Love Live! S1 (EP 10)-never fear, fan service is here

Tenth episode of Love Live! S1 is the much anticipated training camp episode that every high school club series has. One thing that set’s Love Live’s one apart is how laid back it is. So laid back that it comes across as purely a fan service episode. This episode should really be called Fan-service Galore and not No Sempai allowed!

When I first saw the episode title I thought, we’re gonna be short on a few of the girls. But nope, not the case what so ever, all nine girls were present. It’s just that in this episode there will be no sempai’s or kohai’s, just friends, equals. Their goal for doing this is to boost teamwork. I’ve seen plenty of sports series where they don’t abandon the sempai/kohai system and their teamwork is pretty solid. This move was cute but in a lot of ways unnecessary. Have no idea why they had to do it.

So let’s talk about why I initially thought this to be a training camp episode. Really quite simple, everything adds up nicely. The middle of summer, the blazing sun, the scorching heat, a school club, a big competition right round the corner, what better time than this to have the girls go on a training camp. There was no training, just the girls enjoying themselves on the beach and bonding with each other. And how can I forget, a whole lot fan service for the audience. I’ve seen comments online where they say the fan service is at a minimum, sure there weren’t all that many panty/boob shots but Love Live! isn’t selling sexiness they’re banking on moe. Moe in itself is fan service. If this episode contributes to the bigger picture what so ever I wouldn’t label it as a full episode of fan service but it doesn’t. We get a beach scene in daylight, an osen scene at dusk followed by a pillow fight at night. With such a line up, can’t really go asking for plot progression. Can’t be too greedy now can I?!

This episode also hammers in just how rich Maki’s family is. Her family’s summer house that the girls are camping at can easily pass as a fancy beach side resort. The beach as the front yard and an osen in the back. And that’s how you enjoy life. In an earlier episode (4?) we found out that her family is well off and owns a hospital but this episode showed just just how off she is. I mean just in case the luxurious house doesn’t get the point across we find out that her family employs a chef to do all the cooking. And like usual Nico has to prove her existence by sticking her nose in everybody’s business. She proudly boasts that her family too is wealthy and employs a chef. This white lie of hers gets busted not all that much later in the episode. She showed us her very impressive knife work that you don’t pick up on a day or two and how comfortable she is in a kitchen all nicely show us and the rest of Muse that she is no novice in the kitchen. For some this side of her comes across as unlikable, embarrassing/cringe inducing at one point in the past I too would have found her annoying but the currently me, find her quite adorable. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the loud and obnoxious type of characters.

Since we’re on characters lets talk a little about Eli (can’t seem to get enough of her). Eli’s character did a complete 180. The her that we see in this episode might as well be a completely new character. I just don’t see how joining the school idol group can make a bitch into everyone’s ideal older sister?Had she only been a bitch to Muse, no problem her joining them is more than enough to explain her change in attitude however from what we saw she was also a bitch to everyone else around her. This change is a little too drastic and it happened a little too fast. These changes should have happened gradually.

In a lot of ways this episode felt like a filler much like the previous episode. I’m little disappointed. Season 1 only has 13 episodes and they dedicate two consecutive episodes to fluff? Like come on, quit fooling around, the Love Live is right around the corner, shouldn’t we focus a little more on the girls preparing for it as a full team? The two episodes where they have 9 members has been dedicated to everything but practice. Chemistry doesn’t develop over night. They need to train together to get a feel for each other. You can be the best of friends but that doesn’t mean you can dance in sync with each other or harmonize.

Complaints aside, I did enjoy this episode. It was another moe packed episode, how can anyone say no to moe? I just hope that they don’t end up rushing the ending of this season because of these two fluff filled episodes. They were very pleasing to watch but when there is no meat there is no meat. In the end I’m a carnivore through and through, I can’t be satisfied unless there is meat.

