Category: Currently Watching:

Hanebado! – 10 [The Backhand Grip Is Like This]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

After some hyper melodramatic development for several weeks, this episode unfortunately stumbles on another issue: too plain, with confusing messages all around. The main plot taking a backseat as the final match between Ayano and Nagisa is nowhere to be seen, thus this episode mainly plays around with the boy’s prelim – whom we never spend any time with. Most surprisingly plain is Ayano. After last week in which she went through some sort of a trance figuratively, this week she meets the Bad Mama and guess what’s she doing? She ignores her Mom and acts pretty normal. Which makes sense but it doesn’t justify everything that goes before it. If there’s a period where she can go nuts, it’s this time. If you tell me she acts over-confident and cruel after she sees her mother, I would have believed much better.

This episode is one of the few times where get into Nagisa’s headspace again and Hanebado reminds me how much better it handles Nagisa’s mindset compare to Ayano’s. Nagisa has all the good reasons to not playing her best in this final. It might sound weird come from me but since they’re qualified for the National tournament, it’s one of the player’s role to not overtax themselves, especially regarding her injuries. Yet she decides to push on for her own confidence. Regarding how their last match affects Nagasi severely, this match is the one where she wants to try her best in order to move on.

Nagisa’s development is the only one part I can recommend, sadly. The rest of this episode we focus on two boys at school and we have some confusing messages from Hanebado that I’m not quite sure what they want to bring across. In one scene, Coach Tachibana asks Nagisa to consider her knee in fear of permanent injury. We then learn that he had the same experience in which he stops – and loses his Olympic privilege. What?? It’s contradicting. Yuu’s crush for her upperclassman goes the same way too. Hanebado shows us how Yuu cares for him in many instances, cries for his lose and all that before it turns its head into she confessesing but not really “confess”, saying it’s her love for badminton rather she likes him. What? Come again? I don’t get it at all since the show isn’t quite clear on how it wants to approach the characters. Bad Mama has little involvement for now, but I expect she’ll turn Ayano’s head around before the match. I know it sounds strange but if I have to pick between Hanebado’s “BIG melodrama” and plain Hanebado then I prefer the former because at least then I still have something concrete to talk about them.

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 08 [Towards the Light]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

Last week, with the earth-shattering revelation of Banana’s secret, I expected Revue Starlight addresses 2 developments. First, Nana and Hikari’s chemistry in the present now that we see the true reason why Nana is so fixated to Hikari and Second, why does Hikari crashes this timeline which she doesn’t in previous loops. As it turns out, we learn most about the Second part this week (and next to nothing on the First part) given this episode plays out through Hikari’s perspective. One important detail in this world-building this episode manages to spill out is that the Revue Audition doesn’t strictly happen at Karen’s school. The extra-dimensional duels occur in London where Hikara studies as well. It becomes quite clear to me that these auditions are a manifestation of all these Takarazuka Revue trainee girls’ drive and competitiveness to be a Top Star and that talking Giraffe is like a guard of that world (but why Hikari? Torture him more! I want to hear him speaking English more).

While this episode isn’t as crucial in term of changing the plot into another direction like last week’s, it’s still a perfectly fine episode that moves the narrative forward. We see again how important Karen and Hikari’s childhood promise that guide them to basically give their all. I was struck at first how Hikari was too energetic earlier compared to her stoic current self, so imagine my satisfaction to learn the reason behind her lack of enthusiasm. She literally has her ‘drive’, or ‘radiance’ (depend on which subs you watched) taken away from her. It’s a high price to pay for the auditions, given that Hikari wasn’t aware to all that. Through her big slump of why she’s doing all that in a first place, the only thing she can hold onto is that promise. So she makes a deal with the devil almighty giraffe, thus appear in Karen’s world and single-handed destroy Banana’s perfect world.

But then, when we learn about the ultimate cost the losers will have to pay, isn’t that what Nana been doing all along is to protect these smiles? Keeping the status quo so that no one can lose their power. What can be more noble than that? Hikari and Nana’s fight isn’t simply a clash between past vs present, it also a conflict of self-ambition vs team mentality. In addition, I particularly enjoy the contrasting in weapons’ choice this week: Hikari with her dagger and Nana with double swords. The duel has a nice dynamic, and the stunning compositions with strong dark red color and shadows motif certainly give a strong impression. Revue Starlight also set itself up for a melodramatic climax, with Karen and Hikari have to fight one another in the end. While we have strong development from one of our main lead, I still feel the way this episode cuts from Hikari’s backstory to their duel a bit abruptive. Hikari and Nana’s clash is certainly interesting in theory, but the lack of their on-screen time together means that we can’t get behind them as much as I like. I also want to see more of Karen – Claudine duel. With 4 episode left I guess it’s time for Claudine to be in the spotlight very soon.

