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*spoilers for Gundam Build Metaverse, as if anyone actually cares about the plot for this one*

Gundam Build Metaverse is the latest 3 episode Oobari Gundam anime, and much like Gundam Breaker Battlogue, it’s stupid and terrible. It’s selling the Metaverse as something great for Gunpla and as if it’s any kind of positive thing to speak of, rather than a predatory version of VR with 796% more microtransactions and crypto peddling. It does all this by showing previous main characters from other Gundam Build shows all happy while the kids play with their toys in this Metaverse which is hardly a leap forward from the ... VR diving from Divers. It’s at least a little disturbing, even insidious, all for a concept that stopped being relevant several months before this show aired.

Discarding the ethics of peddling the metaverse, this show is, again, fucking shit. It’s entertaining after the first episode, but it’s a show whose plot and character motivations are as slapdash as they come. It feels as if at least a full episode is missing on establishing how our characters even get to the point where the plot starts to happen, as it just cuts to that in a post-credits scene after a full episode of just establishing happy fun times. Suddenly we’re watching the main antagonist beat the main protagonist’s mentor so bad it reveals her true identity.

Let’s slope down a bit, though? Who are these people and why should we care? The latter part can’t properly be answered, but the former is much easier. Rio Hojou is a kid who is super positive and has a passion for Gunpla building, and there’s hardly much else. He’s whatever. His Gunpla tutor and secret Metaverse mentor, Seria, is a cute, silver-haired store clerk who is nice but aloof. Not much to her either aside from having shit taste by binging ZZ all night. Main thing about her is that she feels so much guilt for her sister resenting her that she quit Gunpla for a while and had to create an alt so that people didn’t recognize her. Said sister, Mascarilla, is still bitter at not being able to rise to her sister’s level and at her sister throwing her dreams at championship away for her as she views that as mockery and pity. This is established in one quick flashback scene, with no proper build-up to this antagonist’s dynamic with Seria, or even her damn existence. She just shows up out of nowhere and fails miserably at getting the audience to be invested in this threadbare plot starring planks of wood. She also is largely composed of generic villain quotes throughout the majority of her fight against Rio, and her emotional breakdown at the end is entirely unearned.

What doesn’t help is how the anime tries to balance this plot with exploring the Gundam Metaverse setting and slamming the returning cast of previous Build entries together like action figures. Riku, the MC from Build Divers, recruits Rio to compete against two of Riku’s friends, Ayame and Momoka. Hiroto, the MC of Divers Re:Rise assists Rio with a smile on his face and brawls against the brash MC of Build Fighters Try, Seikai. Meijin Tatsuya Yuuki from Build Fighters literally crashes a tournament and runs into that show’s protagonists, Sei and Reiji and they battle again. If the show had just been legacy characters coming together to fight it out in a Battlogue, this show would have been way better. It still would be creepy that it’s pulling the Metaverse bullshit, but it wouldn’t have to half-ass some cheap plot with Rio and Mascarilla. It instead would just be more fanservice in an AU timeline literally built upon Gundam fanservice. It’s nice to see Hiroto be more positive considering he started out so gloomy and aloof in much of Divers Re:Rise, but seeing that and him having a new, dark Core Gundam isn’t enough when clearly his fight and these other fights all have to play second fiddle to a poorly cobbled together excuse for a plot. Said plot also just ends with no real resolution before giving us a post-credits scene of Rio and Seria preparing to battle so that one of them can face Mascarilla in the finals of a new tournament.

It’s not like the show is well-animated, either. Episodes 1 and 2 only have remotely decent bits when a Gunpla is starting up and we get close-ups to the heads shining with a glimmer of sliding light. The artwork on the gunpla for the first two episodes is shockingly flat compared to any other 2D Gundam anime of the past several decades. The animation is also generally limp and floaty, even with some of the beams. Oftentimes, characters and their mechs just stay frozen in the air for absurdly long periods of time until the plot dictates they can move or until we cut away to something else entirely, and it becomes an actually noticeable thing in this show, unlike any other mecha anime. Only episode 3 gets the fluid animation and detailed mecha shading to make this show even remotely visually appealing. Much of the interiors are ugly hyper-realistic texture hell, and the new character designs can be vibrant but feel kind of hit or miss with their Metaverse designs, while Seria and the buff manager Jim look neat IRL. At least we have people rocking Haro heads in the metaverse? Oh, and the new mechs generally look cool, at least when they’re drawn well in episode 3 and some select bits of the other episodes.

As for the music, it’s pretty solid after episode 1. Yuuki Hayashi returns after composing the tracks for Build Fighters and Fighters Try, tastefully reusing past themes and incorporating some nice new tunes for this show. Nothing quite tops the best of the Fighters shows or Re:Rise, but there is some neat stuff here. The BACK-ON OP, “Hikari no Kaze” is an alright, happy and relaxed techno rock song, and the ED, “Days of Birth” by LINKL PLANET, is to be skipped every time outside of the cute visuals.

The Gundam Build timeline has always been a glorified toy commercial, and technically a game commercial with Gundam: Breaker Battlogue. This is not a secret by any means. However, on top of model kits being generally less sketchy than the now barely relevant metaverse, the better Build entries provided new characters worth caring about because they are engaging to follow in stories that aren’t half-assed. The most entertainment to be expected from Gundam Build Metaverse for most people is in pointing and clapping at both the references (like the Barbataurus from Breaker Battlogue) and returning favorites guiding our new characters while battling it out. That and the action animation in episode 3. Fellow Gunpla builders also might get a slight kick out of the surprising level of detail episode 1 goes into showing how people build and even touch-up kits compared to some other Build entries. Otherwise, this anime is either boring slop or a laughable mess.

Also, a bunch of Metaverse Gunpla prototypes just got leaked, so have fun with that knowledge. Hopefully the Core Gundam II hits store shelves soon.

Anyone ever watch a show specifically for one character? Everyone has their own reason for watching something, no matter how odd or specific, no matter how the thing they decide to watch looks like it’ll turn out. Sometimes they just like the vibe and wanna experience that all the way. Sometimes they just really like a song or one of their favorite artists is doing the OP or ED. Sometimes clips have convinced you that a show has baller fights, or in the case of this show, clips have demonstrated one character who sells the anime alone.

It’s not the sister. In fact, let’s get this ... out of the way now, the titular one-hit-kill sister, Maya, is gonna be a make or break aspect of the show, as other aspects and faults will often be supported or hindered by the experience of watching a brocon constantly smother and even sexually harass her little brother. That’s certainly a fetish some people are down for, but perhaps the main reason this show is even worse-received than its contemporaries this season (many of which seem significantly more poorly-produced and include fucking Smartphone S2) is the fact that Maya is insufferable most of the time. They can range from kind of annoying to disturbing and even manipulative, though of course that means we’re supposed to find it gut-busting (or even nut-busting).

There are some decent bonding moments and snippets of conflict between her and actual MC Asahi. The weakling’s desire for independence and his need to grow stronger both for his own sense of self-improvement and his own sake given the dangerous world is combined with how adventurers caught falsifying their rank are dealt with, is an alright source of character development. Asahi’s a bumbling little squirt annoyed at how unlike basically every other isekai MC this season alone, his base stats are equivalent to how original world’s self without any crazy OP powers, therefore making it harder to do anything, including evading Maya’s advances until episode 4.

Still, slowly but surely, he trains (which we should see a bit more of), he acquires powers, and improves his evasion and techniques to the point of being able to make up for his weaknesses. He may not recognize it, perhaps many viewers don’t either, but Maya does, which helps elevate both characters up a little while solidifying perhaps more character development than some isekai consumers (and haters) are used to from one of these. She herself has some surprising moments of actually sincerely looking out for him in the shadows, even if it’s always preceded by or followed up by a gaudy sexual or romantic advance in the same episode.

Otherwise, this show has a comfortable enough vibe. Tensions are minimal but they get played upon to at least a perfunctory degree, and there is some decent comedy to be had with Asahi’s bullshitting or some of the character dynamics. The latter aspect is mainly found in the borderline sitcom arch nemesis who carries the show on its back, Kilmaria. She’s a blood knight demon, among the demon lord’s top guys, and after being saved by Asahi despite tryna fight him on the grounds of his reputation, she quickly develops her own dynamics with the main duo, evolving them over time. She goes from casually hanging out with and mildly looking down on Asahi as a sort of little brother, to someone who cares about him more and more with each passing adventure. She goes from seeing Maya as this insufferable and hypocritical rival to one she eventually starts getting along with and making fun of. Perhaps her best showing is in episode 5 where, in a human disguise, she starts being excited by all the little things in a human society like horses, bridges, and the weak masses before rubbing Asahi the wrong way about how weak and inconvenient being a human must be.

Of course, the show never hard commits to any conflicts it dredges up, save for one example that introduces one of Asahi’s eventual harem members he builds up over time, but the inklings are welcome enough and some of them get just enough exploration without making the show actively need to take itself seriously. The other characters in this show are…fine? Sophie the healer is kind of annoying as an overzealous Asahi-worshiper, Tanya’s the quest-giver and total fangirl who does get an ok story with her little brother who also looks up to Asahi. Gloria’s a fun meathead girl who eventually swaps out her suspicions towards Asahi for a dorkaholic romantic interest in him that her servant, Kuon, attempts to wingman. She’s probably the second or third most fun girl in the show. Some of the other side characters like the eventually washed-up adventurer Siegfriend are amusing as well, especially when the source of his party’s humiliating downfall unknowingly greets him again.

The cast is honestly on the upper half of isekai rosters in all honesty, and you bet that Kilmaria makes at least some of them bounce off her. Even without her elevating everything for most of the show, eventually enough of them come into their own to help make the cast surprisingly decent on the whole. They’re actually kinda funny, with nearly every episode having at least one funny moment and a few bits actually being kinda hilarious. It’s also oddly nice how much they back each other up, defending each other’s character in the face of whoever’s goading, intimidating, or otherwise confronting them. It adds a sense of camaraderie to everyone that can’t quite be found in a lot of this show’s contemporaries, even Slime, and that series actively has a community being built from the ground up. The ways everyone comes together in the finale are rather fun and rewarding to see as a result of everything.

Another aspect of the show that’s better than it realistically should be is the visuals. For the most part, it looks pretty subpar. It’s Gekkou’s first release as a studio, and a directorial debut by Hiroaki Takagi, and it could be worse on either front. Sometimes it absolutely is. The show’s production is so jittery that while 60-95% of the time it looks about what you’d expect from your average seasonal, sometimes it’ll either dip into astonishingly terrible territory or bust out a couple of surprisingly decent cuts. There are plenty of animation errors even outside of the freakish drops in quality, like with the dragon in Kilmaria’s Chinese dress disappearing a lot. The action rarely gets past just ok, even when we get an oddly fine burst of sakuga. The volleyball scene in the beach episode (episode 11) is an atrocious minute of slideshows and the fanservice can range from perfunctory to downright crudely drawn, so just be glad this isn’t classified as an ecchi because as mediocre it is as an action show, it would fare even worse as an ecchi title.

The outlines tend to not stick out, but sometimes the show thickens them as part of a gag of for more climactic close-ups. The show also does play around with aspect ratios every now and then, like letterboxing in the first half of episode 1 and 4:3 in the flashback sequence that kicks off episode 7. The characters also deform into charmingly drawn chibis for a bunch of silly gags and spats, usually Maya and Kilmaria who also carry the brunt of the relatively amusing facial expressions. They do try to spice things up occasionally, and that is welcome. It honestly feels like there’s enough potential in the visuals that if it were made to simmer for another 3 months, the end result could have wound up being legitimately above average for a seasonal, let alone an isekai. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

A more consistently mediocre aspect of the series is its music. The ED, Mukyuu Platonic” by VALIS is an oddly decent electropop song with hints of melancholy in it, which makes it better than both OPs. The music is also fairly forgettable outside of Maya’s theme and Kilmaria’s theme which get spammed basically every episode. There is an occasionally decent track once in a while like when Kilmaria tries to get Asahi to abandon Maya and become a demon, and there’s an alright insert in episode 11 that gives the siblings some time alone to discuss how far they’ve come in a mostly pleasant scene. However, that doesn’t really elevate the music much, as it’s still incredibly whatever across the board.

One Turn Kill Neesan can be a pleasant, goofy ride that revels in its own absurdity while boasting more character development and fun dynamics than one might expect. It’s also got brocon shit that will either elevate the experience for you if you’re into it, or make the show a trudge to sit through for the good bits if you aren’t. It’s very annoying and kind of embarrassing, but it is kinda cute and fun, especially whenever characters are being dorks or having each other’s back. Still, there’s enough here to elevate the show well above the likes of Smartphone, Master of Ragnarok, Arifureta, or probably half of the isekai you’re watching this season (because Kamikatsu looks like it was edited by YouTubers [derogatory] and animated by an outsourced studio in another country). In terms of an isekai you can just sit back and watch, you can do a lot worse. Name another isekai that has Kilmaria in it.