Urahara (EP 4)- the genius that came out of nowhere

This episode is on Kotoko and her insecurities. She fears that Rito and Mari will leave her like everyone else has if they find out that she’s a weirdo. When Kotoko becomes interested in something, she has to get to the bottom of it, this attitude of hers  made it hard for her to make friends. After this episode, Kotoko comes across as far to perfect. She is shown to be fairly good with technology and than we find out that she is a scientist at heart, a pretty good one at that.

So the episode starts with Kotoko trying to figure out the secrets behind the mysterious bruises that appears and disappears at the blink of an eye. Her first attempt at solving this mystery is by running tests on the hair that she mercilessly plucked from  Rito and Mari’s heads. After slaving away all night, she found that hair samples aren’t enough to solve the mystery. She concludes that she needs blood. However she refuses to tell her friends why she needs their blood, and like most people her friends were reluctant to comply.  However before we find out whether they agreed or rejected Kotoko’s proposal, Kotoko faints, in the process she ruins Rito’s newly completed art piece. Like I previously said Kotoko is a very insecure, so you can imagine how panicked she was upon waking to an empty shop, her friends no where in sight. She believes that they now must hate her because they know how weird she is and she broke Rito’s art.

As she starts her frantic search for her friends, she runs into Sayumin (crepe girl from the previous ep). Sayumin must have some kind of radar as she seems to always appears out of no where whenever one of our girls need some consoling. Just like how Sayumin helped Rito solve her little problem in the previous episode, she kindly pointed Kotoko in the right direction. Right after this, we get a Scooper attack. Kind of fishy if you ask me like the previous episode, the Scoopers appeared after Rito’s encounter with her. After taking care of the Scoopers Kotoko also reaches the conclusion that her friends aren’t going to abandon her because she’s weird. In case you’re wondering, no the mysterious bruise situation doesn’t get solved in this episode, I guess got to wait until next week. Like all previous episodes, this one too ends on a cliff hanger, just who is Misa, what does she want and is she on the same side as our girls?

Okay with the recap out of the way, let me rant a little. I’ve been quite lenient with Urahara. I’ve chosen to ignore a lot of the problems that it has, but there is only so much one can over look. Compared to other problems that this series has, the one I’m ranting about is kind of stupid but I just can’t stand how Kotoko who up to this point is all but useless all of a sudden comes across as this amazing scientist. Come on build up to it, they had three episodes to gradually build up to this but I felt like I got slapped across the face. Prior to this episode she was portrayed to us as tech savvy, if you can even call it that. Looking at a tablet and telling the girls where the Scoopers are really doesn’t come across as the most challenging thing, and now we’re meant to believe she has a brain and a pretty good one at that? It’s like they want us to know that there is no dead weights in this magical girl team. What’s wrong with her just be a teenage girl with some insecurities, why does she also need the traits of a mad scientist that came out of nowhere?

Anyways I’m a little annoyed with this episode. Hope next episode is better. I just hope they don’t feel that they have to do an ass pull for Mari, just keep Mari’s episode as simple as possible. Please just keep it at she’s a rich high school girl with an interest in B horror films and has a knack for designing high fashion clothing. No wait let me think have they done Mari’s episode already? I have a feeling that they have but I honestly can’t remember…

 

Dies Irae (EP 3/4)- Anyone fancy a blood bath?

Even though I watched episode three and four on separate days and do have something written for episode three, I’m just going to write my thoughts on the two episodes together.

Episode three was a hot mess and I honestly didn’t know how to feel about it. Three things of significance took place this episode;

1. Kasumi is the one committing the murders.
2. Fujii gains a new power. The process was kind of confusing. Something along the lines of, Kasumi was possessed and gained other worldly powers. She can materialized sword slashes. With the first slash, Fujii’s arm get’s split in half, with the second his arm mends itself by absorbing the slash. In the process he gains a new power.
3. The seal on the guillotine gets released, that’s what the murders were for. Fujii’s power seems to be linked with the release of this seal. He is also gifted with a permanent choker very much like the one that the one that Marie sports (guillotine girl).

