Active Raid Episode 9 [I DRAW THE LINE AT FISH]

20 Seconds. That was how long it took me to be sick of Active Raid this episode You know I used to be the kind of reviewer who would watch shows and burst into gratuitous capslock and then curse a lot, but about a year ago I made some life changes and decided maybe I should become a more gracious and considerate reviewer. Maybe there isn’t a reason to get so angry at shows you blow a gasket and lose it. But you know, just this once, I have to ask very intensely:

WHY THE HELL IS IT HOLOGRAPHIC FISH?

Why did we have to come to this point? Why did this anime, which I believed might be the next Tiger and Bunny, have to finally just cross a line with me? Is this funny? Maybe it is! Maybe it’s hysterical! Maybe it’s the depression, loneliness, and sheer weight of my existential human existence that makes me want to find this terrible? Are my lackluster feelings on life the cause of this lackluster impression? Would a normal human being react differently to holographic fish? Would I find this funnier if it were in a different situation. You know, maybe. Maybe if this was Dragon Ball Super I’d be enjoying the fish. Maybe if Sailor Moon had some holographic fish and they all commented on how cute they were, I’d be enjoying this.

I mean, the fish aren’t even real, and everyone is freaking out. It’s just holographs and everyone leaves the bank like someone died or there was some real crisis going on! I wanted to automatically hate this villain but then he goes on to have an actually interesting rest of the episode: Mythos finds his methods brutish and that it interferes with their plans, so he has him killed. Or so he thought. Dog, as they called him, survives. ., .and he isn’t happy with being a ploy in Logos’ plan.

The background plots are finally coming together too! I hate that such an important episode started with something that makes me so mad. I just can’t with these stupid fish! They’re just fish, have you never been to an aquarium!? Why are you running from the air?! There are magic mecha suits- okay, I’m off topic. Things are actually beginning to come together in this episode and Logos actually shot themselves in the foot. But they hired a guy with his stupid fi- anyway the episode gets better. The villains consistently don’t surprise me with their level of stupidity, but it got better, even if I am reluctant to admit that it did so.

But is better. . .good? I can fairly look at this show and say, yes, there are problems that are working themselves out! I can put these clues together to make these things make sense. This is not the worst show I’ve ever seen, this is not the most terrible plot I can think of. But is Active Raid good? I can’t really say that. Even the characters I enjoy start to feel stale half the time. While there is growth and dimension everywhere in the show it might not exactly be cohesive or legitimate enough to actually make it feel right. I can’t sit here and tell you Active Raid is absolute garbage that you should never watch- but I never look forward to any episodes of it, and that’s the most effective way of describing my feelings towards this show.

The fish.

Oki