Jujutsu Kaisen – 02 – Choose Your Hell

Fushiguro is about to summarily execute Yuuji, only for Yuuji to wrest control of his body back from Sukuna. Fushiguro’s teacher Gojou Satoru arrives to take control of the situation, and asks Yuuji to switch to Sukuna Mode for ten seconds. During that time, Gojou (the self-proclaimed “strongest” sorcerer) is able to easily keep up with Sukuna!Yuuji, and when time is up Yuuji reliably regains control.

That tells Gojou that all is not immediately lost for Yuuji. When Fushiguro asks him to find a solution that doesn’t involve immediate execution, Gojou finds one: rather than die now, Yuuji has the choice to track down and absorb all twenty of Sukuna’s fingers (he had four arms), then be executed along with Sukuna forever.

Gojou gives Yuuji the day to think about it. He visits Iguchi in the hospital, who’ll be fine once healed by a sorcerer, and assures Sasaki what happened wasn’t her fault. He then must oversee his grandfather’s cremation, and gathers the ash and bone fragments into an urn. As Gojou warns, that solemn task is a cakewalk compared to the shit he’d get up to if he agreed to become a Jujutsu sorcerer.

Now that Yuuji is aware of the threat of Sukuna he can’t stand by, or ignore his gramps’ dying request, so he’s in. He eats a second finger Gojou gives him without incident, and they head to the picturesque Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School, located on the woodsy outskirts of the metropolis.

Yuuji learns that while he can still control his mind and body fine, Sukuna still “leaks out” from time to time in the form of a mouth that can emerge anywhere from Yuuji’s body to make some snide or rueful remark. Gojou then tells Yuuji he’s to meet with Principal Yaga, who will decide if he’s Jujutsu Tech material.

Yaga immediately throws Yuuji off by sewing cute plush dolls when they meet, but the principal can infuse his Curse into the dolls and use them as weapons—which is exactly what he does while asking Yuuji why he wants to enroll. As the kappa doll beats him up, Yaga makes him realize that “because by gramps said so” isn’t enough: it’s because Yuuji is the only one who can absorb Sukuna and survive.

One Yuuji realizes this himself (and pins the kappa), Yaga passes him, and has Gojou show him to his spacious dorm room. Yuuji learns Fushiguro Megumi is his next-door neighbor, and along with an incoming female student, the three of them are the only first-years at Jujutsu Tech.

In addition to being the vessel for Sukuna, Yuuji also serves as a Sukuna Radar. That said, some fingers will put up tougher fights than others, especially those that have already been absorbed by other Curses. No doubt he’ll be relying not just on his fellow first-years (the third of whom we’ll meet next), but the upperclassmen and faculty like Gojou.

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! – 07 – Spilling Tea for Art’s Sake

Tsubame’s unyielding passion to capture the motion of the world around her through drawing started when she was in grade school, watching her grandma toss tea into the yard with a precise, practiced motion. The action fascinated her, and she yearned to master it herself so she could capture it in all its glory.

When she ended up in classes on how to stand, sit, and walk in preparation for her modeling career, Tsubame voraciously jotted down all the various motions, even discerning a better way for her infirm grandma to move and walk more comfortably. She carries that passion on in every frame of animation she’s drawing for this robot anime.

She does this in defiance of her mother’s insistence she not get involved in animation, but also in lieu of getting the proper amount of sleep or paying sufficient attention in class. Yet even if she’s sleep-deprived and her grades start to slip, there’s no alternative. Tsubame is gradually learning not to be a total perfectionist, but she’s never going to give anything less than 110% effort.

With Doumeki on board, the trio now have someone with far more audio know-how than the rest of them combined, but that just means she’s able to describe in precise demoralizing detail all of the challenges they face and the consequences of not properly harmonizing visuals and sound.

Meanwhile, Midori is presented artwork that the artists believe was following her instructions, but which she worries will fundamentally change the film they’re making. The artists need to be more flexible, but she needs to be more precise in her direction.

While I’m sure Sayaka considers it another strictly-business opportunity to give her talent a much-needed break, and it is their bathhouse visit after school is closed due to rain turns out to be a nice bonding experience. There’s a familial intimacy to bathing together that the team previously lacked.

