Sekai Seifuku – Episode 5

Well Sekai Seifuku, I hope you’re proud of yourself. You are simultaneously the smartest, most fun, and most emotionally engaging show I’m currently watching. Any two of those, yeah, sure. But all three? That’s just kind of dickish, to be frank. Leave the other shows some room!

Anyway. Episode 3 was brutal/hilarious and episode 4 was silly/endearing, so who knows what 5 will bring. Let’s get to it.

Sekai Seifuku

0:29 – Only just realized it, but hey, this show has some quality animation

1:08 – Welp

Sekai Seifuku

1:33 – Wait, so this is a government-funded secret organization for justice? I have to assume the taxpayers don’tknow they’re paying for inept masked vigilantes…

1:54 – Sounds like we’ve got some wacky romcom shenanigans coming!

4:19 – I’d stick with your first instinct, Natasha

5:11 – Harsh but fair

5:29 – This fucking show

Sekai Seifuku

5:48 – I like how inspired the general is by her perseverance

6:24 – The ultimate kid’s prize – a meaningless gold medal

As long as they keep finding funny new ways to apply her little-girl-ness to her grand-conqueror-ness, this show’s gonna have a good run

6:55 – Looks like we’re dipping into the show this would normally be – I Can’t Believe My Childhood Crush is a Secret Government Agent Sworn to Destroy My Evil Empire

7:26 – And the power of tiny masks continues to impress, with Miki-sama’s disguise fooling even her own teammate

Sekai Seifuku

8:05 – Wow, Jimon’s actually a pretty good rambler. The average romcom protagonist would have mentioned panties three times by now!

8:27 – I’d say something like “I hope they don’t drag out this reveal,” but this show actually loves to push the farcical limits of these dumb tropes. It exists in an even sillier universe than most anime

8:53 – Dat shit’s moe

9:25 – Jimon, keep it together! For the mission!

Sekai Seifuku

9:39 – Impenetrable security

10:19 – What a wacky turn of events! This episode writes itself, but it’s still pretty damn funny to me

11:14 – So good. Playing the romcom beats straight and just letting the show’s inherent ridiculousness do its magic was the right call

12:13 – That’s right, Jimon! Remember, this is all for the greater evil!

Sekai Seifuku

13:13 – Oh jeez, looks like things are about to get pretty wacky!

I do have to say this is definitely a big step down from the past couple episodes. Not that that’s a problem – an episode like this is one of the most obvious elaborations of the setup they’ve created, and they’re playing it pretty well. But “applying this absurd, tongue-in-cheek premise to cliche anime romcom shenanigans” is just inherently a few steps below what this show has demonstrated it’s capable of

Granted, stuff like Nisekoi’s extremely popular, and it doesn’t even have this show’s veneer of satire adding flavor to those cliches. So hey, maybe this episode will be the most popular yet

13:36 – Brilliant

Sekai Seifuku

14:28 – Kinda cute that this is actually pretty much word-for-word what these characters tend to say in these situations, but since she’s actually a hero of justice, it’s actually what a human being would say for once

15:47 – Well at least it’s an equal-opportunity tentacle monster

16:32 – Goddamnit Kate

17:39 – You gotta do the pose

Sekai Seifuku

19:11 – Hahaha you fuckers. Well, that’s what I get, I guess. What, contacts?

21:05 – The devious double-mask technique! Brilliant work, White Robin

And Done

Well, that was okay. It was basically the hammy romcom show Sekai Seifuku could have been, played pretty much entirely straight. Which is still pretty funny, but much less interesting than the Sekai Seifuku of episode 3, much less poignant than the Sekai Seifuku of episode 4, and much less creative than Sekai Seifuku in general. So yeah, definitely a bit of a dud episode.

Ah well. The nice thing about largely episodic shows is that no episode is load-bearing – as long as we don’t suddenly start focusing on the silly romcom narrative here (and I doubt we will – I do think this episode was overtly mocking these cliches, even though it didn’t really do enough to rise above them), this will just end up as an episode among many. And hey, funny is still funny.