Meh. Actually stab someone, you cowards.
Impressions:
And then there’s this, where I expect mediocrity, and boy, do I get it. You’d think this episode would be about the sword tomboy that it starts out with, fighting evil clouds. Oh, did we not mention that? We no longer do territory games, now we’re fighting evil clouds. And losing. So she spits out her backstory, or more like a complete lack of one, and then… leaves. The climax of the episode doesn’t involve her whatsoever. The biggest evilest ghost is actually one of the Shinsengumi who… uh… needed to be told he was a ghost and everyone else was dead? That’s it? And then he was ready to go to heaven? But wait. Stay and train that one girl. Off screen. Also, the main character now has a magical girl transformation sequence. And her pet ghosts are searching for their kids? Legitimately, was any of this crap even mentioned before? Weren’t they on the run from the ghost of Nero?
So still not anything approaching good, but unhinged in at least ways that baffle me instead of make me want to claw my cerebellum out from tedious repetition. The biggest anchor remains the terrible duet sequences, which are also meant to be the unique selling point and draw. Or at least the side hustle that they’re selling. You’d think more effort would go into highlighting those and making them part of the narrative instead of being treated like a black box where things get resolved essentially off-screen. Bizarrely at that, as the Shinsengumi dude all of a sudden gives up his metaphorical stabbings and instead starts grooving in place. Who could possibly think that looks good?
