天下制覇

I know, let's just betray everyone… because I'm evil.

Impressions:

This arc (and show) continues to go downhill. This week, by tapping into the inner-Resident Evil and going with just the most nonsensical, most idiotic plan possible solely for maximum evil. The plan goes something like: 1.) Unleash monsters. 2.) Unleash SUPER ULTRA monster. 3.) ??? 4.) Grab marginally more power. 5.) Screw it, we're Nazis now. It'd be one thing if it was being presented by some kind of unhinged lunatic (which would bring its own problems) or he was twirling a Snidely Whiplash moustache evilly, but they continue to try to present Mr. L'Oréal as some kind of genius master planner and exploiter of all the waifs around him, and it simply doesn't work at all. The bad writing creep is seeping into the direction too, as they've now added magic to the setting out of absolutely nowhere. You heard that right. Characters are now shooting energy beams. Just out of nowhere. Energy beams.

Further not helping was how the protagonists were all but elbowed out of the story this week for maximum evil, which just makes it all feel even more exploitative, but also causes narrative problems since there weren't any actual actors in the story standing up to any of the evil plans or even being involved in fighting anything. Simply twenty minutes of Shampoo Jim running roughshod over the peasantry to get things back to an oppressive regime… which is where the whole thing started in the first place… but this time, it's personal. Mumei was the only one who really did anything above and beyond gasping and going "Oh no!", and that was just a continuation of her degredation into exploited helpless waif.