Tag: tidy

TenSura – 23 (Fin*) – Problems Solved

Rimuru and the five students enter the Dwelling of Spirits and…pretty much absolutely everything goes swimmingly! Seriously, one by one Rimuru either creates a superior spirit from hundreds of inferior ones with the Great Sage’s help, or in the case of Kenya and Chloe, a spirit is summoned by the kids themselves.

Bottom line, with superior spirits within them, the immense magical power is now under control, and will no longer send them to early graves. Mission Accomplished! The only problem is, there’s a lot more runtime to the episode after that, but it’s clear that’s all the story TenSura cares to tell, so the remaining ten minutes or so basically runs out the clock.

We get montages of How Far We’ve Come, followed by a number of Long, Tearful Goodbyes, as well as hints of Challenges to Come Next Season. As fantasy/Isekai anime go, TenSura almost always kept things light, breezy, and above all nice and easy for Rimuru.

I don’t see a second season messing with that formula too much, but rather expanding Rimuru’s powers, understanding of his world, and of course, introducing a smorgasbord of new characters who will then interact with his already vast crew. The MAL score of 8.36 is definitely overzealous in my book, but colorful, upbeat, and full of charm and good humor: that’s been TenSura through most of its run, and it should continue to be so in the future.

*An “Extra” episode will air next week.

Oregairu – 04

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As group field trips loom, hurtful chain texts begin to propagate, leading Hayama Hayato to seek the help of the Volunteers Club. Yui tries to investigate by asking girls, but gets severely sidetracked. Hikigaya is distracted by Totsuka, but realizes that Hayama’s three friends aren’t as close when he’s not there to anchor them. As such, he recommends Hayama decline to group with them, so the three of them will grow closer. Instead, Hayama groups with Hikigaya and Totsuka.

There are episodes that are “bad tidy”, resolving everything a bit to neatly and perfectly, and “good tidy”, in which multiple problems are solved in an elegant and satisfactory fashion. The club’s mission is to find out who’s sending mean texts around as a result of the tense situation in which groups of more than three friends will have an “odd man out” for the field trips. But Hikigaya forgoes that investigation altogether to resolve the underlying problem: Hayama’s friends are only friends with him, not each other.

Simultaneously, he solves the problem of who to group with. He has to group with someone, after all. Yui and Yukino seem like an obvious choice, but apparently the groups must be three people of the same gender, so Hikigaya does the next best thing and selects Totsuka (on whom he still has a serious man-crush) and, in the more inspired choice, Hayama, taking him out of the equation with his three friends and leaving them to their own devices. With this course, the texts should stop, eliminating the need to drag the original culprit into the light.


Rating: 7 (Very Good)

Stray Observations:

  • Naturally there has to be a fujoshi in the class, and Yui just happens to set one off: Ebina Hina.
  • Yukino and Yui are pretty cute, but the only person Hikigaya has crushed on so far in this series is Totsuka, whose cuteness is enhanced by his kind personality and apparent vulnerability.
  • We’re wondering if hitching his wagon to Hayama, who is far higher up the high school ladder, will result in social boons to Hikki, or if it will just be a hassle to him.
  • We meet Hikgaya’s sister Komachi, voiced by Yuuki Aoi. Pretty standard fanged imouto.

Car Cameos: