Nothing but Happy fun times, here, it seems. Except when it isn’t.

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ANIME TKO REVIEWS

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

A fairly light episode revolving mostly around getting Filo some clothes. Seeing Naofumi’s pragmatic approach to “heroism” is amusing. Though I can’t help but feel like this show is currently on cruise control. It’s still good and fairly entertaining. Though this episode ultimately served as little more than setup for things to come, most likely. That and to further establish Filo as a character. And, to the episode’s credit, Filo is adorable.

But. Oh my god. This show. Needs. To distance itself from the slavery thing. It’s genuinely the only think keeping my enjoyment of this show from reaching peak. It’s largely gotten over the issue I had with it being overly dreary. Still subdued, but at least it’s developing a bit more of a sense of humor about itself and gives a legitimate reason to smile, now and again. Overall, though, this episode was basically just Junk Food and I think the main thing holding the show back, at the moment, is the honest lack of a dedicated antagonist or antagonistic force. The Royal Brat hardly counts, as she’s not even really worth the attention, at this point. And she’s not even an especially interesting character, either.

Mob Psycho 100 II

Coming down from whatever dark magic brought us the awesomeness of episode 5, this episode wasted no time jumping right back to ground level. And it worked wonderfully by showing Mob’s expanding social life and the conflicts he’s beginning to have because of it and the foot he has in the realm of the supernatural. Reigen constantly calling him on a whim, dragging him away from everything, reading the dread in his face when he got the call, it was a great way to continue the theme of Mob coming to more and more recognize his lacking ability to truly cling to either side of the world.

Meanwhile, I think we really can get a good sense of Reigen, here. Yes, he’s a sleazeball. But you know he does genuinely care about Mob. He’s taking advantage of him, for sure, but he’s not heartless. He’s just opportunistic. He also has a point. Mob is (was) easily taken advantage of. Though being the one to point that out in this situation was probably him shooting himself in the foot as Mob begins to figure out that Reigen is one of those taking advantage of him. And I think seeing a bit more of his background informs a bit of his behavior. Having Mob around stabilizes him as much as the opposite was once true. And now that Mob is evolving beyond the absolute need for Reigen, the distance Mob is deciding to place between the two of them is impacting his behavior. Reigen’s response – taking more jobs and being more productive – was a surprising twist to things, but I enjoyed watching it and I’m interested in seeing where things go from there. Overall, a Super Effective episode, for certain.

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NON-TKO REVIEWS

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen

Ishigami’s great. Though one still has to wonder why, exactly, it’s taken so long for him to actually appear in the show. It always feels weird when a character is introduced this late in a cast that’s this… small. It’s not like Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu mama. It only has four central characters and only one real recurring character in Kaguya’s attendant, Hayasaka (a character I can see myself talking more about at length, another time, because hoo boy is she a goldmine despite minimal appearances). Fun Fact: Had no idea she was a high school student, ’til now. Just kind of assumed she was a young adult. Either way, this show is a consistently funny bit of Junk Food.

Date A Live Ⅲ

Ah. There it is. Only makes sense, right? Origami snapping after putting up with the spirits for all this time? It makes sense that someone that damaged wouldn’t just… drop it. It’s not like she got a lot of character development beyond season 1 that’d leave her so inclined. And what she did get was more akin to her giving up that outright choosing to stop. Things are getting rather heated with Shido trapped, Origami after all of the spirits, and DEM gunning for Kotori and the ship. It’s a pretty generally crap situation. One that I know the solution to, but I’ll leave it there for now.

That being said, the one problem I honestly have with this series (and have had since season 2) is how dull DEM is. Their particular brand of villainy is just so painfully uninteresting. It seems we’re starting to get to the point of attaching motive to their actions but one wonders if it’ll be enough. Either way, a pretty Super Effective episode, all things considered. Giving us a bit of tension, some minor (if still unimpressively animated) action, and some pretty good drama, on top of other character-building with Natsumi and Yoshino, as well as Origami.

