Fruits Basket - Episode 6 [Review]

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/146638/hiro.png.jpg

Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life - Episode 6 [Review]

Take that, Vice Principal! With that non-issue out of the way, we get yet another assailant to bring drama to the koto club. This week, Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life puts its passion for music on the back burner in favor of leaning into its teen drama angle. The title “An Invisible Boundary” refers to the club's emotional weak spots, which both Hiro-senpai and the previously unimportant koto club adviser seem to relish in attacking. Who would have expected a Japanese traditional music club to be such a drama magnet?

I love how the koto club kills the vice principal with kindness. Satowa and Chika know exactly what they're doing when they “thank” the VP, while Takezo and the rest are a little purer in their motives. The group enjoys wild applause, the adoration of their peers, and a soda toast (except for Chika, the big softie who gets strawberry milk) to their renewed commitment of aiming for Nationals. On the surface, the koto club's challenges are all music-based; Takezo wants them to compete in a regional music festival while Satowa wants them to develop a more well-rounded sound by adding a classical piece to their repertoire. But lurking just beyond the club room are two unexpected threats: a callous club adviser and a sinister new member.

Both of the koto club's new villains have something in common, and unfortunately it's weak motives. Takinami is lazy, and Hiro is bored. Takinami-sensei's concern seems to be that if the koto club does well, he'll have less free time and god forbid he possibly have to chaperone them to nationals. But since this show has a habit of slowly peeling away its characters' facades to get at their gooey koto-loving centers, I suspect Takinami may be reformable. There had to be a reason he became the koto club adviser in the first place, right? Maybe some sort of trauma involving Nationals made him stop caring about whether his students make it there or not? Kurusu Hiro is even more of a one-dimensional villain. Her friends call her sociopathic hobby of manipulating people and tearing apart friendships “Hiro's bad habit” and “the worst way to kill time.” But could there be a passionate center underneath Hiro's terrible personality? She tells us that she's not a beginner, and we learn she isn't lying when she says her grandmother plays the koto. It's just that she's clearly distanced herself from it lately—the first thing Satowa notices about Hiro is her elaborate manicure, definitely not the trimmed nails of a musician.

Chika continues to live up to his role as the delinquent with a heart of gold, and while some of the other members may be swayed by Hiro's manipulative insinuations, Chika flat out declares that he doesn't believe anything unless it comes directly from the person's mouth. It's almost enough to make Hiro give up, until she learns that Satowa has a secret that she suspects could be exactly the wedge she requires to destroy the club once and for all. But why, Hiro? It's all drama for drama's sake, the kind of thing that will soon be resolved with a little direct communication between Chika and Satowa—and their budding love story gives them more vested interest in learning to understand one another. It's just not believable that a brand new koto club could possibly make this many enemies so soon, making this one of the show's weaker episodes so far.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/fit400x1000/cms/episode-review.2/146676/fairy-gone-6.png.jpg

Fairy gone - Episode 6 [Review]

Fairy gone hasn't proven to be especially good at any given hook for an anime series. Its animation is often ugly and flat, its characters are one-dimensional, and its obsession with the minutiae of its world-building only highlight its deeply generic and uninteresting setting. None of these criticisms were intended as a challenge for the show to outdo its own mediocrity – yet here we are, with “Fellow Traveler”, an episode that takes the cake for the single most boring half-hour of television I've watched all year.

For the past month-and-a-half, Fairy gone has been just okay enough to keep me interested in where things are going, but this episode doesn't even rise to Fairy gone's tragically low standard of being the kind of entertainment you can put on in the background while you fold laundry or something. It's truly that weightless, lacking in anything worth even half-paying attention to. We open with yet another extended world-building exploration that goes nowhere, this time about the five different dukes who were put into power after the Unification War. Most of them died horrible deaths after being suspected (rightly or wrongly) of treasonous intentions. Given how Fairy gone's political plotline seems to be advancing at a snail's pace, it's possible all of this hokum will pay off by show's end, but somehow I doubt it will end up being worth the wait.

