Spring 2018 Week 13

Introduction

Yesterday the Spring 2018 anime season came to an end, and today the Summer 2018 season begins. Since 3 of the 6 series I was watching this season finished last week (not including continuing seasons), we only have Megalo Box, My Hero Academia S3, and Gun Gale Online to talk about today.

Megalo Box

The finale of Megalo Box was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it was one of the most exciting episodes of the season, but on the other hand the conclusion left me feeling unsatisfied. Regardless, Megalo Box cemented itself as the best new anime of the season.

I have two main complaints about this final episode. The first is that Joe won the fight, although we didn’t actually see it happen, but we were made to believe one or both of the fighters died as a result. I think a death or two during the finale would have sealed the show as the gritty ’90s style anime it tried to be.

However, my other complaint may actually be even more serious. Yūri was still severely injured from the surgery to remove his gear while fighting Joe, and yet Joe only barely defeated him. This means that if Yūri kept his gear, or even just had more time to heal, he would have defeated Joe.

This alone doesn’t really matter, but the fact that Sachio gives water to Yūri so he won’t have anything to complain about if he loses didn’t really matter since Yūri could always just bring up the fact he was still recovering when the fight happened. I felt that it cheapened Joe’s victory.

Sure, Joe won, but he won with a handicap, so does it really count?

My Hero Academia S3

While Megalo Box was the best new anime of the season, My Hero Academia S3 was the best anime of the season out of everything I watched. That said, this week’s episode was mainly just filler.

The UA Class 1-A students have all moved into the on-campus dorm so get ready for some anime boarding school shenanigans! The first order of business after moving into their rooms was to hold a competition to see which room had the best style.

In the end we got to see all of the students’ rooms except Bakugo’s, Tsu’s, and Mineta’s, although it’s probably for the best that Mineta’s room was skipped. I think Bakugo’s and Tsu’s could have been interesting to see though.

In the end, the winner of the competition was the guy with the Sugar Rush quirk whose name I don’t know because he’s not an important character. Also this reminds me, wasn’t there a guy in One Punch Man with the same exact super power? I think he was one of the S-Class Heroes.

Hopefully next episode will have more substance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if next week we get a recap episode or simply no episode at all since we’re moving into the Summer 2018 season.

Gun Gale Online

Gun Gale Online also finished this week and the full review of the series will be coming tomorrow. The ending of this series, however, wasn’t what I was expecting. First of all, LLENN lost Squad Jam 2 which I didn’t see coming.

That said, LLENN did end up killing Pito, but by biting her jugular instead of shooting her or using her knife. I’m not really sure why that was the direction chosen for the climax of the final episode, but it was definitely unexpected if nothing else.

Unfortunately, while the way in which LLENN killed Pito was unexpected, the reveal of Pito’s true identity was about as unimaginative as it gets. Ever since episode two or three when Pito first announced she couldn’t participate in the first Squad Jam, and there was the Elsa Kanzaki concert the same day, I knew Pito’s identity.

Well, guess who was right. Pito being Elsa Kanzaki should have been no surprise to anyone by this point in the series. It was so obvious from early on, in fact, that I hoped I was wrong because I wanted the writer of this series to be better than the writer for the main SAO series (which he still is).

I’m not sure if we’ll ever get a sequel to Gun Gale Online, but I’d be perfectly fine without one. Also, the next season of the main SAO series comes this fall and of course I’ll be watching it because apparently I hate myself.

Conclusion

Next Sunday will be my review of Summer 2018 Week 1, but as of right now I’m not planning to continue writing about My Hero Academia S3 as part of my Summer 2018 series.

For the Spring 2018 series I chose not to include anime which were continuing from the previous season, and I’m strongly considering doing the same for my Summer 2018 series solely due to the number of anime I’ll be watching/writing about.

This season I was watching six anime which started that season, but next season I have 11 anime lined up. Because of this, I may also split each week’s review into two posts to keep them from getting too long.