Planet With – 09[Messenger of Awakening]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

This week on Planet With, wimpy paladin decides to take on a sealing device, becomes an antagonist and…wins? I mean wow, I never saw this coming. Yousuke generally felt to me to be the gentle sort who was looking out for others but once Benika fell prey to her own sealing device causing her to lose all drive and motivation, Yousuke just went full villain. Not that I don’t understand his motivation here, he lost his brother and now the woman he loves is stuck in a eternal dream with that same brother so the only way he can see himself being happy is joining Benika in that dream. Of course the sealing faction won’t do that for free so Yousuke needs to seal the earth in Benika’s place, essentially fulfilling her last wish before falling to the sealing device. The parallel between him and Souya’s current mental state is interesting as both lost everything they care about and no longer care what happens to the world. So I love that Yousuke actually turned out to be the greatest threat to the earth despite being the more timid paladin solely because he didn’t approach the objective of sealing the earth with half hearted feelings. Benika didn’t truly want to seal the world and the sealing faction themselves seem torn on the idea with Generalissimo holding great respect for cat sensei’s wishes and Shiraishi not quite keen on the idea herself as she didn’t really want earth to go down without a fight. Yousuke on the other hand has strong conviction, kicks all the other paladins ass and accomplishes the goal.

If there is some spirit being channeled in this episode it’s hot blooded robot anime as what happens after this is true super robot action with all it’s cheesy glory. I am a little disappointed that Nozomi’s role remains firmly in the love interest alone category but damn if the second half of this episode was some truly hype action. Seeing what happens to a world that’s been sealed was interesting as it felt as though time had stopped and the direction from that to Souya pulling everyone out of the dream was excellent. Souya’s new found conviction was a little on the sudden side but I can see how he reached it and hopefully the people of paradise don’t end up some massive deus ex machina for the rest of the series but looks like this will be the one and only time they will lend a hand. It’s been very much an unsung hero of the series but the sound design is absolutely excellent. It can be easy to overlook such a thing but it can really make the difference when action is on screen. I have been taken out of the moment at times when I happened to recognized a stock effect being used.

I recall a show I watched were it showed a laser about to fire and I noticed that the power up noise was literally Samus’s arm cannon charge sound effect from Metroid Prime. Here through you can really feel those blows and the impacts. I recommend watching this series with headphones as it is certainly an experience. It’s a shame that the CGI cannot match that level of quality, I have gotten used to it for the most part but I find myself thinking of how much better things would looking if they animated the fights in 2D instead of 3D. My apologies to the CGI team of this show but these robots just don’t fit in this series they are far too out of place so it would have been better they someone made some filter to help them blend better or just scrapped CGI entirely. Well the Paladins are all down and that leaves just the sealing faction and the Dragon left to take down. So how hype will those fights be? Considering the scale of escalation it’s looking like the Generalissimo fight will be in space with them ending with fighting the dragon on the moon, which sounds pretty hype to me.

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 09 [Chio-chan Changes Her Image/ Flat Cut]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

So… the sequence which I’m waiting the most from the PV made its to the screen this week, and it underlines both the strengths and the weaknesses I found in Chio-chan so far. The sequence in question is Chio pole dances by herself. On a dark side, since that arresting dance sequence was basically the first thing I watched in Chio-chan, I expected it more outrageously over the top. Imagine how awesome Chio-chan would have been if it embraces its wild nature more. I mean, I would love to see Chio actually has to do real pole dancing in some pub. As it stands, this version we have in Chio-chan is a slice-of-life show with Chio – a slightly more eccentric and acrobatic than normal girl. Both two fragments this week are mundane in its concept, which occasionally elevated by some amusing gags and rock-solid chemistry from Chio and Manana. Chio-chan might turn out NOT that special than I’d love to be, but as a slice-of-life comedy with mild situation-based gags it does its jobs nicely.

