qanda review – Anime QandA

Bubble Girl Is New Best Girl – ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 24 and 25 (Finale) Review

Bubble Girl Is New Best Girl – An Anime QandA Review of ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 24 and 25

What’s the show? My Hero Academia 3rd Season, Episode 24 & 25.

Doubling up episodes for this review, eh? Pretty much. I was late to getting to the episode 24 review so I figured I’d lump it together with 25—they’re very connected anyway so it works well enough!

Fair enough, so what happens in this—ahem, these episodes? Basically Midoriya and Bakugo are under “house arrest” for the fight in Episode 23 and are stuck doing chores—after Midoriya is released from the chores a day early (due to the fact that Bakugo incited the fight) we get a 1 and half episode long tease for what’s basically going to comprise a fair chunk of season 4. We learn the first year students will be doing ‘Hero Work Studies’ which is kind of like an on the job-apprenticeship just with hero work. We’re also introduced to the “Big Three” the top 3 students of UA who are all third year students.

More characters huh? For some reason I’d never even thought of the first years as having upperclassmen but of course they do, it’s a high school like any other. I’m surprised it took this long to actually meet some of them but at the same time glad as like you inferred this show has a lot of characters.

Are they any good? I enjoyed what little we saw of them—or in the case of Mirio, the whole ~lot~ we saw of him. We don’t get a sense of what the other two characters’ quirks are but Mirio has a very interesting power called ‘Permeate’ which as the name suggests allows all matter to pass through him—which as you can imagine makes him very over-powered. As a demonstration he takes on the whole of class 1-A—and they lose!

Sounds kind of unbalanced to have such an unbeatable hero? Maybe, but I do like that they made him somewhat down-to-earth and showed that he wasn’t just gifted these abilities and was able to use them ‘straight out of the box’ so to speak but that he had to work hard to hone his powers into something usable. I won’t go into detail because the show does a much better job at visualising and explaining his abilities and shortcomings but I enjoyed his whole deal. Also I’m glad there’s a girl in the Top 3, this show too often neglects women heroes but I’m just hoping her power isn’t some passive ‘support’ ability like so many of the other women are lumped with.

I suppose I could just ‘Google’ her power, but where’s the fun in that?

Uh-huh, I’ll stop you there before you start that old rant again. So what were your favourite things about the final two episodes of the third season? My favourite thing about episode 24 is the first half of the episode, which was almost like a noir-esque monologue from villain ‘Twice’—that fleshed out his backstory and was really moody and serious and different from anything we’ve seen from this show. I’d like more of this kind of thing going forward for sure!

Twice is kind of cooler *without* his mask on.

And the finale? Episode 25 gave us a brief glimpse of what will be coming, not just with the ‘Hero Work Studies’ but also the league of villains preparing something big and that someone belonging to the ‘good guys’ has apparently infiltrated their gang. It was a little bit vague but I liked the mystery of it all—also they briefly (like all of 20 seconds) introduced a brand new character who’s ~totally~ my new best girl—well, if her looks are anything to go off of!

Yeah, and who’s that? Her name’s Bubble Girl and she’s hot as heck!

Should’ve figured it’d be a superficial decision… Hey, I said I only had her looks to go off, didn’t I?!

Wait. She only appears for twenty seconds or so and you named the entire review after her?! Yep. I’m a simple man who knows what he likes.

Moving on, so what did you think of the final two episode of Season 3 of My Hero Academia? Full of interest and promise—which is kind of all you can expect for a finale of something ongoing and long-running. Not to go too much into my full thoughts on the season (as I’ll save that for the QandA Rundown) but I was getting a little bit tired of the testing stuff in this season so hopefully next season opens the world up a little bit more as was promised in the early part of season 3. I’m glad the final two episodes have left me wanting more as I do genuinely love this show and the characters—just hoping for a bit more development and intrigue next time!

Previous My Hero Academia Reviews:

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The Biggest Villain Is Toxic Masculinity – ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 23 Review

The Biggest Villain Is Toxic Masculinity – An Anime QandA Review of ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 23

What’s the show? My Hero Academia 3rd Season, Episode 23.