Like I said, I kind of have no idea what to feel or say about this episode. Besides the above three events a lot of other things happened. The series decides to present this to us by cutting from scene to scene. Really kind of a mess. We had the Fujii and Kasumi line, which is messy enough on its own we also have to deal with the psychotic priest and co, less messy but didn’t merge with the other line too well. These two lines are supposed to work together but the way it was done, had me going huh, what did I just watch?  It wasn’t very coherent.

After viewing the third episode I decided to give Dies Irae one more episode. Who knew the one more episode would come so soon. The fourth episode made a lot more sense than the previous episode. Also found it to be much more enjoyable.

Let’s talk about the title of this post. I decided to call this post, Anyone fancy a blood bath? because the series love of blood and gore. The series love to mask how lackluster the action scenes are with excessive gore. If that’s all you want from your action scenes go ahead, this will be right down your ally. I personally only want to see this in good slasher films, Dies Irae doesn’t make the cut. I felt more disgusted watching the flying limbs and gushing blood than scared. And this is ultimately the reason why I’ve decided to drop Dies Irae. When the battle/fight OST came on at 14:53 I have absolutely no desire to stick around to watch the fight play out. There is no better way to show how bored I am with the action scenes that Dies Irae has to offer. The composition of the fights are so poor that no amount of blood and gore can satisfy me. The gushing blood and flying limbs failed to elicit any kind of real emotion out of me other than disgust. Pretty sure they weren’t aiming for that one emotion.

I’ve been a lot more patient this season with the dropping game. I’ve let go one too many series because of my impatiences so I decided to be a little more patient. Four episodes is plenty to judge whether this series is for me or not. I have a pretty good idea where this series is going and I’m not all that interested nor offended by it. So had the fights been better choreographed I would stay but they’ve been nothing but eye sores and I really doubt they’ll get better. I guess this is where I bid farewell to Dies Irae.

 

 

Juni Taisen (EP 5)- Have I told you I’m bored?

Bored. I’m so bored. Twenty minutes of nothing. Nothing happened in this episode. So bored.

We start the episode of with the host of the Juni Taisen, we finally find out the purpose behind these battle royales. Battle for world dominance, each of the twelve warriors represents a different region and world leaders (I think) bet on who will come out victorious. Actually in all honestly I have no idea what I’m talking about or what I just watched. I’m not even going to bother to make sense of it, I’m not going to sit through that episode one more time. I was bored enough the first time round, can’t imagine how fun the second round will be.

Anyways this episode is on Sheep, we get a flashback with a flashback of Sheep’s past. We learn that in his prime he was a weapon merchant that worked part time as a mercenary. Because of how good he was at his part time job, he married into the Sheep family, given his horns I thought he was the son of the sheep family and not the son in law. He was the winner of the ninth juni taisen and decided to participate in the current one in place of his grandson. I was quite moved by this but the episode was still boring. Asides from Sheep’s backstory we get a lot of talk and not enough action. No one has died in these last two episodes, please pick up the killing spree, I getting bored out of my mind watching. I’m not here for the heart to hearts, I’m here for the deaths, the action.

You can talk but move at the same time. Why is everyone so fond of talking all of a sudden? There is no such thing as awkward silences in anime, there is no need for dialogue every other second. Meaning there was a lot of unnecessary dialogue. For example, during the Monkey vs. Rabbit fight and the birds burst out from underground, I don’t need Monkey to tell me Rabbit was stalling for time, I can see what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

I don’t know man, this episode and the previous one are honestly a complete bore fest. But at this point I’m still curious to see who will be left to swim in this blood bath. If the story continues to craw like it currently is, I don’t how long I’ll stick around for. I’m being far too patient with this.

Evil or Live (EP 3)-on the fence

Okay this series is going at snail speed. Three episodes in and it’s still Hibiki’s first day at the school. Let me add the majority of these three episodes took place during the lunch break. At this rate I wouldn’t be all that surprised if the entire season takes place all on this day.

