My Dress-Up Darling – 04 – Artificial Deadline

“The next cosplay event is in two weeks”…these words (I’m paraphrasing) from Kitagawa are assumed by Gojou to be hard deadline to complete his very first human-sized costume. He’s not sure he can do it, and that’s even before his gramps sees the fancy stockings he bought and the shock makes him fall and hurt his back.

Life happens, and Kitagawa would certainly understand if Gojou said “I’m not going to be able to get it done”—especially by his standards—in the limited time allotted. But he doesn’t. All he can think about is Kitagawa being sad and disappointed in him, so he presses on. The two exchange contacts, but he throws himself into the project without giving her regular updates.

Even more life piles up for Gojou when he and Kitagawa learn that midterms are imminent, and precious afternoon hours are taken up by an impromptu tour by someone who is only in town for one day. Kitagawa stops by the shop with dinner without confirming Gojou is there, and assumes, as she has this whole time, that he’s spending time with his gramps after school.

But he’s not; he’s putting everything he has into getting the costume done on schedule, which results in him suffering exhaustion and nausea and the messes of the apartment piling up. When he spots his Hina doll brushes and remembers how his gramps uses them every day to stay sharp. He’s initially doubtful he’ll ever be good at making Hina dolls, but his gramps also said “loving something doesn’t mean you’re any good at it.” That love just helps you tough it out when times are rough.

Gramps tells him it’s all worth it to see the happy faces of the customers for whom he makes the dolls, and Gojou thinks of all the happy faces Kitagawa has made for him. They fuel him to keep going, and he manages to finish the costume on time. It’s only when Kitagawa arrives and is totally shocked by his achievement that he learns the two-week deadline…was never a real deadline.

This was nothing but a good old-fashioned lack of proper communication, with Gojou not letting Kitagawa know about the progress and Kitagawa not letting Gojou know she was waiting for him to finish it in his own time, especially with midterms and his gramps to worry about. When she sees Gojou’s ragged, fatigued appearance, she begins to weep and apologize. Gojou apologizes too, but he doesn’t want to see her tears…he made the costume so he could see her smile.

When Gojou brings up his doubts about becoming a Hina doll maker, Kitagawa assures him that if anyone can do it, it’s him. Bouyed by her support, he helps her prep her hair and makeup, and then changes into the costume, both to see if any adjustments need to be made and to see his work in the way it’s meant to be seen.

When Gojou comes back into the room, he finds she has has been transformed into a perfect Shizuku-tan, in the flesh. Kitagawa flashes her biggest grin yet, and Gojou grins right back, so happy to have made her so happy. It’s a new beautiful, adorable, emotional high for these two, who I hope have learned a valuable lesson about staying in touch!

My Dress-Up Darling – 03 – What “Beautiful” is For

While he’s no stranger to the beauty of Hina Dolls, having a real-life woman in a bikini in his room, followed by playing the eroge she loves so much, was bound to be a shock to Gojou’s system.

Sure enough, he dreams about Kitagawa, in the completed Shizuku-tan cosplay, starting to act like the eroge character, resulting in Gojou waking up with a surprise in his pants that makes him ask his Hina Doll head to look away.

It’s a frank but fairly accurate depiction of how things might likely go for someone so poorly socialized if confronted with stunning beauty and sexiness in such short order. But up to this point, he and Kitagawa have interacted one-on-one.

He’s nervous about how others would see them together, even when Kitagawa greets him warmly and her stylish friends are perfectly friendly with him. She doesn’t tell them“be nice to this guy”—if he’s alright with Marin-chan, he’s alright with them!

Even so, all of the muttering and rumors he overhears causes Gojou to avoid Kitagawa the rest of the day, for what he deems to be “her own good”. When she finally finds him hiding and confronts him, and he mentions people saying they might be going out, she can’t help but tease him by asking “then why don’t we?”

Before that though, it’s clear Kitagawa is genuinely hurt by Gojou avoiding her, saying it “sucks”. Sure, she could be a bit more patient with someone with such poor social skills, but it’s also a good idea not to let him adopt bad social habits. As far as she’s concerned, they’re already friends—something he hadn’t even considered, but has no reason not to believe.

With that, Kitagawa leads Gojou by the hand to Ikebukuro to shop for the materials needed to make the Shizuku cosplay. Kitagawa is extremely impressed by Gojou’s schematics and attention to detail. I also love how into the nitty-gritty this gets, and how the project stokes Gojou’s creative fire.