So, uh, you kinda weren’t too keen on what this episode was going to be about when they teased it last week? Did it live up to your lack of expectations? As much as I hate to admit it… they kinda pulled it off—even with all my preconceived annoyance at the idea of Midoriya and Bakugo “needing” to fight. But that’s a big italicised and underlined kinda… because it’s still all absolutely unnecessary.

Wait, so you say the “pulled it off” but it was also “unnecessary”? How does that work? Well in the direct context of the show I bought it, plus it was well-written enough that I understood the intentions even if I absolutely hate the ~idea~ of it—I still do hate the idea mind you, I’ve just made my peace with it because of the aforementioned ‘positives’ of the episode.

Okay, I think you’re going to need to explain your problems with them having a fight seeing as you glossed over it last week as you pre-empted this week’s potential for a rant. I don’t like the idea that men have to fight each other in order to come to terms with things they’re feeling but can’t verbalise, it’s all under that delightful ‘toxic masculinity’ umbrella that irritates me so. I hate that we have a culture that celebrates being “tough” and negates the benefits of actually speaking about your problems and so whenever characters who are in all respects ‘allies’ and not ‘enemies’ decide that whatever ~problem~ has come between them needs to be resolved with fists instead of words I die a little inside. This is a problem as old as time itself, and perpetuating these negative “masculine” stereotypes is just wrong.

Makes sense I suppose, so I take it this episode at least gave a good enough reason for them to be fighting? Not really, it tried. I mean I ~love~ that Midoriya is open enough with his feelings that he only wants to talk about it, I’m so glad he’s the protagonist and not Bakugo. But Bakugo, ugh… I don’t hate him… but I absolutely pity him. I pity his irrational, violent sensibilities that make him so emotionally inert to any kind of reactions aside from insulting people and wanting to punch things. It’d be funny if there weren’t innocent people suffering at the hands of ignorant people like this in the real world.

Bringing it around to “reality” huh? Sure that’s wise, I mean we’re talking about a superhero anime here… Doesn’t change the fact that Midoriya and Bakugo are in a relationship—and calm down ‘shippers I don’t mean like that. You don’t have to be dating or sleeping with someone to be in an abusive relationship and that’s what it felt like Midoriya was having to deal with here—a “partner” who can’t express themselves verbally so they have to lash out with violence instead.

Do things at least get resolved by the end of the episode between the two? Kind of but not really, after their fight—which Midoriya loses by the way (make of that what you will)—All Might steps in to allay Bakugo’s insecurities and guilt, you know the reason Bakugo’s apparently been acting this way. Which I think is kinda bullshit because the many flashbacks show that he’s always been a dick to Midoriya so all his recent ‘hang-ups’ seem more like an excuse than anything. But as I said it’s still well written and well voice acted and I wasn’t bored at anytime during the episode so there’s that at least. I’m glad this mini-arc is over and we can hopefully get some interesting plot in before the end of the season!

Previous My Hero Academia Reviews:

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Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast For Spirits- – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Kakuriyo –Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- is a Spring 2018 supernatural romance anime that aired 26 episodes between April and September. It is based on a Light Novel series by Midori Yuma and has been adapted into a Josei manga series too.

What’s it about? Aoi Tsubaki is a lonely college student who has the ability to Ayakshi in the world, a trait she inherited from her now deceased grandfather. One day while walking past a shrine she meets an Ogre god named Odanna. After offering him some food she kidnaps her to the ‘Hidden Realm’, the spiritual home for all Ayakashi. There she learns her grandfather owed Odanna a great debt and in order to repay it she offered Aoi’s hand in marriage. But rather than succumb to his wishes Aoi negotiates with the Ogre god and decides to pay off the debt at Tenjin’ya an inn for Ayakashi.

Why did you watch it? Every season I watch one or two shows that I have little-to-no interest in but that would be of interest to the irlwaifu—lots of hot Ayakashi boys vying for one woman’s attention—this was the one for Spring, other than that there was no other reason for me to watch it.

