Week 7. It really does feel like time has passed by so quickly this season. It doesn’t feel that long ago when we found out Hina was a part of a guy’s affair in Domestic Girlfriend, or the amazing introduction of anti-hero Julia in The Magnificent Kotobuki, or…well as for Girly Air Force, it just all feels like week after week of ‘meh’. Unsurprisingly, nothing has changed on that, despite last week’s standoff between Kei and Phantom, which concludes this week.
Just because a plot point ends this week doesn’t make this show any more exciting or interesting.
I won’t lie here; I’m a little relieved at how each week’s episode of Girly Air Force feels so short. I’m not sure how I feel this way though. Is it because the character designs are so lackluster? Is it down to the very dull main story? Is it because we hardly ever see our antagonists at all (and they are just treated like some ‘hidden enemy’)? Or is it a mixture of all three? This week, Kei and Gripen manage to use Phantom’s own tricks against her in a simulated dog-fight, only for their new mission to be a potential main plot point.
Kei has managed to impress with his piloting skills (doesn’t he have school?), which would imply great things if this show were a genuine JDSF commercial (which it isn’t, although it remains hard to tell), leaving poor Minghua as the one-scene girl stuck yelling down the phone. We will have that episode dedicated to that poor girl sooner or later.
Sticking to the topic of dedicated episodes, Kate gets hers in The Magnificent Kotobuki, and while it’s less of a disappointing watch then last week’s Kylie episode, it still left me with a ‘meh’ feeling. Essentially split into two parts, this one; about Kate going to visit his crippled brother, and part two being the Kotobuki Corps assigned to put out a fire at a town’s oil well.
I think Kate is one of those Marmite characters; you either really like them or really dislike them. I started off finding her really annoying; her analytical and stone-cold personality was something I found rather grating. Maybe it has been this episode that has made me change my mind about her. We all know she’s not a heartless person; she cares for the others in the Kotobuki Corps, but either this cold personality of hers is just something she’s always had or is possibly a mask so she can hide an event that happened to her in the past. As we have no manga or light novel to look back on here, we as the viewers can only rely on her gut instincts to form a backstory for hers. Doubt that we’ll have little more on her though until possibly the end; we need character/filler episodes for the other girls as well (Emma, Chika and Reona).
Oh, and thank you again Crunchyroll, for going down once again today (writing this post on Sunday. Feb. 24), so it’s quite a relief that HIDIVE remain to stream the show.
One thing I will give this week’s offering though is that we finally have a look at who our main antagonists could be, which I’m very welcome to see, as so far, the show has just had little outings of air pirates, small corrupt companies and the like.
So while The Magnificent Kotobuki and Girly Air Force have had adequate-to-meh episodes this week, Domestic Girlfriend decides to turn the dial up. Ohhhh boy…
The end of last week saw us contemplating what Hina would end up doing to Natsuo while they went away on their little beach trip. Not the steamy action that some of us were expecting or hoping for, but it has given some of us a little long overdue sympathy for Hina, as we learn her backstory on how she met Shuu (the cheater she went out with) way back when. Very interesting to hear from her how she despises cheaters (which led to her parents’ divorce in the first place), but meeting Shuu was just too much to resist for her. It’s also good to see Hina have some level of regret for putting down Natsuo way back in the earlier episodes as well.
Rui remains to be our best girl though (or mine, at least) when she succumbs to her own feelings and proposes an offer to Natsuo. Sneaking into his room and having a kissing session is something us anime-only people weren’t that surprised about, but good plot points are good plot points. Remember when I suggested that this would no way be the end we’d hear regarding Shuu, well I called that, as you’ll see in the ending, which also unsurprisingly, is a censored scene.
Will Domestic Girlfriend‘s home video release give us an uncensored version? Given the fact that Sentai Filmworks has the license for this, a release will come sooner or later (North America definitely, UK/Europe/Rest of World unknown), and given how us people who love the show love it for its trashiness, Sentai would be fools not to release it uncut.
I think a Western release of Kemono Friends is something that so many of us would welcome as well. Sentai, Funimation and the like are all aware that an announcement and home video release would net them a huge profit, since so many would likely go on and buy it.
A pretty wild episode 7, though, and this was likely the episode that won over everyone else who was still highly skeptical of the show. Kaban and Serval arrive the the Japari Library, to meet the two ‘supervisors’ Northern White-faced Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl. When Kaban impresses them by making them a curry dish found in a recipe book at the library, the two Owls expand on what Shoebill said in the previous episode.
Humans have allegedly gone extinct; either that, or have just abandoned the park entirely to live far away. The Ceruleans in the show are somehow attracted to humans; unknown on why though. Plus we’re given an explanation on why Raccoon and Fennec are chasing after Kaban and Serval: because Raccoon found a hat similar to the one Kaban wears (with the feather somehow related to Lucky Beast) but lost it, she has assumed that Kaban just stole it, and thus wants it back.
Now some basic facts have been verified, will Kemono Friends go down a darker route, as we know at this point that Kaban is (pretty much) the only human left. I understand we finally get to see the penguins in the following episode, which will be discussed next week. Just a reminder, this is the first time I’m seeing this show, and so went in more or less blind.
Unsurprisingly, I have begun to make plans for the Spring season shows, but no poll for my classic/out-of-season show, as there has been one show that I was itching to watch in Fall 2018 (last season) that I just never got around to, until now:
As so many have been praising Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and as I found myself caught up in the hype of SSSS Gridman that season, I can finally get an opportunity to watch this, which I’m hugely looking forward to. Just hoping Crunchyroll don’t keep going down again and again.
But I’m not done there…as I’ll be doing another show too. Hint below!
Oh well, we’re past the halfway point, and reaching closer to the season with all the big franchises (which I will be avoiding by the way), but what are you hyped about next season? And do you think we’ll see some much better shows in the Spring? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…