For the first segment, the main joke lies in how bland Chio looks without the glass (“it’s like your entire personality is on the glass” Nicely put, Manana), so Manana and Master Kushitori has a chance to out multiple crazy wigs onto Chio. Apart from multiple references that range from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure to GTO to Gabriel Dropout, I find its most amusing when she resembling Marilyn Monroe (and nice callback to that hairstyle in the second half). As Chio innocently thinks her image has improved (it’s not. To the frustration of Manana and Master), she pole-dances at a freaking shrine flawlessly with that Showa-era wig. Despite as I said earlier I felt a bit underwhelming as I wanted her to do it for real in a club, this sequence is still the episode’s high point because A) everything about her appearance doesn’t match at all with the pole-dance. She does it at a shrine. She has traditional outdated hairstyles AND she wears a freaking school uniforms. Just the thought of her doing it like that brings a smile on my face and B) she manages to do it effortlessly (I tried it one time and it’s insanely difficult). It’s the more amazing when later on we learn that she picks up naturally after watching it on her games repeatedly. She a natural acrobatic girl for sure.

Although as silly as the premise sounds, I pretty much enjoy all Andou’s wayyy too on-the-nose plan to get Chio’s attention. The jokes boost up nicely when we get all those in the point of view of Manana, whose head isn’t as thick as our Chio, and whose taste is “normal” enough so that she can see something absurdly wrong (or put it better, niche appeal) in Aidou’s plan. Her dream sequence is absolutely the segment’s best gag. Imagine Chio in her convertible car with that outrageous wig and annoying accent is so much fun to ignore. In addition, the way Manana tries to sabotage that not neccesarily because of Chio’s wellbeing (Chio’s quite happy in the dream, the one who is miserable is Manana), but from her “jealousy”. It also helps that Aidou does all that with a straight face, and Chio’s fascinating reactions are on point. He seems to have a good grasp of what Chio likes (boys who smoke, for example), but one thing he does wrong is Chio’s love for BL. It closes up with some of the best closing pun of Chio-chan in awhile, that both Manana and Aidou’s underlying behave like some yuri/yaoi characters (well, our girls did kiss before, right? RIGHT?)

To sum it up, what is the moral of this story this week? Be extremely be careful when you make an homage. It’s a double-edged sword.

Planet With – 08[Power Is What Dwells Within Your Own Self]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Why is it that no one is watching this show, as it is legitimately great. Looking online it’s sad to see that this show has pretty much no hype around it whatsoever. Those that stuck with it look to be pleasantly surprised but it seems that many got turned off by it’s first episode. It’s a shame truly as this show really has come into its own. It could be that Satoshi’s nature of making use of tropes and subverting them is working against him as viewer deem him as unoriginal before he managed to go against expectation. Take for example this episode where it has Souya refusing to fight the Sealing faction because his revenge is essentially complete now that the dragons power has been collected. Souya has no real reason to fight anymore and points out that everything he ever knew or loved is gone. Sure he has new friends on earth but the fact of the matter is that he truly lost everything before coming to earth. Any other anime the characters would start kicking the kid when he’s down and telling him to man up and fight the alien. Even in Evangelion they go out of their way to berate Shinji for not wanting to pilot a robot. Here it looks like they are heading in the same direction with even a member of the sealing faction questioning just why he isn’t fighting. But here one of the former paladins releases that Souya is just a kid and takes up the responsibility to fight the battle. Regardless it looks like Souya is going to get dragged into the battle no matter what as the paradise race tell him that the dragon is coming back at the dark side of the moon.

Benika got some development this week as she relates the story of a detective she used to admire who was killed by a kid with a gun. Making the reason why she joined the sealing faction being that she doesn’t trust humanity with power and believe that they will lose control like that kid who got his hands on a gun. What’s more it looks like the detective is the brother of Yousuke who likes Benika but looks like he feels he can’t measure up to the memory of his brother. on that if I am not mistaken it Benika looks to have feelings for Hideo and may have subconsciously wanted him to defeat her. Oh and great callback to him being the strongest of the paladins and having him defeat her. I thought that with the first half over and the paladins defeated that the op would need to be updated but they are gearing up to play a role in the second half of the series too. Comedy was on point here too with Souya seeing through Shiraishi’s illusion and having a mental crysis over whether real or illusionary boobs are better when she pressed up against him. Again, it starts as a common trope but then twists it in such an interesting way. Not to mention that cheeky little ghost in the shell reference at the beginning.

