Hey all, wanted to let you know real quick here at the top that posts this next week may be late or skipped entirely. Had a death in the family on Friday and it’s been a busy weekend. I need to fly home for a funeral and such. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, just wanted to give you all a heads up. Now on with the post!
Frieren – 26 [The Height of Magic]
Funnily enough, the most enjoyable part of Frieren this week had absolutely nothing to do with Frieren. Don’t get me wrong, the fight with the clone was cool enough, but it felt very… Flashy for flashiness sake, if that makes sense? What I mean is, compare it to the demon fight back in the mid-season climax. While both are very well animated, the demon fight felt smooth and purposeful, Fern was showing off, you could still make out and understand what was happening. Meanwhile this battle, aside from the very end with Frieren’s mention of “I haven’t had to use that in 80 years”, felt like it relied way more on effects work and bright lights and so just wasn’t as interesting. Still fun and flashy, but not the highlight of the episode for me. So what does that honor belong? Ubel. Something about her flashback, the conflict with Sense’s clone, this addendum to the “Magic is about imagination and visualization” rule showing us just how powerful a sociopath can be. Cause when you think about it, it makes sense. Cloth? Hair? People? Those can be cut, duh. Magic barriers? Well that’s magic, can’t cut that. But a dude in a cape? Sure why not. It definitely runs on some “Rule of cool” logic, Frieren is without a doubt a soft magic system on the Sanderson scale. But it’s presented in a cool manner, and Ubel is this great mix of “Don’t cut me” scary and “Step on me” hot. Still, even with that critique I want to make this very clear: Frieren was fun and definitely the highlight of the week. Just because it wasn’t as good as one of its best episodes doesn’t mean it was bad. Overall, I’d call this 2nd test a success.
Dungeon Meshi – 10 [Giant Frogs/Aboveground]
Similar to Frieren, Dungeon Meshi gave us a really fun episode, with a lot of positives, but one that just falls short of its previous highs. And that’s fine! This episode is a lot of prep for the final battle with the Red Dragon as they arrive near is lair, start planning how to take it down, doubting themselves, all that good stuff. Plus, it’s not like the episode didn’t have joke. That bit with the frog skins, Marcille’s ears poking out to look more like a frog face, her being completely done with Laios’ bullshit, that was all hilarious. I especially enjoyed Marcille not knowing who to rant at between Laios sewing costumes and Senshi cooking tentacles. As for getting to the castle town, it’s a cool location for a final battle. I’ll admit, it doesn’t feel as alive as previous sections of the dungeon, but I’m willing to chalk that up to a Red Dragon rampaging and killing everything in the area. Makes sense. Really, the only part of the episode I felt was lacking was the politics. Dungeon Meshi dedicated a good chunk to setting up what will happen after the Red Dragon, I’m talking about the Elves demanding the dungeon back, the politics of the Immortality spell and defeating the Mad Mage, all that shit. Were this a 1-cour show, I would call that a waste of time. But seeing as we have 12 more episodes after the dragon is defeated, it’s probably a good idea to put in that leg work now so it doesn’t have to interrupt the dragon fight nor shoe-horn anything in during the cathartic reunion with Falin. So yeah, all around a good setup episode for the upcoming battle.
A Sign of Affection – 9 [I Don’t Want to Leave]
Yubisaki gets cuter and cuter every week. A double date in the mountains learning sign language? Hiking buddies with matching outfits? Shiratori in the car and Itsuomi saying he wants to go on an overseas trip with his girlfriend? The princess carry? Recognizing his actions and apologizing for putting pressure on Yuki about travel?! It’s great! Every episode it feels like Itsuomi is growing more and more as a person, both in how he communicates and recognizing what makes Yuki uncomfortable. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I adore how their relationship has grown and changed over the course of the series. And as for the other pair? Kyouya and Rin? I like how these two feel… I wouldn’t say more adult, perhaps more jaded, in their relationship? They’ve been around the block, or at least Kyouya has. And he’s misread signals and jumped to conclusions before, been hurt before, and he’s completely right that around 30 texts and dating just… It’s a pain to play that game. He just wants someone to be honest and upfront about what they want. I really feel that, and I’ve come to really like his relationship with Rin after this episode. Now all that’s left is for Yubisaki to give Oushi a compelling romance, which it feels like it’s setting up. Can’t wait to see it!
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 10 [Unhinged?! The Black Knight Appears!]
