天下制覇

"Do you think this show is educational?"
"Yes, it’ll drive people to read books."
"Hooohohohohohohoh!"

Impressions:

You know how I said that there’s a misogynist point to be made somewhere in Strike Witches? There’s a 1,000 pound homophobic hammer to be made here. If Antique Bakery is to believed, gays are aggressive and slutty, forcing themselves onto other people at the slightest provocation, but then trundling off with whatever pretty face shows up afterwards. At least stuff like Itazura na Kiss knows that it’s blatant fanservice and sticks to its guns (I assume). Maybe I’m just out of touch with the gay media scene in Japan.

Aside from the gay antics, this was so angsty that my brain shut down. It’s like every terrible yaoi cliche got thrown into the pot, mixed up and shoved into this. At least Neo-Angelique was sufficiently out there and weird enough for it to be amusing. This doesn’t have a single trace of that over-the-top charm. Men stare at cakes while lamenting their lives and sad organ music plays in the background… and then they put on their leather jackets (with a swoosh of black feathers no less) and hit the gay bars to relieve their misery. There isn’t a tiny bit of irony in any of it. No winks to the audience that the writers are in on the joke, no nods to "yes, we know we’re being silly," just straight up 14 year old girl slash bakery fanfiction. Hell, you can tell when it’s trying to be funny because it makes silly sound effects and the faces in ‘comical’ ways. The rest of the time, it’s all sad violin music, organs, and talk of manlove.

I wasn’t expecting this to actually be particularly gay or angsty, but hoo boy did it ever exceed my expectations. Ugh. This was just terrible.