Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Hataraku Maou-sama! – Episode 5

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Alright. Last episode was my favorite yet. Least funny, but still my favorite, since the show it hinted at seems amazing – a tongue-in-cheek yet still withering satire of capitalism and class structure starring a pair of the upper class who are finally learning what working class really means. That is an awesome show in the making. But is it the show I’m actually watching? Let’s find out.

Episode 5

2:03 – And a new OP, emphasizing how fully they’ve tricked me into finding all these characters endearing and adorable. Curse you, Demon King.

2:45 – A point for everyone who predicted the Priest would turn out evil.

3:45 – Maou is far too genre-savvy to be defeated by such an obvious monologue, evil priest

6:16 – So their source of power is a literal inversion of power corrupting people – by causing corruption they gain power. Cute

7:02 – He’s creating energy through the melodramatic despair of a teenage girl? I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere… hmmm…

10:37 – And as this show is happy to point out, time doesn’t actually stop out when the camera zooms in on your interior battle-analysis monologue

15:30 – I like how Maou is taking to heroism with the exact same gusto as pepper fries.

18:35 – This episode is pretty seamless and perfect, so most of what I’d be commenting on would just be how great all the jokes are this episode. “Maou… at least… remember to get the discount on the first of the month…” “Nah, can’t conquer the world, way too many shifts this month,” etc. They’re laying it on thick this episode, and it’s awesome

18:57 – AND AGAIN. “Lucifer… you found a girl’s wallet and actually went through it? Disgusting.” as the camera pans to the bridge he was attempting to drop on hundreds of innocent people

21:10 – Eh, a little graceless expositing here to clear up the last couple plot loose ends from this arc. This show has a little bit of a problem with that

And Done

Huh. Well, the ending there was a bit clumsy, considering the characters they introduced/mysteries they started and then immediately had to clear up for a clean ending to what I assume was the first light novel. They also didn’t really build off the things I found most interesting about the last episode – but again, this was a big climactic finish to the action stuff, so that’s not surprising. As far as what the episode did do, I thought the mix of drama and humor here was extremely well done – definitely the funniest episode since the first two, and the dramatic stakes of the fight were well defined, with satisfying heroic turns from all our heroes. It was propulsive and exciting and a ton of fun.

The sudden ending to every foreshadowed element so far kind of jarringly reminded me of the nature of light novel adaptations – since it’s been so consistently a single well-told story so far, it was awkward to be reminded that this is actually a series of adventures, and might not all serve to make one larger thematic point. But it’s still a very smartly written and well-paced story, and I only like the characters more every episode. I hope the next set of episodes brings the economic stuff back to the forefront, but it’ll probably be pretty great either way.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge – Episode 5

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Man! Last week I was very busy writing a sloppy-kiss love letter to both Lovecraft and myself, so I didn’t actually comment on any of the things I actually liked. But rest assured, they were there! I liked the episode just descending into that lovely piano part for a full minute or so – most shows are too frenetic about their pacing to let a moment simply breathe, and I thought that song was honestly a much more natural fit for this show’s lighting and color choices than the usual histrionic Greek choir and death-organs. I liked the (admittedly unintentional) parodies of classic high school reconciliation scenes with the fish-woman (am I allowed to keep calling her that OOC?). And mainly, as always, I liked how goddamn weird everything was.

Admittedly, I spend the vast majority of my time laughing at how ridiculous everything is. But it’s… well, it’s sincere, at least. It really does want to tell its alternately bizarre and maudlin little story. Sure, most of the characters are simplistic devices, and the scenario couldn’t make less sense, and the writer’s grasp of storytelling cliches is so inept they almost universally turn into unintentional comedy, and it occasionally seems more of a vehicle for the writer’s sexual hangups than anything else… but I think there’s definitely a kind of honesty there, and I feel the original writer really did care about his endearingly weird little world. And that’s something I can appreciate.

Let’s tear it the fuck apart.

Episode 5

1:23 – I love how for once these standard absurd OP lyrics actually seem literally appropriate. She physically couldn’t move? Sure. His creaking heart could be heard for miles? Yeah, I’ll buy that. No problem.

