, not because I think those two are a fire pairing. I simply don’t buy the premise that Natsuko needs to experience real love in order to tell a love story. How real can an isekai love be anyway? Especially when it’s the brave hero from your favorite anime. Ahem, guys, I’ve finally learned true love after being isekai’d into Cowboy Bebop^* and hooking up with Faye Valentine. But seriously, like I’ve said before, a lot of successful love stories in books, film, and on TV aren’t remotely real. Sure, you expect Natsuko and Luke to have a thing in an anime like this, but I’m not feeling the chemistry. More than anything, how would they even resolve this subplot anyway? What’s the point of Natsuko learning all these life lessons if she doesn’t take it home to her world and make the best damn anime movie ever? And if she has to go back, what does it even mean for the isekai world and its inhabitants? In a vast majority of isekai series, the protagonist stays in the world (and marries a bajillion wives). On rare occasions, the protagonist will find a way home (and take his bajillion wives with him). So what will Natsuko end up doing? Will she even get a choice by the end of the series? But yeah, it’s mostly the chemistry thing; I haven’t really gotten much outta Luke. He was a bit of a jerk in the first couple of episodes, but that personality trait hasn’t been touched on since. In recent episodes, he’s just been pretty standard like, well, the rest of Zenshu. According to Justice, Natsuko is here to worm her way into his heart, so maybe we’ll get a deeper dive into his character. We’ll see if it’s any good, I suppose.

^*Technically, Serial Experiments Lain is my favorite anime, but no, that’s not going to work here.

Some observations that don’t deserve to get their own post.

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated! Ep. 3-5

I wish this show was more amusing. I originally had a longer draft to cover recent epiosdes, but… I dunno, it didn’t seem that interesting to me when I read it back afterwards; I kinda feel the same way about this anime. It’s like the ingredients are all there, but the cake refuses to rise. The most interesting thing so far is learning that Grace-jisan’s family can watch him live his best ojousama life. In fact, his daughter has to help him out. First, it was her hands that reached out and created her dad’s shiny, new dragon familiar. She accomplished this by squishing together a miniature versions of Grace and Kenzaburo. What does that mean or signify? That Grace is still here somewhere? Is she buried deep within herself while Kenzo is piloting the body? Has she been watching everything that has unfolded? But moving along, whenever Kenzo needs to command the dragon, he also requires his daughter’s help in order to swap between the familiar’s elements. And with that, Grace-jisan is volunteered to participate in some sort of tournament. With Anna Doll’s help, obviously. Okay. Cool, I guess.

As always, I want these stories to be bolder, to lean harder on their premise. In other words, show me why it’s interesting to have an old man larp as an ojousama. So far, he’s… uh, nice to everyone so he’s turning their heads. The boys are in love. And probably Anna Doll as well. And um, he still does calculations with an abacus. I feel like we’re five episodes in and nothing has really happened.

Solo Leveling Ep. 17-18

I think Sung Jinwoo got a little too strong, a little too fast. It has been a meteoric rise from useless nobody to diligent grinder to suddenly taking on an entire army of high orcs all by his lonesome while a smattering of A and B rank hunters do nothing but watch in awe from the side lines. Then the hot hunter girl who has been slowly teased since the first season finally gets more screen time only to spend it blushing profusely because Sung Jinwoo is the only man on Earth who doesn’t stink to her. I get it, I get it. She’s never been touched by anyone else before. She’s totally virginal, you guys. Fresh and sealed for our chad hero! He won’t be cucked. No, Sung Jinwoo is too strong to be cucked! I swear, cuck becoming a thing is the weirdest shit to emerge from our shitty culture in recent years. All of a sudden, it’s cuck this, cuckold that. Out of nowhere, every other guy younger seems deathly afraid of being cucked. Meanwhile, I’m just wondering why I can’t see this supposedly badass S-Rank hunter do anything cool.

I don’t even bother to worry about the main character anymore, because I know he’ll destroy everything. The entire time I was watching these episodes, I just hoped the nobodies — the ones who get the privilege of watching Sung Jinwoo in action — survive.

The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World Ep. 4-5

I liked the show better when it was goofy and thus funny — when it reveled in its own silliness. But now there’s a plot. Something about a clown wanting to revive their nefarious leader or whatever. My interest has more or less petered out.

