Mari’s jokes are bad. They’re really really bad. But that’s why I love her. In fact, I’ve already fallen in love with all of the third-years in Love Live! Sunshine!! These three are kind of modelled on Eli, Nozomi and Nico from the original show…but at the same time, they’re not. Dia plays the grumpy girl who turns out to have a hidden soft side, Mari (this one above) who is clearly modelled on Nozomi (both brains and beauty wise), and there’s Kanan (the diving girl who we rarely see) who has qualities of both Eli and Nozomi (she wants the best for her second-year friends, but clearly does not approve of them going head-first into something that has a very good chance of not succeeding).

This week’s show is nothing new, and the original show had exactly the same format; Chika, Riko and You doing their first gig as aqours and impressing half of the town who (randomly) shows up out of nowhere after a thunderstorm causes a power-cut. It’s a touching episode, and I think it actually beats the original show’s one, while Honkers was determined to make her mark, it’s as if Chika is even more desperate because not only does she want a school idol club badly, but she feels she has to live up to what μ’s have become.

 

Now that both arcs of Danganronpa have started, my feelings are…mixed…maybe? I wanted it to be good (both arcs), but it has been kind of dull so far. Saying that, I do like how Despair Arc is told from a new character’s perspective: a Hope’s Peak alumni. While I’m enjoying the more ‘relaxed’ side of Danganronpa in this arc, I’m sure we’ll get into the serious meat of the show (well…both arcs) much later. When I found out that the Future Arc was going to be a near-repeat of the Trigger Happy Havoc game, I almost gave up, but I’m actually rather interested on how Despair Arc will be told, as it’s a prequel story. Prequels can either suck (Star Wars) or be really damn cool (The Godfather Part 2). I’m hoping this will be watchable at the very least; I can live with the Future Arc being crap now that I’ve seen the first couple of episodes.

On the other hand, they don’t mess around when it comes to OTPs; from episode 1, my favorite two are paired straightaway! 🙂 I guess it’s just a Danganronpa fan thing: the Ultimate Traditional Dancer and the Ultimate Photographer (minus her trademark tie, I might add)…plus their mean sides are seriously bad-ass in the Future Arc. Not Mikan (Ultimate Nurse) level, but pretty bad-ass.

Truth be told, I’m rather glad that I’ve gotten stuff about Danganronpa off my chest properly. So far the Future Arc has way too much mood-lighting, even for over-the-top dark rampant murder shows, and thus it can sometimes be a strain on the eyes. So seeing Despair Arc go in another direction (whilst knowing that, ultimately, these guys will be at each other’s throats sometime) is very refreshing, and I like it a lot.

 

Sadly, not every show (out of the 6 I chose) has appeased me…so far. Oh orange, what am I going to do with you? No seriously, I am so disappointed. Maybe I’ll throttle some life into these 6 popular kids who don’t seem to do anything else but eat bought lunches and laugh their heads off. We’re supposed to cry rivers and make dumb memes saying ‘Do It For Kakeru’; I will shed no tears when he kicks the bucket and the others tear up. This is just one extremely watered-down version of Ano Hana…and I didn’t even like Ano Hana. This week, Naho gets pouty because a senpai asks him out, and believes she will regret it for the rest of her life. Several people will disagree with me on this, but it’s possibly because I’ve seen way too many school romance dramas in the last 15 or so years and have thus become incredibly jaded. I don’t see any major things happening in this show, and in any other case, I’d drop this…

…just as I’d drop Rewrite. I actually had to watch it 3 times before reviewing this, as it’s become too atypical Key for words, almost. The girls devote 5 minutes of their time dishing out all of their good qualities, the MC cracks some dumb jokes and then something allegedly serious happens. Now episode 3 is the first time that something has actually happened in the show (we know one of them has heterochromia)…and now I’ve had the chance to read the plot, a lot of things that happen in the game will have to be condensed into these remaining 9 episodes, and I mean a lot of stuff. Like who the girls really are, who that ghost is, and parallel dimensions too (still haven’t mentioned that other Key show beginning with ‘C’ – no dollars from me, Justin…yet) I don’t believe this will do well.

 

Thankfully we do have one thing that all of us can very happily fall back on when we’re annoyed with the summer season: The Melancholy of Megumi’s Chicken Ramen.

As someone who began with zero self-confidence, Megumi has become a shining platonic character in Shokugeki no Souma, and she’s no different this season. Last week we were on the edge of our seats on whether her chicken ramen would do any better than Ryo’s Soupe de Poisson. It’s not the typical episode/result I was expecting, but I was still pleased. Megumi should be very proud of herself for even making the final 8, so here’s hoping any upcoming episodes will turn her into Super Saiyan Megumi. But then again, isn’t it the nervous wreck version that we love the most?

But tell you a silly thing though. As a convert to Overwatch, the uplifting music that plays as these 8 work their magic immediately makes me think of the soundtrack. I can no longer remember the Shokugeki no Souma soundtrack when watching the show; all I hear now is the play of the game theme.

Aside from the brand new creepy biker guy who has a fascination with Souma (and an itching to pick a fight with anyone), my attention has turned to Hisako now. In the first season, she loyally appeared in Erina’s shadow, not as someone to face-off against, but to act as a personal secretary. Now that we see her cooking shine (she made it this far without her Erina-sama’s help after all), I want to see her up there at the top. Shame the turtle and kebab burger dishes in this episode didn’t make me want to eat them, like the bentos and the ramens of previous episodes. This week was both a filler episode, and one that establishes the ‘newer’ characters, which is refreshing.

 

As Prisma Illya is concerned, one thing I can say is that this season is much more mature than past ones. Season 1 was all about Illya fretting over her new magical abilities, while seasons 2 and 3 had Illya, Miyu and Chloe ‘mana-transferring’. There’s a genuine story to this; a Fate-style story. Like The Holy Grail War has just started all over again. I’m sure it’ll get more detailed as time goes on…at least now Illya has back-up in this parallel world she’s landed in (Ruby and Chloe have arrived), she can finally do something about this ridiculous Ainsworth family who still haven’t really given a reason why they’re so interested in not only Miyu but her brother. Meat is on the bone in this season, and while I’ll miss the bizarre ecchi of seasons 2 and 3, here’s hoping this one (which appears to be more action-based) will fare just as well.

 

A super-long special review next week, since I’m 99% sure something good will definitely happen.

Good thing come to those who wait. If only I could apply that logic to orange and Rewrite…