It’s also fun to watch Midori dutifully call her very nice parents to let her know where she is and what she’s doing with whom, as well as the very rich Tsubame marveling at every aspect of the bathhouse experience, as well as insisting Sayaka douses Midori over and over so she can watch the motion of the water —much like she asked her granny to keep tossing tea.

The three then dine on crawfish after catching their fair share themselves (though they can’t eat the same fish they caught, as they must be purged of mud first, Midori points out), and Midori and Tsubame whip out their sketchbooks to capture their dinner in all its crustacean glory. Few moments of these young women’s lives seem to ever pass without them capturing it with pen or pencil on paper.

When the rain subsides, they return to their studio, and Tsubame gradually becomes frustrated with her animation of a chainsaw. After discussing possible remedies with Midori, the two bring in Sayaka, who thinks its fine and that they should watch it with sound. Sure enough, it makes more than enough impact for the quick cut…but Tsubame isn’t quite satisfied.

Both Midori and Tsubame consider anime to be the best way to appreciate movement, more so than even live action film, and that comes down to intent. The imagination, passion and effort of a great animator comes out in every frame of their work, lending it greater impact than a mere directed and photographed live-action actor.

Tsubame isn’t looking to “make people smile” with her anime. She wants to be able to wow people like her, who can’t help but spot every potential flaw or revelation; notice every triumph or defeat. By being her own harshest, uncompromising critic, an artiste like Tsubame could potentially problems for a production on a shoestring budget and tight deadline.

But doggone it, the eventual visual rewards of letting her go wild are well worth the pain. It’s why Sayaka is almost always irritated and annoyed, but she’ll gladly bear those emotions if it results in an exceptional—and profitable—final product. When you successfully harness the chaotic energy of special talents and personalities, great things can happen. And like a rocket taking off, the sky’s the limit.

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! – 06 – No Groaning, Moaning, or Excuses

The Eizoken has 96 days to produce a 15-20 minute anime about a robot fighting a crabtle, and its members must contend with a nearly infinitely more complex production. More action scenes, more sound effects, more backgrounds, more of everything they already did with Machete Girl, only they’ll also need more classically epic music and voice actors for dialogue.

Kanamori Sayaka, the ever-steady executive producer, keeps the ship on course in these early stages, knowing when to crack the whip and when to show kindness and generosity…or at least that last bit would have been the case if she’d actually treated the artists to ramen. That said, never carrying more than 1,000 yen at all times is an elegant, effective means of budgeting!

She can forsee that this production could easily drain their finances, and the student council is keeping a watchful eye, so Sayaka decides to play ball, acting both as council enforcer and interested party with the delinquent Sound Club.

She gives its only member Doumeki an offer she can’t refuse, offering protection in exchange for access to her ridiculously vast collection of sounds, plus her own expertise as audio advisor. Doumeki is also compelled to sell much of the collection for club funds, and Sayaka and the Eizouken will get a cut of that.

Sayaka can’t do it all, however. She can only create a stable enough environment in which Midori and Tsubame can work. But there’s more work than the two of them will ever be able to complete in time, so they need to delegate some of the work to a willing art club (who like the robot club were impressed by Machete Girl).

In their first meeting with the art club, Midori constantly needs help from both Sayaka and one of the club’s members to get out what she’s trying to say. She’s simply not good at telling people what to do, but if she doesn’t, there’s no giant robot anime.

While recharging her depleted brain with some late afternoon sketching, Midori falls down a well of self-doubt, worried there’s no way she can make a robot anime that will satisfy everyone. Sayaka delivers the tough love speech she Midori in her moment of vulnerability. It’s not about satisfying everyone, but making a final product on time that she can be satisfied with and proud of.

As evidenced from their reaction to Machete Girl, Midori and Tsubame are their own most exacting critics, so it sounds counterproductive to tell her to trust in her own sensibilities. But Midori is eventually able to reconcile some of the inconsistencies (or as Tsubame calls them, “crimes” committed in order to field a giant robot anime), and regains her motivation.

Hands Off the Eizouken! has beautiful, terrifically imaginative art and a wonderfully novel way of visualizing its artists’ creations, but besides all that one shouldn’t overlook its devotion to what makes a good anime: characters you care about overcoming obstacles internal and external to achieve something great.

