Love After World Domination

Episode 9

Another great episode from Love After World Domination. This week we get a Desumi-focused episode but not quite in the way we have previously, with the focus being more on her family – particularly her father and her sister – and how they react to the changes in her life.

Her father takes up much of the comedic side of the episode. It is a very interesting creative decision to have Desumi be a “dynasty” sort of character but in the space of a tokusatsu villain organization. Her exceptional success contrasted with her father's general inability to go further beyond the “random mook” level makes for a fun dynamic. He is a true believer who wants her to achieve everything in Gekkō that he never could, while she clearly is beginning to see other possibilities for herself. We get some hilarious outbursts from him, particularly regarding her treatment of the bundles of collectible Bosslars that he himself never could attain. The best bits were his reactions to Fudo's attacks which is treated almost like an art form here; after all, it's an important skill that the nameless goons in toku shows need to master.

The emotional heft of the episode mostly rests on the shoulders of Desumi's sister Urami. This episode is as much about her coming of age as it is Desumi's. Obviously she begrudges Fudo but it's not exactly for who Fudo is or how he makes Desumi feel, it's the fact that he is changing Desumi at all. Urami needs for Desumi to be unchanging, forever on call to protect her in times of crisis, because she herself is afraid of change. Desumi proves by the episode's end that the changes she is experiencing are merely adding to her life and have not taken away her edge – she can and will still protect her little sister. But Urami has to face the fact that, like all young people, she must grow and self-actualize rather than idolize. Urami has to become her own hero (or villain) on her path to adulthood.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Love After World Domination is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.