This episode gave us a little more information on Hibiki, he’s no longer just the useless, good for nothing MC, he is also an overly optimistic idiot. We also find out that Shin is more than your average sleazeball, he’s a sleazeball that enjoys role playing, he seems overly keen in making Hibiki call him “Master“. And of course little doggy (Hibiki) doesn’t take too kindly to this, he rebels. But to his dismay (it will be when he finds out) his actions is going just as master planned.

Let’s talk a little on why I call Hibiki an overly optimistic idiot. There’s nothing wrong in seeing the best in others but there is a fine between being innocent and an idiot. Let’s take a look at the two situations that had me deeming him an idiot.

• Shin situation, clearly has ulterior motives, a stranger that you just met isn’t going to help you get into a girl of your fancies pants without wanting something in return. And when he let’s you walk away unscratched, it’s too good to be true. but little Hibiki continues on his day like nothing happened and he will be able to escape from Shin’s palm.
• Dorm mate situation, them throwing Hibiki a welcoming party isn’t a problem, but they’re being far too nice. When people are being overly nice for no particular reason you can bet there to be ulterior motives. And we quickly find out that it was in fact too good to be true. But thanks to Hibiki’s innocence my favorite interaction of these three episodes took place.

EP 3 14:12 to 14:40- (I can’t remember Hibiki’s roommates names, so I called them by their hair colour)

This exchange funny it may be is also rather sad. It’s sad how these boys don’t even know how to fight without a keyboard. I’m not advocating fighting but throwing a punch is something that most of us can do without thinking all that much about but these boys are completely useless without a keyboard.

After this episode, it’s safe to say that Shiori will be filling the role of fair maiden with a troubled past who is incapable of trusting anyone. Watch as Hibiki becomes the one person that she can trust. He’s already making sound progress in this episode, he’s already got her promising to come to his rescue whenever he calls. All because he chose to not rape her, someone please give the boy an award!

This is the first series from this season has me sitting on the fence. I’m not all that sure if I’ll be dropping or not. In all honesty, Evil or Live is far closer to bad than good. But it has strange charm to it. For the time being I’ll be watching a few more episodes.

 

A sister’s all you need (EP 3)- beach episodes, how they really should be done

I finally got around to seeing the third episode of A sister’s all you need (ASAYN), in this episode Itsuki and crew (Miyako and Nayuta) goes on a trip to Okinawa because well Itsuki’s planning on writing a chapter where he takes his characters on a trip to Okinawa. He labels this trip as ‘research’, I’m sure it was really for research and not an excuse to have fun and escape from his impending deadline.

Egg eating 101

It wouldn’t be A sister’s all you need without a fan service scene, this time round Nayu kindly showed us the right way to eat an egg. I’m not all that sure whether she enjoyed the process more or the audience…And of course beach episodes goes hand in hand with fan service, cute girls in bikinis playing in the water and with each other. Even though it’s the middle of winter in the world of ASAYN, we are still treated to same beach episode package, heck I would even say better, nothing beats butt naked girls swimming on the beach of a secluded island. I understand Nayu doing it (how did Itsuki put it again, “she’s a pervert”)but Miyako, her actions felt out of character (not that there was much to her character) and was done for the sake of fan service. What beats one naked girl? Two naked girls.

There were some non fan service scenes but they really paled in comparison to the fan service moments. The characters kindly took us on a tour around Okinawa. We get treated to still after still of the different locations they visited. My favorite of all, the unmoving moving whale at 8:51. A real beauty.

say hi to the whale

In this episode Itsuki has somehow managed to sink to a new low. After his trip to Okinawa we get treated to Itsuki’s newest masterpiece ‘The Whale Shark’s Little Sister” detailing the love story between well a whale shark and his very human looking little sister. What did the poor whale shark ever do to you to deserve this?  Thankfully his editor is sane enough to reject his newest masterpiece. Hirasaka (the author) must have had a blast writing ASAYN. All these great ideas that would most likely get rejected if he proposes to write an entire book on.