Hanebado! – 01 (First Impressions) – Everything is Pointless

Hanebado! opens fast and crisp, in the midst of a match in the badminton nationals. One player is struggling as hard as she can and sweating bullets; the other is just calmly, coolly blowing her opponent away with a 21-o game.

The scene features some really decent sports animation, elevating the action to a kind of heightened reality with viewing angles, cuts, and shifts in speed. But as exciting as the match looks, neither player is happy at the end; neither the victor nor the defeated.

Cut to six months later, the victor (Hanesaki Ayano) along with her longtime friend (Fujisawa Elena) are first years at the same school as third-year player she defeated (Aragaki Nagisa), who is so upset over the loss she’s taking it out on the other players in the club, forcing several to quit rather than endure more abuse.

Ayano wants nothing to do with badminton, but while exchanging easy volleys with Elena on a tennis court, an errant bounce of a serve by the boy’s tennis club’s first-year ace Saionji nearly hits Elena in the face, but Ayano lunges in front of her and smashes it away, gaining a point in a game she wasn’t even playing.

A coach grabs Ayano and inspects her wrists and hands, forcing Elena to defend her. Meanwhile Nagisa (whom Ayano beat) wanders off, regretting how harsh she was with the now-departed players. She’s comforted by her friend Riko, who remains with the team and is likely the only person Nagisa is comfortable crying around.

So the main players in Hanebado! are a girl possessed with phenomenal natural talent who has no motivation to actually play, and a girl who is basically the opposite, with a good metric fuckton of angst between them. A classic talent-vs.-hard work dynamic, which results in a very shounen manga-style challenge at the end: If Ayano beats Nagisa, she won’t have to join.

That means in this rematch, Nagisa will have to find some way to turn the tables. Perhaps in the last six months she’s narrowed the gap between them? I’m a couple weeks behind in this show because I was trying to avoid watching a sports anime, but there’s no way I’m backing out of this before I watch the result, which will no doubt feature more of that sweet sweet shuttlecock action!

Eromanga-sensei – 07

Senju Muramasa doesn’t back down on her intention to crush Masamune, and easily dispatches Elf by having the editor inform her just how many more sales she has (14+ mil vs. 2 mil), forcing a quick Elf retreat. Masamune responds with a challenge to his “senpai”: whoever loses the contest will have to do whatever the victor says.

We knew this was the challenge that was coming, it’s just a matter of what Masamune will write, and whether it will be good enough to beat a platinum powerhouse. He decides he’ll convert his little sister novel to a short story, but short stories aren’t his forte.

Enter Elf, who uses her expertise gained by her own strong sales and puts Masamune through a gauntlet of drafts, until he’s got a “passable”, if not yet good enough, manuscript.

Then the enemy pays him a visit, intentionally wearing a school uniform in order to “make a better impression.” You see, she wants Masamune to surrender, and instead agree to “be hers”, i.e. write novels just for her.

Elf and an on-screen Sagiri are suspicious of her appearance in the midst of the contest, but it would seem Muramasa isn’t trying to sabotage her kohai, just make him pivot to something she sees would benefit both sides. She also doesn’t flinch at Elf’s claim she and Masamune are living together.

She comes in, and after briefly getting distracted by a sudden jolt of inspiration forcing her to stop her conversation in the middle and start writing (and she’s left-handed!), tells Masamune what her dream is: to be able to go beyond writing stories she’s rate 100-out-of-100, and create something even she, not just a fan, could rate 1 million out of 100.

She only writes at all because of Masamune, whose battle novels were the only things that moved her to the bottom of her heart. When he shifted to rom-com with the little-sister proposal, and stopped writing her favorite novel, she became a wreck, and only by writing her own stuff could she keep going.

So Muramasa, certain her dream is more important than Masamune’s, once again pleads with him to become “hers” and write only for her, promising she’ll support him and his sister the rest of their lives if that’s what it takes. But Masamune’s dream isn’t just his own, and Sagiri leaves her room to tell Muramasa as much.

Also, Sagiri won’t accept any scenario in which she gives up Masamune for anyone else. She earlier says he’s not allowed to date other girls ever after seeing Elf’s tweet. This is highly unreasonable behavior, but younger sibling jealousy is nothing new or abnormal. Masamune shows a united front with his sister and declines Muramasa’s author, saying he’ll instead get her hooked on his rom-com.

