天下制覇

   

That was basically the highlight of the episode.

Impressions:

I’m guessing that the writing for this episode went:

“What if we take the airhead character and make her a master at a game for intellectuals? It’s funny because it’s the opposite!”
“How would that even work?”
“We’ll just involve the character in the episode as little as possible.”
“So should we learn about the game?”
“No, just do a standard over the top training bit and montage, and have some characters comment on how it is nothing like the game.”
“Fantastic, Thai boy prostitutes again tonight?”
“You know it!”

Again, this is an episode that tripped before it even made it out of the starting gate. I admit to not knowing much about shogi, and I still don’t, because this had basically nothing to do with it. I’m sure that they thought they were being over the top with the heart of the tiles crap, but it wasn’t so much over the top as it was riding the exact same wave as Yu-Gi-Oh, Hikaru no Go, or whatever it was trying to parody. They could have at least made up some kind of ridiculous Calvinball-esque game and given it a silly name like Squampus, although I’m pretty sure that would have just elicited the ‘joke’ of characters constantly yelling “Are you making up this game as you go!?!?!?!?” It wasn’t about the bird either, despite their pretending at the end that it was, since she only showed up at the start and end. That just leaves the training/montage in the middle which was about as rout as this kind of thing goes with the obligatory worn-out jokes involving other characters popping out to do their one thing. Even Symphogear knew that was when you’re supposed to ham it up. Symphogear. When you need to be taking comedic cues from that, you’re in dire straits, and there’s nothing pretty about Mark Knopfler.

Next Episode:

Too much cow.