In this very eventful episode we also get introduced to a new character, Ena Setsuna, a 16 year old illustrator. On a whim said illustrator decides to take Itsuki to Hokkaido for a bowl of ramen. Talk about overkill. On a side note, does the boy not have school? Does Japan not have compulsory schooling? We later find out that Setsuna decided to go to Hokkaido to flee from his editor. Unintentionally Itsuki sells the poor boy out.

Would sound kind of touching if you aren’t trying to get into your sister’s pants- Scene from Itsuki’s beach chapter manuscript. 

Anyways after selling out poor Setsuna, Itsuki returns home and gets to work on his manuscript (the Okinawa trip one) we learn that Itsuki does not understand the meaning of realistic. His little comment after completing his writing session “that’s definitely a very realistic scene, if I do say so myself.” (Okay, whatever makes you happy.) From what we’re privy to seeing realistic has nothing to do with what he just wrote. Unless super powers and a sibling double date is of the norm now.

At this point we’re really just following Itsuki around on his everyday life not so much his life with his little sister. I don’t really know if this will ever go in that direction but from the the little tidbit at the end of episode two, it seems that Itsuki does at the very least have a little sister. Overall I enjoyed this episode, it was quite fun and I had a few good laughs at how Itsuki’s mind functions and how absurd the fan service scenes are.

Detective Conan (EP 31)- it’s more dangerous to have a window than not

I’ve recently started one of my DC re-watching sprees. I don’t plan to write about each and every single episode that I watch, too lazy to do that and honestly a lot of the episodes aren’t that good. Now onto the 31st episode of DC, what about it is so special that has me wanting to talk about it? The windows. More specifically the windows at the crime scene. Before I talk of that, let’s dive into what this episode was on.

Kogoro get’s invited to be a guest on a detective program at a local TV station and in typical DC manner, wherever Conan goes some poor soul finds themselves on their way to the afterlife. This time round the victim Suwa, is the producer of the show that Kogoro appears on he seems to have beef with Matsuo the host of the show. Right from the get go we already know that Matsuo is the culprit, the fun of this episode is figuring out how he commits the crime. However the characters aren’t privy to the same information as we are, (there would be no episode if they were) and for some odd reason they labelled this as an outsider job, someone broke in through the window and killed poor Suwa who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This wouldn’t have been a problem had the victim not been found on the fourth floor with his body directly under said window with his blood splattered all over it. Now let’s take a look at said window and the lovely pose that Inspector Megure placed his life on the line to do.

Lucky Inspector Megure the window didn’t feel like breaking that day!

Which genius thought it would be a good idea to have a window that opens in this manner installed on the fourth floor? Sure it doesn’t do a full flip but that’s still bloody dangerous, what if the supports (or whatever they’re called) breaks? A fall from the fourth floor might not kill someone (if they land right) but they will still end up fairly  banged up (to put it lightly). Say the window is able to carry a crazy amount of weight and never breaks, it’s still not all that practical, with a window that opens in that manner, you’re gonna end up with nice and wet floors when it rains. Set up a trough under those windows and you’ve got yourself a nice water catchment.

turn and tilt window

I did some googling on windows, this window seems to be a turn and tilt. However from the images these kind of windows tend to open inward (I failed to find one that opened outward) unlike like the one in DC which opened outward and they don’t open that much either. Sometimes I find slight exaggerations/alterations to move the plot along more annoying than stuff that you know is impossible from right off the bat. A lot of times it’s these little things that ruins the viewing experience.

Evil or Live (EP 2)

What an anti climatic start. The bullying and sexual assault can totally be over looked had the action sequence not been so boring! I absolutely love how they’re objectifying woman and going for the man are animals controlled by their nether regions vibe. Series can’t possibly get any better! Or so I thought, what do I have to say, too young too simple? The series felt that pure violence is no longer enough to sate us blood thirsty viewers, they kindly pulled in rape. Even though nothing happened, it was still disgusting hearing them talk about it and attempt to go through with it. Just how low can this series get? Please set some boundaries.