I mean, that’s great and all, but surely Masamune realizes he can’t keep indulging Sagiri’s possessiveness, right? And that any future romantic partner has to be chosen from among girls he’s not related to by marriage? Just asking for a friend…

Masamune ends up winning the contest, because even though Muramasa got 15 more votes, her short story ran double the allowed length, and she was disqualified. Whether this was intentional on her part, or if she simply wrote the number of pages she had to write and didn’t care what happened afterwards, the story was all about her and Masamune.

Like Masamune’s story about his sister, Muramasa’s is a love letter…to him. So now Muramasa is not just in love with his novels, but with him in general. Masamune doesn’t have a satisfying answer: “there’s [already] someone I love.”

It leads me to wonder if Muramasa’s only purpose on the show was to be defeated twice in short order and retreat as Elf did upon hearing about her sales…or if the battle has just begun. Either way, he harem has become really crowded.

Eromanga-sensei – 06

When Megumi repeatedly calls LNs “creepy”, Ishikawa Yui breaks out a more Mikasa-esque voice for Tomoe, going at Megumi as if she were trying to hurt her beloved Eren. Masamune avoids blows, but Tomoe enacts her revenge by getting Megumi totally hooked on the books she once so cavalierly looked down upon.

Megumi’s original purpose for checking out some novels was to get closer to Sagiri, and she gets closer than she bargained for, not only being allowed an audience with Muramase’s sister, but serving as a lewd model, bound and blindfolded.

Sagiri is so excited and inspired by her new model, she can’t help but impulsively relieve Megumi if her shimapan, an effective if dated way to blow up her “lewd girl” persona. That being said, Megumi gets what she wants: actual contact with Sagiri, and a promise of continued novel exchange—the foundation of a friendship.

When Masamune’s publisher tells him they won’t be publishing his little sister LN for a year (because the younger, more popular Senju Muramasa snatched his earlier publishing spot), Yamada offers to help him get published. But they’re both early for the meeting, so they have a little date that both know is a date but pretend it isn’t.

Yamada, who is surprisingly not the most irritating girl in the show, and has grown quite a bit as a character in her last few episodes, explains how book sales are like the ultimate game, so it makes sense to always keep score. Despite losing to Senju like Masamune in that department, she dismisses Senju as someone playing a “one-player game” with different rules.

She doesn’t believe Senju would be disappointed in the slightest if Yamada crushed her. Yamada accidentally tells Masamune she loves him, because she knows he would be disappointed, and thus a more worthwhile opponent. She quickly walks back the “I love you”, but the vulnerability and honesty of that moment, along with an earlier scene where she stops when she realizes she’s acting tsundere were nice touches.

The date over, the two mosey to the publisher, and encounter a girl who like Yamada is not dressed in normal modern attire, but traditional Japanese garb. Yamada assumes she’s a rookie when she spots her manuscript and is back to the haughty self she was when she first met Masamune. I guess this is just how she initially interacts with peers in her field? The girl doesn’t give her much in return, but accompanies them to the offices.

There, Masamune’s publisher denies his request to go with another house for his novel, but does suggest an alternative: he’ll enter a short-story competition with four other young authors, and the winner will get published not next year, but in September. Masamune emphatically expresses his intense enthusiasm and signs right up, claiming it’s the first brick of the road to realizing his dreams.

Perhaps a bit too emphatically, as the yukata girl finally speaks up, and not in a docile tone, announcing she’ll be the one to crush his sentimental, shonen-esque little dreams in favor of her own dream. She’s no rookie, after all…she’s Senju Muramasa, and she won’t have Masamune speak her name without the -senpai honorific.

So…Senju is a cutthroat, competitive maniac, eh? Well…I guess that’s probably better than what I expected (someone who is pre-in-love with Masamune / his work despite being more successful than him). In any case, the whole group of girls has now been introduced; we’ll soon see if and how Masamune interacts with the newest and most hostile.

Eromanga-sensei – 05

I wasn’t really serious when I stated last week that Sagiri saying “she’s in love with someone” meant a rejection of Masamune. This week Sagiri barely hides her brocon, and if anything is brassed off that her brother won’t return those feelings, because he doesn’t want to admit he’s a siscon. What both can agree on is that if Masamune is going to write a novel about a little sister, she’s going to illustrate it.