Then one of the government's artificial fairies goes berserk and has to be put down, leading the Dorothea agents to split up and investigate while still hunting for the Black Fairy Tome. The gimmick for this episode is that the usual pair of Free and Marlya are separated; Free goes with Chase to investigate the artificial fairy, and Marlya accompanies Klara on the hunt for the Black Tome page. Free and Chase's B-plot literally amounts to nothing – they wander around not learning anything until the final minute of the episode, when Free just happens to bump into the guy who has information that might prove useful next week.

Marlya and Klara get the meatier part of the episode, though the increase in screen time doesn't amount to more impact, depth, or entertainment. The two visit a morbidly obese informant who eventually spills the beans on yet another secret auction where a man has recently won “The Black Four” pages of the Fairy Tome. Then they find the guy, chase him around, hop on a train, and eventually catch him with little effort. Outside of one mercifully fun little action beat where Marlya and Klara beat up the informant's goons, this plot offers little more than a few barely animated sequences of two women slowly running after some bland-looking guy for a while. It isn't exactly riveting stuff.

To make matters worse, the episode doesn't even bother to do Klara's character justice. She's another generally nice and competent member of Dorothea who speaks mostly in exposition. Her one flashback simply explains that she's a war orphan who owes her life to Nein. That's all. There's no real drama between Klara and Maryla to play with, no conflict for them to resolve outside of chasing some guy down for a while. It's as hollow a narrative as you can get, and Fairy gone commits to its execution with the usual amount of half-hearted energy. At least the soundtrack is nice, I guess.

That's pretty much it for this episode. We meet some more political figures, like the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Fairies, but lord only knows when their inclusion in the story will manifest in some manner of real drama or intrigue. As with almost every other instance of lore-dumping in Fairy gone, this entire episode feels like it just exists to pad out the show's wiki. Telling an interesting story is apparently a secondary or even tertiary goal. Hopefully Veronica comes back into the picture soon. Her relationship with Marlya is the only thing Fairy gone has going for it now, and without some kind of shot in the arm, this show is liable to put me to sleep before I can even start writing about it.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/146691/dororo.jpg

Dororo - Episode 18 [Review]

This week's Dororo depicts a showdown between opposing factions, but it's nothing so clear cut as good vs. evil. “The story of the cape of no mercy” excels at demonstrating how everyone clings to an uncooperative worldview that looks perfectly reasonable from their own perspective. Caught up in the conflict between Shiranui and Itachi's bandits—and now between Hyakkimaru and his brother as well, Dororo must navigate an unforgiving world filled with adults who refuse to compromise. Interspersed with tension-packed action sequences, this episode's script excels at navigating the moral ambiguity of Dororo's world with well-rounded empathy.

After two episodes apart, it's a softer and wiser Hyakkimaru who reunites with Dororo—and just in the nick of time. Their reunion is utterly adorable; the cheek pinch and forehead rub that Hyakkimaru delivers are the exact same motions that his “mama” Jukai used to greet him in the last episode. It's a fresh indication that Hyakkimaru sees Dororo as his family—and sees himself in a parental role toward the younger brother. Dororo's reaction of embarrassment and half-hearted fury that quickly fades into affection is exactly what we've come to expect from his character. It's little moments like this reunion that give the show its heart, beyond even its most dramatic fight scenes. Hyakkimaru's journey toward becoming “more human” isn't really about arms or legs or hearing or speech—plenty of humans are perfectly whole without those things. Instead, the most pivotal moments of Hyakkimaru's reclamation of his humanity come from these quiet emotional moments.