Among the nice details: Gojou suggests a richer cloth to accurately depict the high-class school Shizuku attends, and while Kitagawa picks a plain black wig, he tells her she’ll look more like a real-life Shizuku if the wig is more on the deep purple side.

Needless to say, Kitagawa is really glad she brought Gojou on the shopping trip. Had she gone alone (or not made the effort to track him down when he tried to avoid her), she’d have made the same mistakes she’s been making while going the cosplay path alone. In effect, he’s helping her make the right choices for the best possible final product.

In keeping with the equitability of their relationship, Gojou’s sage artistic advice is rewarded with things Kitagawa can offer, like a peak at her garterbelt, and buying him dinner. Watching Gojou stand so awkwardly in the lingerie shop is just such a relatable moment, even when Kitagawa says everyone there will assume they’re a couple and not care.

After ramen, a woman in line for the restaurant spots the two high school kids and thinks how nice it must be to be young…then she and other adults overhear the two discuss the eroge in enthusiastic detail and conclude that high school kids are terrifying. But that’s a loaded word. I’d say they’re just very specific in the things they’re passionate about.

Another cute detail is when Kitagawa shows Gojou a bunch of photos of cosplayers on social media, and he notes that she’s into characters with black hair…to which she says “look who’s talking” with his Hina doll love. It’s also clear the pint-sized model and the girl cosplaying male roles is one of the two yet-to-be introduced characters in the show’s promo art.

When Kitagawa’s calling all of the models in these photos “beautiful”, then notices he seems distracted, she asks him what’s up, and he relays to her his preference only to use the word beautiful for things that truly touch his heart, like the first time his gramps showed him Hina dolls.

Kitagawa doesn’t judge his ideals about beauty; she tells him if that’s what he’s decided, it’s totally fine, and it’s important to have things you don’t want to compromise on. The quality of the Shizuku costume is one of them, and I have no doubt that when it’s complete in two weeks(!) in time for an event Kitagawa wishes to attend, she’ll be able to move his heart to the extent he has no choice but to call her “beautiful.”

Before they part ways, Kitagawa offers him an indirect kiss in the form of a bite of meat-wrapped onigiri, and then has a moment of self-consciousness when she senses he thinks she’s pigging out. But before she catches her train, she makes sure to tell him how grateful she is for all his help and advice, for actually playing the game she loves so much, and for just being there for her in a way no one else can.

It wasn’t an official “date” but it might as well have been one, and a good one at that! Both parties came away having learned more about each other and liking each other even more as a result. That two-week deadline is going to be tough, but I have every confidence that Gojou will get the job done, and done well.

My Dress-Up Darling – 02 – Just Doin’ It

Despite Kitagawa’s multiple attempts to explain the eroge in which her beloved Shizuku-tan is featured, Gojou simply can’t wrap his head around what she’s talking about. That is, until she brings up the fact that it shouldn’t matter whether someone is a boy or a girl when it comes to something they love. Gojou remembers that girl rejecting that notion along with his existence, and suddenly everything snaps into place. He’ll help Kitagawa become the one she loves most…starting Monday!

However, Kitagawa is way to excited about someone who knows what they’re doing making her a Shizuku-tan cosplay, so she shows up at his family’s shop the next morning, stylish as all get-out with her distressed cutoffs and oversized epaulette bag. Gramps is out buying Gojou a new sewing machine, or he’d be there to witness his grandson not only bring his first friend home…and a beauty to boot!

Gojou is embarrassed that Kitagawa is suddenly in his home space, but she makes strides to overwhelm that anxiety by pressing on with the mission at hand: making her Shizuku-tan cosplay. First step: taking all of her measurements, something Gojou can only see as a deeply intimate task, especially considering the guide said the subject had to be in their underwear, and Kitagawa’s compromise of a bikini doesn’t make him any more comfortable.

But here’s the thing, and Kitagawa has made it plain to him from the start: she loves Shizuku-tan, and anything that needs to be done to make that happen, she will do without hesitation. It’s only Gojou’s own hangups and baggage that are making this more than it is. That said, he is a high school lad, and Kitagawa is extremely pretty, so I’m not saying it’s easy for him to put those weird feelings aside.

