Summer 2019 Anime In Review

Summer is done and now comes the task of ranking all the shows I watched. Overall it was a great season, not the strongest I’ve ever watched but by no means the weakest. In total I watched 20 shows, 18 new ones and two hold-overs from the Spring 2019 season which I’ll be listing from least favourite to most favourite, also I’ll be giving my quick overall thoughts on each one. Anyway, let’s get to it!

Iskeai Cheat Magician

68/100

For those following my seasonal anime reviews, you may remember I straight up dropped this show ‘round Episode 7 for the crimes of being tone-deaf, generic and kinda sexist (yeah, I know) but guess what I binge watched the remaining 5 episodes after the season was over and… yeah, this show still is overwhelmingly disappointing because it never did anything outside of the expected ‘isekai’ genre despite having honestly fun, charismatic and enjoyable characters who frankly deserved to be in a better show.

If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord

77/100

I couldn’t really pinpoint anything really negative about this show at all but likewise nothing particularly remarkable either. Dale was the show’s weak point, likewise his overacting and overreactions while Latina was the undoubted bright spot, everything else was window dressing to an entertaining but otherwise uneventful series.

Demon Lord, Retry

80/100

This show had a rough journey but ultimately ended up a very positive experience not the least because of how unexpected and unconventional so many of its elements were–especially in comparison to other isekai series. There was something fluid and improvisational about this show’s narrative that could easily be mistaken for laziness or unfocused narrative stylings but I found it consistently refreshing in its inconsistencies. Also it was damn funny at times too, which counts for more than you might expect at least in my estimations.

Do You Love Your Mom And Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

81/100

Despite some early signs that this series would veer into ecchi territory, it became evident by the midway mark that this show was more interested in telling a story about familial bonds and the importance of connecting and understanding one another rather than MILF’s and big boobs. And I mean take that as you will, it at least was very good at one thing (even if it’s not the thing I had a preference for) and that’s probably something worth recommending.

Magical Sempai

81/100

The titular (pun intended) Magical Sempai of this series was this shows massive (pun–again–intended) saving grace as, while a funny series on the whole, it was kind of ~slight~ in almost every other regard (pacing, character development, narrative structure). There were moments of true excellence that showed this series had the potential to be more than just a gag anime, but there were far more moments were it was clear that was the extent of its ambitions.

Are You Lost?

82/100

At its best, ‘Are You Lost?’ managed to flawlessly fuse together ecchi comedy with genuine survival techniques and a palpable sense of danger about these girls’ situation. And while the show remains frustratingly unresolved at this point, it was still a really enjoyable experience to undertake. Like ‘Survivor’ only you actually like all the characters involved.

given

82/100

I couldn’t help but be deterred by this show’s slow initial pace and frustrating characterisation around Mafuyu, I knew it was leading somewhere deeper and darker but that doesn’t excuse such a dragging narrative development. Thankfully every other character more than carried the series throughout its rough points and once it finally hit its emotional stride it was a pretty compelling and honestly touching romance series that presented a same sex relationship as natural and beautiful as any other–exactly as it should be!

Cop Craft

83/100

An anime cop procedural is such an obvious fit and adding in the fantastical element of a gate to another world into the mix and the various dramas that arise of two different species interacting not only on the societal level but on the personal level as our Earth based detective is partnered with an “alien” from this other world and they solve crimes together and learn to accept each other is a recipe for a damn good TV show. And that’s exactly what this is, it’s not without its hiccups, and the overarching plot is less interesting than the individual stories but it’s easily an anime I could recommend to almost anyone just because of how competently entertaining it is.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift?

85/100

An anime about exercising seems like a ludicrous idea, until you realise there’s already been several previous to this one, but none of them were full length anime and that’s indeed one of the most interesting and impressive things about this series is its near fearless commitment to its general conceit and making it not only interesting but downright compelling at times. At times an uneven experience, with some episodes being less interesting due to their focus away from our main girls but for the most part it’s a tremendously fun show with a terrific sense of humour.

Are You Willing To Fall In Love With A Pervert, As Long As She’s a Cutie?

85/100

The title kind of says it all, and yet this show surprised again and again by being so sincere with its seemingly jokey premise. In a lot of ways this series was reminiscent more of 80’s Hollywood teen romantic comedies by the likes of John Hughes, than any specific anime which lent the series a refreshing framing that a lot of harem anime lack. I’m not saying this is preferable to the norm, just that it was different enough to be compelling by itself. 

Re:Stage! Dream Days

86/100

I have a patchy (at best) history with ‘idol’ anime, so imagine my surprise when an unassuming series like this manages to connect so immediately with me. I think a part of the appeal of this series in general was how earnest it was while never taking itself too seriously–it struck the right balance throughout and delivered a surprisingly emotional story but with plenty of laughs and silliness that made the dramatic moments hit harder.

Fruits Basket (2019) (Episodes 13-25)

86/100

At this point there’s not much more that needs to be said in favour of this wonderful reboot as its garnered acclaim and fanfare across all corners of the internet. And even from someone as sceptical and disconnected from both the original anime and manga source material I eventually found myself spellbound by this series. It wasn’t ‘love at first sight’ though, as I reiterate that the series’ first cour was slow and occasionally annoying to the point of distraction but the amount of sheer ‘hits’ among the ‘misses’ was well in favour of the positive as it wrapped up its second cour. Believe the hype, ‘Fruits Basket’ is truly a great series once you get past its early problems.

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World (Episodes 13-26)

87/100

Based on a visual novel from the early nineties its evident the mark this property has played in so many subsequent VN’s and likewise anime, especially the likes of ‘Steins;Gate’–which was heavily influenced by this story. So with that in mind its kind of surprising more people aren’t treating this anime adaptation with the reverence it deserves, sure it’s not perfect but its indelible mark means its worthy of praise in just how well it executes such a complex and high-concept story with dozens of characters and just as many convolutions throughout.

Wasteful Days of High School Girl

87/100

As far as outright ‘comedies’ go, nothing made me laugh like ‘Wasteful Days of High School Girl’ did this season. With the absurdity and inanity pushed to eleven the comedy was a given but this show managed to back up its gut-busting comedic stylings with more than a few genuinely compelling character turns and significant development of likewise to prove itself as an anime to be reckoned with!

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2

88/100

The only way is up, and that’s true enough for many sequels but especially one where its slow but steady escalation of romantic intimacy between its two leads means eventual but substantial development is made. Truthfully a lot of this second season feels frustratingly similar to the first but that only seeks to heighten the brief but impactful moments where Takagi and Nishikta’s relationship evolves into something more.

Is It Wrong To Try and Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

89/100

While on the subject of sequels (see previous entry) the second season of ‘Is It Wrong To Try and Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon’ improves on a lot of what made the first season great while also doing something unexpected in the grand scheme of things by having almost all of the series take place outside of the titular ‘dungeon’ that served so much of a setting for the first season. As a result, the world feels bigger, the stakes feel more real and the series in-of-itself feels more liberated which is only a good thing for this show going forward.

The Demon Girl Next Door

91/100

I love this show, but more than that I adore our titular demon girl Yuuko who is one of anime’s perfect characters–and that’s not a statement I make lightly knowing the sheer calibre of characters that exist out there. Aside from Yuuko’s distracting brilliance this show excels in being the kind of endearing buddy comedy ‘Odd Couple’-esque that so many shows aim for but fall short of. Not here though as the magical girl x demon girl interactions between Momo and Yuuko are absolutely flawless.

Fire Force (Episodes 1-11)

92/100

‘Fire Force’ is the kind of show I want to run forever the same way that ‘One Piece’ seemingly exists in perpetuity, I know that’s an unlikely dream but there’s something that’s so indelibly compelling about every single part of this show–from its visual styling, to its characterisation, to its personality, to its fan-service–that makes me want more.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season

95/100

This series managed and almost flawless run from beginning to end, only tripped up in its penultimate episode by racing a hairsbreadth from jumping the proverbial shark. That mild fumble aside ‘O Maidens’ sold the complexities and intricacies and intimacies of the modern high-school relationship in such a wonderfully messy and unflinching way that it was kind of a wonder to behold–even if the climax was never quite as strong as the build-up.

Arifureta: From Commonplace To World’s Strongest

97/100

So, there’s a lot I could talk about this show, about how fans in the West completely and unjustifiably overreacted to its significant first episode deviation from the source material and decided to make it the whipping boy for the season–picking apart everything it did wrong and ignoring everything it did right. I could spend pages comparing it to other shows that didn’t get anywhere near as much hate, showing examples of how it’s far more unique and compelling than almost every other isekai out there. But now’s not really the time, simply put I love this show–I love its characters and their interactions with each other, I love the world and story-telling, I love it’s quirky sense of humour and unpredictable nature. Maybe I’ll write up a full post about this series in the future because it’s genuinely stolen my heart and mind and not only is it my anime of the season but it’s also in my Top 5 anime of all time.

***

And that’s what I thought of all the anime I watched in the Summer 2019 anime season! Let me know what your favourites were and thank you for reading!

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Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 9

This is a part of an ongoing collaboration of ‘To Love-Ru’ reviews between myself and Irina from I Drink And Watch Anime, the links to the other reviews can be found at the bottom of this post. My words are in bold, while Irina’s are in plain text.

The Episode Review:

‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 9 title card.

Episode 9… gotta be honest with you Irina, I didn’t remember any of this episode so watching it again almost felt like the first time watching. Which I guess could be a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, the episode opens with a rocket man landing in the middle of nowhere, he’s a suave, blue-eyed blonde-haired space man who manages to charm women just by looking at them. Already I know he’s up to no good. For a second I thought maybe I had started the wrong show. I did not expect that at all!

Pikari the Kiararan.

Meanwhile, in the oddly translated “health room” (the blu-ray version correctly calls it “infirmary” but I guess streaming service translators were being lazy and did a literal translation) we’re introduced to Dr. Mikado one of the very few adult female characters in the show! She’s a busty, confident woman who knows how to avoid the advances of the horny principal with ease. What were your first impressions of this character, Irina? I thought she was the school nurse. I didn’t realize she was a doctor. I sort of compare all anime doctors to Tae from Persona 5 so that’s not fair for them. Damn, now you got me thinking of Tae… she’s one of my Top 3 from that series! Seriously though, she didn’t really register at first. I only really started paying attention later on in the episode when it turned out she had a bit more of a role to play. I guess I had just sort of decided she would be there for one scene and we’d never see her again. That wasn’t very nice of me.

Our introduction to Dr Mikado.

After repeated failed attempts at finding Lala, the rocketman Pikari (of the Kiararan race–but that’s not really important) finally does locate her and it turns out he’s another suitor intent on taking the Deviluke princess’ hand in marriage–despite all her objections. She sure has a lot of those! Run/Ren is my favourite so far. Same, but probably for different reasons…

I like Ren, he’s a good boy.

I enjoyed the first ‘kidnapping’ scene where he takes her, flies up into the sky, only to have his rocket control system broken by Lala. I like it when Lala takes matters into her own hands and solves stuff using her gadgets!

There’s a lot of repetition in this episode, a lot of it is used for comedic effect and works–like when Pikari crashes into the ground and has a dog pees on him, whereas a lot of it feels like padding such as the flashbacks to Pikari’s homeworld. I’m sort of the opposite on this. The dog peeing on someone is such a huge trope in American children’s movies. Honestly, why does that happen in like all of them? That it seemed really played out to me. While the homeworld scenes at least had some character-building potential. 

Don’t worry, we’ll never see any of these people again.

This episode is a prime example of what people complained about as ‘filler’ as there’s a lot of repeated animation like when Rito sneezes and then shivers, they reuse the same animation 5 times. It’s not bad, it’s just kinda lazy. I noticed those reused scenes as well. They didn’t bother me much but I admit there were way more than usual.

Anyway turns out Dr. Mikado has two jobs the second one is working at an underground hospital for aliens, also she’s an alien too though they don’t bother to name her particular race. Did you like this addition to the show’s world-building, Irina? I actually did like that a lot. I think it expands the universe nicely and adds a lot of potential and context to the storytelling. I hope we get to learn more, not only about her but about incognito aliens living on earth in general. It seems like a great bit of side story for us to sink our teeth into.

You gotta wonder how, it’s not like they’re subtle about being aliens…

This is when I started paying attention to the character by the way. I like her. She’s no Tae but who is? 

So Dr. Mikado, not knowing any better and of course being someone who helps aliens in need assists Pikari in repairing his rocket suit which he in turn uses to kidnap Lala. Using what I can only describe as a ‘date rape laser’ it literally knocks her unconcious and removes her clothes. Rito is bound and cannot help and just as it seems Pikari is about to succeed in his kidnapping attempt Dr. Mikado saves the day using bandages with extreme skill to apprehend the kidnapper! To be fair Lala gets naked whenever she trips so maybe the laser just knocked her out. This is not a good sentence…

Pikari is a bad guy.

I liked that none of the male characters were the ones taking action and it was the female characters (first Lala, then Mikado) who were doing all the proverbial butt-kicking! Did you prefer this element of the show rather than Rito coming to the rescue? Sure, but isn’t that always the case? I mean Lala always saves the day so far. Rito tries but the poor kid needs help. Lala saved herself at the beginning with her vacuum thingy, she at least helped saved Haruna and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been so easy without her, she “saved” the blonde girl. Sure, most of the time she’s the one that put them in danger too but the girl does come through in a pinch. 

Dr Mikado saves the day!

Unfortunately the episode kind of doesn’t know how to end properly with two half-baked endings, one where Pikari returns home to a neutral(?) response from his family and a shoe-horned joke where Zastin comes to Dr. Mikado to get a dog removed from his suit of armor. Speaking of Zastin, we see both him and Ren in brief cameos, probably unnecessary but I’m glad the show is using its large cast of side-characters to some effect. I really enjoyed both cameos. With a large ensemble cast, I think it’s a very good idea to show that the characters do continue existing even when the story isn’t focused on them. With all the new characters getting introduced, it’s nice to see familiar faces.

Anyway, I think I know why I completely forgot this episode’s existence–segue to the fan service section of the review!

The Fan Service Review:

So, yeah…there really wasn’t much fan service this episode. Wanna share your thoughts on that Matt? Try to keep it PG. You know, for all the kids reading your ecchi reviews. Dr Mikado is sexy, I want to **** her **** and then **** with those *****. Is that what you meant by PG?

*boing-oi-oing*

You can remove this if you want I’m just genuinely curious. At the very beginning, the cowgirl had her fly open. Is not being able to button your jeans fan service? If so it’s hilarious and should be used way more! I don’t think it’s not that she couldn’t it’s probably that she was woken up by the sound of Pikari crashing into the ground, pulled on some jeans and hurried out without doing up the button. On a side note, I’ve seen this type of ‘service’ come up a lot in various ecchi anime and if you’ll go back to our Episode 1 review where I showed off my Lala figure you’ll see she’s rocking the open fly look too!

I’m into this kind of service.

Ok let me try to come up with something. Oh, Lala had sexy nurse cosplay! So personally I think it was less sexy than her normal school uniform but tell me why I’m wrong! Nurse outfits belong to that sort of cliche costume service trope, though for me personally nurse outfits belong at the bottom of the barrel, they don’t do anything for me. I’m pretty sure sexy school girl uniform is also part of that trope….

More cute than sexy.

The Conclusion:

All things considered I still really liked this episode despite it being a) mostly filler, and b) not that funny. Pikari and some aspects of his interactions with random people reminded me of David Bowie’s character from the movie ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ which was enjoyable to draw visual comparisons to. Dr. Mikado is a fun (and come later seasons, important) addition to the cast and taken on its own this episode was perfectly enjoyable if nothing remarkable–and sorely lacking in fan service. Though watching and reviewing this show week-to-week rather than binge watching (like I did the first time) is definitely shining a light on the deficiencies of the series and just how much filler is here. What are your overall thoughts on the episode, Irina? Well, that depends. By itself, I would call it mostly harmless. If Pikari or his perceived engagement to Lala play a big role later on, then I think this was a pretty good introduction episode. We got a decent idea of who he is and what his deal is. They also gave us a pretty good set up for his race, home planet and technology without it feeling like an exposition dump so that’s really good. 

If Pikari turns out to be a bit side character with no real impact, then I’m going to feel like it was a waste of time. We didn’t even get much time with Rito or Lala this episode. Hopefully you don’t think this is a spoiler, but spoiler alert Pikari was never mentioned in the original manga and never shows up in the show again. Guess that adds another reason into why I completely forgot about this episode!

Anyway, time for final scores, the episode itself I give an 86/100 but the fan-service only scores a 65/100.

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Reviews:

Solo Episode 1 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1
Solo Episode 2 Review
Solo Episode 3 Review
Solo Episode 4 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episodes 2, 3 and 4
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 6
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 7

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 8

This is a part of an ongoing collaboration of ‘To Love-Ru’ reviews between myself and Irina from I Drink And Watch Anime, the links to the other reviews can be found at the bottom of this post. My words are in bold, while Irina’s are in plain text.

The Episode Review:

‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 8 Title Card.

And now we continue to Episode 8 and before this episode started I honestly couldn’t remember a thing about it. Which was good because I didn’t have any expectations–well other than it was the introduction of a new character, but we’ll get to that in a minute… It’s a jam-packed first few minutes of the episode, as we’re re-introduced to Run (from Episode 7) and rich girl Saki (from Episode 5). Were you glad to see these characters back and interfering in Rito’s life after their debuts? I was confused by Run. Her personality and/or IQ also really changes a lot. I sort of forgot who she was supposed to be. I was relieved the blonde girl was ok.

See Irina, Saki is fine!

Were you at all confused about why Run was so enamoured with Rito and wanting to give him a kiss after they shared barely a sentence together the previous episode? I really was. I thought I had skipped an episode for a second there. I figured she would have been in love with Lala, like her counterpart. Maybe it’s a trick to separate him from Lala? It’s not really properly explained but the blink and you’ll miss it moment in Episode 7 where Run (in boy form as Ren) accidentally kisses Rito was enough for her to fall in love with Rito. Ren and Run are two separate consciousnesses and personalities sharing the one body (well that’s not strictly true either since their bodies change)… this got more confusing than I intended it to be! 