It's a happy coincidence that Shiranui's demonic shark had Hyakkimaru's leg just when he needed to regain his full mobility. That said, Shiranui's grief and rage aren't necessarily evil. The flashback that shows him with his dying mother draws a parallel to Dororo's own past. Maybe if Dororo had met a pair of sharks instead of a big bro with swords for arms, his life might have turned out differently. Shiranui is one of the three factions Hyakkimaru must battle on this merciless cape. Tahomaru has tracked down his brother to this supposedly remote place—and he's brought an entire army with him. The younger brother has hardened himself against his feelings, but he's doing this to pursue his own vision of morality, by doing whatever it takes to save Daigo's land. Finally, there's Itachi and his bandits single-mindedly making their way toward Dororo's father's gold stash. While they are thieves, they also consider themselves to have honor—when Tahomaru appears, Itachi's primary concern isn't even his life, but making sure the samurai don't get the gold, sharing the same goal that Dororo's father had until his death. Even Hyakkimaru himself follows a gray morality, since his goal to get back his body “because it's mine”. But what about when that body is weighed against the lives of everybody in Daigo's land? This is why Jukai won't help his “child”; he's not willing to make that judgment.

Because everyone has at least some semblance of a sympathetic reason to fight, the episode's body count is indeed a tragedy. It's hard to coldly judge anyone who has died this week or say that they really deserved it in their pursuit of what they thought to be right. It wasn't a clear strength advantage, but simple chaos that led to the chips to fall where they did. In a final summation of this story's rejection of stark black-and-white views on humanity, Dororo decides not to take the money yet—but he still nabs a few coins for the road. “All or nothing” isn't as noble as it's sometimes portrayed, and it's not realistic for a pair that sometimes finds themselves starving to hoard a stash of gold. It's not any one person or any one viewpoint that's evil, but the reliance on violence against others to justify one's actions that's wrong—and this episode is one of Dororo's most masterful examples of this message.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/fit400x1000/cms/episode-review.2/146652/screenshot_20190513-004636_vrv.jpg

Attack on Titan - Episode 52 [Review]

“Descent” is another table-setting episode after last week's explosive standoff with the Armored Titan, and it gives us some long overdue focus on Reiner and Bertholdt. The former is still alive after getting the top of his skull blown off by the Thunder Spears, and Bertholdt is literally thrown into the battlefield to rescue his fallen friend. Leading up to all this, we get some flashbacks to the pair's time working undercover for the human military, along with the sacrifices they've had to make to get this far.

While it's nice to get some more perspective on the Titan side of this war, most of this episode didn't work for me nearly as well as I wanted. The opening act of flashbacks feels very dry and straightforward, even as it reveals how the death of old Marco Bott was directly caused by our Titan traitors. You see, Reiner and Bertholdt were rather stupidly discussing their heinous plans and true identities out in the open during the Battle of Trost way back in season one, and Marco overheard everything. Despite Reiner trying to play it off as a weirdly morbid and specific joke, Marco caught wind of the truth quickly and made a run for it. Reiner and Bertholdt had to get Annie to strip Marco of his ODM Gear so they could leave him for dead, which led to his brutal death.

Given what we already know of Reiner and Bertholdt, this scene doesn't offer anything new for us to chew on, with the one notable exception being Annie's reaction to the whole tragedy. It's been forever since she's been a real presence in the story, and she was always portrayed as the cold and calculating loner of the group, so seeing Annie so shaken up over killing Marco showed us a very different side of her personality, which I appreciated. We also get a reminder of the blond guy who's operating the Beast Titan, which is bound to become relevant soon.

After that, it's time for the scouts to continue their defensive maneuvers against Bertholdt, and this is another sequence that doesn't play as well as it should. The weak direction and inconsistent art of this week's production really hinder the episode's attempts to build tension around Bertholdt's inevitable transformation into the Colossal Titan. We later see the explosion caused by his transformation, which explicitly echoes a nuclear bomb detonation, so there should be some real urgency and danger to Bertholdt's arrival, but it doesn't quite click. Later, when Bertholdt finally does transform, the CG used for the Colossal Titan, especially its lanky arms, looks especially wonky and almost comical.

