The tumultuous times of Ryoko Mitsurugi continue and this
time she’s going up against her toughest opponent yet: unrequited love. But before she can even think about
confessing her feelings for her Senpai, Tatsuya, she’s got a mystery to solve
on a haunted island before leading a band of Magical Girls (and Shizuma) to
rescue a pair of young corporate Heirs.
Ryoko might be up to all challenges but there’s one even she might be unprepared
for: her own broken heart.
Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School isnt a good show but
I have been pretty lenient on it due to my love for the Manga.
I like the characters a lot and the initial
concept of the K-Fight System is great.
However, both of those can only get you so far and in this penultimate
set of episodes, the cracks are starting to show.
What’s even more worrisome is that we barely
had any Magical Solvania stuff today outside of one bad dream sequence.
So normally taking that out of the equation
would be cause for celebration.
It's too
bad then that two of the three episodes are still not great and a third is
doing the one thing I’ve been wondering if the show would from the get go: just
rehash an entire arc from the Manga almost beat for beat.
Given this is a show about cute school girls who battle
each other with deadly-ish weapons, a beach episode was inevitable and here
it’s pretty standard issue.
Everyone
looks good (especially Ryoko) and there was some fun with Shizuma just wanting
to break watermelons cause it’s a beach trip.
However, what could have been a fun stand alone involving an actual
haunted island with ghosts and what not just turned into another pointless
diversion with whatever Corporate Foundation that’s been popping up here and
there and a brief appearance by Nagumo, who is basically the Tuxedo Mask of
this series: showing up and doing one little thing before just disappearing
after a few words.
How does a show with
this much promise screw up a beach episode and make it boring?
Things didn’t get much better in what turned into a
follow up to Ryoko’s Magical Girl Theater Performance last week.
The plot of this one was all over the place
with a bratty kid who missed his parents and decided to act out while Ryoko
angrily tried to reach him at his sisters request.
Why the hell are high school kids getting
involved with this kind of crap anyway?
Why cant this show find tough student opponents for Ryoko, Shizuma and
Ayane to square off with while occasionally sparing with each other?
Even the sight of the many girls of Real Bout
High School (plus poor Shizuma) dressed up as 7 Magical Girls feels more groan
inducing than funny.
Also Miyuki
continues to have that same dial up modem sounding stare with zero character
development.
What is she doing here?
But my biggest grievance is Episode 10.
In the Manga, Ryoko and Tatsuya are tapped to
take part in a play as part of the School Festival.
During this time, Ryoko finds out Tatsuya is
childhood friends with Theater Club President, Shiori Gotoh, and that there
might be a hint of romantic feelings between them.
Since she’s also in love with Tatsuya, this
weighs heavily on Ryoko, eventually leading to a really well done emotional
breakdown in my favorite volume of the Manga during a fight.
No wonder I felt a strange case of Deju Vu
watching Episode 10 cause it’s THE EXACT SAME THING!!!!
The only difference is that there’s very
little humor and while I do like the performance of Ryokos English VA during
her breakdown in front of Shizuma, the whole experience felt dull and lacking
and tonally very different from everything that’s come before.
It’s also muddies the waters of whether this
Anime is meant to be a sequel or reboot of the Manga cause yeah, they dealt
with this very matter in the Manga and it got resolved (Spoilers: Tatsuya’s in
love with Shiori but she doesn’t feel the same way, it’s a pretty funny bit
actually).
Ugh, this set of episodes hurt to watch.
I’m trying to give Real Bout High School the
benefit of the doubt and it even dialed back the Isekai element that shouldn’t
be here at all.
But when the stories get
tiresome and annoying or boring and the writers just decide to say screw it and
needlessly adapt a story arc done much better in the Manga, it says more about
the chaotic and unfocused mess this adaption has been, even though there’s
stuff about it I do like.
I’d say I’ll
keep an open mind for Next Weeks finale but considering the Isekai storyline
was on a break this week, it’ll probably be front loaded into the final
episodes.
Still, you’ll have the final
results of Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School this coming Wednesday right here
at the Gundam Anime Corner.
*Quick Heads Up: Yes the final part is coming a bit
early because I’ll be taking a little trip over the weekend and wont be back
til Monday. Don’t worry you’ll still get
a special review the following Friday but yeah, Real Bout High School Series
Finale This Wednesday, see ya then.*
No comments:
Post a Comment