I like how supportively Lala is looking on considering yet another girl is wanting of her fiance’s attention.

Saki’s still up to her old tricks, trying her best to win Rito away from Lala the only way she knows how, with skimpy outfits! (We’ll talk more about that in the fan service section of this review though!) Wasn’t Saki just doing that cause she was jealous of the attention Lala was getting? Is that still a thing or did she also fall in love with Rito at the same time as Run? That’s correct, she doesn’t have feelings for Rito at all, in fact she ends up falling in love with someone else but I won’t ruin the surprise!

And finally we’re introduced to this episode’s star and new girl on the harem scene, Yui Kotegawa–a no-nonsense, proper girl with a proverbial hard-on for formality, morals and order. So in other words, the fun-police for a harem series. In the first half of the episode she institutes a strict code-of-conduct for the students in a bid to stamp out any ~shenanigans~. What did you think of Yui? I really liked her voice actress. She distinguishes in pitch and tone from the other characters which is nice. I generally prefer when voices aren’t too high pitched although there are some exceptions. I was happy they had someone closer to an alto for contrast.

“This is my introduction!”

I don’t know if this will surprise you or not, Irina, but Yui is in my Top 3 ‘To Love-Ru’ waifus! I hadn’t really thought about it but she does have the most classical design and I notice you go for those fairly often. So Now that you mention it, I guess it makes perfect sense. If she was flat-chested, that would be a real surprise! Hey! I like flat-chested girls too! Prove it.

Yui has a very skewed mental image of Rito.

In episode, Yui decides that Rito is the cause of the moral degeneration of the female student population and gets the principal to ban him from talking to girls. It was at this point that I actually remembered the episode and also how surprisingly emotional and character driven the latter half of the episode was. Seeing Rito, a victim of circumstance, be punished like that made me empathise with him a lot–I seem to recall this being the moment the irlwaifu started to really warm up to Rito as a character too. Hum, I always liked Rito. I actually felt a lot more sorry for him when Lala is destroying his life. I guess I can see why you would like him in this episode. Personally I tend t be less interested in “perfect” characters and in that second half Rito was basically a hero angel that could do no wrong so to me he seemed a lot more like a parody than he usually does. Like I said, I liked Rito from episode 1 and I still like him now.

I must have had this sign around my neck in high-school and just not realised…

And even through this cruel and unusual punishment he still manages to show how much of a ‘nice guy’ he is by performing random acts of kindness to strangers on his way home–not limited to even giving a person CPR after they were hit by a car! Thankfully (for Rito) Yui has been following the whole time and has a change of heart as to Rito’s true nature. Ooops I guess I jumped the gun with my comment above. It’s an escalating series of humorously selfless and impressive acts. It was pretty funny. Mimicking a cheesy shoujo hero. I think they could have pushed it further, maybe have him donate a kidney to a stranger and save a baby in a carriage that had rolled in the path of oncoming traffic. Maybe it would have made it too obvious though. It was a good sequence.

Anyway, just as there’s something of an ~almost~ tender moment between Yui and Rito one of Lala’s gadgets activates, causing Rito to be drawn like a magnet towards Lala–all the while carrying Yui through increasingly ridiculous situations. Very slapstick and very funny. Did you enjoy this scene Irina? Sure. It was kind of like the Lala riding a whale in the aquarium episode.

This whole sequence was absurdly fun.

Speaking of gadgets Lala featured a few in this episode including inventing one on the fly that changed her classmates school uniforms, and what a better not-at-all forced segway into the fan service portion of this review!

At least Rito had a soft landing.

The Fan Service Review:

I may have missed this but Lala gets naked every time she trips? Was that always the case? It’s to do with her talking hair brooch wardrobe assistant Peke (the little white thing with eyes) if that comes off she gets naked. You see it fall off her hair in the couple of scenes she gets naked this episode.

Good angle.

I was surprised by how tame the magical girl costumes were. I’ve seen more revealing in shows that weren’t ecchi at all. Was it disappointing to you? Yeah it was a bit odd, I still thought they were sexy outfits but that’s probably just because I’m in love with all the female characters on this show so I was just pleased to see them in something a bit more racy than their school uniforms. 

These should be the uniforms all the time.

There were a couple of repeated fanservice exhibitions this episode. Run acting very childish and doing the cute slightly horny girl bit, random girls having their school uniform turn into magical girl outfits, Lala falling and being suddenly naked, blonde girl s&m and Rito falling headfirst into someone’s breasts. Which was your favourite and why? (Is this like trying to pick one of your children?) I liked the sheer quantity of fan service in this episode, even if the quality was reduced (not a nipple in sight!) I liked it all but I’ll always be a fan of the slow pan over Saki’s body, where the art quality gets ~super~ detailed.

I love the pointless absurdity of Saki forcing her two hench women into dressing sexy too.

Who has the best body? Why? If you’re asking me from just the girls we’ve seen so far (and not out of the entire series) it’s a bit difficult because ‘To Love-Ru’ doesn’t have the same attention to detail and full-frontal nude scenes for each girl like ‘To Love-Ru Darkness’ has.

Isn’t science wonderful?

The Conclusion:

Unlike some previous episodes this episode was surprisingly down-to-earth–at least as far as sci-fi shenanigans go–but where it did impress was in its manic energy (in the first half) and its sincerity and unexpected comedic moments in the second-half. It didn’t waste time with overly long gags or spending too much time with any-one character and it tied itself to Rito a lot better than some other character introduction episodes did. This episode is a lot more in line with what ‘To Love-Ru’ becomes in its second season with shenanigans turned up to high and being mostly set at school. I really enjoyed this episode a lot, how about you Irina?

Nobody needs to see little Rito so early in the morning.

I enjoyed it too. I’m a little sad though because I really like the at-home scenes with Rito and friends. Those are sort of my favourites and I’ll miss them. I find Rito’s sister and Zastin really fun especially when they are all together. Then again, we haven’t gotten the chance to get to know a lot of the student characters yet. They’ve been introduced but there hasn’t been much time for development so I’m sure they’ll turn out just as fun. Don’t worry if we ever get to watching ‘To Love-Ru Darkness’ almost all the episodes take place at home! (I should probably stop mentioning that show, we might not even get there!)

As for scores I give the episode a 94/100 while I give the fan service an 80/100.

I didn’t have anywhere in the review to place this image so here it is. This is their school’s principal FYI.

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Reviews:

Solo Episode 1 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1
Solo Episode 2 Review
Solo Episode 3 Review
Solo Episode 4 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episodes 2, 3 and 4
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 6
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 7

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 7

This is a part of an ongoing collaboration of ‘To Love-Ru’ reviews between myself and Irina from I Drink And Watch Anime, the links to the other reviews can be found at the bottom of this post. My words are in bold, while Irina’s are in plain text.

The Episode Review:

‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 7 Title Card.

And here we are with Episode 7 and once again it’s a case of my memories of an episode being ever-so slightly out of balance with the reality of the re-watch. In this case I remembered this episode being a hilarious and wholly entertaining episode that introduces two(?) new characters. I even sold it to Irina as such when we were Twitter DM’ing after the previous episode, but I think I may have oversold it a bit! I wouldn’t say it was a bad episode but I’d be lying if I said it’s the one I’ve enjoyed the most so far (still the cooking episode – it’s hard to beat that one!) Actually Matt, now that you are rewatching them, which one has been your favourite so far? Probably episode 3 or 4, my opinions have changed a bit it seems but I think that’s more a case of getting character moments confused with one’s that occur in later seasons. You think I’d be better at this by now!

Anyway, right off the bat we’re introduced ever so-briefly to a cute mint-haired girl wearing the boys school uniform for Sainan high. It’s an ambiguous sort of introduction that’s almost completely forgotten after the credits roll. Knowing what I know about this character I thought her introduction was kind-of obvious, but did you guess the ‘twist’ of this character on your first time watching, Irina? Yup – not my first anime 🙂 Also Ranma ½ rules. Just saying…

C’mon Rito, a girl can where a boy’s uniform if she wants to!

If you’re not familiar with this show or this episode; spoilers (obviously), Oh wait, uhm…forget that Ranma comment it as just random…hahaha… but her name is Run and she’s an alien but from a shape-shifting race known as the Memorze and whenever she sneezes she transforms into a boy named Ren. 99% of this episode is spent with the character as the boy, Ren as he seeks to assert his “manliness” in an attempt to woo Lala–whom he was a childhood friend of. “Friend” being used rather loosely here. Brilliant exploration of stockholm syndrome in this episode!

Cute is what it is.

This episode, or rather, Ren has a preoccupation with proving his “manliness” and while the ideals of manliness this show has Ren focus on are pretty outdated in the grand scheme of things, I kinda love how this show never had any of our female protagonists particularly insistent on the importance of stereotypical perceptions of manliness and instead have their own unique and personal ideas on what’s “manly” (i.e. what appeals to them in the opposite gender). The old school gender normative standards of manliness were really played for laughs which is a touch ironic from a show that really insists on traditional standards of femininity. What was a bit funny to me is that Ren is originally presented as very popular with girls is not manly enough by his own standards and wishes to outdo Rito for Lala’s attention but the two are pretty much identical. He could just have died his hair brown and called it a day.

