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The presence of Chomusuke is also underexplained.
Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo! (Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!) is a prequel about Megumin's magic school days before she met Kazuma and the rest of the regular Konosuba! cast. There is a lot of good stuff in it, and I enjoy watching it, but it's not really a great show on its own. Specifically, there doesn't seem to much of a narrative, and the various plot lines come across as sort of disjointed. Basically, random events happen, sometimes centering on side characters with no meaningful ties to Megumin, and it's all "fine," but it doesn't result in an especially satisfying anime.

It's weird more Crimson Demons don't adhere to Megumin's views on Explosion Magic.
Now, I did say there's good stuff in Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo! that I like. Megumin herself is great. She's an overachiever in a society that not only sincerely values style over substance, it encourages its members to engage in the deepest chuuni bullshit. I love me some Megumin. However, the closest thing An Explosion on This Wonderful World! has to character arcs involve her relationship with the Yunyun. Within Konosuba! proper, Yunyun mostly serves as the punchline to cruel jokes about her lack of friends. However the deeper the prequel establishes Yunyun's ties with Megumin, the less funny her poor treatment becomes.

If you humanize Yunyun, we'll feel bad for her.
In fact, I'm starting to feel as if Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo! would have been better off pulling a bait-and-switch on the audience. Get all of us on board by making us think that it's going to be a Megumin anime, but then portray the entire series from Yunyun's point of view while minimizing their interactions. That's obviously not practical for a number of reasons, not least of which is because Explosion Magic Is Best Magic ~The Animation~ is an adaptation of a spin-off light novel and presumably adheres to established source material. I don't know how straightforward the adaptation is, but it would explain the structural issues I have with the anime if it turns out it's skipping beats from the books.
Posted in Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo!, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! | Tags: Bad Things Happen to Good People, CATS, Initial impressions, Light Novels, Magic School, Season Introduction, Sequels, Spring 2023 | Permanent Link

Of course she has mystic eyes.
I don't have a compelling reason to still be watching Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou II (The Misfit of Demon King Academy 2nd Season), but I also don't have a reason to stop. There's not exactly a shortage of shows about overpowered characters easily crushing those who oppose them, but I don't feel as though I watch a lot of those, and I'm pretty sure I watch even fewer where the lead is so smug about it. (Overlord fits the former, but Momonga's anxiety rules out the latter.)

Eleanor and Sasha both have good hair.
I liked the first season well enough. There were a number of twists I enjoyed, and the story focused on developing a manageable number of characters in interesting ways. Here in the second season, a lot of episodes seem to include strap hangers who are mostly just serving as an entourage following Anos (Maou-kun) around as he continues untangling the various mysteries surrounding the two thousand years he's been out of action, but it's still okay. I would personally prefer more Sasha stories, or an arc or two centered around Maou-kun's parents, but it's fine either way.
[Update: I forgot to mention Anos was re-cast between seasons.]
Posted in Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha | Tags: Hair, Initial impressions, Light Novels, Magic School, Recasting, Season Introduction, Superlovely Character Designs, tsundere, Winter 2023 | Permanent Link

Is it normal to strip naked in a general store?
I'm still watching Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu (Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement), sometimes abbreviated as Roukin, but I'm not getting much out of it. It's one of those isekai fantasy shows where primitive locals marvel at modern conveniences that we take for granted. Boil-in-a-bag fish entrées?! Vegetable peelers?! Shampoo?! AMAZING!! This is also a world that is ignorant of crop rotation and fertilizer, so yeah, one of those sorts of shows. Maybe the king will eat a Dorito and instantly drop dead from the intense nacho cheesiness.

I guess you do what you gotta do to experience "Rediance."
It's fine. I wasn't expecting much from it, and I'm not especially impressed by any of it so far, but it's not really objectionable. Well, there are A LOT of plot elements that would not hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny, not least of which is Mitsuha's severely underutilized teleportation ability, but don't worry about it. This is an anime adaptation of a light novel written by the author of Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! (Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!) which got an anime release in the Autumn 2019 season. I guess the difference is I dropped Noukin after a single episode, rating it WORSE THAN COSPRAYERS, but I'm still watching Roukin after four episodes. It's got that going for it.
Posted in Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu, Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!, WORSE THAN COSPRAYERS | Tags: Autumn 2019, Dropped Shows, Girls With Guns, Light Novels, Season Introduction, Winter 2023 | Permanent Link

If you were really pulling on her arms, those gloves would slip off and she would escape.
First of all, I don't even know if anyone is actually referring to Akuyaku Reijou nano de Last Boss wo Kattemimashita (I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss) as Akulas. Hell, probably as many viewers thought of Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shiteshimatta... (My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!) as either Hamehura or Hamefura as they did Bakarina. These light novel titles are an absolute nightmare.