I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! Ep. 2-5

It’s got that generic setup that feels a bit… I dunno if pathetic is the right word to use here, but maybe? Hero is basically good at everything, and instantly wins over his new party members. They’re all girls, by the way. God forbid a… a…. m-m-man would join. Even the latest addition appears to be a cat girl. See? We accept every race here. Small girl, tall girl, dark elf girl, cat girl. Just no men. But we also have that “I want to have my cake and eat it too” setup where it’s blatantly obvious that the girls have a thing for him, but Yuke doesn’t notice it at all. He’s too busy prepping for the next adventure, guys! Knowing the ins and outs of every dungeon, every dungeon mob, preparing every med, potions, meals, etc. Gosh, this amazing adventurer is just too dense for love. He’s just that pure. C’mon author, this is so pathetic. You’re not even trying to make him seem real. Does Yuke really have no flaws? And no, not realizing that every girl in your party wants to date you is not remotely an interesting character trait.

Furthermore, the story really double down on Yuke’s awesomeness whenever we cut to Thunder Pike, Yuke’s previous party. One guy leaves and now the entire group is in shambles. They can’t do anything right. Can’t recruit any new members because they just instantly shit on the new person. And now that no one else is joining, they shit on the quiet girl. By the way, quiet girl is quietly watching streams of Yuke while quietly looking sad. Who wants to bet she’s always had a thing for Yuke but never spoke up, and now she regrets it? Anyway, Thunder Pike is so incompetent without Yuke that they’re in danger of de-ranking. They keep failing missions, because they absolutely refuse to take easier ones despite 1) not having a full party and 2) still not accepting that our hero did a lot for them so now that he’s gone, I dunno maybe someone should pick up some of the slack? It just requires absolute incompetence from every member of the group to continue functioning like this. And sure, you can find examples of this in real life. Like maybe management fumbles it, loses all the top employees, so now the company is going under but no one is willing to check their ego long enough to right the ship. Sure.

But I feel like there’s a certain kind of glee hidden beneath the surface of this anime. Like it just can’t wait to punish Yuke’s former teammates, and this is why they’re portrayed in such a one-dimensional way. They won’t learn, because they can’t learn. Thunder Pike’s tragically inclined leader has decided that they will forge ahead and plumb the depths of some really dangerous dungeon in the hopes of luring Yuke back. But they’ll probably do it in some nefarious way or whatever. Like maybe try to kill the girls in Yuke’s new party. Or sell them off to that pervy noble. I dunno what, but the end goal here is cruelly punish the old group. We just need to justify it somehow. And I guess I hate this, because on the one hand, you try to make the hero seem so pristine. He’s so innocent, he doesn’t even know the girls are down bad for him! At the same time, we’re crafting a story where something really, really horrible is going to happen to Thunder Pike. I just can’t square these two disparate elements. I’m not sure if my point is coming across correctly. It’s like… the character is nice, but the intent behind the story isn’t nice. So it makes me question the authenticity of the nice character.

They often say the best revenge is living your best life. Just move on. You don’t have to forgive and forget, but you also don’t need to keep looking back. But it feels like thie person behind this story can’t do that. They’re not satisfied with their Gary Stu gallivanting around with hot, cute girls who adore him. Not until we have “properly” punished Thunder Pike. Even from a novelty standpoint, however, other shows have done this before and likely way, way harder. Like Redo of Healer. So I don’t really know what I Left my A-Rank Party has going for it.

Geez, maybe this section could’ve been its own post after all. Oh well.

Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest Ep. 4-5

Not much to say here. Ein is stronger. Now he’s traveling the world and women for his harem helping Yuri find her sisters. Yeah, we’ll go with that one. Every time he meets a new sister and her guardian, his eye gets powered up. And oh yeah, they join the traveling party. Ho hum. Also, Zoid’s got that whole “I won’t learn from my mistakes so punish me harder” vibe going for him like the I Left my A-Rank Party anime. Maybe people got bullied too hard as kids, so they’re trying to live out their revenge fantasies by writing these generic stories over and over.