Did you enjoy the show? I reviewed about 6 episodes before deciding I couldn’t review it episodically but that’s not to speak of the show’s quality—just that I didn’t have anything to talk about! The show is pretty casual and light-hearted but at times it feels like too little actually happens in the show, it certainly didn’t need to be 26 episodes. As much as I complained about the ~creepy~ aspect of framing a love-story against kidnapping and arranged marriage, Aoi is a strong enough character that she’s never taken advantage of by the “good” characters.

Why is the only thing I can think of what kind of damage those nails would do “in the bedroom”…

What was your favourite episode? The episode that had the most emotional gravitas for me was the finale—Episode 26, with the revelation about the Umi-bouzo’s true nature being particularly touching.

What were your most favourite things about the show? Despite seeming at first glance to be as a show about hot boys and one girl amongst it, there’s actually a lot of other female characters and while Aoi’s interactions with these characters are never ~quite~ as deep as they are with the men they are still interesting character with differing levels of friendship (or rivalry) with Aoi.

You know it’s a show “for women” when the man in the scene has bigger and brighter eyes than the two girls.

What were your least favourite things about the show? Aside from the aforementioned pacing issues the animation can vary in quality at time, never to horrendous levels but it does come off as a little rushed sometimes. Also the stakes in any given episode never really feel all that high—even towards the finale it feels like nobody in the show is taking anything too serious.

Who was your favourite character? While it would be easy (and expected) of me to pick Aoi as I did praise her earlier on in this review she isn’t my favourite character. I’m tossing up between Ginji the white haired wolf-boy who’s just an all-round “good boy” and a lot more likable as a potential love-interest than Odanna. But my love of waifu’s is wanting me to pick the shy, dark-haired beauty of the bath-houses Shizuna, but because of how little screen-time she has I probably should just leave it as Ginji being favourite.

I like how Shizuna’s character design emphasises the fact she works all day in a hot springs, that’s the hair of someone who works in a wet and humid environment!

Thoughts on the OP (opening) and ED (ending) and the soundtrack in general? The first OP “Tomoshibi no Manimani” is a gorgeous and moving song and is actually sung by Aoi’s voice actress Nao Toyama, and when they announced a new song for the second cour I thought nothing could compare but rather than trying to replicate the emotional power and sweeping beauty of the first one they went for a straight up banger; “Utsushiyo no Yume” by Nano. As for the ED’s, well there’s way too many to go through them all as nearly every character gets a character song during the end credits but they’re all fairly decent.

What’s something unique about this show? This show has a large emphasis on food—which is nothing new for anime considering the Japanese people’s obsession with it, what is interesting is how it permeates every aspect of the narrative—at first seemingly like a hobby for Aoi (one she’s very skilled at mind you) but then becoming intrinsic to the overarching plot-line of the final arc of the anime. It doesn’t make the earlier episodes dedicated to it feel less ~slight~ of content but it does justify the existence of it throughout the story as being something other than just a hobby.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? I don’t have a great basis for comparison with this genre. However while I haven’t watched the show, I actually own Kamisama Kiss on blu-ray (it was cheap, so I bought it) and that show looks very much like Kakuriyo.

Who would you recommend it to? There’s a certain demographic for this show and they’ve probably already watched this show—or at the very least have it on their watch list. That’s not to say people who aren’t a part of that demographic won’t find things to enjoy about the show like I did but the effect will be greatly lessened.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘Much like vanilla ice-cream its sweet but kind of ordinary, pleasant but nothing bold and more or less delivers the expected experience.’

Final score? 72 out of 100.

Previous Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast For Spirits- Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
(No Review For Episode 4)
Episode 5 & 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
(Stopped Reviewing Weekly After Episode 7)

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Swing And A Miss – ‘Hanebado!’ Episode 13 (Finale) Review

Swing And A Miss – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Hanebado!’ Episode 13

What’s the show? Hanebado! Episode 13.

Oh boy, the season finale of Hanebado…you sure have had a like/dislike relationship with this show haven’t you? That’s an understatement, but yeah… suffice to say the characterisation inconsistencies—specifically in regard to Ayano have been a sore point for me and lots of people if fellow bloggers and the #hanebado hashtag are anything to go by!