2:47 – The joke is… boobs? Is… is that a joke? Or is it just boobs because boobs

3:47 – I guess this is fishgirl’s moe impression. Pretty good, I barely noticed her crack-addict eyes

4:45 – Oh man, this is actually great. Remember all that weird adolescent sex stuff that I find so strangely fascinating? Here’s another awesomely resonant parallel – teenagers sneaking off from camp to get all PG-13 together, except here’s it’s to cut her hair because lewd

5:17 – “I can’t wait for tomorrow.” “For the stargazing, or when we *murder the Hair Queen?!?” “The stargazing, of course. The visibility up here is just lovely.”

5:46 – A riding crop?!? Wait, the PIG MASTER?! Damnit Crime Edge, you’re stealing all the best ideas!

6:02 – “Fell victim to the Pig Master.” Welp, I know what my epitaph’s gonna be.

7:02 – Uhh… guuuys… is this… is this even a metaphor any… nope, this is just sex.

8:20 – “Don’t you girls like stars and shit?” Ever the romantic, Kiri-kun

So I’m still unsure what, if anything, this show actually has to say. I joked about it last episode, but it’s just so weird how the main pair use the hair as a metaphor for young love/sex, but everyone else is… well, just actually fucking each other. It’ll be kind of disappointing if there’s never any point aside from, “yay kinky sexy times.” But I guess this is the kinky sexy ride I signed up for…

9:31 – The Hair Queen is thinking about playing the field?!?! So what, Kiri-kun’s her, her manservant? Her hair paramour? Hairamour? Sorry.

11:37 – This actually is a pretty weird choice. Deliberately separating the sex metaphor from their actual relationship… hm. On the one hand, this does open up the door for more hilarious hair-courtship metaphors. On the other, it probably actually implies we’re in for a whole bushel of love triangle bullshit. My excitement is palpable

21:02 – “I was just… wondering what… he was doing tonight.” Time from prediction of cliched plot device to actual appearance of said plot device: 12 seconds. New record!

12:59 – I was about to ask, “Does the absurd nature of this show make me more or less entertained by these high school rival mundanities?” and then the red-headed upperclassman with a predilection for whips and swinery was introduced to the sound of screeching ridiculous organs and I got my answer

14:09 – “How do we explain their relationship?” “Fuck it, childhood friend ’em.” “But didn’t we just use…” “CHILDHOOD FRIENDS.”

14:51 – Class Pres’s diabolical plan hurtles into action as he callously scolds Kiri for oversleeping

15:20 – Okay, here’s a good way they can use this relationship development. Kiri going in mental circles about their varying expectations about the relationship, and chastising himself for assuming too much? Classic young, tentative relationship material. More of this and I’m totally down with Hair Queen’s fickle, tempestuous ways

16:20 – “They all want the same thing.” I hear that. Real talk with pig-girl.

18:00 – So their plan to kill her involves taking her out into the middle of a lake, pushing her out of the boat,rescuing her, bringing her back to the lodge, and leaving a hurtful note on her door?

Devious

21:20 – This section is playing in some super weird and very sensitive sexual assault space, but it’s definitely heartening that this conflict is currently being entirely handled by Iwai. There’s nothing actually offensive here, she’s actually kicking ass and taking names… and it’s kind of amazing to me that Crime Edge of all shows is providing a positive example of female agency and her right to control her own body. Full of surprises!

And Done

Well, shit! I’m legitimately excited to see what happens next. So I guess we kinda know the structure now – it’s basically a series of shonen battles against various Author/Insteads and their sexy, sexy Goods. I can’t believe no one thought of this completely batshit insane idea before now!

By the way, to anyone disappointed I didn’t try some new bizarre formatting experiment this week, I offer my sincerest apologies.

See you next week.

Suisei no Gargantia – Episode 4

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Dat Gargantia. Well, the last episode was quite interesting – I feel it was maybe the first episode that shifted the show from “this has a ton of potential” to actually revealing what kind of show it will be. And the kind of show it turned out to be was a bit less serious than I expected from Urobuchi, but still an excellent slice of entertainment with great pacing, wonderful characterization and dialogue, a beautiful visual aesthetic, and a light smattering of interesting ideas beneath the surface. I described it as “entertainment done right,” and I’m honestly looking forward to more of it – but this is Urobuchi we’re talking about. He could very well kill half the cast at any given moment and it wouldn’t really surprise me. Who knows what will happen.

So now that I’ve established I have no idea what I’m talking about or expect to happen, please enjoy the rest of my very insightful post.

Episode 4

0:45 – This vivid color scheme never fails to blow me away. Someone’s earned a raise.

