Well… this week was bananas.

Kuma Miko

That’s a pretty huge jump for Kuma Miko, huh?  Why the top spot?  Because it was freakin’ hilarious this week.  While the other shows did deliver some great action, drama and character development with actual substance, I just flat out ENJOYED this episode more.

As usual, plot is thin.  Machi sees she’s gaining weight, so she combines a traditional trance dance with a fitness CD, and things just get better from there.

Natsu, being the all-knowing mentor that he is, tries to set Machi straight by telling her about the ancient art of the trance state – then gives it some flavor by saying modern teens get into it at clubs using trance dances.  This results in one of the most hilarious scenes ever.

The second half isn’t as good and honestly drags on quite a bit.  Machi tries on some new uniform ideas the village had, but she decides to stick to her original outfit since she wants to feel closer to the Ainu culture.  Also, they find some way to make this happen:

Ushio to Tora

Finally, we get some Hyou!

The Beast Horde arc thankfully is included (it would be ludicrous not to), but it got shuffled ahead.  Honestly, as confusing as it is, it kinda works.  In its new position, there’s reason to isolate Ushio and Hyou from the other supporting characters that were available in the manga, and it cuts down the significant gap of time between Guren’s first and second appearances.

There is some badass action in this episode, but it’s short-lived and dragged down by exposition.  Kind of a necessary evil, but still disappointing.

Sailor Moon Crystal Infinity

It keeps getting better and better.  It pretty much stuck to the manga and just made it… better. The only problematic point is the fight scene.  It’s actually longer and better than the manga version, but I can’t help but think we’re back to underselling how powerful the Senshi are.  We get Mars rolling out a new power, but it barely has any effect on Eudial, and it’s back to Sailor Moon saving the day, even though it’s still a step up from the 90’s version considering how fucking long Eudial was around then.

The biggest flaw, now that it isn’t the animation, is easily the pacing.  It’s going to consistently feel like the first half of each episode is going to be setup where barely anything substantial happens, and then we end on a quick and anticlimactic fight.  The saving grace here is that, unlike with the first two seasons of Crystal, Infinity is staying true to the manga and not completely ignoring the lightheartedness.  Which is always a plus.

Boku no Hero Academia

Don’t think of it as a fall; it’s still REALLY good.  That said, this was a slow, transitional episode that includes probably one of the worst training montages I’ve ever seen.  It starts out okay, but then completely collapses on itself as the montage song continues playing while Midoriya is muttering notes to himself during class.  It completely ruins the pace.

The most important thing is that we’re starting to get introduced to more of the cast.  Honestly, three episodes with mostly Midoriya and All Might can be a bit much, as good as they are.

Sousei no Onmyouji

It’s surprising how little happened in this episode.  So, Rokuro and Benio are resistant to the whole marriage and making babies thing.  Benio transfers into Rokuro’s class and does the whole transfer student thing.  Yada yada yada…

So, the main point of this episode was to highlight Rokuro’s busty childhood friend, Mayura Otomi and yet we don’t learn all that much about her.  She’s easily one of the flattest characters I’ve seen, which is ironic because half her character is that she has enormous breasts.

We know that she was there to console him after the tragedy that killed the rest of his friends, and that, naturally, she loves him (while he sees her as more of a cousin), but… personality-wise, not all that much.  We spend more time establishing that she has big breasts, honestly.

Perhaps more surprising is that the other Onmyouji side-characters, including Ryogo, the one closest to Rokuro, seem to be getting SOME development.

If we cut right down to it, this is what we learned in this episode: Mayura loves Rokuro, and everyone else around the two mains thinks Rokuro and Benio are made for each other… for whatever reason.

Ace Attorney

Gee, I wonder how many times Ace Attorney is going to rank in dead last this season?  The pacing is terrible, the art quality is worse than the games… by a fucking mile…

…and they seem to consistently find a way to skip over the most enjoyable parts of the cases and drain the life out of what they choose to keep in.

On the upside, we get Redd White in all his glorious Engrish.

WHATCHA NAAAAAAAAAAAME?

That was pretty much the only highlight of the episode.  Well, that and gratuitous shots of Maya’s feet.