So how’s this episode then? Do they fix things? Keep things the same? Or just make them worse? Funnily enough, all 3 if you believe it. Though I think that depends on a couple of factors and how deep into this show you’re willing to go.

Okay, so explain how you think this finale can be all 3 of those things—depending on how you look at it—I’m curious… So just a quick recap of what happens. It’s Ayano vs Nagisa final round, Ayano looked like she was throwing the game until she got some encouraging words—she starts having fun playing against Nagisa—the first time she’s had fun playing Badminton in a while. The match gets tied, they go back and forth with deuce and match points, then after an artsy looking interlude Nagisa wins. Ayano regains some semblance of humility in the face of her defeat, still kind of acts like a cheeky spoilt brat but gone is the dead-eyed villain from before.

Nagisa deserved to have an ‘ugly cry’ after such a hard fought win.

Okay… so Ayano’s changed for the better? That would imply some character development? So first of all, on a very base surface level, yes Ayano is now a better character because she’s not a villainous entity of pure evil—she’s just a smug rival with a cheeky attitude. But the problem with this change is that ~this~ Ayano is what should have become meek and introverted Ayano earlier on. There never needed for Ayano to go full dark-side when this happy medium could have saved the entire series! So as it stands, rather than this just being a middle ground gained through character development, it instead feels like a ~third~ personality that’s been quickly tacked on to make Ayano more palatable. This change doesn’t feel earned, it feels like someone realised too late what Ayano’s character was actually supposed to be and just forced it into the narrative.

Ayano’s next evolution is smug/cute. It’s not very effective.

So when I said, “did they fix things? Keep things the same? Or just make them worse?” and you said “all 3” you meant… I meant Ayano is technically fixed as a character. But things are still the same because they are fixed in a way that’s typical of this show—that is to say, not very subtle or well done. And likewise it’s worse because of how damn great the rest of the episode is!

Everyone just looks fed up, kinda like the people watching this show I reckon…

What’s so great about it? Literally anything that’s not Ayano. The sport is exciting and well presented, the soundtrack is breathtaking and there’s an “artsy looking interlude” that I mentioned before that is legitimately one of my favourite pretentious things I’ve seen in anime all season. Basically everything goes black and white, the soundtrack is faded out until all that’s left is a beating heart sound, Ayano and Nagisa’s steady but tense breathing and the occasional sound of a shuttlecock hitting a racket. It’s arguably unnecessary but it’s so damn cool and stylistic that I can’t help but adore the whole scene!

Fair enough! So overall thoughts on the finale of Hanebado? It’s at least better than this show at its worst! I feel like if things had been different and the worst Ayano ever got was how she was at the end of this episode we’d be looking at a lot more positive reviews of this show. But as often is the case, it’s too little—too late.

Like this scene felt like it came out of episode 3, not episode 13!

Previous Hanebado! Reviews:

Sports Anime + Cute Girls = A Better Sports Anime – Episode 1 Review
Emotional Flashbacks & Sausages on Sticks – Episode 2 Review
A Smash To The Feels – Episode 3 Review
Sibling Rivalry – Episode 4 Review
Rivals Are Better Than Villains – Episode 5 Review
Uniformly Improved – Episode 6 Review
Just Like Tennis – Episode 7 Review
There’s No Ayano In Team – Episode 8 Review
Beware of Villains Bearing Backstories – Episode 9 Review
Out Of Bounds – Episode 10 Review
Best and Scariest – Episode 11 Review
Fighting Expectations – Episode 12 Review

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Chio’s School Road – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Chio’s School Road is a Summer 2018 comedy anime that aired 12 episodes from July to September. It is a partial adaptation of a 9 volume Seinen manga series by Tadataka Kawasaki.

What’s it about? Very simply, it’s about Chio Miyamo a below average high-school girl and avid video gamer and the various antics she gets up to on her daily commute from her house to her school. The shenanigans range from strange conversations with her friend Manana to things absurd as encounters with biker gangs, risky parkour and run-ins with a butt-poking elementary schooler.

Why did you watch it? The series sold itself as an ‘absurd comedy’ and I’m all about that!

