Anime roundup 6/30/2016: Next Villain, Please

My-Hero-13 My Hero Academia finale – Now there’s the butt-kicking battle royale finale that we’ve all been waiting for. The teachers of U. A. Academy are among the elite of the superhero world, and it really is obvious now that most of the people Shigaraki brought with him were expendable cannon fodder.

Not that Shigaraki himself impresses much. His morale is terrible and he seems to have little talent for contingency plans. Deprived of Nomu, he only just barely manages to try and hang in there because he still has Warp Guy as a crutch. It’s kind of a relief to discover that there’s another, presumably more competent, power hiding behind him.

Meanwhile, All Might’s active superheroing days may be over, as it sounds like he’s not sure if he can retain his hero form for long enough to teach a daily class anymore. Which means that once Shigaraki’s master comes up with a new plan, other people are going to have to step up and save the day instead. But, as was pointed out, now the entire freshman hero class has been battle-tested, and will be much more ready to fight next time.

That was a great show. It was not particularly original, daring, or high-concept, but it was an excellent, solid piece of entertainment. Also, being highly accessible to Western viewers, it’s my new top recommendation for non-anime fans. I’m looking forward to more.

(FUNimationFunimationNow – AnimeLabADN)

Re-Zero-13 Re: ZERO -Starting Life In Another World- #13 – Well, I’ll be! Rather than killing Subaru as he yet again approaches Peak Annoying, Re: ZERO is actually going to try educating him about how not to be romantic.

It is hard to describe how big a surprise this is when appearing in the middle of a light novel adaptation. Light novels are, by and large, otaku power fantasies. They are about how the wimpy dork who sucks at school turns out to be the coolest dude around. They are about the protagonist being a creep and an asshole and still getting the girl because she is Destined To Be With Him. They are most definitely not about her informing him that his man-feels are not the most important thing in the world.

So, wow. Just wow. I forgive the entire first half of this episode, which, thanks to all the useless interruptions, never did get around to explaining how this royal selection thingy is supposed to work. This show has a spot reserved for it in next season’s commentary, after I get through all the premieres.

(Crunchyroll)

Kagewani-II-13 Kagewani -II- finale – Oh, so that’s what Homma turned into. Enough kagewani to be vaguely recall where its “home” was and be able to sprout claws and tentacles and things, but still enough human to know to wait until everyone was distracted and sneak up behind Kimura. There is no way that merely being crushed and dropped down a deep well is going to have killed him, so there’s your antagonist for the next installment. Well, him and whatever additional pools of maniacal incompetence are still lurking in the Sarugaku corporate structure.

Kimura dies realizing what was obvious weeks ago: that he is an idiot and his plan was doomed. He does finally do something useful, I guess, in taking the super-kagewani and its minions out of circulation. But he’s responsible for Homma being what he now is, and it falls to other people to clean up the mess he’s made.

But that’s it for now, so how does this season stack up overall? Good, but not quite as good as the first one, I feel. It couldn’t have continued on as a nearly-disconnected series of episodes, or it would have gotten stale by now, but by trying to bring in science and rules to apply to the kagewani, it has made the unfathomable horror fathomable and dulled its edge. Not nearly enough to recommend stopping watching it, though! Here’s hoping we get to see the rest of the story soon.

(Crunchyroll)

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