天下制覇

"The things not important to me, personally? Screw them!"

Impressions:

Like the Star Wars episode, this is a lot more of what I wished the entire show was like, even if I don't really have much appreciation for a not-really-actually-a-mech-parody at all. At least the animators were enjoying themselves again, and the artists got to draw lots of closeups of crotches of half-naked adolescents, so they probably enjoyed themselves too. It does, however, not sync well at all with the previous episodes of angsty nonsense. Christ, the only even connection at all to the ongoing angst about how maybe there might be consequences… dire consequences like being happier with your life but not quite as into your hobby as before… is that Cocona spontaneously went "Wait, I DO want to make at least a minor effort because I care about things." So once again, that stirring Japanese protagonist cry of "Got mine, screw you."

If you sneezed during that one sentence connecting it to previous episodes though, this was just a random giant robot episode. Not actually really a parody or a sendup in any way except maybe them being mostly naked and constant shots from the ass cam and crotch cam. They just did an 80s giant robot episode but with the characters in it. There are certainly worse things they could've done… and already have done… at length, but they were unwilling to fully commit and proceeded to ruin anything approaching a joke by having characters do the "explain it and then announce that it's too corny to do before doing it anyway" thing that seems to have taken over Japanese humor in recent years.

Next Episode:

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