When we last left off, a school festival coming up, and Uka had volunteered to lead the charge. She’s organizing a maid cafe, by the way. When is it not a maid cafe? But hey, you get to see Uka in a maid uniform if that’s your thing. Don’t worry, it’s a pretty tame uniform for a pretty tame anime. Either way, this part of the episode feels a bit disjointed. It’s like a dream as we drift from scene to scene. At first, nobody wants to help Uka, so she’s careening around on her bike all by her lonesome. But eventually, the other girls get over themselves and lend a hand. Ganbatte this, ganbatte that, and our heroine is happy. For now.

Then there’s this weird thing they do at the festival called “Crazy Cool.” Apparently, they trot all the attractive students and make a snazzy video to introduce them to the entire student body. Cue people swooning over and over. I find it difficult to believe that someone with sort of authority signed off on this. I never encountered anything like this in any of my four years of high school, but hey, maybe I was living under a rock. Still, that’s not even the crazy part; Kai proclaims in that bored voice of his that he’s none other than “Ishimori’s caretaker” when it’s his turn to introduce himself. Um, okay. Weird. But this delights our heroine even though I would personally find it patronizing if someone talked about me like that. But it’s her crush so any attention is good attention? Unfortunately, he also painted a target on her back.

Naturally, a bunch of jealous girls flock to Uka and talk shit. Again, nothing I’ve ever seen before. Sure, people get jealous, but all of them chasing after her in a group like that? Immediately after the “Crazy Cool” event too? Do they have no shame? You can’t convince me that this is what Japanese schoolgirls are like. No way. Plus, don’t they realize that if she’s their rival, so is everyone else who is yelling at the poor girl? You’re all competing for the same guy; he’s not gonna date all of you! Then again, I’ve never seen a popular guy claim to be someone’s caretaker so yeah. I’m telling you, I’m like an alien visitor whenever I watch this show. I’m here from another galaxy, quietly observing these bipedal anime individual interact. It’s very odd. Very bizarre.

Classic overthinker Uka starts to worry that once she gets her groove on, Kai will no longer feel the need to be her caretaker. And if he isn’t her caretaker, does this… does this mean he won’t talk to her anymore? Well, he would keep talking to her if they’re friends. It’s a thing friends do, y’know? But maybe she still doesn’t think that they’re friends. To her credit, she tries not to spiral too hard. Yes, she runs and hide initially, but she also insists that she’ll strike up a conversation with Kai every chance she gets… which is a goal you make if you don’t think you’re friends with someone. ‘Cause I mean, don’t friends already do that? Maybe not every you get, but enough not to worry about someone ditching you.

More weird things happen with sudden injections of drama out of nowhere. First, Uka and Kai overhear more girls trash-talking her, so the guy boldly leaves their hiding place while holding her hand. Scandalous. I’m told that’s how babies are made. Again, does he not realize he’s making the jealous girls hate Uka even more? Or is it more important to be an idiot, break rules, and stick it to people? This is what his best bud was trying to warn Uka about episodes ago. His best bud also wonders if Kai will eventually push Uka away or protect her forever. Isn’t this tiring? I wish they would just stop talking around the issue. Clearly, his bud sees a pattern. Maybe Serina was shy like Uka, which was something the former alluded to in last week’s episode. Maybe she became too dependent on Kai because he helped her out all the time, but he was never actually in love with her. As a result, his best bud doesn’t want Kai to repeat the same mistakes. So just say that. Stop beating around the bush. I hate all these little subtle hints at something that isn’t even that deep. This ain’t Severance. It’s just a high school love story. No need to treat it like a mystery box.

Speaking of the devil, we cut to a dating event where Serina was supposed to be one of the participants. She was told to either join the fun or find a substitute. If it were me, I’d have told the guy to go eat rocks. What power does he have over her? But who knows? Maybe that’s too rude or something in Japan. Maybe Serina feels a great sense of obligation to an event she never agreed to. Maybe I’d be bullied to tears if I had grown up there. But this is all just a lead up to Uka volunteering to take Serina’s place. After all, our bold new Uka will bravely try everything and anything!

