Great episode. Turns out Yuru is way more pragmatic than I initially thought. Instead of the typical rage or despair we usually get from most shounen protagonists, he’s cold and calculating, even when his world is turned upside down. It’s actually kind of refreshing. I also like that, so far, there doesn’t seem to be a clear villain. Sure, Asa’s team basically executed every adult in the village, but it feels like she had reasons we just don’t know yet.
I think the sisters really need a heartfelt talk, and Sakura needs a machine gun.
Not everything is lost for Itechou! Sakura is putting up a front, but when no one can see, she still blushes when she thinks about the past with him.
There is the Mononoke series too, but you could watch the movies without knowing it
I imagine the idea is to have these intertwining narratives across the whole story. In that case, this episode makes sense, but at the same time, shifting the focus to the backstory of another character so soon, when it doesn’t feel like we should already be done with the first one, doesn’t sit right with me. But overall, I like it. The style, colors, and the fact that it seems to be more of a character drama than something focusing on the arts are nice. This was one of the better premieres I’ve seen this season.
Great episode. Nakamura had an unbelievable streak of wins this time. The ladies fangirling over made-up yaoi matchups are a riot
Honorable mention that is probably too short to qualify, but given the occasion I still wanted to share it with you
100 meters - Hiroaki Tsutsumi (100 meters OST)
Hunting Soul - HAYASii (insert song - Dandadan S2)
Ninkoro Dance - MARUMOCHI - (Ninkoro ED)
SugaRiddle - yanaginagi (Shoshimin S2 ED)
Doukashiteru - WurtS (Dandadan S2 ED)
Yarenno? Endless - Kana Hanazawa (Ninkoro OP)
Glass Lines - Tele (Takopi’s Original Sin ED)
LUCKY - TOMOO (CITY the Animation ED)
Hello - Furui Riho (CITY the Animation OP)
Martian - Yorushika (Shoshimin S2 OP)
Mirage - Creepy Nuts (Call of the Night S2 OP)
Feel - Hitsujibungaku (Silent Witch OP)
Mild Days - Hitsujibungaku (Silent Witch ED)
It’s definitely very pretty, but so far I don’t really get where all the hype is coming from. For my taste, the pacing for this type of story was a bit too fast. I also feel like we just glossed over the tragedy of practically losing one’s mother as a result of one’s own actions and jumped straight into being amazed by magic, which makes the main character seem unconvincing to me for now. The newly encountered characters seem to represent common stereotypes found in school-based stories—the genki girl, the stoic rationalist, and the edgy overachiever. Pretty standard stuff. I hope it develops in a less predictable way, because at this point the show’s main strength is just that it’s visually very beautiful.
Fortunately, it seems I was right that the pacing was fast in the previous episode because it served as an introduction and had to pack a bunch of different things at once. This episode is an improvement on that front – the story flows more naturally. As I said before, I love the art style, but I’m starting to have doubts about whether this kind of narrative can hold up in the long run. IMO, creating ‘smart’ characters by making everyone else around them dumber never works well and becomes tedious after a while. So far, nothing Aoteru has said sounds particularly smart or impressive enough to put the masses in awe.