Closing out the top tier of the week we have Wrong Way. Never in a million years did I expect an Isekai of all things to wind up in my top 5 for a season. When this show first started, it seriously looked like nothing more than the standard “Hyper specific OP ability Isekai” we see so much of. Yet here we are, heading into the climax, and I find myself in love with… almost the entire cast if I’m being honest. Usato coming out of his shell and not being that anti-social self-insert stereotype. Suzune and Kazuki being actually good friends and upper classmen to this guy they previously knew nothing about, all while avoiding the start love-triangle tropes since each of them are interested in someone else. Rose, the badass Onee-san teacher with a legitimate backstory justifying her focus on saving over killing and her hyper-focus on Usato. Even the random group of thugs that make up the Healer Corp, with their ridiculous designs like Gurd and Gomul, just feel like bros who found new purpose under Rose. Yeah, some of the OP stuff is still there, Usato is still using healing magic to become far stronger than he probably should. And yeah, the Black Knight is a hyper-specific foe that only Usato can defeat because he can hit them, take the reflected damage, and then heal it. But there’s an earnestness here, both to the characters and how it’s all setup, that feels earned. Suzune and Kazuki tried their best, with a legitimately good plan, one the Black Knight purposefully and tactically baited them into. It’s good! And ain’t that the biggest surprise of the season? Looking forward to this finale.
Undead Unluck – 22 [Profile]
Heading into the middle-tier, at its top for this week is Undead Unluck. The core of the show is still great. When Undead Unluck is firing on full cylinders, when the narrative is kicking up and moving forward, it’s great. Victor’s backstory with Juiz, the conversations with Fuko, the reveal of Andy’s new powers now that he’s shifted his understanding of “death” thus affecting how “Undead” works, the repeated mention about how the perception of one’s ability and reality greatly affects/limits what you can do, basically calling out to the audience that you can do anything you set your mind to, the way that transitions to Fuko’s personalized “Unluck” giving us the secret to how they can defeat God, that’s all great. Where Undead Unluck falls short this week though is in the production. Simply put, the fight between Andy and Victor looked… Mediocre. There are worse fights, Ragna Crimson’s Ragna vs Kamui looked absolutely abysmal a few weeks ago, Undead Unluck is nowhere near that bad. But this is also the worst the action has looked in a while, it’s clear the production is flagging and it’s starting to show on the screen. Luckily the narrative is what I’m here for and that’s still good enough for me to watch, and love, the show every week. Still sad to see how far it’s fallen though.
Bucchigiri – 7 [Group Date?! The Sea, Maji Croquette, And I!]
Bucchigiri seems to be taking it easy right now, and I get it. It just had the big mid-season climax, time to wind down and have some fun again, save the big drama for later. And that’s mostly what this episode is, fun! With the big fight done, everyone getting out of the hospital, what are they going to do? Go to the beach! And what are a bunch of hooligans going to do at the beach? WrestleMania tournament obviously! Wait what? Yeah, that caught me by surprise too, and under normal circumstances it would feel completely out of place. But Bucchigiri managed to play it up so well, have so much fun with it by giving everyone their own wrestling moves and acting like it was this serious thing, as well as dropping a lot of side jokes like Mahoro being in a full-body burka to avoid being seen by Arajin or the NG Boys doing the cooking at the event as punishment, that it just worked. I’ll admit, I don’t think I could handle too many more episodes of this since I really want to see where the actual story goes, but for a wind down episode? It was fun.
The Apothecary Diaries – 21 [How to Buy Out a Contract]
Apothecary Diaries Was… fine? This episode was mostly about Lihaku and Pairin, one of the Princesses from the Verdigris house. On Lihaku’s side it was kinda funny, Mao Mao appraising him like she would a horse based on Pairin’s tastes, as well as him going along with it and Jinshi walking in on what would otherwise be a very compromising position, got a few chuckles from me. Meanwhile on Pairin’s side it was more wholesome, talking about how she helped raise Mao Mao and all that. I liked how clear it was made that this is Pairin’s choice, and that her opinion of you can affect the price a great deal. Also got some mentions of just how absolutely horny the lady it, but hey, important to know your partner I suppose. Most of this was fluff if I’m being honest, didn’t mean much for a wider story and was just good fun. And that’s fine! It was still a decent episode. Just not the best is all. The most interesting bit for me personally was Jinshi’s “interrogation” of Lihaku. Offering to buy Pairin for him, basically trying to bribe/indebt Likhaku to him to get a spy in Lakan’s part of the Outer Palace. It was good show of Lihaku’s character that he turned it down, and I think Jinshi respected that. Outside of that though, still a mid-tier Apothecary episode for me. Definitely feels like this second half has fallen a bit compared to the first.
Ishura – 10 [Vanishing Calamity]
Ishura continues to escalate in slow, but awesome ways. Two main things happened in this episode: Dakai the Magpie faced off against Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, and Kia the World Word announced her presence to the world at large. For the first, this was pretty cool. I liked that we got to see just how different and more threatening Soujirou’s swordsmanship is compared to everyone else’s. Dakai couldn’t even scratch the mech, no matter what he did, even firing the Cold Star which obliterates cities at it did nothing. Yet Soujirou was able to cleave part of it’s armored head off? That’s pretty! Of course that also laid the groundwork for Dakai’s victory, giving him the opening he needed to poison it and unlock the latch, giving him access to Nihilo herself, which sucked. I really think she should have won that fight. But hopefully it means Dakai and Soujirou will have fight themselves before the season ends, that would be nice. As for Kia, this is really more of a “scale” thing. Her basically waving her hand and dispelling the fire across an entire city, outing what she is to Lana, was cool. We also got an interesting question, can Kia speak faster than someone like Shalk can move? Because her biggest weakness seems to be her naivete, her inexperience, and I could see that being her downfall. Whatever the case, she’s out in the open now, and I look forward to what that means for the conflict. I doubt she’s going to get to fight much in the time that’s left, as sadly we only have 2 episodes remaining and that isn’t nearly enough time to wrap all of this up. But maybe she will get a solid fight scene before the end.