To his credit, at points, he does, simply doing the job he promised to do. But he can’t keep his composure when having to measure things like her feet. Kitagawa determines his futon is the perfect place to sit for him to measure, and places her feet on his legs in order to snap him out of his fugue state. Measuring her bust isn’t any easier, and as for bust point, well…even she admits she has to handle that herself.

By the time he’s preparing for the final measurement—the inseam—Gojou hates himself for being so flustered and panicky, and wishes he was more like Kitagawa, cool as a cucumber even in such a ridiculous situation. But when his finger accidentally brushes against…a spot he had no intention of brushing against, suddenly Kitagawa is the flustered one.

Even so, she doesn’t punch Gojou into the stratosphere and run off. Instead, she lends him the two eroge Shizuku-tan appears in, so he can get a better look at what he’s making.

This results in one of the funnier scenes I’ve seen in an anime in some time: Gramps coming home to find Gojou watching what amounts to porn, and Gojiu greeting him and saying “dinner’s ready” like nothing’s up. Gramps slowly slides the door closed, conceding that Gojou is “at that age”…but is still astounded how seriously Gojou was watching…and taking notes to boot! Just a fantastic misunderstanding gag.

Most of this episode was basically fanservice: Kitagawa showing off her Cindy Crawford body in a skimpy bikini while Gojou sweated and struggled to obtain every last measurement…and I loved every freaking minute of it.

Gojou’s stress set against Kitagawa’s serenity; the absurdly sexual nature of the measurement-taking intertwined with its innocuously practical underlying purpose; and all of the love and artistry that went into Kitagawa’s character design and expressions (and Suguta Hina’s excellent voice work)—it all adds up to two straight home runs for Dress Up Darling.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl – 22 – This Is Goodbye…Or Is It?

Hikari and Iroha make good on last week’s joint declaration not to go home, but their status as minors gets them turned away at every bed-and-breakfast. They come across a charming ryokan whose surly owner says is closed, but he reconsiders when he overhears them discussing what to do now that they’ve missed the last train.

Turns out the innkeeper was loath to host guests because his better half walked out on him—apparently not an uncommon occurrence—but his spirits (and boredom) are lifted by his brief glimpse of “first love in the present progressive”, as he grammatically puts it. He naturally doesn’t see why a hottie like Iroha is doing with a dweeb like Hikari, but hey, that’s the impression most get from just looking at the surface.

When Iroha sneezes and implies she may be coming down with a cold (echoing when they first got together), Hikari makes her bed, and then joins her in it. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know it’s morning and neither of them are wearing clothes.

That’s right, it happened! And I appreciate how low-key and understated it was. The next day, after hanging out a little more, they part ways at the train station, but not before Hikari draws her in for a farewell kiss. But when she gets home, Iroha is hounded by Chika, warning her to end things immediately, not for her sake, but for Hikari’s.

Back at school, Hikari apologizes to Itou for being so out-of-sorts, but explains that it’s because he only has a month left with Iroha before she moves. He also tells him they did it, which bowls Itou over. As for Ishino and Takanashi, they just infer Hikari did it from his complete inability to hide the fact that he had his cherry popped.

But Iroha isn’t at school that day, or the next day, and Hikari worries she’s avoiding him (I assumed she caught a cold). Turns out Iroha is taking Chika’s advice to end things with Hikari. The only thing is, Chika didn’t quite mean to cut off all contact cold turkey. Hikari ends up staking out their house, and nothing Chika can say can convince him to leave.

Finally, Chika gives in when Hikari says he’s fine with her saying she doesn’t want to see him anymore, as long as he hears the words from Iroha herself. The two go back to school together for the last time, where Iroha informs Hikari of the situation: she has a “bug in her head” (read: brain tumor) for which she’s going to have risky surgery. She may not survive the operation, and even if she does, her memories may not.

Hikari treats this information with the gravity it deserves, and he’s well within his rights to descend into a pool of darkness…but is it just me or are both Hikari and Iroha jumping to conclusions and hedging way too early with this goodbye? Sure, one can fear the worst, but whenever the word “may” is used, there can and should always be some hope that things will work out! Maybe she won’t die, and maybe she won’t lose some or all of her memories.

Hikari and Iroha may not be married (and thus never made a vow to be together in sickness and in health), but it’s clear they both love each other; far more than when they first started dating and more now than ever. I understand Iroha wanting to shelter Hikari from the worst case scenario, but the ship has definitely sailed when it comes to coming out of this without any pain or anguish. If I were Hikari, I’d certainly ask more questions about the situation before resorting to despair.

