Konosuba season 3 episode 3 review

I had mentally prepared to write a eulogy, an obituary of sorts, for Konosuba. Not for the series as a whole, but for this episode. You see, Konosuba is like Seinfeld. It’s got four main characters. If any one of those four characters is out, then the whole episode suffers. Do you remember the episode where Jerry went down to see his parents and George wasn’t in the episode at all? Of course you don’t, because it was one of the least memorable Seinfeld episodes of all time.

So, Konosuba is the same way. It needs Kazuma. It needs Darkness. It really needs Aqua. And yes, it even needs Megumin. It needs all four together.

When I saw that Kazuma was going to be spending some time with that other Princess Iris, I knew we were in trouble. And sure enough, the first half of this episode was some of the worst and most boring stuff Konosuba has ever offered. If you didn’t fall asleep during it, you at least yawned. Kazuma + Iris – the other three = boredom.

Fortunately, though, Darkness shows up halfway through the episode, with Aqua and Megumin in tow. And the rest of the episode is pretty good, even though Aqua and Megumin were kind of superfluous for a change. Darkness and Kazuma provided all kinds of entertainment. There’s a reason Darkness is best girl and she’s my waifu. If she doesn’t barge in and stop the boredom, this episode would have gone down as the worst in Konosuba history.

But rest assured, it’s all good. Konosuba has been saved by the bell. Now it’s time to get up off the canvas next week.

Best girl of the episode: Lalatina Dustiness Ford (who else?)

Episode rating: 6/10

Kaiju No. 8 episode 2 review

The fight is on for Kaiju No. 8. Not the fight between the kaiju and the defense force (or whatever they’re called), but the fight to avoid the cliches of the shounen genre. And boy, is it an uphill battle. I’m not sure it’s going to make it. But at least for now, there is some entertainment.

So the main character, whose name escapes me, has turned into a kaiju (which I assume means “monster”) and now has super strength. He uses that strength to save a girl and her mother from another kaiju. All is well until he just suddenly turns back to being human. Now we have a problem.

You see, the ability to change back and forth between human and kaiju is way too convenient. What I was hoping for was a showdown between the main character and his sister as she didn’t know who or what he was, and it would require an epic battle to solve the conflict. Nope! Instead, he goes back to being human on a complete whim. There’s some humor involved, too, which is probably the saving grace of this easy transformation. But now, since it’s so easy to turn back and forth between human and kaiju, we have the formula for the usual cliches of a shounen series. Can this series avoid them?

Best girl of the episode: the main character’s sister

Episode rating: 6/10

Tonbo! episode 2 review

So, Tonbo and Igaiga hang out and play some golf, with Tonbo only using one club: a 3-iron. Igaiga can’t figure out why, until later in the episode when Tonbo reveals that it was the last gift she has from her father. Also, there’s a recurring joke where Tonbo tells Igaiga to stop making a “scary face.” It is a little amusing.

But the voice acting to this show is so 90s-esque, you’d think it’s set back dubs 30-some years. Even the Sailor Moon dub from the 90s was better than this. I don’t know if they’re working with a skeleton crew, or if the director didn’t do a good job, or if they hired random otaku to do the voices. Something’s got to get fixed about it, or this show doesn’t sound serious.

tl;dr Not much happened.

Best girl of the episode: Tonbo by default

Episode rating: 5/10

This is my origin story of becoming an otaku, which became official on May 14, 2007. But let’s go back further than that, to 2001.

Back then, I got into Sailor Moon and Tenchi Universe, at the age of 16. But teenage years lead to rebellion, and during the next few years I’d go through an all-out reset of my life where I’d stop calling myself by my childhood name in a vain attempt to become someone I wasn’t. Anime was not just something to be ignored, it was something to be mocked.

Eventually, I went back to calling myself by my current name, but I’d still mock anime, in particular during a drive past a convention in April 2007. I saw people dressed up in costumes, and my first reaction was, “what the heck is that?” Then I looked it up online and saw what it was – something called an anime convention. I made fun of it, of course, but I was intrigued by it. I couldn’t get enough of watching primitive YouTube videos from the convention and looking at photos of these things called “cosplays.” And within a month, I went from mocker to… well, one of “them.”

I didn’t know where to start with anime, but I knew I had to give it a chance. So, I decided I’d watch anime on Monday night, May 14, on adult swim. (Note: adult swim used to give us anime FIVE nights a week, and all night long. Kids will never know how spoiled we were.) The first show on? InuYasha, for an hour. This would become my gateway anime.

In terms of what anime you should start with, InuYasha cannot possibly be topped by anything else. It is *the* gateway anime. You have nearly every anime trope and genre mixed into one show. Needless to say, I fell in love with the show within 60 minutes, especially with the Miroku-Sango couple who featured heavily in the first episode I watched – episode 161, “Miroku’s Past Mistake.” Later, I’d start staying up for Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist and Cowboy Bebop and Naruto… yeah, I was hooked.

And that’s why I choose to observe May 14 each year as InuYasha Day. Because that day in 2007 affected my life more than many others. I met so many people through anime that it was truly life-changing. Would I be where I am right now without it? Of course not. The best thing being an otaku taught me was humility. I was no better than anybody else. I am one of “them.” Instead of looking down my nose at others, as I did that April, I saw others eye-to-eye on the same level as myself. And there is no better place to see that equality than at an anime convention. Everyone’s there for different reasons, yet everyone is on the same level. It’s a remarkable realization.

Now, have my tastes changed in the last 17 years? Of course they have. Yashahime, which I liked at first and which was a sequel to my gateway anime, ended up falling short of expectations. A 2020s series named Oshi no Ko is now up there as one of my favorite shows of all time.

But one thing has remained: that feeling of humility, that I’m no better than anybody else. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but it brought on a brand-new way of thinking about my life. I was no longer at the top, or at least what I thought was the top. Instead of running the hamster wheel of trying to be above others, I became just like one of those who I made fun of. And it’s been life-changing. I may have more friends via anime than I do outside of it.

But none of it happens if I don’t get hooked on InuYasha, 17 years ago, on the night of May 14. And that’s why May 14 will forever be InuYasha Day to me.