Some team won the Super Bowl this week. As of time of writing, I have no idea who, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it were the Patriots. American Football means little to me as I have other sports/esports to obsess over and as their respective seasons are just beginning, I worry a little that I’ll have little time to catch up on these shows. I need to better my work ethic and be a more structured person.
More important news is that two of the shows I am watching, Domestic Girlfriend and The Magnificent Kotobuki, have been picked up by Crunchyroll now (along with Dimension High School and W’z). This now means that I no longer have to turn to HIDIVE at all this season.
Is it wrong that I’ve already renamed Domestic Girlfriend to Domestic Adulterer? I know that when Hina sees the error of her ways, I’ll end up dropping that name. This is the week where Natsuo and Rui step in, have a word or two at their sister/step-sister and hope that all returns to normal…but this episode doesn’t really start off promising. I like that Rui is starting to cooperate with her new step-brother more, but following Hina wherever she goes like you see in every atypical slice-of-life comedy show makes me despair a little. Also, considering how their new family started with Hina’s mess, not to mention how much Natsuo is desperate to win Hina’s heart still, what exactly is supposed to be normal here?
Why these two are taking advice from Natsuo’s introverted and slightly pervy friend, I don’t really know…
We did get to see the guy who was effectively the cause of all this; a fairly-shady looking guy who already has a history of adultery, and who looks like he could just snap his fingers and Hina can just come running back. Something significant does happen at the end of this episode, which I will not spoil to my fellow anime-only folk, but it hasn’t convinced me to place any level of trust in Hina still. This arc in this J-drama will carry on some more, there’s no doubt about that…unless the adaptation writers decided to be foolish and cut out entire parts of the story (which is a possibility).
One thing I haven’t mentioned before is the OP theme to Domestic Girlfriend, which is pretty darn good, and is already a contender for best of the season. For any of the shows I’m not watching this season (The Promised Neverland, Mob Psycho 100 season 2, Kakegurui season 2, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Boogiepop, etc.), feel free to chime in if their OPs are any good, as I haven’t had time to watch theirs yet.
I had hoped that, when Domestic Girlfriend began, it would get better as time went on, and despite a few minor cringe-worthy moments, it is certainly delivering, and is leaving me a content viewer. Well…now that Crunchyroll have everything I plan to watch this season, I guess I should cancel my…no, I’m kidding. HIDIVE have managed to bag themselves some great shows in the past (Land of the Lustrous, Made in Abyss, Scum’s Wish, Girls’ Last Tour…and last season’s Bloom Into You) Crunchyroll still is able to get themselves licenses for the not-so-good shows though. Not-so-good shows like Girly Air Force.
The show is still annoying, as this week sees the sort-of introduction to other android pilot Eagle. One would expect that, after last week, we’d see a better introduction, but it was all just so disappointing. In fact, we barely see her at all this week, and when we do, she behaves more like a child than Gripen does – okay, while Gripen is more the helpless type, Eagle is just a little brat. Plus Minghua is still that forlorn childhood friend/girl-on-the-side, now that more girls have showed up, meaning that…well…It’s sort of confirmed at this point in the show that there is only one reason for Minghua to still be hanging around Kei’s house…and that is purely to suffer. Suggestions have been going around at what she’ll end up doing in this battle to fight the Xi. More likely Minghua will have her own filler episode where she confesses, with Kei saying no (because an android fighter jet is the only one for him), but I hope for something a little more extraordinary.
This ‘deadline’ that they have set Gripen is rather cruel, and unsurprisingly, Kei decides to sneak her out of the base to live with him. The show’s writers could have easily made this part of the story more…exciting? We could have had this long trial of Gripen committed to making herself useful lest she be scrapped, but I just get the impression that she doesn’t seem to care so much. Kei is too blinded by her helplessness to see anything else; Minghua could dress up as a magical girl and destroy the Xi single-handedly, and he probably would even notice. The pro-military themes, meanwhile, are just things that are now just invisible to me, as I’m more concerned with how they can salvage this harem story than anything else in the show.
Okay, enough angst. Onto something more exciting, and I tell you, The Magnificent Kotobuki has become more thrilling to watch, with this episode being the most plot-heavy so far.
Carrying on from last week with the stolen Raiden plane, the Kotobuki Corps follow a lead that takes them to a small airfield, where they learn about the travelling tavern that is due to stop at Elite Industries’ headquarters. Seeing this as the perfect chance to take the Raiden back, Zara goes undercover as one of the tavern’s performers, where we see that…well…there’s nothing this woman can’t do. Sing, dance, model, cook, fight, drink heavily…but she discovers there’s more than just taking the Raiden back, when she discovers the young girl who paints these ukiyo-e paintings for the company.
The Magnificent Kotobuki has gotten so much better now. The show started off very slowly, with weak character development and a confusing story. Now the show has had time to develop: main characters have had more airtime, the world design is explained better, and of course, we get some pretty darn impressive action scenes and there’s the fact that it’s on Crunchyroll now, meaning I don’t have to be concerned for HIDIVE’s not-as-good translations.
Apologies for no coverage of Kemono Friends this week. I’m not sure who to blame for this one (Crunchyroll or my internet), but I’ve been unable to access episode 4 all week. It’s times like these when we all wish someone…anyone…would bag the license to release the show on home video. Or have we reached the time where shows just remain online? I mean I know that you can get this show on Steam as well (yes, that Steam!), but I’m not paying any extra amount. It’ll fix itself soon enough (either Crunchyroll or my internet), I know that, at this point, Serval and Kaban have managed to fix the tour bus, and so make some significant progress to the Japari Park Library, so Kaban can find out more about herself and where she came from. The low-quality animation will stay the same, but this story is something that just captured our hearts and made us just not care that lips don’t move as they ought to, and the tour bus wheels don’t go round.
Oh well. Some extra Kemono Friends coverage next week then. But seeing the shows that were picked for me now be on Crunchyroll, what do you think of the news? What kind of impact do you think this would have on HIDIVE and Amazon Video? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…and also I wish you all a happy Lunar New Year.