Also, this is a non-Sunrise show, non-mecha seasonal at that, which features a relatively acceptable mecha transformation sequence...in 2D. Wasted as it is on a last-minute outing and one-shot, that fact alone is borderline commendable for one of these, especially considering it’s an isekai.

“It gets better”

Such a phrase is commonly reserved for multi-season (sometimes action) comedies which take a few episodes or most of a season to experiment before hitting their stride, as well as long-running shounens which tend to explode at a certain arc. That being said, it’s also often used for shows that leave a mediocre or abysmal first impression before allegedly picking up in quality according to a consensus. Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Gundam ZZ, and Symphogear are somewhat popular examples. Whether or not such an argument is convincing or even true is obviously down to preference and case by case basis, but personally, ... Fuufu Ijou is a rare example of this actually being applicable.

There are two tremendous barriers to entry with this series which rear their heads immediately. Firstly, the backdrop is by far the most questionable element of the series. The series is predicated on a marriage practical, a course where everyone in high school is assigned a partner of the opposite sex to live with in a dorm. Cameras survey their every move, they earn and lose points based on how well they gel with each other as a couple, and the top 10 couples are encouraged to “divorce” so that they can be paired up. Also, this is a mandatory, graded course. The logistical, ethical, and consistency-based issues with this entire idea are numerous. It’s an albatross around the series’ neck, a shadow that underscores just about every single interaction in the show. No matter how cute the romance is, no matter how much character chemistry the main couple and supporting cast all have, you have to really get past and ignore said backdrop for it to not have a dramatic effect on your enjoyment.

Even if you can put up with all that and not be immediately driven away from the series, the first episode has other issues beyond introducing the broken marriage practical concept. The pacing and editing are rather rough and abrupt, only ceasing to be an issue around episode 3 or 4, barring the occasional abrupt end to some episodes throughout. Both are virginal gamer dweeb MC (Jirou) and our brash, confrontational gyaru MC (Akari) are a bit difficult to put up with at first, especially together. The typical tropes one would expect like an even more bitterly virginal 4th wall breaker best friend and the typical childhood friend with a crush on the MC are all unflatteringly tossed in, the former of which starts off incredibly annoying. There really is a lot going against the show from the start.

In spite of everything, Fuufu Ijou quickly manages to wind up as a cute wish fulfillment romcom with a surprising amount of fun and skill. Jirou and Akari quickly develop a fun chemistry together as the show transitions from the more cliche conflicts to surprisingly touchy and insecurity-driven ones even as early as episode 4. Jirou doesn’t expect anyone to love some horny teen loser like him who would just bring a popular girl like Akari down, while Akari feels over reliant on others and her self-esteem is absurdly fragile. Their insecurities and unwillingness to reconcile with their budding feelings for each other vs their feelings for their crushes are mostly nice to see, even if there are a few hijinks that probably go a bit too far and could use some rearranging. Even the annoying meta humor provided by best friend Kamo has its fun moments, with uproarious and dedicated references to Duel Monsters, and the fact that his fucking name hasn’t been properly introduced even 4 episodes in. There’s always a wrinkle to the usual or annoying ideas past episode 1 to help cushion the blow or surprise the viewer as things quickly tighten up and become more interesting. The second half has this in spades, especially as the admittedly gaudy vocalizing of what they expect from teenage boys and girls to typically feel and do further informs their insecurities. It does make it all the more frustrating just how close to saying how their insecurities and current issues are a product of their developing feelings for each other, but there are some engaging payoffs to everything by the end, even though it’s only adapting a fraction of the material.

The show isn’t immune from the aforementioned pains. While Jirou’s self-deprecating virgin monologues become more bearable, they’re still a little too frequent. Furthermore, the level of monologuing in this show is still annoying, and while it is refreshing when things go a little faster or differently than expected, there’s still some anxiety present given how the show does sometimes just go for the annoying idea flat out. The show is also too overbearingly blunt, thanks in no small part to the misunderstandings and an unceasing swarm of monologues, even if the resolutions and progression can sometimes be worth it. Part of why might be the exploration of both Jirou and Akari's personal insecurities, which drives practically every action and interaction of theirs. Plus, as bad as the backdrop is, it adds a sense of both inevitability and uncertainty to their destination, regardless of who they end up with, should they be with anyone at all by the time they swap partners. Of course, as this anime adapts what is projected to be about ⅓ of the manga, only so much progress can be made, but the partial journey is more engaging than expected.

Another reason the show goes down smoother than expected is how the visuals help the material along. As bright as it is, the light pastel color pallet really does suit the show, and given how the backgrounds have the same aesthetic sensibilities as the character artwork, everything just compliments each other. It’s not like, say, Arifureta (the 2nd season of which Studio MOTHER helped out with before the release of this show) where absurdly bright character colors are contrasted with regular greens and browns to make the eye-searing colors stick out far too much. Fuufu Ijou actually has a uniform aesthetic, and a distinct one at that. There are also some neat visual gags and edits that punctuate some of the comedy, especially with the Final Fantasy and Duel Monsters references. The first scene of episode 1 certainly has dodgy CGI, but the show doesn’t employ that much past that, even with the buildings and interiors. Given how most modern anime look, that fact was absolutely refreshing. Additionally, outside of episodes 9-11 which make up one singular arc and defined timeframe, every episode sees Akari with a new, distinct set of nails. The show definitely has its wonky and flat artwork moments, the editing can be a little rough, and there are scenes that could stand to have a little bit more actual animation in them. Even still, for a modest production, there’s certainly some real charm given to the look of the show and its fun little details and intricacies. While director Junichi Yamamoto had only directed small music videos, OVAs, and smaller scale ONAs/ONA series, he and director Takao Kato did a generally solid job.

That being said, the music was honestly the least engaging part. There are a few decently evocative and dramatic tracks, but otherwise, Yuri Habuka’s OST kind of just exists. It does what it needs to do, occasionally does it well enough to slightly stand out, and leaves as if it was never there in the first place. The super cutesy Liyuu OP “TRUE FOOL LOVE” isn’t personally appealing either, and the main ED, “Stuck on you” by Nowlu is a decent smooth nocturnal pop song, it’s her ep 12 ED, “Shallow” that sticks out as a particularly pleasant song. There isn’t a whole lot else to say about the show’s music, unfortunately. It’s competent, but there’s little in the way of anything memorable.

In spite of everything going against it, Fuufu Ijou is a decent and likable wish-fulfillment romcom It’s frustrating that the backdrop and incessant monologuing hold it back because this show is almost legitimately good. It may be tropey as hell, but when it’s executed with just enough finesse and with enough surprises and moments of character exploration, is that really so much of a bad thing? The fanservice may be both too constant yet too tame for the most part as well, but rarely is it particularly distracting given it’s done within the headspace of the male MC. While it’s marketed as a seinen, it’s not a bad romance for teenagers to be introduced to and even slightly challenged by regarding certain kinds of social expectations they place upon each other. Still, if you’re even remotely well-versed in romcoms and love triangle stories, and your standards for them are a bit stringent, this is a show you can take or leave. If you’re craving for more, you might find something worth your while, provided you can get past some of its awkward rough edges. It probably won’t be anyone’s anime of the year or anything, but it’s a little nicer and more interesting than one might expect.

*spoilers for RWBY Volume 1 and Hyousetsu Teikoku, TL;DR for this behemoth at the bottom*

Before dissecting what makes RWBY: Ice Queendom such a nightmare, there’s one thing that has to be discussed, and it’s that for both us fans who stuck with the original series since the early days, and the team behind the franchise’s inception, this show is a dream come true. When Monty Oum created RWBY and got his friends (Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross) to bring his ideas to script in the early 2010s, he provided several anime such as Cowboy Bebop as homework so his friends could get more acquainted with ... his ideas and vision. RWBY was always inspired by anime as well as anime-like games such as Blazblue, with entire scenes and fighting styles being lifted from those aforementioned titles, among others over the years.

When the four main girls of the series got to be part of Blazblue Cross Tag Battle in 2019, one can only imagine how happy those friends must have been, keeping the series and Monty’s ideas afloat 4 years after his tragic and sudden passing in 2015. Likewise, even with the troubled production that was no-doubt hampered by COVID-19, RWBY becoming the very thing that inspired it should be seen as a testament to how far the dream of a man and his friends has gone.

Furthermore, fans of the show have needed something to lift their spirits up in years, and no, the Cross Tag inclusion doesn’t count given its own controversies regarding the handling of the RWBY cast (among other things). RWBY has long since abandoned its school roots in favor of an adventure series, and most of the later volumes have justifiably received large amounts of flak compared to the early entries. Adding how COVID-19 impacted the production of Volume 8 and how for the first time, a volume had to be split in half and the release of the next volume would be delayed by an entire year. After the rough road fans have endured following Monty’s death and the myriad controversies that have plagued both the show and the company that produced it (Rooster Teeth), this show’s announcement must have seemed like a beacon of hope.

Unfortunately, we had to learn that damn near ¼ of the show would be spent recapping the first volume of the show before launching into its own original arc.

Let’s not play fools, RWBY is an awful, broken murikanime that has lost any of the life and charm that kept it afloat during its early days. None of the writers, not even Monty, have ever had a good grasp on the characters or setting they wrote, with retcon after retcon, character shift after character shift, and the myriad of ridiculous time-wasters and other baffling decisions that made Volumes 5-8 so especially galling. Even back in Volumes 1-3, most of the aforementioned issues were apparent. Hell, the fact that the OG writers decided to add an overarching subplot about human on faunus racism leading to a civil rights turned extreme terrorist group into their pseudo-magical school adventure fantasy and that it was reportedly inspired by their understanding of the Black Panthers, should set a military base worth of alarm bells inside your head. Amidst all the sloppy, amateurish high-school sitcom-esque writing where character arcs are horribly clunky at the best of times, we have racism and bigotry to sloppily contend with.

It’s important to highlight much of what makes RWBY so bad even from the early outset in order to show where Ice Queendom stacks up in comparison, and how it somehow manages to be even worse. However, one must start with the obvious aspects this show improves upon. Where Volume 1 started with Ruby busting a shop robbery ala Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Ice Queendom decides to flesh out Ruby and her family on the day of the event, providing some extra pathos and grounding to her character while also taking the time to do the same for Weiss regarding the White Trailer. To hype up the then-upcoming main series back in 2013, four trailers were produced to focus on one of the main leads each, and given that Ice Queendom focuses more on Weiss, focusing on her trailer and expanding upon it was a smart decision. Furthermore, the original series pretty much only has Blake and Weiss have any discussion on the White Fang nonsense and how it has led to Weiss and her family company’s racism towards the faunus, whereas Ice Queendom lets Ruby and especially Yang weigh in more on those topics. As such, the girls have more agency on one of the main sources of the group’s many fractures throughout their early escapades at Beacon Academy. Sure, Volume 1 should have had more of said pathos and agency to begin with, but that does mean that both in subtle and more overt ways, Ice Queendom improves on a few of the main show’s shortcomings.

Alas, the show somehow manages to be so much worse than what it covers and spins off from. Let’s start with how the show’s bigger issues affect the V1 material before delving into how the new content suffers from similar problems.

The show has some of the worst pacing in an anime, period. Hell, Sword Art Online, a show infamous for its first arc being time-skips and rushed ideas galore, has better pacing. Volume 1 was almost 2 hours long, though Ice Queendom opts to skip most of one infamously bad arc, so the 67 minutes that make up IQ’s first 3 episodes cover around 90 minutes worth of material. However, it’s already been established that they also cover the White Trailer. Ideally, given that the show often combined scenes together, the show would be able to cover what it’s working within a reasonable amount of time, but there were two gigantic wrenches thrown into the cogs of the machine.

For some ungodly reason, episode 1 decided to cover and expand upon the Black Trailer where Blake defects from the White Fang, even though the show provides more than enough information on why she left that sinking ship of ever-worsening morality to restart her life in a more honest way at Beacon. They covered this in episode 1, when, if there was any place to put it, episode 3 would fit the bill as that is where the White Fang and racism ideas in V1 are brought to the forefront. That’s about 5 minutes of material that could have been spaced out better to set up the big forest test the group must pass in ep 2 to establish teams, so that ep 2 can have more time to breathe when adapting that mini-arc. As it stands, several explanations for why characters do the things they do such as being forced to permanently team up upon eye-contact are tossed aside. Sure, they added one scene to explain how Weiss and Ruby wound up encountering a giant nevermore, but everything else suffers as the pacing has to tighten up far too much for comfort.

