Right now I’ve begun to look back at the small number of shows I have been able to enjoy this year, and put together some kind of best of list. The same list that will appear at the end of December, in a whole new post. A couple are 100% confirmed, as I’ve already covered them here in Otaku Theater, but there are some that I haven’t. Netflix has, surprisingly, brought out some stuff that surprised me. I’ll talk about those ones nearer the time, but for now I still need to think about this season, which has now reached its halfway point.
Raven of the Inner Palace Episode 7
The story arc that we had right now in this show ended quite abruptly this week, but regardless it still closed the door on a lot of things. For one, I was really expecting Bingyue to be a major villain, but that turned out not to be the case at all; far from it, in fact. His only real wish was to be reunited with his love Princess Mingzhu.
In addition to this, his case and Gaojin’s case are linked, in that both of them suffered at the hands of the now-executed Empress Dowager, who really did plant a curse in Gaojin’s bedchambers before she died. Shouxue is able to find the glass comb that Mingzhu owned so that she and Bingyue are able to go to the afterlife peacefully, and both Gaojin’s mother and former master are no longer bound by that curse.
This week’s episode also showed me a little more about Gaojin himself, and how he is striving to become a much better emperor than his cruel predecessors. He is someone who is committed to doing ‘the right thing’. He was willing to suffer countless nights of being haunted by the ghosts of the two people who meant the most to him so long as no-one else got hurt. He is willing to keep Shouxue’s Luan dynasty past and Wei Qing’s past in the red light district a secret. And here, just as an angry Shouxue is about to send Bingyue to the afterlife, he doesn’t hesitate to stop her, because he can instantly see that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
This is all very different from the Shouxue we see, who feels bound by the Raven Consort title she has been given. It’s easy to see though that she does want to break free of that ‘cage’ of hers, except she doesn’t know how. She still cares very much for the people around her (Bingyue threatening Jiu Jiu is one big example of this), but at the same time she feels like she is not allowed to be close to them, purely because of the title that has been bestowed upon her.
This arc is over though, and so with characters better established, I’m curious to see what the next chapter will be. Gaojin and Shouxue acknowledge each other as their titles of the Summer King and the Winter King respectively, even though they don’t really want them. But the old story remains; the Winter King still has the power to overthrow the Summer King.
The Eminence in Shadow Episode 6
It’s almost as if last week’s city leveling never happened. Either that or a long amount of time has passed and the city has just been rebuilt. Either way, Cid remains being a colossal piece of dirt. Last week led to Alexia finding out that her faux-boyfriend turned out to be Lord Shadow, the leader of Shadow Garden. But now she has reconciled with her elder sister, she has decided to keep it a secret. Not that any of this matters to him. In fact, I’m not sure if he cares about anything, or anyone, not even his own harem. I suppose being so overpowered in this isekai world can make one lose their sense of empathy and compassion and develop an emperor complex.
Anyway moving onto the main story, a new group has arrived in town claiming to be Shadow Garden and murdering civilians, no doubt to frame the real group and make them out to be villains. This whole section was wrapped up in just a handful of scenes though, which I found to be a little frustrating. A subplot as decent as this could have been padded out, where we get to see the real Shadow Garden going out of their way to hunt them down. But instead our little god-emperor sends his harem to deal with it, and the matter is done and dusted.
Aside from Cid, this is one major fault I have with The Eminence in Shadow: the fact that we don’t get anything from the harem. Alpha, Beta, Gamma (who we see for the first time this week), and everyone else…who are they? Sure they are strong and powerful girls who can hand cult members their behinds in a heartbeat, but I really want to know more about them. Perhaps it’s because our focus is forced on him. He sees them as mere tools, meaning we can’t see them for who they really are: poor girls tricked into fighting for Cid’s little chuunibyou army. And I get the impression that even if they did find out the truth, they would still follow him to the ends of the earth.
Outside of Shadow Garden though, Iris hands an artifact she discovered to one of the academy’s top researchers. She believes this artifact belongs to the cult, and want to know what it means. I also find it interesting that Iris does not want the public to see Shadow Garden as some righteous group. While she sees that they have a common enemy in the Cult, she does not believe that Shadow Garden are doing the right thing. Well, Shadow Garden are acting as vigilantes after all; a group who believe that only they are capable of destroying the Cult.
The show is getting more frustrating to watch. Not just because of all the things I’ve mentioned over the last few weeks, and not just because I needed to rewatch it to try and get a better impression of the story either. It’s because the pacing feels off, and while I’ve developed an attachment to some of the secondary characters, others still feel wooden. Or maybe it was all by design. Cid does refer to these people as secondary characters himself, and so are we as the viewer meant to think the same?