I also like this system of a city based on an accumulation of distinct mini-societies and work crews with very little centralization. I guess I’m just a socialist like that

3:05 – Oh, that’s awesome. So it looks like our suspicions about Chamber’s propulsion system were right – he generates some kind of gravity hole in the direction he wants to go, and is dragged along behind it, along with anything else in the area.

8:30 – Not much to say. I love Ledo’s attempts to place this society’s customs in his own terms, but obviously that’s what everyone else is watching too. This show is just really good

9:57 – His necklace is the same color as her eyes and the sea. Meaning he’s another key in Ledo’s entrance into understanding this new world

12:35 – I don’t know why people think Urobuchi is a cynical writer. I find shows where characters maintain or discovery empathy and hope despite the presence of realistic pain and hardship far less cynical than shows which simply present untouched happy worlds that have no relationship to our own

16:20 – “What would you do in the absence of orders?” “I would stand by for further orders.” Heavy shades of Psycho-Pass and Madoka once again. Making independent choices, achieving your singular potential, breaking free of the cycles which govern our lives. I like how directly he’s addressing this here, though. I also like that he’s finally presenting a positive alternative to the problems of government and society, instead of Psycho-Pass’s 1984-esque exploration of the opposite direction

18:45 – “Given your current situation, worrying about the war effort is meaningless.” Man, when even Chamber is telling you to chill out, you know you’ve got a problem

20:30 – “My sister needs me… and I need myself.” After last episode, I didn’t expect this one to tackle Urobuchi’s philosophical obsessions so directly. Awesome

And Done

Wow. That ending was beautiful. This episode was beautiful. Definitely my favorite one yet. For once, Urobuchi isn’t raging against the way the world is – he’s creating a love letter to the way the world could be, to our better nature, to the potential for a society that rewards our human connections and the creativity of our spirit. I’m sure he’ll complicate these themes eventually, but…

Ugh. Goddamnit, Urobuchi. This one’s gonna get to me.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Episode 12 plus Final Review

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Final episode of my favorite show of the season. It’s had resoundingly mediocre art direction, fairly spotty humor, and dashes of incredibly misguided fanservice. It’s also by far the most ambitious show of the season, and at its best it grapples with themes of human nature, the course of human progress, and the indomitable spirit of enlightenment and self-improvement. It grapples with them and wrestles them to the fucking ground. Now let’s hope some fantasy bullshit ending doesn’t wipe all these ideas away.

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Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Episode 10/11

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Episode 10

This was a solid episode with great parts for Merchant and Hero, but primarily a setup episode (which makes sense, since 9 knocked down most of the dominoes set up so far). I can’t wait for Demon Kings reaction to the mess her allies have made. I’m kind of assuming it’ll take a united Demon/Southern Nations alliance to bail them out of this one.

Also, Merchant and Dragon Princess work well together. They’re both ambitious, goal-oriented, and vain, but their specialties are both opposing and complementary, Dragon’s bluntness is a good counter to Merchant’s scheming, and their conversations show their mutual respect. Hero made a good call introducing these two.

I’d talk more about details and themes, but I’ve been watching/writing on a freaking bus. Next time!

Episode 11

This show always manages to use the fewest possible words to get a point across. “I have no troops to spare. Can you deal with them?” “Yes. But would it anger you if I said I did not want to fight the demons?” “…we cannot afford a fight on two fronts.”

Bam, there we go. Hero’s motivation, the king’s pride, his ultimate ceding to the needs of the moment, which allows Hero to further his goal of integrating the two cultures by allowing for straight diplomacy – all covered in three brief lines of dialogue. Plus, neither of these characters have a particularly great way with words, yet this dialogue is a perfectly believable, snappy argument between the two of them that never oversteps into open hostility – this is how Hero has learned to negotiate. It really continuously amazes me that this story wasn’t written by a professional… although obviously this adapation was, and has succeeded in distilling the essence of these characters into the snappiest possible exchanges. Such sharp work.

8:45 – It’s not the characters. It’s the dream. Our world, the real world, is so far away from passing the hill – and we’re not even trying. Our very systems of economy prevent justice, prevent equality, prevent true freedom… we live as wage slaves distracted by our shiny 21st-century toys. But seeing these characters fighting so hard against the forces that shape our world, against our weak, human nature… it’s pretty goddamn inspiring.