What I liked about this episode, in spite of its pacing and production issues, was how it got back to AoT's complicated criticism of war and the varied perspectives caught up in it. Armin tries to engage Bertholdt with dialogue rather than violence, but all of this chaos has given the Colossal Titan a newfound sense of grim resolve. He doesn't hate his former comrades, and he doesn't believe they deserve to die, but he'll kill them all the same. His timidity has been replaced with bitter resignation at the battle lines that have been drawn for him, and he'll do whatever he must in order to capture Eren, eradicate the humans within the walls, and buy Reiner time to regenerate from his injuries.

Reiner's apparent anti-human sentiments make him an easy villain in the moment, but Bertholdt proves that not every Titan-shifter shares those feelings. In fact, the Scouts' despair over killing Reiner makes the point of showing how hard it is for soldiers to kill when their formerly monstrous enemies are revealed to be just as human. While I hear the show's handling of its allegorical politics might be getting messy before long, conflicts like Armin and Bertholdt's are enough to keep me interested for now.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/146658/fairy-tale-last-ep-31.jpg

Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 308 [Review]

Fantasy worlds are, by definition, lacking in some real-world things in exchange for other, usually more awesome things. Every so often, however, there's a lack that could really use filling because it could help avoid some particularly irritating problems. In the world of Fairy Tail, two of those roles are “bra fitter” and “therapist.” Okay, the first is totally my own pet peeve (maybe magic helps make those tops more comfortable?), but the latter really could help to, if not solve problems within the story, at least prevent them from happening again. I'm speaking specifically of Brandish and DiMaria's issues this week, both of which appear to stem from an inability to recognize and deal with their own emotions on difficult subjects. Sure, therapy may not cure their ills, but it might help them to stop trying to kill other people over them.

Snark aside, both women do stand as foils to Lucy and Natsu in this episode (and Gajeel and Levy, to a degree) in that they cannot handle their conflicted feelings. Where the Fairy Tail members draw strength from the warm feelings they have for each other, whether those be romantic love or familial love, neither Brandish nor DiMaria know how to cope with emotions usually viewed as positive. Brandish, to a degree, seems to know this, and she plays it up in order to hopefully drive off DiMaria, whose burning jealousy she can presumably feel behind her. And yet there does seem to be some truth to her statement to Lucy that she can't deal with the conflicting loyalties Lucy embodies – as a member of the Twelve and Zeref's army, she's supposed to hate Lucy and all of Ishgar. But now that she knows that Lucy was her childhood friend and the daughter of the woman her mother adored, she isn't sure that she wants to hate her, much less hurt her or anyone she cares about. When Brandish says that killing Lucy is the solution to her problems, she may actually mean it, at least in some small corner of herself, because she's been uncomfortable with her role in the entire war ever since the two women met.

Of course, she also knows that DiMaria isn't going to take this well. Technically speaking, she's known DiMaria well for far longer than she's known Lucy, and she has to be aware to a certain degree that DiMaria's not only jealous, but also prone to acting poorly when that jealousy is activated. Like a third grader arguing over who her first best friend and second best friend is, DiMaria isn't going to just stand aside while Brandish finds someone else to be pals with, and her reaction is just as mature: hurt the person who makes her feel this way. In DiMaria's case, that's both Brandish and Lucy, because she blames both nearly equally: Brandish for leaving and Lucy for taking Brandish away. Add in the way Lucy's guildmate Wendy humiliated her and DiMaria's out for some serious blood.

It's this that allows both Lucy and Brandish to shine, though. Lucy has always been strongest in moments where all hope seems lost, and her fights with the two Alvarez wizards are no exception. She doesn't know that Brandish is play-acting, remember, so she's really going all-out with her use of magic in the battle, something we don't often get to see her do. Not only does this give us the chance to see a couple more of her Star Dresses, but it also reaffirms that a large part of her strength is in her bonds with her spirits: among the Dresses she wears is the one for Aquarius, a spirit she's no longer contracted to. Much like Lucy's strength was able to save Loke, now it allows her to call upon Aquarius despite not having her key, something that also speaks to the feelings Aquarius has for her. It really shouldn't be possible for it to happen, whether she has Aquarius' boyfriend's key or not, and it's a good reminder that despite not being as outwardly strong or flashy as some of her guildies, Lucy's still a force to be reckoned with.