Masamune ends up ignoring Elf’s initial pleas to be rescued by her fastidious editors, so caught up in planning the look of the heroine with Sagiri (the more it looks like her, the better), but Elf manages to finally get his attention with a barrage of arrow fire, and he catches her in a manner she later romanticizes when she finally gets to meet Sagiri, and has fun both playing video games and posing in lewd positions until Masamune gives her up to the editors.

While working on his project proposal, which if approved will get the fast track to publication, Sagiri is eager to show him her completed work using Elf as a model. The illustration inspires Masamune to put an Elf-looking character in the novel, which I thought would really irk Sagiri (since another girl is intruding on her life with her brother and now their art) but she takes it well, and wants to continue inspiring him by drawing different kinds of girls she can only draw if she sees in the flesh.

That would create a problem for Masamune…if he wasn’t surrounded by girls. While I still loathe Megumi, at least her role as the only “otaku outsider” becomes clearer, as she so blithely looks down on the kind of books Masamune and the others create and adore.

The final member of the harem also comes a little more into focus, though she’s only mentioned by name: Senju Muramasa, sharing her name with the legendary student of the legendary swordsmith Masamune; fitting since it’s implied she’s younger. With Elf now a neighbor, friend, and collaborator, Masamune needs another distant rival…at least until that distance suddenly closes, which on this show is pretty likely.

Saekano 2 – 04

Maybe it was because I was so tired, but I was off in my assessment of Tomoya’s assessment of Utaha’s script. It’s not that he demanded perfection; his true qualm lies in his exact words: “It’s a crap game.” Meaning, the script is written like a novel, and is thus unsuitable for a dating sim. This is why, as compelling as it is, it must be re-worked.

Of course, Tomoya delivers his criticism with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer through a plate glass window, and he and a still-stunned Utaha have a little shouting match in the maid cafe of what is otherwise, mercifully, a completely in-the-background school festival.

Tomoya is a rude ass about it, but he’s not wrong, and after making Utaha cry, Tomoya is contrite and assures her she did nothing wrong; it was he who failed as game director, getting sucked into the text without considering how it would fit in a dating sim structure.

As he attempts rewrites, Utaha sleeps in his beat, deflated from the rejection of her new arc, which, by the way, was an arc in which the character most resembling her gets the guy rather than the character resembling Megumi. Megumi calls Eriri to report Utaha’s whereabouts, but Eriri is unconcerned.

Eriri’s been in the boat Utaha’s in right now, and can relate, and in any case, she’s got a mountain of her own work to do, surrounded as she is by crumpled balls of art that don’t meet her standards or vision. Eriri isn’t even interested in entering the Miss Toyogasaki Pageant, despite being the reigning champ.

From there, it’s almost a purely Utaha-and-Tomoya episode, with the two combining forces in a creative odyssey during which Utaha gets so exhausted she falls asleep wearing only an open dress shirt and panties, much to the painfully oblivious Tomoya’s shock.

They re-work the Ruri path, then Tomoya gets it in his head he needs a third arc as well: one in which everyone lives happily ever after, which also seems to match what he wants in real life with Utaha and Megumi. While initially frustrated Tomoya wasn’t responding to her feelings, by the end she comes out confident they’ve made a stronger, more fun game by working together.

On the evening the festival ends, when the bonfire is about to be sparked, Megumi asks Utaha, her writing duties now complete, if Ruri is based on Sayuka from Metronome in Love. And she is; of course she is, because both of them are actually Utaha. And Utaha makes it clear she still hasn’t given up on the ending in which her character is chosen by the protagonist.

Megumi straightens out and her eyes focus upon hearing this, before bowing and heading down to the bonfire, where she romantically approaches Tomoya. Megumi tells him she’s not Megumi right now, she’s Ruri, Sayuka, and also…then takes his hand, and dances with him, as Eriri draws them and Utaha looks on. Lovely stuff.

Eromanga-sensei – 04

Whither Yamada Elf goest, so to does Eromanga-sensei (the show, not the artist). Starting out as a caricature of a super-arrogant, condescending brat with delusions of grandeur, Elf’s become a lot more balanced in the last two episodes.

She also reveals that delusions aside she’s a highly capable, multi-talented person, as evidenced by the lovely, tasty-looking meal she lovingly prepares for Masamune. The reason she’s happy to cook is that she gains perspective on how characters in her stories feel when they’re cooking for those they have their eye on.

