Don't Mess With the Assman

jumping back into this challenge with both feet on the goon pedals i see. finally took the plunge into this show, i think, after seeing a clip of my annoying but low rise g-string wearing wife kiwi fighting the giant crying nun chick and clapped my hands in acceptance. "well", i said, with a sigh. "looks like i HAVE to check this one out." and boy, a truer title hasnt been seen in anime history. those girls, and i, sure do be gushing

you go into this knowing what it is. gushing is as gushing does. its an ecchi from the onset, and a pretty extreme one at that. id say this is comfortably between something like kiss x sis and interspecies reviewers in regards to the fanservice. a reasonable comparison would be something like the later seasons of to love ru when the gloves (and clothes) really came fully off. and in that way, this show totally nails it. the designs are extremely diverse and appealing, with a girl for pretty much everyones tastes. the story, for what it is, is serviceable too, pretty much just giving utena (hilarious name for this show btw) an easy excuse to get the magical girls shes obsessed with into increasingly groovy positions as she enacts her s&m fantasies on them in the same way that sasha from seikon no qwaser simply MUST suck on tits to gain his superpowers. the music is...okay, it does its job, its not memorable really but its not too painful either. the biggest strength of the show, however, is also its greatest weakness: the animation.

similarly to the prison school adaptation (though not as severe, id say), gushing over magical girls simply doesnt have the budget or manpower to sustain these complex and highly demanding designs. considering the fact that the first third or so of the series is just utena sexually assaulting the heroes of the show (probably the second biggest issue in the series imo, the pacing is pretty horrible), many of the more repetitive episodes look comparatively kinda sloppy. its always obvious when a studio is saving their money and resources for the biggest or most impactful moments in the story, but here, its kind of egregious. you sign up to see a bunch of magical girls getting tied up with ball gags and with giant monsters whipping their shirts until their titties fly out, so it kinda sucks when half the time it looks like a rushed -- but horny -- college art project, and not a big budget studio production. and it happens enough where its kind of like, obviously not engaging with the mind, but now im also disinterested, like, physically. you feel me

always reticent to give individual seasons of wildly popular anime specific reviews because, barring incredibly extreme circumstances, there wont be any wildly different aspects to really nitpick compared to other seasons of the series. oshi no ko is another example of this phenomena -- 3 seasons in, fans know what to expect.

exactly what it says on the tin.

a spiritual successor to shimoneta in pretty much all major ways, nukitashi is a fun, funny, sexy romp that also happens to boast some pretty impressive music and animation to boot. i wont get hung up on this, because its a very simple show and doesnt require it, but all ill say is this: its a blast.

you know what you sign up for with a show like this: a hilarious script that doesnt take itself seriously, plus an easy excuse to have a bunch of over the top lewdness that happens to be the main impetus behind the plot so people cant complain too much. its not super memorable beyond how consistently raunchy it is, but thats not the point. it does what it sets out to do with a full chests worth of commitment, never once pulling back (or out) and only pushing forward (then backwards, then forward, then backwards, then forward again) until it reaches its..................well you get it

nukitashi was a lot of fun! generally prefer shimoneta but i got a consistent kick out of this. big rec to people who arent afraid of a pair of boobs or two or three. a great balance between sexiness, humor, and general depravity.

short and sweet.

gachiakuta does extremely well with a relatively generic premise. the start is a bit underwhelming; as with the manga, it takes a fair bit to really get warmed up. however, once jabber gets introduced (and, shortly thereafter, the rest of the raiders), things do find their rhythm quite smoothly from there.

20 odd episodes and 6 or so volumes in though i do find it a bit frustrating how little we know about anyone. theres a sizable cast, but even the core crew from whom we rarely deviate are barely given even shreds of information or backstory. even enjin, who is more than likely the second most prominent character in the series right now behind rudo, has pretty much no actual development, history, or depth. i dont even fully understand what his power is. that is a problem.

thankfully it was interesting enough to keep me curious, and now its good enough to keep me invested, but i do have my worries based on what little we know and what little has happened thus far in the story that have me paranoid as hell, even with the spoilers that loudmouthed manga readers have just let slip out now that the anime has reached a certain amount of popularity. will gachiakuta keep the promise of the outrageously stylish visuals and designs? or will the series be resigned to "hype moments and aura"?????