You’d think Rito would be happy about this.

And then we get to what is arguably the ‘make-or-break’ part of the episode, which is basically an over-the-top ‘Rocky’ parody with Ren training in increasingly ludicrous ways to become “manly” and I think I appreciated the absurdity of this more the first time I watched it–on a second viewing it lost some of its comedic appeal. How did it fall for you, Irina? I liked it. I have a soft spot for boxing references in anime. However, I also did think it went on a bit too long though. Eventually it got a bit played out and my attention started to waver. I may have gone to the kitchen to get a drink…

Best boxing anime I’ve ever watched. Also only.

Are you a fan of parody-style comedy in general? I am a fan of most types of comedy, parody being way up there (my favourite form of deconstruction). I think I prefer surrealism and absurdism a little, hence my appreciation for the cooking episode, but in general I like a good tongue in cheek parody. They can be tricky and really rely on your audience being familiar with what you’re parodying so it’s a gamble but when it pays off, it can be delightful.

He really did. Just to prove how much of a “man” he was.

There’s a lot of weird moments where it feels like the show has gotten away from its main characters just for the sake of introducing a new one. Episode 5 did this as well, Rito, Lala, Haruna and Mikan all felt like side-characters in their own show. It felt more obvious to me the second time watching it. Definitely. To be honest, it sort of felt like a filler episode to me. I don’t know how important Run/Ren is but they could easily have introduced the character in 5 minutes or so. A lot of it seemed like padded for time. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable just sort of not crucial, if you know what I mean.

And by the end, just as Ren’s about to have his dream realised of having Lala call him “manly” a fly lands on his nose and he transforms into half naked Run. Half?

Ren’s transformation into Run.

One thing I thought was lazy about the episode though was how they had the explanation of who and what Ren/Run is appear as just text at the end of the episode. I feel like they could have cut down all the training shenanigans by at least a minute and just have had a scene where Ren/Run explains to the others their race and the lore behind it. See, I thought that was part of the joke. Put all this time in a somewhat random personal quest just to have all the relevant information thrown at you like an old school PSA or something. I didn’t hate it.  It did contribute to the filler feel of the episode though.

It kinda reminded me of the “poochy” ending from ‘The Simpsons’.

The Fan Service Review:

The fanservice in this episode was pretty lazy. There was the naked Run traumatized in front of an auditorium full of people. To Love-Ru loves the set up of having the ladies find themselves naked in public settings. I guess it’s pretty standard for the genre? You really seem to think the worst of this show for those scenes, huh? I think traumatised is going a bit far, it’d be a shock for anyone to end up half-naked in front of a group of strangers but her character in the manga is an exhibitionist so maybe this was the start of that tendency (we won’t get to see her like that until ‘To Love-Ru Darkness’ however.) Not really. You suggested I give the counterpoint when we started the collab so I figured I would. The counterpoint I see is that such situations are portrayed as embarrassing and to the characters in the anime and then just laughed at which is a bit mean to the ladies. I’ve been watching a few ecchi lately and I noticed that a few of them show some consequences which I appreciate. This said, it’s the sort of thing that happens in these shows, I get it. I also know that people that have had harassment situations (which is a lot of people) may be uncomfortable watching these scenes, which is also fair enough. True, I should probably remember what I say because I don’t half the time…

Our first (of many to come) views of naked Run.

The rest of the fanservice were just censored still shots of Lala, Mikan and Haruna taking showers, that were ranput in at random moments without it having anything to do with the plot. It was actually pretty funny. Did you enjoy it? Interrupting a would-be action scene with Lala and Mikan having a shower, pretty much the best kind of interruption. Also I don’t know why you keep calling it censored, there’s clearly a nipple in the first scene (well not clearly, it’s quite foggy but that’s because of all the steam in the bathroom…) Oh, it was just for readers that haven’t seen the show, so that they don’t expect full frontal or something like that. Uncensored?

I think some of these bath shots were reused ones from a previous episode. Not that I’m complaining!

Still, the fanservice aspect seemed a little thin in this episode, don’t you think? It was centered around two or three brief moments, not ideal unfortunately but I guess you can’t win them all!

The Conclusion:

My memories of this episode conflated it into a much more dynamic and entertaining episode than it was in reality. Granted, I still had a fun time and found most of the jokes held up, I think it’s just my love for this particular character–and specifically how Ren/Run’s arc “ends” in ‘To Love-Ru Darkness–must have influenced my memories of it a bit. Still, a very good episode in my opinion and absolutely an improvement of the previous. What are your final thoughts on the episode, Irina? It was mostly a set-up episode, I guess(?). On it’s own it felt a little aimless. Why are we following yet another character when we haven’t developed any of the ones we have already been introduced to? I assume it’s just the old school narrative where every week we get another new person to follow around until we have our full cast. Reminds me of early Sailor Moon episodes.  These are sort of difficult to judge in the moment . Usually you only get to appreciate them once you get to know the character a little better.

That’s the show.

Hate to break it to you, Irina, but we’ve got at least 3 whole episodes (though not in succession) that are going to introduce even more characters to the show! Yup just like Sailor Moon. Love it.

My final score for the episode is 88/100 and my score for the fan-service is 70/100.

100/100 manly.

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Reviews:

Solo Episode 1 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1
Solo Episode 2 Review
Solo Episode 3 Review
Solo Episode 4 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episodes 2, 3 and 4
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 6

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Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 6

This is a part of an ongoing collaboration of ‘To Love-Ru’ reviews between myself and Irina from I Drink And Watch Anime, the links to the other reviews can be found at the bottom of this post.

The Episode Review:

‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 6 title card.

Here we are with the episode 6 review and I was kinda dreading this one! I recall not being a fan of this episode on the first watch and well, my thoughts haven’t changed too much on that one… but we’ll get to that later. Well, now I’m curious!

So the episode opens with Zastin, in his patrol ship orbiting Earth as one of his officers notes an entity entering Earth’s atmosphere. They ask whether he wants to intercept it but he decides to let it pass saying it will be a good test for ‘groom-to-be’ Rito and its a strong opening. What did you think of it? I thought – how weird to see Zatsin so efficient! I liked it. Zatsin usually means some goofball antics are afoot and I think To Love Ru really handles that type of humour well. I was hoping for more GLORIOUS DEATH IN BATTLE wordplay with Rito. One of my favourite gags so far!

We’re introduced to the ‘entity’ in question, a grotesque shape-shifting alien assassin by the name of Ghi Blee, he’s there to take Lala’s hand in marriage–by any means necessary. The early scenes with him watching over the shenanigans in biology class were very sinister and set a good atmosphere of tension and mystery that contrasted with the silliness going on in the classroom. I actually didn’t hate the design of the alien. I found it interesting and the having to go to the bathroom joke was pretty good. The idea they forgot to put a toilet on the spaceship or it was clogged or defective like in a plane was a nice touch. I giggled, even if it was pretty juvenile.

Side note, they’re dissecting frogs in biology class, we never did that in Australia (at least not in my school) and I’m glad we didn’t–it’s gross. Did you ever have to do that in your school? Well, I went to med school so I dissected cadavers and a lot of other critters but never anything alive. This said I’m not sure what the standards are for Canadian high schools.

What’d you think of Lala’s comedic ~bit~ this episode, with her trying to “dissect” Rito because she wanted to get to know him better. It was cute for a minute but I think the joke ran out of steam fast. I thought it was kind of stupid. As you said, it worked for a second but the execution was off. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or just because of the pink hair but it did give me Yuno vibes. If that was the joke it was decently tongue in cheek but it went on way too long and I really wished they would stop bringing it back.

The alien shape-shifts into the form of their principal and takes Haruna captive in the P.E. storage shed and this is about where I was done with the episode. Now, I’m all for tentacle scenes, we only just had one in Episode 4 after all–but my one stipulation is that they’re comedically over-the-top in nature. This one wasn’t, it was predatory–which I’ll cut the show some slack–it’s not like they were painting this as fun. The music, the lighting, the entire situation was shown to be a sinister, very bad thing that was happening to Haruna. That said, it still didn’t make for an enjoyable time and like a lot of things in this episode dragged out too long. I’m interested in what you thought about this Irina considering your aversion to the tone and situations of certain scenes in the previous episode? We had one in ep 5 too. I liked that they acknowledged that the situation would be horrible for the girl involved and not something to just laugh at. I can’t say I enjoyed it but I prefer this to how the last episode ended for sure. If I had any complaint it’s mostly that it clashed with the tone of the series so far. The rest, I’m going to save for the fanservice section.

Sidenote, the blonde girl wasn’t in school this week. Is she in the hospital or police station? I know you’re obsessed with the idea that something terrible happened to her but she’s in the grade above Rito, Haruna and Lala and we didn’t see her class that’s why Saki wasn’t in the episode.

