I am constantly surprised by how fast this season seems to be moving. Three to four episodes before this season concludes and all shows are moving into their final arcs and pushing maximum drama. Once again, hope all of them land.
Seasonal Anime
Fruits Basket 2 Episode 21
After seeing how far Yuki has grown last week, it’s interesting and absolutely horrifying to see where he started before the series even started. Treated as a toll by his parents for how sick he was, being completely isolated by everyone, and then even heavily placed into a hate tank with Akito for a long time really does a horrible job on someone’s psyche. And somehow Tohru was always his beacon of light. When that beacon disappeared from Yuki after he saved the lost Tohru. The best part of this was the reveal that he was talking to Manabe the whole time and he was just listening for once. All the sadness in the world.
The God of High School Episode 8
See what you can do when you don’t rush through things and actual develop a story or a background of some kind? You can do it if you try, God of High School. Good for you sort of. The placement of emotional weight on Mori’s grandpa by having adding a better character then Mori to do it. One with strategy and strength who is pushing Mori to be more interesting. All of which leads to Taejin, his grandfather, being a major emotional point when we figure out that he was captured. Finally, weight. At the same time we also get the very shallow birthday party for Mori with Daewi and Mira in the mix. There is that bad God of High School writing I was missing (not really). A decent episode surprisingly.
Deca-Dence Episode 8
The creators behind Deca-Dence like Wreck it Ralph, but they also seem to like Monster’s Inc. In order for the bugs to destroy the factory making Gadolls and the bots pressing down on tankers, they need an avatar without a chip. That would be Kaburagi’s older avatar. So five people with avatars break into Deca-Dence to where it is and that leads to a very Monster’s Inc sort of escape while the bad guys are also there. Also, Kaburagi invites Natsume on the trip as well, which she gladly accepts despite the threat of death while pushing his friend further against his society too. It’s a very powerful and fun episode.
Gundam Build Divers RE:Rise Episode 13 (Finale)
The finale of this show was pretty great with excellent moments, but also a bit chaotic. That is fine though considering all that was going on. Alus attacked the Gundam Build Network expecting to win, but more and more people showed up after the Build Divers fought and won against Alus at Eldora. This was a win for the original Build Divers and everyone on GBN alongside the new Build Divers while looking for an Alus redemption arc. He did come back as a baby. It’s nice to see the Build Divers coming back for peace.
No Guns Life 2 Episode 8
This episode was two slow parts jammed together with the not so surprising reveal that Juzou is not being controlled by Tetsuro’s Harmony. Juzou is fighting against the two armored humans and Kunugi, Kronen’s teacher, from before and winning while Tetsuro is having a conversation with Dr. Wachoski about his motivations to use Juzou as a sacrifice to defeat unit number 7. Tetsuro, after being cornered, is showing his own strength now. A slower episode, but one that is kind of necessary for the whole situation to be revealed.
Appare-Ranman! Episode 9
I loved this break episode so much. So much character interactions from groups of people that usually meet and then do not usually meet as well. Appare walking around and slowly gaining stuff while he was thinking about his engine was hilarious. Same with Sofia drinking someone under a table, Kosame and Xialing having their martial arts moments, and the chaos at the hot spring. Very cultural things happening while everyone was just having chaos with each other too.
Non Seasonal Anime
Dorohedoro Episode 9
Once again, another busy episode full of creative world building, chaos, and character things. The Blue Moon festival is still happening, the backstory of how Shin and Noi meet when Noi failed her Devil exam and Shin beat Noi by tricking her, Fujita has his friend problems, Kaiman still struggles to make progress towards Ritsu, En forms a mushroom monster from Nikaido’s body, and so many other things. A little busy, but chaotic and fun. I am not doing a good job explaining it, but it is hard to do that with something this chaotic, silly, and wonderful. Just know that it is another fun episode that is completely understandable and one thing stacks upon another thing.
Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 9
The drama of the third years is finally revealed after their failure of a debut as Idols in Tokyo. Of course, it was a misunderstanding between Mari and Kanan. Mari had her leg hurt and Kanan not wanting to sing because of that fact. The Aqours themselves followed the events of this drama and even, with Chika leading everything and even yelling the third years to get over their drama. I’m glad someone did and that Chika is becoming the dad of the group while You is kind of the mom. Now the third years are a part of the group and the Aqours can do more. I am excited to see it. What can they do with three episodes left? Probably a lot! Then again, there is a second season that I am going to have to watch.
Dai-Guard Episode 9
This episode had quite a lot of things going on in it. The first part was the office culture in the background where an officer woman and man are on vacation together at a hot spring and everyone, including the pilots, is curious about it. The two see a balloon type Heterodyne and that sets in motion a lot of things. For instance, a conflict between Shirota and Akagi about how civilians need their housing and eventually, the knot buster piece of Dai-Guard equipment used to defeat it but, with the bills paid for it by the military, is taken away by Shirota. I feel like Rika, the genius who invented it, is confused by all of this. A fantastic episode full of good comedy and some good moral questions too.
Bamboo Blade Episode 9
This episode was hilarious in such a huge Schadenfreude sort of way. First up is Tamaki finishing up her part time job. That was a small arc in itself where her mannerisms didn’t change, but she got a little more confident in herself. Plus, her dad thinks she is going to buy a birthday present for him. Sure. However, the adventure with Toraji was something else. If you’ve asked if one person’s life could go downhill more, it can. Toraji got in an incident with the worse woman ever at a grocery store and then the car crash which was just a thing of beauty. Thus leads to him telling her his name and then his job was put into question for the next year. It won’t happen if the girls win nationals. Wow, setting high expectations there I think.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
And that’s why I was waiting on Bamboo Blade 9. That woman is a living nightmare, and the whole sequence through the grocery store and all the way up to the car wreck is just hilarious. Toraji might be a piece of work himself sometimes, but no one deserves that kind of karma.
Chika’s “get over it” scene is great, definitely one of my favorites of the series. She’s always so positive and upbeat that seeing her get legitimately window-rattling angry like that really sells the whole scene. Calling out all three of them like a parent fed up with her squabbling kids is just the icing on the cake.
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The humor in this show is just so good and very relatable. Yeah, no one deserves to meet people like that, but they do exist unfortunately. I wonder how the recovery goes.
Chika is growing on me more and more after ever episode. I think she might be my favorite character in Sunshine and that says a lot.
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