Hey all, quick note at the top here, apologies for all these delays. Wrote it in the Nana post but I’ve been pretty sick since Wednesday and have been catching up these past few days. That’s all.
Dungeon Meshi – 21 [Egg/The Golden County]
This was an interesting episode of Dungeon Meshi, as we start to expand our scope beyond the dungeon and into the wider world and its history, as well as all the consequences that brings. On the surface, this means we get to meet the Fantasy Cops AKA, the Elves. This squad is… interesting. Every single one of them looks like a sociopath, from Mr. “Covered in magical tattoos” to “I had a stroke and I’m still better than you”. Honestly it’s a pretty cool looking cast, I like how varied their designs are and I’m looking forward to their role in the story. They are obviously gonna be bad guys, we were warned about how the Elves react to Ancient/Dark Magic back when Marcille was doing her thing. So there’s not a doubt in my mind they are going to end up fighting our main party. The question is just whether or not we inevitably team up with them to take down the Mad Mage, or if we fight them after the Mad Mage goes down to secure Marcille/the loot/Dungeon Lordship. Should be interesting! Meanwhile underground we get some history, meeting some more of the ghosts, learning about their Curse Of Immortality, and the source of his power, the Winged Lion, kept further down. We have a goal, a weakness, and a prophecy now! Things are ramping up! All in all a lot of fun, I’m enjoying the slow escalation of the story, it feels like a fantastic home game of D&D with just the right mix of action and comedy. The fact that Dungeon Meshi is a complete story gives me a lot of hope too, I wasn’t aware of that before now.
Wind Breaker – 8 [Succeeding the Past]
Oh Wind Breaker, how close you continue to be to greatness. Most everything around Togame? Still pretty good, him not realizing what his boys had been up to, what had caused all of this, how deeply Choji’s attitude and philosophy had corrupted the Shishitoren, and then being utterly defeated upon learning that what he was fighting for was a lie, was good shit. I kind of wish Sakura, or really anyone, had lost a fight, because them dominating all 5 matches was kind of boring, but the way Wind Breaker sold Togame throwing the fight as recompense was good. Him owning up to it and taking that first step forward. Solid shit, when Wind Breaker engages with what communities mean to each character, the very thing it started on back in episode 1, it’s good. I enjoy how it portrayed a communities corruption, how difficult it is to stand up to and push back against that corruption from the inside, and how quiet it can be. What I wasn’t a fan of though was Choji. This guy… He’s such a one-note villain, especially when following up Togame. There’s nothing interesting here, just a child lashing out because they don’t want to grow up. Yeah he had some cool choreo, that snap kick to Togame’s face was great, and his fight looks pretty good too. But Wind Breaker has always had good choreography, so that’s not unique to him. Had Togame been the end of it all, hell had he turned around and fought Choji instead of continuing his fight with Sakura and Togame vs Choji has been the final fight instead of Umemiya vs Choji, it could have been great. We’d even have a new “ally” for future arcs as he takes over the Shishitoren. Instead it’s two largely undeveloped characters going at it. Maybe next week will make it work, I dunno. If nothing else I expect some rad fight choreo.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night – 7 [Daybreak]
This was a weird week of Jellyfish, and honestly the first time it’s missed for me. The career guidance stuff was fine, as is the talk of what peoples future plans are. Kiui wanting to be a middle school teacher was sweet and tracks, as does Yoru rediscovering her love for art and pushing for art universities after school. It’s nice seeing how everyone’s time together has changed them! Where things started to get weird was the motorcycle class. Not because of the motorcycles themselves, aside from them riding ones way to large for them, seriously you’re both short start with something smaller, but because of the new girl we meet, Koharu. This girl is… Did we really need all the random ecchi shit? Flashing, groping, blurring the screen for a full 5 seconds as we closeup on her getting fondled after talking about breast surgery? It just seems unnecessary and really took away from Kano’s struggle of not having any future plans of her own. Things sort of came back by the end, Yoru riding on the motorcycle, reciprocating Kano’s interest and making it clear that Kano inspires her and how she loves her singing. That was all great, really cute! Just… Please no more Koharu, I really don’t like her or what she brings to Jellyfish.
My Hero Academia Season 7 – 3 [Villain]
Credit where it’s due for My Hero Academia, for all the shit I give the narrative, I do think the traitor plotline is one of the few things it setup and followed through on well. Aoyama’s incompatibility with his quirk, all the previous interactions he’s had with Midoriya, his actions during previous big events, it’s all there. It’s also nice to have another, previously at least, quirkless character in the case. That’s something of a missed opportunity for My Hero Academia, something it didn’t use a lot of, I’m glad it’s coming up here. The lead up is also a bit lacking, I don’t think that was done particularly well, but the reveal itself worked and Hagakure reflecting the light beam/revealing what she really looked like was rather cool. Lastly there’s the beginning of the redemption, the plan to use Aoyama as a double-agent and feed information back to All for One to get him to come out into a trap. That’s smart, it’s just the presentation of it, how quickly they leapt at it, that comes off a bit awkward. Overall though, I liked the episode, I liked the focus on the characters before the big battle. Much like Demon Slayer this (Last?) week, it’s nice to have.
Viral Hit – 7 [Special Training]
Viral Hit is really straddling the line here. On one hand, it’s doing exactly what I didn’t want, somehow prepping Hobin to fight Taehun one-on-one. Yeah, he does it intelligently. He picks a location that is advantageous for him, practices moves specifically to defend/fight against Taekwondo, does everything he can to prepare for Taehun specifically. But it’s still acting like Hobin has a shot of actually defeating a professional MMA fighter that, in all honesty, he should have 0% chance of beating. On the other hand though. by the end of the episode basically everything has gone wrong for Hobin. It didn’t rain, he had to go to a new location, and his strategies aren’t working. If Viral Hit commits to all of his plans meaning nothing, to really driving home just how vast the difference between them is, then I’ll be happy. Really force him to take this seriously, to commit to being a professional fighter rather than treating all of this like a joke. I’ll be even happier if Munseong shows up to push Taehun back, getting him involved in the main story and giving Hobin an understandable out from the fight. Viral Hit has a lot of options here, it just needs to make use of them and not screw itself by giving Hobin a victory he doesn’t deserve.
Astro Note – 8
This episode of Astro Note was definitely a miss for me. Some of it was cute, I do enjoy seeing Mira and Miyasaki get closer now that they can finally talk honestly, without hiding any of the alien stuff. But so much else, Ren hunting Naosuke to prove he isn’t a dog, Aoi getting possessed by the Hubby spy and starting fights/beating people up, even the narrative related stuff around the keys, all felt like it was just wasting time. Nothing really progressed this episode, nothing new was really introduced, and none of the jokes were particularly funny. Just an all around off week for Astro Note.
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