Bocchi the Rock Episode 6
Fans of Bocchi the Rock! are certainly having fun poking at Kessoku Band right now, and have gone on some kind of bandwagon of altering real life album covers. Here are just two of my favorites, mocking The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” and Linkin Park’s “Meteora“:
But this poking is a good thing, right? It has shown how well this show has been received, while it has been hidden in the shadows of the likes of Chainsaw Man and the Bleach reboot show. Kessoku Band have their gig ready, but each of them still have to make their ticket quota, and have 5 tickets each to sell. While the others are able to sell them easy, Bocchi can’t think on who to pick, considering the only people she interacts with are her family and the band. But by chance, she comes across a mysterious alcohol-loving bass player who collapses in front of her. Seems it wasn’t enough for the show to poke fun at social anxiety; they had to do alcoholism too. That sounds like a heavy criticism, but I’m still happy with how they’ve presented this new character, who is nameless at the moment.
This is also the first real episode where we see Hitori interact with people outside of the band. And while Ryo, Nijika and Kita are asking each other at band practice what kind of person she is at school (only Kita goes to the same school as her), Hitori is sat at a street corner listening to the drunken ramblings of this new character, who is actually in a band herself, and plays bass.
I do think it’s interesting to watch Hitori’s mind racing here. Just as this is the first time we see her speak to others (and a complete stranger at that), this is the first time we see her properly think about the future. She seems to enjoy playing in the band, but even after what they’ve been through so far, it still feels like 4 girls jamming, and not one unit. Watching the others ask each other about what kind of person she is just shows this. All this time Hitori has been in the band, and they barely know a thing about her, because she has refused to open up. But what about beyond that? Does she really picture herself as a rocker girl whose band will sell out the Budokan? Or will she end up like the older alcoholic jobless version of herself she has a daydream of?
On that matter, the art direction remains on point, and has been one of the main drawing point of the show. We get these jokes about social anxiety, but it does not deny that it is a real mental disorder that cripples the lives of many people. This was why I disliked the Watamote adaptation so much; instead of addressing Tomoko’s condition sensibly, they made her a twisted and horrible person whose actions purposely drove people away. Characters like Hitori, and Komi in Komi Can’t Communicate! are nice, wonderful and charming people; they are just unable to see it themselves.
It’s obvious to see that Hitori still has a long way to go, and so it’s good to see this one step of many to come is a decent one. We’ll be seeing this woman again, that much is a certainty. Somehow I get the impression that she might have some history with Manager-san even.
Odd Taxi Episode 7
The sub-plots that we’ve seen in Odd Taxi are all starting to merge together now, as we see here in episode 7. Odokawa arrives home to see a bullet hole in his window, but chooses to tell only Little Daimon about it, as he is well aware that Big Daimon is crooked and is being paid off. This is where we get to see Little Daimon’s character for the first time, and we see how much he is overshadowed by his twin brother purely because he doesn’t have his wit and intelligence. He does have a strong sense of justice though, and tells Odokawa he joined the force to punish evil, so he’s shocked by his allegation that his brother is crooked, and also that he wasn’t behind that girl going missing after all…or was he? Whoever or whatever is behind that closet of his remains a mystery. Is the body they found in the river that missing girl, or is Odokawa really the one behind her disappearance, and he is just putting on a front?
But it does look like Odokawa has some moral sense of justice of his own, as he tells Little Daimon that he is only pretending to cooperate with Dobu, so that he can be the one to arrest him, and not Big Daimon. Even if it means arresting Odokawa too, as he would be charged with accessory. Meanwhile on the other side of town, the badger games that Mystery Kiss are playing are coming to an end, as the manager is able to knock Kakihana unconscious. Of course what he (along with the rest of Mystery Kiss) don’t know is how broke Kakihana really is; bailiffs are already at his door demanding their loan money back. But Shiho is now overcome with guilt and wants out, which could jeopardize her idol career. I was surprised that the others in Mystery Kiss knew about these badger games; leads me to suggest that the manager is leading them on their own games too.
This is also the first proper introduction of Dobu’s rival, Yano, who for some reason, speaks only in rhyme. We already know that the two of them are in competition in who can reign in the most income for their Yakuza boss, but his motives right now are unclear. Why has he kidnapped Kakihana exactly? Is he allied with Mystery Kiss’s manager? And if so, what will happen when he finds out how broke Kakihana really is?
It’s awesome to see Hitori make attempts to come out of her shell, and I’m very eager to see how all the subplots in Odd Taxi will merge together. Like I said last week, my Winter shows are already chosen. I know I say every time that I’m hugely anticipating what they’ll be like, but considering the up-and-down year I’ve had when it comes to picking shows, I think the Winter 2023 season might be a special case.