Overall I like that the paladins are coming back into the story as new warriors to fight the sealing faction and Souya’s growing psychic powers. Little disappointed that Nozomi didn’t take up the position of protecting the town but there does seem to be hints of her taking a more active role besides romantic interest. The comedy still makes things quite fun with even the antagonists lightening up like Shiraishi buting green with envy over Souya and Nozomi’s date. Benika looks like she’s out of the sealing faction so I wonder just what she will do now after being defeated. Well who knows what could happen in the best show that no one is watching.

Hanebado! – 09 [What I Want Us To Be Is Not ‘Friends’]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

I hope Hanebado having fun of drawing Ayano this week. She who switches from normal-Ayano to Weiwei-Ayano to evil-Ayano in a blink of eye. Appropriately all my screenshots this week are dedicated to her multiple disorder personalities. After all, ridiculous drama with ridiculous facial expressions are Hanebado at its essence now. Story-wise I’m pretty sure that we won’t get to the national stage this cour. It’d be the final match between Nagisa and Ayano and the boy’s tournament. Speaking of that I find it strange to move the final match to the week after. Isn’t it just one match left? Before addressing the elephant in the room (which is Ayano, not the real elephant), let’s get down to Nagisa’s perspective first. To put it frankly her role isn’t big or important enough to be seen as a co-lead. Worse, like many characters in this show, she makes some head-scratching decisions. If she practises to the extend of hurting her knee, then what’s the point of all that? It’s the time where you’re supposed to rest your body, and one more week of practice doesn’t make any real different. Where is Tachibana in all this? Isn’t he supposed to be a coach? I know Hanebado never intends to be realistic but little nitpicks like this take me right out of the main story.

More than any other episodes, this week is the one where we can see Ayano’s character inconsistency all over the board. They say the eyes are the windows to one’s heart and it can apply appropriately here. Her eyes, from total blank when she meets Connie, to all fluffy when she’s in the Weiwei amusement park, then to Psycho’s level of creepiness, ain’t come from the same person. You can pretty much say the same for Connie. First appeared as a talented, stuck-up brat who refuses to let her partner play, what does she become this week? She got beaten by Ayano completely flat. In addition, I don’t really buy her reason to get Ayano accept her as “family member”. They aren’t bloodlined for Peter sake and this is more about proving herself to be a better badminton player than Ayano than you know, get together like a big family with welcomed arms.

And now their Mama truly comes to the picture by greeting Ayano like nothing happened? God, the drama is gonna be awesomely ridiculous next week (a little off topic but where are Connie real parents? Does Mama adopt her legally or just invite her to the house and let her stay?). On the other spectrum, we have a bit insight of Yu’s crush to her upperclassman but frankly I don’t know what will happen afterward. Will she confess? Will the other one care at all? Will we care at all? To say Hanebado goes overboard with its drama is still an understatement. THE drama is getting laughable mediocre, but the way Hanebado embraces it with all it had is kinda admirable by itself. At least, we can always enjoy the many faces of Ayano this week.

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 08 [Yuki-chan Doesn’t Care/ Chio Fisher/ Momo-chan’s Story]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

At the very first moment of this episode, we have a glaring fanservice shot of Chio changing clothes and I thought to myself: “Chio-chan just can’t stop itself from having so much fun”. But it later reveals THAT is what this first segment is about. Yuki’s wearing her “revealing” track suit to school, concerning both our Chio and Manana. This week is a return to form for Chio-chan: these segments are laid out just about enough, both Chio and Manana have heaps of material to shine, and in the end the show tries something new with the little story involving Momo. It’s a welcome return of Yuki, who reveals another side of her this week to the surprise of both Chio and Manana. She wears a short tracksuit to school and she doesn’t care. She notices people glaring of her but to her it’s just like when she’s running in the big stadium. She’s fine with all the attention but it’s shattering for our girls who don’t prepare mentally for such a showcase.

