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Sibling relationships can be so complicated even in this type of show.
Well, at least Shun got through the round with his team even if barely. Shun was fighting for his family so he deserves to be where he is now. The psychological drama this episode though...yikes.
Team Fox One is doing well, though Nozomi's dad is rather fickle that they get their share of the 300k prize money, that eventually is passed onto Shun to help Mio recoup her medical bills and rehabilitation. But Mio still being the stubborn one, refuses to accept any offer, which brings Shun and his mother to the breaking point. And even soon, Naito will get to see Shun once again.
Yu in her fame and authenticity is also doing well, but as for Mio, refusing rehab...she's a rather attached brocon that once seeing both Yu and Nozomi, feels like she has no chance for her brother's own heart. Even Naito had warned him about this before, and out of pressure, she pushed her own brother over the wall, only to have a bad fall. Shun's sudden meeting with Naito to pair him up together rather than the Sleeping Owl team that he has, and even his homework on Shun's own sister proves the psychology that's keeping Shun stagnant and undecided about his own path.
Man, the psychology in this, Shun better get his act together somehow, between gaming and his family.
Well, that episode was a personal slap, to remind me that i need to strengthen my sibling relationship. And the overall psychological drama, damn there was time where it was a little much. And adding the love triangle with that, yeah this episode could be better BUT i loved it.
Shun is being nice to her? Mio gets mad.
Shun is being nice to other girls? Mio gets mad.
Saying that he's just doing it out of guilt or for self-satisfaction, yeah maybe but so what? Why does that somehow make it a bad thing, he's literally helping you regardless and trying to save you from a life of disability lol
I guess they're just trying to make this out as it all being a subconscious mental illness caused by Mio's desire for affection for Shun and being scared to lose it if she gets healthy enough to not need to depend on him, but in no way does that somehow make her antics any more excusable. If she thinks Shun is being selfish for supposedly helping her for selfish reasons, that still doesn't even compare to the amount of selfishness she's doing herself with all these antics and hurling insults at him for everything just because she wants to keep him for himself. Not to mention he wouldn't be feeling the need to spend all this money and effort on helping her if she wasn't like this in the first place...
Also to begin with this was supposed to be an anime about esports, but it really derailed into a very subpar drama instead as of late. Not that the depiction of esports has been particularly realistic lately either
Interesting, if it's true that Mio's disability is just some sort of mental problem/illness that would be a bruh brocon moment.
Honestly, Idc what are they gonna come up with this anime anymore, the Esport portion is never good so I'll keep watching this to see how Shun and Mio's story unfold.
Also, Mutsuki is a creep damn.
Though sadly, even if it ends in cliffhanger this anime will never get another season that's to be sure, too low of a popularity and even if they want to continue next time focusing 100% on the game (E.g if they somehow make it to International League) that's just won't work with how awful the gameplay is. What a waste of good female characters though, Yuu and Nozomi are waifuable if I want to be honest.
Only redeeming factor of the episode was that slap.
@gauravb28 But even with all the crap in this episode. It made the episode worth while. Mom is easily the best character in the show and she barely gets any screentime lmao. Also shout out to the big boy he also has been great.
Mio: "You are being kind to me, because you want to atone for what you did to me."
Mutsuki: "She has realized being unable to walk keeps her brother kind."
It's a typical co-dependence.
What Mutsuki said is right in a sense, but he should have chosen proper words. Probably, the author thought him being a heel makes the show more dramatic. Though it seems kind of unnatural.
Also it seemed kind of redundant; the dialogue between Mutsuki and Shun that is similar to the previous dialogue of them.
A lot of physical and mental blows appeared in this episode. It reminds me of shows of a decade or more ago.
I love mio alot she's a great imouto but that selfishness is a bad trait for her and I'm pretty sure she notices yu and nozonees feelings for shun which makes her jealous
man I have so many thoughts:
- our friendly neighborhood sociopath might not be a good person, but he was kinda right
- wow mio, you told ur brother to go f himself and he didn't feel like hanging out with you immediately afterwards, what a freaking surprise
- mio rly needs to shape up, 14 is not young enough to justify her levels of attachment and immaturity IMO. she needs help, sure, but there's also conscious actions she is taking that are harmful
- shun rly should take a measured version of that advice and stop doting as he does now, it only depends the unhealthy dependency
- I hope there's no league rule about violence against another player that will be used for blackmail later or anything. also U LEFT UR BIKE MATE
this anime had so much potential to be a lot of fun, but it's turning sour reeeeally fast.
mio became infuriatingly annoying and a bad character altogether. shun is just plain, naito is fucking crazy and the writing here is so lazy. ugh, i'm so mad right now.
God that punch was so satisfying. It had seemed like it was leading up to Shun accepting Rox’s perspective and “pulling a Brink” for an arc away from friends and family, but I’m glad he rejected that and chose to remain loyal. Even tho Mio has been a bit of a brat the last couple episodes I hated seeing her fall down in the rain like that, she loves her brother so much and they just need to understand each other, I still think she’s the heart of the show.
"Do you want me to take you away... to a place in this city where wishes come true?"
I kinda liked it. Rox guy still is a bit weird - too much focused on the game lol. (Maybe he shoudl analyze himself and try to do something about it.) The way the try to solve the "problem" with the sister did not seem to forced / far-fetched. Always thought they'd have the main just go crazy and game and game and game. (For money.) With her not wanting to go to rehab I already wondered if it was because she liked that the brother takes care of her all the time. (Carrying her around.)
Other guy studying psychology - that fit in there pretty well. (And the reason - him using this for gaming - also does fit.) Also his analysis that seemed to be correct.
Just funny to see him in the high tech room gaming naked lol. :D I wonder if they give some background (reason as to why he is obsessed with gaming) to him as well. That thing with the sister already seems solved. Can't see more than one good conversation where he mentions what Rox said - and them solving the issues then.
This guy is literally what Kirito would look like if the entire universe didn't revolve around video games lmao. A god gamer who's carrying his whole team and is so smart that he could break down the entire plot, voiced by Matsuoka no less
Lol serves her right for constantly guilt tripping her brother and manipulating him, look now she manipulated him into being a drama queen and a weeping little bitch.. idk, people are saying the punch was satisfying but imo the most satisfying thing about this episode actually was the slap
So i finally managed to catch up. Thoughts on the series so far.
I'll be honest, its not like a great anime or anything.
It basically revolves around shun. im curious whats going to happen with yu or nozomi or mio though. the other two have basically been non characters for the most part.
The funny thing is since this is an original, there's no manga or light novel spoilers to avoid.
Because I watched ep 1-9 in a single week my experience might be a bit different from the others.
so instead of starting with the game into the op, this time we immediately start with the op and then into the game.
so another timeskip later, team has made more progress. though hmm
so they won 1.5m yen in prize moneh? thats actually quite subtatntial
its funny how nozomi's dad has been like lol but suddenly he's now a (slightly) better person
also are they ever going to pay off the debts? shrug
though i'd imagine. i mean its basically like a part time job salary, but still
oh yeah the two girls are still here. a bit silly but anyway. did emiko even say anything?
not sure if they even told us the specifics. and yeah we all know something is going to happen with mio, but what?
it is nice though of everyone to basically agree on contributing to mio. though hmmm.
well things sure escalated. hmmm. im not entirely sure myself, it kinda feels like they wrote themselves into a corner
shun is slightly right though, mio is being a bit selfish. ironic.
like if anything people say that anime is too unrealistic, but having miscommunication and disagreements is a bit more realistic so to speak
not sure whats going on with yu but yeah. seems like things are starting to unravele, life isnt perfect after all. though the irony is the team has finally been getting better, but the rest of real life is now the issue
so we havent seen rox in a few episodes, but you kinda knew he was gonna show up eventually.
i didnt know phones were so advanced that you could pick up with just voice. but well voice
so back to yu, only took like a long time but now she's getting recognized in public. funny thing is apparently she isnt even that famous yet, but oh well.
in theory she could pretend that she's not but
yu and nozomi randomly running into each other in public
meanwhile, you have to wonder. since mio.
while suhn, its kinda complicated. obviously he's not perfect either, and he still has to go school as well
oh hey its a repeat of what happened the other episode, yu and nozomi are both visiting again
thats a good point though. is shun only good at one game or is he just naturally talented at all sorts of games?
and now we see mio. kinda ironic really how things developed like this.
and here we have more dorama.
i mean at this point you could argue that shun is being a bit uh. oblivious perhaps. ironic, since he's good at games, but he doesnt realize that mio, nozomi, yu. that being said, we do have a different perspective than he does
im still not entirely sure how its safe to leave mio alone at home, but welp
lots of dorama this ep
poor mio. oh dear.
meanwhile i wasnt expecting rox to meet with shun face to face after what happened the last time. anyway yeah he sorta reveals his true colours now, but you could have extrapolated from his previous comments
i mean, the game is still 5v5 team sport, so individual ability, teamwork, and strategy
ok so. setting aside the fact that how does rox know so much about a random girl
so basically the hypothesis is that mio actually has the physical ability to walk, but she has uh, some kind of other issue(s)
thats one way to phrase/frame things, assuming its even true
oh dear. i mean. well clearly shun is having a bit of problem talking with rox. rox is to blame of course, but you could say maybe shun was not in a great mental state to begin with
also i just realized. its raining, you know. but uhh
this is so awkward
So uhm yeah. It started ok but the ep just became full dorama in the second half. Curious what will happen now though, since. There's still 3 more eps to go so that's plenty of time. Though who knows how they'll wrap things up in the last episode.
If true, what rox said kinda reframes the entire thing. (also the prize moneh combined is like, 2m yen, thats a lot of moneh)
But I'm not even sure honestly. Ideally mio and shun will just get along somehow, but they need to resolve their disagreement, somehow. While mio sees that shun is gaming. In the end it boils down to the gaming itself though.
So much unprovoked slapping and punching. But at least this side of the plot is more intriguing than the comparatively banal proceedings of Fox One and their tournament.
I’m not gonna lie… Mio falling downstairs made my night. I know that’s kind of messed up, but she pretty much deserves it.
If it wasn’t painfully clear, Shun, her brother is doing everything he can to not only help his family, but to even help his sister Mio walk again. Like I do agree the physiological drama here dragged this episode, but to me, it got me very entertained in my opinion. And maybe it was supposed to be a Segway excuse of a plot for the show, because I honestly thought the gaming segments was all there was to this anime, but the drama kind of turned it around for me unexpectedly. That slap and her falling down the stairs is her own fault. If she wasn’t so stubborn to Shun, their mom and even the entire Fox One team who contributed their portion for her, she would probably be in a better off walking again than where she’s at right now.