Seasonal Speedrun - Spring 2023 (KonoSuba: Megumin Edition/ Skip and Loafer/Hell's Paradise)

it's time for another one of these so here it is we'll be briefly covering three different animes that aired during the Spring season of 2023. for the most part the list has been arbitrarily decided upon the Only Rule here is that I wouldn't be picking animes that are part of a series that I haven't gotten started on yet so for an example I'm not covering Demon Slayer season 3 here because I haven't watched the two preceding Seasons or the movie other than that as I said earlier this list is arbitrarily decided upon there's going to be spoilers for all three of the animes that are listed in the title of this video so consider that your spoiler warning we'll begin with the Mega Man spin-off whose actual name is konosuba an explosion on this wonderful world exclamation mark I contemplated whether or not I should even bother covering this one because I wasn't sure if I'd have much to say on a comedy series like konosuba Beyond it was funny thankfully the fact that I watched the first season of konosuba many years ago came in handy here since it actually added more value to watching this spin-off the biggest thing is that I think the spin-off captures the essential Vibes surrounding Mega Man very well everything from there being a dedicated class to coming up with cringy monologues to Union having to do all the work in defending the carriages really lines up well with mega means Tendencies to talk a big game but end up not doing a whole lot 99 of the time the final episode is the best example of this where Union accidentally puts herself in a deadlock by paralyzing both the demon and herself megamine comes to a rescue and instead of just blowing up the demon she spends a whole lot of time reciting all the things Union told her the night before as she channels her explosion you can hear both Union screaming for death and the mind generally inconvenienced demon internally going over his streak of luck from the last couple days the anime does everything it can to downplay Mega means efforts in this final encounter and it's really great the side characters and how they interact with megaming contribute a lot to making the anime enjoyable as well back in her Town making means Fearless little sister and to a lesser extent her extremely passive aggressive mother and passionate father made for a funny little family Dynamic Mega mean deciding to commit her skill points to learning magic in order to save her sister but being quite stressed out because of it stood out to me especially because of the role Union plays during it for all the screen time he gets I actually don't have a whole lot to say about the super native pukurori I think a lot of the spotlight he gets in episode 3 is pretty funny but very little beyond that was memorable the complete degenerates of the axis sect were great and the weird relationship between them and mega mean where Mega mean refuses to join the sect but has no qualms with helping them recruit others stands as one of my favorite interactions in the whole anime of course you you can't talk about this spin-off for the talking about Union either she's my favorite character of the anime by quite a large margin I think her special Dynamic with mega mean where Union is simultaneously completely helpless without megamine but also spends a lot of time having to police Mega Man to make sure she isn't doing anything too stupid is probably my single favorite aspect of the entire anime the aforementioned Carriage debacle of episode 9 and Union cringing herself to death in episode 12 where what I consider to be the best moments in regards to this character for what it's worth I think the spin-off is fairly light on its callbacks to the original material this might sound a little weird to some people who watched it because once the anime makes its way over to the town of Axel you can hear Kazuma and aqua getting into Shenanigans constantly even if you never see them directly until the very very end of episode 12. but even though all these background appearances are so densely packed together near the end even from characters like darkness and whiz they're almost always in passing and never detract from the main story so despite the density the nature by which these callbacks presented helps make this spin-off feel stronger as an independent piece and not something that's being propped up on by a work that's already been done as a side note I also quite liked learning the origins behind the megaming staff and her iconic eye patch it's a cute little moment that adds a nice bit of detail to some of the most distinguishing components of her design all in all I really liked it if you watched any amount of konosuba then I think it's very much worth checking out I think it'll probably hold up okay for anyone that hasn't seen konosuba at least up until the anime gets to Axel since that's when it starts really leaning into its references to the original material but then again spin-offs are almost never intended for an audience outside of the core fan base so I think it's kind of a non-issue the second entry in today's list is Skip and loafer we need to preface this section of the video by saying that I generally don't like Slice of Life and Skip and loafer is no exception to that rule I don't hate it but I would also be a liar if I said that I was enjoying myself while watching it for me the main takeaway after having finished the anime was that Skip and loafer was one of the most Slice of Life Slice of Life things I have ever seen exactly what that sentence means is going to differ from person to person based on their own thoughts on Slice of Life as a whole when talking to a few of my friends who really enjoyed it they would describe Skip and loafer as Peak Slice of Life or something adjacent to that sentiment for them Skip and loafer seem to bring out all the things about the genre that they loved and put it out on display at