Konosuba season 3 episode 8 review

Darkness left the show this week. No, not at the end of the episode; rather, from the very beginning. In fact, I’m not sure she’s been with us for several weeks now. Her uniqueness has completely been sucked out of her. We had one little scene last episode where she was herself, but besides that, she has been completely another character for a while now. I don’t know what the writer did with her, but Darkness is just not here anymore.

Come to think of it, is Aqua even here, either? Aqua has been reduced to a couple scenes here and there where she sings to an egg and drinks alcohol, but the intense focus on making sure that Kazuma and Megumin fall in love with each other has made Aqua become less and less important. I’ll admit, I’m a Kazuma x Aqua shipper. But even the most ardent Megumin fan should realize that this just isn’t right. Aqua needs to be more prominent in the show if it’s to succeed.

To top it all off, this episode had such a focus on being serious that I nearly forgot I was watching Konosuba. This is a weird turn in this series. Why is everything I like about Konosuba disappearing? Why is the show I love turning into something I dislike? Where are the characters who got us this far? To put it bluntly, what the hell’s going on out here?

Best girl of the episode: Darkness, if only for memory’s sake

Episode rating: 4/10

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf episode 1 review

Lawrence is a human merchant who meets a girl named Holo, who has wolf ears and happens to be some sort of deity. Apparently it wasn’t against her programming to impersonate a deity. Anyway, to make a long story short, they start travelling together, because she apparently has the power to make him successful.

To be honest, coming into this show, I was expecting the male character to be the mischievous one, and the girl wolf to be, well, wise. Instead, you have the male character as the steady, stern one, and the wolf girl as the “spicy” one. Her character really is the difference between this show being as dull as Banished from the Hero’s Party to being quite good. Now, does this mean it’s won me over? Not yet. That three-episode rule I always talk about works both ways. Just because a series looks like it’s won me over after one episode, doesn’t mean it won’t bomb later and cause me to drop it. But it’s looking pretty good for the Wise Wolf.

Best girl of the episode: Holo, as if there was any other to choose from!

Episode rating: 7/10

Kaiju No. 8 episode 7 review

This episode starts out a lot like Attack on Titan. We find that there’s a human who can become a Kaiju, and his strategy involves some sort of “wall.” Then we get some Dragon Ball Z where Reno tries to scream his way to a power-up in fighting said Kaiju. Finally, we get some Bleach, where Reno is about to be killed, but he gets SAVED at the last second by “Sir” – prompting a big “WHAT?”

If I didn’t feel like I had seen this episode a dozen times before, it might have been a good one. Toward the end, though, we at least get a twist. It appears the vice-captain is going after “Sir,” who is in Kaiju form. My question is, why doesn’t “Sir” just tell him the truth? That seems to be a much less violent and far safer way of handling this. Instead, we get a shounen battle scene. It’s okay to some extent, but it doesn’t make much sense.

Best girl of the episode: Shinomiya, who got a couple extra seconds of air time that Mina did not.

Episode rating: 6/10