#7.11.20

OH GOD OH FUCK NO

Here’s midcards.

Fucking adorable Riri

Fucking adorable Riri?

Oh my god I wish these two would fucking kiss already, this show is a class S nightmare designed to torture me if they don’t.

They even did the fucking lesbian grass thing! Come on now all you need to do is show them kissing. That’s literally all I want from this show. I know I’m setting myself up to be disappointed by expecting girls to kiss ever in anime, but this show’s going so fucking far with the class S yuri shit that I want an actual payoff to it all.

Anyway to talk about this episode finally, the actual plot was just, remember in like episode 3 or 4 maybe, where Yuyu went that rage mode I forget the name of, Riri hugged her to stop it, and then Riri tells Yuyu that zettai daijoubu da yo? Yeah well it’s that again. Everyone’s watching some other group chain, Riri nearly gets fucked up, and then exactly what I described just happened. The only difference being that Yuyu has a slightly more emotionally involved reaction and outburst about her own insecurities and stuff.

I don’t know why this episode exists the way it does. Because it just feels like we’re retreading ground we’ve already covered for only a tiny bit more info. Yuyu even gets the same PTSD response to seeing her old weapon in the Huge. There’s a minor difference here in that the weapon is inside of the Huge so now we’re questioning how the Huge was able to use it, but again, was that worth retreading the same plot point for? This climax has been done already, every difference we had this time was so insignificant that it could’ve happened in that original climax. We didn’t need to waste time doing this.

Another thing that felt weird to me is that, just like that other episode where this exact plot point happened, this episode opened on fairly inconsequential shit and just sorta, turned into plot heavy stuff randomly throughout. This is a show that throws you into plot so randomly that you’re never prepared for it, and like, that’s not a bad thing inherently, but it doesn’t do a good job at relating the character’s surprise to our own. So I never feel like “oh shit, plot’s happening!” and instead it’s more like, “huh, I guess plot’s happening now...”

Episode was otherwise fine I guess, for what it’s worth it does do a better job at being episode 3 than episode 3 did. Or again maybe it was 4. Emotions felt better done, Yuyu and Riri’s relationship is more convincing, and importantly, the fight looks good.

Also there’s some exposition about Lilies basically being humans that became Huge but still kept their hearts and aren’t controlled by Magie. Probs gonna be relevant to the mystery about that Huge being able to use a Charm. Whatever. Honestly I don’t care about this show’s magic system even remotely. It honestly feels written for a video game, but it’s not really compelling in anime format.

I watched Kamisama ni Natta Hi episode 5

It was fucking fantastic

Stealthy thigh screenshot, god damn 

Unironically fuckin fantastic exchange, like it’s funny to watch, it’s an unexpectedly cool way to payoff Yuuji rejecting Sukuna’s terms, it has fascinating plot ramifications down the line, like what could Sukuna possibly even want with Yuuji’s body if he’s not getting to kill or injure people while in it, and yeah the scene was just so god damn entertaining that I’m not mad or disappointed anymore. It was completely worth it.

Other highlights include Gojou being a cool and fun mentor character. He spells out his aims pretty clearly here, wanting revolution so training the young ones to rise up against the current bad Jujutsu Tech and stuff. It’s nice seeing him lament the death of Yuuji as someone who could have risen to his level too, because like, I guess it’s kind of tsundere? He laments Yuuji’s death for losing a strong ally, but you can kinda tell from his voice and past history with Yuuji that he’s clearly lamenting the loss of a friend too. It’s just fuckin cool. And then Yuuji’s vow to train and better himself before facing his friends again is just a fuckin, rock solid character moment that has me hotly anticipating the fucking tournamet arc of all things, just so I can see the triumphant return he presents to his friends. There’s also a lot of pretty good comedy throughout the training stuff, so yeah, cool show.

The one other thing I want to mention this episode is that that fuckin scene where the fire demon boyo starts spontaneously combusting everyone in the restaurant around him was fucking crazy! Like holy shit MAPPA, that was clean as all fucking hell, loved the direction too! Villain kills civilians to show off his power is a tried and true trope, but when you do such an amazing job at showcasing the torture and horror and violence of it all, it really sells me on the villain. Plus I like that he’s got black teeth. Cool time.

Elaina’s fucking hilarious this actually made me laugh out loud.

Fuckin beautiful country we’re in this episode too.

Of course, Elaina is far more beautiful.

Also, woah, is that Saya I see, voiced by the incredible Tomoyo Kurosawa?

And she has a lot of very relatable reactions to being within the presence of our illustrious Elaina.

Now as an episode, there’s nothing to really cancel Elaina over. She ends up in a country where you can’t tell lies, and helps Saya plus some native witch put an end to that, since if you have to tell the truth 100% of the time, you’re probably gonna get on people’s nerves, and not being able to lie won’t stop bad people from being bad anyway. It’s cute, it’s fun, there’s a really well animated action climax, and it feels tonally dissonant as all hell from some earlier episodes, but I’m honestly fine with that, it’s the type of show where you can get away with that. What fucks with me is how much agency Elaina gives herself this episode when in past episodes she just, hasn’t done that for arbitrary reasons. She doesn’t stand to gain from helping Rose whatever lady kill a dragon, sure, but does she stand to gain from helping Saya revamp this country? Not really any more so than with the dragon thing. Now I do prefer my Elaina to have this agency and like, do things - the passive observer role doesn’t fit someone as charming and bold as Elaina - I just wish that that inconsistency in her character wasn’t a thing.

I do also have to question bringing Saya back so soon, same with Fran last episode. It’s not been enough time for us to really appreciate their return, I feel. Maybe the production staff just wanted their mileage out of Kanahana and Moyo though. Who knows.