a really great level but for me Skip and loafer displayed everything that I don't like about Slice of Life and wallowed in it it felt like there was genuinely no progression of any kind throughout the whole anime and all the happenings were so mundane that I could never find myself invested in the anime despite these perspectives being on on complete opposite ends of the spectrum both of these are still applicable as an interpretation of the line Skip and loafer was one of the most Slice of Life Slice of Life things I have ever seen for all the spotlight they receive I find the main character Duo of mitsumi and Shima to not be very interesting the main issue I had with mitsumi is that our social troubles seem to mostly resolve themselves on their own her anxiety being offset by the fact that so many people seem to like her straight out of the gate made things less interesting to watch and it never felt like any other conflicts had a meaningful weight behind them I think the one exception to this one would be in episode 6 when Shima says something to me to me without thinking twice and both of them end up worrying that they accidentally offended the other and start spending the rest of the episode overthinking this single interaction I did enjoy this one while the overthinking lasted Shima fares worse than bitsumi for me he almost feels engineered in a lab to be the most inoffensive character of all time maybe it's because so much of the anime is shown from bitumi's point of view but he's so nice to everybody and everybody loves him and he seems to have very little friction in his life yes there are his family issues but this one doesn't quite get the spotlight that I think it could have used the one time it's brought in as the central focal point in episode 11 was kinda neat but it doesn't last very long in the grand scheme of things so I don't have a whole lot to say about it there's also didika who pops in near the end but she didn't feel like a character that added much to the story I found her to also be wholly whelming her whole personality revolves around treating Shima poorly and this isn't done in any interesting way as far as I'm concerned she does have some backstory with Shima and he clearly doesn't like spending time with hidika but these elements of their relationship almost feel glanced over and underdeveloped the feeling I got when watching this character was that the anime seemed to want a bad guy for its story so it simply slotted one in I'm pretty sure one of the main points if not the main point of the anime is supposed to be about why a guy like Shima who could have his pick of the litter when it comes to friends it seems to enjoy spending so much time around mitsumi despite her ever-present anxiety and social awkwardness despite this due to never being able to invest myself into these characters and their conflicts I could never find myself caring about their dynamic there's been a lot of negativity so far but I do have a few nice things to say about Skip and loafer I think Mika was the best character in the anime mostly because the anime actually got me to care about her conflicts maybe it's because the anime made her conflicts feel more obvious and straightforward that it was able to sell this character to me the anime isn't afraid to Showcase her jealousies and insecurities and of how she feels the need to try so hard to do things that seem to come so naturally to others this even manifests in how she both views and treats people with the most notable case being helbika remembers people that she doesn't like whereas mitsumi will remember the people that did her kindness her little Dynamic with now is also pretty neat especially in how now saw bits of herself in Mika I also enjoyed kanichika's presence mostly because this character helped inject a little energy into the anime which I think it really needed in episode 11 his discussion with Shima about kanachika's end goal of all this screenwriting was something that really stood out to me in particular lastly while I know that I've been dunking on Shima a lot I do have something nice to say about him in episode 12 I thought the part where Shima begins addressing himself about his lack of goals or interest in himself was pretty good he can instantly know exactly what other people want from him and give them exactly that but he can't do anything for himself that part of his character in particular stands out to me because it kind of fits the bill for why he felt like the character who was engineered in a lab to be the most inoffensive character of all time because he's doing it to himself intentionally Shima even describes himself as feeling attacked when he meets people who are passionate for something it's a very specific and honest review of himself that made me finally care a bit about the character even if this moment did come at the latest possible time it kind of feels a little mean to pick on Skip and loafer because the target audience clearly isn't me and even when I do look at the list of things that I didn't enjoy I can kind of understand the intent behind these things most of this genre is defined by telling stories about Everyday People in everyday situations and I can't really knock on the anime for doing its job simply put if you enjoy Slice of Life then you'll probably enjoy skipping loafer but if you don't enjoy Slice of Life then I would recommend passing on this one last on the docket for today is Hell's Paradise in the long run the thing about hell's Paradise that stuck out to me the most is its visuals and that's not necessarily in terms of Animation it was perfectly fine in that department nothing mind-blowing it's the presented imagery that I ended up liking a lot there's the incessant use of flowers in a Land of death starting with the corpses blooming postmortem or the tencent regenerating through a series of roots growing out of their bodies the bastardization of Buddhist and Taoist imagery shown in the monsters at the