Episode 3 has it so much worse with its big wrench. In episode 2, they introduce an original character looking for an anime original type of grimm known as nightmare grimm, and both Weiss and Jaune find themselves affected entirely offscreen with weird, mysterious markings showing up on them out of nowhere. Cue the middle ⅓ of episode 3 being original material of Jaune being trapped in a nightmare by said grimm and the new huntress sending Jaune’s teammates to help him. Even discounting how only close friends can enter even though Jaune’s team does after only a day of them teaming up and having barely any time shown getting to know each other, this entire sequence is a rushed disaster focusing on Jaune’s insecurities regarding his disappointment, which have two tremendous issues of their own. Firstly, given that Jaune’s arc with his bully was skipped and only the parts of him getting whooped by the man and later having a talk with his teammate Pyrrha were kept, this means that the explanation of him forging transcripts to sneak into the elite Beacon Academy were skipped. A core aspect of his insecurities which explains why he is unusually weak at combat and ignorant about basic mechanics such as a person’s aura, is skipped in favor of general shittalking by suits of armor before he is quickly rescued. Secondly, the effects of this original scene being inserted here end up resulting in the stories covered in the first and last ⅓ of the episode being utterly eviscerated.

Weiss has two problems the show tackles relating to her stubbornness and lack of respect, those being her refusal to accept Ruby as her team leader, and her racism towards faunus such as Blake (who she didn’t know was one until ¾ into episode 3). The first part of episode 3 has her finding herself increasingly annoyed at Ruby’s behavior before snapping at her, leading to the two getting talks from their professors on their weaknesses and lack of faith before they make up at the end of what was a single episode of RWBY Vol 1. Originally, we saw how Weiss' ideas for the group's living room arrangements got vetoed the morning before class began proper, as well as Ruby’s myriad antics within the classroom which led to Weiss getting angry at Ruby and deeming her childish and incompetent even if she was still in the wrong for being so confrontational so quickly. Here, we only see Ruby dozing off in class and backseating Weiss during her demonstration as opposed to the many times Ruby goofed off. Combined with how oddly warm Weiss was at the start of the episode, now it just feels like Weiss is almost entirely in the wrong, so the scenes with the professors talking to them work so much less and the complicated reigniting of the conflict given both girls’ issues comes off as lesser if not senseless. As such, when Weiss gives Ruby a specific cup of coffee –that she asked RWBY about in V1 instead of somehow already knowing here– after seeing Ruby having passed out during intensive night studying, there’s even less impact than before.

The last ⅓ of ep 3 has the arrival of stowaway Sun and the fallout of several dust robberies trigger the White Fang conversation and heated arguments regarding Weiss’ racism, her baggage, and Blake’s baggage before she snaps and outs herself as a (former) member and dips. The bulk of the material with the girls is actually improved, but then we get the climax. In Volume 1, Roman Torchwick, the criminal boss from early in the volume, reappears with his White Fang members (for reasons that don't get explained here or make sense when they do in Volume 2) to rob a Schnee Dust cargo boat before Blake, Sun, Ruby, and their new friend Penny all arrive to fight him, in that order, after Weiss and Yang discuss Blake’s reveal and fleeing. Not only is the ensuing spectacle the best fight in Volume 1, Ruby re-encountering Roman provided some semblance of natural conclusion, and Penny forcing him and his team back after revealing her OP robot powers was a fun cherry on top that explains why he did, in fact, have to retreat. Ice Queendom skips EVERYTHING in favor of cutting to Penny having swords and rocket feet out of nowhere with Roman retreating from what we didn’t get to see, completely deflating any and all tension and spectacle leading to everyone’s reunion. Perhaps if Jaune’s nightmare plot was removed from ep 3 and turned into its own episode immediately after the V1 material ends, there would have been enough time to give these other parts of the episode the time they desperately deserved and allow for things to breathe and make sense…well, more sense than they do now, given that RWBY Volume 1 is still broken. Maybe if we had 4 episodes instead of 3, many of the problems would be alleviated, but given how troubled production was, perhaps that wouldn't have turned out well, either.

Alas, one can make the argument of "ofc the recap content is bad, it's adapting RWBY, the original stuff is probably better". Yeah, it is, inherently. This arc isn’t horribly rushed. However, most other issues remain, but transitioning into why they exist in the current arc and what said arc is even meant to be about requires acknowledging one more weakness that both V1 and Ice Queendom’s 3rd episode share. Even though Blake was the most active in confronting Weiss’ racist views before running away, it’s only through Ruby and especially Yang that Weiss starts to reconsider by the time everyone reunites with Blake. Perhaps having Weiss stumble upon the battle with Roman and the supposed White Fang or something could have been the final push she needed to reevaluate both Blake and the faunus at large, but as it stands, she only gets the ball rolling and gets everyone to look for her and make up. In the main series, this is how Volume 1 ends before Volume 2 has her Kirito it up by having already developed offscreen so she can immediately be a more pleasant person. The majority of Ice Queendom is an interquel theoretically designed to fix this issue by further delving into her headspace and using V1’s content as a jumping off point to begin showcasing that offscreen development to bridge the gap between the two volumes. In fact, the finale is dedicated to focusing on early Volume 2 content, further lending credence to this idea.

To get to the meat of the issues with how they handled said idea, let’s not dwell in matters like how the mechanics of the nightmare grimm world things Jaune and Weiss have in terms of how the characters are affected by the victim’s perception are inconsistent between the two. Nor should we focus too hard on how nothing about new character Shion’s semblance and overall powers make sense in the context of RWBY’s world. RWBY’s worldbuilding is notoriously broken, with contradictions and retcons all over the place, and the real issues start with the mere conceit of how things here are meant to play out. If you haven’t seen RWBY Volume 1 it can be easy to conclude that neither Weiss nor Jaune should have had anyone close enough to rescue them at the point in which they’re trapped. This is because Ice Queendom completely skips over the throwaway line explaining that there was a time skip of a few weeks between the Ruby and Weiss leadership spat story and the rest of what episode 3 covers. As such, the mere conceit only works on any level if you assume that the V1 continuity and Ice Queendom’s continuity are the same despite all the subtle and less than subtle alterations. Better make your peace with it pronto cuz while Jaune’s nightmare lasts 8 minutes, Weiss’ lasts for 8 whole episodes. Both have plenty of baggage to unpack but since they cut out what would have substantiated Jaune’s deal for the sake of brevity, we’re gonna spend an eternity with Weiss’ dream. In an instant, the show goes from being incomprehensibly fast-paced to being unbearably slow, and the fact that neither Yang nor Blake jump in immediately like Ruby did so that we can drag things out longer doesn’t leave a positive impression of the arc’s start.

The dreams also muddle what is the real person trapped in the dream and what is a predatory version of them and their insecurities about both themselves and others created by the grimm. The idea does explain why Weiss seems out of character in her dream after a while, and the dream settings do allow for some neat main series callbacks while theoretically allowing for more insight into their character with their interpretations of characters invading them and how those who do are altered to Weiss’ perception of them. It does get rather baffling when Team JNPR gets thrown into the mix, especially with Weiss’ portrayal of Pyrrha. Said depiction doesn’t work on a textual level given she’s in the dummy jail with the rest of her team despite being idolized by Weiss, and even on a subtextual level of Pyrrha being this girl alone on her figurative pedestal and how she sings “Mirror Mirror” to convey it…why would Weiss know that? Even going the route of projection given that Weiss has sung songs for her family in the main series, it’s still such a threadbare connection that even discounting how it can only come about with knowledge of later mainline RWBY volumes, it's such a threadbare, tenuous reach that the non-sequitur event is perhaps the most puzzling moment in the show. Hell, even the later potential explanation of Weiss wanting to keep the visages of people she cares about trapped doesn’t work because she barely got to interact with anyone in Team JNPR barring like 2 minor conversations with Pyrrha and Jaune. What, did they do all of that OFFSCREEN, like in REGULAR RWBY?! Fuck off with that shit!

Needless to say, even though the bullshit per minute quota is mildly lowered for the big arc compared to the V1 retread, the show’s still dumb. It does eventually try to develop Ruby’s insecurities about being a leader. The execution is…fine, minus how Ruby doesn’t even remotely feel like any version of her from the show at this point as she feels more and more like a stock heroine who cries a lot. A lot of her early V1 quirks like her asocial nature and love of weapons also had to get dropped given how late V1 practically rewrote her entirely. Everyone else also feels like facsimiles of their main series counterparts, like Blake being ridiculously cold at first before being just there, Ruby feeling a lot less homely in her childlike manner of optimism, and Weiss being weirdly too warm and sanitized compared to her V1 self.

Furthermore, exploring Weiss’s family baggage in a weird, loosely canon interquel is a bit of a tricky prospect, as we aren't allowed to learn anything important that won't come up in later volumes otherwise it would have to and thus make no sense here, but it can still allow the others to get to know her more. Unfortunately, they hardly expand on any of Team JNPR, that group’s dynamics, or how they interact with members of Team RWBY considering they didn’t get to do that all too much until Volume 4, and with only Jaune being able to tag along halfway through the show, the rest don’t get to do anything. It’s especially annoying considering Weiss idolized Pyrrha and empathizes with the idea of being isolated via being put on a pedestal, yet they never get to interact past episode 2, which, again, is volume 1 content. The fact that a non-speaking dream version of Pyrrha has more involvement than the girl herself is criminal.

Neither the old writers, nor script writer and series composition writer Tow Ubukata have any understanding of RWBY’s cast and it shows with how utterly stilted and devoid of any semblance of expressiveness or banter almost everyone is 99% of the time. It honestly makes the entire excursion feel like a waste of time, as there’s almost no real expansion of any character or dynamic, and it doesn’t even remotely develop Weiss, either. Weiss doesn’t actively grow or struggle with curbing her family-ingrained bigotry, she gets trapped and warped into a muddle perversion of herself who has to be rescued. Any insight that can be gleamed is utterly minimal, and once the arc is over, it’s clear that the dream story has just been one useless cul-de-sac not actually progressing anything. If it weren’t for episode 12 FINALLY progressing that shit for the first time by having Weiss properly make up with Blake after the final V1 storyline and later sit with Sun while her friends question if she’d be comfortable doing that, the entire purpose of the show would have been completely and utterly wasted! Now it’s just mostly wasted…

Speaking of the arc’s conclusion, the latter half just devolves into contrivances galore. Critical explanations are overlay delayed, important items to keep the characters safe and alive crop up outta nowhere for the sake of plot armor, and apparently the Jaune nightmare grimm that was imprisoned wasn’t even taken out for over a day for literally no reason other than because the writers needed it to be given to Blake as a last-ditch cop-out effort to help Weiss and make Blake the final boss in the “Weiss Struggles To Not Be Douchebag Hitler” show. It’s nothing short of maddening. By this point, a lot of critical pieces of information the show previously used as tension against the characters and their lives just get discarded for no good reason other than “the plot said so”, as is tradition for RWBY.

Honestly, even if the show was consistently well-animated, which it isn’t, it’s hard to say that Ice Queendom would be any fun. While the characters were jittery and not well-established for the most part, what made the early volumes of RWBY fun was the comedy and the few character dynamics that did naturally exist and result in banter. The show wasn’t exactly batting a thousand regarding its comedy, but there are some legitimately funny moments here and there thanks to how characters like Nora were presented, and how the show took the time to show its cast chilling, throwing pillows, getting quippy and smarmy, etc. Ice Queendom is just so unbearably dry that all of that gets thrown out the window, so the more in-your-face wildcards like Nora get toned down to oblivion and said moments of life got removed entirely, Attempts at jokes are few and far between given how stilted, stoic, and stock everyone is. Outside of a cute nod to V1’s background shadow people in episode 2, even chuckle-worthy moments are scarce enough to be counted in one hand. The only one with any life to her is Yang, at least until episode 12 when the show finally lets the girls be cheeky dickheads to each other and get into lively food fights and whatnot. Still, it’s not through sitting through over several unbearable and lifeless storylines just to get to the finish line and start seeing Ice Queendom attempt to have fun.

Another contributing factor to the lack of fun in this show is its visuals, which are woefully inconsistent. Studio SHAFT isn’t exactly a stranger to terribly rushed production cycles that require serious post-airing BD patching, and sadly Ice Queendom is no exception. There are certainly some bursts of fun, lively, fluid Hiroto Nagata sakuga and even shading to add a sense of dynamism to the fights and a few other moments throughout. Occasionally, the show’s art direction provides some striking colors, and the show’s commitment to trying to sell a coolness factor pays off with some well-presented and shot sequences. Then you have the other 95% of the show which looks bad even by seasonal standards. It’s clear that directors Kenjirou Okada and Toshimasa Suzuki want to preserve the “coolness” and “aesthetic” the series tried to give off from the initial trailers and character designs, but there’s a myriad of reasons why things didn’t quite pan out.

