Pass the Monster Meat, Milady!

Episode 8

When MM debuted, the animation certainly was nothing special, but also didn't look exceptionally messy. As the weeks have gone on, steadily and then not-so-steadily, the animation quality has slipped further and further into the realm of the hastily drawn, and “just kind of off.” And no week has that been more abundantly clear than this week. Have I seen worse, even just this year? Absolutely—among others, I watched Ameku M.D. and the second season of Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, after all. Still, this week is, visually, by far the worst yet we've seen for MM.

See example:

Incidentally, I wonder if any of the animators who worked on the above example participated in the Frieren looking up meme.

It should go without saying that I hope this trend of the MM episodes looking progressively worse doesn't continue. But I'm not exactly optimistic. I've only seen one other anime that was helmed by Asahi Production (although to be fair, that's a short list of titles), the hilariously named Bogus Skill fruitmaster ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~. To quote myself in that my review of the series, “I was never wow-ed by these visuals, which even in their best moments look, eh, fine I guess. I liked the bright and vibrant color palette; I just wish it was used on more stylish forms. There were low moments as well, of course, but for the most part, the visuals never rose above being serviceable.” There's still a few weeks for me to change my mind, but if you were to ask me right now which show overall looks better, Fruitmaster or MM, I'd go with Fruitmaster. But to reiterate: Fruitmaster isn't a particularly good looking show, which makes that terrible news for MM.

Worse yet, the visuals—in all their terrible “glory”—are probably the most memorable thing about this episode. “But Kennedy, what about Melphiera teaming up with Aristide to get rid of the monster bird things?” Yeah, what about it indeed! Nothing about this scrap felt particularly exciting, let alone memorable.

Still, the whole point of it is for Melphiera to wonder about the dangers of the pure magic extract. She does, after all, functionally use it as a bomb in this episode, so yeah, I'd certainly say it's extremely dangerous. But she just ends up shrugging it off, because Aristide says (and I'm paraphrasing), “It's okay baby, cause you're only going to use a little bit at a time and you'll use it for good. Like lighting grills. That's good.” And just as suddenly as she realized just how dangerous the magic energy is, Melphiera also decides that Aristide is right and she's stopped worrying. It's ridiculous, but unfortunately, it's exactly the kind of careless writing I've come to expect from MM.

In case it wasn't obvious, this week was the lowest point yet for MM. And as the weeks go by and we inch closer and closer to the end, I'm losing more and more confidence that things are going to take a turn for the better any time soon. There are good episodes in this show, and even now I don't think it's impossible that it could get back to leaning on its best qualities (its protagonists and their fluffy romance, in which they bond over a shared love of unconventional food). But I'm at a point now where I'm thinking I'd just be happy to see even one more episode that's at least okay before the series ends—even a crumb of charm MM had earlier into its run will suffice.

Rating:

Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.