Black Clover

Still padding things out, here, and this was the last thing I actually read in the manga. I’ll certainly give it this. I liked seeing the confirmation of how far the Black Bulls have come. Though one wonders exactly when they got all those stars because it was seldom brought up, at all, when they did earn any after the first one or two times. But I digress. The bit of Asta and Yuno standing on the stage was a nice moment to show how much they’ve grown and still affirms their friendship, especially after that one obnoxious side character I’m getting tired of decided to try ruining it to make them look bad. Really, can we just scrub him from the show? The joke wasn’t even funny to begin with.

The stuff with the King… I dunno. I think the joke went on a bit too long. It wasn’t even all that funny when it first cropped up. If you’ve watched this series from jump, you kinda know when the jokes are coming because absolutely nothing about this series is subtle, honestly. And the delivery wasn’t handled in any way that was especially amusing, so… yeah. But hey. If there’s one thing to take from this episode it’s that we’re in for a…

So yeah. That’ll be fun. I hope. In the meantime, a decent Junk Food episode, but nothing more.

Toaru Majutsu no Index III

So the first third or half of this episode was all Touma, and that was neat as he went to take on Fiama. But it didn’t ultimately lead to anything more than a bit of double talk and speechifying from the bad guy that I think was meant to amount to a “We’re not so different” speech. Or, rather, the opposite of that. More of a speech calling Touma on supposed self-righteousness. That part was fine and all, though it’s still rather unclear exactly what he’s trying to do.

The best part of this episode was easily the thing that it was titled after – Misaka Worst. Yep. There’s another Misaka clone, running around, and this one is basically a living hate sink. She’s the manifestation of all the Misaka network’s negative emotions, sent to kill Accelerator or be killed as yet another extension of this twisted program that’s so deluded him, since season 1. And the character work done with him, as a result, is outstanding. I’m loving the way it’s used to show him taking the reins, telling the powers that be to f–k off and deciding to take charge of his own life. It was great and elevated the episode to Super Effective status.

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OLDER ANIME REVIEWS

Noragami Aragoto

Ooooh oof. This one was both awesome and painful to watch, all at once. Kuguha reeeaally needs to go. This show’s ability to make godly characters feel human is uncanny. (Gee. It’s almost as if humanity, as a concept, is greater than the concept of mortality, alone. Imagine that…) The pain Bishamon feels, the evolution of Yukine, and let’s not forget the heroism of Hiyori… again. The buildup to this climax has been handled sublimely and it’s not quite over yet, I’m looking forward to seeing how Bishamon takes this into her own hands and how she deals with Kuguha.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

As with before, now that the semifinals are approaching, Anime TKO participants are barred from the Overall Medalist section. But they’re still viable for the MVP and Unique Achievements. But does either show make the cut for such accolades?

Overall Episode Medalists

It was tough, but I just had to give the Gold to Date A Live III. While it didn’t necessarily hit the same high as the latest from Toaru Majutsu no Index III, it did achieve a new height for its run of the season and maintained it consistently. Its immediate competition didn’t attain its peak until the second half, or so. Thus it takes the Silver. I almost gave the Bronze to Black Clover. Almost. But then it just kinda hit me that, while a nice statement episode, not much actually happened and I was really only invested in the one main draw of the episode. Meanwhile, Kaguya-sama continues to keep me laughing at these two dorks and their inability to spit it out. So it once again brings home that medal.

MVP: Accelerator

I… don’t think I even need to go any further into explaining this. Accelerator singlehandedly brought this episode of Index up from average to awesome. How else can that be described but carrying?

Unique Achievement: Air Distance Traveled

I suppose if there’s anything particularly funny about this string of four episodes, it’s how Asta’s been flung through the air at least once in every single one of them. By this point, the boy qualifies twice-over for frequent flier miles.

Unique Achievement: Relatability Points Accumulated

Dunno why. This image of Mob just sitting off to the side at the karaoke bar, hitting a tambourine registered with me on a deeply personal level. I don’t know whether to feel attacked, or what.

CONCLUSION

And that does it for this week. What’d you guys think? I found it rather interesting how some of the darker shows kinda lightened up on my end, and the lighter ones suddenly got more serious. My opponent seems to have had no such luck, however. Shame. Anyways, thanks for reading, as always. Keep up the Awesome!

Take Care,
Voyager