Maximum Friendship

It’s been an especially tough week in my normal adult life, but you don’t come here for that shit so we’ll skip that. I’m still trying to keep up with the season, and thankfully everything has still been pretty great so far. Even Nanoha ViVid has been pretty decent to watch, but just to pad this post out, we’ll also hit Shokugeki no Soma, Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo, and DanMachi.

Nanoha ViVid
“No one breaks the Starlight Breaker”
Predictably, the anime is diverting from the manga a little (if I recall) and doing a little bit of TRAINING in the last couple episode. StrikerS fans have probably been triggered hard and are retreating to their safe spaces with KanColle and memories of Cowboy Bebop, but I tend to think this is the animators’ way of reminding us how Nanoha combat is fun to watch after such a long absence from the airwaves. Since I doubt they will really get into any serious storyline (at least at this point) I’m just enjoying the ride.

FORCE is when though?

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
“I got better.”
This show continues to shine for me as my season favorite. You might wonder how I could like a supernatural romcom and not say, SNAFU, but my issue with SNAFU was it felt like they had to explain both the comedy AND the romance. Yamada-kun is so damn subtle with it sometimes that you don’t realize the body-switching or the charming actually is the explanation and you completely miss it. I mean, it’s not super complicated so don’t think I am trying to go all DEEP on you, but it’s the sort of romcom I enjoy because they put some effort into it.

Besides, I am pretty interested to see what other powers these “witches” have in store. Telepathy is already hinted as one, and I can only imagine how that will be used…

Shokugeki no Soma
“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”
Well now that we’ve gotten character introductions and a few examples of his FABULOUS food, it’s time to lay down the format for this show’s fairly obvious plot, the FACE-OFF. Part of me really wants to see Iron Chef style battles complete with Alton Brown calling the play-by-play, but that’s because I watch a lot of Food Network and wonder why they aren’t making goddamn anime, I mean, can you imagine this show in Brown’s new Cutthroat Kitchen format?

But what actually disappoints me is that we predictably know what will happen now. He will begin to face off with various lackeys of Erina’s until he either starts facing The Elite Ten, or Erina herself. He’ll probably win his battles, until he loses one, nearly gets expelled and all of that, only to come back and POWER THE FUCK UP to win. I mean, if we’re going Yakitate Japan here, it seems like the most logical course. It’ll still be massively fun to watch, but you can’t help but feel like they could have maybe done something a little different. Dunno what different, but if you’ve watched enough of this shit like me, you look for something slightly crazier than before.

DanMachi
“Breaking the trope wall.”
Warning: Many screencaps.

httpss://twitter.com/tldranimu/status/597616599512776704

Polygon Mode: Permit me to be serious for a moment, what this shows me, is a character in a show that is entirely full of fanservice, and built on a first-episode narrative of a kid jonesing for a girl who saved him, turns around and saves another girl from herself. Not because she is a girl, but because she is who she is. He saved her so that she could (hopefully) pick herself back up and continue on, as evidenced by the end with her re-joining him as his supporter. This was after she was beaten, abused, tormented, and rejected. She lied and betrayed him, and he still saved her. I’m sure the narrative-pushers would say “Oh, I bet he feels entitled to her now”. It’s as he says, he’s an idiot. Sometimes you actually have to communicate with one another instead of assuming you understand everything when you know nothing.

It’s okay to show weakness, it’s even okay to allow someone else, male or female, to rescue you from someone else, but it’s especially okay to permit someone to rescue you from yourself. I let someone do that with me eight years ago, and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. Respect yourself, and respect each other, and you’ll find an understanding none of this social justice garbage can ever replace.

Regular Mode: Do these floors go up or down? I’m confused. Why would you have such a tall spire if everything is below?