Frankly speaking, the presentation is all over the place. Just like how some scenes manage to look sick and mysterious, there are other frankly baffling creative decisions. Occasionally, the show presents this awful GATE level split-screen for no real rhyme or reason, leading to several instances of abysmal editing throughout. Throughout the V1 portion of Ice Queendom, the texturing on the character models, backgrounds, and sometimes freakishly thick black outlines often results in a very sloppy, muddy look to everything. Even most of the animation is lacking in impact compared to the simple yet well-choreographed fights Monty Oum did in the early RWBY volumes back when he and his team relied on Poser for their 3D rotoscoping. Furthermore, There’s very little crunch to most of the animation, outside of strange places like Ruby’s victory pose in episode 2, and the vast majority of attacks, landings, and general collisions all feel limp and weightless. As a result, most of the fight scenes range from mediocre to downright terrible compared to being among the few saving graces of early mainline RWBY. On that note, while the CG in early RWBY can best be described as the level you’d see from Vtuber models, the CG in Ice Queendom is perhaps less flattering, and it only increases once the anime original content kicks in. The show shuffling between overly glossy and ridiculously flat artwork for its characters doesn’t help with the show’s either, especially for the male adult characters, which leads us into the topic of huke’s take on the original character designs.

huke made a name for himself designing for Black Rock Shooter and Steins;Gate, among other works. His artwork has this wispy, mysterious, ethereal quality to it, especially for the female designs of those aforementioned titles. Sadly, they do not translate well for RWBY’s approach to anime-esque character designs, as they feel far more ho-hum than enigmatic. The resulting mismatch results in a jarringly ugly look that often swaps between greasier than a fry cook’s face after work, and flatter than a pancake, and the early premiere versions of episodes 1-3 had it even worse than the proper airing versions and the rest of the show, probably due to the rushed production cycle. The art style benefits the snowy dream Weiss presents, but the redesigns for each of the main girls are all over the place.

Nega Weiss and Nega Blake are interesting extremes of their views, with the former being this complicated multi-piece imperial design that can be stripped down for combat, and the latter resembling Adam, the embodiment of how far the White Fang has fallen. Ruby’s redesign is also fine, highlighting the kiddy that Weiss sees in her while still feeling appropriate for the weather and maintaining her primary color. Yang’s is more complicated than before with a new emblem and more brown to resemble her V5 design, and as usual for her, there’s no yellow barring her hair despite it supposedly being her primary color. Blake’s main redesign for this season is an absolute dumpster fire. While the inconsistent purple highlights on Blake’s hair in the show’s take on her original design was done for stylistic purposes, here, it might as well be her primary color for her new outfit rather than black. The white has been kicked largely to the curb in favor of grey, and the stitches and ear patchwork along with the colors and nature of her new outfit in general make her look like a trashy, beat-up, sexualized and oversized stuffed animal. It’s as ridiculous and displeasing to look at as her V7 design. As for the JNPR redesigns, they’re fine, as they’re more or less similar to their main designs while keeping their primary colors consistent and exaggerating what little specific elements Weiss could possibly gleam from them.

Unfortunately, the visuals somehow manage to tank considerably in the 2nd half, as by the midpoint of the show, the wonky animation and modeling which seemed to be kept to a minimum in episodes 4 and 5 compared to 1-3 come back worse than ever. Grotesque CGI fights and incomplete drawings not masked by moving panning shots in time are some of the wilder instances of the show’s production issues in episodes 6 and 9, respectively. Episode 10 is where 2 good cuts get surrounded by the animation completely melting, as the stilted character movements are cranked up to 11, shots break continuity and the 180 degree rule consistently, and the embarrassing choreography can’t even be seen half the time with the animation constantly being cut away from while also constantly being reused in a show that reuses animation like a Super Robot or Mahou Shoujo anime. Sure, when episode 11 isn’t looking like total dogshit it does pick things up quite a bit, and there are some occasional stylistic switch-ups in episodes 1 and 9 that look great, but generally speaking, the show’s visuals are complicated in how bad they are. Honestly, Ice Queendom looks worse than even RWBY Volume 1 on the whole, and that was made by amateurs at a gamer internet animation studio that wouldn’t have remotely been considered pro-grade back in 2013. At least V1 looked kinda consistent, even with the obvious shortcuts and awful walk cycles. Even the Mistral Arc volumes of RWBY are animated better than this, and considering how equally catastrophic most of that section's fights are, that's saying something.

Perhaps the only saving grace of RWBY’s that was kept somewhat intact here is the music. Sure, none of the tracks by Nobuko Toda or Kazuma Jinnouchi are as grandiose or beautiful as some of the more whimsical and wispy tunes of Jeff Williams’ early RWBY score, but it’s a solid OST nonetheless. It takes a while to pick up, but there are some solid orchestral tracks and guitar pieces to match the theoretical intensity of what RWBY tries to present in its big arc. Similarly, the inserts by Void_Chords are decent, even if they can’t match up with most of the alt metal songs Casey Williams performed for the main series. The OP and ED do fare a little less well though. “Beyond Selves” by Void_Chords feat. L tries to be a bombastic and triumphant jazz tune, but the mixing is so muddy and the compression goes so overboard that the track feels overly restrained and muddled. “Awake” by Saori Hayami is an ok, if still over-compressed attempt at an epic song. Honestly, the music in the show feels a little unremarkable, but that’s still the best thing the show has going for it, unfortunately.

It’s still utterly insane that the sound effect editing is so bad that not only are some effects mistimed, but artifacts from unused storyboards were left in. Is it worse than early RWBY’s horribly compressed sfx? Who knows?

What happened here, exactly? Was it Gen Urobucnhi’s planning, Tow Ubukata’s script and series composition, Eddy Rivas’ supervision? SHAFT’s scheduling issues? Whatever the case, RWBY: Ice Queendom is an idiotic, lifeless disaster that can’t live up to how it tries to present itself 95% of the time. It’s two distinct shows that each fail spectacularly at their own ways while barely feeling like the OTHER piece of shit it’s trying to harken back to. There are some decent scenes and ideas explored once in a blue moon. There are some bits of solid if not stunning animation here, with more to follow once the staff has to clean things up for the BDs so that the show doesn’t stay looking like Assassins Pride or some shit. However, the pulseless Ice Queendom wastes a lot of time and chances to justify or explore anything, as is RWBY tradition. Unless you really miss the early days of RWBY and don’t feel like watching the first volume again, this show isn’t worth your time. At best, just watch the last two scenes of episode 12 between V1 and 2 when you rewatch RWBY in preparation for V9. Better yet, if you were interested in this show and haven’t seen the franchise yet, steer clear of both! RWBY has long since lost any of the soul, style, humor, chemistry, or occasional inklings of compelling character writing that propelled the show to stardom in the mid-2010s. If you found yourself woefully disappointed after thinking this spinoff had promise, just know you’ll be feeling that a lot by the time you’ve caught up to RWBY proper. If you’re one of us veterans, you know the drill.

No, using Monty’s name to discredit Miles, Kerry, Eddy, Kiersi, or even Tow, is not part of the drill. Hate the show, not his friends and their collaborators. The man’s dead; let him rest in peace.

*vague and mild spoilers for Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale*

Things aren't always as they seem.

Back when Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale first made the rounds back in 2017, it was lauded as a massive improvement over the first two seasons. Sure, SAO II received some of said treatment for the first couple of weeks and Alicization would eventually be given this reception almost wholesale, but this film is the first time it stuck. Then again, there is a subsect of viewers who consider this the worst major entry to date. Even many who praise the film's improvements won't come out and say it's good, ... given the franchise it's a part of.

A lot of the “improvements” seem rather basic, which does paint a damning picture of the franchise. Kirito is a consistently active protagonist this time…just like in the infamously dire Alphein arc. Klein isn't primarily treated as an absolute joke for the first time in several arcs…even though his ephebophile wannabe casanova tendencies are on full display this time. Asuna gets some active time to shine again like in Mother's Rosario…for the first 55% of the movie. The diner scenes have been phased out almost entirely…in favor of cabin exposition scenes. Kirito is finally being challenged by forces that give him a run for his money…until 1 strange 5-sec training session later, he's back to plowing through damn near everything before reaching the last two fights which do bring that back. The antagonists finally have sympathetic motivations for the first time since arguably Aincrad…except the impetus for everything and how asinine the plan is make it difficult to really care. Hell, the romance between Kirito and Asuna gets a decent amount of focus like in Mother's Rosario and the back half of Aincrad, and it even ties into the back half of the film…where the movie falls apart.

Yeah, there's this one aspect of the film that kills it so hard that a lot of what people praise it for either isn't enough to salvage it, or gets cancelled out completely. The more you learn about the plot, the stupider it gets. Each and every reveal is as dumb or dumber than the last ro the point where we're dealing with inexplicable digital ghosts, asspull functuonalities and hacks galore, and several nonsensical game mechanics like how nobody is #1 on the Ordinal Scale game's leaderboards until a certain endgame boss is defeated and how that stops a field everyone is trapped in from having enough power to microwave everyone's brains.

A lot of the major problems with the series also rear their ugly head here, too. Sure, there’s no rape or sexual assault attempt scene like in previous seasons, but there are still two big problems. Several characters in the ensemble cast don't get to do jack outside of one or two fights in the back half of a combat heavy film, with retroactive explanations around the halfway mark being given that feel tenuous at best as to why they couldn't do anything earlier. Hell, when Suguha finally gets to be relevant, the film quickly zooms in on her tits to let Yui pop out for a giant asspull...because priorities. Hey, it's still better than how the new characters are written.

Remember how in SAO II, Kirito undergoes PTSD due to a flashback to a raid that presumably took place during Aincrad even though we never knew about it or how important it was before? Ordinal Scale does that but for its antagonists, one of whom was apparently presumably one of the Knights of Blood who we never saw even as a tertiary or even background character in S1. They’re motivated by the death of someone who was apparently a really important bard who kept everyone's spirits up everywhere in Aincrad to the point where they wanna bring her back and we get to see pictures of her playing near the SAO cast. Even if it means potentially flying everyone's brains Akihiko Kayaba style.(because of course we need that old Ainxrad type "die in the game die IRL" threat back for the 3rd time), if it somehow means bringing her back to life -somehow being the operative word– then so be it. Do you see the issue with how hard they're reaching to justify such ridiculous retroactive storytelling?

Apart from the motivations being borked, the new characters are either there, annoyingly flat hate sinks, or incredibly jittery and difficult to comprehend like Yuna. Shrouding your characters in mystery and tying them to oddball circumstances only works if you can still see a throughline for their actions but mysterious digital idol Yuna is as erratic as the main antagonists are undercooked. It's a shame since there was some potential with them, and the old cast, while mismanaged, still had some cute moments and scenes where non-Kirito Aincrad characters could show off what they're made of. Even worse is that whenever Kirito does engage with these new antagonists and learn of their motivations, he doesn't bring in his similar experiences to relate to and challenge them. Just imagine how much more intense the battle between him and SAO survivor hunter Eiji would have been if he pulled the Sachi/Moonlight Black Cats guild card on a dude who only saw one girl close to him die. Just like that, the flimsy conflict is given more weight to substantiate its severe overreliance on retroactive storytelling. As it is now, it's hard to call a shitty antagonist with sympathetic motivations a serious improvement over SAO's previous antagonists which were just as shitty but weren't meant to be sympathized with for the most part.

There are some other improvements that actually do matter, those being with the visuals. For the first 2 seasons, SAO was saddled with what would later become the stock A-1 face you'd see in future projects like Aldnoah.Zero and The Asterisk War, and it was rough. This film, however, found a compromise between BUNBUN's LN art style and that of the first two seasons, giving the series a new, stronger sense of visual identity that will carry over into future seasons. Furthermore, even with the final battle being ridiculously difficult to follow, the particle effects and general animation have been boosted to match the standards expected of an anime film. The bolder colors and shading have increased as well, and while there is the occasional CG background rando, the film generally looks gorgeous, as Tomohiko Itou gets to do more in terms of presentation with more dynamic camera movements. The only uniquely terrible aspect of the visuals is when in the climax, they start using the postcard memories still frame technique multiple times in a row, and even worse, one of the frames contains the ugly CG skeleton boss from S1. Still, this film set new standards for the franchise in terms of visuals.

