This week has been pretty low on flaws, but there hasn’t been a lot to get excited over, either. Well, except for Sailor Moon Crystal, but that’s always been a bit of a special case.
1. Boku no Hero Academia
Midoriya’s growth is becoming more and more apparent, and it’s wonderful. That said, when it comes down to it… not a lot happened. We very slowly get around to the practical battle exam and are treated to about two minutes of it before the episode ends.
But hey, more raging Bakugou is always worth the wait.
I’d like to say that this is the episode that establishes the Midoriya/Iida/Ochako trio officially, and I feel like it was a mistake to downplay the fact that Midoriya was able to make what appear to be his first real friends here.
That all said, this was pretty much a perfect adaptation of the source material, and while the pacing is a bit slow, I can appreciate taking time to do things right. Still very much worthy of the top slot this week.
2. Sailor Moon Crystal Infinity
Sailor Moon Crystal continues being straight up awesome. Slipped away from the top spot despite churning out one of its best episodes simply because things got a little too rushed at the end. It really should have taken a page out of the earlier seasons and learned when to go with real-time attacks and do away with the stock animation. That said, Tellu was bad-freaking-ass this episode, and we got a lot of creepy Hotaru moments. All you could really ask for, and yet they still managed to squeeze in a surprising amount of Motoki and Reika.
Also, let’s take a second to appreciate how amazing Setsuna with no makeup is.
Tellu was an amazing threat, showing that lv. 404 is no joke. Until she gets oneshot by Pluto in yet another display of Sailor Moon power levels making no fucking sense because magic.
3. Ushio to Tora
A much more character development-driven episode this time around with minimal action. It’s the long-awaited reunion of mother and son, so it gets a pass.
Unfortunately, this ultimately amounts to Ushio and his mother spending time together for half the episode while the other half of the episode is the demons and humans outside the barrier fighting each other in a kind of boring non-brawl until Hakumen no Mono is resurrected and everyone collectively pisses their pants.
4. Kuma Miko
Surprisingly good character-building episode this week. We follow the same pattern of Machi being asked to visit someplace modern teenagers go to, and she fails spectacularly.
But this time the entire experience is too much for her (she’s struggles to understand escalators), and she ends up being traumatized. Natsu is disappointed as usual, but this time, Yoshi calls him out on his unreasonable expectations, and Natsu unexpectedly breaks down.
The second half of the episode ends up being essentially a revolving door of guilt tripping. But then Machi gets over it and all is well.
5. Ace Attorney
Surprisingly good episode for Ace Attorney this week, especially considering how bad the source material was. Shit had me impressed over Oldbag drama. Seriously, that’s impressive.
Still a bit rushed and still lacking in Penny, but if the rest of the series were at least this competent, I wouldn’t complain so much.
Though it still did have its share of questionable animation decisions.
6. Sousei no Onmyouji
Kind of an “eh” episode this week. We get some decent Mayura & Benio interaction, which inevitably leads to Mayura outshining Benio. Honestly, Mayura had nowhere to go but up considering how little we’ve seen and know of her. She still seems like a flat character, and despite her unique design, she doesn’t really strike me as a dark horse. Unlike similar characters, I’ve found myself placing Mayura in a strange place where she’s a more likable character than Benio, but I can’t in good conscious root for her to end up with Rokuro instead. Actually, I’ve found Rokuro to be a black hole of shipping potential: I just plain don’t give a fuck if he ends up with anyone.
We’re six episodes in and they still make it a big deal whenever Rokuro brings out his black talisman. You would think he would be more casual with it by now and learn to just whip it out and wreck things like Benio does. We know he gets really tired if he uses it a lot, but as far as drawbacks go, that’s not much. Really no excuse for him not to whip it out ASAP.