So Lala tracks Rito (who has since found Haruna and the aforementioned situation) and discovers them all, turns out she’s very familiar with Ghi Blee as he’s proposed to her before and she’s rejected him plenty of times too. And I like how assertive Lala is here, she’s not about to take this dude’s shit but Rito being Rito he wants to save Haruna himself and decides to fight Ghi Blee, a creepy alien dude who’s now grown to being twice the size of him. Assertive? She said he was ugly so she didn’t want to marry him. I guess that counts. Lala seemed super unfazed by the situation, I wonder if it’s happened before? Since Lala is very ok with nudity and tentacles she may not have realized how traumatizing the situation was for the humans.

Maybe a reference?

As Rito readies a punch Ghi Blee shrieks and cowers, turns out he’s a cowardly wimp and his true form is diminutive weakling. Also turns out Ghi Blee has wives and children from multiple alien races who all show up for some reason. This reminded me of that episode of ‘Futurama’ where Leela meets that one-eyed alien who claims to be the last of their species but turns out to be a shape-shifter with multiple partners too. Except a lot worse than that.

I don’t like that Ghi Blee got off so easy for what he did to Haruna, thankfully for Haruna she was unconscious throughout the entire thing so she doesn’t have to know what happened to her but it still happened to her. Why was she unconscious by the way? I thought the cowardly alien bit was funny. Well to me it was the funniest bit in the episode at least. And he did get punished which is better than nothing.

My favourite moment (aside from Rito’s friend Saruyama volunteering to be “dissected” by Lala) was the nice moment in the infirmary where Lala hugs Haruna and is glad she’s alright. I love that there’s zero rivalry between these two girls and they can be friends despite ostensibly being love-rivals. What was your favourite moment? The OP! It was great! I’m not being a smart ass, it’s a fun OP. Possibly the Zatsin scene, back to that in a minute. I’m glad it’s finally grown on you!

The Fan Service Review:

(feel free to ask me some questions here, but I have a feeling there’s not much to talk about in this episode on the subject) I’m hoping Matt leaves his comment in, because I disagree. There was quite a bit of fanservice this episode and I think it would be interesting to talk about it as it’s different from the fanservice we’ve seen so far.

First, although you’re right that the Haruna hostage situation was not presented as fun for her, it was still clearly fanservice. The camera lovingly zoomed in and stayed on cleavage or tentacles going up her skirt. For some reason, she was out so you didn’t have to deal with the uncomfortable reality of Haruna crying or begging for her life. Put some sexy music behind that and it could have been a love scene. For a second, even Rito blushes and reacts as if the situation is alluring instead of being completely disgusted. He even leaves at the end because before Haruna comes to because the situation is embarrassing (for both of them). It’s respectful on one level but he is still more aware of her body than her safety or health at that moment. I mean sure, but he is still a 15 year old boy. They are idiot hormone machines–I should know I was one.

How do you take in a scene like that? How do you reconcile the fact that it is created to both repulse and attract the viewer? Like anything in anime this kind of fan service (and you’re right it is 100% fan service) has its audience—you only have to look on pixiv to find thousands of images like this or worse. There’s people who find public humiliation stuff sexy which is what you could call the final scene in Episode 5. I think an Ecchi series of this size and caliber is going to try its hand at every type and genre of fan service—some of it will be in line with mainstream tastes (and I’m using that in looser terms) and some of it will push boundaries. But what did you think? I mean if you’re asking my tastes in fan-service this type of scene is not for me personally, it ranks very low on my preferred types of anime fan service but I’d be lying if I didn’t say they still draw Haruna’s body in a sexy and alluring way.

With most of the fanservice super uncomfortable this episode, weren’t you happy we at least got some good old bath time antics? We actually got Zatsin fanservice and you pretend like it didn’t happen? For shame! Let’s talk about it in great detail, go! I knew you’d bring it up, that’s why I didn’t have to! I mean what’s there to say, Zastin is a tall, buff good-looking dude and he’s in a bath… see Irina I’m not good at reviewing man-service. I think it’s great. You did a great job in Dakaichi as well.

The Conclusion:

This episode felt like filler, a complaint a lot of die-hard fans of the original manga had about this entire first season in general (FYI Irina, the manga version is very different in nearly every episode of this season, so much so that there were enough fan complaints that every subsequent season adheres strictly to the source material). While there were a couple of brief laugh-out-loud moments, some fun stuff in the classroom and a few flashes of interesting character development the majority of scenes with Ghi Blee were pointless and ugly. What did you think overall?

I’m so relieved to hear that. I was watching it and thinking that you would tell me this was the bestest episode and I got a little depressed. I didn’t like it. I found it less disturbing than the last one but honestly, a lot of it was just kind of boring. The alien dude wasn’t really interesting and the dissection and masochist jokes were super repetitive so it didn’t live up to the episodes so far at all. The ‘To Love-Ru’ series may be my favourite of all time but this first season isn’t without its fair share of mediocre experiences, it’s not until ‘To Love-Ru Darkness Season 1 and 2’ that the show becomes pretty much perfect (in my opinion). I give this episode a score of 71/100, and the fan service a score of 50/100.

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Reviews:

Solo Episode 1 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1
Solo Episode 2 Review
Solo Episode 3 Review
Solo Episode 4 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episodes 2, 3 and 4
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5

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Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5

Hello everyone (all 5 of you who read these reviews) first an announcement, going forward all the episodic ‘To Love-Ru’ reviews will be single episode collaborations with Irina from I Drink And Watch Anime. Why? Because I felt I was spreading myself too thin by doing solo reviews and collab reviews of the same episodes, plus I felt the writing in the collab portions hasn’t been up to scratch which wasn’t really fair on Irina (or the readers). Anyway, basically all that means is we’ll be getting through the show a lot quicker than originally scheduled which is good for everyone! Announcement over!

The Episode Review:

‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 5 Title Card

Hello Irina! Here we are with episode 5 and almost immediately we’re introduced to a new girl! ~the harem expands~ Her name is Saki Tenjouin, and she fits pretty well into the cackling rich-girl archetype. What’s your opinion on this type of girl in anime? It’s one of those silly tropes that doesn’t seem to exist at all in real life. You see it a lot in older shows but its been a while since I’ve seen a new one pop up except as a punch line. Maybe it’s out of style?

One look at those drill curls and you know she’s a spoilt rich girl.

I like these types of girls (but then again I like pretty much every type of anime girl) so no surprise I like Saki. What did you think of her introduction into the narrative, being annoyed that her spot as ‘most adored by the male students’ has been taken by newcomer Lala? I have to admit this just seemed like another sort of standard anime trope. It’s not my favourite cliche but you see it so much that it just blends into the background for me. I think my favourite part about her whole character is how willing she is to ‘lewd’ herself to get attention. I mean sure that behaviour in real life might be more the result of some deep-seated issues but in a comedic ecchi it works!

Yas queen!

 One of my favourite throw-away jokes is about midway through the episode when Saki has started the ‘Miss Sainan’ competition in order to lure Lala out and have them compete and one of Saki’s flunkies (her name is Ayako but I don’t know if the show bothers to name her this early on) picks up Rito with a crane in order to use him as bait. Rito exclaims–much like the audience might–why is there a crane here, and Ayako gives a deadpan reply about having gotten the proper permits. I don’t know why but that kind of ‘logical’ explanation in a series that’s pretty far-fetched always strikes me as inherently funny. It was really nice dead pan joke. They have a lot of those absurdist moments in the series so far and it’s a very fun aspect. I hope they keep it up.

Rito, always asking the important questions.

That aside did you enjoy that Lala stayed obliviously ambivalent to Saki’s desire to compete? Lala didn’t really do anything this episode. It would have been nice to see her a bit more. Actually we didn’t really get any development for the established characters and just concentrated on the new girl so I guess it makes sense. This episode could have easily devolved into a 20 minute swimsuit competition but instead decided to take a more high-concept finale!

That’s a flower garden I’d like to pollinate.

Zastin, fearing that Saki’s attempts to ‘get’ Lala are akin to an assassination attempt decides to increase security at the Yuki household, outfitting their yard with laser tripwires, machine-guns and pitfalls filled with tentacle monsters (of course) all which Saki, Ayako and third flunky Rin fall into while attempting to sneak into Rito’s house to get some “dirt” on Lala. This segment is very slapstick and cuts back and forth between the would-be intruders hardships and Lala and Mikan having a bath for the sake of comedic contrast. Did you find this series of events fun, Irina? It sort of looked like an excuse to make a tentacle rape allusion for viewers that might be familiar with hentai. I think it would have worked better if we had established the characters more. All I knew about two of them is that they are highschool girls. For me the joke didn’t quite land because I started to just associate them with 13 year olds I know and then it was a bit uncomfortable. Well I mean they’re second year high schoolers, so 16 years old, but fair enough. I stand corrected. I do have a friend with a 16 year old daughter I can use that as reference material – much better!

