Since the last Otaku Theater post, I wrote another post covering the 90-minute-long opening episode of my third show, Oshi no Ko. I really do think Dogakobo have knocked it out of the park with this first episode, and I also think that it needed to be this long to serve as a prelude/prologue for what is to come. You can find that post right here; it’s quite a spoiler-heavy post, so be careful. The show comes out on Wednesdays, and so the next coverage of it will be in week 3’s post. In the meantime though, there are other shows for me to talk about.
Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You Season 2 Episode 2
I knew that new characters would appear in this season of Tonikawa, and appear they have. Firstly, we get to see Nasa’s former teacher Naoko, who seems a little rigid but I think she was just concerned that Nasa married so young. He does come across as a teacher’s pet; this is something I can read straightaway, since I was one too…and that’s actually not something I’m ashamed of. Then we get to meet Ginga, the yakuza-kid-who-is-actually-an-honor-student. Yes, that’s right; this mean-looking punk is actually 17 and a student council president. He even has Kazuma Kiryu’s suit right as well.
This episode centers more around the arrival of a new member of the household: Toast. Ginga and his ‘crew’ found him abandoned, and as they aren’t qualified to take him in, he turns to his old friend Nasa for help, who lectures him on how one of the first places he should have taken an abandoned kitten to is the vet. I have to say that Tsukasa seriously standing up against who she originally thought was some Yakuza boss is something that is very…Tonikawa. Moments like that are what hooked me into season 1, but how do I feel about season 2?
I do want to get back into liking these dorks again, but something is definitely holding me back. Perhaps it really is because it’s felt so long since we last saw them, and this season is being presented as some kind of second part or second cour to the original show. I have missed them all, and want to see much more of the secondary cast too. I think it’ll take me a little more time to get to love them as much as I did when I first met them in season 1. Bringing in new characters who add more to the chaos actually helps and keeps the story from looking stale and dull. The addition of Toast is apparently something the manga fans have long waited for, but I’m also keen to know who else on Tsukasa’s family might have an issue with her new husband.
Skip and Loafer Episode 2
What I said last week about first impressions being important on first days in school presents itself once again here in episode 2 of Skip and Loafer. We are introduced to more of the secondary cast, and I really like how varied all of them are. Some of them are, I think, being saved for future episodes, but this week focuses more on Yuzuki and Egashira.
It’s good to see a school show with characters who aren’t necessary all on the same page about everything. To celebrate the new school year, Mitsumi and Shima are invited to a karaoke group after school. The girls all seem to notice how buddy-buddy the two of them are getting, and we have already seen how Egashira wants to catch Shima’s eye, so you can put two and two together. This is pretty new stuff for Mitsumi, who has only been in tiny classrooms back home, so the big city with the big high-school classrooms and the big egos comes as a real shock. While Yuzuki gives off a cold beauty queen aura, we see that she really wants to get close to Mitsumi. In this week’s episode, she is able to point out how Egashira is only really getting to know Mitsumi so she can try and be Shima’s girlfriend, and even stands up to an outspoken senpai who is desperate for Mitsumi to join the theater club.
I don’t think that Egashira is going to be painted as a bad person in the show though; this just doesn’t feel like the kind of show that would suddenly bring in malicious people like that. These school kids have only known each other for a couple of days after all, so I might be way off on that. Either way, viewers are going to be very quick to dislike her, calling her some massive manipulator, but I believe that this is all going to be set up for some kind of ‘redemption story’. As I said, these characters are not portrayed as completely binary. We are treated to so many characters, and I love how focus isn’t always on the main two. While I was watching this episode, I actually wanted to know more about them all of the secondary cast. Yuzuki, Egashira, Nao (Mitsumi’s aunt), Kinimoto, Fumi, and the guys in the little group whose names I’ve already forgotten…
Shima on the other hand seems to want to get along with everyone, and not stress too hard on who he likes the most. Last week I was struggling to understand this, but this week we get a little bit of a hint of why he wants to be so laid-back and chill. The theater club senpai is able to recognize him from somewhere. Now it is implied here at the end that he used to be some kind of child actor, and wants nothing to do with it anymore, which is understandable. This is something that clearly haunts him, and I hope he is able to open up to it without putting on some fake smile.
Mitsumi seems committed to be a part of the Student Council though, which is something that I’m sure is part of her master plan to become a civil servant. I’ll echo what I said last week on how I really liked how the overachieving Mitsumi isn’t being presented as the snotty obnoxious type. It seems to have become a bit of a stereotype in school shows these days, and given how much I like her already, her being all high-and-mighty just doesn’t suit.
I think Egashira might well get that redemption arc, but I don’t want plots and sub-plots to be rushed in the show. The pacing so far is going very well, and I don’t want that to change. It’s only been two episodes, and I already want to know so much more about everyone.
Lycoris Recoil Episode 2
I have already seen the first few episodes of Lycoris Recoil back when this came out last summer, so I was kind of able to remember what happened in episode 2.
The girls’ mission this time was to protect and escort legendary hacker Walnut out of the country to avoid a competing hacker who wants them dead. And it is this episode where new viewers were, I think, able to see why Chisato was labelled the problem child. I think what originally annoyed me about her is how she gave off the impression of not really caring about her job. Of course that isn’t the case at all; as episodes go by, we get to see how real of a Lycoris agent she is.
The thing is though is that I believe that this episode served just as a purpose to introduce the last member of the LycoReco group: Kurumi. Then again, we do really get to see a conflict going on between Chisato and Takina right now. Takina wants to prioritize the mission they are on, which is what these agents were trained to do, while Chisato only cares about saving lives, even the hired guns who were sent to kill them. There’s obviously a reason why she chooses not to kill anymore, but the correlation between that and her being a highly-skilled agent who was single-handedly able to quell a terrorist plot doesn’t quite sit with me…yet. I am enjoying this said conflict though, and the gunplay we are treated to plays out very well.
There’s obviously something that I’m missing here in Lycoris Recoil, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is exactly. It still feels like I’m watching two different shows at times. Perhaps when the relationship between Chisato and Takina is developed far more, I’ll get a better idea.
I’ll be falling back in love with Tonikawa soon enough, I know that much. I also know that the story and subplots in Skip and Loafer will be things that will make this school show stand out from the more generic ones we have seen in the past. I know that P.A Works are a good studio to adapt that manga. I just wish I was able to understand Lycoris Recoil as much as the stans have been able to. Or maybe it’s just too early in the show for me to make a solid opinion. I did only skim through the first few episodes on my original watch after all, so now I’m properly covering it, I’ve suddenly looked at it in a different light.