So how the two girls “cope” with that? In different ways but jus so themselves. Look at how Chio decides to blend in: she wears her tennis suit so that her friend Yuki don’t stand out with her suit, but her “below-average” mindset means that she rather prefers to hide behind Yuki. I mean, it’s just a very Chio way to do. Manana, being herself, does things as indirectly as possible. She takes Yuki to the nearby supermarket so that Yuki can finally get it. The plan backfires quickly. She then teases her best friend by tempting Yuki to run, leaving behind Chio and her standout tennis suit. Even if the main joke of this segment to be: what does people react when see a girl wearing tracksuit to school, Chio-chan makes it exciting and never runs out of its welcome.

The second segment recalls the first episode’s shenanigan for all the right reasons. It does enough to not become a gimmick though. It starts innocently enough: Chio’s babbling about her games to an uninterested Manana before her game-mode takes a better of her again (Chio’s hyper for sure). Crawling up towards narrow alley is fun enough, we then have the reappearance of that bald guy (in a pretty much same situation) who still somehow misses Chio in a split second. Having Manana in this segment is an improvement from the first episode, when she just had it with Chio and storms through the roof to catch Chio. As it stands, there are many ways to reach a rooftop, and both Manana and Chio’s journey to that place prove to be entertaining and warm at the same time. “The rare item of friendship” indeed.

Lastly, we get to see the reasons why Momo doesn’t have any friend and why she joins the school committee in the first place. While she wasn’t that remarkable the first time we saw her, this little segment does a good job to give her a personality and presents her point of view. That poor girl has all the good intentions, she just need someone who listen to her. Chio-chan walks a right path this week. Segments play out just at the right length and there’s some genuine moments here. Like Chio, I feel like I’ve collected something rare watching it. Hopefully they keep it up for the remaining half of its run.

Hanebado! – 07 [The Badminton I Want to Play]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

Welcome to Hanebado AKA the sport anime where young players get repeatedly abused by the adults. Last few weeks we have the most terrible Mom ever and this week, a loud mouth coach. I mean, what’s up with all these melodrama here? It has gotten to the point where it becomes unbearable to fully embrace. It’s just that Hanebado wanted to be a serious sport show but the character writing doesn’t have the chop to pull off effective drama.The character inconsistency is all over the episode. Take evil-Ayano, the way she talks and sits (look at the screenshot) don’t fit with what we knew about her characters. What happened with the old-Ayano who wanted to be a part of the team? That leap of personality is just way too clumsy. Then we have the shouting boss which has a punchable attitude, but worse he does a 180 degree at the end where suddenly he becomes some sort of amenable person. No. It isn’t how you develop a character, Hanebado.

This episode focuses on the central match between Nagisa and Nozomi, ex-friends in middle school. It’s just that Nozomi always has an inferiority complex towards Nagisa. She knows that Nagisa is better than her, and she makes up for that by training her best. For a girl who has been listening to her coach to the point she wonders what she even plays for, it’s good to see her standing up for herself and playing the match the way she wanted. Although Hanebado’s tendency for injecting stupid drama is still there. Like, where the heck does Nagisa’s knee injury come from? Do we aware of it before? Does it feel like cheating? A bit, yes.

The match, likewise, has some unusual focus as Hanebado would underline some important points at the first set then skip straight to the end. Hmmm? Why don’t you let us see how Nozomi fight back? We have no sense that it was a close match until the umpire announces the score. We aren’t sure anymore about Nagisa’s knee either since it never brought up later. So apparently, this is just the regional tournament so that both Nagisa and Ayano will participate to the National stage. But first, they’ll need to settle for this final match. Normally I wouldn’t care less since I’m not particular fond with either character, but now that Connie and maybe Evil Mama might be at the attendance, how much more crazy will Ayano become? Maybe a Disney-villain level of cruelness?

Satsuriku no Tenshi – 05-07[Don’t let me kill you just yet./Zack is the only one who can kill me./Who are you?]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Satsuriku no Tenshi

These two episodes felt like Zacks time to get a little development as we get a bit of a look at his childhood. I will admit that this series has a particular problem with showing it’s villains as any villain shown so far has been quite one dimensional. Now I hear that later episodes will address this with the floor masters at least but Zack’s guardians in is flashback were equally cartoonishly evil. The idea is solid however in that Zack his averation towards being treated like a tool do to his caretakers making him bury the dead bodies of other children at the home. Zack did seem unaware of what it was he was buring and upon discovering a skull in the ground he copped on to just what his caretakers were making him do. I don’t like that he got the idea to kill them from a slasher flick playing on tv as well, it seems to be reinforcing that notion of violet media creating serial killers. Still it does explain to a degree why Zack acts like a slasher villain and you can say that it was far from the only factor in his decision. So Rachels gave of making Zack relive his childhood and having Rachel unwittingly torment him by telling him what to do was a delightful bit of psychological torture.