Somehow Saki manages to find herself directly inside Rito’s room and so hides under his desk when Lala walks in from her bath, hoping to get some info she can use on her. Instead, things escalate again and the Saki inadvertently hits a switch which sends the entire room “ejecting” into space–another security measure installed by Zastin without anyone’s consent or knowledge! Did you expect this level of shenanigans to transpire when the episode started so down-to-earth? Yes. I actually thought there would be more. This is the most down to earth (pardon the pun) episode so far. I mean we had a naked fish riding Lala flood an aquarium, a better version of the tentacle monster joke in the cooking episode, the pretty crazy intro and I know I’m forgetting one. Anywho this seemed sort of tame on the zaniness scale but still fun!

This is tame for Irina!

Anyway Zastin mobilises the Deviluke fleet to rescue Lala and Saki who are hurtling through the sky in Rito’s bedroom and it’s a surprisingly well-animated sequence! Saki falls out of the flying room and begins falling back to Earth–all seems lost–until Lala swoops in to save her, there’s a touching moment as their fingers miss a few times but then finally touch and she holds her in her arms. I almost ‘shipped them for a moment there.

Lala’s a hero I can get behind. Ahem.

But, this being a comedy Saki awakens on the street, in the nude, surrounded by onlookers as Lala accidentally dropped her at some point, leaving her stranded and Saki vows revenge! The End. I felt so bad for that poor blonde girl. Second time she is forcibly stripped in public and humiliated. And those onlookers were all men and all leering at her very suggestively as the scene cut. No one even tried to help her a little. It was a scary scene, I hope she’s o.k. I’m guessing we don’t hear about anything bad because it’s a comedy but you never know. Sometimes they go *dark*.

One of the (unintentional?) running gags is that every boy is completely in love with Lala based on how cute she is but all the female characters use the same model with hair and clothes swaps so it just comes off surreal. She probably has secret space pheromones or something. Or the pink hair makes her seem exotic or something!

I think Crunchyroll is censored. There were no nipples this episode despite a few times where there clearly should have been some. It’s a little eerie seeing breasts as smooth lumps like that. Is the original anatomically correct? I fired up the VPN and checked Canadian Crunchyroll and it’s the same version as the “uncensored” version on Australian AnimeLab. I showed Irina this screenshot and she’s still not convinced we had a whole discussion about it through Twitter DM’s I mean, sure its a bit foggy but there’s definitely nipples on Lala there! Speaking of… time to move onto the Fan-Service portion of the review! I’m a little worried Matt has never seen nipples…..

(I took screenshots from both versions, Lala has nipples damn it! Back me up readers!)

The Fan Service Review:

The tables have turned! Since my brand of pervy is different from Matt’s brand of surprisingly chaste, fog covered pervy, I’m going to be doing the interrogation this time around! Interrogation huh? Wait, what are you doing with those handcuffs?!

We had a little DM conversation about the nipple question and one thing that came out is that apparently Mikan is confirmed nipple-less until season 4, when she miraculously grows some! I have no actual question here, I just thought it was delightfully weird, so I wanted to share. There’s a proper reason for it! She was/is a fan favourite and drawing out her ‘nipple debut’ in the manga is apparently a tactic in Japan to prolong sales—not especially romantic or sexy reason but it’s still a reason! But we see her full breasts already! It’s nutso – why am I enjoying this so much?

This picture is unrelated to the above discussion I just felt like putting it in.

I mentioned in the review proper that the character models all look alike. Body-wise – would you agree? Maybe in this first season but come ‘To Love-Ru Darkness’ there’s painstaking attention to detail to make all the girls look different. Where this season most the money went into the sci-fi elements, in future seasons all the money goes into the fan-service! Curses, I was hoping you would disagree. I had this whole elaborate set up planned! You win this round Mr. Matt, but you won’t be so lucky next time!

Naughty bow-wow doggie-kun!

So far, the fanservice in the five first episodes, tends to be variations of the same 4 scenes or so. I kind of like that. The audience knows what to expect and the production gets to hone its skills into a fine mastery. What are your views on fanservice diversity? A fine mastery is a pretty good way to put it, it knows what works and sticks to it, it will increase in more outlandish scenarios as it goes along though even within the space of the first season!

Thicc.

 

I know you are a lover of Lala, but she really had to share the spotlight with Blonde girl this time. More specifically, it was the latter that was suddenly stripped instead. Any strong feelings on that? More girls nude = more better!

Countdown to fun.

 Up until now, I thought the fanservice in To Love-Ru was a lot of fun, but the last scene of this episode really freaked me out. Any thoughts on it? Obviously, you’re not going to put yourself in that girl’s place like I did, so the impact is probably way different. I know what you’re talking about but I guess I know what kind of show this is and know that despite the lecherous looks of onlookers no girls in this series are ever in any real danger. Kind of like the tentacle scenes, it’s the equivalent of walking through a spider-web—unpleasant in the moment but ultimately harmless. (P.S. I’m not minimising the emotional impact a scene like this would have on a person in real life I’m simply stating it’s different in a show like this)

The Conclusion:

I remember liking this episode in my first watching but I loved in this second-time through, though I was surprised how much I forgot, I didn’t even remember any of the stuff that happens in the second-half and yet it was my favourite thing about the episode now. I feel like it was a lot more heavily comedic than the show had been–Haruna barely got a mention–but it worked for the sake of the show, it allowed a full character introduction of a new character and integrated them into the series very well. How did you find the episode overall, Irina? I thought it was the weakest one yet. Then again I am still chuckling about the cooking scene. It was a hard act to follow. The character they introduced and spend most of the episode on just seemed a bit boring and 2 dimensional compared to everyone we’ve met so far so I would have liked to get more development on the existing characters instead.

An artistic rendering of Irina after this episode perhaps?

And this episode did make me uncomfortable at several points so I didn’t enjoy it as much. I look forward to going back to absurdist, nudist fun. For the sake of completionism, I’ll give my scores for the episode and the fan-service, for the episode I give it 89/100 and for the fan service I give it an 80/100.

I love that 1 frame of nude Lala.

 

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And that’s Episode 5 done, hopefully this came out a bit better than the previous reviews, I certainly enjoyed writing this without the added strain of not repeating myself from the solo reviews so expect this format to continue going forward for each episode. Thanks for reading!

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Reviews:

Solo Episode 1 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1
Solo Episode 2 Review
Solo Episode 3 Review
Solo Episode 4 Review
Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episodes 2, 3 and 4

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 2, 3 and 4

And we are back with our collaborative review where Irina and I are looking at ‘To Love-Ru’–but we’re doing things a bit differently from here out, we’ll be reviewing the show in 3 episode batches, just to make things easier for everyone!

Anyway let’s get stuck into it with Episode 2 first, which is more or less a direct continuation of the previous episode with Rito now engaged to alien princess Lala while trying to clear up the situation with his unrequited crush Haruna… but more importantly, Irina, did you pay attention to the OP this time? You had three more opportunities to do so! I did and…i like the ed better… I’m sorry , the OP is not dad but the ED is basically the same thing as far as visuals go but with the peep holes which I think is just a little more fun  and I like the song better. But music tends to grow on me big time, so that could change. 

Nice holes.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how did you find this episode–at least compared to the previous one? This one was a lot more of a traditional romcom which really isn’t my particular jam,and the jokes were the same as in episode 1. It wasn’t bad by any means but I wouldn’t say it stood out. I’m not likely to remember episode 2 specifically when I think back on the show. (In fact since I binged 3 episodes, I don’t quite remember episode 2.

I found this episode to be less enjoyable than the 1st episode, it felt a bit drawn out–like it was over explaining things, but then again maybe I’m just impatient to get to the more ~interesting~ episodes, I still enjoyed it a lot. Oh good, I guess we felt the same way. I was a little nervous there.

Touch boobs, no really.

My favourite moments where how readily accepting Mikan (Rito’s sister) was of this new change and the fact that Rito was engaged to an alien. What were some of your favourite moments? Mikan is actually quickly growing into my favourite character. (OK I just rewatched bits to remember it.  Think it was the banter between Rito and the Devilluke general dude. The comic relief best friend is a character type that I tend to like. I think their banter was a switch up in the comedy that brought in a bit of variety.)

She says it like its the most normal thing in the universe.

Did you buy into Lala’s explanation about why she was “in love” with Rito despite having just met him? I get it. Girls running off with the first guy they can find as a way of escaping an oppressive situation is sort of a classic. Makes perfect sense to me. And Rito does seem like a nice enough and fairly harmless dude. Good pick. I don’t know if we see it in this episode or the later ons but Rito’s in pretty good shape too so Lala got lucky there.

I’ve seen girls fall for worse over less…

Listening is an important skill.

Anything else you wanted to add? This is extremely random but Rito’s old school alarm clock, with the glow in the dark paint of the hands, was super nostalgic to me. I’ve never owned one of these but for some reason it just screams my childhood… I know, weird… The days before smartphones.

I didn’t even pick up on this!

Now the Episode 3 review! We’re not wasting any time here! I remember when I first watched this series Episode 3 was sort of a turning point where I went from enjoying the show to absolutely loving it–my opinions might not be as positive as the first impressions but it’s still an excellent episode.

I forgot how angry Rito was in this first half of the episode–not the best look for a harem lead, but you at least have to understand his frustration in the situation… I actually find Rito quite understanding and patient in general. I would have called the cops episode 1….

