Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai – 09-10
I think we’ve seen this somewhere before, right?
Drunken Swimsuit Thingy…
…girls got “drunk”…girls got wet…
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… in all honesty, I’m just going to breeze over episode nine…It was the breather/swimsuit outing, everyone had fun, and it was silly….’nuff said….But with episode ten it looks like we’ve got the start for a proper story. |
A Start of Darkness?
Kusunagi has been covering up a rather crappy past….
Well, I think the show is finally showing that it has some meat, but somewhere along the way they forgot about the bones. It’s been a common complaint of mine the past month and a half the show has run; it lacks some basic structure. But we’ve waved that away here and there. They are looking to put at least some scaffolding on the story, but still this show could do better. Empathy would be nice, a connection maybe.
Hey, Kiseki is a cool character, and I kinda like her in that odd sort of moe, “need to protect the cute innocent girl” way. But we’ve little to any connection to her situation or problems. We are at the near tail end of her arc, and that’s the problem. Every good characterization begins at the foot of the trail; so unless that is where next episode is going, the production has to rely on pushing our trope buttons to get the character across as something worth investing in. We know how to add, so seeing her live a shit life, and seeing her ask to die is just an equation. We should struggle with this math. We should have to make up new maths to account for the gravity. But nope, they takes the rather easy way….
Which isn’t to say they don’t make some solid hits along the way. I enjoy that Mari is the closest too Kiseki, wanting to become her older sister the old fashioned way. It does go beyond that, as we know Mari’s backstory enough to see that there is similarity between them, they both have the potential to harbor darkness, so I hope this suggests them getting even closer and perhaps giving us a bit more bottom on the supernatural/magic background that has been so lean it’s practically invisible.
Also, I like how knee-jerk Kusunagi is in defending his sister. That was sudden and abrupt, but it told a great deal about his character that has been bubbling under the surface; he might carry a huge grudge toward the Institute, and works for them not only for the money but to keep tabs on his stister. Of course, the Institute counts on that, being the We Might Be the Source of Evil company of the show. They remind me of the lyrics to “Still Alive”, “…we do what we must, because we can…”
A Chaingun-full of Extra Rounds!!!
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Well, the show is still following an outline. It’s ticking off all the right boxes and brings us all the right notes. But it still isn’t hitting the swing. There are lively moments here and there that give us a glimpse into the potential, but they keep holding back for something else. I think they are being to clever about that something else. Just as with the Ikuraga Arc, they aren’t getting any points holding back that obviously fishy magical organization is obvious and fishy when it comes to high stakes morality. Let the bad guys be the bad guys right off the start or at least learn how to hide their motives better. With two more episodes to go, do you think they have enough room to tell a proper story? Given that we got a waste of space for episode nine, the production seems to think so….
…more stuff…
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POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
In all honesty, I’m just going to breeze over episode nine.
Ep 9 comes from the recently released Vol 12, a collection of funny/ecchi side stories. The anime used 2 of them.
An LN reader mentioned the worldbuilding and more info re. Sougetsu’s machinations removed from the anime hurts the show more, because those elements really tie in to the main plot, especially Sougetsu’s endgame (not revealed until Vol 10). For example, it’s revealed in Vol 3 Sougetsu intends to start a 2nd WitchHunt War, the 1st of which devastated the world (similar to nuclear fallout, but with magic).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Wow! OK, FALLOUT: Magic Crazy War is NOT something you skip on, amirite?