Quick First Impressions – Girls’ Last Tour

I’ve seen only the first episode so far, but I have some thoughts on this one, because it grabs me in a similar way to Made in Abyss, beyond just the artwork.

I love that this episode doesn’t concern itself with telling us the full story of how the world ended and I hope that stays consistent; this show would be miles less interesting without the wonderful air of mystery about it. It also demonstrates excellent uses of “show, don’t tell” in such uses as showing us that Chi is afraid of heights, or Yuuri’s demonstration of the concept of war over food. I like that we don’t get any sort of internal monologue, the show uses its visuals to tell most of the narrative.

Basically, some really good decisions make for a very impressive first episode. I’m considering making these first impressions posts from here on out, too, though keep in mind that I don’t start every single show at the beginning of the season. I’ve still barely even scratched Fall 2017.

Quick Final Thoughts – My Hero Academia S2

Towards the end, this got really frustrating to watch, which is why it’s so late.

The first half of this season, adapting the sports festival, is fantastic, and you’ve already heard everything that makes it good. And I’m not saying the second half was bad, but…

The pacing hits a brick wall with the final exam arc and it contains some incredibly questionable writing decisions. First of all, without spoiling much, it turns out that there is a quirk that can steal other quirks. I don’t know if the author realized just how bad an idea this was, but it just raises SO MANY questions all by itself. What happens if you steal a biological quirk, for example?

There’s also an extended sequence involving Midoriya and All Might that I spent thinking ‘what the fuck’ for all the wrong reasons. Izuku nearly dies and All Might’s reaction makes absolutely no sense. I’ll elaborate on this below, as it’s a spoiler.

I’m not going to stop watching. But I’m not going to pretend that this show has gotten better. The first half of the season would have earned a 9/10, but the second half is a strong 7, so…

8/10.

***SPOILERS***

I have massive problems with the final exam fight between Deku, Bakugo and All Might, specifically the actions of the latter. He practically breaks Izuku’s spine (and this is acknowledged by the show) immediately before sighing and complaining that Bakugo is going to break his own body for the sake of the fight. He goes WAY TOO FAR in injuring the two of them, and this fight is way, way more physical than everyone else’s, and just gets briefly reprimanded by Recovery Girl. It’s also mentioned that the teachers all made sure there was a way for the students to escape and pass, and there is no evidence whatsoever that All Might did so; in fact, the spine-shattering happens in the process of Izuku trying to escape. The two of them ONLY pass because Bakugo dramatically overexerts himself. Basically, the episode is a giant mess.

Quick Final Thoughts – A Sister’s All You Need

I feel weird about this one.

It’s got the bones of something good, but it’s like it feels the need to keep distracting from its interesting plot points with sudden dumb nonsense.

This is another industry meta-commentary in the vein of Girlish Number or Shirobako, but it focuses more on its cast interacting with each other and their relationships to each other, like Saekano. But it feels like every time we learn something new and interesting about them, it has to be undercut with something stupid like a discussion about gaybaiting where the word “gay” has to be censored apparently, or the creepy asshole main character loudly calling a girl he’s just meeting a slut for not understanding why the main character of his novel has to make out with his little sister in order to activate his powers.

And ultimately I feel like said main character is the biggest source of the problems with A Sister’s All You Need. The show seems to flip flop on what light it wants to portray his obsession with incest, from pointedly showing that none of the other characters share his interest, up to showing that his real younger brother is not only feminine but may actually be a girl.

So I’m putting this one on hold. If it finds stable ground and Itsuki does not ultimately end up fucking his sister, I’ll come back to it eventually. But for now, I have other stuff to get to.

5/10, on hold after two episodes.

Quick Final Thoughts – Evil or Live

What the fuck? Did Tencent REALLY produce a show about how internet addiction is evil?

Oh, my god, that’s hilarious. Whoever gave this a green light should be fired.

It’s like if Marlboro made an after school special where Jimmy’s dad dies of lung cancer because he smokes too many Marlboros.

The concept is nonsense. Our main character gets kidnapped to a rehab facility for internet addiction that works more like prison meets military school, and apparently the teachers can get away with beating the ever living shit out of twelve year olds while looking like they’re getting off on it.

What the actual fuck was this? The art style is really grainy and washed out, the concept raises too many questions (how much time on the internet is too much time? What if they’re taking classes or something productive like that, does that count towards the number? Why do they drag their new students (who they literally refer to only as “trash”) into a dark, empty room?) and the whole thing is a dumpster fire. It’s like if you took Prison School and removed everything that made it interesting or watchable.

1/10.

Quick Final Thoughts – King’s Game

Oh, boy, am I ever late to the Fall 2017 party. (Doesn’t help that there’s still shows I haven’t finished from last season.)

This was so dumb. Literally everything about how it’s presented is dumb. I hate to reduce it to that one word, but it’s appropriate.

We begin with what is framed as a flash-forward but is confusingly actually a flashback, cut to a sports festival, and THEN flash back to the main character’s first day at school, with absolutely no context about when the festival actually happens, because nearly half the class is already dead by the end of the first episode.

Our main character is apparently the survivor of a previous death game, which the show doesn’t state early enough to prevent me from being entirely confused about why he is already crying just because cute girls are talking to him (note that this happens BEFORE he finds out the death game is coming again). Of course, when the evil text messages start coming, his ridiculous classmates ostracize him when he tries to explain what’s happening, therefore taking their best chance of survival and throwing it under the bus a la Sword Art Online.

People keep comparing this to multiple shows, and that’s deserved, because it tries to copy lots of them, but I would dissuade two comparisons – don’t say this is like Another or The Lost Village. By the end of their respective first episodes, they both had a lot more going for them (atmosphere and a cast full of people who are crazy in-universe, respectively) while King’s Game has a bland, generic cast, bottom of the barrel art and animation, and nothing interesting to speak of.

3/10. I could maybe see it being entertaining if you’re only in it to watch idiots die, but I can’t imagine ever being emotionally invested enough to care, so I dropped it after one episode.

Quick Final Thoughts – Restaurant to Another World

I’m not gonna finish this one anytime soon, but I want to stress that it’s not a bad show.

Isekai Restaurant flew way under the radar this past season because it wasn’t really an A-team production, but I don’t think it deserves to be totally forgotten, because this show does a few things very well. The food porn is excellent and easily rivals that seen in Food Wars, if not surpassing it simply because the dishes seen here are ones you could probably make yourself. Everything looks amazing and is described excellently by the characters, enough that you could almost taste it for yourself

We also get a lot of really interesting world building as every episode presents us with new characters from the other world who come and visit the restaurant while we learn about their society, and the sheer diversity of the cast is pretty amazing.

The downside is that there is no plot. The first episode is about a young beggar girl who gets a job at the restaurant and sticks around for the whole show, but beyond that, every episode is self contained. You might see past highlight characters in the restaurant but there’s absolutely no serial plot beyond the existence of the titular eatery, which places this show in a weird spot. It’s great to learn more about the fascinating world and the mysteries of the restaurant, but that and food is all you’re going to get here.

6/10. It could have used more meat on its bones.