I think he’s getting a big head.

After some street shenanigans involving multiple costume changes and a disintegrating dress we get to the second half and my favourite part of the episode–the aquarium! Which means we get to see Lala go ‘full Lala’ as she makes the animals go berserk in an effort to make them more interesting and then flood the aquarium. Lala is such a free spirit its an absolute joy to watch her manic energy take command of the episode. I hate to say it but I wasn’t crazy about Lala this time around She just struck me as that mildly annoying mix of oblivious and selfish in a super hot body that we use to see everywhere. The basic manic pixie dream girl. I have a feeling there’s more to the character but this episode really didn’t do much to flesh out her character or explain the motivations behind her actions at all. For me Lala is less “manic pixie dream girl” (which is a trope I honestly dislike in most cases) and is more like Professor Farnsworth from ‘Futurama’ with potentially useful inventions that end up causing more trouble than their worth!  I’m looking forward to seeing that side of her. Low energy, grumpy Lala is going to be a fun contrast and a great trope subversion! I didn’t mean literally…

I think the plural for “fish” is “fish” but I’ll let this one slide…

More than anything I felt sorry for Haruna who is well and truly out of the loop in this whole situation. And even in the face of seeing a new girl go after Rito, Haruna is still gracious enough to say nice things about Lala and worrying about “getting in the way” of him and Lala. Plus we get to see her feelings about Rito too. Once again, this episode screamed romcom to me. It reminded me of movies I leave on in the background while doing chores cause there’s nothing else on. Reese Witherspoon could have starred in it. I really like that Rito is steadfast in his feelings for Haruna (despite her being a rather boring character, let’s be honest). It does make him seem a bit more consistent and lends weight to his character. Not that high school students are known for their consistency.

I mean yeah, but that’s okay you get better later on.

 Also we get the first in many trademark clumsy Rito moments as he trips and ends up face to crotch with Haruna’s panties. ‘To Love-Ru’ is kind of infamous for this particular type of fan-service (it happens almost every episode in ‘To Love-Ru Darkness’) what’s your opinion on this type of fan-service? It’s sort of a standard anime trope. I guess I’m so used to this “joke” that I don’t really see it anymore.  

The beginning of a legacy.

Anything else you wanted to add? Did this episode make as much of an impact on you as it did me? The episode was fine. It was a lot more of the “oops where did my clothes go” joke but it was cute enough to keep you interested. This is the episode where I thought, wow, this show would be really easy to turn into a drinking game. You may be dead by the end of it though…

And now Episode 4, the last of this batch. We get a bit more of Zastin in this episode, I’ve been meaning to ask what you thought of this character? I find his sudden appearances (and just as sudden disappearances) very amusing! Zatsin! That was his name!!!!

Presented without context.

More importantly we learn that Rito being engaged to Lala means a whole lot more than just not being able to be with Haruna but that he’ll be a frontline commander in interplanetary wars. Talk about a lot for a high schooler to take in! I actually think this running gag is one of the funniest so far. I love how he calls out to the dead Rito in tears every two minutes.

I lol’d everytime too.

I love how close Mikan and Lala have gotten, but I guess that’s understandable given Mikan’s been mostly living alone with Rito this whole time and would enjoy having another woman to talk to. Did I miss this, cause I was wondering all along, where are their parents? I don’t remember them being mentioned but I could have missed it. It’s a bit worrisome. Did Lala kill them? Their father was mentioned once in Episode 1 where Mikan tells Rito “Dad says he’s going to be coming home late again”–I don’t have a photographic memory I just happened to have taken a screenshot of this moment! Lala hasn’t killed anyone (yet). Still worried about those parents though…

K-kawaii…

I kinda forgot how funny this episode was, it was even better than the previous one (which I didn’t expect to happen)! So many good reaction faces! The whole dinner table scene with Rito having a near-death experience after trying Lala’s food was commitment to a comedic bit! I agree, this episode was a lot of fun and by far my favourite (maybe tied with the first). Zatsin is a nice foil and creates a different dynamic when he’s around, which is nice. That’s true, now that you mention it, not many ecchi/harem anime have male side characters beyond a ‘best friend’, so yeah Zastin is kind of like an unsung hero of these early episodes. I think I also like to see them in school. Maybe all these years a school based anime have just conditioned me to be comfortable in that setting but it’s fun to see them all as students.

It’s still technically set in school!

And of course it wouldn’t be an ecchi comedy anime without a ~random tentacle attack~. Albeit a 3D CGI version, and then there’s a giant Squid and then there’s a giant lobster and the silliness knows no bounds as it turns into a ridiculous slapstick filled extravaganza! The 3d was a bit..very..obvious here. I like it but I have a feeling it will be hit or miss with viewers. Some people might be put off. It certainly is the  part of the show that has aged the most in my opinion. Then again, given how goofy the scene is, it kind of fits better than a slicker animation would have. I hope the show continues on like episode 3! I guess I’ll find out soon.

*tentacle intensifies*

And that’s Episodes’ 2, 3 and 4 covered! Join us in a months’ time for our collaborative reviews of episode 5, 6 and 7! Thanks for reading!

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Collaboration Reviews:

Irina and Matt Review ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 1

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Tentacle Trouble – ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 4 Review

The Episode Review:

What’s the show? To Love-Ru, Episode 4 Review.

Episode 4 title card.

And how’s this episode? I distinctly remember, on my first viewing of this episode, being slightly underwhelmed by a certain part of it, so it was with some trepidation that I ventured into the rewatch of Episode 4.

Okay, and how’d things end up after a second viewing? Well, turns out this episode was a lot funnier than I remembered! If the previous episode set the stage with Lala’s antics leading to ridiculous comedic shenanigans then this episode upped the ante considerably–though not without cause.

Yep, nearly every episode bro!

Well let’s start the beginning then, shall we? Right, so Rito wakes up from a dream about Haruna only to be confronted with the ~reality~ of Lala rubbing him in the face. After a breakfast in which Lala relishes the chance to have hot food (she’s not used to eating hot meals because by the time the taste-testers are done with their food back home the food is cold–the perils of being a space princess is those pesky assassination attempts!) Rito heads to school where he further laments his situation–which is only made worse by the information Zastin gives him.

Simple pleasures.

 

And what information is that? That as the groom-to-be, Rito will be responsible for leading the Devilluke army, conquering new worlds–basically being on the frontline of all the planets conflicts going forward. Something that doesn’t at all sit well with pacifist Rito and so he furthers his attempts to get out of his ‘engaged’ status with Lala.

Poor Rito. No one wants to be drafted like that.

And how does he plan on doing that exactly? Well during a family dinner of sukiyaki, Rito quizzes Lala and Zastin about typical Devilluke food and attempts to whip something up–expectedly it’s terrible (it’s not entirely her fault–they didn’t have any ingredients from their home planet on hand) but Rito uses this as an excuse to try and get rid of Lala, he tells her that he won’t get married to a girl unless she can cook because it’s important to him that the person he loves can make him something from the heart. This shocks Lala to her core and she promptly leaves the planet.

Oof.

Wow. Kind of a dick move on Rito’s part, yeah? For sure and his imouto Mikan throws all the disappointing looks at him she can muster, and it’s not long before Rito is regretting the way he talked to her–regardless of how much trouble she’s caused him in this short period of time he’s grown somewhat fond of her and at the end of the day he’s a kind hearted guy. But she’s not even gone 24 hours when she appears at school, drags Rito from class boasting a surprise for him. She’s brought a special cooler filled with Devillukian ingredients so she can make him a worldclass dish–see she took his words as a further confession of love and now she wants to repay the favour.

Always look on the bright side I suppose!

Oh and I’m sure that goes flawlessly and without any kind of shenanigans? You’re picking up on the trend I see! Yes, turns out the cooler is one of Lala’s inventions, it has a space warping ability meaning it can hold nearly countless things of immense size, including a giant space octopus that–after the cooler malfunction–defrosts and decides to attack everyone! Oh and the octopus is followed by a giant space squid, a giant space crab and then a giant space slug that proceed to wreak havoc and destroy the school!

*tentacles intensify*

Giant octopus huh, I’ve been doing these reviews long enough to know that means only one thing, ‘tentacle shenanigans’, am I right? And what a perfect time to segway to the fan-service portion of the review!

The Fan Service Review:

Sweet dreams.

So how’s the fan service in this episode? It’s improved from the last couple of weeks! Which is always a great thing to be able to say! We start early on with Rito getting a faceful of naked Lala and as always she looks great, plus it’s nice to see some nipples since they were missing from the previous episode, its brief but its still nice to see!

You can see ’em better on a bigger screen.

I’m sure it was… so what else? Well the last part of the episode gives us our ecchi fan-service centerpiece with the octopus attack, and if you aren’t overly familiar with ecchi anime (if so, I applaud you to still be reading this series of reviews!) the tentacle ecchi shenanigans is a staple of a lot of ecchi–especially ones with science fiction or fantasy leanings. Now, this is by no means one of the best tentacle ecchi scenes in anime–heck its not even the best tentacle scene in the ‘To Love-Ru’ series, but where it lacks in sheer perversion it makes up for in comedy. But this section isn’t about the comedy, it’s about the fan-service!

