Final Thoughts – The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar

Yeah, I bailed on this idea pretty quickly.

I was expecting Master of Ragnarok to be ridiculous, as its first episode presents, but what I get instead is boring. Like, there’s a plot happening here and everything, but I could not possibly be bothered to care.

I gave up early, too. I only made it through the second episode before deciding that this endeavor was just not worth my time when I’m already basically obligated to watch Sword Art Online Alicization next season (because the community discourse will inevitably focus heavily on it), and I already knew I was gonna give this a bad score.

That being said, I would like to explain my score in slightly more detail here. I’m giving The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar a 2/10. By all rights, it’s unwatchable, and that might lead people to wonder why I didn’t give it the same 1/10 I gave shows like How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord or In Another World With My Smartphone, and that’s because that score is reserved for shows that I consider not just bad, but offensive. At some point I’ll be talking more in detail about the Hall of Shame, but I don’t consider Ragnarok to be on that level of awfulness because the concept could have been saved by just making different decisions over the course of its creation.

Basically, what I mean is, there is a timeline somewhere where The Master of Ragnarok exists and is at least decent. I cannot imagine such a possibility for Angel’s 3Piece!, so it’s a 1 instead of a 2.

2/10, dropped after two episodes.

Updated Impressions – Holmes of Kyoto

I’m honestly surprised how much I’m enjoying this show.

It’s one of the less impressive productions of the season, with most shots being talking heads, and the post-processing effects being…questionable (see episode 2 in the forest), but the low-stakes mystery stories are pretty relaxing, even if most of them are solved very quickly.

The rest of the runtime is filled with little character-building moments that slowly build on continuity, as the people helped by the title character often go on to be friends of the main cast in a way that actually feels pretty organic. It’s soothing in sort of the same way as Laid-Back Camp, though it’s not quite as unique.

Six episodes into its run, I’m not really sure what it can do to improve, because the production clearly isn’t going to get any better, but I’d be fine with just sticking it out at this exact level of quality.

Score so far: 7/10

rufflesstuff:

arcaneranger:

Final (?) Thoughts – Cells at Work!

There’s nothing wrong with this show; on the contrary it’s actually very good and well thought-out. No, unfortunately, this one is going on hold because my primary fear from the first episode came true; Cells at Work! is a fully episodic work with little to no continuity between episodes, and such things have a tendency to completely lose my interest.

As much fun as it is, I still have to watch ClassicaLoid 2, so Cells is just going to have to wait until I get around to it sometime in the future. It still gets a recommendation from me, though, for what it’s worth.

If you can stomach the gruesome, dark nature of it all, Cells at Work! [BLACK] does indeed have a continuing story, where even though it deals with “condition/pathogen of the week” style problems, you can definitely see each chapter flowing into one another and the protagonists and the body being affected by all its poor decisions.

So I’ve heard; I haven’t read BLACK because it hasn’t been licensed but it was on my list purely for sounding hilarious. 👍

Updated Impressions – Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion

I’ve really mellowed on this one.

For sure, it’s still pretty brutal and macho, but halfway in and it’s got sort of the inverse problem of Golden Kamuy – namely, it’s staying focused on its tone and the plot, but hasn’t developed its characters very much at all. Really, we only have two memorable (if not exactly unique) cast members here, with everyone else being interchangeable, and that’s a problem.

That being said, our lead is actually doing a lot to make up for that, and the explanation of his criminal record is suitably tragic for the samurai-flick aesthetic Angolmois seems to be going for. I would just like a little more spice here, but I’m still enjoying what I’m getting.

Score so far: 6/10

Final (?) Thoughts – Cells at Work!

There’s nothing wrong with this show; on the contrary it’s actually very good and well thought-out. No, unfortunately, this one is going on hold because my primary fear from the first episode came true; Cells at Work! is a fully episodic work with little to no continuity between episodes, and such things have a tendency to completely lose my interest.

As much fun as it is, I still have to watch ClassicaLoid 2, so Cells is just going to have to wait until I get around to it sometime in the future. It still gets a recommendation from me, though, for what it’s worth.

Updated Impressions – Harukana Receive

This one is pretty much exactly what I expected from the first episode, and I have no problem with that.

