Masou Gakuen HxH – 05
Even the best screenshot from the episode is off-model
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Fuuiiuuiiuuuuu… wah WAH wahhhhhhhh |
…And the Even Uglier
“We don’t want to move the characters around or have them actually scale to the size of the room…
When I used to aniblog for SushiGoKart, before I started writing posts here, we had a format for posts that we used for every one with sections for “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “the Ugly”. Now, usually we found this format to be a bit stifling, because if you like a show, it’s hard to figure out something to put for “Bad” or “Ugly”. With Masou Gakuen, tho, that wouldn’t be a concern. I talked about some dubious art on the part of Production IMS last week, and I sure didn’t want to have to talk about it again. But this week, I kinda want to go back to last week’s art, when the biggest sins were some beefy fingers for Aine and an all-around terrible hand for Reiri. This week, it seemed like the show was done by Production “I Can’t Even…”
Seriously, the Playstation 1 called and wants its graphics back…
I’d much rather talk about the story, or the girls, or the fights, but honestly, the poor production here is not even an elephant in the room. It’s the décor of the room, like something you’d see at James Lilek’s Interior Desecrations site. This may have been the single worst episode of a broadcast anime that I’ve seen. I mean, it’s no Mars of Destruction, but that shouldn’t be the goal. And honestly, it was worse than if they did what Qualidea Code did last week and just show some static shots of other stuff in the final battle. It wasn’t even the action parts that were so terrible. It was like they out and out forgot to do some scenes, realized it at the last minute, and had all the people in the Volleyball Club come over to help get the doujin out. I said last week that I’m not expecting a lot from this show, but they managed to not come anywhere close to anyone’s expectations. The only hope that I can bring to this situation is this: I hope that the lack of quality on this episode went to the goal of helping them get back on schedule. If they can bounce back next episode, and stay that way, it might be worth it, because – let’s be honest – this wasn’t ever going to be the most exciting of episodes.
And then the low-rent Charlie’s Angels routine… Where did the pistols come from?
It’s a Set-Up!
Turning the tables on Yurishia
Yeah, this was almost a complete set-up episode, after the big resolution of Aine’s initial cliff of a problem last week. The main part that actually did something was the introduction of the make-out holodeck. And when the plot of your show is to sex up some willing girls, well, you gotta try out your brand-new make-out holodeck, don’t you? But instead of combining the next plot arc, which is finding out Hayuru’s entirely unoriginal origin story, with the “happy violence” test, Kizuna instead brings Yurishia in for a light bondage session. Probably the best scene of the show, but that’s not much of a compliment, given the rest.
Obvious foreshadowing is obvious
“Ghiiiidora! Ghiiidora!”
Hayuru’s mental block, like someone’s in every show of this type, is that in her past she was unable to stop the destruction of a place she was supposed to protect. As the four heroes go to check out a totally not suspicious radio signal from Guam, we get a lame attempt at world-building, with the introduction of Aldea, the sub-villain from the other dimension and the atrociously-named Empire of Batlantis. Seriously, Batlantis? If this is the best they can come up with here, I need to rethink my criticism of the chuuni world naming in Ange Vierge, because “Darkness Embrace” and “Terrara Rubiri Aurora” are outright brilliant compared to this. Anyway, a terrible fight ensues, because they used up this entire episode’s budget changing the décor in the holosexdeck. Actually, I am probably wrong, because they spent all the money licensing Mecha King Ghidorah from Toho Pictures to be Hayuru’s white whale (in the Melville sense, not the Re:Zero sense). So for that buck-ninety-eight, they had a monster that both Hayuru and Aine try to punch and stab ineffectively. But in his best “We’re at the end of this crummy episode, we don’t have the time to fight this guy this episode, and we’d lose anyway!” commander impression, Kizuna orders the retreat, and of course Aldea doesn’t bother chasing, because she read the script was out of power.
And after I complimented them on Aine’s boobs last week,
this week Aldea has basketballs glued to her ribcage
One Kinda NSFW Picture, If You Dare
Man, this post is really harsh. But this episode was really bad. And I’m really disappointed. I think there’s some good stuff available in this show, but this was really a poor effort in all ways. Most of it is just not defensible. I’m hoping that they can salvage a better coming together from Hayuru and Kizuna, because I’d like to think that they have pretty good motivations for it, and of course the opening up of Hayuru’s closed-off feelings could be nice to see, if she does it in a way that makes sense, like Aine’s did. And I think they’ve done pretty good in casting Yurushia so far as kinda the ‘sex friend’, although I’m sure they’ll come up with a story for her to actually have more of an emotional connection to Kizuna. The show actually has a bit of a fine line to ride, because the whole thing is predicated on Kizuna having the opportunity to get that Sexual Healing on with all the girls. Having anyone be too clingy and “winning” the harem would, I think, be really detrimental to the setup. But they probably wouldn’t get anywhere near that in one cour.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, I can’t honestly complain that this weeks 3rei was horrible, not when I can compare it to this…
At least they were able to roll along and introduce a new character, whom I’m filing into Soon to Be Sexed Up Cause it Needs To Be Done column. I mean the underlying theme of the show is Our Otaku Need to F*ck, too, so don’t expect any female character, protagonist or antagonist, to get away “undone”…
But it’s always good to see the old Institute of Good Cheer…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You think they’ll coopt Aldea to the good guy’s side? I’m kinda thinking that’s a “no”. I’m sure there’s some big secret related to Aine’s sudden appearance with her being a Batlantan. And if I were Aine, I’d say “What? Fuck Batlantis. That’s an idiotic name. Even if I *DID* come from there, I’m keeping Chidorigafuchi.”
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
..I didn’t say a thing about switching sides…Just that she’s going to get the same sexy time as the rest of the female cast has already…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 110 comments
well at least we know named of those mech-army aka batlantis give also green hair armor person.
yet training room oh sure that going bit “hmm” cause imagine doing on that room.
& also hayuru’s past come back with a vengeance indeed rather “do it” with kizuna on upcoming eps.