hopefully season 2 expands upon the characters more, but worst case scenario, even if they dont, thanks to the extremely strong animation and rather simple plot, itll still be a mostly pretty good and mostly pretty harmless modern shonen regardless.

what a fucking journey.

in a vacuum i can understand some of the complaints people have whined about in regards to the ending of mha, certainly im not entirely happy with how dekus story ended up, but of course the hatred and memes have been wildly overblown. it is a pretty bittersweet conclusion, especially for how overall hopeful and warm the rest of the show is, but disregarding that and viewing the rest of the series as a whole, its honestly been such a remarkable ride. id say that mha is the best and most significant of the new gen by a pretty wide margin, if not based on the numerous culturally significant moments throughout the series, then by virtue of how complete of a story it is of its own right. mha doesnt do anything brand new, it doesnt reinvent the wheel, but i think that its the unashamed sincerity and hope that makes it feel so fresh and powerful for me, and why its resonated with so many people worldwide after what, in the grand scheme, was such a shockingly short run.

this one will stick with me forever. its not a favorite. but i do feel blessed to have been with it from the beginning, and i feel determined to push forward through all of my goals and hardships, just as these kids did through their slightly more stressful than average high school careers.

we saw the writing on the walls. between the lack of a proper trailer until mere weeks before premiere. the lack of promotional material, information of any sort, or general hype despite this being one of the biggest and most anticipated releases since its original announcement. we knew. but zoinks scoob. it is actually so much worse than you probably think.

since i stopped watching after season one at the behest of the entire internet, i finally understand: this is my personal seven deadly frames. never in my lifetime have i experienced something quite as catastrophic as this, at least, from an animation perspective. ive dealt with my fair share of heartbreaks and disappointments sure, but thats almost preferable to what i experienced during 5 grueling episodes of one frame man. at least in life one expects to be traumatized and hurt at any given opportunity. but this is one punch man were talking about here, a series highly regarded, hugely popular, massively respected and beloved. this is like getting explosive diarrhea after going to a michelin star restaurant. it just shouldnt happen

at 5 episodes, ive had enough. im taking it off life support. im putting lassie down. taking the horse out back and shooting it. the animation is positively abhorrent, when anything onscreen is actually even animated. the pacing is baffling. the fights are grotesque. the music is...okay, I guess? and the art direction is, frankly, quite good. but God help you if you want one of these characters to move. yes youve seen garou sliding down that goddamn hill. but what if i told you it gets so much worse? that is only the first layer of hell, my friend. much like dennis alwayssunny, we can go lower.

yesterday morning i guess i had a sort of "come to God" moment and i asked myself, why am I still struggling through this 12 episode show after 2 years instead of just...stopping. so i decided to. you know. stop

i think the problem is that this show isnt like, horrible. right. its just really unremarkable, unfunny, and kinda ugly looking. i think about half of that is by design; its supposed to be very loosely drawn, and goofy, and childish, because its a celebration of those things in and of itself. unless this is cope. in which case ignore this part. but that all said, it just barely worked for me, and clearly, after all this time, with me having to basically exhaust every other option as far as me deciding which of my many live action and animated series to sit down and pop on, it wasnt enough for me to justify taking this long to trudge through this all the way to the finish line.

well not really. i kinda just wanted to say that.

idk what happened here, except i do, because this mostly just feels like the consequence of this being a part 2 in a 3 part series finale, which is quickly becoming the bane of my existence. this season was incredibly unbalanced; frequently dull and oftentimes quite confusing, dr. stone science future (part 2) is as always carried by its art, its intriguing story, and its now rather sizable core cast. but when the story of this particular season is so convoluted (still trying to wrap my head around the actual conditions of senku and xenos "truce" considering stanley spends the whole season trying to kill senku and all of the rest of the youth science team feel like captives to the remainder of xenos men in the US), it becomes, occasionally, somewhat of a chore.

still though, youre not gonna be this deep into the stones to be willing to give up now. and plus, its really not even like its BAD. once things get kicking and the final showdown begins, it becomes genuinely insane, and somewhat unpredictable. theres so many characters, plots, and motivations all swimming around at once, that when things inevitably collide it is properly exciting, and almost makes everything leading up to it worth it. almost.

