Weekly Winter Anime Roundup (Week 8)

Mob Psycho 100 II

• There are a lot of things I absolutely love about this week’s episode, and it starts with that really sweet scene where Mob awakens his powers for the first time. It’s a nice way to introduce Mob’s parents into the episode, set up a parallel to show Mob’s growth, and establish how Mob’s abilities are triggered, and react to those around him. There are a million little details that foreshadow or reference things, and one little detail I really like is how Mob unconsciously feeds his father the little hot dog octopus even though he’s crying himself. It’s a cute little reference to that one takoyaki scene with Reigen, and it sort of draws attention to the relationship he has with Reigen.
• Now, the main bulk of the episode is what I think exemplifies the series so far. Rather than simply reacting, Mob continues to be proactive. However, this time, it’s for himself. Though competing in the race is suggested, it is still something that Mob thought of doing on his own, and does so for himself, which really marks the first major act that he does for his own sake. Though he made choices to hang out with friend earlier, he did so on their request, so this stands out as his first major selfish decision, and the reaction to it is resounding. As before with his social groups, people come out in droves to support him, and not just the body improvement team. Continuing the trend of supporting Mob selflessly, Reigen ends up being one of Mob’s many coaches throughout the episode, even though he himself is more out of shape than Mob (which I found kind of hilarious, since he seemed fine before running the fuck away from things). The entire training sequence is a return to that one scene from earlier in the series, where a few people decide to pick on Mob, and all of his friends go to help him. Honestly, it’s a little hard for me to articulate exactly why this means so much to me. I think the reason I enjoy it so much is that seeing the the subtle progression of somebody working to be a better person outside of his abilities, as well as proof of his progress is super rewarding. Knowing how hard he fought for this, all while sticking to his principles, really just makes me proud of how well Mob is doing, even if it’s behind his peers.
• As for the race itself, he clearly doesn’t win, but he still ends up showing everybody how much he’s improved, most importantly his parents. Seeing a worse version of the wound he suffered as a kid, in addition to his lack of reaction to it, shows them how much he has matured without them really noticing, and seeing their reactions was also a really sweet part of the episode. Mob’s parents never really seemed invested in what he was doing, but to me, it seemed clear that they loved him despite all the weird shit that happens around him. They don’t resent his powers, but are merely frustrated by or indifferent to the trouble they could cause. Despite this, they don’t really treat their children differently, and don’t seem to favour one over the other. They simply give credit where credit is due, and near the closing of the episode, it’s really sweet to see Mob’s mother getting ready to make Mob something special to celebrate his victory, as well as Ritsu’s.
• And of course Claw is there, to fuck things up, and Claw never really fails to raise Mob’s fucking meter at hyperspeed. So I’m “looking forward” to seeing how that explosion turned out.

My Roommate is a Cat!

• This episode really ended up illustrating my issues with Subaru’s childhood friend. Basically, his personality doesn’t really fit an adult in this anime, especially when he’s a salaryman and not a freeloader. As he’s shown to have been Subaru’s friend since they were thrust together as little kids, I was struck by have static his personality was; throughout all of the flashbacks, he’s shown to be pushy, self centred, and fairly oblivious to how Subaru feels, both around him alone, and around others. What he does notice is how attached Subaru is to books, but that’s the extent of how much is learned. As he ages, one (me, mainly) would hope that Hiroto would become more subdued and wise, but he retains the cheery idiocy of a recent high school graduate. While this would be an interesting foil to Subaru’s character, Hiroto doesn’t cause Subaru to learn anything about himself, he just continues to push Subaru into uncomfortable situations, and does self serving things that occasionally help Subaru. Rather than heartwarming, it really just comes across as selfish and irritating, and I basically end up dreading whatever scene he’s in, because all I can do is anticipate whatever annoying shit he’s gunna do next.
• One other thing is that he’s barely even necessary, because Subaru’s editor adds all of the awkward, high energy scenes we need, and he seriously fits better, because he’s only just met Subaru, so his ignorance Subaru’s habits make sense in context. The scene where he ends up wrapping a leek around Subaru’s neck makes sense, because he’s been shown as somebody who acts impulsively, and in a way that only really makes sense to him. He’s awkward, but he allows for an outside perspective that Subaru sorely needs, and functions as another external factor that pulls Subaru out of his shell, like Haru and Okami.

The Rising of the Shield Hero

• The high point of this week’s episode was a Homestuck reference that was made in reaction to the curse shield’s corrupt leetspeak when Nana and I were watching it.
• So, this week started out with more rampant anti-heroism, and honestly, I’m kind of getting tired of it. I get that Naofumi doesn’t do things for free because he hates everything, but it’s getting kind of grating now that he’s actually starting to be respected and well known in smaller villages. The point is to make him an anti-hero, but it still feels like he’s being a dick to people unconnected to his issues. Nothing he does really gets back to the castle, and only seems to effect his reputation, since it sure as hell doesn’t effect the overarching threat the brought him here. Like, it’s cool that he’s getting a reputation, but at this point, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, right up to cleaning up the messes of other heroes. I assume next week will have him cleaning up whatever mess the other hero inadvertently caused, while being a dick to some villagers as his daughters fight each other. The episodes seem to be settling into a pattern, and while that pattern has moved on from “fuck Naofumi, I hope he cries because he’s lame”, one boring pattern being replaced by another boring pattern doesn’t really gain much attention.
• In regards to the unfucking he has to do, it ends up unlocking the curse shield, which isn’t the only offensive shield he has, and only really differs by the fact that it consumes him in a way that the others didn’t. It sets up a bond between him an Raphtalia, but it still feels bland and unsatisfying when he doesn’t even do any lasting damage. You can argue that it hurt Raphtalia, but when her burns are literally patches of a filter with no visible damage to her clothes or hair, excuse me for not giving a fuck about what Naofumi can do with his terrible curse borne by his oversized chicken being “eaten”.
• Speaking of, her immediately puking after being bitten? That’s bullshit, and is the furthest damn reach this show has done so far.

Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

• The issue with this week’s episode brings back the absolute lack of proper pacing that I’ve kind of come to expect from this show. It doesn’t really seem to be able to balance the elements that it set up for itself, and any investment in one of the aspects feels frustratingly pointless because that aspect is both not given enough time or pulled off well. An interplay between Asuka’s mundane friendships and the overall danger that she put herself back into are interesting on their own, but they also seemed to be written despite each other. Every aspect of this week’s episode seemed to be trying to culminate in a grand finale where they tie everything together, but even with the reveal of how both sides plan to approach this Super Important Conference, it feels so dissonant. The reintroduction of older characters seems forced, and the beach aspect of the episode feels like the writers were filling out a checklist on what to include in a beach episode. Even the torture scene felt like an execution of obligations, rather than a scene intended to show Kurumi’s malevolent side. Maybe the intention was for it to be jarring, but I feel like that was lessened when Kurumi was shown to be fucking insane when it came to Asuka anyway. Maybe it could’ve been improved by showing how much she enjoyed torturing an actual child, but apparently Abigail contains all the torture joy in this show, and Kurumi just has the lame excuse of not wanting Asuka to suffer, even though it’s clear that Asuka is very capable of doing objectively terrible things. Any real attempt at showing any sort of character building or subtlety falls flat, because it seems like this anime can only show aspects of a character in the most obvious, hamfisted way.
• The prime example of this is the new (illegal??) magical girl, who is set up as a victim from the moment she appears. Her introduction is her visibly slimy father trying to sell her to what is essentially a whorehouse, followed by almost beating her to death. While this happens, she shows no emotion whatsoever, to the point where she blandly wonder if she’s about to die. The point of this is to present her as severely damaged due to her tragic past, where she lost both her leg and her mother to drunk drivers, but all of this is just stated. There’s very little emotion put into it, and even when her saviour leads to her transformation and training as a magical girl, her gratitude is exactly the same as her reaction to her father trying to beat her to death. The only exception to this is when she is tasked with killing the four teenagers who killed her mother, and even then, there’s nothing new to learn about her character. She doesn’t really change when she becomes a magical girl, and she doesn’t even seek vengeance when she explains what happens to her. I guess it can be argued that her demeanor is meant to be a contrast to the previous illegal magical girls, but there’s no real purpose to it, and the absence of enthusiasm can barely be counted as a character trait.
• Another example of the lazy storytelling in this episode is the alleged rivalry between Mia and Tamara, which manifests as weak namecalling and a barely expressed distaste in the other’s presence. Like, it could probably related to the terrible war they both went through, but there’s no convenient flashback to show how they ended up they way they did.
• And as a small sidenote, why wasn’t any part of that amusement park battle shown? It could’ve been a really good way to show other members of the team and how they worked together, and how the military fit into all this, but all we get is corpses and a magical girl eaten by an ooze. It’s super frustrating to see the potential in something, only for the show to completely squander it.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

• This week’s episode had more of aspects that I like, that is, natural character building, and overly complex schemes for regular aspects of being a teenager. What really makes the second aspect work is that the situation that the characters were put in was naturally stressful, and the overthinkers of the group do what they naturally do, solidifying their character without beating the viewer over the head with it. this episode showed characteristics that were mostly just mentioned before, and expand on the scheming that’s been prevalent for the entire series so far. While most people can relate to the stress of exams, seeing the student council’s various reactions to them allows the viewer to identify with the characters, and in my case, especially Ishigami. I loved how the narrator pointing out how Ishigami is a moron for getting a video game in the leadup to exam season, and I’ve been both the narrator and Ishigami in this scenario.
• While the series does go back to absurd drama in the early stages of Kaguya’s tutoring of Ishigami, it still provides a nice bonding moment for the both of them, leading up to a hint of a Ishigami’s backstory. While it’s a little frustrating to not have more context regarding that backstory, it kind of fits, since ishigami took this long to show up in the series at all. In regards to the tutoring, however, it proves to be the polar opposite of the tutoring that takes place between Shirogane and Chika. While the training was less rigourous, the end result, though a success, was both privately witnessed and received poorly by the tutor. However, the intent of the reception was the same, and honestly, I wanna see more positive interaction between Kaguya and Ishigami.

ENDRO

• One thing I do appreciate about this show is how Rona is increasingly humanized, and how her fitting into the party is step by step, rather than all at once. It shows a talent for natural character building on the side of the writers, and it allows for the viewer to become naturally attached to her, rather than a forced attempt at endearing her the the viewer.
• Also, this show is getting increasingly gay and I’m honestly unsure as to how this is gunna turn out.