iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The spirit of the show is different than it was at the beginning- it HAD to change because the daily grind to get started was so important to establish but wouldn't be fun to keep watching. I feel like we're approaching "magic power asspull" territory however, and this might be where I exit.

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It's pretty clear if they haven't already announced it that there's going to be a season 3 (assuming this show is getting any ratings in Japan... I certainly never hear anyone but me talk about it) But the manga is past 100 chapters and pretty well rated so there's plenty to work with.

Okay, so the good news is it isn't a lame cliffhanger. The fight is done for now and they're off to somewhere new. Unfortunately it was a lot of admin and story work so half of the finale was them talking to the god rat about stat upgrades and all the other characters are just seen in cutaways.

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Seasonal Anime™ Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing Season 2 (finalFINAL): Yeah as I mentioned in another post, they snuck out a 13th episode that wasn't listed where I was watching it. Season 1 was 12 episodes, so I guess they just never updated it?

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So… remember when I said that “Hardcore Gamer Dominates in a World with Garbage Balancing” had an extremely shitty cliffhanger at the end of the season finale? Well another episode just dropped, so apparently the site saying the season was “complete” last week was wrong. OOPS.

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UnSeasonal Anime™ Finished my rewatch of Season 2 of Let This Grieving Soul Retire and idk what I was on about when I first watched it, but it completely holds up to Season 1. I think I mixed up story beats from Season 1 and 2, and there's a lot more of a flow between them than I gave it credit for

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So yeah, shocking to nobody but I kept liking this show I already knew I was going to like.

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I have a feeling this show is going to be passed over by the majority of anime-watchers- a plain modern setting, no huge conflict or action, no wacky slapstick, no sex appeal or even romance really? Just two people quietly becoming important to each other one smoke break at a time.

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I do kinda wish we'd gotten a little more info about what happened if they're going to build the whole episode around it, but I suppose it doesn't ACTUALLY matter that much. Inviting someone to get a drink when you're going to be over 500 miles away is a pretty wild move, though.

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Post-watch: Aww well that was sweet. I swear that was an anime-original episode, unless I completely forgot it from the manga. If there isn't a big incident, we can just make one! Glad it gave Tayama a chance to be a little more proactive than just goofing on this unc when he's being dumb.

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From what I know of the manga, the finale MIGHT be a flashback to his past, at least in part (unless they already did that and I just forgot). Neat if so, but I don't think they need any big crisis to wrap things up.

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Given that the whole plot of the show revolves around him not realizing his smoking buddy is the same person he sees working inside the store, I feel like it's perfectly fine to make him as out-of-touch as needed- it's not like we're supposed to think he's particularly incredible.

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My big worry going into the show was that they'd turn it into a kinda gross romance with a guy old enough to be her dad. They've done a pretty good job I feel of making it clear that these characters are important to each other in ways, but if anything the anime makes him even MORE obtuse about her.

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I actually like in the story there are times where they don't see each other for days or weeks because yeah this is literally just a person he knows at the convenience store on his way home from work, this isn't a romance anime... unless? I dunno about that either way.

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Seasonal Anime™ Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You (final): What's there to say, I liked the manga and I like the show. They've really given the story more verve and life than I expected with the animation and voice. Nothing here is terribly high-stakes, we're just here for fun.

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Four episodes into Season 2 and I can kinda see what I was on about- Krai starts out a LOT more weasely and is almost entirely motivated by laziness instead of trying to avoid trouble for himself and others, but it's not as bad as I remembered. Poor Tino spends the season miserable though.

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UnSeasonal Anime™ I was feeling a little under the weather and rewatched Let This Grieving Soul Retire season 1 and decided I want to give season 2 another try. I liked it overall, but I remember having some sticking points with it, and I want to see how much if it was watching it weekly.

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Also one last aside, I love that they've kept Beryl's habit of mumbling to himself about stuff, especially when he's slightly wrong or misinformed about stuff. It's SO important to his character that he chafes against high society that the occasional "huh I guess that guy's important" means a lot

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In an anime like this, your sword is the sword of justice and ALWAYS fights on the side of noble honor because these are shows with heroes and villains. We can always hope though!

