Dates of show releases might actually mean that finale episodes of some of the shows I’m covering this season may carry on into my Summer season posts. Komi Can’t Communicate definitely, as Netflix put a 3-episode delay on that, but as The Demon Girl Next Door had a break and recap episode, my first summer season posts might end up that much longer. It doesn’t help that much that some of the summer shows I’ve chosen start early. Yippee…I guess?
Komi Can’t Communicate Season 2 Episode 8
But I am still enjoying this second season of Komi immensely, and so I’m not bothered about the 3-episode delay. I never have been, to be honest. I stopped being one of those anime followers who want to see their favorite shows as soon as humanly possible; I just care that it’s out at all.
Anyway, the last scene of the last episode was very cute, in that we had a little flashback story of Komi in middle school, and how she had never been on a school trip before (she chickened out on the middle school one, as she felt she would make her classmates uncomfortable). But now as everyone is itching to hang out with her in this trip to Kyoto, all the pressure is on her. I do like how this arc is going to be stretched out over episodes; I don’t think this could be something that could be told in a single episode or sketch.
This episode concerns day one of the trip, with them arriving in Kyoto, ignoring the bus guide and just doing their own thing around town. And as the boys and girls’ groups are separated, I kind of predicted that Komi would be put in a group with two girls we haven’t seen yet, and probably never will again after the trip. Best to avoid any kind of weird conflict with any of the secondary cast misfits we’ve already met. And of course I predicted Yamai and Nakanaka would be together; that was something I could see a mile off. But what is notable is that out of all the groups we see, Najimi is not put into one, and is just hanging around all of them. Best not to poke at this too much; says me though, who continually brings up their lack of gender in the show.
Class trip episodes aren’t as common as school festival ones, and so when they do come, a great amount of effort is usually put into it to make it as best as they possibly can. It seems like OLM (the studio) are doing very fine so far, although it’s fair to say that there isn’t that much else to do. I mean Komi stands out this season as it is. Saying that though, this class trip arc may end up giving us more of a backstory for Komi, or even some more story development of her and Tadano being together. As we see in this episode alone, it’s like the two have become inseparable while walking around Kyoto looking at all the architecture there. And so I just know that we’ll see a little more of this in the next episode.
One question I guess would be, if said story development does happen in this arc, what exactly would it be? I’m extremely keen on what it’ll end up being. I don’t know the source manga, so I don’t wanna know.
The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 Episode 10
We get another sort-of filler episode this week, although it would be fair to say that, in a gag show like The Demon Girl Next Door, what exactly would be defined as a deep story episode? Anyways, Mikan begins to settle more into her new place in these ‘ruins’, as Momo loves to call their apartment block, and finds one anime trope in her new rundown place: a cockroach. Shamiko could use all of her demon magic to get rid of it for her, but because she’s become so desensitized to them after living at that place for so long, she ends up sympathizing with them, choosing to shoo it away instead of trying to kill it.
Speaking of demon magic though, these recent episodes have been more than just Momo trying to hold back from becoming Darkness Peach; Shamiko still needs a heck of a lot more training to become the shadow mistress she is desperate to be, and so Lilith puts together the idea to have her train in the dreamscape, as she is able to turn her rod into video game weapons here, and not in the real world. I do also find it amusing how Lilith is eyeing up little sister Ryoko early. She is already knowledgeable of legendary weapons like Excalibur, Gungnir, and the Amenonuhoko (which I never actually heard of before until now). Reddit is already talking about a Demon Girl Next Door spin-off show where the little sister becomes a mighty shadow mistress and defeats Shamiko with ease; hey, I’m surprised the mangaka hasn’t thought of this idea already.
So what do I think the ending of this season will bring? Plenty more gag moments, that much is for sure. Last week I thought that we might actually see Sakura in the flesh finally, but now I’m not so sure if we’ll even get that. Season 1’s ending gave us the story that the Light and Dark clan were more linked together than either Shamiko or Momo thought, so now that story line has been established, and we are seeing Shamiko demon training and Momo suppressing her own Darkness Peach ability, I’m not really sure what we’ll see. And to be honest, I’m not really so fussed about the ending as I would be about the other shows I’m watching. Yes, it’s taken me a hell of a long time to warm to this season, but I’ve been doing fine with these gag moments so far. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 Episode 11
Next week’s episode of Kaguya-sama will be an hour-long one, so I think we can all kind of guess what will be happening then. But what about this week’s one?
We were left on a cliffhanger when Ishigami finally confessed to Tsubame-senpai last week. We all knew that she would have to reject him, and so we were just left with thinking how exactly he would take the rejection, given how smitten he got with her. She doesn’t want to ruthlessly say no, and does not want to lead him on either. Well a lot has had to be packed into this penultimate episode; the hour-long finale promises a lot, right? First of all, Tsubame needs to tell Ishigami no in a way that will still make him feel he did the right thing, Miko needs to find a way to shoo away some annoying customers from another school who want to go out with her, and then there’s Chika…and the phantom thief.
Yes you heard me. I did not see this coming at all; Kaguya-sama directly poking at Persona 5, with this phantom thief even leaving calling cards at the scene of the crime. Miyuki is letting her have her fun though, as he knows this school festival needs a little excitement. But of course there is one other reason he’s letting some excitement and commotion take place at the school festival, and it isn’t for any tactical reason for people to not gossip over him and Kaguya. It’s because he has something far more important on his mind; his acceptance letter from Stanford arrives. I knew that this would be the ultimate finale cliffhanger, but seeing it now I didn’t think it would hit me as hard as it did, as it seems there’s more to this than just him going to a highly respected college in the US.
(I originally thought Stanford was an Ivy League college; goes to show how much I know about education.)
Now that this third season is almost over, and the franchise is wrapping up pretty much, I’ve decided to take an early look at what has made me so apprehensive this time around. The references to other shows/movies/music/etc. never bothered me at all; in fact I’m happy that they doubled down on it for season three. Even this final poke at Persona 5 is pure genius. I think my worry has been the small and subtle changes in animation style. Would a re-watch of season three change my mind? It probably would. Season two absolutely blew me away in how the story turned a lot more serious at points; the opposite of what season one had. If I saw these episodes I was originally concerned about for a second time, I would probably change my mind. This has still been an amazing season to watch, and is going to lead to a awesome end to the franchise.
Next week looks to be something very very special; A-1 Pictures even put out an extended trailer for it only minutes after the penultimate episode aired:
Iroduku: The World in Colors Episode 11
Who would have guessed that the final arc of Iroduku would be a school festival one? No, me neither…
The story has developed in a short amount of time, and it appears things are really coming to a head now. These dorks have been having so much fun doing random activities and going on random photo shoots, and they have seem to have almost forgotten that while Hitomi is really enjoying being with them, this is not her timeline…and she needs to go home. And it’s becoming more and more urgent now as she is starting to periodically disappear as if she was never there at all, and then reappear again.
She wants to go ahead with their club activity, but Kohaku knows that dealing with this takes priority. She still needs to learn a lot more about time magic, and she knows that returning a family member, her granddaughter, back into the future is something that can’t be taken lightly, as any mistake will put her into a time gap forever.
I really like this new urgency towards the end of the show. We could have just had some school festival/everyone happy/friends forever kind of ending, but after what seems like forever, I have some solid theories on what the ending could be:
- She stays in the past with her sweetheart Yuito and causes some kind of time paradox. Not great of course, but love can be rather stupid sometimes, especially in anime.
- She is finally able to see color again, and is able to complete the time magic task all by herself, meaning she discovers the reason future-Kohaku sent her back in the first place. She has the time of her life, and is able to keep these memories stored away to have a bright and happy life in her own timeline.
…or there could be a third option that is unrelated to the two above. I’m suddenly really interested now. Well for next week, I’ll be covering both episodes 12 and 13, so let’s all give Hitomi some good vibes, huh. Hope she doesn’t vanish completely.
Won’t be long now before the season review post comes. Like I said, it’s highly likely that coverage of these shows will carry on for an episode or two in the summer season posts. So I hope you’re fine with some slightly longer posts…