Did you enjoy the show? Absolutely, it delivered on the absurdity and also solidified it with a truly great cast of characters and a seemingly expanding world of quirky characters that inhabited the series. Even the weakest of episodes had laugh-out-loud moments and imagery worthy of surreal screen caps.

What was your favourite episode? While every episode had a worthwhile and hilarious segment (each episode of the show is divided into either 2 or 3 ‘segments’), Episode 7 which concerned Chio discovering the “joys” of BL (Boys Love) games and trying to buy a magazine about it and then following that up with the first appearance of the butt-poking elementary schooler had me in tears of laughter from beginning to end! Not to mention all the references to the differences between Western and Japanese video games.

What were your most favourite things about the show? Aside from the comedy—which ran the gamut from slapstick, to wordplay, to non-sequiturs, to cringe, to character driven. Chio herself was an absolute joy to behold, the way her mind works was not only frequently hilarious but also surprisingly relatable—especially as a gamer myself.

Wbat were your least favourite things about the show? There were a couple of repeat characters that Chio encountered that weren’t perhaps as funny as the show thought they were, the pervert homeless man especially was a character whose appearance only cheapened the overall quality of the show.

Who was your favourite character? I want Chio to be my girlfriend. Is that weird? That’s probably weird… But seriously, I really love Chio’s general outlook on life—even if it is striving for mediocrity for the sake of living life unnoticed. Plus she’s just cute in that nerdy kind of way!

What’s something unique about this show? Episode 2 just straight up dropped the c-word and I still can’t get over that fact! Yes it was just in text and yes the c-word doesn’t really have the same vulgar/taboo connotations in Japan as it does in the west but I was still flabbergasted to see it on-screen! Amazing and hilarious.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? For some reason I’m reminded of Yuruyuri, though moreso the later half of the season where the comedy gets more character driven as opposed to absurd ‘sketch’ style. Also, if you want a Western sitcom comparison, it definitely at times reminded me of Seinfeld, in that these people are all kind of dysfunctional jerks, but they’re absolutely relatable.

Who would you recommend it to? Anybody who likes their comedy on the more ~absurd~ end of the spectrum, obviously not Pop Team Epic levels of absurdity but still grounded in reality. Also, there’s a lot of references to Western video games which even if you’re not a fan of them there’s a lot of fun to be gained to just see the Japanese perspective on something that’s apparently very unusual to them that a lot of us probably take for granted as being ‘normal’.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘The road ahead is twisted and filled with obstacles but they’re all a part of silly and strange journey that I’m glad to have taken!’

Final score? 88 out of 100.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

Otaku’s Creed – Episode 1 Review
The Actual C-Word – Episode 2 Review
Full Contact Perineum – Episode 3 Review
Stupid Sexy Smoking – Episode 4 Review
Urine Trouble – Episode 5 Review
The Art of Butt Groping – Episode 6 Review
Public Enema Number One – Episode 7 Review
Sprinter Belle – Episode 8 Review
Pipe Dreams – Episode 9 Review
The Sweeter Life – Episode 10 Review
Sleeping On The Bank Job – Episode 11 Review
No Panties, No Problems! – Episode 12 Review

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Spoiling For A Fight – ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 22 Review

Spoiling For A Fight – An Anime QandA Review of ‘My Hero Academia 3rd Season’ Episode 22

What’s the show? My Hero Academia 3rd Season, Episode 22.

So what happens in this episode? Maybe this’ll be a controversial opinion—I mean it will if the number of tweets about it are any indication towards its popularity—but I really couldn’t care less about Midoriya and Bakugo having a proverbial pissing contest over which of them is stronger and who’s deserving of what…

So I take it that’s what this episode is about? Well, not as such, I’m jumping ahead as I often do. That’s the end of the episode, setting up for what will no doubt take precedence in the next episode.

Okay, well before you decide to annoy everyone with a rant how about you talk about the rest of the episode first, yeah? Sure. So the provisional licensing exams are over and we get the results, three people that we know of failed. Them being Todoroki and the windy guy from the other school because of their stupid rivalry and of course Bakugo for just generally being angry and unpleasant while trying to save people. Of course the consequences of these “failures” is pretty minor seeing as they’re able to take a 3 month makeup course to get their licenses anyway, so it’s really just a minor setback for those guys.