15:42 – Spells spells explosions explosions bleh. This show is no good at this kind of stuff, and I kind of wonder why they even bother – like, they just introduced that army as a conflict this episode, did they really exist just to inject a little false tension and then be teleported away with a massive dose of magicy bullshit? I’ve said before that my least favorite parts of this show are when it tries to work as an actual fantasy story, and that’s still true – whenever it veers into total fantasy-land nonsense, it both counteracts the ways this story actually reflects reality, and just doesn’t come off as very distinctive or engaging. Hopefully this is all going somewhere.

16:38 – A really, really tidy bit of storytelling here. Normally, these large-scale fantasy battles are just a clusterfuck of things happening with no real stakes – all sound and fury, basically. Here, they cut back for a moment, using two lines of dialogue to establish the student soldier as an intelligent man (well, a good student, at least), and then letting his message to the troops quickly lay out both the terms and stakes of this battle. That way, the audience is actually invested in the events as they happen, because they understand something of the strengths of each side, as well as the stakes. Beautiful economy of scene-setting – action scenes only really work if the audience can actually tell who’s winning or losing.

18:58 – SEE?!?!? “She’s nearly become the King of Evil.” OH NO, NOT THE KING OF EVIL! Isn’t that EXACTLY the kind of BULLSHIT SIMPLISTIC STORYTELLING this show is ENTIRELY A REACTION TO?!?!? GAH that makes me mad.

23:13 – Oh no, she’s manifested the KING OF EVIL’S EVIL SCYTHE OF EVIL. Fuuuuuck you.

Okay, seriously, the last thing, like literally, absolutely, positively last thing this show needed was a dramatic showdown between the representative of all good and the representative of all evil. Like, what’s the point of all this other stuff if, in the end, humanity is saved not through negotiation, compromise, science, and education, but through the guy with the biggest sword? What does that actually say about anything? Hell, maybe next episode love will save the day, and we’ll all learn a valuable lesson about the importance of sharing.

Still, everything outside of this aggravating high fantasy bullshit was excellent. The merchant and students in particular had some really choice material, and there was a lot of sharp, efficient storytelling throughout. But man, this “spirits of the ancient kings” stuff just couldn’t be less warranted. And honestly, it’s so far beneath this show that I have to assume next episode is going to subvert it. Positive thinking!

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Episode 9

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Management: This episode was one of those rare moments that remind me of the power of artistic expression.

Episode 9

Some nice little details here that hint at the way the average citizen perceives the momentous events of the past few years – first with them referring to the scholar as a “Goddess” (something I’m sure she’d have mixed feelings about, considering her views on education and the church), as well as commoners mistaking the messenger for their king. To these people, the political machinations of church and state are obviously far removed from their lives, and it’s nice that the show can so subtly and offhandedly acknowledge the esoteric nature of our heroes’ game of thrones.

…and then I watched straight through to the end. And forgot to breathe. And I think I even cried a little bit.

That was incredible. A perfect thesis statement for the show, drawing in the ideas of freedom and servitude, the importance of education, critical thinking, and self-improvement, the tyranny of assumed righteousness, the resonance of a personal god… I see now that the older maid’s personal journey is the true victory the show is attempting to portray: the freedom to imagine a better tomorrow, a freedom so many forces wish to take away. That vicious attack by the guards, by far the most violent thing the show has portrayed, a card the show has held until this exact, crucial moment… her final resolution that her dignity as a human being is worth more than her life. This was one of the most powerful scenes I’ve ever watched.

I’d argue there have been pacing issues and occasional missteps along the way, but if it led to this… this is riveting, inspiring stuff. This is why we make art.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Episodes 7-8

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Episode 7

Thoughts as I go…

I’ve just finished burning through Nisemonogatari (which I really need to start a discussion on the brilliance of), so when they showed that super-gratuitous full body shot of Female Knight in her soaked shirt, my first thought was, “jesus, I thought Hero considered her something like a sister, is that really his perspective on her?” Then the camera shifted to Hero, who was showing no embarrassment or reaction of any kind, and I realized that was just good old-fashioned exploitative fanservice from a director who doesn’t really care about respecting his story or characters. Bleh.

The true sign of a civilized society: Orange Soda.