start not to mention the Hideous creatures with humans Parts sticking out of them in the most uncomfortable manner ever the praying trees that were once villagers gathering around the center of the island during their last living moments the gazebo in the center of a calm and beautiful pool of water where the tencent gather and enjoyed themselves amidst the monstrosities inhabiting this land hell even the bugs I hate bugs and seeing these freakish bugs with human parts grafted onto them in his straight up nightmare fuel for me but it works it adds to the nightmarish ecosystem of this island in a unique way there's something simultaneously captivating it horrifying about the imagery on this island and it's all great stuff going away from style we can talk a bit about the substance gabimaru's motivation of realizing that the only reason he subconsciously refuses to die is because he wants to be back with his wife is interesting enough and it helps that it kind of shines through here and there in his interactions with other people there's the most obvious example of this where sugary helps him realize this fact in the first place there's also a cool little dichotomy with kabimaru where his ultimate priority is to get back to his wife who sparked emotions back into his life and in order to do this he tries to deny his own emotions to power through the obstacles in front of him my favorite example of this is the moment where gabimaru immediately grabs May the moment she begins to speak demanding information about tencent and The Elixir after a moment he backs off apologizes then asks again in a much more respectful tone it's kind of a cute little reminder of the things his wife spoke of of all the side characters I think the one that I like the most is the Bandit Chief chobe this is heavily supported by the fact that is assigned executioner is his own younger brother Tomah who became an executioner just to free his own brother aside from this Dynamic once Tau gets introduced as a concept in the anime it's revealed that chobe is able to see Tau and how it manifests in some of the inhabitants of the island all without prior knowledge or training in this matter and he seems to be quite Adept at it more so than a lot of the other people on the island who can do that it's very Joseph Joe star of him one decision that specifically stuck out as odd to me is the very heavy investment in the death of tenza prior to the episode in which he dies this being eight his only relevant appearance was in trying to escape the island with durugai discovering that the island is specifically designed to prevent this and being forced to return it's a solid sequence but mostly for dudigai rather than tenza given her Perpetual inner conflict about whether she should live on to continue the legacy of her entire Village or if she should die as Divine punishment for inadvertently causing the death of her entire Village the visuals of the tentacle monster attacking the ship was pretty neat too due to this fairly short amount of screen time prior to episode 8 I didn't really get all that attached to this character so I ended up not feeling a whole lot about his death when it happened all the effort that went into putting a lot of detail into his backstory as well as the emphasis on his sacrifice to save Shion and nurugai doesn't necessarily feel like a wasted effort but it also didn't feel like it hit the mark in general I didn't find any of the fights to be too interesting with the exception of the very final one that takes place over the course of episodes 12 and 13. I found the fight to be mostly just fine throughout episode 12. at that point it gave me a lot of the same Vibes as the fight against the giant criminal in episode 6 where it's a seemingly unbeatable opponent with a single weakness and the entire fight revolves around trying to exploit this single weakness for a critical blow it's more like solving a puzzle than an actual fight Shion flying in at the end of episode 12 to join the fight was great mostly because he's a really cool character and that I'm happy to see again they also managed to tie in tenza's Death from earlier with shion's character during the fight and I like the way that xion came to interpret it although I don't think it retroactively adds more weight to tenza's death I also enjoy the shot of Xi'an standing in a distance in the field of flowers that came in the wake of the tencent's death the combination of a decent spectacle with a return of a familiar face mix the final fight the one that stood out the most to me I could see myself watching a season 2 of this should that ever drop I don't really care too much about the fights but the imagery of Hell's paradise and some of the characters I enjoyed like Shion and chobe make me interested enough to see how things keep going unlike the other two enemies mentioned in this video I don't really have any qualifications to tie to a recommendation mostly because I can't think of any I enjoyed it well enough if I had to sort these three animes by enjoyment I would rank these as the mega Min spin-off hell's paradise and Skip and loafer in the order of most enjoyed to at least enjoyed ironically enough Skip and loafer felt like the anime that I had the most thoughts on while the mega mean spin-off was the least and hell's Paradise still finding itself caught between the two it's funny how things pan out sometimes and that's it for the video thanks for watching if you enjoyed it then please consider liking it and maybe even subscribing to the channel while I don't know if it'll be the next video I do plan on making a standalone video on Heavenly delusions I've also begun work on the JoJo video although that one won't be complete anytime in the near future that'll be it for me once again thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Moony

Views: 47

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Id: KJjRRfID148

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2023