Sagiri has also picked up on the quickly evolving relationship between Yamada and Masamune (even if he doesn’t see Yamada as a serious love interest), and calls Masamune a liar for saying they don’t get along, when he’s clearly there all the time.

Combined with the result of bringing up the drawing of large-boobed women (Sagiri can’t do it because she doesn’t have them herself), Masamune ends up shut out of her bedroom once more, though the core of her disappointment is his refusal to come clean about the neighbor.

The day the two authors are to reveal their stories to one another, Masamune arrives at Elf’s house to…no welcome whatsoever. I fully expected him to barge in on her working (or doing something else) in the nude, but I was pleasantly surprised when he found her all covered up.

Specifically, she’s in a very practical sweatsuit, with bags under her eyes instead of ringlets beside them, and a very serious look on her face. This is all Masamune needs to realize all her talk about writing light novels being a mere “hobby” is a bunch of codswallop.

More evidence is presented when the two read one another’s manuscripts before turning them over to Eromanga-sensei. He’s reliably blown away by her story, a page-turner seemingly perfectly tuned for Eromanga’s stylus, right down to the small-boobed characters in cool outfits. But Elf is also blown away by Masamune’s…just not in the same way he is by hers.

It’s not that her story is in any way worse—on the contrary, it would likely sell many orders of magnitude more copies than his—it’s that this isn’t a competition for the most bankable LN. It’s a competition for Eromanga’s services and after reading Masamune’s manuscript, Elf is so sure she can’t compete, she tosses her manuscript straight into the shredder (much to Masa’s dismay).

Reading it also confirms to her that Eromanga-sensei is his little sister next door, and that’s why she can’t compete: it’s a 300-page love letter, for chrissake. It’s not even meant for any other reader but her, which is why Elf is both outclassed and beet-faced she read it at all.

When Masamune finally gains access to Sagiri’s room—via the window in a frankly needlessly reckless stunt that could have gotten him killed and resulted in ending up in a very lewd position with Sagiri beneath him. There, he learns why she hasn’t opened the door for him in two weeks: she doesn’t hate him, she’s been improving her drawing, both battle scenes and bigger boobs.

Her take on his dalliances next door was that the neighbor was a rival artist trying to take “Izumi-sensei” away from her, while he kept the wager secret because he was worried she’d be seduced by the more famous and successful Elf. With the misunderstanding cleared up and his victory sealed (she’d never leave him for another author), she reads the manuscript.

Like Elf, it’s embarrassing for her to read; doubly so since it’s about her. And while she considers it an interesting story, he’d never be able to release it as a book, because it’s just too personal. She also, not in so many words, rejects the implied confession the manuscript represents (at least, Masamune seems to take it as a rejection).

Masamune is fine with that rejection, but he’s committed to re-working the story into something he can show to his editor, something that will sell and garner a huge audience, and eventually, get awarded his first anime adaptation, putting him on the same level as Elf. Most importantly, his goal is to get Sagiri out of her room so they can watch the first episode of their anime together in the living room.

While I thought this was Masamune going too far and was sure it would put Sagiri off, I am surprised yet again when Sagiri take a couple steps outside her room; the first steps in many to come on their quest to create an anime-worthy book. Let the goal-striving begin.

Saekano 2 – 03

Tomoya and Eriri find themselves suddenly confronted by the Hashima siblings, whose Rouge en Rouge game company put out a demo of a game very similar to their own.

While Megumi does her best to keep things diplomatic, it isn’t long until Eriri and Izumi are coming to blows.

Sure, they’re low-impact blows, and each seems to want to empower the other to do their utmost to beat each other (at art, not physically), but then there’s the fact that, at the moment, I don’t much care particularly how well Blessing’s game does relative to Rouge’s.

Isn’t it enough that the team works hard and puts out a game they can be proud of, into which they put their blood, sweat, tears, and passion?

In between acting like she and Tomoya have been married for years, irking certain male classmates, Megumi is preoccupied and fired up by Utaha’s surprise story revision.

But the only way they’ll know whether it works or not, and which script to choose for the game, is by implementing it. That means a lot of work just to catch up to the Rouge demo, with no guarantee their output will surpass their rival’s.

