I don’t know what it’s been about this last week, but even though I’ve been avoiding late nights and behaving like any responsible adult who is still stricken off work would, my sleep pattern is way off. Not so much reset, but it’s like fatigue comes and hits me when I least expect it. That and while I was told this week’s episode of Oshi no Ko was a particularly strong one, the HIDIVE site being what it is, I am unable to access it. There is one good thing though since I found out as I was typing this post that, according to a Weibo leaker, it is getting a second season.
Skip and Loafer Episode 7
Last week we had the first lover’s quarrel. As for this week? Well I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. As each episode passes, we see Shima grow more and more charismatic, regardless of what we think of his character design. And while Mitsumi remains an open book, the fact that, even after halfway through the show, he is still unwilling to talk about himself, remains a bit of an anomaly to me. This was something I kind of touched on in last posts, where I found his overly-chilled attitude on life a little unnerving, especially since it contrasts so much with Mitsumi’s. I’m probably analyzing this way too much, and I should just accept Shima for what he is, and nothing more. Heck, maybe the new girl who looks to be from his past life as a child actor may help me with that.
If anything, this episode served more as wrapping up subplots than working on the main one. Takamine lost the student council elections to some second-year preppy kid who doesn’t seem to really have any interest in the council, which upsets her greatly. The summer break is coming, and all the girls are itching to get Shima’s contact details, which he brushes off; reason being that he is certain that none of them actually want to be ‘friends’ with him. Speaking of summer break, what are all of these dorks planning to do over it? This is definitely the kind of show that would have a fireworks episode, but will it have a stereotypical beach episode as well?
I think the thing that every high school drama show try to do is capture high school life in as idealistic a way as possible. Here in Skip and Loafer, these teenagers who are still wrestling with adolescent emotions are doing their best to manage day-to-day life. And even when things go wrong (like with Takamine’s election loss), they use that to become better people. These moments aren’t presented as merely fluff in the show, but actual moments that affect them deep inside. Mitsumi panics over some miscommunication last week, Egashira get depressed about how everyone is so transparent while she has to maintain a façade, and even Shima gets frustrated when people want to bring up his child actor past.
Character designs in this show are all ones I either really adore or really respect, and that’s something I don’t say often about these kind of shows. There’s usually always one character who I will loathe entirely. I don’t expect Shima to open up any time soon, but the fact that he is trusting these new high-school people more and more is surely a good thing for him, right?
But yeah, this week’s episode does feel like wrapping up of subplots, and making space for what could be called a ‘final arc’, where the new popular girl in the class forces Shima to open up about himself.
Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You Season 2 Episode 7
The lovely couple are back from their honeymoon trip at the onsen resort, to find out their AC unit in the backhouse they live in has broken in the middle of the hot summer. Now if you’ve watched Tonikawa since the very start, you’d know the kind of person Nasa is. Taking this AC unit apart and fixing it would be a very Nasa thing to do, so it really surprised me to see him want to go and get a new one instead. After thinking about it some more, a new unit would go easier on electric bills. And through this, we get to meet the latest batch of secondary characters.
First comes tomboy Nakiri who owns a mechanics parts shop and was classmates with Nasa when they were both in middle school. I thought the conversation the three of them had was rather interesting, despite the scene being so short. Nakiri is surprised at Nasa getting married so soon and so suddenly, especially after hearing how he and Tsukasa first met all the way back in season 1. She also makes a point at how she figured him to not really be that interested in romance, like she isn’t. Not being married myself, I guess I can’t speak about how people who fall in love at first sight, which is something that happened here. Imagining a world where Nasa wasn’t hit by a truck, ended up in high school and lived a totally different life.
And our next secondary character is Kaname’s crazy classmate Kyuuma who interestingly makes a similar point. All of these people that Nasa knows or is surrounded by are shocked at the idea that someone like him would want to get married at all. He has been the all-round handyman to these people when it comes to grades or accounts or fixing things, and they just figure that love and romance would be hindrances to him. But then he explains to them that actually meeting Tsukasa and getting married has opened his life up more and expanded his horizons. This week is a little more of a filler episode, and it’s very likely that we may not see either Nakiri or Kyuuma again this season. Just like a lot of the other secondary characters we’ve had this season, they have come and gone. Kaname acts more like a main character since she appears in every episode (when she didn’t in season 1), so the only real consistent secondary character right now appears to be new housecat Toast.
As mentioned, HIDIVE is being very naughty with me this week, and even after 2 days of trying, I’m unable to load up Oshi no Ko‘s latest episode. So many have been talking about it too as the reviews all seem to say it shows a new side to Aqua as he has to deal with yet another grotesquery in the entertainment business – the kind of plot point that has made the show so strong in this Spring season. So what I’ll be doing is covering both episodes 6 and 7 in next week’s post in an extended segment. That way I can talk about that particular episode in more detail, considering how well it has been received. In the meantime, let’s move on to the out-of-season show…
Lycoris Recoil Episode 7
It’s a very different change of pace for episode 7, compared to the last few episodes where action scenes have been pretty dominant. Instead of gunplay, we get an episode that looks more into the characters themselves, and finally answering some questions viewers might have. We already knew that Chisato was an Alan child, but we also find out this episode that Majima is one too…and that he was the one responsible for the attack on the old radio tower. Outside of him monitoring footage of Chisato and thinking he has met his match, we see much less of him in episode 7 though, as a lot more focus is on the head honcho of the Alan Institute himself: Shinji.
Chisato finds out that Mika has a long history with him, and so follows him to a meeting with the two of them, dragging Takina along too. Through their snooping, they (and in turn we) discover that Shinji ‘entrusted’ her to Mika after she had her surgery (of the artificial heart). She has said in past episodes that she has been meaning to find the person who saved her life, and she is able to do so in this episode…so why does it not feel as wholesome as I was expecting it to be? Well I’ve long suspected that the Alan Institute isn’t as philanthropic as they make out to be, and that even though it saved her life, Chisato was given that artificial heart for another reason. Some more tinfoil hat theories from me, but that has what has made this show enjoyable to watch, precisely because we are drip-fed with little pieces of information, and it’s left up to us to put those pieces together.
Going back to Majima though, I like how he is no longer portrayed as some random crazy terrorist hellbent on causing as much chaos as possible. He has a plan: to destroy DA, and killing Lycoris agents to draw them out. He is someone with a background: an Alan child, and the one responsible for the old radio tower attack. And he is someone you actually want Chisato and Takina to take down too. And so now we have had this respite from the action, it’ll no doubt return now that his hacker colleague has acquired a USB drive that can give him access to DA’s database.
I’m still bitter that I haven’t been able to keep up with the other Oshi no Ko fans this week…all because HIDIVE’s video player isn’t liking me right now. As mentioned, next week’s coverage will be extended, and I see it as a hidden blessing as I can look at those two episodes in a lot more detail. Also if the rumors are true and it is getting a second season, it’ll be something many people will be tuning into.