biggest gripe besides those things is probably just chelsea as an addition to the crew i guess. shes not as annoying as she could be, but her design is unappealing, her appearance is laughably convenient (even by dr. stone standards), and her place in the wider story feel a bit perplexing to me, not to mention the size of the group becoming rather unruly at this point. so i dont know. im probably just mad that my wife nikki continues getting shafted because its not like ginros samurai bodyguard guy really has a point in the story either, but i digress.

of course id rec this for fellow stoneheads -- we made it this far, were not about to stop now -- but i would say that to potentially temper your expectations for this particular bit, as its all ultimately leading to what im hoping isnt as bad as manga readers have foretold. for a necessary evil, and despite its flaws, this season was quite solid. i just have high expectations because i know what the series is capable of. extremely excited and extremely nauseous to see what the future holds for the show, and i will be seated no matter what.

never thought id see the day but i am so happy i never lost the faith. much has changed in the decade since panty and stocking first flew away, namely, of course, the state of the anime landscape and culture. tourists abound, plus a resurrection of the long dead hays code in the form of pearl clutching social media users looking for the first opportunity to label literally anything and everything as Actual Child Pornography and you the long prophesied resurrection of the late ally to the american government, jeffery epstein. but i am so happy to report that it seems our bitchy sisters didnt get the memo, and feel just as raunchy (or arguably raunchier, considering we see pantys steaming nude vagina literally in episode one), as they did all those moons ago. cant believe im gonna say this. but shouts out jeffery bezos. you bald bastard

our girls slide back into the spotlight like they never left. constant grossout gags, constant sex jokes, and, of course, enough swearing to make gordon ramsay blush. english dub was sadly nuked this time around; i did my fair bit of research into why it isnt hitting the same as it did back then, and its not just because they replaced the cast with slightly worse performers than they had in 2010 (jefferey bezos, you bald bastard), but also because, this time around, they neglected to localize the script, and instead, opted for more of a direct translation to what the japanese performers were saying in the original recordings. this is a mistake for numerous reasons but the most glaring one is that japanese raunch and american raunch are like mild sauce at taco bell vs wasabi. saying "fuck" a bunch of times can make an old japanese woman faint but we basically get that on daytime tv over here. thats why, in the og psg, they amped that shit up to eleven with incredible results. instead of going bar for bar with their japanese counterparts, the galaxy brains over at funimation entertainment not only exponentially increased the amount of swearing, but they also altered certain jokes so that US audiences could understand more punchlines. a similar thing was famously done in an earlier one of director imaishis works, flcl, and its what separates a good dub from a great one, or a passable one from a..."well, i guess ill just be reading while im watching" one. and its unfortunate that they didnt put forward that extra effort this time around, but in the grand scheme of things, it is what it is

thats just a dub issue, however. beyond that the show itself is pretty solid...mostly. the new additions are great: having the demon sisters be allies instead of enemies and bumping them up to main characters was fucking genius, and the angel brothers were a very fun but admittedly tertiary add-on as well. id say the biggest problem with new psg is probably just how inconsistent it is. and again, i havent rewatched the original in literally 15 years, save for a few clips here and there, so im sure my nostalgia is painting a bit of a romantic lens on the whole affair. but this season had an odd number of flops to me: the sperm fast and furious episode, the john carpenter parody, the inferno cop cameo, and garterbelts possession all come to mind. these episodes kinda totally blew, and i notice that most often those weaker episodes came in the 3 part segments, which felt, to me, like a writers room just saying shit out loud that whoever in charge at the time would just be like "eh. ok. sure yeah, an episode where scanty is constipated and fights from the toilet, that sounds like a fine way to occupy a third of an episode. lets run with that"

yeah, its a step down in almost every single facet beyond that still insane animation quality. its less funny, its less sexy, its not as well paced, less feels like it...happens. but the central romance between marin and gojo, which i imagine is why a good 98% of us are still here (with the other 2% being Ass Enjoyers, who are likely to be pretty burnt by this rather tame season), is still as strong as ever. and though we dont get any real standout moments like the love hotel scene from season one that nearly broke the internet, or the equally insane cleavage sweat, bikini reveal, or the tender finale where she secretly confesses to him while hes asleep on the phone, its still just as tender and intimate, just, you know, without...any of the big payoffs or earth shattering fanservice. hence the notably lower score. lol

as mentioned above the pacing in this one isnt great; the school festival arc takes far too long (as does akiras big reveal at the end of this season), plus i feel like theres more moments and episodes this time around that kind of almost feel like filler, and while its always fun watching these two run around, testing out a new camera or having big miscommunications revolving around the fleeting status of marins virginity (the latter of which was actually probably the standout moment of the whole season for me), not all of these things felt like they actually progressed anything. its not that this is a battle shonen where im expecting each episode to push us towards the demon kings castle or whatever, but even their relationship mostly felt kind of stagnant, and with an almost exclusive focus on marin this time around (not a complaint), we dont really get gojos side, how hes feeling, how his love is growing, and are mostly subjected to marin freaking out as she falls deeper and deeper in love with him, and her pov as he just looms over her with a mostly neutral look on his face at all times. weird choice! frustrating!

