It’s still confusing, but at least the plot feels like it’s going somewhere.

A FUG trap to do what to Bam/Yoru/Jue Voile Grace?

Why even bother with green-and-black tracksuit guy, if FUG and Mad Dog hold all the cards? Maybe he was the only participant on their half of the island who wasn’t in cahoots with them?

@rikka@ani.social

I thought this was an exciting episode.

The Ferrari slowly reeling in the 86 as conditions dry out.

That reminds me of a Formula 1 race where Michael Schumacher’s slower Ferrari was set up for the anticipated wet conditions better than the normally-faster McClaren or Renault of Fernando Alonso(?)

That was a thrilling race, and this episode captured that suspense well.

No, women don’t think of anything except how to please their men… :-/ 😒

edit:

Tracks:

A World Of Joy by Dave Rodgers feat. Kaioh

Melissa White & Ace - Rainin’ In My Heart

Ace - In The Fire Of Victory

Blue Lock’s goal was pretty spectacular! It probably wouldn’t happen in real life, because physics, but let’s not worry about that.

@rikka@ani.social

Itoshi Sae’s not getting on with his teammates.

Maybe that’s something our protagonists will end up exploiting?

This episode was predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Gram’s straight face while facing off against nameless swordwoman was amusing. “Ho hum, been here, done that”.

Sales droids are everywhere…

I don’t think that I should take this show seriously as lessons in business, but it’s interesting…

She’s right to be suspicious of them.

@rikka@ani.social

This guy will say anything to get a sale, and hope the team collectively bail him out…

If they ever have a downfall, it’ll start like this…

I thought they were going to bring in bard girl to sing and lift everyone’s spirits, but I thought this worked better.

What happened to “Don’t tell the Sin Archbishop your name?”

Maybe now is the right time?

@rikka@ani.social

Mildly interesting: The subtitled version that I watched had a “mistranslation for clarity” for the benefit of the English reading audience.

The subtitles said:

Teacher Q: “Who knows what one plus one is?”

All A: “Me!”

The verbal Japanese dialogue goes:

Q: (implied What is…) “One and one?” “Ichi to ichi wa…?”

A: “Ni!” (Japanese for two)

I don’t understand the point of this new Kokoa character. Okay, she’s a spoiled rich girl, but what is her interest in Fossa Magna, Berry Blossom, Chrome, etc? Is she just bored?

My midseason tierlist (after 6-7 episodes)

S Tier

• Raise wa Tanin ga Ii/Yakuza Fiance - Still good.
• Dan Da Dan - If this anime season had a 1st place champion, it would be this show.

A Tier

• Shangri-La Frontier - Sunraku’s attempts to cheeze the game mechanics are still fun to watch.
• Re Zero - I think this season is following the same pattern as last season where Subaru is falling into a seemingly insurmountable tangle of problems, and he’ll have to figure things out later somehow. This makes it really hard to watch right now. I can’t argue with the understated production values though.
• Blue Lock (+1 tier) - Okay, back to the action! Powerpoint animation and crazy exaggerated footballing powers go!
• MF Ghost (+1 tier) - It’s stupid unrealistic car racing, but it’s fun! Playing weekly new eurobeat soundtracks in the background helps. Similar to Blue Lock, it doesn’t have great animation or depth, but it manages to be hype nonetheless.

B Tier

• Wajutsushi (-1 tier) - Annoying assassin bimbo sidekick isn’t working for me. Lead character not making enough morally questionable decisions. Leading me to question what is the point of this show…
• Maou 2099 (-1 tier) - The whipsawing between being a streamer, and combat, was notable. MC Demon Lord Veltol is making intelligent decisions by enlisting the help of his former foe, The Hero, but the story feels predictable.
• Acro Trip - Hugh the “real” villain mastermind was fun, but I feel like they’re running out of ideas because things are getting somewhat random.
• Trillion Game - This is somewhat difficult to watch. The crazy MC’s antics to get ahead are borderline unethical, in fact, their team gets disqualified for cheating, but I do find myself wondering what he’s going to come up with next.
• Chi - Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite - Still hard to watch. The subject is very relevant and I want to keep watching this, but…

C Tier

• Tower Of God (-1 tier) - Incomprehensible story, poor animation are putting this series on the brink for me. I loved S1, and I feel like there’s a decent story in there somewhere, but this… I dunno. I don’t know whether it’s a problem that’s in the source manhwa, or a rushed production, or what, but the net result is not good.

