A real malaise has started to set in inside me this week. These have been some good picks for the Spring; in fact, this whole season has had some decent-looking ones that I might take the time to watch in my own time. Both Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie and Love After World Domination are shows that interest me in particular, and there’s also Spy x Family to keep on watching. So I suppose it’s just a case of me being hungry for something new to watch. I’m sure we all feel like this too when seasons approach their end. We watch trailers and immediately get curious of what will be coming soon.
The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 Episode 9
It’s taken me some time – a lot of time, in fact – but I’ve finally gotten used to the fast-pacing that this show has given us. Perhaps this is something that other viewers just have not noticed, or maybe it’s just me and the fact that I have grown far too accustomed to shows that operate on a much slower pace.
Viewers will be very happy to see Darkness Peach return to the show, and it seems we have another good reason for this, albeit a different one. Turns out that since that time when Momo became Darkness Peach to rescue Shamiko, her magical core is becoming more and more unstable, and she learns that, over time and without notice, she will keep on turning back to the dark side. And so Shamiko, Mikan and Ogura formulate a plan to get her back to normal. One of which includes Shamiko feeding her bento lunches (because Momo’s strength as Darkness Peach has been multiplied so much that she can no longer hold chopsticks without breaking them).
This is a filler episode, but at the same time it adds to what is continually happening with Momo right now. She is going to have to live with continuously being like this until something pretty big happens in the Light clan…say, Sakura returning to civilization again. Actually, I would not be surprised if she actually does when this season is out. Not only would that be a resolution to this one story that has seemingly gone on throughout the entire season, but would leave room for the viewers who are itching for a season 3. I for one would likely not return though. I mean, I enjoyed the heck out of season 1, and it has taken me a lot of time to warm to season 2. A season 3 might put me off the franchise entirely. I have this very same worry when it comes to Kaguya-sama in fact.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 Episode 10
I said to myself last week that it might be best that I look at Kaguya-sama with some fresher eyes. Well I ended up re-watching the last few episodes, and I thought my mind would change dramatically…but it hasn’t, to be honest. As I said at the beginning of the post, a malaise has started to set in now, and it sucks that it comes just in time for the make-or-break arc of this show. Almost like now that we’ve reached the pinnacle and defining point of the entire story, I have enjoyed the build-up to it far more than the actual moment itself.
What I will say is that the Kaguya-sama franchise has, over time, made sure to balance laugh-out-loud humor and more serious story so they are both fairly level. And that’s something that is starting to become more apparent this week. The laugh-out-loud sketches we have revolve around Miko and Ishigami’s class event of a horror room (about a deformed class girl collecting ears), while Ishigami finally says the magic words to his beloved senpai.
There would typically be a rapid response from her, and the story would make sure that this would be a swift open-shut case, but this episode shows that it’s going to be far from that. As both Miyuki and Chika point out, Ishigami being rejected may cause repercussions on Miyuki’s own confession (as he has to spend the rest of the day comforting the poor rejected soul).
It sounds incredibly silly, but I really do like how the writers have done this. It makes us far more engaged with what is going on, meaning that this entire arc will not just be about Miyuki and Kaguya fighting over who is going to confess first. While it’s more than likely that Tsubame will reject him, the rest of the student council need to formulate a plan on making Ishigami still feel satisfied that he did the right thing and confront his lack of self-confidence. Cynics would say that this is just padding out for when the real confession happens though. Let’s not forget that Miyuki still hasn’t told the others that he is going to Stanford when he graduates.
The next episode hints that Ishigami’s own story of confessing to Tsubame will reach its end, and I’m keenly interested on how that will turn out, and especially how the others will make him feel he did the right thing, even if he will be rejected by her (which is more than likely to happen).
Komi Can’t Communicate Season 2 Episode 7
As we continue with Komi Can’t Communicate, it really is like the show never left. Even Netflix don’t add it as a ‘season 2’, and just put these ones with the rest of the Fall 2021 episodes.
