As much as I have been enjoying this Summer season, I can’t wait to get into Fall. I have my shows chosen and ready as well. I think the end of the year will give me the chance to catch up on some 2021 shows that I missed out on too. Some of the Fall shows are ones that I think will really be awesome, while there’s one that has peaked my interest but that I may very well end up regretting choosing. I do like the “so-bad-it’s-good” idea, and it could end up happening here but enough of my future shows, let’s talk about the current season that has not ended yet.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Episode 10
I’ve called out the Elma episodes in this season, and now it’s Kanna’s turn. She’s been on the backseat for pretty much the entirety of it, and so now it’s cool to see her dominate episode 10.
A kid’s argument with Kobayashi means she runs away and flies off to New York (of all places), and being a dragon and everything, she is able to bypass the language barrier…and singlehandedly take on a Mafia gang. I have to say that while we did get Engrish in the episode, I was heartbroken that we didn’t get more. I know translators try their very best here, so it’s something I won’t put down. I mean it could have been really terrible, and I have seen shows that have some truly terrible Engrish.
I’ll say that I have never been to New York, and I don’t think a short stopover on my way to Atlanta counts. The last remaining Dragon Maid episodes won’t come back here, and even if this was just a one-off, it really was great to see Kanna take center stage at last. Enjoying American culture, making a new friend, and beating up some gangsters before deciding to return home, because in all honesty, Kobayashi as an adoptive mother means so much to her. And stories with Kanna that don’t feature Saikawa in tow are very refreshing to see as well.
What else was awesome about this episode was the level of detail in animation. Instead of choosing CG or put up still images, KyoAni made the decision to draw and animate every background character and building. This becomes all the more impressive by the fact that Kanna is in New York; a great big and scary place compared to where she is living right now.
I’ve been throwing compliments at Dragon Maid season 2 all season, but I have to say if there was one thing to talk about, it would be the assorted narratives. They themselves are great to watch: we meet Ilulu for the first time and see her backstory, and we find out that Tohru and Elma used to be very close in their own realm. Maybe it’s this sea change compared to what season 1 gave us. I’m not putting down the narratives at all; it just feels so different compared to the last season, and I worry that that would be the one thing that would put off people returning to the show.
Remake Our Life! Episode 10
I said last week on how Kyouya should make the best out of what he has now, in this new timeline he has landed into: married to Shinoaki, with a young daughter, and a pretty decent job in the games industry. Way back in the first episode (which was an hour long, remember…), he had been desperate to have a ‘remake’ of the last 10 years, effectively erasing his time working for a company that ultimately goes bankrupt leaving him jobless and directionless. And so here, he has that direction; I think the issue for him is that it wasn’t the direction he had been expecting.
We get to see what the game they are building is though: a fantasy gacha game that uses a brand new inbuilt engine. With the game receiving many delays, it is forced to be released before it was perfected, bugs and all. As the head of Team A, it’s Eiko who gets the most heat from the company manager who was the one who forced the early release in the first place. Kyouya knows that something needs to be done to fix all the bugs and finish the game, but he is afraid of what could happen. He had already interfered with one timeline, and so he convinces himself that he shouldn’t do the same thing here, in this new timeline…even if it means the game company he is working at now leads to financial ruin and become a pariah in the gacha game industry and a symbol of what not to do.
I’m sensing a No Man’s Sky comeback story here. That game set in space where you get to explore and mine and everything was released unfinished, but the company (Hello Games) decided to disappear from social media and finish the game without set deadlines, and it paid off. So will this game, Mystic Clockwork, do the same thing?
This episode of Remake Our Life! is the one that reminds us that this is not a romance/love triangle story, and it never was. Sure we had some girls fighting for Kyouya’s attention, but the core part of the story was Kyouya’s time leaping. We have 2 more episodes to go, and so maybe this game will be finished, the company will redeem itself, and hopefully the company manager will be ousted for being such a douchebag. And I’m not expecting Eiko to jump into Kyouya’s arms here. She never did when they were in art school, and so it won’t happen here. Besides, he’s too nice of a guy to let that happen.
The Aquatope on White Sand Episode 10
We didn’t get any more stuff regarding the new Tingaara aquarium that was first brought up last week, and as the final week of August arrives in the show, some new things come to light that will no doubt affect the end of the first cour.
Last week the show teased a phone call Fuuka received; it turns out it came from her junior at her idol agency. A film director has apparently been trying to get hold of Fuuka to star in an upcoming movie, and wants a decision very soon. She is already set to leave Okinawa when August finishes anyway, so the logical decision would be to take this offer.
Emotions are beginning to run high now, with Kukuru still desperate to find ways to keep Gama Gama open, even though plans to move marine life are starting up. I keep bringing up how immature she has been acting as the aquarium makes plans to close, and while I do feel for her, she really should learn when it’s time to stop. This week’s episode shows just much she is grasping at straws, when she actually advertises a ‘miracle-witnessing’ event on social media, without telling the others.
We do get to see a bit more of Kai this week though. He has been someone who has supported Kukuru when she lost her parents and continues to support her despite having to maintain two jobs at the aquarium and as a fisherman. One thing I found very interesting to watch is how Kukuru invites him to see if he can witness a miracle himself at the aquarium. He eventually does, when he gets a flashback from when he was a young boy, but decides not to tell Kukuru about it. This can be seen as his way to get Kukuru to stop grasping at straws by arranging such a weird event.
We could well end up getting some kind of supernatural miracle that will turns the fortunes of Gama Gama around. Right now though, Kukuru does need to stop. The aquarium may have become a home for her, but her adolescent immaturity and stubbornness is blinding her from the simple truth. Gama Gama will be closing down and there is nothing she can do to stop it.
Girlish Number Episode 10
The continuation of Nanami’s rise comes more apparent in episode 10; the best episode in this show, for several reasons.
Past episodes had been teasing her arrival for a while, and so she is introduced in the second cour of the show they are making as ‘the new girl’. Nanami is the new Cinderella in town, and this business is full of wannabe Cinderellas. As one becomes more and more popular and noticeable, another one has to be cut. While Chitose hasn’t been cut from her role, she is slowly realizing that people in this industry can be easily replaced; old Cinderella stories are chucked out and replaced with new ones…with those ones eventually being replaced too. And in time, Nanami will end up being the one being cut.
Also, while he has had his screen time, Gojou becomes more noticeable in this sub-plot. He is now Nanami’s manager and all that tough love he has been trying to give Chitose is crumbling. With Chitose having a brand new manager, a hyperactive sports nut forcing to push her to work at twice the speed, he can no longer be around to help her. We even get a stand-out moment with the boss in regards to this. He’s been portrayed as some hapless laughing fool, but this week he reminds Gojou that he is not Chitose’s parent, and that all of this is purely business. So that harsh and direct approach to get her to act more maturely ends up falling flat when he is reminded that stars come and go…just as he did when he was a voice actor himself. Even his indirect approach here isn’t helping her, so while he does need to act like a manager, he also needs to act like a big brother.
Hey, this entire year has been a weird one for me. Winter saw me trash-talking the Promised Neverland sequel, and real life stuff meant I had to take a step back from the Spring season. On top of that, my typical Summer Curse™ hasn’t struck me either. What will the Fall season be like for me, I wonder?