The same cannot be said about the music. Yuki Kajiura's work is still solid, though there aren't any new standouts barring the compositions for most of Yuna's insert songs performed by Sayaka Kanda. "Break Beat Bark!" and "delete" are the highlights, with the former being a franetic, upbeat battle song while the former is ominous in a way that falls perfectly in line with Kajiura's signature style. It's hard to even determine if there are any new BGM tracks without looking them up, however, given that they don't stand out compared to some of S1 and II's best pieces. Worse yet, the ED, "Catch the Moment", is one of LiSA's blandest anisongs to date, making it a far cry from any of her previous songs for the series.

Is this what every SAO entry will be from now on? One step forward, one stumble back into a sprained ankle? It’s been like this since SAO II back in 2014. Every improvement this film offers is either littered with asterisks or counterbalanced entirely by poor writing. The film is perhaps the most entertaining entry so far, barring the Mother's Rosario arc, but that's partially thanks to the final act being a top to bottom trainwreck that's up there with the stupidest moments from the first 3 arcs that make up SAO 1 and half of SAO II. Alas, this anime-only entry is yet another dud in a series that struggles to reach decency or even mediocrity most of the time, close as it came. It's been 5 years since Ordinal Scale combined Google Glasses and Pokemon Go, and while Alicization is widely heralded as the best arc, will that even hold up after this film didn’t, and is it even worth it anymore?

“My heart has surrendered” -Airi Suzuki

With each passing season, Kaguya-sama has remained one of the absolute best anime of this past half-decade. As a comedy, it is uproarious, however, part of why it succeeds so above and beyond is due to being one of the most visually inventive and passionately-driven manga adaptations, perhaps ever. A-1 Pictures’ current flagship non-SAO title is a three-time triumph, with this latest series pushing everything to new heights while ratcheting up so much of last season’s drama to create one of the most electrifying binging experiences this side of Mawaru Penguindrum!

For the 5th time in a row, it bears repeating ... that Shinichi Omata (or Mamoru Hatakeyama) is among the best TV anime directors of our time. It cannot be understated how spectacular and versatile he is. Anyone who has seen the masterpiece that is Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu can attest to how stunningly presented the show’s drama is while giving each season their own feel that matches the content within. However, he and his team have proven time and again how spectacular they are at comedy. Exaggerated facial expressions, optical illusion backgrounds, aspect ratio manipulation, striking changes in color and texture to dramatize every single frame that merits such amplification, and inventive transitions all carry over and then some. Not only does this current season have some of the best examples yet, the editing even beyond those transitions is top notch. Episode 1’s arm-wrestling scenario is the perfect example, utilizing the beat of “We Will Rock You” by Queen at the mention of an immovable object akin to a rock during competition, and weaponizing the opening beats of S2’s OP as the explanation of Kaguya’s archery skills boosting her strength replicates the first second or so of said OP…ON LOOP!

The sheer passion and vision on display continues to elevate an already solid production to heights far beyond the vast majority of the studio’s output. It is difficult to do justice in text. The closest one might come would be to highlight the drawing count for the main ED of the season being around 2000 when the average episode can range from 3-4K or even 5K drawings. Keep even further in mind that S2 had a full-blown shoujo manga look adopted for part of one of its sketches, and that it’s been so handily surpassed that the first scene of this season puts a spin on the final, show-stopping ending minutes of that of the previous season’s school-crumbling and ensemble-flailing finale while matching its vibrance and creativity pound for pound. Finally, keep in mind that only the first two episodes were discussed, and that the show consistently keeps up with its baseline standard of quality and even outdoes itself on numerous occasions by its legendary conclusion. Even as resources dwindle at points, their solutions continue to provide insane and diverse visuals through out of the box thinking in ways never seen previously. Not many anime have the balls to just showcase their source material’s panels like this show does, after all. Even if it didn’t have all of that going for it, the show’s vibrant and expressive facial expressions combined with how frequently fluid it is would still keep it well above average.

Fuck, that was overwhelming, but in all fairness, Kaguya 3 is nothing short of massive. Season 1 largely had its story arc be at the end, being more of an establishing season until episode 10. Season 2 is split between two halves. Meanwhile, this season interweaves and/or concludes several character arcs while slowly building up to one packed story arc. Shirogane and Kaguya’s will they won’t they romance, Hayasaka’s frustrations with Kaguya and budding kinship with Shirogane, Ishigami’s feelings towards Tsubame, the love triangle between Maki and the Kashiwagi & Tanuma couple, and how all of these intersect and build on top of each other. There are so many moving parts this season, on top of other subplots, that it’s by far the most packed season to date. It never stops introducing new hobbies, traits, and curveballs to every single solitary member of the cast, even extremely tertiary or even seemingly one-off characters like Chika’s sister and two of the Four Ramen Kings. Simply put, Kaguya 3 is a Rube Goldberg Machine of romcom subplots and grandiose emotional payoffs. Even simple one-scenario mini-arcs have their own resonant conclusions to them that add to the character of the setting and each individual cast member, weirdly short as some are.

To those who complained for seasons of the seeming lack of progress between Kaguya and Miyuki’s cat & mouse romance, let it be known that amidst a million different aspects, they’re still at the forefront. The adrenaline never slows down, and even when it seems to, a seemingly irrelevant gag will reinforce character traits brought to the forefront to aid this arc like Chika’s complicated yet progressive dickishness towards Shirogane and Ishigami (and everyone) underscoring her care and motherly willingness to see them succeed. After all, every character has their own motivations and subplots that tie into each other and the ultimate push towards Kaguya and Shirogane’s relationship moving more tumultuously than ever.

And in a sea of climaxes, the ending tops everything that has come before as everything clicks into place. Music to one’s ears, is it not?

That being said, Kei Haneoka’s OST for the series is still on par with the previous seasons, offering several new tracks to fit every situation. There are a handful of pieces that are more resonant than ever, adding to the series’ repertoire of solid music. The OP by Masaaki Suzuki, “GIRI GIRI feat Suu” by Masaaki Suzuki, is yet another smooth bop following the same steps as previous seasons. It may be the weakest of the 3 we’ve been presented with, but it’s still another solid song. The ED, meanwhile, was a pleasant surprise compared to the shrill moe type songs of previous seasons. “Heart wa Otage” by Airi Suzuki might be the best song of the entire series, inserts and all. If there was anything that immediately set this season up as a climax, it was this beautiful song filled with finality and love.

That final word really is key to everything, eh? Kaguya-sama is a romcom of epic proportions, with an adaptation that is nothing short of an ingenious, passionate labor of love. Even somewhat stale and intrusive elements like the narrator are backed up with stellar presentation as to be more forgivable, with several shots and sequences that even in isolation can decimate over ¾ of any given seasonal’s visual output. Even the voice acting finds new ways to impress while matching the insane editing and presentation on display. The team’s clever manipulation of audio tracks is almost unheard of in professional Japanese animation, especially to the extent that’s been displayed this season compared to the last. It’s the culmination of coming to love these characters and their ever-expanding web of relationships and quirks. It’s the climax to the very premise laid out at the start of the series. In spite of everything, there appears to be more on the way, so what the hell can top this?! Does it even matter? Perhaps, though ending here would have been fine, too. If we get more of this wonderful cast and their antics, that’s all that matters. Nothing will be the same way after this anyway, and besides…

“My heart has surrendered.”- someone smitten long ago

*spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen and Yuukaku-hen

Kimetsu no Yaiba's ultimate downfall can be quickly surmised as an attitude problem. The series's lack of respect for its audience or characters, its incessantly speedy pacing between arcs, and its inane humor can all be boiled down to this singular, core problem. Its sheer lack of restraint can be felt from that attitude problem as well.

What made Mugen Train function was its limitations which forced the series to straighten up and dial back in all the bullshit which made the first season largely intolerable. However, this second season, Yuukaku-hen slips back into some of these old ... habits while bringing brand new issues into the fray.

Let's start with its attitude regarding the death of Rengoku: the Fire Hashira from Mugen Train. It's awful, absolutely appalling in its presentation. They desperately oversell the reverence everyone has for the man. First off, the first 3 minutes are an awkwardly presented recap of the Mugen Train finale to remind the audience of what they just watched: the dude dying and everyone crying. More importantly, they have the gall to shove his smiling visage amidst a heavenly backdrop onto damn near every scene people talk about him in. It happens so often that nothing gets to speak for itself; Kimetsu no Yaiba can basically be boiled down to those last 6 words. Then again, considering a quarter of the double-length first episode is about Tanjirou assuring Rengoku's teary-eyed kid brother and confronting a painfully obnoxious deadbeat "I lash out and shittalk but actually care for and cry over the dead" drunkard dad, this is not unexpected.

Perhaps it's rude to point at Naruto as a shining example on how to tactfully handle the fallout of the death of someone close to its heroes, as it’s one of the Big 3 and it often gets used as a measuring stick for how bogus 2010s shounen are. However, it's hard not to look at a shounen that genuinely respects those who have fallen, how the characters take the time to explore their surroundings, shut down, and require the help of others to move along, without noticing why KnY failed. In Naruto, we get to process the grief of those most affected in an artful way, not once, but twice. In KnY, we get caricatures and obnoxious slow-mo Zack Snyder trailer shots. Well, we also get a 4 month time-skip amidst a training montage and more obnoxious in-your-face yelly humor because clearly SAO shouldn't be alone in horribly mangled time skips. Hell, we even get told how Zenitsu and Inosuke develop rather than having that unfold in front of us, just like with Kirito in Aincrad.

Actually, to be fair to SAO, even it has more respect for Kirito and his supporting cast than KnY does for most of its characters. Hell, not once in the grieving process where Tanjirou struggles with a stomach wound, does Nezuko attempt to console him. Perhaps it's because she's barely a character --lower than most pokemon-- and more of an object to only be deployed when necessary for asspulls. Zenitsu might still be an insufferable, screaming simpcel who should have embraced his role as a straight-man to his wacky teammates by now, but at least that prick's a character. It would be funny how the series still treats its sole female companion to the heroes worse than most shounen like Naruto, Fairy Tail, or every Yugioh title if it didn't mean that the core sibling dynamic at the heart of the series wasn't shafted to such a puzzling degree. Hell, despite it being a major focus in the latter half, the most Nezuko plays into it after she's decommissioned in ep 7 is by appearing in Tanjirou's dreams. Can't let our trophy plot device sister have any actual agency, now can we?

As for the new characters, to address some of them, let's look at the show's lack of restraint regarding character gimmicks. Much like its Drifters-tier screamy tone-killer humor, KnY goes overboard with giving characters gimmicks. Sure, sometimes a gimmick or quirk is needed for a character to stand out. However, the way they constantly shift up gimmicks for Inosuke is head-tilting, and Zenitsu speaks (or shouts) for himself. More importantly, Tengen Uzui aka the Sound Hashira would be way better if he were just the vain ladies man and beleagured chaperone leader to our trio rather than having this irritating and incessant "muh flashiness" gimmick that he never shuts the fuck up about. Hell, that’s how most of the Hashiras in S1 were introduced, so it’s no surprise the issue continues. Admittedly, he does get better the more we learn of him and how world-weary he is and why he values “flashiness” so much. Still, a nasty first impression and gimmick crammed down our throats makes him the hardest to stomach of all the Hashiras that have gotten substantial screen time so far despite him being the best new character of the season. The antagonists themselves are pretty whatever as well, not that Kimetsu has ever been good at handling its villains barring maybe Akaza. They’re hardly worth discussing beyond just being mean vain pretty bitch Daki, and shaggy ugly avenger brother Gyytarou. Their powers are interesting, they’re petty, vengeful pricks, moving on.

In spite of everything, however, the season was proving to be tolerable once we transitioned from the heinous premiere to the start of the arc proper. The aforementioned issues were all there, but even returning problems weren’t as bad as they were in S1. Less of Zenitsu being insufferable, more time for Inosuke to be a badass despite his growth being skipped, and largely serviceable build-up. It was standard KnY fair, which while not good, is more akin to the more tolerable parts of S1 than the entire middle portion of that season. Then the middle of the season happened, and from there, the show went back down to the abyss.

Perhaps the most agonizing aspect of KnY’s attitude and approach to storytelling remains its usage of flashbacks as a primary tool. Mugen Train did well to limit this approach, not extending it to either of its antagonists, and using it for Rengoku long before his death so the audience can get attached to him without his exploration being an obvious pace-breaker or red flag. This season, on the other hand, has regressed back to the spider arc from S1, where fights are constantly being interrupted to provide brand new information about our characters that could and should have been naturally presented to us before the first moment they’re immediately relevant to a fight or emotional beat. It’s fake and hollow in its execution and overuse, making the show come off as wholly ingenuine when, say, we learn more about Tengen’s wives in the scene where they tearfully reunite with him than we did in all of the previous episodes, combined. Hell, they get more screen time in this one scene than they had cumulatively in previous episodes as well, though given how insufferable and one-note they are when they’re on-screen from ep 5-onwards, that might be for the best. The show’s rapid-fire flashback spam only even remotely works occasionally like with Tengen in ep 8, and that’s because they do it so often that, like with blindly or haphazardly throwing darts at a dartboard, there’s gonna be a hit somewhere in the distance amidst the meter-away misses. Still, when they’re bad, they’re abysmal, and the fact that the series has the gall to give its antagonists another ridiculously over the top sad backstory AFTER ONE OF THEM HAS DIED AND THE OTHER IS SOON TO FOLLOW, is scalding to the senses.

