Feel like I didn't have much time to watch stuff this week, ended up with a new job that has seriously cut down on my free watching time now. But hopefully next week I will get around to watching BNA which I have been planning on catching up to, and also get another couple episodes of GitS 2045 done so I can complain about the show.

2020 Spring Week 4

Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE Ep 4
While this episode wasn’t exactly revolutionary or improving the show by 100% or anything. This wasn’t a bad episode at all. It was another slow episode that didn’t include any of the terrible fight scenes. Though I do wonder if it was a bit too long and slow.

The story at this point is really about as generic as possible. Black and White, Good and Bad, Heaven and Hell; teaming up to defeat a large bigger enemy that threatens both of them. And going by the ED, they will both come together via a marriage between the main characters and peace will rule. We also got the possible love-at-first-sight trope this episode it looked like, though I feel like in the next we might get the full confirmation of that. Maybe as they are fighting Bahl something happens and they both end up separated from everyone else and have to work together to survive. Or it might end up being saved from imminent death by the other and fully fall in love. As generic and trope filled this show has been thus far, ether option has a pretty high chance of occurring I feel.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Ep 5
Such a nice and enjoyable episode, with that depressing backstory to Maria. Can’t hate that girl at all, just kinda want to wrap her up and protect her forever. Hoping to see her interacting with the rest of the gang more going forward now. While we are at it, can we see the whole gang interacting at all more. Need to get that girls hanging out episode, maybe also a date episode here soon getting closer to Gerald.

Side note, I just love Maria’s VA Saori Hayami. Fell in love with her as Hatoko in Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace. And still love her. She has such a unique voice that is instantly noticeable.

Princess Connect! Re: Dive Ep 4
Glad to see the whole group together and just bonding. Got a bunch of really good moments this week that just give me more of what I want from this show. Enjoyable Slice of Life stuff, that just lets me relax and laugh a bit. Though at the same time it did introduce a bit more of world and possible story which could be interesting.

Also, I love the new characters introduced this episode. Rima is adorable, in both her forms, and I would love to see what else those metamorphosis apples can do. Like do they only work for her or other people as well? Suzume is a great clumsy character and can see some good comedic relief with her. And I doubt this is the last time we see Saren, probably going to assist the group in finding stuff to do.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War? Ep 4
Got the enjoyable challenge with Hayasaka but overall, this episode doesn’t do a ton for me. Really feels like a pure set-up episode for the upcoming election. Did get some great visuals and gags though, so that helps.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Ep 2
Well if I had some small hope the second episode would improve, it was destroyed. It still looks really terrible, like a bad CGI cutscene in a video game. And the characters still look way to rubbery and soft.

But let’s get onto the terrible excuse of a story this episode had. The short one that had about 5 minutes of screen time snuck in there when it wasn’t a terrible action moment occurring. For some reason they have decided that Togusa should no longer have a family, or even appear to really care about them despite being a rather good family man in literally every other animated version of the show. Or at least he always seemed to be trying to be good. Also, Chief has decided to bring Togusa into the group again to try and save the world for their future generations, I guess.

Back on the action front we have Major and friends still doing this action scene, which is still terrible and lasting far too long. It also reminds me of a jrpg boss fight, each time you think you defeated it. It ends up leveling up again and going to the next version that is slightly tougher than the last. Also, what was the tachikoma doing exactly? Because to me it looked like it was just standing there doing nothing at all, and definitely nothing that would help stop that missile.

Know what, onto that missile and this whole reason for this action scene. The football team, still don’t understand why I should have ever considered them a threat while dressed up as a college football team looking like they just came out of Fallout 4, are going to attack this big wall around the city using a single tank and a drone. I have trouble suspending my disbelief that in this future with constant war around them, this city wouldn’t have anti-air and anti-tank weaponry stationed around the city. It looked like their entire security team station on the wall was two blokes. And the highly trained squad was a dozen men and 3 helicopters.

The final moments of this episode don’t inspire much confidence that we will see some actual old-fashioned Ghost in the Shell moments soon. It does not seem like we are going to get anything, but more action followed by more action, and maybe a bit of politics by Chief to help Major and the group out.

2010 Spring Throwback Week 4

Night Raid 1931 Ep 4
This episode didn’t do anything for me at all. Felt like a completely different show from what was happening. With a slow comedic chase through various locations tracking down this cat. Or spending a bunch of time taking pictures of food. It felt like something more out of a Slice-of-Life show than this more action-oriented show. Also felt like the animation took a rather large hit this episode. Things just didn’t look really good and had a bunch of really strange faces and shots that just hung on a single spot. Guess it was just a generic filler episode that didn’t do much for the story and just filled time.

House of Five Leaves Ep 4
This show still isn’t really pulling me in at all. Still watching it to see where this goes, but don’t really see what any of this is building to at all. In another show I would expect a final showdown between good and bad say, but nothing like that has even remotely been introduced. So, I wonder if it will have a satisfying conclusion to me, or just kinda end quietly.

The Tatami Galaxy Ep 3
You know, by this point all I hope from this show is that eventually Watashi eventually wins at something. And gets to achieve some kind of goal. This episode in particular was kinda annoying in that aspect for me. The previous two he failed because of his own actions in some way, but with this I feel like he did absolutely nothing wrong really and just randomly got screwed by the universe. Also, I’m wondering where the end goal for this show is. I’m not really seeing where all these various episodes are eventually leading at all.

Maybe I'm just sick of the battle royale/death game sort of genre but I really wanted to like Kami no Tou: Tower of God. It's not all that bad but feels gimmicky?

It feels to me the entire story hinges on mystery after mystery without ever revealing any answers, and the main character as a blank slate, lost all his memories, and naive audience insert doesn't help.

My expectations were probably too high. I think I likely read about upcoming web novels or popular adaptations with animes coming out somewhere on the Internet and filed it in my mind the way people feel about when the Witcher Netflix series came out or grouped it together with other stuff based on (light) novels I did actually like.