The death of Cathy was certainly satisfying. Not because she was any kind of interesting character or anything like that but more due to not having to listen to her annoying laugh or voice anymore. She certainly was hateable so I suppose it worked to a degree. She certainly knew how to press Zacks buttons with how she pushed him to take a drug to push him berserk enough to kill Rachel. Only to have him attack himself to stop himself, pissing off Rachel as she wanted to be the one to punish him. Her end was certainly cathartic in getting wounded by criminals and then shot death by her own judgment miniguns. So with Zack mortally wounded it looks like he’s out of the story for a while with a priest like character taking his place. To save Zack Rachel must descend the floors again and revisit each one. Which in turn does look to be a descend into a darker mindset as she is not allowing anything to get in the way of saving Zack.

The third episode is the most emotion we have gotten out of Rachel since episode one. I particularly like that the more we delve into Rachel, the more messed up she becomes. The hallucinations she experienced during the episode really painting her quite differently from her initial appearance. In particular it’s worth nothing that Rachel broke when she heard her parents were dead and originally it was through that was a driving factor towards her deathwish. However in this episode she has a hallucination of her parents which painted them in less favorable light and she got out of it by cutting open the painting they came out of. Heavily suggesting that the one who killed her parents was Rachel herself. In fact there have been several hints towards Rachel being quite unhinged, seeing as she keeps a gun in her purse and the look she gave the “Zombies” when she activated the miniguns to mow them down. Not to mention that to ascend a floor she had to take their nameplates and place one in the shute, throwing away the sinner. Rachel threw away her name plate without telling Zack, labeling herself as the sinner. Which you really have to consider, what did Rachel do that she considers herself worse than a serial killer?

Planet With – 07[Sirius]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

With that conclusive finale last episode, many of us were left wondering just where things go from here. As it turns out, our main protagonist Souya thought the same. The answer as it turns out is that with the palidains taken down, the sealing faction has risen up to become the new antagonist of the series. The former secretary of the paladins and member of the sealing faction has infiltrated Souya’s school as a student, which many joke that she is far too old to be pretending to be a student, and is brainwashing people into thinking she just transferred in. He little brainwashing power works on Souya but in a strange turn of events Nozomi isn’t affected by the power which either suggests that there is more to her than one would think or else her glasses managed to block out the power. It’s also nice to see that the two palidains that didn’t fight in the previous arc have joined the sealing faction and now Souya will be fighting them once again. On top of all this we have the introduction of a brand new mysterious figure who claims to be the oldest race in the universe. Seems he can only be seen by Souya and takes on the form of Souya’s brother with chances being higher that they were the ones to cause the dragon to go berserk in the first place.

We have gotten background on what happened to Sirius as well as who the odd maid girl(Ginko) who takes care of Souya is. Turns out that Ginko is a space princess(No matter how I say that it will always sound silly but hey we got mascot costume aliens so…) and at the time of the dragon attack Sirius was invading her planet. Looks like Sirius gains psychic power and started invading other planets to conquer. Which caused the dragon to deem them beyond salvation and thus wiped them out. Nya Sensei for once talks by himself in this episode and tried to prevent all this from happening but was ultimately too late, only managing to save Souya. It’s a bit sad that nya sensei wasn’t able to truly affect the outcome but I don’t truly see his actions as pointless. For one i actually believe that what he said to the dragon truly made a difference as if Tesuza was the reincarnation of the dragon it could mean that Nya Sensei’s words changed his opinion. So he sought to rule over earth rather than destroy it after seeing them close to taking the same path as Sirius.

In fact that is the entire reason that the sealing faction is the new antagonist as earth is close to awakening psychic powers and the sealing faction fully believes that once they do then they will repeat the mistakes of Sirius and start trying to conquer other star systems. Souya also looks to have awakened psychic power which has me wondering as to what role that will play. Seems there is some theory going around that Nozomi is going to take over the protagonist role now that Souya has decided this all has nothing to do with him.