Another issue that rears its ugly head in the 2nd half is the asspulls. KnY is no stranger to them. S1 ep 19 had several back to back in the climax of the arc’s big fight scene before the start of ep 20 undoes all of that with yet another one that contradicts the very events of that iconic moment. Mugen Train pulled a final boss out of nowhere because we needed a final act and the previous antagonist of the arc had been slain. Kimetsu no Yaiba’s 2nd season combines the two, while reintegrating the idea of crafting asspulls via flashbacks. Let's not even discuss all of the death fake-outs with bullshit justifications that take place towards the last 3 episodes like this was a latter day Fairy Tail arc. Tanjirou constantly pushes past his limits like broken clavicles without any supernatural aide whatsoever for extended periods of time, Nezuko gets cool new powers out of nowhere without us ever showing her train or anything, and recovery breathing on top of stuff like Zenitsu being fully autonomous and capable when asleep are introduced this season, too! GEE, I BET THIS WOULD HAVE ALL BEEN REALLY COOL AND NOT AT ALL A BUNCH OF OUTTA NOWHERE ASSPULL BULLSHIT IF WE HADN’T SKIPPED 4 MONTHS OF TRAINING AND INSTEAD GOTTEN TO SEE THESE IDIOTS WORK FOR THEIR NEW POWERS, HUH?!

The second half, where the bulk of the fights take place, is filled to the brim with such utter nonsense that at some point, especially if you’re binging, you sorta become numb to them until an episode ends. Sure, the fights are all lavishly animated barring some gross ass CG blood splatter, but goddamn are they littered with idiocy. Between all that and the extraneous monologuing characters do in split-second slow-mo intervals, it all just becomes white noise. It’s hard to be consistently livid here compared to the insulting nonsense of episodes 1 and 5. Only when they keep spamming images of Rengoku because “HE WAS COOL, RIGHT GUYS”, is the numb trance broken. There are a ton of other issues and nitpicks that are barely worth addressing. Tanjirou learning more lore about his dad’s techniques is cool but they’re not expanded upon organically. Despite the breakneck pacing of the first half and how we time skip past all the training that could’ve justified much of what went on this season, the latter half is a dragged out bunch of flight scenes with painfully stretched-out episode closers. Characters sometimes just decide not to finish each other off for no reason or randomly become stronger in earlier parts of a fight when they were supposedly less threatening. Some of this is all standard shounen issues taken to their logical extreme because Kimetsu no Yaiba has always been like this. Some of it is new issues for this season. At some point, we can’t drag this review out like the show drags its fights, because watching this show has become nothing short of exhausting! No battle shounen has ever been this exhausting, Jesus Fucking Christ!

On the topic of those flashy brawls, the visuals this season are overall better than they were in S1. Haruo Sotozaki has largely proved himself as a very good director, with several outstanding shots and weighty fight sequences that despite the immense chaos and speed towards the final few episodes, can still be kept up with when things go wild. However, before we get into the merits of the visuals, there are some nits worth picking since there are frame rate issues and some of the CG (fire in ep 10) still can’t hold up so well. More importantly, there are several questionable shots like the janky camera motions when cutting up from someone’s screaming death, or the disquieting amount of scenes unnecessarily infected by speed lines. The premiere is easily the worst, however, as it seems like whoever the episode director was, really wanted to emulate Zack Snyder with all the stupid slow-mo trailer shots. Between that and some unintentionally silly shots of angry Muzan and Tanjirou, the presentation comes.off as very overblown at times. Plus, there’s an amusing number of moments where characters run in place when they’re clearly supposed to be moving.

However, these faults can in no way outweigh the technical prowess on display. Sure, they often try to oversell sequences to dumb degrees (and the music doesn’t help matters), but the visuals are still better than they were in the first season. There are no extremely ugly CG backgrounds, and they play more with experimental visualizations like watercolor brush stroke style visuals for visualizing certain sounds in a location, or how the show tries to visually represent certain explanations like Tengen’s shinobi upbringing. It's clear that Haruo Sotozaki and his team want to give the show the reverence its popularity affords, with more dynamic swooping shots and interesting styles than ever before. Moreover, the fight scenes get more and more impressive as they go along, showcasing some insane sakuga that can compete with the Heaven’s Feel Movie trilogy at times. Episodes 5-10 are an almost nonstop cavalcade of fight scenes, and each one looks better than the last. Ufotable’s trademark in-house digital effects certainly add that extra bit of flair to the spectacular action sequences. After all, it helped paper over some of the maddeningly dire state of the writing in the latter half. If one didn’t mind all the utter nonsense on display (or if they just watched sakugabooru clips) then they’d find these sequences nothing short of pulse-pounding rather than mildly cool. Without exaggeration, the latter half of S2 might be their strongest TV production to date in spite of some hiccups, not that the first half is bad by any means.

“Not bad by any means” can also largely be used to describe the soundtrack which was once again helmed by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. Unfortunately, this is certainly one of their weaker anime projects. Gone is any of the eeriness of some of S1’s tracks, and while the Marvel type orchestral tracks are fine, none of it is even remotely memorable. The OST serves the series well enough (barring that shitty dubstep piece in ep 5) and adding some light electronic elements to the mix isn’t a bad thing, but this is a bit of a step down from S1. There isn’t even an electrifying insert song like in S1 ep 19. If anything, Aimer’s OP “Zankyou Zanka” and ED “Asa ga Kuru” are picking up the pace a little, with some fun, energetic jazz pop for the former and a slower, more dramatic Kajiura type piece for the latter. The LiSA songs from S1, Mugen Train Movie, and even TV Mugen are overall preferable, but still, Kimetsu has never had a bad OP or ED and that continues even here.

Kimetsu no Yaiba’s 2nd Season was nothing short of an overblown, ingenuine exercise in exhaustion. Everything bad about the first season has been kept and some of them have been amplified alongside new problems. Plus, season one at least had Shinobu and a fair number of ok episodes so that the experience wasn’t just misery like the middle portion of that 2-cour juggernaut was. The first half of this season was a mix of rushed, agonizing nonsense and some tolerable set-up, while the latter half is a nonstop barrage of asspulls, flashbacks, and fights that turn into noise as the eyes glaze over and the brain begs to shut down. The visuals are largely better than S1 and perhaps more interesting than ever. However, that alone cannot save this from being perhaps the worst full installment thus far, and the worst arc barring maybe the spider arc from S1….maybe.

Sometimes you hear the take of ufotable carrying the series while the material itself is garbage, and there’s some merit to that claim. One might even wonder: had this gone to a lesser studio with a more modest batting average in terms of animation quality, would this be seen more akin to Fairy Tail or Boruto in terms of being the bottom of the battle shounen barrel. Such thinking is a tad malicious, as if whoever thinks so wishes the show got what it “deserved” rather than the royal treatment it has today. However, any good faith Mugen Train had built up after S1’s failings has been completely and utterly dashed. Worthwhile audiovisuals can only do so much to aid atrocious writing, but it's hard to deny that this show would not be as fondly remembered if not for the team it resonated with doing everything to make the most out of the material they more than likely love. Perhaps this abysmal battle shounen would be left to rot like a beheaded demon, and it would still see a sizable audience. Fairy Tail managed that before it became the shounen community’s punching bag, as did Hero Academia before the later seasons slipped up in production quality and started getting dogged on for it among other reasons. Alas, this is all speculation. What we have is what we have. Haruo Sotozaki and his team at ufotable should be proud, and if the legions of fans dazzled by the visuals and some of the show’s pathos cherish it as one of their favorites, good for them. Nothing can or should take that away from them.

We are nearing the halfway point of Kimetsu no Yaiba's story, so before it chugs along to its 3rd season, let’s depart from this demon train peacefully.

*mild spoilers for Gundam Breaker: Battlogue*

Gunpla anime have always been advertisements at heart. They're akin to the likes of Yugioh and Bakugan where shounen pots are created over the vehicle of selling cool new products to kids and nerds. For Yugioh and Cardfight Vanguard, it's trading cards. For Bakugan, it's small, transformable marble things with cards. For Gunpla Builders Beginning G, the Build Fighters and Build Divers continuities, and now Gundam Breaker Battlogue, it's the plastic model kits.

GBB is a little different than the rest. While the aforementioned Gunpla titles were fun shounen tournament romps, VR conflicts, and whatever the hell Re:Rise did, it was ... all in the name of selling plamo. GBB not only does that, but is also tying into the Gundam Breaker game series. Not only are we getting cool kits sold to us such as the High Grade Barbataurus and Livelance Heaven, but perhaps potential new Gundam Breaker players are being enticed into that game series. Combine those goals with an action romp directed by Masami fucking Oobari, then we should have a fun Gunpla spectacle, right?

Well, if nothing else, we're shipping more RX-78 American Type kits.

What should have been a simple and fun spectacle ends up being an annoying exercise in asking just how stupid characters can be before one's patience is as fragile as the atrocious HG Unicorn kit from 2009. The premise is that after the would-be champion named Mahara ends up losing to protagonist Takuma in a Gundam Breaker tournament, he becomes an evil sore loser who hacks into the game's system to kidnap and forcefully modify players' Gunpla to ruin the fun for everyone and get back at the man who beat him. Other players just trying to have fun now have to stop him. Simple enough, even with motivations so stupid that at least one of the protagonists snarks at him about it.

That said, even excluding how there's little to the main cast and what we get to know about them, one thing is abundantly clear: they are all morons. What happens once the Livelance Heaven and Gundam Helios pilots (Touma and Ryuusei) see the masked freak? They rush at him with melee attacks despite having tons of artillery to shoot him at their disposal in episode 3. They only try it in episode 6 when he's in his fully powered up Barbataurus. When the female deuteragonist (Misa) arrives with a goddamn vaccine for the runner prison things the antagonist traps and merges Gunpla in? She only frees the trio of side fighters and doesn't bother with any of the random terciaries trapped when she reappears in episode 4. What could've been a fun and frantic game of everyone trying to keep the masked freak's Barbataurus at bay while she frees everyone is traded out for our heroes trying to beat him and eventually the AI he summons. He then absorbs a metric fuckton of Gunpla in episode 6 cuz not once did she try to free anyone else.

Also, yes, there is a vaccine for the gundam runner prisons, which involves the Blazing Gundam wearing a mask, which was developed purely offscreen so it could pop up as a deus ex machina in episode 4 for the trio that was fighting Barbataurus at an event. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, and there's a joke about the U.S government hoarding and withholding vaccines joke to be made here but we're just gonna leave that where it lies.

It's not even the only deus ex machina considering how Takuma appears in episode 5 to save Misa after she winces over seeing a single attack she has a lot of time to dodge. A lot of characters seem to he really good at dodging things, at least until the script demands that our heroes and the AI Kamen Rider Masara summons have to suck at dodging extremely prolonged attacks. It's surprisingly annoying when it happens all the time. You'd think that with hacker Masara's BS OP runner stuff and hacking of the system, his roided-up AI would be able to dodge attacks a fraction of the speed of what they effortlessly avoided before.

Sure, not a ton of this is meant to be taken too seriously, but when everyone just acts helpless or stupid for convenient plot beats to occur, the series becomes rather obnoxious. The lightning fast pacing also means significant plot beats have to be introduced out of nowhere, like the vaccine that was developed entirely off-screen and never talked about beforehand. It also means you barely get to know anything about the characters unless you played the GB games. Their character dynamics are a tad cute at times (mainly due to some nice character animation here and there), but they're not particularly fun, engaging, or brimming with chemistry or anything. Everyone's just sorta dull and dumb, barring hints of cute charm once in a while.