F Tier (dropped)

• Magilumiere (-2 tiers) - Stopped watching this because of a busy schedule, and I don’t miss it
• Negaposi Angler - I actually did watch 2 episodes of this, but I’m not feeling compelled to continue.
• SAO GGO2
• Danmachi S5
• Ranma 1/2

I feel like I should be watching:

• Villainess Who Goes Down In History
• Dragonball Daima

Watching randomly:

• Kengan Ashura S2 - I hate Netflix bombing me with a whole season all at once.

I think Re:Zero is following the same episode structure as last season, where Subaru is thrown down the pit of despair into a seemingly insurmountable problem, and then he’ll find some way to get out of it.

That’s why it’s really hard to watch right now, and honestly it’s about the same time when I quit watching last season. I haven’t even watched how that ended, but it looks like he survived the rabbits okay.

Yeah, maybe take a break from torturing yourself, then wait until all the episodes are out and find out how he survives this time…

At least his family knows where he is…

To get around Macrovision, you had to have a gadget called a genlock or time base corrector that repaired the video’s frame signal so that a VCR could record it properly.

Genlocks and TBCs were also very helpful when dubbing unprotected anime tapes.

They didn’t entirely solve the video signal degradation to the copy, but they did make the copies much clearer.

Generally pre-record original anime tapes from Japan weren’t copy protected. I seem to remember that one or two that were, but I can’t remember the titles.

What a great article!

I always thought the annoying dimming was some kind of copy protection scheme, like the old Macrovision from back in the days of VHS.

He’s lucky to be alive and apparently uninjured, instead of rotting in a field.

I don’t remember seeing Yoshino having girl talks with alleged BFF Tsubaki, so it’s good to see that here.

@rikka@ani.social

And once again we the audience see that Kirishima has multiple girlfriends on the side going waaaaay back, even though Yoshino suspects doesn’t really know that for sure.

So that casts into doubt what exactly he wants from Yoshino.

Is he being honest with her about his feelings for her, while he’s definitely committing the sin of omission about the rest of his social and sex life.

The OP “Under and Over” by The Oral Cigarettes is growing on me…

It’s a subtle detail:

It would have been clearer to show the twirly toy in its intact form, and place this scene closer to episode 4 so that viewers’ memories are fresh, but I appreciate the writing not shoving the links to every little detail in my face.

If that kind of thing isn’t your bag, then that’s fine.

@rikka@ani.social

In case you were wondering, like I was…

This was the twirly copter toy/bamboo dragonfly that Noel taught the mayor’s daughter to make, as explained back in episode 4

Can’t wait to see Bilac’s face when he shows up with the Gold Crystal Scorpion parts!

It does make me wonder. Usually in a game like this, loot shows up as small items with neat labels saying it’s loot, but we’ll have to stay tuned to find out if the game can actually do any crafting with random monster parts…

Yet again, the pacing was terrible, and the story was confusing.

Far too long on the uninteresting, poorly animated, and worst of all, ultimately meaningless Anaak/Khun Ran fight that immediately abandons all the rules about not falling off the platform and dropping their boffers, not to mention the goal of planting their boffers in the 3 sockets in the middle of the platforms.

They’re fighting for some kind of tickets?

So 25th Bam/Yoru/Jue Voile Grace is a Living Weapon now?

Unexplained FUG Slayer candidate was bad enough.

I preferred weird undefined Irregular with an unknown potential high ceiling better.

And why is Sword/Pipe Telekinesis Guy wandering around the Archimedes?

And Lero Ro, administrator guy for the 2nd level exam shows up?

Endorsi is in full glamor mode one moment, then being incognito the next?

Forget this Jue Voile Grace guy. Even he can’t knock out both a Jahad and a Khun with one attack!

I mean sure “show instead of tell” is better, but tell us a little to help us understand what’s going on…

I think I’ll have to catch up in the manhwa to figure things out.

Awrighty, the game is underway at last!

Here are the sides, with the U-20s fielding a 4-3-3 formation, and Blue Lock in a defensive 4-5-1

They answered the question of the Blue Lock substitutes, so here is BL’s bench, from which they can use 3 subs.

WTF is this mascot supposed to be? @rikka@ani.social

I hope he dances better than he looks…

Here’s a list of the U-20 lineup. We have no idea what their individual soccer super powers are

I love it! It’s romcom, through the woman’s POV, but warped through the lens of yakuza subculture.

The female romance protagonist’s constantly changing facial expressions, at the awkward and strange situations she finds herself in, are the key feature in the show for me.

Another fun feature is the visual dissonance of sparkly-eyed bishonen and bishojou characters engaging in shady yakuza crime and politics.