Episode 18:
omgomomgomg
I love this so much ^^
But let's start with the bad first: The flashback. As I said before: Whatever backstory Miranjo and Bosse have, it can only be an explanation, NOT an excuse. Hey, bosse, you ass, sacrificzing your son, letting your current wife get murdered, and many more, is not okay if you want to save someone else. Choosing Miranjo as your "dearest" just makes you a massive asshole. Is there something you can do to help her? Okay,do that. Does it come at the expense of your own family? Bad luck, then. Seriously, this guy makes me angry and I wonder what more twist there could be to have me change my mind.
As for the good things:
I just loved how Ouken took the 2nd lightning on his own choosing, leading it in a way that made it non-lethal. It's amazing how this anime introduces characters with rather lame design and 1-dimensional attitude, and then later they're revealed to have lots of depth. Do you think the inner-dialogue between Despa and Ouken was sincere or was it a trap to get Ouken the chance to stab Despa? I'm not sure.
Bouji's final burst of shounen energy was great, too. One last attack, mass-hitting Ouken until half of his armor was shattered. Really badass moment.
And FINALLY Kage snaps and can no longer listen to his friend saying "no, don't come, it's dangerous!". Of fucking course it's dangerous, but it's dangerous for you, too, Bouji, so here I come and I don't care if I die! <3 Kage is the best. And fortunately he's getting some power upgrade, although it remains to be seen what this can actually do.
Btw. I love the whole "gods walking on earth and waging war against humans" setting in the flashback. This anime has so much interesting lore, I keep saying it, but: Give me an open-world videogame on a big budget and let me explore this world Zelda: BotW-style :>
Edit: Oh, btw was there a more gruesome implication when the flashback showed little Miranjo in her room, then the shitty people came upstairs ... and then the camera wouldn't show her anymore, only the reaction faces of Daida and the snake guy. Are we supposed to believe the villagers raped her? Was weird how they cut away from the scene like that.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
I wonder if Bosse's kingdom is just the current version of the asshole kingdom. And they've been plotting it's destruction all this time.
I don't know how else that this whole plot could be relevant to Miranjo's backstory.
Sadly, Bosse's recanting was far less interesting than I'd hoped it would be. The whole country 'fighting gods' thing doesn't strike a cord because we haven't been introduced to any of them or had any dealings with that until now. People taking advantage of other's kindness is novel, but the idea that an entire culture just willingly uplifted and was then fleeced by a lower one is so naïve as to stretch belief. By itself, not satisfying, but I'm sure they'll do something with it in the future.
Strange that Hiling just told Apeas to go and do what he wants after fixing him up. I hope she's (still) shook, because that seems like some questionable reasoning, though he did save her once. Her new complete confidence in Boji feels abrupt as well.
We end in a dire straight after a simplistic fight and some jobbing, and Kage gets a random power up to close it out.
As simply as I can put it, Ousama Ranking is no longer giving me what I want out of a quality shounen. The fights (action) are bare bones with little technicality, the lore is haphazardly expanding without tying back to the central story or themes, and characters feel more like they are there to deliver commentary than develop or grow. The two who do are currently confined to a (mirror in a)chair and a prison cell. Until Boss/Miranjo's story starts moving again, this series may well remain in a rut.
I'm glad to watch it, but I'm no longer excited for new episodes. Those first five were almost perfect and set my expectations maybe too high...
LOL
I couldn't disagree harder, and if not for how ridiculous it'd be, I might think you just wrote that to spite meOh well. Bummer that you don't enjoy it much anymore.
I think the naivety of the wizard-country can be explained by this basically being a classical fairytale story. Ofc, it's not realistic. But that's not the genre for realism.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
It's still good, but my enthusiasm for it has significantly cooled since the first dozen or so episodes. I'm glad you are loving it. I'm just not as fired up as I once was and was trying to organize exactly why. When its good, it has some impressive highs, but that makes the lows stick out all the more to me.
episode 19:
Ouken is such a great, creepy villain. Powerful, but not actually that powerful. Howevr in combination with his immortality, he becomes a true monster.
Had to lol at "oh no, I can't stop Boji's bleeding" - dude, if Ouken rammed his broad sword into Boji's little body, Boji must have several pierce organs as well as crushed bones![]()
Still don't care for Miranjo. Yes, terrible what happened to her. Doesn't give her the right to murder other people that aren't directly involved with her misery.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Really enjoyed the boat scene, with Miranjo holding the rope keeping Kage's soul from crossing over fully. Some more redemptive qualities, deserved or not.
Nice to see the big four in action for once. Surprised that none of them committed to restraining Ouken except shield guy for a second, and instead simply kept inflicting ineffectual wounds? Oh well, the menace is real.
Seeing how this has played out, it is weird that Desha(sp?) (no. 2 king) just turned and left earlier when advised to do so when clearly no one is capable of restraining Ouken in that area. Wasn't one of his goals to kill Miranjo, anyway? Boji probably wouldn't have interfered with that- she's just a mirror, after all.
episode 20:
oh myThe good old Hidan-death
Being immortal really sucks once you realize that it doesn't protect you from being trapped eternally.
Bosse is super strong, really wonder if Boji can keep up. One hit and he's dead. That said, I still don't understand Bosse's behavior at all. Sacrificing everything, including his two wives and two sons for Miranjo's sake. That's just so nonsensical. And I still don't feel sorry for Miranjo with all the flashbacks. I understand her. But I don't think her actions are right.
No idea how this ends.
One complaint: The heroes survive a whole lot of full body piercings, that's Bleach-levels of bad lol
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Remember Ouken pierces his oponents missing vitals to bleed them to death, as he enjoys their slow death.
Feels like a plot device, I know.
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
I kept expecting Bosse to just bat him into orbit. Especially after he crushed him into a ball.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Episode 21:
Amazing!
The battle was super epic and it was a nice surprise to see Boji win. I love when the final boss isn't some ultimate superior being, in this case Ouken actually was the bigger danger to Boji. Although in the end it was classic "I'm SUPER Vegeta!" hybris, where speed trumps power. Boji's speed and precision trumped Bosse's overwhelming power. I loved how Boji chipped away at Bosse's weapon's structural integrity until it burst into pieces.
Now, the part that fell flat on me was anything involving Bosse and Miranjo. They STILL haven't shown me any justification for all the evil (and evil it was) they committed against others. yes, we know Miranjo had to suffer a lot, and we know that Bosse acted for someone else's sake. But neither makes it okay to cause death and suffering to countless other people! I cannot get emotional when there's such a clearly egotistical motif to these two characters. The ending scene of Miranjo being swallowed by the devil and transferred to a hell-like environment is tragic, too, but again, she caused suffering to so many others and ddn't give a shit about them. Now I can't give one about her.
Still, I guess this isn't over yet. Two more episodes to come if I saw correctly.The final goal seems to be the rescue of Miranjo's soul from thad devil. Did we already find out about why that devil appeared to begin with? I'm not sure whether that was shown already. Or was that simply the scene where Bosse made a deal and sacrifized Boji's strength? But how did that involve Miranjo?
Anyway, this anime is close to truly hit the landing, my only wish is that the last two episodes give me a reason to feel sorry for Miranjo and why her actions were actually not as evil as, right now, they still appear.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
They both made deals with the devil that he'd claim their souls on death. They died. So he came to collect.
Maybe she fully sacrificed her soul to the demon to save his? Like maybe the demon can only keep soul for a certain period, but she doomed herself forever to save Bosse from the demon completely.
Peace.