yeah if that season finale somehow wasnt clear, we are done here. ive never seen a more obvious series finale in my life and dinosaurs literally ended with the asteroid wiping them out. even that seemed more optimistic for a followup season than this did. good lord

disappointing du facto finale aside though, this, as usual, was a stylistic delight. great characters, great story, great visuals, great music, this thing is honestly the full package. i havent so considered picking up a manga after a show ended in so long but with this i may have to, because i love it so much, and i really hate to see it end with such a whimper.

a solid season regardless though. bit of a slow start, but it proved necessary in order to get us to where we needed to be in the story of the detective and nazuna. we got a very juicy bit of backstory with both along the way, plus some reappearances from neglected characters from season one, some fun new introductions, and all the bells and whistles us 5 fans of the show have come to expect. im trying not to be bitter that this continues to slide under the radar while mediocrity constantly gets rewarded but its hard, because i know that this is the sort of thing that could really flourish with a bigger fanbase, a better schedule, higher levels of promotion, something, but im happy that its our little secret i guess, if that means its not tainted by bad actors and annoying discourse. equivalent exchange i guess

call of the night is great; its got the best parts of all of the coolest shows all rolled into one. a big personal favorite, and potentially my favorite anime in a season full of extremely heavy hitters. a quiet success, but like lil wayne once said, real g's move in silence like lasagna. and id like to think he was thinking of yofukashi no uta when he wrote that

yeah i will not be tuning in for season 3 lol. fire force treatment, 2 straight seasons of mid, and im gonna call it quits. im bowing out. dumb ass fandom discourse aside, yall got this one.

dandadan has to be the biggest tragedy since the aforementioned fire fighting shonen and as usual its super disappointing because, as usual, its something that looks super cool and should be super cool ! but as usual, it spends all of its time cultivating the absolute worst parts of its conceit (constant distractingly ugly characters constantly screaming as loudly as fucking possible in their intentionally annoying voices instead of telling actual jokes) instead of the best parts (literally just focusing on momo and okarun and their blossoming romance), and that is super annoying honestly, so im fed up

i think i really checked out during the giant worm arc at the beginning of this season. that old hag with the afro did it for me, she was the nail in the coffin. a grating voice, perpetual screaming, total lack of any actual jokes or punchlines, just a mess. could barely even enjoy the only other good quality of this show (the animation/fight choreography) because that bitch kept shrieking the entire time so i was just gritting my teeth until the equally annoying end credits song began to play. and even after that bit ended we're still met with equally unfunny gags in the following arcs, equally annoying character introductions, equally unappealing designs, equally nonsensical choices, and an equal disregard for the most intriguing part about this series, which, again, is the romance between the two leads who, if my friend who is caught up in the manga is to be believed, barely get any further development even as deep into the story as those caught up currently are. its insane, so im checking out!

complete and utter wash. no clue what even happened here. wait. yes i do.

shinichiro watanabe is mainly known as the cool badass genius that made classics like cowboy bebop and samurai champloo, as well as underrated gem space dandy and forgotten nightmare terror in resonance. considering everybody forgot said forgotten nightmare, surely his newest production, from the same team that worked on attack on titan and the same guy that is basically about 50% of the reason why john wick is such a huge hit, will be just as legendary as his original iconic works. surely! except, this is what happens when you try to physically manufacture a classic. it comes off as inauthentic -- strictly artificial.