Sadly, our wallflower freezes on stage when the host is a little too rude and and a little too inappropriate, so Kai has to make yet another dramatic appearance. Uka basically bit off more than she can chew. You don’t start running a marathon if you’ve been a couch potato for years and years. No, you gotta take it slow and steady. Leading the class event for the festival? Bravo. Way to step out of your comfort zone. I certainly wouldn’t have done it at any point in my life. I’ also don’t care ‘m also happy to be the quiet introvert in the corner, but I digress. The point is that she’s getting a little too desperate. She’s less outwardly negative about herself these days, but her wild, reckless behavior here hints at the real truth: Uka still doesn’t think she get to stand next to Kai as if you need to be good enough to deserve love and friendship. Remember, this is the same girl who is just happy to breathe the same air as him.

Again, this is Kai we’re talking about. In Uka’s eyes, he’s shining, which I don’t get. Yeah, sure, everyone says he’s the hottest guy on campus. But he’s always wearing a frown. He always looks like he doesn’t want to be there. He always talks to people as if they’re wasting his time. What part of that is shining? So I don’t understand why Uka is mentally torturing herself over this guy. I don’t understand why Uka’s empowerment has to be centered around him. I wish I got a show about a shy girl emerging from her cocoon just for the sake of it and not because of some guy. Yeah, sure, she does it with the help of her friends and maybe falling in love is a nice bonus. But Kai feels too important to Uka’s development, and I dislike that. If he had to move away for family reasons, you can easily imagine Uka falling to pieces. You can easily imagine her undoing all the progress she’s made. Yes, she’s become bolder and stronger, but it’s built on shaky foundation.

Nevertheless, this is what we get, and it’s not like Honey Lemon Soda is going to magically evolve into a different, more empowering anime six episodes in. So what can I say? In the end, Kai tells his best bud that he takes back what he said about not being romantically interested in Uka. But when will he tell her that?

I was originally going to do one big post to recap my thoughts on the shows in the past week. I took a mental break to grieve my cat, but I still watched everything that came out. But as I was writing up my thoughts on Zenshu’s two recent episodes, it just got longer and longer and longer. So I decided it might as well be its own post. I can complain about the stupid isekai shows and romantic comedies at a later date.

So the creator of A Tale of Perishing is in this world as a really ugly bird, and she’s not the least bit happy about Natsuko changing the events of the original story. Nevertheless, she ominously warns that our heroine’s actions are all for naught, because Luke will still die in the end. Well, it ain’t called A Tale of Perishing for nothing. But let’s think about this for a moment. Sure, as a creator, it must suck when someone takes something you poured your heart into and make unwanted and unprompted changes. But what does this all mean in the long run, though? What happens if the timeline stays the same? Does the world persist into a future where no living being exist other than the void? Or does it reset? Do we replay the timeline again in perpetuity because that’s how the story goes? Other than the director’s emotional attachment to the original story, why does it matter if Natsuko changes the storyline? Is any of this real or is Natsuko suffering from a fever dream after eating spoiled clams? Is the bird-director-thing a real entity with real feelings? ‘Cause if she is, then surely this world would be a lot less appealing if the void takes over. Or is she a concept who exists to try and reinforce some nebulous canon. Shrug, who knows?

The other big development involves Natsuko’s first “ba-bum”¹. In other words, the first time her heart has ever skipped a beat. Is it love? The closed caption on Crunchyroll says it’s love, so maybe. Episode seven was all about people who had their “ba-bum” with Natsuko. First, it was a little girl in elementary school, then a boy in middle school, an aspiring director afterwards (gross), and then finally Naomi, her own boss? That’s why I hesitate to call it love. Some people fascinate us, and for these four folks, they were (and for some, still are) certainly drawn to her genius. And perhaps some of them did genuinely fall in romantic love with her. But I don’t want to think that the aspiring director or Naomi were or are in love with Natsuko. I don’t care if everyone is an adult now; get that age difference shit out of here. But what follows is Natsuko’s own personal quest to understand the “ba-bum,” because she’s never felt it before. This involves reenacting classic anime tropes much to her coworkers’ discomfort. And I can relate to that. Not so much the “ba-bum” part specifically — or even the reenactment stuff — but simply the fact that not all common experiences are available to everyone². Natsuko isn’t your average woman, so it stands to reason that her journey to love will be a bit different as well. But it does come — fortunately or unfortunately.

Luke finally accepts that he is in love with Natsuko, so he goes about confessing to her over… and over… and over. His logic is that since she’s not reacting to his confession, she might not have heard him. So, uh, let’s do it again. But that’s dumb. That’s child logic dumb. And that’s the thing: I can forgive the puppy love thing between kids, but this childish Luke doesn’t pair well with a grown-ass adult Natsuko. Plus, it’s hard for me to connect with the isekai characters, because I don’t know if they’re real or not. “Oh, but they have feelings and emotions like a real person!” Do they, though? Luke feels the need to scream “I love you” as he defeats the void. Does that seem like a real premeditated reaction during a potential crisis? Truthfully, after eight episodes, I’m still not really drawn to any of the isekai characters. They’re not that fleshed out or interesting to me. This is partly due to it being a briskly-paced TV series with half-hour episodes. There’s simply not a whole lot of room for world-building or character development. People like Luke are thus painted with broad strokes. The only truly interesting character here is Natsuko, so as a result, I said “unfortunately” in the previous paragraph, because I don’t feel the chemistry between her and Luke. I don’t see a deep connection here. He cooks for her, and she fights voids. It’s not as if they’ve had engaging, heart-to-heart conversations. Rather, it’s like falling in love with a cardboard cutout.

But somehow, a perplexed Natsuko ends up getting her first “ba-bum” when she gets to see Luke in all his heroic yet scantily-clad glory. They’re supposed to be on their “first date” (completely unbeknownst to her) when Luke spots a void on its way to attack the city. How serendipitous for him. None of his confessions were hitting the mark, so obviously, he needs to take action. He needs to make her fall in love with the hero, not just some dork who parrots “I love you” over and over. Still, Natsuko’s “ba-bum” feels expected; after all, this is why she got isekai’d in the first place: to understand first love and thus finish her first feature film. Moreover, he was always her favorite, so she has probably always been in love with Luke the character. When Natsuko met him for the first time at the start of the series, he was kind of a jerk. Nah, not kinda. Luke was a sexist asshole who treated Natsuko like refuse just because he couldn’t see the face behind all that hair. It’s that “never meet your heroes” thing they always warn you about. The character Luke and the actual Luke weren’t initially matching up, but as she spends time with him, those two Lukes are finally starting to overlap. The “ba-bum” perhaps confirms that she can feel the same way about this Luke.

Still, I’m not feeling it for reasons I’ve stated before. The funny thing is that Natsuko has “known” Luke for most of her life, i.e. ever since she first caught A Tale of Perishing in theaters. And since she consumes all content related to the movie, she knows him better than he knows himself. On the other hand, he has barely known her. It still feels like they’ve just met. Ultimately, Natsuko is not an ordinary heroine, so I think it’s a bit disappointing if she ends up with an ordinary love story. There’s still a way out. According to Natsuko, Luke falls into despair when he loses the ones he loves. She’s part of those “ones” now. We can still preserve the ending and Natsuko doesn’t even have to die. She can simply go back to the real world. But while this depressing turn of events might “save” A Tale of Perishing, does it fit the tone of Zenshu, the actual anime that we’re watching? I don’t necessarily want a sad ending either³. Furthermore, the director has already told her story. Her story is a critically-panned film that even the audiences (minus Natsuko) didn’t like. And now Natsuko gets to pen a different one — a fanfic basically. Nevertheless, it’s boring to me if it ends up with the quirky heroine getting her prince charming. You can watch that story everywhere else. Why do it again here?

¹I’m going off of the dubbed script, because that’s what I’m watching. I know it’s different in the Japanese dub, but I like the performance of Natsuko’s English VA so I’m sticking with it.

²I don’t personally get that feeling of “frisson” when I listen to music, so I simply don’t. People are always shocked when I tell them that I do not listen to music in my free time nor have I ever been to a concert. Yeah, there are songs that I like and songs that I don’t like. I can tell if a movie or a game has a great soundtrack. At the same time, however, I’ve never felt the urge to put a playlist on loop. It doesn’t do anything for me. This is also me and alcohol. No, I’m not one of those Asians who can’t drink. Rather, the feeling of being drunk is not remotely appealing to me. Nevertheless, you could argue that the discovery of alcohol shaped human civilization.

³I initially wanted Natsuko to learn about love without falling in love herself, if that makes sense. Again, most of the popular love stories out there aren’t remotely realistic, so you can’t convince me that Natsuko needs to experience love first hand in order to make her movie.