Anyways the episode revolved around Shin’s mission of getting Hibiki into Shiori’s (is that her name?) pants. This episode nicely establishes that Shin is a manipulative sleazeball that will do anything and everything to get what he wants. He has no morals. This is made all that much worse by not giving us an insight into the why’s he’s doing what he’s doing. We don’t even know why he wants Hibiki as his lapdog, what is so special about him other than he’s the MC? And why is he (Shin) able to get his way with the instructors, why do they seem weary of him? Please don’t let the answer be, Sleazeball is the son of someone important at the school (principle, a sponsor etc.).

if your eyes weren’t so adventurous maybe there wouldn’t have been a natural response.

So far Sleazeball comes across as the character with slightly more character. Hibiki at this point just feels like any other run of the mill teenage MC, useless, characterless and as an added bonus he’s utterly controlled by his little me. I love how he pushes this off as “it’s a natural response for a healthy young man!” mate you’re 17 not a teen just going through puberty. There is no reason for you to get a hard on when a member of the opposite gender (Shiori) tends to your wounds. Okay, I will give him the benefit of doubt since I wasn’t born with a little Hachi. But it’s damn disrespectful to be leering the person (Shiori) that’s treating your wounds. Have some self control, if you can’t control the biological response you can at least control where your eyes are wondering. Maybe if your eyes aren’t all over the place there wouldn’t have been a natural response.

And if everything goes according to plan, Shiori will most likely end up being a tsundere. A tsundere that Hibiki will have the please of melting. All in all this was a tasteless episode with a cast that is even more tasteless. To put it simple, scums. That being said I’m looking forward to seeing how this story of scums unfold.

 

Love Live! School Idol project S1 (EP 7-9)- Maids! There are maids!!!

I finally got around to seeing a few more episodes of Love Live. So let’s blabber away about the three newest episodes that I’ve seen. These three episodes is still dedicated to introducing the girls. We get the final two members of Muse, Eli and Nozomi. By this point these two are no strangers, but in order for Eli to become a member of Muse, some work needs to be done.

So far Eli feels to be the best written character. She is the only character that gets any development, we get to see her change from a disagreeable bitch to just another caring sempai. We get to see why she was such a bitch towards to the girls of Muse and nicely omits why she was a bitch to everyone else. Who cares anyways, not like they’re important! What really matters is her attitude towards Muse.

Anyways we saw that she once danced at a competitive level therefore she views anyone that isn’t on par with her dancing to be amateurs, meaning all of the school idols. However she failed to see that dancing isn’t the be all and end all for an idol, it’s a bonus if they can dance, heck at times it even feels that if they can sing it’s a bonus. This is only part of her problem, the other part is deep down she wanted to be an idol, she was jealous of the girls of Muse. According to Nozomi (her best friend, probably her one and only friend), Eli has never done anything for herself or because she wanted to, it was always for someone else or it was her responsibility to do so. I find it funny that the one thing that she wants to do, happens to be join the school idol group…

I just want to be an idol! No seriously, this is when we find out that all she wants to do is be an idol.

For me even without the development, she is still one of the better characters. She was the only character that manage to elicit any kind of emotion from me. Every time she was on screen, I wanted her off. Her being disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable got on my nerves. In all honesty, I’m not all that pumped over her development she has now just become another member of Muse, another cute girl doing music. No personality.

The Eli before turning over a new leaf was a very prideful and stubborn girl. (The current her, I haven’t seen enough to judge.) Once she set her mind to something it’s hard to get her to change it. For example her relationship with Muse. She looked down on them, she saw them as an embarrassment, she felt that all they’ll achieve is bring shame to the school and ruin any chances of getting new students. Therefore she went out of her way to make it hard for Muse to function as a club (setting up the club, after they finally form the club they’re not given a club room, best part as soon as she becomes a member they get a nice and big club room…) However her biased view of them, made her unable to see Muse’s rising popularity and the opportunities this presents the school. The Eli situation was great to watch, however the resolution left a rather weird after taste. Eli comes to the realization and admits that her biggest desire is to be an idol and of course the members of Muse all accept her with open arms. Something that will only ever happen in anime.

