Summer 2018 Week 4

Summer 2018 Week 4

Island

This week started off mediocre like usual with an episode of Island that didn’t really make all that much sense. Karen, the tsundere, is being forced to marry the island’s police officer, against her will, in order to uphold her family’s name.

As would be expected of any girl her age put into the same situation, she’s completely against this idea and so decides to run away (again). This time she actually succeeds in making it off the island thanks to some help, and heads towards her mother’s last known location.

But, before we get to that part, let me mention when and how she chooses to run away, because this is the part of the episode that didn’t make any sense. Rather than running away at any other time, she plans to do it in the middle of her wedding ceremony.

Further, it seems that everyone on the island, including the would-be groom, is on her side against her father, so she would have had nobody standing in her way no matter when she decided to leave. This scene made no logical sense and only appeared to be included to add a bit more drama.

Once off the island, Karen learns that her mother died a year earlier and that her brother had kept this fact hidden from her, presumably because she wouldn’t have believed him unless she saw the grave for herself. It’s at this point that we meet a student of Karen’s mother and learn why she left the island in the first place.

Apparently she left because she was offered a job as a university professor and so she wanted to continue furthering both her career and research. Unlike what Karen thought all this time, her mother never forgot about her family and didn’t intend to abandon them the way she did.

At the end of the episode, Karen and Setsuna (who has been accompanying her on this adventure), return to the island like nothing happened. Overall, it was a pretty pointless episode considering it doesn’t seem to have had any real effect on Karen’s character.

Hanebado!

This week, another school’s badminton club wants to have a match against the “home” team as I’ll be referring to them. However, instead of the match happening at one of the two schools, it appears that both schools meet at a neutral location to have the match.

The “enemy” school has a much larger, and more professional badminton club, so in the end it’s decided that there will be three different matches. Two of the matches will be doubles, and one will be singles between Ayano and the star player of the opposing team.

We learn that the reason for this other school suggesting a match was solely because their star player wanted to play against Ayano, but we don’t really find out why until later in the episode.

Before the match begins, Ayano goes on an errand to a nearby convenience store and ends up getting lost. Along the way, she meets a foreigner with blonde twin tails (who doesn’t seem to be a tsundere), who also got lost on her way to the convenience store.

As it turns out, this foreigner is the star player of the opposing team who wanted to play against Ayano to begin with. At the end of the episode it’s revealed that this foreigner is the student Ayano’s mother took on after abandoning her family.

Attack on Titan S3

Before I begin with the real summary/review of this week’s episode, I feel the need to say that I still don’t like the new OP, as stated in my post about Attack On Titan’s OP 4. That said, there are a few other things I already don’t like about the new season, but we’ll get to those in a bit.

So, in this episode, Captain Levi is transporting Eren and Historia to the Trost district under orders from Commander Erwin. Apparently the crown is after these two, and so Erwin believes the safest place for them to be is in plain sight, because who would look there?

Also, Jean is once again swapped into Eren’s place as bait, but this time Armin is also impersonating Historia. Finally, a job only Armin can do.

Oh, by the way, the Military Police murdered Pastor Nick because he began working with the Scout Regiment to uncover the truth behind the titans in the walls. Now, while the MPs deny they had anything to do with the murder, they also don’t come up with a real alternative motive for the death which shows they’re not really trying to hide anything.

This may seem like an unimportant piece of information at first, but as it’s explained later on in the episode, this means that whoever had been controlling the kingdom from behind the scenes is now beginning to work out in the open. It’s about to get a lot harder for the Scout Regiment to move around freely.

We’re also introduced to the character who I assume will be the main antagonist for this season, or at least for this first cour, Kenny. Kenny is a former (and probably current) mass murderer who was known as Kenny the Ripper (because that’s an original name).

Apparently he took in Levi when he was a child on the streets, which is likely how Levi got into the criminal underworld of the capital. In case you weren’t aware, this season is going to focus on Levi, so having an antagonist from his past just seems to make sense.