Shangri-La Frontier – 21 [Errands, Cultivation, and Game Progress]
Shangri-La continues to exist in this weird post-climax state where it’s already had the big finale, the big epic battle, but it still has episodes left in the season, just not enough to kickoff and finish an actual arc. That leaves us in this limbo state where there only thing it’s able to do is setup, setup and more setup. Some of that setup is cool! Seeing the real Katsu, this mention of a big tournament and his fancy chair, that’s interesting! Plus the formation of a Guild/Clan, foisting the position of Guild Leader onto Arthur because they are all misanthropes and hate responsibility/managing things, that was cool too! I continue to really enjoy their interactions, they feel like real friends playing a game. But that’s really all that happened this episode, and isn’t enough to really excite anyone now that we are a few episodes passed Wezaemon. Maybe it figures something out for the interim with Bilac’s Ancient Craftsmen quest, that would be nice. But it definitely feels like a “Season 2 waiting room” at the moment.
Solo Leveling – 8 [This Is Frustrating]
Kicking off our low-tiers for the week is Solo Leveling. There’s really not much to say here, very little of interest happened in this episode. The fact that’s enough to put it at the top should foreworn you as to how the last two shows this week did. I’m getting ahead of myself though, what did actually happen in this episode? Mostly Jin-Woo deciding on a plan for the future, IE solo-raiding C-rank gates to farm experience so he can conquer the tower we saw earlier, as well as some minor setup for our next arc. Personally though, the only thing of interest was the reunion of the D-Rank gate survivors, Joo-Hee, Chi-Yul, Mr. Kim, all those guys. It was nice seeing their different reactions to Jin-Woo, whether that be being inspired, thankful or guilty, as well as those small moments within their own lives and how they handled surviving the event. Seeing it still affecting people long after it’s finished is good! Now hopefully for next week this prisoner-escort job, which is obviously going to go wrong, Solo Leveling isn’t being subtle about that at all, ramps things up a bit. Because action is really where Solo Leveling shines, and we haven’t gotten much good action from it since… Episode 4 I think? With the C-Rank hunters? That sounds right.
Unwanted Undead Adventurer – 10 [A Strange Man and a Strange Job]
Unwanted Undead, once again, sits comfortably near the bottom of the week. The only reason Unwanted Undead isn’t lower this week is because Majo to Yajuu is actively fucking things up so much that just being “boring” simply isn’t enough to earn that spot. And boring is what I would call this episode. While I’m normally fine with talking episodes, especially ones that kick off a new arc or progress a character, large portions of this one were about pointless stuff that had nothing to do with Rentt’s condition or journey. I’m talking about Edel starting a rat army, or Rentt basically adopting/looking after the orphanage long term, or the whole thing with butchering the Tarasque. Yeah, they flesh out the world a bit. But they feel like chores. Like a checklist the show is trying to get through rather than things that matter. Even this new arc with the reclusive nobles where he might get a magic item doesn’t feel necessary, just let him go back into the dungeons and do adventuring things! That’s what made this show fun to begin with! Maybe Unwanted Undead can do something interesting with the Latour’s, I don’t know. But currently? I’m not very enthused by it all.
The Witch and the Beast – 8 [The Witch and the Demon Sword, Act III]
Finally bringing up the tail of the week we have Majo to Yajuu. I just… It’s incredible how much can go wrong with this show, how it can shift from a stellar arc like the Necromancer to this. It’s not like the team is trying to screw it up, there are interesting ideas here. A glove sewn and enchanted from the skin of 17 kings? Sounds like a rad magic item. The demon sword not being a sword but a bound entity whose only rule is that it won’t kill the one who draws it, dooming the rest of the world, and being unable to be dominated by said hand? Also pretty damn rad. The Cugat guy saving Ashaf and not killing his subordinate because he couldn’t know if they were mind-controlled or not, as well as against Helga because he saw she wasn’t truly fighting back, showing this soft-heart and a more complex character? All cool! Which is why it’s such a god damn shame that the presentation of it all, the way it’s shot, animated, paced, is so terrible. Was anything I just said interesting? Well too bad, because Majo to Yajuu is unable to sell any of it. The glove looks like a childrens toy, the villain acts like an entilted brat, the demon sword just stands there menacingly, any time an attack goes off we either get screen shake or smoke effects, nothing else. Despite the idea of it all being decent, Majo to Yajuu is unable to capitalize on it, leading it to being easily the most boring show of the week for me, by a wide margin.
The post Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 9 appeared first on Star Crossed Anime.