Is he attempting ‘goatse’? (Kids if you don’t know what that is *please* don’t google it).

I see, then what happens? Well Midoriya tries to find sexy shape-shifting girl Utsushimi from the other school but turns out she went home early also turns out that she was ~actually~ female villain Himiko in disguise! She was there to attain a sample of Midoriya’s blood, which she evidently succeeded in doing. Hopefully Utsushimi is okay! But surprisingly it’s All Might who was arguably the most interesting scene of the episode as he goes to Tartarus prison to visit All For One who is imprisoned there under ludicrously strict precautions. I feel like is this was set in actual Japan and not MHA Japan they’d have just given him the death penalty by now.

Oh? What’s so good about this scene? It’s hard to put my finger on it—I mean not a lot of new or vital information is imparted but it just felt so different from everything we’d seen before. Plus All For One being all immobile in his cell but still managing to be intimidating as heck is very cool—he’s got a Hannibal Lecter vibe and I totally dig that!

And I’m guessing after that we get to the thing you don’t care about and probably want to rant about? Listen, the next episode is going to be all about these two beating the crap out of each other because of fragile male egos or some such nonsense and I’ll save my rant for then, nobody needs to read the same complaints twice. Let’s just say leave it at, ‘I don’t care about the issues these two characters have with each other and Bakugo is a big dumb baby.’

Oooh~ I can just feel the hate radiating from a thousand keyboards around the world reading those words of yours! A thousand?! That’s very optimistic, more like ten.

So final thoughts on the episode? Glad the licensing exam is over—not glad we have to deal with Midoriya and Bakugo’s ~issues~, hopefully we can get to something more interesting before the season is done!

This moment was pretty cute though. He was so excited!

Previous My Hero Academia Reviews:

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Fighting Expectations – ‘Hanebado!’ Episode 12 Review

Fighting Expectations – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Hanebado!’ Episode 12

What’s the show? Hanebado! Episode 12.

So what happens in this second-to-last episode? Are you still complaining about inconsistent characterisation? Yeah… more or less, and I’m kind of sick of complaining about this show every week, as I’m sure are the readers of reading said complaints.

Well that kind of puts you in a sticky situation, because you have to talk about something? I mean I could just objectively talk about things that happened in the episode and whether I thought they were good or bad rather than repeat the same rant over and over.

That could work, I’ll be sure to cut you off if you stray and start ranting! Appreciated.

Nagisa, still the only character I’m rooting for!

So what happens in this episode? Well we get a bit more context about how Ayano’s mother left in the form of a flashback and yeah, Ayano’s mother is just as awful as we already knew. Speaking of flashbacks, there’s actually a heck of a lot of reused footage in this episode, maybe like 15% of the entire episode is stuff from previous episodes just rearranged into montages and it kind of is a detriment to the episode in more ways than one.

How so? Well towards the end of the episode we get a lengthy montage showing how Ayano was in the early episodes, you know before she turned into a dead-eyed monster, and it goes to highlight how much better her character used to be and how much better this show was in-turn. And I don’t know if this little montage was supposed to show a journey, because all it did was show how abrupt and out-of-place her character decline was.

Getting dangerously close to ‘rant country’ best turn back! Right, sorry.

This version of Ayano is less fun then “dead-eyed monster”.

So aside from the reused footage what else happens? Just more of the match between Ayano and Nagisa and it’s expectedly great—you know the parts where Ayano’s not antagonising people—its exciting and well animated, the music is fantastic and the match is easy-to-follow and even a little bit tense! Ayano wins the first set, while Nagisa claws back the second having tired out Ayano by playing in the opposite style than her opponent had prepared for. Then the third set comes and Ayano kind of just gives up—only to be cheered on by her teammates and of course they’re going to push a ‘the power of teamwork/friendship’ redemption arc for the final episode and nope, not having it!

You can just sense the “Tch!” just wanting to pass her lips!