When one all-nighter involving Tomoya and Megumi only nets 20% of the work, other measures need to be taken. When Michiru suddenly arrives, appalled that Megumi spent the night, Tomoya sees an opening, and asks his cousin to recruit her Icy Tail bandmates into doing the gruntwork necessary to plug Utaha’s new story into the game.

They pull a second all-nighter, and considering how late I’m writing this on a Thursday night, I can’t say I don’t relate to their exhausted state when they’ve completed their task.

All that work makes it that much more harsh a slap in the face when Tomoya meets with Utaha and utters the line above. Apparently, after story, art, music, and programming have been combined, neither of Utaha’s stories cut the mustard; at least not now that Tomoya is convinced Iori has a better story up his sleeve.

He requests a complete rewrite—certainly his prerogative as game director—but I assume Utaha is dismayed by his blunt assessment, as I was. In an attempt to outdo Rouge, could Tomoya be overplaying his hand? By demanding perfection when perfection may be unattainable, will he only end up driving his partners away one by one?

Eromanga-sensei – 03

When Masamune investigates the abandoned, possibly haunted house next door, he’s surprised to find Yamada Elf has just moved in: and likes to play the piano naked after a shower to get inspired to write.

After the standard accusations of peeping tommery, she invites him in, and most of the episode is given over to making Elf a little more dimensional, if still grating in her intense, obnoxious arrogance.

As Sagiri’s bedroom window faces Elf’s office, you’d think it wouldn’t be long before she found out who Eromanga-sensei is, but Elf sees Masamune’s sister and thinks she’s just that: a little sister who has fun drawing, not the person whose services they’re fighting over.

It’s also a bit shitty of Masamune not to even mention to Sagiri his little wager with Elf, considering Sagiri is the ‘prize’. Then again, it’s a good thing that Masamune isn’t the perfect MC while everyone around him is flawed in some way.

Indeed, Masamune’s flaw seems to be that in spite of Elf’s toxic personality, incessant pretentiousness, and pronunciation of ahhh-neee-may, he can’t help spending time with his new neighbor, nor indeed being a fan himself, even if meeting Yamada-sensei wasn’t what he expected.

For a time, it doesn’t seem like Elf invited Masamune in just to rub his nose in her superior success, but to spend time with a fellow author. She earnestly asks why he’s a fan, and he earnestly answers: after a death in the family, her books cheered him up. They taught him that novels can “save lives” of some readers, and for that she has his heartfelt thanks, competition or no.

Elf’s reaction betrays a softer, more genuine side to her, even if it’s short-lived and she’s back to being awful the next day. But it’s also clear that she’d rather have Masamune around than not, and also strongly disagrees with his workaholic approach to authoring, as she considers her job a “hobby” and only writes if her motivation is maxed out.

Despite knowing nothing of their competition involving her, Sagiri is uneasy anyway because her big brother, who has been All Hers up to this point, is suddenly ‘in the web’ of a cute, rich next-door neighbor.

While her music and online fans keep Eromanga merry, I feel one of the factors that drives her motivation to draw is knowing Masamune will always be there in the house, serving her meals and protecting her.

Yamada throws a thorn in that arrangement, and it will be interesting to see whether that motivates Sagiri to explore beyond her room. But yeah…Masamune really should tell her about his wager with Elf.

Saekano 2 – 02

Utaha has finished her script, and to celebrate has Tomoya take her out for a day of shopping, dining, and watching films that aren’t poorly-received (i.e. ghosty, shelly) live-action anime adaptations.

It’s a date, no doubt about it, at least as far as Eriri is concerned, observing the couple’s interactions from afar like, well, a stalker, with Megumi forced to tag along for plausible deniability.

But Utaha doesn’t merely toy with Mr. Ethical: she makes it a point to bring up the fact that now that the script is complete, her job with Blessing Software is also done, and she’s looking to the future.

She asks Tomoya his opinion not only on where she should attend university (out in Kansai or fifteen minutes away) as well as to pick which script should be used: she wrote two. She’s basically telling the director to choose a direction; not unreasonable.

When Eriri and Megumi meet with Tomoya (thanks to Megumi having a key to his place!) they see the ending and see Tomoya’s dilemma. Eriri both acknowledges Utaha’s artistry, comparing it to the Metronome of Love series she claims to have never read, while complaining that it’s a lot more work.

