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Eromanga Sensei
Episode 12

by Christopher Farris,

How would you rate episode 12 of
Eromanga Sensei ?
Community score: 3.9

What is left to say about Eromanga Sensei at this point? The show had some strong concepts at the beginning of its season and actually did a lot of things right in spite of itself. However, issues central to its construction and indulging the worst habits of its genre have ultimately dragged it down to pure mediocrity. The series makes so many concessions in the name of pandering that it becomes clear it isn't worried about broader appeal. Eromanga Sensei does its thing, knowing there is a dedicated audience who will be here for it.

At least this apparent season finale is pretty alright. It doesn't start that way, and for the first half or so of the episode, I mostly watched with dread. There's a supremely uncomfortable scene at the beginning where Masamune practices petting Sagiri on the head, which manages to take one of the cutest moe tropes and fill it with confounding sexual tension. The portion after that, with Sagiri doing her usual thing of exploiting characters for sexy art poses, isn't much better. It's yet another excuse for swimsuit fanservice from Elf and Muramasa, and all the embarrassment gags you've seen many times before. I can't even say it's the most entertaining sexy Twister game I've seen in a harem anime before, and that should be a pretty narrow qualifier.

Fortunately, Masamune's friend from the bookstore, Tomoe, appears for the second half of the episode to infuse some life into these escapades by delivering porn to Masamune! She gets a very quick hi-then-bye scene, mostly just to remind us she exists and take a bow for the ending, but giving Masamune a doujin based on his latest novel proves to be the comic catalyst this episode needs. Sagiri's satisfied background reactions to finding out someone has produced fan-content based on her work contrast well with Masamune's initial embarrassment, and just getting her to read the book leads to some funny scenes. The show actually mines an effective kind of humor out of Masamune's conflict over letting a girl Sagiri's age read the thing, despite the fact that it's based on her art, and her own works aren't too far behind in the lewdness scale.

Somehow, here at the end, Eromanga Sensei has finally found a decent voice for its risqué sex comedy. Just putting pubescent girls in saucy situations and letting them be embarrassed for the audience's titillation was never going to work as actual joke fuel, and any humor the show has done well at this point tended to fall outside the sexy elements, usually having more to do with the novel-composition side of the story. By crisscrossing the raunchy elements with the characters' content-creation, the show finally figures out how to make its fanservice funny.

Sagiri getting embarrassed at the sexualized head-petting was not funny, but watching her go off inspired and half-cocked to produce her own pornographic manga is amusing in its absurdity, as are everyone's reactions to it. Things get even better after Masamune actually reads the thing, resulting in a great ongoing gag about proper penis placement that the show extracts tons of humor from. The jokes in this context work because we're not just leering at naked middle schoolers and laughing at their embarrassment; we're going along with the absurdity of these fifteen-year-olds who write fanservicey novels for a living suddenly realizing that they aren't nearly as worldly as they like to think. When they end up calling Megumi (also back for a quick bow before the finale) to get her inept input on the matter, her own lack of knowledge is a lot funnier then her humiliation along the same type of revelations was back in episode six.

The somewhat unique handling of this humor carries the scene, even with more played-out gags like the girls wanting to strip Masamune. There's an enthusiastic energy to the comic proceedings that the show hasn't had for a while now, and I found myself laughing harder at this than any prior episode of Eromanga Sensei, especially when the whole thing climaxes with Muramasa finally drawing up some full-frontal male nudity—in the form of Michelangelo's David, a pretty brilliant way to get everything out there in a TV anime. Her footnote, that as students of art on some level they should all know this, caps the joke off effectively.

So after that raunchy round-table, it's time for everyone else to bow out too. Masamune walks Muramasa and Elf out, and Sagiri gets up just enough courage to open her window to the outside world and wave goodbye to them. It's a nicely understated ending for a story that clearly isn't actually over (and this first season's popularity could indeed prove the way for a second season), and the show having even a modicum of restraint in its otherwise big moments shows some growth, at least. At least the disparate halves of this episode let me part with the show in all its ups and downs. The first half was pretty much what I've come to expect from it in this bland later part of its run, but in sending it off, I almost kinda liked Eromanga Sensei.

Rating: B+

Eromanga Sensei is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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