天下制覇

You bought the minigun and aren't even going to use it this week?

Whew. I've reached the end of this marathon of mediocrity. Also, I've been pressganged into volunteer service this weekend in the mornings, so it's highly unlikely I'll get to Darling in the Frankfurter on Saturday or Spooky Time Trees on Sunday until the afternoon at best.

Impressions:

Not exactly the most thrilling episode back after a two week break, but I'll call it an acceptable palate cleanser after everything else I watched today. This week was Gina's turn for a little background, with the show's usual light touch. As ever, it's nice to have a character who exists outside of the protagonist with their own life, past, and relationships, none of which are used to beat the audience over the head, just mentioned in passing as they relate to whatever is currently happening. She also got I think her first real action scene of the series, kicking ass and taking names with the usual Mappa animation and choreography. Sword and Sophie shuffled off to the side and behaved themselves like the supporting characters that they were for the episode.

Where things falter a bit is that they couldn't come up with any reason better for it than an arbitrary trial. Go somewhere, beat some random monsters, and we'll give you the next scrap to move the plot forward. Not even any real twist to it either where she would have some kind of epiphany about herself or what's going on. Not even a flimsy one like "Rely on your friends," or "Drink more Ovaltine." She just powers up slightly more and that's that. Monsters defeated, courage tested, now receive infodump reward and next map marker. Once again, the dramatic side of things may not have grated like so many other shows (especially today), but there was ample room to add more depth to the whole affair that would've made it better than just eyecandy.