That's going to be very important going forward, because Natsu's E.N.D. is showing. Porlyusica's statement that the tumor isn't what she thought it was and that by regrowing it Brandish has triggered something dangerous is no exaggeration, and with Gray reeling from what he thinks is Juvia's death and the revelation of E.N.D.'s true identity, things are not looking good. The real battle of ice and fire is on its way – dragon and demon included.

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/146597/froobep6.jpg

Fruits Basket - Episode 6 [Review]

As Fruits Basket's first arc wraps up and a new Zodiac banquet begins for the Soma family (plus one riceball), it's time for this anime to make like Tohru Honda and roll up its sleeves for a little house-cleaning. Episode 6 combines manga chapters 9 and 7 (in that order) to deliver a landslide combo of resolution and setup that leaves little breathing room for emotional release.

Overall, I've been happy with this remake's adaptation changes thus far, but the end result was never going to be without sacrifice. For reference, Fruits Basket's ultimate dramatic structure breaks into three big Acts that each contain several dramatic arcs and a smattering of side stories. (The 2001 anime adaptation ended at the climax of Act 1 but left out its denouement, replacing it with an anime-original conclusion.) The appearance of the Soma family's enforcer Hatori signals the start of the second arc, which means every smaller hanging thread from the first five episodes must be squished together expediently before Tohru's world gets much bigger, even if it squashes down their emotional impact to footnote size in the process. So it's a shame that the handful of sentimental moments in this episode weren't given room to breathe, but on the other hand, there's so much story left to convey in such a limited runtime that if we must rush through material, these more brass-tacks-and-foreshadowing chapters are the best place to pick up the pace.

The surprise appearance of more Soma cousins at his school brings Yuki's insecurities about his body into sharp relief. Not only does Dr. Hatori snap a photo of him in a dress to show Akito later, but he even conducts Yuki's skipped monthly checkup in front of the gawking class. It's obvious that Yuki never wanted Tohru to know that his health was unstable, and it's also relevant to note that children raised in traumatic environments often grow up with weakened immune systems due to stress, which makes getting distance from their abusive families even more difficult. Even if his Zodiac powers allow him to kick a man through a wall, Yuki's asthma flare-ups could send him kicking and screaming back to the Soma house if he's not careful, and going back every month just to keep tabs on his condition may be equally triggering, given that he keeps skipping appointments. Although we still know so little about him, it's possible that Akito has similar persistent health problems, since the only thing keeping the head of the family away from Yuki's school appears to be a high fever.

Anyway, that excitable rabbit Momiji is to blame for all this, and he only makes things worse when he embraces Tohru without a drop of shame, forcing Yuki to emasculate himself even further in front of his classmates. (And in case we weren't already aware of the Soma family's obscene wealth, Momiji's father is the CEO of the corporation that owns the building Tohru cleans. What a spoiled brat!) The whole debacle is played for laughs at first, but Yuki takes his perceived lack of masculinity very seriously, leading to another trademark pep talk from Tohru. (Yuki also had hangups with discussing his feelings around Tohru because "that's shameful for boys", whereas Kyo derides himself for going overboard with martial arts around her. This is another interesting reflection of their equal-yet-opposite fears, since Kyo is afraid of driving others away with his boisterous boyishness, while Yuki is afraid that other people will mock him for not being manly enough.)

Even though the episode sprints through it with fairly workmanlike direction, there's nothing missing from this little detour into Yuki's gender insecurities that won't be revisited more thoroughly later. He needs to learn how to be confident in his own skin and embrace his feminine traits as an equally powerful part of the Prince Yuki underneath that everyone else already sees, but this is something Tohru can't really help him with, because she's bowled over by the beauty of his feminine side herself! As a result, her therapy session in this episode is a little more watered-down than usual, but since Yuki's already started thinking about the many different ways in which people show kindness, he's able to accept that Tohru's right about the class trying to express their love for him rather than mocking him, and that's enough to quell his fears about looking "weak" for now. Maybe someday he'll realize that he's already cool and masculine in all the ways that matter.