While Kenny and his group of bounty hunters use 3D Maneuvering Gear just like the military, they don’t use swords with disposable blades, but instead use pistols with disposable barrels. This is one of the things I don’t understand. Isn’t it more efficient to simply reload the bullet rather than the whole barrel after each shot?

Due to the guns Kenny’s group uses, and the fact that this is still Attack on Titan, this season is probably going to be just as action-packed as the previous two. I know I’m looking forward to some midair gun kata reminiscent of the fight between Mami and Homura from Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.

However, at the same time I’m not yet sold on the direction the story is taking. Manga readers assure me that it gets better, but only time will tell.

Finally, at the end of the episode, Kenny killed the new best girl (the one with pink hair), thus cementing himself as a true villain. She could have been the next Petra, but instead her life was cut tragically short (which I guess does make her the next Petra).

One Room S2

As I predicted last week, the reason “we” were so busy is so that “we” could save up enough money to buy a ring for Yui, however, “we” didn’t actually propose to her, so it may have just been a gift. That said, there’s now an important question which needs to be answered.

What about all of “our” side girls? The whole point of harem anime is that no one girl can be chosen over the others, so why are “we” going steady with Yui? Is this season going to solely focus on her? Because that would be pretty lame for 12 whole episodes.

Overlord III

And now, back to real anime. This week, Enri has to travel to E-Rantel (I think that’s the name of the town) in order to run some errands and hire adventurers to protect Carne Village. The reason the village needs protection is because two nearby monsters from the forest have teamed up and are attacking nearby settlements.

But what caused these two monsters of the forest to team up? Our protagonist, Momonga, that’s who. You see, the forest used to have three beasts which shared and divided power, but once the adventurer Momon subdued Hamusuke (that’s probably the name), the balance of power was thrown off.

Thanks to Momon, Enri is allowed entry into E-Rantel, and then further given the support of the Adventurers’ Guild despite not having the funds for the Adamantite class adventurers needed for her request. Upon returning to Carne Village, Enri also learns that she’s to become the next village chief.

I’m interested to see if Momon will protect Carne village himself, and whether or not this is all part of his plan. Perhaps the two other beasts of the forest are already under the control of Nazarick and this is just another setup to make the adventurer Momon look good.

On the other hand, this could be the work of the other group responsible for Shalltear’s brainwashing, or even a natural occurrence due to the shift in power of the forest as is explained in the episode.

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

While Diablo and Shera are out on the front lines, the white knight (I forget his actual name) attempts to save Rem and Celes from the Fallen soldier who has infiltrated the city. Through this scene we see how much stronger the Fallen are than the normal adventurers of this world.

Meanwhile, Diablo wipes out most of the Fallen army with a single shot. To his surprise, however, the Fallen commander isn’t killed (although most of her clothes are blown away). And, to my surprise, the Fallen commander doesn’t yet become part of Diablo’s harem, so maybe that will come next episode.

After defeating the enemy army, Diablo teleports back to the city and rescues Rem, Celes, and the white knight from the remaining Fallen soldier. He uses his ring to deflect the Fallen’s magic back at him, and then uses a spell which essentially created a black hole, sucking the Fallen into it.

At the end of the episode, Diablo is given a mission to stop a potential war between the city and the Elves who want to take Shera back with them.

Due to the pacing of this series so far, I think it’s unlikely that we’ll actually get through what could be considered an entire story. We’re already one-third of the way through the season, and yet not much has really happened. Hopefully this means a second season will follow.

Harukana Receive

This week, the girls bought new, matching swimsuits, because that’s the “uniform” for beach volleyball. However, Haruka and Kanata have different tastes when it comes to swimsuits which makes things a bit tricky.

To everyone’s surprise, Kanata agrees to go with Haruka’s choice in swimsuit, but then before they can purchase them, another beach volleyball pair gets to them first. This results in a game of rock-paper-scissors for possession of the swimsuits, which Haruka loses.