Though we do have the added element of a boatload of yuri subtext, really it’s a very good-looking show about half-naked girls playing volleyball, and that makes me actually not mind the fanservice, since of course they’ll be in swimsuits if they’re playing this sport, and the girls do frequently check each other out, even if it’s not consciously.

Right now, with a strong cast that isn’t too overloaded, Harukana is running at a pretty even pace, and I hope it can at least continue to do that. I still recommend this for the Keijo! crowd, though people looking for a more intense sports show might have better luck with the still-airing Major 2nd.

Score so far: 7/10

Final Thoughts – Angels of Death

If anyone was wondering why I gave up again on weeklies, yeah, this one just utterly lost my interest.

Five episodes into its run, Angels just seems way too willing to just emulate 999, and that’s not what I’m here for. In the fifth episode, we finally caught a glimpse of Zack’s background (basically the only thing keeping me invested) and it was just so corny (it involves his parents calling him a “tool” while villain-laughing) that I couldn’t take it even a little seriously. At this point, we haven’t learned anything new about Rachel, and I don’t get the feeling that whatever revelation her character provides just won’t be worth the wait, particularly when this show inexplicably has a whole extra month to run.

Ultimately, I should have listened to the advice of others, but it may have just been seeing the premiere right after the abysmal ISLAND that made me think I liked this one more than I really do, when Happy Sugar Life seems much more ready to give me what I’m looking for if I really want a creepshow this season.

4/10, dropped after five episodes. Gonna go watch some Harukana Receive to lighten the mood.

Updated Impressions – Planet With

Coincidentally, both of the shows I’ve mentioned thus far hit major transitional points at the end of their sixth episode, but I’ll get to that in a second.

Planet With is kind of an enigma. It has a lot going for it, but certain elements are really harshing my buzz on it, and it feels a little like a decent Trigger ripoff.

And after FRANXX, that’s not the worst thing to be, but while the unique story (an interesting foil to My Hero Academia) and CG battles are totally holding up, the cast is feeling a little bit limp. Six episodes in, I don’t really care about anyone in particular, and there was a death in this episode I just didn’t have much of a reaction to. And that might have something to do with story structure.

See, Seven Senses finished its first act here. We’ve cleared the first story obstacle, but the primary tension is finding out why a dead character is alive again, and that hasn’t been totally resolved.

Planet With’s primary tension, however, was the gathering of the power sources of the Earthling cast, which resolves in this episode, and traditionally, that marks the end of the <i>second</i> act, so as far as plot structures go, we’re really hurrying things along, when third acts are not really known for being the right time to develop characters. Usually the third act is dedicated to the greater tension, in this case fighting the other aliens, but that makes the Earth cast kind of irrelevant, a huge waste for a group that just did not get much personality.

So, we’ll see if this one can pick itself back up again, I’m genuinely hopeful here.

Score so far: 6/10

Updated Thoughts – Seven Senses of the Re’Union

Let’s get some mid-season impressions going, huh?

Seven Senses has pretty quickly and easily climbed out of my “might drop” pile to become one of my favorites of the season, if only for being a dramatic story with characters acting in sensible, consistent ways that I fully understand, and for featuring a Kirito-ripoff with a lot more defined personality and consistent behavior than the original.

The game that I had issues with in my initial impression has actualized a little more into what ultimately seems to be a testing ground for people with psychic powers in the form of a fantasy MMO, and the show is certainly heading towards the twist I predicted, but overall the legendary reputation of the main cast actually makes sense in-universe.

The one thing I would have liked to see is a bigger timeskip in the first episode to take the cast out of high school, because one of them in particular has attained a position and a level of respect I can’t imagine hundreds of adults giving a sixteen year old, but it’s the one element in a show that really shored itself up against the plethora of possible issues I could have with it.

Score so far: 8/10

Final Thoughts – Phantom in the Twilight

A lot of good ideas executed boringly.

I like the urban fantasy kitchen sink that Phantom seems to be going with, but the reality is that this show needs a lot more style. You wouldn’t necessarily need to even change anything else, just, just…

Yeah, that. Because the story is interesting, but the characters are flat, the aesthetic is boring, and the production is laughable. It almost seems like it’s just going for a 6/10, which I will not reward it for when I could be watching better shows.

Seriously, though, dump a Persona 5 bucket of paint on it and we might have something decent on our hands, rather than this Lipton tea bag of a show. 5/10, dropped after three episodes.