Shouldn’t the choice of whether to stay by her side be Hikari’s to make? And isn’t he giving up too easily considering all the “mays” Iroha used? Will the show really ignore those “mays” and take her away from Hikari, and from us? I don’t want to believe that. But even if it does, I don’t want either of them giving up hope prematurely. There’s two whole episodes left…stay positive!

3D Kanojo: Real Girl – 21 – What About Us?

I’ve never been particularly interested in 3DK’s longstanding ticking clock on Hikari and Iroha’s relationship. It’s a two-dimensional source of drama and dread on a show that’s proven itself capable of developing nuanced solutions to conflicts that rise organically from its cast of 3D characters.

Case in point: 3DK invested so much time and loving care to bringing Ishino and Takanashi together, yet the biggest threat to Hikari and Iroha’s relationship remains frustratingly murky.

There’s nothing unclear about the statuses of their friends, however: Ishino x Takanashi is very public, while Itou confirms to Hikari that he and Ayado made love. It’s quite on point for Itou to cry tears of joy afterwards, as well as to tell Hikari that it probably has changed his world, but a lot more changes are to come as he and Ayado share more experiences.

I kinda wish we’d gotten more of Ayado’s perspective—perhaps telling Ishino or Iroha about it—but still, kudos to the show for being both unambiguous and tasteful in the portrayal of a very common milestone in young people’s lives.

As their final year in high school begins to draw to a close, Takanashi, Ishino and Itou are all thinking about their futures…while Hikari hasn’t. Why would he? The future, to him, is just a place where there’s no Iroha.

Better to make the most of the present lest he come away with regrets. For Hikari, this means blowing off career surveys, studying and even some classes to spend maximum time with Iroha.

A side-effect of all the dating is a precipitous drop in his grades, something he keeps from both Itou and Iroha until the former hears it from the teacher. Like any best friend as kind as he is, Itou is concerned about Hikari, and urges him to be mindful of finding a school/romance balance.

However, Hikari doesn’t want to tell Itou why he’s neglecting his studies. He doesn’t want to tell Itou that Iroha is moving in a month, because that will only make that move—that future without her—more real.

Instead of getting back to his studies, Hikari takes Iroha out on more and more dates, even as she gets increased pressure from Mabuchi (the doctor) to stop what she’s doing presumably due to an undisclosed medical condition…but we just don’t absolutely know for sure!

One thing’s for sure: frolicking on a frigid beach in October isn’t going to help that condition…and I’d be very surprised if one or both of them didn’t come down with a cold next week.

But fine: Hikari doesn’t know the truth, and neither do we. Iroha doesn’t know about his bad grades until Itou tells her, and when she pulls out what she thinks are his notebooks for studying, they’re filled with things he’s planned for them to do together.

Seeing this note makes Iroha cry, because Hikari is planning a future for them that may not be possible. When he comes back with warm drinks, she tells him she lied: she’s not going to transfer schools. But that still doesn’t explain if and why they’ll separated in a month’s time.

Then again, perhaps Hikari’s request to his mom to loan him a large sum of money from his mom, and both his and Iroha’s reluctance to “go home” means they’re going to run away together, finally taking charge of their future.

But if Iroha’s real circumstances are so serious she’s yet to breathe a word of them to the man she loves, out of a reluctance to hurt him, what if those circumstances worsen, and there’s no longer any way to hide them…or avoid hurting Hikari anyway?

3D Kanojo: Real Girl – 20 – Opening The Door To A Frightening World

“Never mind, I don’t care,” Takanashi lied. That’s where he finds himself at the beginning of this week: in denial of his feelings for Ishino and the feeling that he’s letting her slip away in his friend Sakurada’s arms. This week Sakurada is revealed as less of a character (or viable love interest to Ishino) and more of a catalyst for Takanashi to stop playing games.

When his mom ends up in hospital with a mild concussion, Takanashi hits the supermarket so he make hijiki for Anzu, and on his way out, he runs into Ishino, who can just tell something’s up. Takanashi resists the urge to tell her to butt out of his business (in fact she’s the one to bring up her meddling), but does tell her he doesn’t need her pity.

That grinds Ishino’s gears, as it should: forget never giving her the time of day: Takanashi has a serious habit of acting cool to hide his emotional struggles. He relents and asks Ishino to join him at his house, since she knows how to make hijiki.