Lilia seems really boring and irrelevant, so I'm expecting some huge twist later.
ANYWAY, Akulas, like Bakarina, is an isekai about a girl who reincarnates as a villainess character from a video game that she's been playing. The series is about her efforts to avoid the unfortunate fate that she remembers her character ultimately suffering in the game. Then something-something "the friends we made along the way."

You can tell he's supposed to be the evil one because of the way he's dressed.
Consequently, comparisons between Akulas and Bakarina are natural, although the two series don't appear to have much else in common, at least not through the first three episodes of Akuyaku Reijou nano de Last Boss wo Kattemimashita. As far as differences go, the Akulas lead is trying to team up with the game world's end boss (who inadvertently kills her character in the game), whereas Bakarina herself concentrates primarily on reversing her inherited character's reputation for being a cunt.

Way to fuck it up, you stupid asshole. Now you're left with nothing. Nothing!
Nothing except for your wealth, power, and the girl who you wanted to marry.
Notably, Aileen from I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss seems much more intelligent than Catarina from My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! who—bless her heart—is dumb as all Hell. As far as the shows themselves go, I watched two seasons of Bakarina, and still like it enough that I guess I would still watch more. Thanks to its early start, I'm already a quarter of the way through Akulas. It seems all right, but I'm not especially interested in it. I don't really have any complaints about the series; it's just not my thing. But maybe Lilia will stab someone in the neck later.
Posted in Akuyaku Reijou nano de Last Boss wo Kattemimashita, Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta…, Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shiteshimatta... X | Tags: Autumn 2022, Childhood Friend, Compare and Contrast, Douche Bags, Hair, Hanakana Distortion Field, Hanazawa Kana, Light Novels, Romance, Season Introduction, Shoujo, tsundere, Unrequited Love | Permanent Link

This fucker is too stupid to live. And yet....
I haven't checked if Overlord season four is adapting a proportionally greater amount of the source material than the previous seasons did, but it feels like it. The anime has covered a lot of ground at breakneck speed, and it appears the remaining episodes will bring us all the way to the end of volume 14 (at least based on the content in the OP). Notably, the anime has already skipped past the Holy Kingdom arc that will be covered by the upcoming movie.

GET HYPED
For anime-only viewers, this timeskip occurs without explanation. Unfortunately for anyone relying solely on in-show context to fill in the gaps when it comes to events and organizations not explicitly depicted in the TV anime thus far, there is a fairly significant error that appeared in the official subtitles for episode eight of season four. Specifically, the Holy Kingdom and the Slaine (Slane) Theocracy are treated as being one and the same. They are not. It's an understandable mistake if the translation team is working without the benefit of knowing what the movie will cover, since the Holy Kingdom hasn't been previously introduced in the anime at all, while the Theocracy has been a fixture since the first season.

This old dude.
To clarify, the Kingdom is the country that has featured most prominently in Overlord so far. It's called the Kingdom because, you know, it has a king (the old dude). Last season and this season, there's also the Empire. This is the country with (can you guess?) an Emperor (the young blond guy who is stressed out all the time). We don't know that much about the Theocracy, but they seem to be religious douchebags who deserve to get thrashed. The Holy Kingdom is the country receiving humanitarian aid (the grain that Philip steals) from our intrepid heroes.

This stressed-out guy.
The Crunchyroll's subtitles mistakenly refer to the Holy Kingdom as the Theocracy, which is incorrect and wildly confusing because Nazarick regards the Theocracy as an adversary and would have no reason to provide it with humanitarian aid. [Update: They fixed it.] It's spoilers for the upcoming movie, but I'll leave it up to your imagination to discern why the Holy Kingdom would need humanitarian aid. (Spoilers: Because it gets frickin' wrecked. This wouldn't have happened if y'all had more R.U.N.E.C.R.A.F.T.)
Posted in Overlord | Tags: Bad Things Happen to Good People, books, Douche Bags, Light Novels, Movies and OVAs, OP ED, Sequels, Spoilers, Summer 2022, war, War Is All Hell | Permanent Link

For a kid who's only in her 70s, Aura has a lot to deal with.
I assume nobody is trying to watch the fourth season of Overlord without watching the first three seasons first or reading the books. Without the foundational background, most of the events so far must be somewhat confusing. Since the first anime season came out seven years ago, there are surely potential viewers today who were too young to get in on it in 2015. If any of y'all are reading this, I don't know what to tell you. At least all of it is available on the Crunchyroll, so it's accessible, even for non-subscribers using the free, ad-supported tier. Get caught up.

It's all right, Shalltear. You can just kill them all later.
In my case, I'm pleased simply to get more Overlord anime at all, even if years of memes may have colored my expectations as to how certain scenes ought to transpire. I'm also relieved that the use of 3DCG has (at least so far), not suffered as it did during the third season. Man, some of that was dire. I'm also pretty stoked there's a movie in the works that will cover one of the best arcs from the books. If you've seen people going on and on about some pope, that will make sense after the movie. It's gonna rule.
Posted in Overlord | Tags: Bad Things Happen to Good People, Initial impressions, Light Novels, Sequels, Summer 2022, Vampires, war, War Is All Hell | Permanent Link

WHAT MAKES THE GREEN GRASS GROW?
I don't have a huge appetite for lore, and often find it enervating (Fate/Grand Order, I'm looking in your direction), but the setting and backstory for Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road (The Executioner and Her Way of Life) strikes the right balance of being both silly enough and sensible enough for me to appreciate. For example, I'm totally okay with the explanation as to why everyone in this isekai destination speaks modern Japanese.

This was a pretty transparent attempt to tee-up some make-up sex later.
I'm also enjoying the casual duplicity that surely taints probably every character's interaction with every other character, even their allies. I have seen some indications on the Twitter that there were some (presumably juvenile) viewers who took the first-episode betrayal rather poorly, but I'm willing to assume those reactions are in the minority, and only came to my attention at all because their outrage amused more seasoned anime fans. Besides, knowing even the bare minimum about the show from the synopsis or the PVs, or potentially even from the title should have provided sufficient notice that the first episode of the series might be somewhat misleading.

It helps that Momo has nice hair.
In any case, I'm enjoying basically every part of The Executioner and Her Way of Life even though I don't typically pursue anime that correspond with many of its more prominent themes. The light-novel bullshit is fine with me so far, and even the very anime antics of a Kuroko-esque turbo lesbian being used as gags aren't off-putting. Momo is sufficiently exasperated by various hassles frequently enough to round out her character, so I'm mildly pro-Momo at this point. She's quite a step down from the Spring 2022 anime season's other Momo, of course, but that's a really high bar, so don't view it as a strike against the Shokei Shoujo Momo, necessarily.
Posted in Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road | Tags: Hair, Initial impressions, J.C. Staff, Light Novels, Season Introduction, Spoilers, Turbo Lesbians, Unrequited Love | Permanent Link

Congratulations on not being dead.
P.S. Spoilers.
To tell you the truth, I sort of forgot 86 Eighty Six season 2 two had delayed its final 2 two episodes to March 2022 Two Thousand Twenty Two. I mean, things were sort of tense when we last saw our characters, but it totally could have just ended the season where it was. I would have accepted a cliffhanger-ish ending and an indefinite wait until the next cours, whenever that happens to be. I mean, I think it's reasonable to expect there will be another cours at some point. The anime seems pretty well-regarded, and I've warmed up to it as well, despite some initial misgivings.

Congratulations on not being dead.
P.S. Spoilers.
86 is at its best when it's exploring how its characters relate to each other and to their shared experiences with war. These aspects of the series are much more compelling than how it depicts the war itself or the dynamics of the societies involved. This is not necessarily because I find many of those elements unrealistic, but rather more because I'm not invested in their outcomes. I'm not particularly invested in most of the characters either, but the series has devoted enough time to developing them that I can at least appreciate their emotional resonance.
Posted in 86 Eighty Six | Tags: Autumn 2021, Bad Things Happen to Good People, Crying, Girls With Guns, Legs that go up to her neck, Light Novels, Spoilers, Tiny Pictures Are the Way of Love, Ueda Kana, war, War Is All Hell, Winter 2022 | Permanent Link
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