After the dust settles, Tohru finally has to reckon with the enormous secret she's been keeping from her two best friends. In the manga, Tohru volunteered this information to Uo and Hana as soon as her living situation with the Somas became permanent, but due to the way the material was rearranged, this remake opts for an accidental airheaded blurt instead. While I think it's slightly out of character for Tohru to hide the truth from her friends even after she's chosen the Somas as her new home, it's also firmly in-character for Uo and Hana to detect something is up for themselves and coax it out of her, so that's probably a harmless nitpick overall. Uo and Hana are fiercely protective of Tohru as a pair of outcasts who found their first and dearest friend but felt helpless to support her after Kyoko's death. By that same token, they've also seen enough hardship and prejudice to be more sympathetic to fellow unpolished weirdos like Yuki, Kyo, and even Shigure. (While he is a published novelist, given that this horn-dog also writes smutty bodice-rippers under a pseudonym "for the lulz", it's possible his livelihood doesn't actually pay for the Soma cottage.)

Uo's won over by Yuki and Kyo's heartfelt assessment of Tohru's character, and Hana sums up their own appeal succinctly: "They have good waves, but they don't know it." While it's not great for their self-esteem long-term, the fact that Yuki and Kyo don't know how special they are probably makes things easier on a self-sacrificial busybody like Tohru. So the girls give the boys their blessing with minimal drama, freeing us to mix up the supporting cast more often going forward. They truly have an invincible friendship, even if I still think Tohru's candid speech about it is one of her most unconvincingly cheesy moments. I love these characters, but moments like that remind me why Tohru would get dismissed as a "Mary Sue" so often in the old days. Would that we all could be so beautifully humble around the people we love.

Then there's that baseball cap. This remake has gone overboard with pregnant shots of this plot device from the start, and this episode finally delivers all its built-up foreshadowing in the last five minutes by raising more questions than answers. It turns out that the hat belonged to Tohru's first crush, a little boy who brought her back home when she had lost her way, even if he kept his distance the whole time and vanished immediately afterwards. It doesn't take a detective to suss out that either Yuki or Kyo was the kid who rescued Tohru that day, but there seems to be equal evidence for both parties. Kyo's the one who overhears Tohru's story with some sense of recognition, but the child's silhouette is closer to Yuki's, and we get a shot of him reading in his room under Tohru's line about the boy likely having forgotten his act of kindness. Is Tohru fated to rekindle her first love once again, just like in a fairytale? Or is the truth behind this baseball cap much more complicated than a kind gesture from one mysterious boy?

Speaking of mirrored meanings, this episode gives us another glimpse of Shigure's dark side, as he leaves the teens behind to scheme alongside Akito once more. It seems like they have some kind of wager going over what will happen to Tohru in the Soma house, but we don't know what outcome either of them is betting on yet. Their rapport is frosty as they sit on opposite sides of the room, yet it's also strangely intimate, as Shigure's jab about Akito being a terrible person compared to Tohru is only met with an amused self-deprecating remark about "always wishing for the moon." So even if they appear to be at odds on the surface, Shigure is clearly acting as a double agent by reporting everyone's actions to Akito, and there's no way he could get away with insulting the head of the family so directly if they didn't share some kind of unique relationship. Just like their chronic illnesses, this "wishing for the moon" phrase is meant to tie Yuki and Akito together, as an abuser and victim who share a history we've only just begun to unravel. Yuki admires Tohru for being brave and strong enough to think of others' needs first, but this could make Akito especially dangerous to her as a person who knows that he makes unreasonably selfish demands but doesn't seem to care.