Ishino also has a problem: it’s virtually impossible for her say “no” to Takanashi, no matter how selfish or mocking his request. But this isn’t about him playing games; it’s about him actually making some kind of effort, in his way, to let her know that her help at the house would be tolerated, appreciated…even preferred.

Meanwhile, someone who would prefer it if Hikari were to fall into a ditch and die is Iroha’s brother Chika, who has heard about the two of them going on an overnight trip. Hikari insists nothing will happen (which isn’t exactly fair to Iroha, if she wants something to happen!) and that the trip had to be postponed anyway; Chika gets his lick and death threat in anyway.

That feels like the first real ripple in Hikari and Iroha’s relationship in ages, and even then it’s due to a third party, not any conflict between the two of them. Back at Takanashi’s it’s pure domestic bliss—complete with spousal bickering, something Anzu probably isn’t used to considering they have a single parent.

Their argument is over whether Takanashi is justified in limiting Anzu’s exposure to Kaoru, or whether he’s just being  overprotective and even petty. Ishino and Takanashi make up in front of Anzu to calm her, but it isn’t long before they’re at it again, and this time it’s when he brings up Sakurada.

He asks, and almost orders Ishino not to go on the date with Sakurada, a serious request that he treats with his usual teasing jocularity (doesn’t want anyone taking his “pet”). While Takanashi is again trying his best to say what he wants to say, the fact is his best isn’t quite good enough. He has to be better.

He runs after a crying Ishino to apologize, and also properly explain his feelings: he feels like she’ll be an important part of his life, and if he lets her go on a date with his friend, he will regret it. So he asks if she’ll be his girlfriend, a question Ishino has been waiting for so long it barely feels real.

It’s been a recurring joke for him to immediately reject her when she asks him, but when he finally asks her, she’s just as quick in saying “yes.” Then he kisses her, daring to open a “door to a frightening world”, but opening it nonetheless. I have no doubt he’ll still tease her (and she’ll tease him back) but at least now there’s no doubt about his feelings.

Shifting from Newly-formed couples to Recently-formed couples, Itou ends up alone at Ayado’s house when something “comes up” with her parents. After four hours of wholesome video game-playing, Ayado can’t take it anymore: she wants to make out.

Itou worries that he’d be betraying her parents’ trust in him if he did anything with her, but Ayado disagrees. Ayado wants him to do something, and will be dejected and miserable if he doesn’t. You’re good, dude…Carry On. And carry on they do…though the episode is somewhat coy about how far.

Back to the couple that inspired all these new doors being opened: Iroha comes over for dinner with Hikari’s whole family again and has an absolute blast, as always. She loves how kind his family is, and how it explains why he’s so kind. Case in point: he offers to walk Iroha home, but she declines.

I can’t have been the only one to think that slightly awkward goodbye was foreboding, and what do you know, the next day Iroha is at the hospital talking with the doctor Hikari thought she was dating back in the beginning, telling her “it has to stop,” presumably due to her undisclosed health condition.

While new doors have been opened for the others, it looks like Iroha and Hikari’s is going to start closing. It’s something both of them have known would eventually come to pass. I just wish we had more of an explanation about why there’s such a seemingly firm clock on her life expectancy. At least Hikari deserves to know, even if it crushes him.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl – 19 – Tabasco In The Orange Juice

From Iroha slapping her brother with a wet towel when he accuses her geeky boyfriend of dragging her down to his level, to Hikari showing that he’s grown into a far better boyfriend than Iroha’s boyfriend could imagine, I loved every minute of this episode.

It was full of instances of friends leaning on one another in times of need, quickly sorting out misunderstandings, and, of course, Ishino gettin’ some legit attention from a guy other than Takanashi! The only major mark against this episode is that there’s no Ayado, but that allows the episode to maximize its time with everyone else.

First, a brief rift between Itou and Hikari emerges when Itou asks Takanashi for advice on how to proceed with Ayado. Hikari knows he’s not the one to go to for advice of that nature, but is still embarrassed enough to avoid Itou, until Itou himself calls him out and they sort it out together.

Itou assures him every couple goes at its own pace, and that if Hikari doesn’t even intend to go all the way with Iroha (as Itou suspects he will with Ayado, very soon), Itou respects and will support him. It’s some very mature conversation between best mates, clarifying that this isn’t a race!