Still, she doesn’t automatically reject this new ending, nor does Megumi: they, like Utaha, leave it up to Tomoya. Sorry dude, gotta make some hard choices, and not everyone is going to be happy. Especially with Izumi’s doujin game already out there in demo form, living in the same genre as their game.

Saekano excels when Tomoya is one-on-one, as he is with the lovely Utaha most of this episode. But I also liked how their interactions were shadowed by Eriri and Megumi (especially the difference in Utaha and Eriri’s reactions to the movie, which chose a “childhood friend-friendly”, and thus Eriri-friendly, ending).

I can’t say whether the script of Saekano is cliched per se; all I can say is that it is unafraid of commenting on the very genre and medium it exists in, or of being almost self-back-pattingly self-referential and irreverent of those institutions.

But the dialogue is expertly delivered by the actors, and the character design is strong, so even if this show’s ‘weakness’ is its script (which I’m not saying is the case), it’s more than capable of making up for it in other areas, which makes this show enjoyable to watch on any given week.

But I don’t think it needs a live-action adaptation.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records – 03

Episode 3 puts it all together in a rousing, magic- and action-packed jaunt, completing the “opening trilogy” that sets the stage for the rest of the series. In the beginning, Glenn may have been a useless shite and Sistine may have hated his guts, but at the end of this episode neither is the case.

While Glenn saved Sistine from the first baddie, they’re far from out of the woods: neither Celica nor anyone else can get to the Academy due to the teleportation circle being out of service. Baddie #2, Reik, sends a squad of bone golems, and when they kill Baddie #1, Sistine witnesses mortal bloodshed for the first time.

Glenn keeps “Shironeko” calm and focused, which is just as well, since he absolutely needs her vaunted magical ability to support him as he takes out the golems, then faces off against the mage who summoned them.

Glenn also makes it clear to Sistine, understandably frustrated she can’t save Rumia on her own, that magic isn’t useless, and tells her what Rumia told her about using it to help people. He’s not going to let either of them die. Not on his watch.

That seems to be the reason he shoves Sistine out of the destroyed hallway, but Sistine remembers his question about Dispel Force spell earlier, and takes it to mean he’ll try to pull the spell off to stop Reik, and she’s there in time to bolster his piddling mana reserves with her own.

It’s a surprisingly brutal battle with Reik, resulting in Glenn getting impaled by several swords, but in the end, he only needs one to kill Glenn. After that, he and Sistine pass out. He’s the first to awaken, and there’s no time to lose, for he’s realized that Baddie #3’s plan is not to destroy the teleportation circle, but to redirect it.

That Baddie #3 turns out to be the traitor, Huey-sensei, as well as the teacher he’s been subbing for. Because of the spell he’s activated, Huey…can’t actually move, nor is he all that mocking or mustache-twirling. He considers this all a big game, albeit with big stakes, and with Rumia as the prize.

As such, like Reik, Huey can’t help but be impressed when Glenn, even in his severely-injured and depleted state, deactivates four of the five barriers binding Rumia to her spot, before passing out again. She’s able to reach through the fifth, and because she’s one of those super-rare “amplifiers”, she can transfer stores of power and energy to him.

Glenn wakes up, deactivates the final barrier, the spell shuts down, and Huey concedes defeat before taking a good ol’ fashioned punch to the jaw. Crisis averted.

For a group of evil mages who have supposedly been planning this for years, was it silly for them not to have done their homework on Glenn, once a “skilled mage killer” in the Imperial Court Mages? Was it also stupid for the headmaster and Celica to leave Rumia in such a vulnerable state, knowing who and what she was? Sure.

But it’s just as likely Celica was confident enough in Glenn that whoever came after Rumia would regret it, and so it came to pass, with many a crucial assist from Sistine, as well as Rumia herself. The ordeal also leads to Glenn deciding to stay on as a full-fledged teacher, which no doubt pleases both Rumia and Sistine, despite the latter’s disapproving frowns.

With this impressive opening tirlogy completed, the new OP runs at the end, indicating a third main student will be introduced soon, this one blue-haired and a food fan. I eagerly await the classes, battles, and adventures to come, and at some point hope to learn what, exactly, the titular Akashic Records are.