And that’s your prediction for the finale I take it? Yeah, I mean other commenters had seen it coming a mile away and it’s annoying because you can’t devote so much time and energy into turning a good girl into a bad girl then turning her back again! Or maybe you can, I don’t know, it’s not my anime it can do whatever the heck it wants with its characters! Oh well, only one episode left now, let’s see if they can redeem their mistakes in any way or just screw it up even more!

Previous Hanebado! Reviews:

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No Panties, No Problems! – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 12 (Finale) Review

No Panties, No Problems! – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 12

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 12.

The season finale! What’s this episode about? Something revelatory happened at the end of this episode!

Uh-huh, why do I get the feeling this is going to be something actually not revelatory… or knowing you something perverted… How dare you! No, what happened was we found out the ~truth~ about this series—turns out this is a TV show!

…Um, hate to break it to you but that’s not news… of course it’s a TV show, what else do you think you’ve been watching?! No you don’t understand, I mean there’s bloopers at the end of the episode that reveal this show is a TV show like a scene will play, somebody will flub a line and then the director yells cut and we see the camera crew bustle around to reset the scene as the cast laughs off the mistake.

Wait, so in the context of the anime it’s a TV show? Actually probably not, I think they were just having a bit of fun since this was the last episode, I don’t actually think this is a TV show—still bloopers in an anime is pretty unique, yeah?

I don’t know… I don’t watch anime… Right, sorry.

So you gonna say what the episode is actually about or just waste my time? Geez! Alright then, so the first segment is about Andou’s kid-sister Chiharu asking Chio for help with a school project—a social studies question asking “How You Could Earn 500 Yen with your current abilities”. Immediately Chio’s mind goes to the X-rated which was particularly funny but from there the segment more or less meanders with only a few chuckles in-between.

Fair enough, and the second segment? A much funnier one, thankfully, especially as it’s more or less the final segment of the show (if you don’t count the “next season preview” and “bloopers”). Basically we get to know a little bit more about Yuki—we already knew she was a bit of an exhibitionist but it turns out she’s also a nudist at home and has a secret desire to streak (which makes sense as it combines her two passions; running and being looked at while nude).

And how’s that come into Chio’s walk to school? Well, Manana ends up trying to “tease” Yuki about being a nudist which ends up biting her in the bare-ass as Yuki straight-up confronts her about her comments and says she’ll fight anyone who talks badly of her lifestyle choices. This ends up with Manana backing down and then trying to fix things by suggesting they “go commando” for the rest of the day—an idea that Yuki is very excited about. One quick visit to the restrooms later and both Manana and Yuki are sans-underpants!

No wonder you like this segment… Hey, don’t kink shame! Besides it’s fun seeing Yuki and Manana get so into it, while Chio just watches from the sidelines, getting more and more jealous of how “Manana hasn’t laughed like that with me in a long-time”. This segment does double duty, catering to my desire to see panty-less school girls frolicking and setting up that ‘ship I so long for.

You’re the worst, just thought I’d remind you of that in case I hadn’t said so today. Thanks. Also just for the record, you don’t see anything—this isn’t an ecchi after all, everything is more-or-less eluded to or carefully framed out. Though I do wonder if there will be an uncensored version one day…

Enough! And what was this about a “next season preview”? It’s not getting a second season is it? Not at this stage, but much like the bloopers I have to assume this “preview” is entirely jokey—and kudos because it works. It teases at some things that were brought up in earlier episodes (like being proposed to on the water pipe Chio likes), as well as setting up some wholly ridiculous and over-the-top elementary school butt poking gang that Chiharu is the leader of—it’s all pretty great!

Can we get a spin-off of the butt-poking series please? No reason…

So I take it you enjoyed this finale? For sure—certainly the show is quite a bit different from when it started (as I discussed in my Episode 11 review), but it’s still consistently entertaining and frequently hilarious and this final episode is no different. Plus for those who truly miss the way the show was in the first half of the season the “next season preview” and “bloopers” are very much a reminder of that particular brand of madness—oh and Chio and Manana finally kiss, but it happens in the “blooper” section, so probably not canon, right? Right?!

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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ISLAND – Full Season QandA Rundown

A Full Season QandA Rundown of ISLAND

What’s the important information? ‘ISLAND’ is a Summer 2018 anime that aired for 12 episodes from July through September. It is based on a Visual Novel game developed by Front Wing.