Speaking of early bloomers, Kaoru comes to Takanashi’s house to apologize for keeping Anzu out late, but manages to pierce Takanashi’s innate distrust and loathing for All Things Tsutsui with a heartfelt monologue about why he loves Anzu and wants to help her big brother keep her safe. Still, Takanashi is frustrated enough with Kaoru’s shrewdness that he decides to take it out on Hikari, who after all only wants some of the same advice as Itou.

While heading back downstairs from the roof, Takanashi very clearly tries to get the attention of Ishino, and ask her if she’s free for…something. But his friend, who met Ishino at the maid cafe, asks her out first, having already gotten a half-hearted okay from Takanashi to pursue her. It’s clear despite his aloof attitude, Takanashi doesn’t like his friend spending all this time with Ishino. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve had until you’ve lost it!

Hikari and Ishino have been just humming along, but with another three-day weekend coming up Iroha wants to go on a trip…an overnight trip—to eat and see the sights in another town. But Hikari is overwhelmed by the possibility that they may end up doing it, and gets so stuck in his head he appears outwardly opposed to and stressed out about going on the trip, and Iroha drops the issue and heads home.

For her part, Ishino told Hikari before he met with Iroha to just get fucking laid already…though at the same time no one reinforces Hikari’s own insecurities and sense of non-worth than Ishino, even though she’s just messing around.

But Ishino now finds herself in a bit of a love triangle. I doubt this new guy (I didn’t even hear his name) is anything other than a means to show Takanashi that he actually does requite Ishino’s feelings, at least to some degree, whether it’s true love or he’s simply pleasantly accustomed to having her around.

Ishino assumes the worst; that he’s some kind of playboy just trying to get in her pants. I’m not 100% convinced that’s not the case either. Good luck, Ishino! As for Takanashi, he should take after his friends and reconcile his feelings.

Hikari, good man that he is, doesn’t spend days worrying about what a shit he is, and corrects himself almost immediately, actually taking the time to look at the travel books Iroha marked, then running after her, embracing her from behind, and agreeing that it will be a fun time. He just had to get out of his own head, and put himself in her shoes: she must have been excited to tell him about the trip, and was looking forward to it since the last three-day weekend.

Unfortunately, due to Iroha’s poor test scores, she has to take remedial classes over the weekend, but Hikari assures her they’ll go the next time. Here’s hoping there is one—it would be a great step forward for their relationship.

Fuuka – 02

There’s something…annoying about ready-made, built-in love in a show like this. We’re introduced to Hinashi Koyuki, the famous idol (Hayami Saori!), who damn near has a crisis upon hearing back from Yuu, whom we know she hasn’t seen in years. So she’s been madly in love with him all this time, or was it just a spark that was lit when contact was made after so long? I don’t know, but it’s too neat and tidy.

Fuuka attempts to be coy, but she’s not fooling anyone; she could’ve gone with anyone to the Hinashi concert, but chose Yuu, who had to turn down Koyuki’s offer to come, only to end up there anyway. More coincidences = more frustration there’s very little emotional legwork going on on either side. It’s like Yuu’s in a very formulaic dating sim.

Caught between the blue-haired wild child who seems to be sizing him up for boyfriendship (and is apparently the spawn of Suzuka, though I never watched that show) and the famous celebrity idol childhood friend Fuuka adores, Yuu stays cool. After all, he hasn’t the slightest notion of just how infatuated with him Koyuki is, nor how much elation she expresses when he says things she wants to hear.

But a reckoning is coming. Surely at some point some combination of Yuu, Koyuki and Fuuka will meet, and not only will Yuu have some explaining to do to Fuuka, re knowing Koyuki, but he’ll face an impossible choice. That being said, considering the title of the show, Fuuka seems positioned to win, though I can only speculate about how Yuu will react if and when he finds out about Koyuki’s feelings. I shouldn’t, as he’s wont to do, jump to the wrong conclusions here.

Oh yeah, and after hearing her sing (she’s pretty good), Yuu suggests maybe Fuuka get into music, and she starts a light music club (ugh) at school, like, a day later. Am I supposed to believe she never considered getting into music until Yuu made that glaringly obvious observation?

I dunno man…this show could be trouble.