The scene with the crusade counsel is interesting to me. On the one hand, it’s nice that up till now, the show has been careful to portray most characters not as villains, but merely as people with differing goals, since a truly “evil” person has no inherent motivation and is normally just a symptom of bad writing. However, there have certainly been characters with no nuance in their portrayal – the man being sentenced to death here, as well as the commander that led the sea forces to a rout, come to mind. Meanwhile, I can’t think of a character with substantially different goals from the protagonists who hasn’t been convinced to join their side with relative ease (the merchant is the best example here). This seems kind of troubling to me as far as the future of the show’s conflict is concerned, but I could see the crusade continuing to act as a character/force similar to Heath Ledger’s Joker – a force so unreasonable and unconcerned with the protagonist’s value system that only extreme measures by the protagonists can counter them. I had a conversation in last week’s thread regarding whether the intentional setting of the crusaders against the island demons was an example of those “extreme measures,” and my personal takeaway from that was that it was quite possibly the intent, but if so, should have been more directly addressed in the show itself. If the crusade continues to be extremely relevant, it’ll give the show an opportunity to do just that.

Kinda depressing that the issues Demon King raises about the nature of education still undermine the progression of human knowledge, culture, and equality today.

Hm, love triangle stuff. I mean, it’s pretty silly to have this stuff taking up so much space… after all, anyone who was only watching this show to see a generic romance has probably long since left at this point. But this scene at least was pretty funny to me – Knight and Demon King have a great rapport, and Demon King uses her very mediocre negotiating skills to get the bed is a good gag. Eh, whatever.

Oh my god, could that ending have been any worse. The last fucking thing this show needs is a cartoonish cabal of one-note villains cackling madly. ANTAGONISTS DO NOT NEED TO BE DISNEY VILLAINS. WHYYYYY.

Episode 8

This wasn’t an “I like the little things” style of episode – this was just a damn fine half hour of television. It pushed all the major plots forward, developed several major characters, bounced personalities off each other in new and believable ways, and was entertaining throughout. A few more episodes like this, and Maoyuu could become one of my favorite shows period.

I was particularly happy to see the silly love triangle resolved almost immediately in a way that really fit for the Knight’s character. Not only that, but her sadness and desperation about being left behind mirrored the Hero’s own early fears about his place in the new world – and these fears are far from unfounded. The dwindling importance and prestige of a dedicated warrior class is a truth of the post-feudal world that has inspired countless great stories, including my personal favorite film Seven Samurai. Tying that evocative fear to Knight’s personal story is a mark of great storytelling.

I loved the last scene; I think this might have been the moment when Hero fully came into his own as a character. He’s not supposed to be dynamic – he’s the rock who holds everyone together. I loved the song as well, and the fact that their immediate instinct was to minimize the collateral damage of the church’s actions, not directly fight against them. The foreshadowing of Older Maid’s distrust of their new stability also made her immediate resolve both believable and poignant.

I think they’re using the church fairly well, and am relieved the maniacal laughter of last episode didn’t result in any absurd supervillain shenanigans. Though the church in this world is less insidious of an institution than the actual medieval church (which mixed its scriptures with cannibalization of native stories and real, demonstrable technological advances to help the medicine go down), its actions are still understandable, and will still present huge obstacles for our heroes.

This show is getting really, really good.

Maoyuu Maou Yusha – Episodes 5-6

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Management: Same disclaimer – I still haven’t formalized my style here. Hopefully getting less ranty though, and also totally falling in love with this show.

Episode 5

It’s always the little things that make this show for me. This time, Hero’s quiet frustration at how he can deal with the issues of the occupied cities, ending with “What would Demon King say… follow the money” just felt like such a great moment to me. I thought he was too undeveloped at first, but now I see they’re playing the long game with his characterization and growth, and it’s paying off in scattered treasures like that one.

Another nice moment – the two younger maids surprising Demon King and Head Maid with presents for a festival the audience was never informed of. It works well to further the contrast of the dedicated, goal-oriented lives our main characters are living against the ephemeral celebrations that make up a normal character (or person)’s life.

And finally the entire last third was fantastic once again. From Demon King’s monologue on the bed onward, the writing was perfect and the VAs once again proved their ridiculous chemistry and talent. In a show that has a romantic subplot but isn’t really about romance, it’s even more important to make the most of each romance-focused scene, so they don’t drag the show down or feel out of place. This one raised the bar.

Episode 6

A solid episode.

There were a couple nice touches in the depiction of the battle: throughout, it was depicted as a messy and stilted affair, with numbers and positioning being the most relevant factors. Very nice, and one of the thousand ways this show takes an ax to the unrealistic and frankly tedious conventions of fantasy stories. Then at the end, I loved the moment when a few soldiers uncertainly shout “we won?” before it devolves into cheering – this very nicely sums up the delirious and scattershot nature of what I assume larger medieval battles must be like.

I loved the song used during the Knight’s battle. I enjoyed the battle itself as well, but the song lent it more of a feeling of a dance than a duel, which nicely contrasted against the brutish, mechanical nature of war as waged by the non-OP characters.

Still loving the backgrounds all around.

Demon King’s boobs are still ridiculous. Yes, they’re referenced as big in the source material too, but come on. It’s frustrating having to look past something like that design in a show that does so many other things so well.

So their plan was really to scare the crusaders into falling back into a flanking position? That seems kind of sketchy to me. It also seemed like they set up the two forces for maximum casualties on both sides (by forcing the demons to retreat through an exhausted army). While this may well help defuse the war effort, it seems pretty out of character for at least Hero, if not Demon King as well. Am I misinterpreting something here?

Overall I very much enjoyed it though, as my complaints were minor elements and most of the episode was strong stuff. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying the technical elements of this show; I figured it would be one I enjoyed in spite of the direction/animation just based on the themes and story, but the music, direction, and background art are all stellar, and really help to sell the world of the show. I’ll miss this one when it’s over.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Episodes 1-4

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Management: Since Maoyuu came out last season, I hadn’t yet settled on my standard writeup style, and so these are looser structurally, more based on my personal impressions/opinions, and definitely more willing to be confrontational and make less-supported value judgments. All that said, they still do contain a great number of my thoughts on the show, and I consider this show fairly brilliant, so I think they’re worth archiving.

Episode 1

Why do character designers do things like those boobs in shows that are otherwise good. It’d be like if Lawrence in Spice and Wolf looked like Jojo – are people really watching a slow-burning, economics-focused comedy/romance for the huge tits? If you want to make your characters look absurd, then work on a straight ecchi comedy, don’t fuck up something actually worthwhile.

On a brighter note, I thought the adaptation was pretty smartly done in a couple ways, in particular by spreading the relevant war information across the characters most affected by it. It both broke up the straight lecture format of the opening, and introduced characters in a way that immediately explained who they are and how they’ll be relevant. Having side portions with Hero’s companions was also a good call, though I’m not a fan of the comic relief wizards… although I’m basically not a fan of silly comic relief characters in any shows, so that’s no surprise.

Regarding the rest of the art, I actually thought the faces were very expressive, and in motion seemed much more distinctive than I’d expected. I also very much liked the backgrounds and set designs throughout – portraying a dreary world vividly is no easy feat, and they combined some great “magical realism” drawings with that kaleidoscope colored background style very nicely.

The VAs did as well as I’d expected, that is to say, pretty much perfectly.

OP was meh, but that might be because I’m comparing this show so directly to Spice and Wolf, and that has maybe the best OP of any show.

Overall there was way more good than bad, and along with Shinsekai Yori (and possibly Sakurasou, if it continues to improve at the rate it has been), this will probably succeed in being one of the highlights of the season.

Episode 2

I think I liked this episode a bit less than last week’s, but that’s mainly because I’m really not a fan of the Head Maid’s speech with the runaways. Considering this story works so hard to take a practical approach to most other societal problems, merely adopting the runaways seems kind of like a cop-out of a resolution, and I don’t really get the point of her “insect” rant – I mean, they pretty much are slaves, how the hell are they supposed to take charge of their lives? Not sure what they could have done there though, and the older sister is a great character to have around, so not a big deal.

The rest was great. The Horo/Lawrence VA pair have an incredibly chemistry, which is a strange thing to notice in an anime, but I think really true for these two in particular. Ami Koshimizu in particular has a fantastic ability to bounce between extreme confidence/strength and awkward vulnerability, or (especially) combine the two. It’s a common trick in anime (pretty much the definition of tsundere), but I don’t think anyone else does it better.

It’s also funny to see Horo, the character semi-oblivious to economics but incredibly wise regarding human nature, play Demon Queen, the character with a frustratingly overdeveloped head for economics but no ability to deal naturally with people.

Senjougahara’s VA is such a good choice for head maid. Didn’t realize the same actress played Senjougahara and Homura Akemi – those are some damn fine career highlights.

