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Jun 30, 2023
From my experience, there are two approaches to overpowered MCs.
The first, and far more common, are the kinds that try to downplay the MC’s skill. They’re always losing, losing, “Oh whatever shall I do the boss is too strong” until some random new ability or item saves the day. The best versions of these can do a decent job of making me forget how OP they are, but there are many more that end up extremely boring.
The second approach is where the show does not care in the slightest what the audience knows, and will attempt to cover up the lack of stakes with
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comedy.
Mashle goes for the latter, and it varies from person to person on how well it succeeds.
Personally, the first few episodes were hilarious. Our hero is Mash Burnedead, a regular dude in a magical world who makes up for his lack of wizardry with immense physical strength. This leads to him having to find new and funny ways to win duels and mimic spells. He also has some routines like cranking bench presses at ten a second or doing anything with cream puffs that I can’t help but smile at when the show breaks them out. In addition, the art style and animation works well here. Simple when it needs to be for Mash and all of his aloofness, but the quality of the fights do not suffer.
The problem is, these jokes are the only thing Mashle offers; you have seen it all by episode three or four. They try to keep things interesting by featuring more characters in battles, but a lot of them are even more straightforward than Mash is. I can have fun watching Dot because he brings energy that juxtaposes Mash, but the others I eventually grew tired of. This show benefited from having me watching it as it aired as I could take a week off and allow each character's bit to become fresh again, but this could definitely be more of a problem if you plan to binge it all at once.
So to recap: if you have a simple sense of humor like I do, you need look no further than Mashle. There is absolutely enough enjoyment to last twelve episodes. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you’ll probably also like it (or you might be disgusted, I don’t know. Worth the watch either way in my opinion). However, if a refined plot and humor is required to get a laugh out of you, you might want to keep looking.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 27, 2023
Mou Ippon, the show where there are more flashbacks than moments that happen in current time. Wait though, don’t leave yet. That’s usually a red flag, but this one is actually good.
I will preface this review by saying that going in, I did not know the first thing about judo, but trust me when I say that it did not matter. This show has so much to offer that it is insane how low its numbers are.
The story focuses on the Aoba West High School judo club, from their banding together in the beginning, to practicing in the dojo, to their runs in a couple
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tournaments. As I said, my judo knowledge extends to what I learned from this show, but that didn’t stop me from being on the edge of my seat when a competitor fell, anxiously waiting to release my breath at the call of an ippon, or hold it in at the waza-ari. The matches were exciting, and they did a good job not making it obvious who was going to win. I felt like I was really in the stands. And that is not all that is offered. You get a nice package: from the sweet judo action, to the surprisingly well done moral dilemma of the right time to hang up the gi, to the fun slice-of-life. And that’s another thing: when we are not pedal to the metal, we are just hanging out, and those scenes flow so well. The humor comes naturally, and once again, does not feel scripted at all.
And to complement the surprisingly diverse storyline is the crazy good character chemistry. This, for me, is the best part about the show. The first six or so episodes are all about our protagonists, but as they start to go to competitions, the focus shifts to the other end of the tatami mat. These opponents aren’t just some wall that’s there only to prevent our main girls from winning. In this case, they are real people too, that just want to win the judo tournament as much as anyone else. Sure, some are more competitive than others, but they are all friendly, and with the help of Michi Sonoda, our “antagonists” often end up becoming good friends. Everybody’s so positive and enthusiastic, it makes me want to join a judo team myself.
Speaking of Sonoda, Mou Ippon takes an interesting approach to characterization where arguably the most static character is her, the central figure of the show. She instead functions as glue, bringing together and uplifting everybody else from the rest of the Aoba West crew to opponents like Erika, Natsu, and Midoriko. With this approach, I thought I might get tired of Sonoda by the end, but I never did.
Of course, not everything was perfect. I previously mentioned the amount of time this show spends in the past. It definitely helped the audience build empathy toward all these characters in just 13 episodes, but they didn’t have to do everybody this way. Characterization is for sure more difficult to pull off in the present, but when this show opted to try it, like when it focuses on Tachikawa Academy in episode 11, it was great. I wish there was more of it.
But overall, this show is excellent. It’s impossible not to like it. Please watch it yourself, get those numbers up, because I want a second season.
P.S. (And this is a slight SPOILER, so skip if you haven’t seen it yet,) For a show that tried to stay grounded in reality with its fights, that last French girl seemed extremely overpowered. I don’t know judo, but I do know the limits of the human body, and that seemed above and beyond what is possible. I like the move to have the gang lose here, but come on, with that kind of skill, how are they supposed to beat her in the season 2 rematch that will definitely happen? But I digress. Thank you for reading, and have a nice night.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 5, 2023
I have never before seen a show that employs such a strategy of being intentionally bad.
At face value, Rentagirlfriend seems like your generic romantic comedy that just happened to suck even more than usual. It’s got its one unique aspect in rental girlfriends. We’ve got plenty of the common tropes and awkward situations, except this time the character design turns the cringe factor up to the max. It is very easy to throw this one in the garbage and be done with it; This type of slow-burn show is not for everyone. But Rentagirlfriend brings something else to the table. Kazuya doesn’t get the privilege
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of everyone loving him from the beginning for no reason, nor does he get some forced plot that magically brings the couple together. He lives by the laws of actual, real humans: that is, he needs to take his time to get things going.
From the first episode Kazuya is extremely frustrating. His old girlfriend dumps him in the first 30 seconds, so we're dealing with a sub-par guy from the start. He has few outstanding qualities, and the ones he does have are all negative.
Kazuya is very perverted, and the ‘funny’ moments the show tries to incorporate this into are often anything but. In addition, he makes so many wrong decisions throughout the show that it's a wonder he can even live by himself. And when one of his many blunders comes back to bite him, does he wake up, take control of the situation, and rectify it in the end? Does he at least attempt to do so? No, he cries or does something else that makes us pity him, and then Chizuru or one of his friends fixes it for him. I could rant all day about all the stupid things he does, but I can’t be too mad at him, because for all his mistakes, he actively tries to get better.
As we move along the timeline, we start to see a couple of cracks shine through Kazuya’s hard outer shell of patheticness.
The first good decision Kazuya makes is when he saves her (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers). Sure, he goes and ruins our new point of view of him immediately afterward, but they’re taking his maturing one step at a time, which is good. It almost makes it feel… I don’t know… real? Anime is full of instantaneous shifts in character, love at first sight, and other unrealistic clichés, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for this to be different makes it stand out, Especially because it is subversive. This show, which seems like it is going to follow all the obvious tropes, actually ends up being unique.
As the show progresses, we get fed more and more of these moments. The other characters work perfectly as initiators. When Ruka is introduced, Kazuya makes another correct decision: He learned from his episode with both Mami and Chizuru, and though tempted, he sticks to his guns. In addition, he does not want to hurt his buddy and potentially lose that friendship. Kazuya is making the correct decisions when it counts, and, by the end of season one, sometimes when it doesn’t count as well. He handles the episode with Sumi alright, kind of messes it up with Mami, but it wasn’t an easy situation in the first place, and looking past that, he gave Sumi the great experience she needed.
The one thing I would have liked to see is more depth for Chizuru. Sumi, Mami, and Ruka could remain static characters throughout the series and it wouldn’t be the worst thing, but as the main girl, Chizuru should definitely be dynamic, and there was not quite enough of that in this first season.
Kazuya has to start pathetic, or else development could not happen. And you could say that makes a good chunk of Rentagirlfriend exceedingly frustrating to watch, and I would agree with you, which is why I am only giving it a five. But it is a necessary evil, because when Kazuya finally gets a real relationship going, he will have earned it, just as he will have earned that higher rating. At least, that is what I hope will happen. I am writing this review without having seen the second season, but if they continue down the path they have been on, we could have a real treat in store.
Just to add in a quick note on a few things: The art is quite good; I enjoy the expressiveness of the characters. As far as audio goes, the music is inoffensive; not bad but not anything amazing. The VAs did an excellent job though (Can’t help but crack a smile every time someone goes “HAAUH???”). I despise Mami, but somebody has to be the antagonist, I guess. That just means they did a good job at making her the villain. The show really started to pick up for me around episode six, where they lost focus on Mami and Grandma a bit and started introducing other characters into the mix.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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