Witch Craft Works – 12 (Fin)

Witch Craft Works follows Noragami with a similarly tepid ending; wrapping up the Weekend arc with a load of miscellaneous magical mumbo-jumbo, while frantically jumping from one place to another tying up loose ends. We got way more tell and not enough show, but in the end, the show had kinda backed itself into a corner where technicalities had to be employed to explain why both Honoka and Kagari survive and save the day.

We will say we liked the effect of the city and its people being restored all in one fell swoop after Honoka agrees to sacrifice his life in exchange for Evermillion’s power. Turns out she merely transferred the power Ayaka had been using back to Honoka by annulling their contract. But it’s hastily restored and Ayaka is revived. It’s a reiteration of a problem this show had for its entire run: a lack of palpable danger and risk.

Meanwhile, Weekend is out of mana and defeated, and gets captured by Chronoire on her way out. Then Chronoire and Kazane (who healed up much faster than Weekend predicted) fight it out, because they have a past, or something, and everything returns to normal, including Tanpopo’s gang challenging Ayaka to fights that they then lose badly. Presumably it also means more of Kasumi fighting Ayaka for bro-time.

This was a case where the buildup of the last couple weeks was better than the payoff, but we were kinda expecting that, so we don’t feel particularly ripped off. The lush, whimsical visual style and guy-as-the-damsel dynamic sustained us till the end, but Witch Craft Works never really got better than its first couple episodes, due to ultimately lame villains and way too many extraneous side characters.

Rating: 6 (Good)
Average Rating: 7.167
MyAnimeList Score: 7.43

Witch Craft Works – 11

Ah, the Penultimate Final Battle Buildup Episode…we know them well. If there’s still a fair amount of information to convey to the audience, a PFBBE is the time to do it, so that there’s time for both the resolution of said final battle and a proper cool-down period that checks in on everyone one last time. Cram too much into the end, and the end can feel rushed and unsatisfying. We still consider the second episode to be the best of this series, and we’ve been legging it out in hope of a strong ending.

After this week, we’d have to say there’s still a good chance of WCW pulling it off, since this PFBBE packs a lot of setup and exposition, identifying the final threat—Weekend will blow up all the people in the city if she doesn’t get Honoka—and fielding the force that aims to thwart her: Ayaka, drawing from Honoka’s power. Honoka’s little dreamworld excursion is suitably trippy, and Mikage-sensei provides enough info for us to get the jist.

While there’s a lot of talking, there’s also a lot of fighting, first between Kasumi and one of Weekend’s underlings in another giant teddy battle, and we will state for the record we have officially seen enough giant teddy-fighting. We’re also a bit astounded at how ineffective Tanpopo’s crew is this week; they literally just stand around. Fortunately for them their master Medusa managed to escape from her captors and takes the enemy out with some badass petrification.

As Honoka convalesces, Ayaka leaves him in Atori’s care (she talks through a puppet…HOW KOOKY.) and tries to take her “prey” Weekend on alone, but Weekend has been planning this op for more than a year, and has more than enough magic stowed away to repel her. It takes a feverish Honoka voluntarily going to Ayaka’s side (showing he’s been practicing his broomflying) to charge her back up. So the stage is set for the final battle. We wonder if the powerful Chronoire and/or Kazane will have anything to contribute to it, or if it’ll be strictly an Ayaka/Honoka-vs.-Weekend affair.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Witch Craft Works – 10

We asked last week if Weekend could keep the good guys on their toes for more than an episode, something no other villain in the show has been able to do as of yet. After the events of this week, the answer seems to be yes. This is an episode bustling with activity in which pretty much everyone is out of their comfort zone and has to improvise in the midst of all the chaos Weekend has caused.

You have Rinon and the workshop witches trying to pick up the pieces and negotiate with Weekend, who has wrecked the city, injured several witches, and strapped bombs to others that will go off in a half-hour if they don’t bring Honoka to her. Kasumi has enlisted the aid of the Tower witches living in her house (who can still use magic, since they’re not Workshop), while Chronoire is pissed that her house is wrecked but intrigued by Weekend’s power and gets ready to face her.

Meanwhile, after witnessing Weekends handiwork (for which Honoka briefly freaks out but then composes himself) Ayaka leads Honoka further below the city to its very core, which kinda resembles the Forest of the Deer God. In order to restore the good guys’ ability to use magic, Honoka himself must form a new contract with the city. On the way to the core (a pretty epic journey in its own right), they meet the stone golem witch Gibraltar, but Ayaka deals with her, not with magic, but with muscle, showing her mother taught her well.