The Queen attempting to woo Hero with high school debate logic was amazing.

Episode 3

Management: Missed the discussion for this one. Apologies.

Episode 4

Wow, the first half of this episode was the best one yet, and then the Hero gets that ridiculously standout conversation with Head Maid. So far, he’d been very lightly developed compared to the Demon Queen, but then he goes and directly addresses his insecurities about his place in this world transformation, his value to the Queen, and his reasons for exiling himself in this way, while also struggling and coming short of directly admitting these things. That conversation alone added so much to his character, and all the side characters are continuing to get great scenes of their own. To me, this episode moved the show up from solid to great.

Attack on Titan – Episode 4

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Last episode displayed a couple new strengths that both surprised me and gave me a good deal of hope for the show going forward – an ability to pull off great jokes using melodramatic direction tricks, and a genre savviness towards classic war films that led to great, evocative story-sharing and character-building scenes between the recruits. It was definitely my favorite episode yet, and has raised my expectations for this show kinda considerably. Now we just need to see how these new tricks hold up when the Titans come knocking.

Episode 4

0:15 – Categorizing them as the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan instantly made me think of Shadow of the Colossus. This is a good thing

0:52 – Where have I seen this OP before? Oh right, on everything

4:04 – I think I’m just a total sucker for these strategic assessment styles of battle-anime, but I’m loving this stuff

5:25 – Yeah, this stuff just kills it for me. I love character analysis, and when that’s actually put to narrative purpose by having some mastermind character critically assess the usefulness of a core cast… well, let’s just say I had a really fun time with Code Geass

8:15 – “Sometimes a soldier can’t back down… like right now!” -faceplant-

Were there this many jokes in the manga? I really like how the show is balancing drama and release at the moment, but it’s a very different rhythm from the first act – I guess those first two episodes were basically supposed to act as a prologue of the level of tension we’ll eventually build back up to.

9:47 – I’m really liking this stuff. They established her personality and worldview in no time during a pretty exciting sparring match that also furthered Eren’s own thinking. Very tidy storytelling

12:30 – Yeah, this show’s JoJo as fuck. Applying the exact same level of dramatic action-line pans and close-ups to this whole “’Safe living is a farce!’ ‘Fuck you buddy!’ ‘Cool it idiots.’ ‘…okay Mikasa.’ ‘Goddamnit I’m so jealous!’” scene pretty much proves to me that this show is utterly in control of its own seriousness level, and is happily riding the “we love this scenario and are utterly committed to it, but fuck you if we don’t get to have some fun with it too” line

13:05 – Oh Sasha, you beautiful bastard you

14:10 – Once again, this show uses the “we’ll be right back” screens (what’s the actual word for them?) to impart some actually interesting, specific information. A good trick. Also, I extend my deepest sympathies towards the few members of that top ten who haven’t already received a few scenes’ worth of characterization. Your sacrifice will not be in vain

15:07 – I paused here just to actually check the manga and make sure I hadn’t somehow skipped chapters, but… yeah, unless there are huge flashbacks beyond the point I read to, pretty much all this training stuff was just added for the anime. Awesome. So happy to see an adaptation actually get ambitious and try to think how to best serve the core concept, not just how to directly translate the original text. All of this training stuff has been great, and has served so well to establish a diverse set of characters that I already have some attachment to. Excellent, excellent work

16:36 – “I don’t care if I die so long as I can be useful.” Well maybe using that big analytical brain of yours instead of feeding it directly to a Titan would actually serve that purpose kinda well, Armin

18:07 – No side characters stop being happy that means you gonna diiiiieeeee

19:30 – YES! POTATO LIVES!

I don’t why I ever doubted her. Good to have you with us, Potato

AND DONE

JESUS CHRIST THAT WAS EPIC. Oh man was that ending ever fucking amazing. Timing on the Colossal Titan appearance: amazing. Potato’s epic heroism in saving Samuel: amazing. Eren’s totally badass taking control of the situation as the music crescendo’d: amazing.

I had my doubts before, but this episode was so fucking good. I loved the end of the training, I loved the ways they established a core set of recon troupes that I already know and care about, I loved the mix of self-aware humor, JoJo-esque winking drama, and legitimately effective badass drama, the visual style is still really solid…

Okay, this show has entirely proven itself to me. That was sweet. Can’t wait for the next one.