The 3D tentacles actually look pretty good against the 2D everything else all things considered.

Uh-huh, so what do we get here? It’s pretty tame, tentacles going where tentacles shouldn’t some mild squeezing and caressing, but no actual nudity. Personally my favourite part was the simple cleavage shot of Lala’s breasts being constricted but then again I’m a simple man with simple pleasures…

Hnng.

Simple is right. Anyway anything else to add? I almost forgot to mention Lala’s nude x apron combo–it’s all kinds of wonderful and is really well animated, just look at that sweet jiggle towards the end of her animation sequence! Love it!

Anyone else hungry?

The Conclusion:

Final thoughts and score for ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode 4? This episode does a damn great job of combining the kind of comedic shenanigans that made the previous episode so inherently watchable with the story and character development necessary to further this series in the right direction. The ending of the episode is comedic absurdity that while I never appreciated during my first viewing takes on a different light when viewing this episode as pure comedy–which it basically is. My score for the episode is 92 out of 100 and my score for the fan service is 80 out of 100.

Mesmerising.

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Previous ‘To Love-Ru’ Episode Reviews:

Making A Splash – Episode 1 Review
Sloppy Seconds – Episode 2 Review
Slippery When Wet – Episode 3 Review

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Spring 2019 Anime In Review

So the Spring 2019 Anime season has come and gone and in its wake a bunch of shows and many more opinions on them! Overall it wasn’t the strongest or most memorable season in recent memory, but the highs certainly were high! I watched 16 shows in Spring and I’ll be ranking them from best to worst with a score and a little review for each too!

BOKUBEN: We Never Learn
(94/100)

There’s so many good faces in this show it was hard to chose just one!

Oh boy, do I have so much to talk about regarding this show but then again most of it will be me complaining about “people” who compare this show to last seasons’ ‘The Quintessential Quintuplets’ despite the fact that ‘We Never Learn’ came first (as a manga) and is infinitely superior! Okay I’ll stop with the mini-rant and just say that seldom do I see a harem anime with such a commitment to fully developing its female characters and making the audience not only want each of the girls to end up with the male lead but also give them personal and unique journeys that make all these characters feel real. I really love this show and I’m so glad it’s getting a second season in October of this year!

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
(91/100)

Don’t be shy, Bocchi, you have people who like you!

Shows like this are especially hard to review because the journey of the anime is less about a definite ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘endpoint’ narratively speaking but rather just watching characters find one another, grow closer and develop as people in their own right. Likewise the amount you’re going to get out of a series like this is directly proportional to how much you can be brought into their world and sympathise/empathise with the characters in it. Bocchi and her cohorts remained like friends I never knew I needed right up until the end and I’ll forever appreciate them for letting me be privy to their journey, this show was wonderful.

Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher!?
(90/100)

Boing!

A show as shamelessly ecchi as this one deserves kudos for fully committing to its ridiculous premise alone. But what was more surprising than the myriad ways it managed to push together a female teacher and a male student in compromising situations was the honest to goodness heart, character development and how well it tied it all together. Sometimes a show can be sexy and sweet.

Wise Man’s Grandchild
(88/100)

She’s too precious.

I went into great detail (and defense) about this series in my episode 1 & 2 review but my thoughts on the series as a whole remain more or less the same. ‘Wise Man’s Grandchild’ is an isekai that knows it’s an isekai, embraces the tropes of its genre but is still wise (heh) enough to do things differently when it needs to. Its sense of humour remains its greatest strength though and made every single episode an absolute joy to watch.

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World
(86/100) [ongoing series Episodes 1 to 13 watched]

Okay, so sometimes our protagonist can be a gentlemen…

Here’s a series that gets more interesting, more complex and more narratively satisfying the longer it goes on and the fact we’re only halfway through its planned 26 (plus 1 OVA) episode at the time of writing this makes things all the more exciting. This show feels fresh despite being based on a Visual Novel from the 90’s and whats more its just entertaining as heck. Yes it’s got some issues (mostly to do with its sometimes sexist protagonist) but the good far outweighs the bad in this particular anime!

Ao-chan Can’t Study!
(85/100)

She loves it.

I haven’t watched that many strictly romantic comedy anime (harem’s usually don’t count as such) likewise even less with a female lead but not only was the titular Ao-chan an adorable neurotic and refreshingly frank character but the show itself was as funny as it was endearing.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki
(84/100)

She’s a high energy individual that Yatogame-chan…

When’s a 2 minute anime better than half the anime you watch in a particular season? When it’s ‘Yagogame-chan Kanatsu Nikki’! Food anime are often a favourite of mine, and what’s better than a food anime? A food anime filled with comedy and niche references to very specific parts of Japanese culture (in this case the Nagoya region of Japan). As you’d (hopefully) expect for an anime this short not a second is wasted and the result is a fun and frenetic, but still surprisingly laid back anime that I’m very glad is getting a 2nd season next year!

Isekai Quartet
(83/100)

I can literally hear the theme song in my head just by looking at this gif.

Bringing together characters from four different popular isekai anime and smashing them together could have been a recipe for disaster–or at least a recipe for a messy anime but the team responsible for this crossover handled it (almost) perfectly and gave us fun and entertaining experience. Even if you’re only familiar with half the shows being referenced it’s still a worthwhile experience if you’re into seeing crazy characters interact with each other with often hilarious results!

AMAZING STRANGER
(83/100)

I watched it for the plot, I swear!

The otaku references in ‘AMAZING STRANGER’ were an endless source of comedic delight as were the marital shenanigans between our protagonist and 1/6 scale bishojou figure but it was the commitment to its world building, the connections between the characters and the surprising amount of drama that ended up making this anime such a rewarding (if still inherently silly) experience.

The Helpful Fox Senko-san
(82/100)

She is pretty damn adorable (and don’t forget 800 years old, so it’s legal!)

Despite seemingly being an anime that’s exactly in my wheelhouse (a.k.a. it’s about a cute loli fox girl in a Slice of Life setting) there were certain things about this anime that I wasn’t exactly a fan of and hence prevented me falling in love with the show like so many others did. Having an adult male protagonist felt like it was pandering to a different demographic entirely (I wrote a whole rant-y post about it which I never ended up posting) but external factors should seldom detract from a show’s enjoyment factor. Also the fact the show felt the need to mention that the loli fox girl is actually 800 years old in every episode (sometimes multiple times) felt like the writer was embarrassed by his very own premise–which sucked a lot of the joy out of the show. Regardless of my issues it was still a wholesome, comfortable and well-made anime.

Fruits Basket 1st Season
(81/100) [ongoing series 13 Episodes watched so far]

*kick*

As someone who’s never seen the ‘original’  Fruits Basket, read the manga nor is particularly a fan of this genre of anime (whatever genre that is) I’m still yet to see the monumental appeal of this series–however its characters, its overall emotional impact and the promise of something bigger and more serious behind the scenes means I’m more than happy to keep watching the show and see where it goes.

Nobunaga teacher’s young bride
(74/100)

The face of all the ‘normies’ who stumbled upon this show.

There’s a lot of promise in this anime’s premise but unfortunately not a lot of care in its overall execution. It’s clumsy, occasionally ugly and extremely problematic. But it’s also fun, amusing and occasionally inspired. Also kudos for being one of the only ecchi harem anime I’ve ever seen to have a “trap” character get further sexually with the main (male) character than any of the girls did! I’ll remember that about this series if nothing else…

Joshi Kausei
(71/100)

Literally the best moment in the whole series and it happens two minutes into Episode 1.

An interesting premise and some wholly likeable characters are the highlight of this short anime that never does anything particular inventive with its ‘no dialogue’ premise but is still a pleasant and entertaining diversion.

Cinderella Nine
(62/100)

Do they have ‘yellow cards’ in baseball?

As of the writing of this I’m only 11 out of 12 episodes (due to a broadcast delay) but ‘Cinderella Nine’ is an example of a sports anime without the budget to wholly execute its sport in any satisfying way, with characters who amount to little more than single sentence cliches and nothing in the way of a gimmick to spice up the proceedings.

Han-Gyakuisei Million Arthur 2nd Season [on hold at Episode 3]

So, this show is great, probably with a score around the mid 80’s, but I had to stop it at Episode 3 because Funimation being the incompetent twats that they are decided to cut out the post-credit gag scenes which were a source of so much joy in the 1st season. Maybe it seems weird to put a show on hold because of such a (seemingly) minor reason but its a matter of principal, you know?! I’ll probably get back to watching this just… not on Funimation…

AFTERLOST [on hold at Episode 7]

*sigh* This show… is so frustrating, there’s so much good about it and almost in equal measure so much bad about it. I haven’t considered this ~officially~ dropped but at the same time I don’t know if I want to ever go back to it so consider this in the limbo between on hold and dropped–whatever that might be called… okay let’s call it ‘Lost’!

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And that’s the Anime of Spring 2019 that I watched reviewed! What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on my thoughts? Drop a comment below if you have something to say! Thanks for reading!

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