Welcome to our very first edition of “The Roundup” – our rapid fire reviews of nearly all the shows we’ve watched this week. Volume 1 will be a bit slimmer than usual as we are just wrapping up First Looks on many of the shows we’ll be checking out, but we still have some good material. Riddle Story of Devil The Devil’s Riddle continues to keep us delightfully perplexed, I finally get to geek out over Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time a.k.a the Best Show of the Season on a weekly basis, and Lifesong gets to flex his considerable anime-watching muscle on a host of other shows. We hope you like the new format and, as always, let us know what you think!
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Mushi-shi Season 2 Episode 2Friday 12:00 pm EST on Crunchyroll Watching: Lifesong, Aquagaze
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Lifesong: Brewing sake has never seemed so interesting before. I love the way mushi become involved in a mundane task and the whole thing becomes fantastical. The outsider’s look at a mushishi gathering was a wonderful way to remind us just how strange they are to outsiders. Sometimes this show doesn’t need a mystery to make itself interesting. Just being fantastical is enough. |
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Date A Live Season 2 Episode 1
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Lifesong: World ending antics abound once again as Tohka misunderstands Shido’s packed suitcase. She comes to the conclusion that he has grown tired of her because that is what suitcases mean right? I love the way the world threatens to end over a (fake) lovers spat. Implications of Tohka and Shido’s bond getting stronger are interesting. That same bond weakening Shido’s lock on Tohka’s powers reminds me of how smart this anime can be. How will Shido save the world next? I can’t wait to find out. |
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Jel: I am somehow continuing to enjoy this despite everything in my brain yelling “THIS IS DUUUUUUMB”. The Black Class setup is already arbitrary enough, so adding more silly rules like the cards to announce I AM GOING TO KILL YOU IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS got a hefty eye roll out of me. Fortunately Tokaku acknowledging the system is stupid and ripping up her card gives me hope the writers know what they’re doing. I’m also glad she made her decision so quickly and we didn’t get any drawn out, tortured teen angst.
Gee: The Devil’s Riddle keeps up the intrigue as the other assassins convene to officially begin their twisted game and Tokaku protects Haru from a premature assassination attempt. Overall, I can’t say I’m personally too intrigued by the events of this show, but for now they’re keeping things engaging enough for me to keep watching. Haru is ridiculously annoying with her dumb verbal tic that has referring to herself in the 3rd person and Tokaku herself isn’t that much more interesting. Still, the idea of these ladies duking it out in some kind of crazy No More Heroes-esque bloodgame has me interested enough to keep watching for now. Marlin:This was just plain dumb. The characters are dumb. The plot is dumb. Even the action is dumb to a certain extent. Every time new information about this weird assassination game pops up it brings more questions. Why did the girls wait if they knew it was Haru? Why did midriff girl just knock her out if she planned on murdering her anyway? Basically the game’s challenge is hinged on the fact that Tokaku is there to defend Haru, but that was not the original conceit, so why would they have thought this to be an interesting game? This may swing back into so-stupid-it’s-good territory, but I don’t think I want to make that commitment. |
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Dragonar Academy Episode 2
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Lifesong: Dragonar is almost the most awful piece of garbage I’ve watched in years. Dai-Shougun just took that prize and so I can’t be giving it out again so soon. Our “dragon” heroine spends the episode establishing that she is the one in charge. She does this by walking around naked and getting kidnapped which involves more nudity in some sort of bondage cage. Also getting horny when she eats crepes, crepes make dragons drunk and horny. At least she isn’t embarrassed by prancing about nude. That said, the nightmarish portrayal of her this episodes counters any value in her characterization. Dragonar is a train wreck. |
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The Irregular at Magic High School Episode 2
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Lifesong: Tatsuya’s magical ability is still shrouded with mystery, but one thing is for certain he isn’t weak. In this world magic is a new thing so having misunderstood, but powerful students in the lower class seems a natural mistake. I suspect that Tatsuya is only the first of the the low class students to have ability that isn’t gauged by tests. Mizuki Shibata already caught Tatsuya’s eyes which makes her interesting. I am curious of everyone else in the lower class as well. Just how does this magic system work? How will class discrimination break down when second course students prove the tests ineffective? Will it even come to that? I hope it will.
Marlin: I’m not going to lie, I initially dropped out within the first seven minutes of this episode. It’s not that Mahouka is straight up bad, it’s just very tedious and very boring. Our protagonist has all the personality of a deli store trout. Not once does he seem to elicit any emotion other than hesitation and mild sislove. The former is just annoying and the latter is plain insufferable. I can’t believe incest plots are still the norm, but here Mahouka is reminding us that stillborn horse can’t be beaten enough. I’m still annoyed they have to keep his magic in the dark like its some big mystery. He has all the mary sue characteristics of Sword Art Online’s Kirito without any of the amiable personality traits, and after this episode I have had more than enough of it. |
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Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time Episode 15
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Jel: Hey, I get to write about this every week now! I continue to be impressed how this show keeps finding new ways to spin the formula, this time sending in Goto to pinch hit for Yokoi. I’m pretty sure Seki-kun could have been playing with ANYTHING and she would have drawn the same conclusion, so his antics were not very important, but it didn’t stop the episode from being hilarious anyway. It certainly confirmed that Goto is the more delusional of the two girls, and I hope we get her back for another episode or two before this is all over.
Marlin: The adventures of professional shipper Goto continue this week. I love how Goto is basically the anti-Rumi. Whereas it seems like Rumi always is on the same wavelength as Seki, Goto takes everything out of context and puts her own spin on whatever nonsense Seki is doing. I’m not sure why Seki-kun always seems to root for the bad guys, but once again he’s picking on a poor sumo wrestler as Goto goes off the deep end imagining his tortured heart. |
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