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EP. REVIEW: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? (SukaSuka)

^^ Way to go far too in depth with something that onto happened for 2 minutes.

I agree that the episode was particularly off as far as the tonal inconsistency. This was mainly due to the fact that they kept injecting the rom-com tropes that were distracting from their attempts to set up a potentially serious and emotional challenge for blue haired girl to survive the coming battle.

We already had the exact same sexy-time jokes in the last episode, and they get retread here for reasons that we can only assume have to do with the writers' desire to reinforce the rom-com nature of the show. Blue haired girl spends a bunch of time at the start of the episode reliving the sex-massage that the MC gave her last episode and her moaning/orgasm, and much heavy blushing and squealing ensues. She asks our nameless horde of little girls what happened to MC, and they innocently inform her that he is "sleeping with" one of the other girls (silver haired girl this time), and she goes into a fit of jealousy and runs over there to find out what he's up to. Later, orange haired girl once again (and seemingly totally out of the blue) states that maybe the MC is sexually interested in the younger girls in the warehouse. Then towards the end, blue haired girl indicates that she wants to marry the MC.

I think at this point, even Theron would have a hard time denying that this series is within an inch of being a full blown harem romantic comedy. Another episode like this would confirm that. I mean, the last two episodes have devoted significant screen time to the MC being teased by the girls about his sexuality or giving a sexual massage to his primary love interest that included plenty of fanservice shots of her half naked body, or MC being sexually preyed upon by troll girl, or lingering shots of the various young teen girls in their lingere talking about MC as a potential romantic interest.

These elements have bogged down the sci-fi elements and any emotional depth that we could have already set up for the battle that could end blue haired girl's life. I feel like we should be connecting with her more on a personal level and learning more about her relationship with her peers and her philosophical understanding of her place in the world. Instead, most of the episode's content has revolved around her potential romance with MC.

They also haven't yet fixed the problem wherein the younger girls are basically one big blob that moves about from room to room with no real distinctions for individual characters. This episode, I even noticed that it seemed like the animators had simply copied and pasted one particular green haired girl to make two girls. If that's the level of care they are putting toward the "gaggle," I think its probably clear that they don't serve much of a purpose other than as background.

I did like the scene where MC was doing "maintenance" on blue haired girl's weapon. It was a creative and pretty magical scene and (aside from the quasi marriage proposal) was the one time during the episode where the tone was spot on. Also, I did like the scene between blue haired girl and lizard guy. It was good to see some interaction between one of the girls and someone other than MC, since I think the show was starting to get unnecessarily insular with its focus on the warehouse and that doesn't make sense to me as there seems to be a pretty amazing fantasy world that has been set up here. It would be a waste to not see the characters exploring that more and interacting with some of these various creatures inhabiting that world.

On an off-note the translations are still driving me up the wall.

クトリ・ノタ・セニオリス= Kutori or Ctholly

Nordhmmer wrote:

On an off-note the translations are still driving me up the wall. クトリ・ノタ・セニオリス= Kutori or Ctholly

Not according to both the official anime site and the author's personal site, per my previous post in this thread: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=4909433#4909433

I might check out the LN at some point. It might depend on how good this coming battle is.

@ChibiKangaroo I never said they weren't notable. I was pushing back on your implication it took up a much greater amount of the runtime than it did. And yes much of the discussion in the new feature focused on those aspects, as the most recent episode it covered (the second) was the source of much of them. The aspects are definitely noticeable but they are far from the core of the story. The ultimate direction will be apparent soon enough, so let's see where it goes and whose instincts are more prescient.

As for the so-called harem aspects, you are free to have whatever definition you want, but calling the generally accepted definition as pertains to anime the interpretation of just "some people" is very misleading. Does anyone doubt that, outside of head canon, that Kutori/Chtholly will be the love interest? He hasn't expressed any romantic interest in any of the other girls, and not much of any towards her. I think very few guys are focusing on the talking part of the scene you mentioned, and even in terms of fanservice, only the shot looking at Ithea's legs really qualified as such, as the other shots were very matter of fact, as mentioned by others earlier in the thread.

It may not be 50, but a few dozen kids isn't much less. Frankly I'd rather more of the effort be put into the main and important supporting characters than the background characters.

In that context, yes setting up several attractive girls who tease the hero sexually, hit on him, engage in overtly sexual acts, are implied to "sleep with him," and profess romantic interest in him amongst themselves is quite close to the line, if there is one, and I don't care how the MC is shown to react to all of this teasing because his reaction is never the point. It's always about whether the audense could independently imagine themselves in his place and going hog wild. That's usually the purpose of such shows.

zrnzle500 wrote:

@ChibiKangaroo I never said they weren't notable. I was pushing back on your implication it took up a much greater amount of the runtime than it did. And yes much of the discussion in the new feature focused on those aspects, as the most recent episode it covered (the second) was the source of much of them. The aspects are definitely noticeable but they are far from the core of the story. The ultimate direction will be apparent soon enough, so let's see where it goes and whose instincts are more prescient. As for the so-called harem aspects, you are free to have whatever definition you want, but calling the generally accepted definition as pertains to anime the interpretation of just "some people" is very misleading. Does anyone doubt that, outside of head canon, that Kutori/Chtholly will be the love interest? He hasn't expressed any romantic interest in any of the other girls, and not much of any towards her. I think very few guys are focusing on the talking part of the scene you mentioned, and even in terms of fanservice, only the shot looking at Ithea's legs really qualified as such, as the other shots were very matter of fact, as mentioned by others earlier in the thread. It may not be 50, but a few dozen kids isn't much less. Frankly I'd rather more of the effort be put into the main and important supporting characters than the background characters.

Well they could be doing a much better job focusing in the core of the story but instead they have focused on romanic stuff. Even Chiibi, who is loving this show, has indicated that it has seemed like a romance show to her (she just likes that feature.)

You haven't provided any evidence of a "generally accepted" definition of harem. I provided well known and widely accepted dictionaries' take on it, which line up perfectly with what I said. However, for whatever reason some anime fans make up their own definitions for things that they feel suit them better. That's what is going on here. In efforts to show some deference (even though I disagree) I am indicating that perhaps the show isn't there yet but is very close. In that context, yes setting up several attractive girls who tease the hero sexually, hit on him, engage in overtly sexual acts, are implied to "sleep with him," and profess romantic interest in him amongst themselves is quite close to the line, if there is one, and I don't care how the MC is shown to react to all of this teasing because his reaction is never the point. It's always about whether the audense could independently imagine themselves in his place and going hog wild. That's usually the purpose of such shows.

Does anyone doubt that, outside of head canon, that Kutori/Chtholly will be the love interest? He hasn't expressed any romantic interest in any of the other girls, and not much of any towards her.

By taking a series that has been described as Fantasy Grave of the Fireflies and saying it's a harem series when it's not is the most insulting parts of your post.

zrnzle500 wrote:

Does anyone doubt that, outside of head canon, that Kutori/Chtholly will be the love interest? He hasn't expressed any romantic interest in any of the other girls, and not much of any towards her.

Does anyone doubt that, outside of head canon, that Naru will be the love interest? Keitaro hasn't expressed any romantic interest in any of the other girls and not much of any towards her.