My project to rewatch all anime ranked great to prove it is indeed great continues apace. For BanG Dream! this meant the latest releases, the 2nd Film Live and Morfonication oav's, which were excellent and easy to appreciate a second time even though they only came out recently.
Shikkakumon is more important, though, because it's the first season of the show, so it's make or break, this season has to be good or there's nothing else to like about the show. It was great. Though the pacing was a little fast, you could see they were cutting material in order to get to the more exciting parts of the story within 12 episodes, it's all forgivable. The action wasn't just flashy, it was very cerebral. Gaius doesn't overpower his opponents, he comes up with schemes that kills them with very little power involved. It's to the point that so long as anyone is following his scheme they can be as effective as Gaius/Matthius himself. The romance is adorable because the two (Matthias and Lurie) like each other but are convinced the other doesn't like them so stay quiet about their feelings. Ah, young love. And best of all is the comedy. Iris is a walking comedy generator, but Matthias doing crazy things or Lurie mucking up her romance by being too shy is comedy gold too. Iris acting so 'stupefied' that the demons are convinced they accidentally overdosed her with the spell, though in fact that's just her normal self, is so perfect.
Making up for gaps in power with cleverness is much better than being an overpowered protagonist, and people being excited over every little romantic thing is much better than endless sex scenes (I'm looking at you Isekai Meikyuu), and jokes about Iris are much better than, say, Teppen!. Shikkakumon puts together such a nice package in so short a time. If only it were longer it would be ranked much higher, but alas.
I also finished my rewatch of Shakugan no Shana. Though everything looked pretty, the last season is quite a mess. Things keep happening suddenly and for seemingly no reason. Lots of people die in a squabble over nothing, apparently, because by the end both teams acknowledge the reasonableness of the other side. Then why not stop fighting and start talking things out to begin with? Oh well, the first season and the S oav's are where most of the quality of this series can be found. Everything past that should be seen as bonus.
The second episode of Morfonication features an amazing song, 'Yorube no Sunny, Sunny.' It's as bright and happy as the title would imply, with the constantly repeated refrain "I have a dream," in English no less, which has so much inherent buoyancy to it that you can't help but congratulate her for it every time she sings it. This is a 5-star music hall of fame song, the only thing holding it back now is I haven't heard it the requisite 100 times, but that will change by tomorrow. It's the first BanG Dream! song not sung by Poppin' Party I've grown to like, so Morfonica is really something special. So recently introduced, they're already the second best band in the franchise.
I've reached the final chapter of Live A Live. I would not recommend paying $55 for this game unless you are terminally bored. Playing Fire Emblem again would probably be more fun. The music is good, but the graphics are nothing special (not like Xenoblade 3 which looked amazing), the gameplay sucks (basically find the best position that lets you use your strongest move over and over again until all enemies are defeated, requiring no more cognitive skill than solving a jigsaw puzzle), and the plot is laughably simplistic/childish. The princess has been kidnapped by demons, go to the demon castle and save her! Stuff like that, all narrated with a straight face. Actually there's a huge plot twist in that story, but it too is far too predictable. It makes me feel like you should go with no plot at all, like 'get bananas!' in Donkey Kong Country or something, if you're going to be that threadbare about things. No plot at all is less embarrassing than boring, predictable, shallow ones. And so many plots are complete ripoffs of other stories. Like the far future timeline, it may as well be a word for word reenactment of 2001 Space Odyssey. But oh well, I paid for the game so I may as well get my money's worth and beat it.
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