#hisomaso

Today’s anime cat of the day is:

This has been on my watchlist for so long and I finally sat down to watch it. Initially, I was really on the fence because the sexism was so intense. I come from a military family and, having heard my mother’s horror stories, I slowly came to realize that the show was just accurately representing the struggle women in the military face. The question then becomes, is that sort of realism necessary? I’m caught in a weird in between note on that. In reality, I despise the sexism and it really makes me cringe while watching it. On the other hand, I applaud how Hoshino fought so bravely against it and it is, sadly, what women have to still deal with in the military today. So for me, that lands in a bit of a grey area. 

Otherwise, I found the story and characters really compelling. I really loved how Hisone just makes her own path. I like how Masotan is a bit of an enigma. The whole show has a really retro vibe to it; to the point where you could mistake this for an older anime even though it came out in 2018. The ending theme especially captures an old school outro feel and the song is a total retro sounding banger. The dub was pretty good; it didn’t deviate too far from the sub. While I was along for the ride, I did think that the whole Lord Mitatsu Ritual just kind of happened out of no where. The character building for the girls was so good and then it just sort of seemed like a longer format through line for the story just suddenly manifested as soon as they were fleshed out enough.  For example, in episode 8 they bring up at the beginning of the episode that they’ll need to usher Lord Mitatsu for 72 straight hours of non-stop flying. Then it just happens. I’m not even sure if that was them actually ushering Lord Mitatsu or if they were practicing. There was no indication when they actually lead Lord Mitatsu in the end that that was 72 hours. It was just not clarified well. Also, why are the girls called White Lovers? They never really explain why. Otherwise, I loved all the girls. I loved all the dragons. The story was certainly interesting and  Okonogi was a treasure. I appreciate that the show doesn’t feel the need to hold your hand on certain things. Like, it’s just obvious that Natsume was chosen to be the Kusabime. Even though they don’t explicitly say it in episode 10 (and won’t until episode 12) you just know it. Also, all the twists with the Yakult Grandma are insane. Hinomoto being gay all along being the best of all of them. It’s so sad it’s another victim of the Bury Your Gays trope. 

Verdict: