Berry’s Impression
Hey, I found best girl! <333
Things are certainly starting to move along now. In some ways, I felt like this episode did a lot better than the first one though there are still facts that maybe weren’t explained too well for anime-only viewers, like what palaces are, and the Metaverse Navigator app. The pacing was a little weird, where I felt in the beginning it was pretty good, but then would speed up, then slow down, then speed up some more. Doesn’t help that the transitions aren’t all too clear either.
But like I said last week, while the pacing is crazy, they’re giving us the important details. While in the game we slowly got to learn that Kamoshida is a disgusting jackass, the anime isn’t wasting time at all to show us this, and we still haven’t learned everything about this guy yet. From the little bit of exposition we got from Morgana, our cat friend, the palace is part of the cognitive world that reflects the distorted thoughts of the user. In Kamoshida’s case, his palace is a castle and his self in the palace is a king because in the real world, he perceives himself to be the king of the school because of his talented Olympic background. He plays himself off to be a good guy, but in actuality he’s a terrible person who physically abuses those in the volleyball teams, male and female. One thing I have to commend the anime for is actually showing him abusing Shiho. Other than the volleyball to the face (which was another character and not Ren), we actually never saw Kamoshida abusing the students in the game, so the scene with him beating up Shiho was a great touch to show just how awful this man is. We also learned that he’s part of Ryuji’s past, breaking his leg and whatnot. And like I said, there’s still more to this guy that’ll make your blood boil later. The appearance of fake Ann in a bikini in the palace is a hint. Hmm…
Ren is summoned to the Velvet Room and Igor tells him that he’s the one behind the Metaverse app, but doesn’t go into too much detail in why he’s given him it for his rehabilitation. We’ll probably get more details later.
Ren starts his official first day at school and some of the students whisper around him and don’t really make him feel too welcome but because of what happened to them, he’s made a quick bond with Ryuji, and because they’re the outcasts of the school. Angry at Kamoshida, Ryuji and Ren decide to go back to the palace.
Confirming the rumors of Kamoshida’s abuse, the boys run into Morgana who seems to know many things but is a mystery as of right now. Before they can really talk, Kamoshida and his knights attack them. With Ren and Morgana restrained, Ryuji summons his own power to fight back. He summons his persona, Captain Kidd! And Morgana even has his own, with Zorro. Not going to lie, when Last Surprise started playing I clapped with joy, but the whole fight scene was cheap compared to the game. I appreciate that they’re taking the critical hit and all-out attack scenes from the game and implementing it into the anime, but it’s pretty lackluster with how choppy it looks. Ahhh, I hate being nitpicky and comparing to the game. -_-
In the end, we were also treated to the reason why Ren is on probation: He was apprehended for “attacking” someone who was harassing a woman. Basically, he got in trouble for doing something good. Ryuji’s reaction was hilarious and rather sweet, and this was the start to the “adults in power being corrupt” theme we’ll be seeing.
Some fans actually expected this episode to go even farther than where it stopped, so I guess I should be glad that it stopped with after meeting Morgana. So far, again the pace is strange, but the main plot details are being given to us and I guess that’s what is most important. OP song is amazing, and sung by Lyn, as well as the ED. It’s confirmed the OP will release it’s official version episode 4, so I can’t wait to see if they continue with the sexy red and black style. Let’s see what happens with this Kamoshida jerk next week!