Well this week begins with what we saw last week, where Tadano came down with a cold, and misunderstandings meant Komi coming over and nursing him instead of Najimi. Both very funny and very awkward to watch, especially as Najimi came over anyway. This all meant that Komi was compelled to write a ‘misunderstandings’ letter to them. Of course, such a letter can mean all sorts of things, and I like how the show points every single one of them out. But instead of something to push the story forward, Komi just says “I just took his pulse.”
Last week also saw the introduction of this guy. Well technically, Naruse has been a part of the show since the very beginning, but it’s only until now where he actually has some lines. I was also a little concerned that he would be the kind of guy who would muscle in on the rest of the cast and try to take Komi’s affection all for himself. So I was very glad to see the show paint him as a delusional idiot. Yes, he checks his bangs on a regular basis, rocks back and forth on his chair and gazes at other classmates with the intent of getting their attention and feeding his ego even more. And so the fact that he is pretty much ignored by everyone (and is thrown aside if he ever tries and gets near Komi) is exactly what I’d expect to see in this show. This is meant to be a school of misfits after all (with Tadano standing out for being so normal).
But this week gave us something else that will be a big arc in the show: the class trip. They are going to Kyoto, and while Tadano is very keen on checking out the old buildings and architecture, everyone else just wants to party and have fun. What about Komi though? Well as we discover this week, this will be her first class trip ever. Why? Well in junior high, she was the girl who was lumped with another group, but decided not to go on the trip at all, with the idea of not upsetting the others in the group. Quite a touching moment and revelation, and a bit of a prelude to this big arc in the show.
Hoping for more good things here.
Iroduku: The World in Colors Episode 10
In episode 9 I was praying that the show would stop making Asagi suffer. Well I think that praying has worked, as she’s accepted that none of her bad vibes are Hitomi’s fault, and that it’s Sho for being so impossibly oblivious.
Episode 10 of Iroduku gave us something a little off-beat from the usual “let’s-go-and-take-pictures-of-stuff” format of the show; off-beat in all sorts of ways in fact. The club have finally put together a plan on what to do for the upcoming cultural festival…well Kohaku has anyway, and the others just decided to play along. With the help of Kohaku and Hitomi’s magic, they will be putting participants directly into photographs and drawings for a short amount of time; exactly how you saw in Mary Poppins. For their test run, they use one of Yuito’s drawings, and while most of fun enjoy the rainbows and whales and flower fields they see, Yuito ends up stumbling upon something very different: a reflection of Hitomi as a young child.
Her colorblindness and her disdain for magic have both been something that hasn’t really been explained much, but for episode 10 we get a really good idea on what it is (or was). Hitomi’s mother was the first in their family who was unable to use magic, and as the family discover that Hitomi can, she feels responsible for her mother disappearing without a trace, leaving her grandmother (Kohaku) to take custody of her. Now we don’t know all of the facts behind this, but as everyone leaves the picture, I’m genuinely not sure if Yuito’s supporting words sunk into Hitomi, who saw the same thing.
I thought this was a very good episode. Not just because it is giving us some really good character development, and not just because we are slowly getting an idea of what the ending will be, but because of something more metaphorical. Her mother’s disappearance has meant Hitomi has felt alone for nearly all of her life. The support that Kohaku (both this timeline and her own one) and the others feels only fleeting to her – something so fragile that it could snap in an instant. That awkward moment with Asagi early on in this episode proves it, when she feels that just trying to reach out to her will only make things worse. Hitomi feels that getting too close to others will harm them all, and so she figures that just not bothering is the better route.
It’s a tricky one to call, but I’m fairly sure that Iroduku will not have the big happy fairytale ending some are expecting it to have. I’m thinking beyond the whole ‘time paradox’ possibility now, and am now looking more at what relationships will end up becoming in the 3 episodes that are left, especially when it comes to Hitomi. Truth be told, I’d be a little disappointed if it did have that happy fairytale ending.
Weird how it’s only at this point where I’ve realized how I chose 3 pretty frenetic and wild shows for this season, and by that I mean in animation styles. My summer shows are as good as picked, and so I will be mellowing out some more and having something that is at a much slower pace. It’s meant to be the summer after all.