Honoka gets the magic flowing again just in time for Rinon & Co. to save the hostages, punch Weekend in the face, and capture her, and it looks like another bad guy has been foiled. But then Weekend reveals that, like Ayaka, she doesn’t rely on magic alone, using conventional grenades to blast her way out of her cell. She lost this week’s battle, but the war is still on, with both Kazane and Chronoire likely to enter the fray in the near future. This show’s in good shape to have a strong finish.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Witch Craft Works – 09

Ayaka finally heeds Honoka’s insistence she teach him how to fight properly, unsealed seals or no. She throws him into a regime of unsuccessfully taming fire demons and being dropped off of skyscrapers, certainly run-before-he-can-walk situations. For his part, Honoka does conjure a gigantic translucent Ayaka in a nurse-miniskirt to catch him before he falls to his death. Doing so saps all of his magic, and he passes out; something we’ll call “amagica” (rather than anemia).

We also get a strange and very beautiful dream Ayaka used to have when she was younger, in which Honoka tells her they’ll be together, providing further evidence they were destined to be together, even though Honoka never saw it coming. Most gratifying about this episode, though, is that it finally ends without an enemy being easily defeated or becoming another mouth to feed in the Takamiya household. That’s right: the real leader of the Tower witches, “Weekend” (Hirano Aya) finally reveals herself and executes the scheme she’d been carefully preparing.

She does so by rather cleverly neutralizing the town’s most powerful Workshop witch—Kazane, whose status as a Crafting/Workshop Witch means she’ll always put the protection of the townspeople ahead of all other considerations. When Weekend sets off massive explosions all over town, Kazane’s magic is drained saving the innocent from harm. By the time she’s all recharged, Weekend plans to be very far away with Honoka, the vessel for the Princess whose power she seeks. In crisis mode, the other Crafting Witches (including Rinon, interestingly) meet with Ayaka and Honoka in a lavish secret bunker

Here, the couple is promptly taken captive and thrown in a dungeon, ostensibly to keep them out of Weekend’s clutches until Kazane can recover. Weekend still finds them, but Ayaka uses her message plushie to blow a hole in the wall, and off they go. But as we said, Weekend isn’t simply brushed aside like previous threats. The battle to protect Honoka is far from over, and Ayaka remarks it will have to be fought without magic, at least for a time; an enticing prospect. Weekend may so far be your typical smug, aloof villain, but at least she’s got the good guys’ backs against the wall. We’ll see how long she can keep them there.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

 

 

 

Servant x Service – 11

Worried that things could get awkward between them, Yamagami searches for Hasebe with the Chief, who ends up getting accidentally sold at the bazaar outside the office. Yamagami gets him back by offering a plaid bunny the girl thinks is cuter. Miyoshi decides to head into the city to clear her head, but ends up encountering every single person from work, and getting depressed. Her date with Tanaka doesn’t go as badly as she feared, and even agrees to go on another one.

Hasebe may have caught on something quite profound: he’s been living a carefree life, being good at many things but hardly making an effort as he’s sailed through it. It’s cruel yet appropriate, then, that he finds himself now paying for all that…carefreeness by falling for a girl with absolutely no notion of or experience with romance, who may never, no matter what Hasebe does, fully grasp the concept of a guy liking her in that way, as opposed to any other girl on earth. Yamagami is exceedingly adorable, but she’s a tough nut to crack, and it doesn’t bode well that Hasebe still hasn’t impressed upon her just how special she is to him. Realizing that wooing her will take far more effort than he’s ever put into anything has Hasebe feeling more outwardly gloomy than ever before, and it’s sweet that Yamagami admits she doesn’t mind that side of him.

But enough about them, the balance of this episode was about Miyoshi, finally! Her aimless day off – and all the aimless days off her co-workers and acquaintances are having depiction of the average office workers’ average day off. Tired from the week, but also faced with a sudden period devoid of structure, no one engages in particularly thrilling activities, instead ending up in a bookstore, at an arcade, or simply sitting on a bench in the park. Still…it’s not work, right? And once you get past the fact that Tanaka talked about Hasebe for an inordinate amount of time, had nothing else interesting to say, and let Miyoshi pass out from a sip of wine, the date actually didn’t go that bad! We can only hope Hasebe’s date with Lucy goes so smoothly…

Rating: 6 (Good)