Has science gone too far?

Impression

Jesus. I’d actually forgotten Eromanga-sensei was so lewd.

After two episodes, I’m feeling rather torn. On one hand, if we look at it from a critical, objective perspective, it’s pretty bad. It’s pandering of the worst kind, with all sorts of close-up shots of Sagiri’s butt, Sagiri’s toes, Sagiri’s panties and so on. Just like Oreimo, like I mentioned last week. In fact, the entire show is an Oreimo reference, and now we can add the OP sequence (which is so reminiscent of Oreimo I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry) and that scene where Elf sticks out her tongue to the list. On the other hand, I’m the target audience it’s trying to pander to. And it’s working. From now on, I’m going to dance along with Sagiri to the ED at the end of every episode. I’ve never seen someone so happily washing their panties before.

And then there’s this girl.

What a ray of sunshine. Megumin is… really bad for my heart, I will admit. I think they managed to make her lewder than she appeared to be in the source material, but overall, Masamune is right. She’s miles away from Sagiri’s cuteness. Sagiri continues to indisputably be the best, especially with all the effort that’s clearly been put into animating her subtle movements and actions. And of course, everything she said about Megumin was absolutely correct. I don’t hate her, but she’s… well, too bright for me. I know how Sagiri feels. Her overly teasing nature might be fun, but I’ve always preferred subtle lewd over blatant lewd. I don’t want lewdness to be shoved in my face, it’s better the way it is with Sagiri where she’s clearly a pervert but still gets embarrassed talking about it in person. It’s not as entertaining if it’s so obvious. And everything about this girl is written all over her face. Her smile is almost blinding. It doesn’t need protecting, it can protect itself (and others, too). The ideal riajuu, in other words. So riajuu it hurts.

As for Yamada Elf, more than anything I’m surprised by how prominent her elf ears are in the adaptation. I’ve never really noticed it before. To sum her up in a sentence, she’s basically a more successful, loli version of Yamakan, with more fans both within the story universe and in real life. Anyone remember him? Elf thinks she’ll be able to save light novels and pioneer a new future for the industry, which is a lot like what Yamakan said about Fractale supposedly saving anime, except whatever novels she’s published so far are doing a hell of a lot better than Fractale did. In other words, even though her self-proclaimed goals are way over her head, she’s still got the skills to pay the bills, and that might be enough to tear Sagiri away from working with Masamune. Or so Masamune thinks. You know, what would actually be really interesting would be a side plot featuring Masamune improving as an author and working his way up in the light novel world (his latest series is probably full of tired cliches, given his age) like what Bakuman did with manga. But hey, who am I kidding? This light novel stuff is obviously only there to help Masamune and Sagiri bond. Every episode just brings Fushimi one step closer to fulfilling his long-awaited incest agenda. It’s all according to keikaku.

(TL note: keikaku means plan)