Rolling Girls with perhaps its strongest episode yet, a lot of decent to good episodes. The harem anime are getting jumbled in my ranking though as Absolute Duo is taking a deep dive.
Another week gone by and the seasons nears its final stretch. Here are my impression for this week's episodes.
Absolute Duo: We have officially entered harem territory now. Why do I say that? Because when I wrote my initial impressions I pointed out that I liked the focus on the Duo aspect here... This has almost disappeared since Lilith entered the picture and with Miyabi making her feelings clear now as well, I can't help but feel sorry for this anime because it is becoming nothing more than a standard harem story filled with all its clichés and a "plot" that is not even really developed and yet somehow enters a hot phase. To be fair I don't even know what's really going on beyond a bare understanding since almost nothing about it has been explained. The "villains" once again appear out of the blue with no warning, further detail or anything and somehow Lilith is now good buddies with the principal... WTF?! Seriously, Absolute Duo is falling and falling quite fast. Someone throw it a rope and please focus more on Julie again... For the "main" female she has barely gotten any development and less and less focus since Lilith showed up.
Yuri Kuma Arashi: This week's revelation was more like a confirmation of what most people probably had been suspecting all along. The other one though seems to be the real shocker and the real test for Kureha and Ginko but we did not get to hear it yet. Nice cliffy.
Shinmai Maou no Testament: Despite what I said last week and despite the episode title and despite it being mostly what expected, there was a surprising lot of story mixed in this one. Something is up with Maria and I suspect nothing good (don't let it be that way, please...). If this anime could just decide what it wants to be and then follows through with it, I think it could be so much better. The censored fanservice hurts it ecchi tendencies as much as they hurt any serious attempt of a story. But at least it has one, somewhat.
Kantai Collection: For a beach episode, this was likeable and worked through the tropes quickly to get to some nice interaction between Fubuki and Yamato. While once again breaking any pace it might be building up, it's doing so FAR better than the cooking duel that existed for the sole purpose for giving more ship girls screen time and wasn't even creative. If things like that have to happen, then rather like in this episode... On an off-note, I really start to like the ending theme.
Assassination Classroom: Well, part of me would have wanted to see the E-Class beat up the high school guys but... I guess this works. I was still expecting something more of such a setting after all the "training" they've been put through. The humor is definitely there but this episode had a few hiccups here and there that didn't feel entirely thought out.
Fairy Tail: I could just repeat last week's comment. If this were one of a few filler episodes between arcs and not one in a long series of two singular filler clusters framing the most awful filler arc in Fairy Tail history, it would have been okay. I actually laughed at some of the things today which I haven't since that awful arc started. Despite this seemingly being about being teaching Lucy and Natsu transformation magic, the other characters, mostly Erza, stole the show. Again though, my judgment is somewhat colored by being exposed to the filler galore for too long. Fairy Tail continues to hobble along, gazing at the tail end of Nanatsu no Taizai as it strokes past them off into the far distance never to be caught again...
Rolling Girls: Eh, what do you know. I actually LIKED this episode. Maybe it's because I generally like stuff with music and such in them but especially the finish was glorious. Still not much development for the main characters but I think by now we are getting the picture that it isn't going to happen. Not quite what I expected going into this but now that I have arranged myself with it, I might just enjoy the rest. The finale of this episode was definitely the strongest sequence in the series so far.
Dog Days: That...... was surprisingly tragic. I was looking forward to this story that had been a long time coming since the introduction of Adel and Valerie. Fi really was the true hero, me thinks.
Log Horizon: A decent closure episode. It was nice to see that Isuzu's song (as unimpressive as it was), did reach the people. A confrontation of worldviews of those who have arranged themselves with this world and those who can't is clearly approaching. I am looking forward to seeing how this will all turn out.
One Piece: Holy... How are they supposed to fight that?! I mean, I always wondered what that guy could really do being able to assimilate with stone and all but that's just... massive... with a squeaky voice. :D Now I know what I missed with that one week break. ^_^
Seiken Tsukai no World Break: Gradually the harem show that was probably in last place of my three is overtaking the rest. Why? Not so much because it's necessarily grand but it stays mostly true to itself. There never was much of confusion from the start. Even the new addition is almost standard fare at this point – despite being a cool character. No, World Break is more or less solid in what it wants to do, doesn't bother us with censored ecchiness (Testament) or suddenly changes direction from two people to a harem setting. It's by no means great but it has a nice balance, some good action scenes, which admittedly could still be a little more and the interaction is decent at this point. As for this episode, it was rather funny to see everyone acting nice to the assassin girl as if nothing happened. Pretty standard, yes, but it worked, and the ending was somewhat unexpected at least (never expected there never was a brother to begin with).
Nanatsu no Taizai: And the sixth Sin is here! For awhile there I thought it was Arthur but... oh well. Another awesome episode and a perfectly timed turnabout when it came to Gilthunder. Granted, I had my doubts about him being really fully behind this scheme for some time now. This, however, also exposes a bit of a flaw in this otherwise great show. A lot of back stories and developments are barely hinted at – or at all – before they come about. At least King and Helbram had a confrontation before and there was some back story already told but the thing about Gilthunder was barely conceivable aside from some vague idea that something was not right and as such a lot of these things come about just a little like a deus ex machina. This can be somewhat attributed to the length of the show but it still seems sometimes we do get smacked in the face with developments and new arrivals (much like Merlin) now with hardly any warning. It's really just a minor blight though.
Maria, the Virgin Witch: Wooo, it gets really dark and nasty now, huh? Abandoned by all, what will Maria do now? Will her beliefs hold? I really can't tell where this is heading to and that's good. Each episode is a new and interesting exploration of human behavior in this era. As such I always find it sad that a lot of comments quickly begin to fall along the line of "and that is why religion is bad". It's such a deep and surprisingly historically-apt depiction of this era that explores so much more. C'mon, guys, try to think a little outside the box because this anime is clearly the dark horse of the season and that is not because it’s trying to be a religion critic.
Go Princess Precure: Not up for Sunday viewing, darn... and I wanted to know what they'd do after last week's end. Oh well, delayed for tomorrow then.
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