Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 10: Party time

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It’s weird seeing the series slow down after it skipped through so much content. This week’s episode features a brief throwback to Mile’s academy days, but it’s otherwise another team bonding mission. Admittedly, I think the misunderstandings in this episode were fun, especially when Mile has a literal god as her sounding board. I just get the sense that the series has made it a point to get us here when it could have just stayed slice of life at a leisurely pace.

Well, I’ll give this flashback credit for being on-topic. These stories always make me feel bad for the friends that Mile left behind when she ran away.

I think it’s surprisingly sweet of Reina to feel jealous of Mile’s academy friends.

It’s hilarious that Mile hesitates to spy on her friends while they’re on their quest, but she’s totally fine with spying on their private lives. I was okay with the cookie stealing, but measuring Reina’s chest is a bit suspect.

It’s really not hard to figure out where this entire episode is going with the plot threads it sets up, but I will always give this series props for churning out great faces. This episode was a gold mine for reaction face screenshots, so it gets my thumbs up.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 9: Back to questing

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Well, this week’s episode didn’t make the most progress in the world, but I suppose the girls need to upgrade their base of operations. Does this technically count as the onsen episode? I guess it’s possible that the relationship with Booneclift becomes important later. Other than that, the episode is a fairly straightforward quest to capture a wyvern.

The bit at the beginning about the difficulties of facing a wyvern was pretty entertaining. I’ve played enough D&D to appreciate when the monsters are smart enough to retreat. I’m kind of curious why it’s only the wyvern that’s a problem in this regard, but maybe intelligent creatures are rare in this world.

The extended gag for this episode is Mile’s secret plan of tossing her comrades directly into the fight. I can’t say I fully disagree with this plan, to be fair. I do somewhat get the sense that several scenes could have been explained better. Pauline gets an idea of her own, but she passes out before anything can be done.

Reina gets excessively embarrassed to the point of stripping in the forest for some reason. These feel like moments that would be more fleshed out in the novel.

Booneclift’s story about the wyvern is definitely a reference, but it’s such a common story that I’m not sure which one it’s supposed to be. I guess it was funny to see Mile arguing with him about the name of the Wyvern.

This scene was unexpectedly hilarious to me for some reason. Maybe it’s the combination of the faces with Booneclift’s surprisingly accurate statement.

I mean, I can’t really argue with these priorities.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 8: Family matters crop up again

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We thought this episode was going to be Pauline’s story, but it turned out to be two family stories at the same time. Honestly, I thought the story felt somewhat rushed. I liked the idea of putting Pauline and Mavis’s families together, but it largely seems to breeze through them. Still, I think the episode was fun overall, especially when Mile gets involved.

I thought the delivery of this joke was great. Mavis introduces her three brothers and casually ties it back to Pauline as a punchline. I honestly didn’t see that coming.

I get that this week’s struggle is more political than other episodes, but I think it would have been nice to get a better explanation for why the brute force strategy wouldn’t work. After all, Mile’s first encounter in the Hunter tournament was against a noble flaunting her power.

This was probably my favorite part of the episode. Mile takes advantage of the masked identity trope, and it actually works out for her initially. Sure, Mavis’s father eventually sees through it, but this is a much better success than what we’ve come to expect from Mile.

Every episode needs a Mile face, right? I think the weirdest part about this episode was not meeting Mavis’s brother. He’s supposed to be the groom in this arranged marriage, but he only shows up in a flashback scene. Instead, we interface entirely with his father. Maybe that’s just me.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 7: Taking time off

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Mile may not have gotten the exact obligatory beach episode that she wanted, but you have to commend her effort. This week’s episode was a bit slow, focusing on the girls taking a day off. Watching Mile will the beach part into existence was funny, and Reina has some fun solo moments of her own. In the end, the episode seems to indicate that we might be shifting towards Pauline’s story soon.

Reina gets a short scene in this episode, but it’s probably my favorite segment. Her impressions of her comrades are hilarious, and she has a great interaction with the innkeeper’s daughter.

Mile gets her own character moment in this episode, but I’m actually not entirely certain what to make of it. It’s true that her new friendships have given her social interactions to take up her time. As a result, I suppose she no longer needs to find side hobbies pursue in her spare time. On the other hand, she could just be saying that there’s nothing else to do in this world without anime and books.

I think this goes just about as well as Mile could have hoped. I thought it was great that she was able to convince her friends that her swimsuits would work out. You’d think they would have learned by now.

The episode ends with some light fun, but it includes a small moment where Pauline notices a soldier watching them. