Yeah… I know these feels.

Anime Gataris
Studio: Wao World
Genre: Comedy, School

This episode actually removes our lovable cast of anime nerds from their school environment, and drops them at an anime convention! Kind of. The vast majority of the episode is spent on all the stuff leading to it, mind you, but they went! I personally haven’t been to any of those absolutely gargantuan conventions. The ones I go to aren’t small, mind you, but the lines were never so monstrous, and there was plenty of maneuverable room inside, so I can’t relate that much. Lucky me, I guess. But I digress!

The core of the episode was their meeting a fellow anime fan at the convention and striking up a friendship with her. Her name’s Beibei, and she’s from China (Minoa. How on Earth did you think she was speaking English, German, or friggin’ French?) and came all the way down to Japan (though they treat it as if she came from the other side of the world) to attend this convention. I gotta say, I like the sentiment of the episode. It can certainly apply to more than just anime, mind you, but I like the thought of people coming together through their favorite media. It’s more or less building on the theme that’d been established throughout the course of the series, thus far, so it seems like a logical next step. Especially given the subject matter.

Then there’s that element the show’s really good at – the geeky little conversations we all have (albeit in a less exaggerated manner). In this case, most of it revolves around how anime’s reach extends beyond Japan, as well as the trappings of going to a convention. Like how once they’re inside, they’re absolutely loaded with free stuff, which… yeeeaah. They kinda getcha with that. I feel your pain, girls. Those moments were really sold by the convention newbies among them, among which is surprisingly not just Minoa.

Overall, I think it was a pretty enjoyable episode. Though there’s still a fair share of hinting that other things are going on that should be unraveling… soon-ish. As intrigued as I am, the hint in this episode did seem to be a little… left field-y. The comedy remains solid and the characters remain as charming as ever. It wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders, like some previous episodes, but I was still thoroughly entertained throughout. So it’s still very much Recommended. But if I can’t convince you, we have plenty of other reviews for you to check out!

Anime Gataris Simulcasts on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 10:00am EDT.