watanabe has gone on record stating that, when adult swim initially contacted him to work on a new anime, his first desire was to make something more akin to space dandy: something light, and fun, and maybe a bit horny. but the big wigs over at willaims street said "eeehhh listen ichi. can we call you ichi? space dandy kinda came and went like a pleasant smelling fart. we want something thatll put adult swim back on the map. we want something thatll withstand the test of time. we want something LEGENDARY." to which watanabe said, "you want cowboy bebop?" and to which the execs nodded back, "yes." thus, watanabe was given a task, a team, and a seemingly endless well of money to do what he does best. but, much like AS similar attempt to exhume a historic gravesite with their many, many failed attempts to make flcl happen again, lazarus simply...does not work very well.

like i said, it reads as total plastic. axel is as bland of a "cool guy" mc that one can imagine. the rest of the lazarus team is...fine, i guess, by virtue of them being well designed and given just enough depth to balance out axels lack of any original qualities. of course the artwork and animation by studio mappa is quite heavenly as well, with the choreography by chad stahelski going quite well with the fast paced and flowy style theyre inconsistently known for. the best aspect of lazarus, however, has got to by the plot: the doomsday countdown. the mystery. where is dr. skinner? will the team find him in time, or are we doomed for another absolutely diabolical "platinum ending"? thank whatever gods you believe in that its nowhere near as catastrophic as that insult of an unflushed toilet was, but the monkey paw that manifested this anime curled with a sickening crunch, and instead of a show by an immensely talented and hugely successful anime director that follows a team racing against the clock to find one man before the end of the world, we get a show by an immensely talented and hugely successful anime director that follows a team...lazily completing repetitive fetch quests, as the doomsday clock continues ticking by uninterrupted, and seemingly unnoticed.

its like a video game with optional side quests which your friend is obsessively completing before proceeding with the main storyline. its infuriating. what are we doing. why are we leisurely taking little breaks when the literal fate of the world is at stake? what is the point of any of what is happening? and why is popcorn wizard so annoying? blessedly about half of these questions get answered about halfway through when the show itself questions the lazarus team by having an inquisition upon their actions like "um, are yall still looking for skinner? yes? then what was all of this other bullshit yall have been up to for the past 6 episodes? was this trip to vivis bubble tea a part of the plan?" which was fun, and actually captured my attention again briefly. but then immediately after that we fall back into more pointless b-plots that amount to nothing, lead nowhere, and end unceremoniously as we get another onscreen reminder that there are only so many days remaining until basically the entire planet gets genocided. like i hope the boba was worth it because now theres a week left and we still dont know if bro is even still alive at this point

was never interested in vigilantes beyond the base concept strictly because i thought the artwork of the manga blew. pop step and her exposed asscheeks innocent. once the show got announced however, with the artwork thoroughly cleaned up, i felt like it was the perfect opportunity to see what all of the fuss was about. people tend to consider vigilantes to be, in general, quite underrated and, in general, a worthwhile addition to the world of mha. so, what, exactly, is it that yall are seeing here that im not? plus they censored the one good thing about the mangas art? are we only here just to suffer?

koichi is a bland, miserable protagonist, essentially embodying the complete character assassination that the internet at large tend to levy against deku at every given turn: hes cowardly, hes uninteresting, hes totally lame. side characters arent much better either. pop step lost the one worthwhile part about her, so shes totally useless. knuckleduster is cool conceptually, but also just feels like a corny persons idea of a cool edgy badass. not to mention, hes hardly even present half the time. so the characters are a total waste.

the plot is cool theoretically, but, assuming thats at least similar to how its presented in the manga, its way too leisurely, and mostly just feels like a loosely connected series of repetitive vignettes. purple tongued villain attacks, koichi uses his lame ass powers to slide around it until its neutralized, sometimes pop and duster show up, rinse and repeat. theres no urgency, no differentiation, nothing to indicate that we're getting to the bottom of the "mystery" at the heart of anything, nor progressing towards any significant goals. again, bland.

only thing this shows got going for it is that is beautiful to look at, and that, i guess, ultimately, its harmless. but i have too many better shows to look forward to to waste time on something im hardly even enjoying. they strung me along with that mha cameo a few episodes back, but otherwise, its just time consuming. i could be doing so much more other than this, so, i think i will. it was harmless, but it wasnt fun, so im good. glad theyre using the popularity of mha and the money that it rakes in for good, but hopefully the next thing that horikoshis money bags go towards is something thats not as forgettable as this. perhaps a spinoff focusing on deku bagging fries. on God that would be more engaging than any singular episode of this was and im not even kidding.

