Genre – Sci Fi Anime
Movie Total Runtime – 18 Hour 1 Minutes
Spoilers – Yes
So, we finished season one without the world ending. Season two starts with a summation of the main plot and a new opening credit theme. It’s still not up to the standards of the first theme. The whole first episode felt like filler. They resume trying to kill Koro Sensei in the second episode, this time with a giant pudding. It makes sense in context. The shadowy government group that is responsible for creating Koro-Sensei (about whom we still know little) performs a more conventional attempt but gets foiled by the students.
Seriously now, I don’t care who puts him down, the dangerous organism has not retracted the threat on the planet. From a storytelling perspective, you can understand how the daily interactions with the students has made them lose sight of the underlying stakes. It’s not the bounty, it’s the end of the world. But, this is a show not about that. It’s about the ensemble, so the students recruit the ‘brother’ of Koro Sensei, who was really just a human with grafted material rather than a truly bioengineered superbeing. I don’t like him. I find his personality irritating.
I’m sitting here in confusion at a plot point in episode five. So, somehow, having a job is against school policy? It’s not that it’s illegal because of the student’s age. The issue is explicitly school policy, not labor law. This makes no sense. The only rationale I am able to come up with is “penalize poor people”. It’s not as though the student in question is having any academic troubles. Anyway, my investment has diminished in the second season. I’m starting to no longer care. Perhaps they should have trimmed the series length a bit. I donno. It did get a bit of a laugh when in rigging a sporting contest, the main campus brought in their “foreign exchange students” who were all giants who looked like bodybuilding adults. I was going to say it’d be funnier if they mentioned what country the exchange students were from. While not said in dialog, the contest was diagrammed out and we got flags for the exchange students – American, Brazilian, South Korean, and… French.
I will not make frog jokes.
The Frenchman doesn’t come into play anyway. We only find out the American’s name was ‘Kevin’ just before he exits the show. The others weren’t even of nominal importance.
We are still cycling through character-centric ensemble plots. This is what the series is about but I’m going to be honest – I think I’ve stopped caring. I want more answers regarding the main mysteries of what is wrong with Principal Antagonist, where Koro Sensei came from, and why he’s done what he’s done with the lunar destruction, and opting to teach people who he’s going to kill when he destroys the rest of the planet. I am taking it more seriously than the creators. I know the show is about the students and not the insane super cephalopod, but it’s just not working during this span of the series. When another villain comes along with a plan to end Koro Sensei albeit with collateral damage, I’m generally rooting for the guy trying to save the world, even if it means some of the students die. Yes, these villains are quite unhinged, but sometimes that’s what it takes.
So they spend time exploring the unhinged relationship between one of the students and his abusive mother. Then pivot back to the rivalry between the top students and the misfits. I wanted to point out a reference to a show I’d never seen, but they did their own fourth wall break to do that themselves. I am really hoping that the latter half of the second season takes a turn for the better.
These words pain me to write a little, because I did like the first season, and found it suitably entertaining. I had already chunked out this series into four reviews before watching it, since eighteen hours is a hefty bit of watching. This quarter has an increase in the number of times where a bad habit of mine crops up. When I anticipate awkwardness or cringe, I tend to pause whatever I’m watching and steel myself to ride out the scene. This is actually counterproductive because it drags out the awkward moments and increases the negative impact of something that would otherwise come and go. I don’t know why I do it. It’s also a risk factor in me just turning off a piece of media entirely. If it is paused, I can more readily just close VLC or the browser window it’s in and move on. If it’s playing, I’m more inclined to try to get to the credits.
So, unless something interesting happens in episodes 11 or 12, this is going to be a short review. It’s another round of hyperbolic exam episodes. This time, Principal Antagonist’s son asks the misfits to take the top spots to prove his father’s instructional philosophy wrong. The Arc continued into Episode 13, so I guess I’ll lump that into the first half too. It does finally start to give more information on Principal Antagonist’s background. Turns out he used to be more like Koro Sensei in teaching philosophy, until one of his students got bullied into suicide.
In his own attempt to assassinate Koro Senei, Principal Antagonist nearly gets blowed up – but I predicted the way he would end up not dying when the situation was presented. Points for sticking to established rules by the show.
On to the home stretch. Next week – last twelve episodes.
The reference was to “Food Wars”. The Anime, in particular the over the top tasting reaction scenes.
I’ll have what they’re having.
https://youtu.be/d595WKX0q1M?si=CFb_-djRawohAil1
Also another harem show with the lead male voice actor from SAO. As I mentioned that was his thing for at least 5 plus years.
YouTube says “no”.
Live from 35,000 feet- heading to PA
…whaddup doh’
I think there may be more than a few TV series (or movie serials?) that have fallen into this trap – they set up a highly dramatic premise, but lose sight of it frequently in the process of churning out episodes in a timely fashion – and maybe sometimes just to prolong the series for the sake of longevity (and money.) It’s obviously been a while, but one that comes to mind that I think may have been guilty of that was The X Files.
Also…
Dare I ask to what show they were making reference?
Never mind that question – you answered it while I was composing my comment.
It’s the nature of comments sections.
Food Wars.
As a bigger fan of the “monster of the week” or really just one-off episodes than the “mythology” which didn’t go anywhere episodes, I am perfectly fine if that’s what you were getting at.
I found the aliens stuff mostly boring.
A giant pudding?
You’ve never triex to kill a superpowered cephalopod with a pudding the size of a one car garage?
Okay, it was hiding a large quantity of explosives and materialss designed specifically to kill the bioengineered critters.
Shades of The Giant Jam Sandwich.
It’s a bold tactic but it damn near won Wimbledon that one time.
Simpler, older version of Stonehenge found three miles from famous site
Nice link
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxw8550y8o
Two post holes does not a hange make.
*henge
That is an assload of extrapolation for insufficient data.
Exactly and hence my thoughts of Spinal Tap.
Holy shit, Cape Verde scored!
“EXCUSE ME, IT’S CABO VERDE NOW!”
Amusingly, JP isn’t playing along.
You have to admire how OMB splits his time between important things.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/war-in-lebanon-casts-shadow-over-renewed-iran-u-s-nuclear-talks-f457c7e9?st=pE6C4Q&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/trump-vents-growing-frustrations-with-reflecting-pool-problems-a328b275?st=Dhb41t&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Roughly 4 hours apart. See Sleepy Joe wouldn’t get out of bed on a Sunday.
Government contractor does poor job of applying coating, news at 11.
No bid contractor.
Stupids do stupid things. They refuse to learn, don’t they.
No bid contractor.
Rush job. You get what you pay for.
Whee!
NY Post headline. IDGAF;DR
My local was out of Plymouth gin! How awful!
Probably two more visits until my gin passport is full-up.
@UCS: If you didn’t see, yes, I live right by Indianapolis, about 5mi north of the top of the I-465 loop in Carmel, IN.
When’s your planned trip, again?