One can argue at this point that none of that pesky "writing" shit the armchair upstart's prattling on about matters all that much for a dumb fun simple action spectacle if the fights are cool. Yeah, sure, but the fights here aren't anything to write home about. The character animation has some fun expressions and stills on occasion, like whenever character panels interact with each other as they're chatting through Gunpla. Oobari and his team definitely had some fun there, and the art style's honestly better than in the Build continuities. That said, most of the mecha animation is nothing more or less than serviceable. They move around fine. There are some nifty particle effects here and there. It's not as poorly produced as Try or Divers, but outside of episode 6, it can't compare to Fighters or Re:Rise. Some attacks are really flashy, especially in episode 6 when the supercharged Barbatos starts unleashing absurd attacks of red death or the main protagonists start busting some seriously sick moves with their Gunpla. If most of the series was more akin to the level of animation on display at episode 6, the visuals would be more noteworthy. As it stands, the team at mainline Sunrise is absolutely getting outshined by the former Xebec division known as Sunrise Beyond with their efforts on Re:Rise and AMAIM (or Kyoukai Senki). At least some of the mecha designs like the Astray Red Frame Inversion, the Crimson Gouf Custom, and the first gundam chimera thing that got disposed of in episode 4 look cool enough. Those better all be good High Grades considering we're already getting HG Livelance Heaven, Gundam Helios, Barbataurus and the Gundam Ground Urban Combat Type among other things.

Oh yeah, there also was an OST, wasn't there? While binging the show, not a single thing stood out that it was honestly kinda hard to tell that there even was music playing. There's also the ED by Mr. Fantastic.

Meh.

Gundam Breaker: Battlogue was perhaps the most disappointing Gunpla title with the Battlogue name. Gundam Build Fighters Battlogue was a weird episodic endeavor that would have been more fun if it focused more on being Death Battle Gundam Edition rather than doing some of the weird things it did with the garbage Try cast. Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise Battlogue was a cute victory lap after Re:Rise turned out to be astronomically better than regular Divers. This could have been the most entertaining Battlogue romp yet if the characters were more fun and less idiotic, if the script was better at staying out of the way of spectacle without being contrived and poor, and if the action animation was more consistently on the level of episode 6. There are charming moments, and bits so ridiculous that it it elicited a hardy laugh. However, this anime was more annoying and head-tilting than entertaining. Is this what the typical Oobari anime experience is like?

Perhaps it's time to play Devil's Advocate.

Idaten Deities is certainly an oddball among the Summer 2021 line-up. By far one of the most lavishly animated, stylistically interesting, and well-produced shows of the year has been largely ignored, and similarly written off as nothing more than incomprehensible edgy garbage that's "style over substance".

What a silly pain in the ass this buzzterm is. It's nothing more than an excuse for people to dismiss a well-animated work they don't like because the writing isn't trying to be the 10/10 kino that the visuals are. It's not because the writing actually gets in the way of all the spectacle ... like the overly serious and painful melodrama in Bubblegum Crisis and Symphogear. It's because a work that's entertaining and well-presented first and foremost tends to be looked down upon. It neglects the idea that perhaps the style is the substance like in Redline. It also forsakes the idea that while the writing can’t quite compete with the visuals, it can still do enough to not only avoid getting in the way too much, but make the show more interesting in its own right, like with this series.

This isn't to say Idaten Deities doesn't have issues worthy of criticizing. It most certainly does. It's crass and juvenile to a fault. The character designs by Amahara (not actually Cool-Kyou Shinja, this is based more on the OG web manga than the serialized one) may work when the female characters are just doing their thing or casually flaunting it around with their mannerisms or outfits without drawing too much attention for a (somehow) non-ecchi title. The show can even highlight that with its camera angles if it wants, since it knows how crass, sexy, and debaucherous it wants to be. However, whenever it shoves rape and sexual assault into the mix, the results are as gaudy and annoying. No matter how much the show tries to spice up the scenes with weird visuals or anything, these scenes are just needlessly unpleasant to watch. If anything, it shows why they don’t work, as the show tries to be super casual about these issues. The demons are generally vile and debaucherous enough without this element coming into play more than once to sour the mood. The fact that one character is introduced by getting raped and her second scene involves her getting fingered against her will while neither of these scenes have that much gravitas to them, makes it understandable why someone would be turned off by this show. It’s a stain on an otherwise fun and interesting ride you won’t get anywhere else.

However, barring that one particular blemish, what exactly is so wrong with this show? Why is it that something like Idaten, which has higher production values than even some popular anime that have come out as of late, deserves to be buried or dismissed? The other issues people seem to have involve the show's constant color changing and its characters not being particularly sympathetic, both of which seem to miss the point entirely and feel a bit restrictive and taste-based, respectively.

Let's address the show's visuals. Despite being overshadowed by Maid Dragon S2 this year, Idaten is still a highlight of the year in terms of style. The colors are vibrant and the outlines are distinct, often a noticeable reddish purple as opposed to the more understated thin black outlines in most modern anime. Despite how they stick out, the characters still fit the vibrant backgrounds. The colors, both regarding the fun and expressive character designs and the art direction, are similarly vivid. The environments and colors are the closest thing anime is gonna come to looking like Cruelty Squad or ULTRAKILL, as much of a reach as those comparisons are. One can certainly take issue with the admittedly somewhat garish color choices, especially when the show completely and constantly shifts them, but it’s nonetheless really cool and fun that they did this without making the colors eye-bleedingly oversaturated.

Fun really is the right word for the show’s visuals. Is it not fun for the show to constantly shake up the colors depending on the environment they travel to, what situation they’re in, or even what attacks some of the demons bust out if the situation calls for it? Should it really be constrained to only busting out these changes in the big beefy flashy moments like in Chivalry of a Failed Knight, especially when the show does this consistently to the point where it never feels aimless or haphazard? It would be one thing if it were truly random and silly, or if the colors were absolute death, but here, it’s a refreshing treat. Outside of the color changes, the actual character animation is wonderful. There are all sorts of amusing facial expressions, and the action scenes are very fluid, punchy, and easy to follow. They’re generally pretty dynamic and even the cuts that don’t seem as visually impressive and do employ some animation shorthands do, such as characters having multiple limbs to show how fast they’re punching, look way better than examples you’d find in Akame ga Kill, Slime, or any number of shows. Good luck counting the number of shorthand speed lines or stock backgrounds in place of actual backgrounds on more than one hand!

Even the episode title cards have creative thought put into them, with each of them having distinct colors from one-another and sometimes being put into the environments and backgrounds! Seriously, you can feel just how much director Seimei Kidokoro and his team at (black company) MAPPA emphasized the word “fun” when it came to the visual presentation. The backlash the studio has faced regarding its abysmal treatment of its staff even by the subterranean standards of the industry is certainly warranted. It’s natural that this show would be a casualty of that in some regards, should that be one of the reasons it’s not even remotely popular for its season. However, the efforts of director Kidokoro and his team deserve to be lauded and acknowledged. The fact that they haven’t gotten anywhere near the level of attention of beloved juggernauts of modern anime visuals such Mob Psycho 100 or Dragon Maid has, hell, the fact that it’s not even close to more moderately popular titles such as Akudama Drive, is criminal!

Let’s not neglect how the show is written or assume that the visuals are the only real reason to watch it. Doing so is what nets you in “style over substance” territory, and dismisses the writing purely for its juvenile aspects and [very much controlled] flippant tone. They may be the best part, but there’s more to dig into with how the show’s written than some may think. The conflict is ultimately a farcical one. The Idaten notice that demons are out there in the world after 800 years of them being sealed in the underworld, and so they find each other, train, and wipe them out. It's made as early as episode 2 that not only are demons generally weaker and aren't able to regenerate the way an idaten can, but they're never gonna have a chance. It's utterly hilarious how the death of one of their stringer members shuts them up, as they know they're the underdogs in this situation. The best they can hope for is to be brainwashed into aiding the idaten, but they already obtained all the captivates they need by episode 5. This fact and what does come in the last 5 episodes do present faint moments of hope for the demons, but the series goes out of its way to show that it's more about delaying the inevitable than anything else. They know they're screwed by episodes 2, 7, and 10. It's utterly hilarious seeing them shift the goalpost over the course of the series from "killing all idaten" to "killing one" and "surviving long enough for remnants to reform in any meaningful way".

Despite this, the show still manages to keep some level of intrigue with what both sides learn and guess from one-another, and how every time, most of it is true except for at least one vital piece of information that trips them up or otherwise stalls their progress. A lot of explanations and info-dumps are fast-forwarded for the sake of time and entertainment, but the way both the Idaten and the humanoid demons under Dr. Obami's rule piece together who or what he is when he himself doesn't know, is one of many examples where this cat and mouse game of information constantly keeps itself fresh while informing the audience. The more the audience learns about the idaten, the demons, and the mechanics, the more engaging some of the fights become in spite of the foregone conclusions of “demons lose and/or die”.

Adding to the farcical nature is the fact that we’re not even necessarily meant to root for either side. It’s simply an entertaining charade of evil-doers trying and failing to kill and then slip past the generally callous Idaten. The show may stop and ask questions like “if the demons that forced themselves into human civilization were generally able to live and rule in secret amongst them, what’s to say they can’t coexist”, but the only one who genuinely entertains this question until the very end of the show is Gil, the one relevant human character. She's also the one that got raped in episode 1 and spends most of the shoe in captivity until being freed and watching the emperor of Zoble (the kingdom she's imprisoned in) try to make sure she and the other prisoners aren't hurt. It does seem like sometimes some of these evil demons have a shred of decency and humanity, but barely anyone cares and the most some of the others amount to is loving one specific partner or when Brandy (the Zoble demon empress) makes sure her kids are safe in a moment that surprises both her and said offspring.

The idaten aren't necessarily moral, either. They're gods meant to protect humanity from demons, but couldn't give a fuck about the humans themselves or if countries slaughter each other via wars. The oldest one, Rin, even suggests eradicating the kingdom if Zoble outright, knowing any humans living there will die just to kill the couple hundred demons living there. Ysley, the most strategic one of the group, only really rejects this because neighboring countries such as Hotaena will use this as an excuse to war and it'll be a pain in the ass for him considering his master, Prontea, is stationed in Hotaena and enjoys his time there. Even Hayato and the youngest idaten for most of the series, Paula, are single-minded strength junkies and the token normal person without a strong moral compass, respectively. Morality isn't of anyone's concern except for the human, Gil, and what little standards anyone on either side has. Why care? Gil's practically chastised or brushed off by both sides for doing so regarding the war and what the demons did to her people. The show keeps this amusingly callous nature until the last few episodes where the tone still feels rather frank.

It's not necessarily a bad thing that we're not meant to really root for/against or sympathize with anyone. That being said, it can limit how enjoyable the show can be as the lack of ability to really care about or get invested in the conflict prevents the spectacle from being as exciting as it can be. The characters and fights are entertaining enough, and the show knows not to take itself too seriously, but it's not like the characters have that much going on beyond fun, catty banter and antics, and how Ysley, Obami, and Miku constantly scheme, learn, and adapt over the course of this conflict.

Oh, that's right. We should probably touch upon some of them beyond just Gil, Paula, and Hayato. Ysley is perhaps the most interesting of the main cast, as his allegiance leans more towards Prontea than Rin, making him conduct retrievals behind everyone's backs as he starts asking most of the questions and making the most hypotheses regarding the demons. He's also the one who explains how nobody really gices a fuck about humanity aside from when demons are involved. Rin is the shrimpy oldhead of the group, existing for over 800 decades, watching her father and ancestors seal themselves for that time. Her backstory and how the end of ep 8 and start of 9 bring that back to haunt her at the end of the Zoble invasion are the closest the show comes to expecting us to care about anyone as she spent decades without anyone in the world before she realized the world had become safe for a time. The last two characters to really mention are Miku and Dr. Obami. Miku is debauchery incarnate: a supernaturally intuitive planner who spends as much time thinking as she does feeling up or hitting on prisoners and subordinates. This is before the last few episodes where things get so much more messed up and she becomes just as much of a threat as Obami. Interestingly enough, she's the only one to question him on his identity and intentions, the former of which Obami doesn't know himself, as both the idaten and audience learn only slightly more about him than he does. He just knows the initiative to conquer the idaten and the world, and that ordinary demons not quickly fused into a human brain and body are just savages that will complicate matters for both sides.

The music is also pretty good, at least regarding the OST by Yoshiaki Dewa. It's not always that memorable when listening to the show itself, but there are a fair number of choir-based and intense tracks, with the vibrant and ever-shifting title track and its variants, "World Adjustment'', "God of Battle", “Escape”, “Training Room”, “Kicking”, and “Sadness of Love” being among the most notable ones. It's like a mix of industrial and avant garde, with techno, and perhaps more indiginous (for lack of a better word) percussion and choir elements thrown in as well to make it an eclectic soundtrack. Some of the tracks are rather strange and unique, and the OST fits well with the impressive fight scenes, as well as the moments of thinking and planning several characters engage in. Many of the aforementioned pieces stood out when watching, but several more did as well upon listening to the full OST, including some of the more traditional kinds of songs in the tracklist. Meanwhile, the OP and ED aren't exactly memorable or enjoyable songs as the former is kinda whatever and the almost noise-pop-esque song for the latter is surprisingly hard to listen to, but their visuals are top-notch with a Mob Psycho 100 II level sequence and a still vibrant and fun what-if scenario, respectively.

