天下制覇

 

Why is this horse so dead and why can’t I stop beating it?

Impressions:

To be fair, it was more enjoyable than the last couple weeks, so I guess it’s a step up. On the other hand, a step up from boring, nonsensical drama is still fairly lame. At least, like the pool episode in the first season, the writers actually managed to make this episode feel like it was meant to be comedic. It’s not so bad when you are at least on the same wave length as the show, instead of feeling nothing but scorn for their bad attempts at drama. Still, nothing happened, and if I wanted comedy out of Shana, I’d drink heavily. I’m not sure that would actually solve problems, but it’d certainly go a long way to making my time with it more enjoyable. So, like a rat in a cage, I keep running on the wheel and waiting for the food pellet to eventually drop.

Short summary is that everybody goes to the fair, cavorts about like the little fawns and nymphs that they are while Ike struggles to get up the nerve to hit on Yoshida. Shana looks even more like a loli that usual with her ponytail, though I do lament the general lack of ponytails in anime in general. Eventually, circumstances fall into place where Ike gets Yoshida alone on the ferris wheel and ends up getting sea sick. Good work, sport. You and Yuji really are credits to your gender.

THERE BE FUTURE SPOILERS HERE.

What I’m waiting and wanting to see is for the Crimson Denizen, Pheles to show up and this damn show to get moving again. The Reiji Maigo has all sorts of interesting stuff surrounding it, from containing her lover to acting as a catalyst for the king of Bal Masque to re-enter the world from his prison. There’s even actually a reason that Wilhelmina wants to kill Yuji above and beyond envy for stealing her little girl, though watching him carve her up with Blutsager should be an absolute treat. That’s even before Yuji becomes a veritable god of the underworld and really does some damage.

OKAY, I’M DONE SPOILING THINGS NOW.

*sigh* And so I hit the food pellet button for another week and hope and pray for the eventual payout. If I was in a better mood, I’d make some pithy note about how this is a perfect example of how spoiling yourself can be a double edged sword. I’m still interested in what’s going to happen eventually, but man, they’re going to make me suffer in order to see it. I guess it’s better than Clannad, where knowledge of future events undermines what’s currently going on. Ignorance would definitely have been bliss there.

It’s unfortunate that Shana’s still lame at this point though, because this is pretty much when the first season massively picked up and became really enjoyable. Instead, we’re still mired in side character episodes and an arc that is going nowhere fast. Unfortunately, episode titles for 8-10 don’t really give me too much hope, though there is a glimmer. 8 is a Margery flashback, which might be decent if they remember that this is an action show, and 10 (帰ってきた男 — The Man who Returned) almost certainly refers to Yuji’s father and his associated antics with Wilhelmina so… I’ll just sit back and sigh. Please prove me wrong and have it refer to part of the Pheles stuff. Please please please, JCStaff.

Remember when I thought Thursday was a strong day? Between Shana sucking, Higurashi’s move to Monday, and my general antipathy towards Clannad, it all seems like it was so so long ago.