What’s it about? A man washes up on a beach with no memories of his own other than his name, Setsuna, and the mission in his heart—that he has to save a girl. Quickly he encounters three very different girls, each with their own unique problems, Rinne, Karen and Sara. Romance, time-travel and shenanigans ensue as Setsuna attempts to help these girls, while figuring out his own identity and the mysteries of the exclusionary and superstitious Island they call home.

Why did you watch it? Aside from the obvious that the anime’s poster featured three distinctive and incredibly cute looking girls the series is based on a visual novel and for better or worse visual novel adaptations are a unique beast—more difficult to adapt and therefore more prone to artistic license but also less beholden to genre stereotypes than manga.

Did you enjoy the show? From the get-go the show intrigued, enthralled and entertained me and didn’t relent for a moment. To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement as it was the series I looked forward to the most every week during the Summer 2018 season!

What was your favourite episode? While Episode 4 “This World Full Of Secrets” showed the series more than capable of offering a satisfying conclusion to Karen’s ‘problems’ and likewise Episode 5 “This Is Why I Trust You” with Sara’s. For sheer dramatic intensity it’s a toss-up between Episode 9’s “I Got To See You Again” and Episode 10’s “I Don’t Want To Grieve Anymore” that delivered the greatest shock as the series changed to a dystopian future setting and even changed the name of the show to ‘NEVER ISLAND’ for this two-episode arc. It was brave storytelling and delivered my most unexpected moment of the entire series.

Even for living in a futuristic dystopia Rinne knows how to style.

What were your most favourite things about the show? Aside from our female cast of characters; who are all pretty much perfection, the effortless blend of mystery and romance consistently made the show alluring.

Wbat were your least favourite things about the show? It might seem like a cop-out to say so but the fact that there weren’t more episodes was a detriment. Never to the point where I felt like I was missing out anything essential but rather that the experience could have been enriched further with a longer overall running time.

Who was your favourite character? As mentioned in my list of 10 Best Summer 2018 Waifu’s, Rinne was my best girl, though it was a close race as both Sara and Karen have more than enough superb qualities to be just as eligible. Ultimately though, it was aesthetically Rinne who won out over the others.

What’s something unique about this show? This is absolutely a spoiler so consider yourself warned for this question, but Episode 10’s end credits delivered to us a sex scene between future Rinne and Setsuna that was both unexpected but inevitably essential to the plot—the fact that they showed it at all (albeit subtly and with ample shadows) was the thing that stuck out as utterly unique—even among visual novel adaptations.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? While I’m sure there are undoubtedly anime that at least tonally resemble ‘ISLAND’ I personally haven’t seen an anime series like it. However, with regard to live-action US television series’ I feel it at least shares a passing resemblance to shows like ‘Lost’ and ‘Twin Peaks’ at least with regard to an adherence to mystery and ~feeling~ rather than things like concrete narrative cohesion and a reliance on over-explaining the more fanciful elements of the series.

This fan service is totally okay because it’s Rinne who is imagining it, right?!

Who would you recommend it to? For those who don’t need everything spelled out in explicit detail and can just kinda ‘go with the flow’ and appreciate a story being told the way it needs to be told, ‘ISLAND’ is ideal. Also for people who aren’t deterred by loli character designs and intermittent but no less obvious fan-service moments too.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘This Island holds many mysteries but none greater than those of the heart.’

Final score? 93 out of 100.

Previous ISLAND Reviews:

The Island of Mysterious Loli’s – Episode 1 Review
A Loli A Day… – Episode 2 Review
Dreams Of Fan Service – Episode 3 Review
One Wedding and a Belated Funeral – Episode 4 Review
Is Giving Birth To Yourself Possible? – Episode 5 Review
The World Will End With A Bang – Episode 6 Review
A Storm In An A-Cup – Episode 7 Review
An Ocean Between Us – Episode 8 Review
Long Time No Sea – Episode 9 Review
Rinne and Repeat – Episode 10 Review
A Fling Of The Past – Episode 11 Review
His And Hers Story Repeats – Episode 12 (Finale) Review

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