It seems like it's far too early in the story for these opposing forces to meet, but Hatori Soma has other ideas. Once again, there's a slight change in context for this scene due to reordering manga material, but the only thing we lost this time was the humorous juxtaposition of Tohru being called to the teacher's lounge to meet Hatori mere seconds after she was warned not to be caught alone with him. In this remake, their meeting happens over the phone instead (notably while Shigure isn't home to answer it), without the levity provided by Momiji hopping up to interrupt Hatori's mention of a meeting with Akito Sohma. With the Zodiac's memory-erasing giant and its malicious leader drawing Tohru away from the cottage next week, things look bad for our humble heroine. But then again, Hatori did try to protect Yuki in his own small way by taking Momiji to the culture festival in Akito's place, so perhaps he's got something more benevolent in mind for Tohru as well.

Stray Snippets Lost in Adaptation This Week: Kyo got slightly more lines and focus during the culture festival in the manga, following his embarrassing cat-astrophe during homeroom in episode 3. He puts his all into constructing festival stands after being inspired by Tohru's speech about pickled plums, and his classmates grow closer to him as a result, nicknaming him "cat lover" now that his magnetic effect on felines is common knowledge. Yuki kicks everyone's asses at Rich Man Poor Man to pay off his own confidence boost from episode 3, and most importantly, we learn that he struggles greatly with mornings compared to early-riser Kyo. When Tohru tries to compliment Kyo for not battling Yuki when he's groggy, Kyo begrudgingly reveals that he has tried to attack his rival early in the morning, but Yuki is actually stronger when he's sleepwalking because he isn't lucid enough to hold back. Rats!

Source

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/episode-review.2/146641/boruto106.jpg

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations - Episode 106 [Review]

As Boruto: Naruto Next Generations heads into a new arc, the titular character and his friends are given an extended vacation. Instead of chronicling one of Team 7's adventures, the latest storyline (an adaptation of a 2016 novel) is a road trip comedy starring Mirai, Kakashi, and Guy. Upon learning that she's been tasked with escorting Kakashi, one of her personal idols, and Guy (whom she has far less reverence for) on a trip, Mirai is over the moon. Believing her latest assignment surpasses an S-rank mission, she can't wait to hit the road with two of the Leaf's greatest heroes. However, by the end of the first day, it becomes clear that Kakashi and Guy aren't on a mission—but rather a hot springs tour. Furthermore, just as Mirai begins getting comfortable with the idea, Kakashi reveals that this “mission” is set to last for 20 days—as opposed to the two-day timeline Mirai had prepared for. With the Land of Steam being the gang's next stop, Mirai ends the episode by reflecting on the prospect of visiting the home country of her father's killer.

It's always nice to get an extended peek at what the previous generation's key players are up to, and Kakashi and Guy make for a consistently fun pairing. Throw in Mirai to act as both an audience-insert and an effective comic foil, and you've got a winning combination of old and new. Her unwavering dedication to her “mission” provides an amusing juxtaposition to Kakashi's and Guy's laidback attitudes, and since the bit would have gotten old if drawn out for too long, her misreading of the situation is cleared up fairly quickly. Given this arc's premise, it should come as no surprise that episode 106 contains a bevy of hilarious moments, most notably Kakashi treating a specific filming location from Make-Out Paradise's big-screen adaptation like hallowed ground.

While this isn't necessarily a mark against the franchise, side stories like this demonstrate that Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is often more focused on being a sequel or continuation to the parent series than a starring vehicle for Boruto. Again, this isn't really a bad thing, as this series' connection to what came before is likely what drives fan interest, and as a protagonist, Boruto isn't quite as interesting as his old man. Plus, with an enormous cast comprised of two generations of characters, having to shoehorn the current iteration of Team 7 is liable to seem cumbersome. That being said, it is a little strange to see Boruto so frequently omitted or reduced to supporting status on his own show.

With a premise that's ripe for shenanigans, the latest arc is off to a very strong start. Kakashi and Guy continue to play off one another nicely, and it's nice to see Mirai receive some time in the spotlight. Having grown up without a father, she may have even more in common with Naruto than his own son, and seeing her come to terms with this absence might provide some compelling parallels to Naruto's journey. Assuming this level of quality is maintained, RobiHachi may have some steep competition for unconventional road trip comedy of the season.

Source