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Both the mercenary and the Big Bad made comments over the last few episodes that boil down to "why are you mad that I killed someone when you are literally here to kill ME" and I feel like "there is no inherently noble use of violence" would be a very cool idea to pursue. But, this is anime.

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I feel like if a Season 3 materializes, they're setting up a theme of "what even is honorable combat" which would be pretty cool to see, though I don't think a show like this would have an answer. I mean beside a theme of "which hot babe is gonna DATE this GUY??" which, sure I guess.

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Post-watch: Apollo's kickball of prophecy has struck again and the final interaction with the mercenaries was in fact nearly word for word what I predicted. There was a little extra in there that added to it- Beryl IS still mad at the guy he just doesn't want to kill him over it.

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From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman | Opening 2 - Kurenai no Ha | 4K Creditless

Also, forgot to mention I REALLY like the opening song and animation! It's rare I don't just skip them, but it's a banger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZDq...

youtube.com

YouTube video by Yuji

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Most animes are concerned with selling how strong the MC is, but we already know Beryl is amazing and without crazy magic powers they can't really do anything TOO flashy with him. What's really important to his character is the people he's nurtured and helped- we KNOW he can swing a sword.

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The conflict is actually suspenseful, and I worry the resolution will be they fight the big boss together, then say "welp next time we might be enemies" and leave without anything more. I want some kind of payoff for this tension! Hilariously for anime I don't even care if his fight scenes are short

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A mercenary company almost killed one student that he cared about, and he's nuclear pist to an extent he has never shown before. He trained and prepared for their next fight, but now that they've met again, the mercenaries have been hired to be on his side and he's supposed to work with them.

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Beryl's own journey of not downplaying his own abilities quite so much and being more willing to take on jobs and tasks he sees as above his station is surprisingly subtle (despite a few episodes calling it out pretty blatantly). The REAL thing I want to see is how they play out the mercenaries

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The show has kinda memory-holed Mewi being a pickpocket orphan in favor of her just being the slightly difficult to relate to teenager. It IS nice that they had her move on as she experienced new things, I'm just not totally sure what her arc is besides "likes swords because she respects him."

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Seasonal Anime™ From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman Season 2 (final): Season 2 has been up and down, It wasn't going to be able to have exactly the juice as season 1, but it's held on in ways. His interactions with students has mostly been channeled into Mewi but HER character is vague

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There’s still some of that in the mix, but there’s much better variety in how they establish stakes than just the 500th squad of sexual violence doers out doing their rpgsekai rounds

Post-watch: Wow so they really just had the monster say "Hey I'm one of the seven strong guys in the strong guy club you'll never kick all our strong guy asses" well I guess the plot for season 3 is set. Can't wait.

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Expectations? I mean the last episode ended with Arc starting a fight with a huge mouth-demon thing, so we'll get a big sparkly fight scene. Hit a few stunners, crack a few beers, say "hell yeah" and send the crowd home happy. Then he leaves, heading a new direction to have season 3 adventures in!

I say I want less because honestly we've gotten a lot of story on the ninja clan and it's getting to take over the story. The skeleton knight is barely an important character in his own show at this point behind 20 new ninja characters. He'll still do a big flashy spell here and there but no plot.

I want more, in that I know that a story where he just kicks ass in different towns is not going to be fulfilling. I appreciate that Arc just fights against injustice where he finds it, but that means every plot is "some guy comes and tells Arc to go over there and fight a guy"

Seasonal Anime™ Skeleton Knight in Another World S2 (final): I've very much enjoyed this season- I'd say that it felt a little aimless, but that's kinda the idea. Arc is just kinda enjoying aimlessly wandering the countryside looking for adventure. Weirdly, I want more and less plot simultaneously.

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This show was pretty well put together, and I imagine the manga allows for a little more space to have her murderous rampages and her kawaii friend times be a little more apart. I still would say it wasn't what I was hoping for, but honestly? After that ending I might give a season 2 a chance.

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ALL SEASON I wanted to know more about what was going on with pink girlfriend- this kind of anime usually has her be some kind of magical charmer, but her just being an insecure social climber is surprisingly real, and seeing her now "trapped" in the relationship she worked so hard for? Chef kiss.

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