In the end, the girls go with Kanata’s choice, but Haruka still adds her own touch to them by sewing on a special pattern. Other than that, the rest of the episode just involved Haruka and Kanata continuing to practice for their upcoming tournament, which the girls who got the swimsuits they originally wanted will also be taking part in.

I didn’t really know how an anime about beach volleyball was going to include even more fan service than it already does, but the inclusion of an episode dedicated to picking out new swimsuits managed to do it. Every episode is already an “obligatory beach episode” anyway.

Angels of Death

The next floor Rachel and Zack make their way to is the prison-like floor we saw at the end of last week’s episode. This floor is run by a deranged prison warden/game show host named Cathy. It’s a weird combination, but somehow it works (kind of).

Out of all the floors we’ve seen so far, this one is most like the SAW movies. Each room of the floor has a different puzzle that must be solved in order for the “players” to progress onward without dying. I actually wouldn’t mind if the rest of the series was set up in this way.

The first room the pair enter involves a puzzle with an electric chair that’s controlled by the eyes of a bunch of mannequins in the room. As expected, Zack is stupid enough to sit in said electric chair and proceeds to be shocked until Rachel solves the puzzle and beheads the mannequins.

The second room the pair enters is a gas chamber with a body in the middle of the room (much like one of the SAW movies, although I can’t remember which one). There’s also a single gas mask in the room despite there being two “players” and so they need to work together if they’re both going to make it out alive.

Zack wants to live, and Rachel wants to die, yet somehow they come to the conclusion that Rachel should be the one to wear the gas mask. I understood Zack’s reasoning, which is that he won’t solve the puzzles without Rachel, but this seems like a perfect opportunity for her to die, which is what she wants.

At the end of the episode, Rachel seemingly figures out the puzzle, but the gas doesn’t stop flowing into the room, hinting at there being a second, hidden puzzle which must be solved in the same room next episode.

Cells at Work!

The “monster” of the week this week was food poisoning and came in two different varieties. The first type, a bacterial food poisoning, attacks a new character, a pink, female white blood cell who I’ll refer to as tsundere-cell (she even has blonde twin tails).

Luckily for her (because she’s weak against bacterial infections) the normal white blood cell comes to her rescue and defeats the bacteria. We also meet another new character shortly after this, Basophil, whose job it is to signal allergic reactions. Basophil reminds me of Shino from Naruto Shippūden.

However, the bacteria food poisoning was only the first wave of the attack! Next came a parasitic food poisoning, which the regular white blood cells can do nothing about. Who could possibly save the body?

That’s right, it’s time for tsundere-cell to shine! Apparently her specialty is killing parasites, which nobody else seemed to know until she does it (except for the one main white blood cell). All the other cells just thought she was a useless, weak white blood cell.

Unfortunately, this episode included a very small amount of platelets. I really wouldn’t mind if there was a spin-off of this series which exclusively followed the platelets. I need more wholesome platelets in my life.

Tsundere White Blood Cell from the anime Cells at Work!
Tsundere White Blood Cell

The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar

Finally, it’s time for the worst anime of the season, The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar. This week, Yuuto is going to visit the town of Gimlé with the loli twins. Turns out this is also the town the pink-haired girl (best girl) is also currently visiting.

The twins have runes which deal with wind. The first one has the ability to cancel out headwinds, and the other has the ability to create a tailwind. While these runes are helpful for travel, they’re impractical for combat because of their limited radius of effect.

For a majority of the middle portion of this episode, we see Yuuto being the standard isekai anime protagonist (that’s an insult by the way). Like most isekai protagonists, he’s too much of a white knight and rejects the advances of the girls who make up his harem.

Just accept that harems are a natural part of the world you now live in and stop thinking about the girl who you had a crush on back in your own world. You’re not ever making it back, you’re an isekai protagonist (although I feel like she’ll be coming to the fantasy world at some point).

Finally, the Lightning clan is preparing for war against the Wolf clan and its allies. After this is discovered, it’s also revealed that the twins are actually master assassins and intel gatherers. These two were then sent on a mission to scout out the enemy army.

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