I’m not Kotori, I’m Minalinsky the tease. You’ll probably never see me again. But I’m cute aren’t I?!

Enough about Eli, let’s talk about the other star of these three episodes, Kotori. Yes Kotori not Nozomi. I don’t know man, after how well they did Eli, how they went about with Kotori, really shows how much they care about her, not much. She’s one of the earliest introduced girls but one of the least fleshed out. I’m disappointed with this favoritism game they’re playing.

Kotori pretending to be a foreigner

Anyways in episode 9, we find out that she is the legendary maid Minalinsky (Nico previously mentioned how popular she is). The Kotori in her maid costume is a lot more vibrant and assertive than the normal her. She became a maid because she felt that she doesn’t want to be left behind by Honoka and Umi. She felt that she isn’t as good as the other two are at being idols therefore she felt becoming a maid will help her be a better idol. How did she even come to this conclusion? The highlight of the episode has got to be her pretending to be a foreigner. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this hyper Kotori more often but this isn’t a series on Kotori being a maid. And this is exactly my problem, what purpose does us knowing Kotori works as a maid have? It doesn’t contribute to the plot what so ever. I wouldn’t be complaining if Minalinsky traits carry over to Kotori but it doesn’t. Why show us this side of her when we’re not going to get more?

Evil or Live (EP 1)- Better than expected

For some odd reason I thought Evil or Live to be called Live or Die until I decided to look the show up and give it a shot…Not important. I read a few Evil or Live reviews and it seemed that most aren’t too fond of it, so I wasn’t expecting much from it. To my surprise it’s not that bad. I want to call this one of the weaker shows of this season, but I just can’t. This season really doesn’t have all that much going on, this is just another one of those not all that good series like half of the shows this season has.

Evil or Live is set in a China, in a reeducation academy, to be exact the Elite Reeducation Academy. Here they aim to cure youngsters of their internet addiction. I mean that doesn’t sound too bad, just a school with no computes, no mobiles and no internet. I mean you pay the school a little money and they’ll cure your kid of their addiction. However as the episode progressed we see that it’s really not that simple. The school takes discipline very seriously, you get beat for looking at your teachers wrong, you get beat for talking back, to put it simply you can expect a beating whenever you break one of the rules or when the instructors feel that you’re being disrespectful. It’s like no one ever told them respect is earned and not beat into, that’s called fear.

Anyways back to Evil or Live, from the looks of things Hibiki is our MC. He is a very serious gamer, so serious that his online life interferes with real life. Because of this his mum decides to send him to the Elite Reeducation Academy, with hopes of reforming him. I can bet, in the pamphlet or whatever means she found out about said academy probably conveniently omits that the reeducation process includes manhandling. Most of this episode was setting up just how brutal the school is. However as the episode progressed there are hints of this being another high school series with touches of horror (if you view violence as horror, I don’t).

It showed that the students can live a relatively normal high school life if they follow the rules. From the looks of things, our MC will be the brave one and go against the system. He’s going to be the knight in shining armor and stand up to the big bad wolf. Good luck mate! If the plot decides to go this way, he won’t need my luck he’ll get something better, plot armor. But no seriously, please go this way otherwise it’ll really just be another high school series. Since this is in a high school setting and how the first episode progressed, nothing terrible will happen, there won’t be any deaths, no severe external injuries and the likes (schools got to put up a front to the general public. Bad PR ain’t gonna be bringing the $$$).

I won’t be dropping Evil or Live just yet, it’s might not be all that good but so far it’s got my attention. I’m curious just how will the rest of the series plays out.