SEASONAL PRATTLE
Leading off our lastest Check-In The Misfit of Demon King Academy returns, offering a deep reminder that you can just write whatever nonsense you want and it will still get adapted. Much of episode four is a mixed bag with the positives mostly coming from an unexpectedly solid visual effort: featuring some nice layouts and attractive composition that worked well to complement the gravity of what was occurring. The negatives though, find themselves in what’s largely become a familiar position for this series – stumbling on the textual side.
You can point to the reachy, drawn-out solution to the fusion situation that never had any real stakes with Anos clearly involved from the start, the ridiculous escalation that follows which suddenly has viewers watching the battle of a time god in some sort of mute rift, or the downright dumb dialogue choices amongst it all – and see this episode can come off as a joke. A pretty joke, but a joke nonetheless.
Oregairu 3 (3)
“Coming through admirably as it relates to its collection of design choices”
It’s Prom time and Oregairu’s third performance is getting more positive mileage out of the situation than expected, mainly coming through admirably as it relates to its collection of design choices. Much of three’s early run contains the trinkets and tools that typically fuel Oregairu’s charm – namely finding a nice payoff with Iroha and Hachi’s “sister” conversation on the stairs. However, the actual prom material steals the episode; The comps and sequencing we get here aren’t excessively applaudable in general, but as far as this series is concerned – they are more than competent enough to make our final minutes feel special.
Deca-Dence (3)
“Works perfectly well as a more leveled piece”
After the swerve of the second episode, Deca-Dence showing up with a third more grounded offering is pretty refreshing. On a whole, this week’s storytelling is surprisingly effective running conventionally: Despite the lack of twists or generally loud, attention-grabbing beats – bits like Natsume’s training, Pipe play, and some more direct pieces of exposition all held their own to make our content favorable. There was some grumbling that I’ve seen last week that Deca-Dence only rides on its twist and shock-value, but that’s clearly not the case. This show works perfectly well as a more leveled piece.
The God of High School (3)
“Plainly poor here when pen meets paper to produce a narrative or any of its associated aspects”
If The God of High School pulling out a random, unexplained grim reaper clown with the care of a car crash isn’t a wakeup call to this show’s level of writing, then I literally don’t know what to tell you. As lovely as episode three is with its visual proficiency, especially when it came to the dexterity of Han’s fight – it’s just plainly poor here when pen meets paper to produce a narrative or any of its associated aspects.
Whether it’s just the continuously nonchalant effort in giving the greater scope of our events proper foundation, or just tired dialogue and heavily cliche scripting like what Baek Seungchul brings to the table, the struggle is clear in this department. I’m not sure how many times someone is going to announce their “final special move” that will surely “end this” only for completely unsupported reasons it does nothing and then they lose shortly after to some back pocket, “better special move” – but this is not how you write a good fight.
Kanojo Okarishimasu (3)
“Quietly delivering beyond the typical threshold of its genre”
Kanojo Okarishimasu pushes on, offering a third episode that’s easily its best one so far. Right away our content starts quietly delivering beyond the typical threshold of its genre, getting a healthy return off of Kazuya and Mami’s night time exchange that ends up being surprisingly thoughtful. Characters are allowed to be broken, scum, and misguided – it flavors storytelling and confronts viewers directly with a perspective that’s often outside their own: Seeing Kazuya having the sense to claim his poor behavior, realizing his shortcomings, and look to solve his confusion – was a textual step forward that a lot of other MCs in similar works don’t even get close to.
And the show just follows suit from there with more pensive character acting. Yes, it’s a beach episode, but that patch of scenario writing actually gels well with how this episode positions Mami – her toxic nature, facades, and backburner insecurities that all come through particularly clear in this setting. Kanojo Okarishimasu is by no means some sort of masterful display of characterization, but it’s doing a good job at it and this week largely succeeds on that.
Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! (3)
“Thorough in its dirt poor ways”
Lastly, even in contrast to its prior episode, Uzaki-Chan’s latest charade as a sufficient anime is thorough in its dirt poor ways – ultimately teasing the possibility of a shift in its limp formula with the addition of Ami, just to do nothing relevant with it. As if that wasn’t enough, for those who show up to this series for Uzaki’s usual annoying ways and whatever scraps of fanservice that could be had, really don’t even get that. Uzaki is surprisingly nice for the most part and the episode doesn’t really even tap into its ecchi sensibilities. It’s as if the show isn’t even trying to please what remaining target audience is around.