Idaten Deities is a weird and engaging show for reasons that some other titles could never get away with. It’s callous and juvenile, both hilariously and unfortunately so at times. The characters are the least interesting aspect of the series, with the amazing visuals amusingly uphill and forgone nature of the conflict being where most of the entertainment comes from. The show's callous attitude does make slapstick beatdowns more fun whenever Hayato, who expects beatings from Rin no matter what, gets demolished and treats it like an annoyance at worst. It's an entertaining spectacle with some odd decisions made towards the back end, and some interesting questions and ideas it tackles without losing sight of its fun yet lackadaisical and glib tone. There's minimal ugly CG and generally speaking, the show's visuals are consistently well-animated, vibrant, and ever-changing. If you can look past some of its worst and most distasteful moments, then this series is certainly one of the most darkly humorous and entertaining popcorn spectacles in recent years. Just beware of the cliffhanger ending that happens right when the show actively feels like creating tension.

*spoilers for both parts of Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season*

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken has always struggled at maintaining the same level of interest when it gets going as it has whenever a new arc or season starts. The best story has long since come and gone with the end of Slime S1’s first ⅓. Since the series has shifted its focus from being about a cute slime starting and maintaining a kingdom to facing a new wave of outside threats to his ever-expanding kingdom of diplomacy, it’s been more difficult to let the series off scot-free for any mistakes as things get ... more serious.

This is where the 2nd Part of Slime S2 should have been a success. This is the series’ first real attempt at entertaining a farce. The outcome is a foregone conclusion and it’s about how a scheming upstart Demon Lord’s plans crumble under the weight of his own hubris as he’s outplayed by an equally egotistical, narrow-minded, and unaware slime. There’s no pretense of fake stakes until we near the end, and none of the new characters are so unbelievably tacky as to damage the series like in S2 Part 1. In all fairness, this is probably the best installment overall compared to S1 or S2P1, but not by much. Slime is still a disappointingly mediocre series only carried by what little charm it has left, as well as the decent audiovisuals despite the “visual” end of that statement becoming dangerously inconsistent once again.

8bit continues being the head studio behind this adaptation, and like with Part 1, the visuals are a step back from Season 1. At times, the art style feels a bit different compared to usual, and unlike P1, there aren’t any new or interesting visual shake-ups to speak of outside of there being more on-screen interactions between Rimuru and Great Sage. There are a couple of pretty backgrounds once again, and there’s less awful CGI. Unfortunately, there’s a similar lack of decent action cuts, let alone nice-looking fights. By the time we reach the penultimate episode, some of the action sequences are as bad as the Rimuru vs Hinata battle from Part 1 episode 6. The designs are still fairly decent for an isekai, but the action animation is still ranging from mediocre to subpar like in P1. There are barely any good cuts, and most of them are localized in the final two episodes like the first-person perspective shot of Clayman getting repeatedly slugged by Rimuru or Veldora performing a Kamehameha. Even then, those bits are surrounded by other moments of bad fight animation. It really does feel like the production peaked in the early episodes and the final one...again. Considering that several episodes in the back half either largely or primarily consist of fights, this issue is not only unfortunate, but a contributing factor to the show growing dull before and sometimes during Walpurgis.

Musically speaking, things do fare better. There are a couple new pieces that continue to be solid for the scenes they accompany. If you’ve watched the series up to this point, the OST is as solid as you’d expect. Additionally, both the new OP and ED are superior to what came in Part 1. “Like Flames” by MindaRyn is a solid action-packed banger, especially when they improve the visuals for the last few episodes, while “Reincarnate” by Takuma Terashima is at least better than the garbage from P1. They’re not quite as memorable or engaging as S1’s OPs or EDs, but they are a step up, and that’s what counts.

What counts more, however, is the writing. If nothing else, P2 is probably funnier than P1. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a double-edged sword in execution. The first half largely consists of meetings and deliberations to the point of weariness, so it's perfectly fine to punctuate those with gags that show off some character chemistry. The big, loveable oaf, Veldora, was practically built for these moments, and the same can be said for the returning pixie Demon Lord, Ramiris. Rimuru constantly threatening to spoil the manga they’re reading is probably the best running joke of the entire series. There are fun new dynamics being explored on top of the tried and true ones we've come to expect from this show. They do become more of a hindrance in the back half when the show still tries to come off as serious despite the farce. It's mainly a problem towards the end of the show when Walpurgis hits and they interrupt or deflate the fight scenes with jokes. It's difficult to get invested in the cathartic beatdowns when the show deflates itself like this and isn't good at selling the farcical nature of the current conflict. It tries to entertain the idea of Clayman being a threat towards the end despite constantly undercutting him with gag ends and punchlines during Walpurgis, so why even bother pretending this isn't a farce?

Speaking of Walpurgis, the general plot is certainly better than the previous arc. After the Farmus invasion and Animal Kingdom devastation that Clayman had a hand in orchestrating, Rimuru begins planning his revenge when he hears of Walpurgis: an event in which a Demon Lord council is called in by the agreement of 3 members. Both Rimuru and Clayman are upstart Demon Lords, with Clayman trying to gather up sacrifices by screwing Rimuru's kingdom and allies over, and Rimuru has not only achieved this status, but has cut off Clayman's main line of communication by replacing Myulan's heart. Ultimately, this arc documents Clayman's unknowing fall from grace in real time as he smugly believes he's got Rimuru pinned down despite being so in over his head that he can't see the proverbial sword of damocles hanging over him.

Interestingly enough, Rimuru himself is rather ignorant and narrow-minded as well. Sure, he’s doing better than Clayman, but by the time he brings Shion and Ranga to Walpurgis with him on account of needing to choose two fellow representatives, it becomes clear that at least some of whom he's about to speak to have a much better grasp of the situation than him. Chief among these members is Guy Crimson, who aside from sounding like an ArcSystemWorks fighting game protagonist, is an entertaining fellow who knows how this whole charade has played out for the most part. Anything he doesn't know is largely unimportant or contextual at best to Rimuru and Clayman, but he knows that this whole thing is a ploy to screw Clayman over. He knows Millim was never actually under Clayman's control and that she didn't actually kill Carrion when she fought him and wrecked his kingdom. Millim was just in on the act Frey and the others set up so that once Clayman's at the height of his big scheme to become a Demon Lord and get revenge on all those who mocked him and called him weak, he'd be outed as a total fool before finally getting executed. Hell, even Rimuru's Great Sage that resides within him and an idiot like Shion start understanding the situation better than him despite his insistence to the contrary. Sure, Rimuru does defeat Clayman, hell even Shion does multiple times before he ascends, but that doesn't mean Rimuru doesn't have egg on his face once everything's revealed.

Amusing as this is, Walpurgis still isn't as entertaining as it can be. Since the fights are lackluster, there isn't as much catharsis in seeing Clayman get his ass handed to him. He actually gets his own flashback power of friendship second wind once he remembers he shoulda relied on the rest of his Clown party more and that he was among their weakest. While a villainous example of this shite trope is more interesting and there is a moment in the beginning where one of them (Laplace) urges him to be careful of assuming he has as much control over Millim as he thinks he does, there should have been more interactions between them. At no point do we need to feel super sympathetic for the scheming bastard, but it would be more engaging considering the bond does exist and it does propel him to one last stand before he gets wiped for good. The group has been a thorn in Rimuru's side since the Orc Disaster arc, and their new boss, Yuki from the school arc, is revealed to be the ultimate bad guy of the series. There are some surprisingly compelling moments with Clayman refusing to sell his friends or clients out, or how Laplace deals with the man who smugly informs him of Clayman’s death, but why couldn’t we explore them and their dynamic more beforehand?

Oh wait. There's no time. The adaptation has always suffered from structuring and pacing issues. Apparently, this entire adaptation was supposed to be either 4 cours or 1 cour, depending on if you were the studio or the producers, respectively, and it took forever for them to agree to a 24-ep S1 and 2 split-cours later on. By that time, S1 was almost over. Of course S2 would struggle in terms of pacing. Both parts are adapting a volume in 12 episodes while also picking up on what S1 had to skip, and they somehow feel too slow in some places while skipping over or rushing others. Part 2 doesn’t suffer from this nearly as bad as Part 1 does, but there are some elements that had to slip through the cracks. Remember in the end of the first half of P2 when Diablo/Kuro, Myulan, Youm, and co. were set to get to Farmus to start a civil war and take it over, only for them to never show up again until the final scene’s montage? Apparently in the manga, we cut back to them a few times, but in the anime, that’s clearly not the case. There are other minor oddities like the fact that Suphia, a tiger, can fly, or how they never explain how Shion felt a sense of familiarity with Carrion’s disguised presence to the point of trying to ask Rimuru if it was him when we’ve never been told or shown that they met before. However, they and the mostly lame evil bad guy lackeys at Clayman’s disposal are minor issues.

All that’s left to cover is the cast. Every returning character is as you’d expect, and perhaps in top form outside of Rimuru being perhaps a bit too cocky and narrow-minded compared to usual. Shuna actually gets a moment to be capable and even show that her views on Rimuru are a bit more grounded than everyone else who just views him as infallible. Most of the new guys are kinda just ok or whatever outside of Guy and the one really angry humanoid dragonewt who leads Millim’s followership. Honestly, the banter is what saves a lot of the characters at this point considering most of them are pretty milquetoast or lame otherwise. This especially applies to Rimuru now that Veldora and Ramiris are thrown back into the mix. He and Millim are more entertaining when being pestered by their friends for whatever reason or nagged on by other Demon Lords considering they pretty much needlessly fucked everything up for everyone. It’s a fresh change of pace from all the Rimuru circlejerking most of the cast did...and sadly still do to obnoxious degrees. The returning Veldora is even more likable and fun than Rimuru ever was, considering he’s this boisterous big bro meathead powerhouse constantly getting distracted by manga and whatnot. He was hilarious when finally given a humanoid form at the end of Part 1, and kept that energy going throughout the entirety of Part 2.

A similar if not even greater amount of props must be handed out to Clayman. This utter clown is the first time a villain in this series has anything going for them. He was a somewhat entertaining puppy-puncher schemer in Part 1, but in Part 2, it’s somewhat entertaining seeing him maintain that while being clueless as to how deep he is in the shitter. Even more amusing is the lengths he’d go to posture and make himself seem intimidating when he’s flying off the handle against a clearly superior Rimuru or beating up Millim who’s just acting. This man is an utter joke and it’s a good thing the show took the more farcical route in this case. However, the final two episodes do present another side to him that was a bit too lightly suggested regarding his closeness with his unit. There’s the aforementioned power of friendship second wind he has, but then there’s also him telling Rimuru that he’d never betray a friend or client when the blue-haired war criminal tries to interrogate him for information before killing him off. Clayman was already way better than, say, the otherworlders or the king of Farmus from Part 1, but this was the first time he was genuinely compelling rather than just satisfying to watch get house by his own petard. Him apologizing to Laplace in his head as he’s dying was icing on the cake. No wonder Laplace snaps once a subordinate of a different Demon Lord smugly informs him of the bad news.

Actually, Laplace himself really ascended this time, as while he was a malevolent powerhouse, there wasn’t much interesting or entertaining regarding him prior to what Clayman brought out of everyone. Laplace killing the lackey in a fit of rage, countering every counterattack from the man before showing him his beautifully juicy heart and crushing it as the gorgeous vermillion gushes out of it, was sick! Him thinking about how the rest of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance will feel when they learn the news as he’s laughing and crying sealed the entire scene. Once again, in Slime’s final moments, it showcases what it had the potential to be. Fun and satisfying as that is, it’s nonetheless frustrating that the series always seems to stumble for a while beforehand. Maybe with better and more consistent presentation, this season would be more than just a mixed bag, but when has Slime ever been known for its consistency?

TenSura is forever too disappointing and rough to truly become good, but too competent and likable to be too hard on. It’s hard to straight-up abandon this series, but it’s hard not to get bored or frustrated when it gets into the thick of things and can’t present or execute things too well. It’s forever trapped in or perhaps settling for mediocrity, and reserving its best for the earliest and latest moments of any given entry. A lot of the action is mediocre to bad, outside of a few particularly sick cuts. Most of the charm is gone aside from some of the gags and banter the main characters have. Things always start out fun, get boring or frustrating in the middle, and come out the other end better than before like it didn’t almost ruin itself. Oh, Slime, what in the world are we to do with you?