All things end, and anime seasons are no different, even if some shows seem to feel like they go on forever, without an end in sight (I tend to avoid those kind of shows). Watching We Never Learn, Hitoribocchi and Sarazanmai has reminded me that I shouldn’t look so deep into every single anime. As much as I love Ikuhara’s work, they can sometimes drive me mad, and, as much as I don’t mind harem shows, they can really make me cringe. I should just take what I watch at some level of face value.
Why the people behind We Never Learn decided to add their final harem character at this point in the show (just as it is ending) is beyond me, though. I don’t know the original manga, so I don’t really know how significant of a character Asumi is, but I suppose there has to be at least one tsundere in any harem, and Asumi is it.
Even though Fumino isn’t my favorite in the harem, I’m finding her reactions more and more entertaining. It’s as if she can’t admit to herself how she really feels about Nariyuki, even with Asumi poking at her about it. Considering how last week’s episode pretty much fell flat for me, what I’m going to do now is just ignore the story here in We Never Learn, and just let these characters do their own thing. I mean how many more times can we see Nariyuki in awkward positions and circumstances? How many more times can we see Rizu pout? How many more times can we see Uruka flustered?
I’ll just carry on watching We Never Learn at face value, and not expect any more from it. A show like Hitoribocchi, on the other hand, has proven to be different. While there is a lot in the show that I can take not that seriously, a lot of the subtle topics raised have actually warmed my heart a lot.
A lot of lovable characters have come around here. This week marks a high point, as we see Sotoka take her relationship with Bocchi more seriously, and not be some weeb apprentice to her. This week’s episode has the appearance of yet another filler episode, but we see Bocchi make a lot of progress…and it isn’t just with Sotoka. Bocchi also feels that she needs to apologize profusely to her cooking class group. We as the viewer saw what happened as nothing big, and so did Peko and Ito, the members of her cooking group. Bocchi wasn’t able to apologize, because she didn’t really need to.
Hitoribocchi is a show that, I think, is going to end up being something of a silent hit. Each episode so far has proven to be very sweet and very charming, and yet it’s still become a show that has kept out of the spotlight, while other shows this season like Bungo Stray Dogs, Attack on Titan, Sarazanmai, and the Fruits Basket remake. Even as an Ikuhara fan, I’ve been watching Sarazanmai hoping that its story will develop into something more simpler and down-to-earth…and then I remember I’m watching an Ikuhara show.
Carrying on from last week, we see Enta recovering from his gunshot wound. Doctors aren’t optimistic that he’ll last, leaving Kazuki angry and regretful for abandoning him. On the other side of the city, Toi and Chikai are getting ready to leave when Toi discovers another secret that his big brother has been keeping from him.
Two more episodes to go in this, and I’m choosing to be pretty optimistic on what will happen at the end. Learning from experience, these final episodes will see Sarazanmai at its most surreal. It happened with Utena, Penguindrum and Yuri Kuma Arashi, and it should be no different here.
Crunchyroll was being a pain to me last week by not letting me watch episode 9 of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Well, to make up for that, time to talk about both episodes 9 and 10.
Episode 9 gives us a Kaguya with a cold, and you know there’s only one person who’ll have to pay her a visit, while episode 10 gives us a student council planning for, what I discovered this week, will be the focus of the finale: the summer festival.
I said last week that it was a little bit of a blessing that Crunchyroll chose to break down on me, meaning I couldn’t watch episode 9 last week, as it gave me some reflection on why I’m neglecting the show despite it being so good. Perhaps it’s something as simple as taking on too many shows for this spring season. I mean I have 3 shows in the current season to watch, and these 2 out-of-season shows that I had been meaning to watch when they were originally airing, but never got the time to. I should pace myself more.
While I covered 2 episodes of Kaguya-sama, I only realized this week that Rascal Does Not Dream has 13 episodes, meaning next week I’ll be covering episodes 11 and 12. Keeping to the present for now, episode 10 wraps up Nodoka’s very short arc, in a bit of a predictable fashion. Like Mai, Nodoka has some more commercial shoots to do, but, like Nodoka, Mai has a big idol concert coming up, putting Nodoka in a very foul mood, especially as she notices that her mother is paying more attention to her group now.
Now that this arc is over, I can say that this is the one I have liked the least. Not for its shortness, but on how predictable it ended up becoming. I was never sure on what would be resolved in Mai’s, Tomoe’s and Rio’s arcs, and that was what kept me curious about the show, but here, I knew straight away what was going to happen, and that saddened me a little. It appears that the final arc will concern Kaede, and considering the show is approaching its end, I hope it goes with a bang.
Still haven’t decided on my summer shows. I think I ought to have them decided by now. A lot of isekai shows coming in the summer as well. Are you going to watch any one of them? Which one of them sounds the silliest? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below.