where to even begin with my levels of brutal disappointment? ive been a huge fan of the original manga for years, and struggled to understand how or why the series never got picked up for an anime adaptation. now i understand: plus-sized elf is simply unadaptable. at least, in regards to the faithfulness and dedication to the art that something as visually as appealing as it is deserves. "oh we'll adapt it. but do you mind if it looks like complete shit? oh, you do? well this is about to be super embarrassing for all of us then"

it makes sense as to why this show was picked up and animated by elias, a studio with 4 shows under its belt to this day, one of which is airing this season, and the other two of which are plus-sized elf. it also makes sense why this looks as shitty as it does when one examines their other works. this studio seems to make its thin slices of bread and butter strictly on the backs of low budget ecchi anime based off of high quality but difficult to adapt ecchi manga, and i for one think this injustice needs to end. this is my first and final straw. they have too much plus-sized blood on their hands

the animation. is abhorrent. as many have already said, the intro and outro are both laughably bad, with heads and bodies hardly even matching one another, and it looking rather amateurish at best. and thats not even mentioning the quality of the music which somehow rivals the awful quality of the visuals. its not much better within the show itself either. it seems the studio couldnt be bothered to take basic anatomy lessons, because the biggest appeal of the series (which is obviously the ass and titties) look like crap. why do the breasts of all of these girls look like mounds of sand on a beach? where is the gravity? where is the weight? oh and speaking of weight

im aware its called "plus-sized elf" right. but its "plus-sized elf". not "morbidly obese elf". they bumped my girl up 10 sizes like the grinchs fucking heart, PLUS the rest of the ladies as well. its not appealing anymore! its a fine line, but the demographics dont always cross over. thick does not equal fat, and these chicks are h u s k y. no shade to fat chicks! all love. but thats not what i signed up for, big dog! there must have been some sort of miscommunication here. i dont want these

trash animation, ugly designs, terrible music, awful writing, all around a complete butchering of my guy synecdoches work. even his jokes fall flat because even that was apparently too much for the crew here to handle. its just a mess. "but blue, whyd you watch all 12 episodes plus the 2 episode special then?" because i hate myself ok. and also because ive wanted an anime adaptation of this for years. and also because i like Ass

itll probably sound contrarian at best or imbecilic at worst, but i mean it when i say that i drastically prefer season one over arise from the shadow. certainly the budget has maintained its gross size, and certainly the action scenes have all been improved in both number and quality, however, i simply dont get the fun in watching someone who is so much stronger than literally everyone around him dogwalk every person he comes across. its like the author read one punch man and got the exact wrong lesson from it. the reason that show rules is because saitama hardly fights, so it feels special when he finally makes an appearance. here, jinwoo is basically the only character present at any given moment. and the ridiculous strength he has over, quite literally every other character who has appeared so far, makes the show boring, and predictable, and without any stakes whatsoever.

i understand why its so popular. its eye candy, and like candy, its also easy to digest, and mostly inoffensive. but its also flavorless, and almost entirely devoid of any major substance. again, the show is insanely formulaic; some nobody hunters enter a dungeon or encounter an enemy that they have no chance against, all hope seems lost, then jinwoo swoops in and basically one-shots the seemingly unbeatable bad guy in the flashiest way imaginable without even a scratch. they try to "spice it up" by having jinwoo like, try, sometimes, i guess, but there is not any singular moment throughout this entire season when i thought he was in any danger of getting seriously injured, let alone losing. that, to me, is an issue.

so its palatable, its gorgeous, its full of "aura" as the youths are saying, and its also pretty much entirely devoid of any sexual content, which the youths are also dangerously averse to some reason. it makes perfect sense why its blown up so severely these last few months. and, granted, that final fight in the second to last episode was absolutely killer. i enjoy the show! i dont want it to seem like i dont. but i am a bit frustrated when something like this, which is basically so unchallenging and extremely generic, becomes so outrageously popular, completely disproportionate to what something like it really deserves, especially when so many other, much better series, are either lambasted or flat out ignored in its favor. ive been in the scene for my entire life so, i apologize if it seems like its coming off as me hating or something. im really not! theres just so much better than this out there. jinwoo earned his stripes in the first season, but back then this show ruled because he tried so hard. he struggled, he fought. he busted his ass in every single episode, and hardly even scraped by half the time. now its just..dull. im honestly feeling like jiinwoo himself now, watching this. its no fun when theres no challenge. so why even bother?