Look, I thought I could say a lot of things about this series. It’s wacky, it’s nonsensical at times, the fanservice is weirdly placed, a lot of things. But one thing I didn’t want when I picked up this series, nor did I expect, is for it to be depressing. And man, this episode was nothing but a gut shot for the entire thing. In some shows it works, but in a show about getting super powers from seeing panties? Um. No. No it doesn’t work. Anyway, let me tell you what happened.
So the episode picks up with Rabura having told the robot girl about what she heard about the end of the world. She checks into it, but having hacked her way into the government mainframe, the bad guys who had her bugged managed to get ahold of the way in and used them to fire off the nukes and change the trajectory of the meteor, it now heading for Earth.
Want to know what the next 15 minutes of this episode is?
Yuta being depressed.
THAT
IS
IT.
Up until the last 5 minutes it is literally about Yuta being sad and realizing how he can’t do anything. The music stays quiet, there’s no wackiness, and he basically just sits there realizing his inevitable demise. Kind of…uh..kind of a change from the whole “Superpowers through panties” aspect this show seemed to promote.
Finally towards the end of the episode on the night when Ito’s supposed to have gone to the shrine she does actually end up going and yuta and Chiyoko (strange juice chick) chase after her and they find their old buddy, the third member of their little body swap gang.
Of course there’s the patented “you’re like me so you should join me and not die when the planet does because you’re special due to your super powers.” But Chiyoko gets all heart of the cards “Remember who you are! We love you!” stuff. the bad guy/girl leaves telling them they need to decide by new years.
Following this Yuta throws a fit but eventually comes to the realization that only he can save the world and….from what i’m guessing he’s going to either change history and save the world or tell the next Yuta what to do. Honestly…i’m not…really sure. If it’s the latter that’s going to be really depressing. And that’s basically where the episode ends.
Look. I’m fine for depressing episodes in anime. I like drama and sad story lines. But look. If one of the lines in your opening is “Look up my panty line” I’m sorry, but you forgo the option of having a depressing episode. Literally his character is getting super powers by being turned on. There’s….there’s no way to take the show seriously after that. I can take SOME intensity, but you can’t have an ENTIRE EPISODE focused around being depressed at your inevitable death in a FANSERVICE SHOW.
This whole episode was, in a word, draining. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t entertaining, it was actually a chore to get through. The only reason besides this review that I trudged through it was in the vain hope that it would get less depressing by the end of the episode. Spoiler? It didn’t.
I was so busy sitting there with a straight face in stone silence I felt as if I were watching an episode of Ghost in the Shell or something.
The long and short of it, this was not a good episode. It didn’t fit the tone, it wasn’t fun, I wasn’t even interested. Which is insane considering how much I liked last episode. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Next episode better be better because this one…jesus. I feel like I have to watch an episode of Ore Monogatari just to smile again. God, at least Koufukku Grafitti didn’t make me feel like listening to dust in the wind while sitting in a corner.
Goddamn it episode. Goddamn.
Episode 2/10
-Hideki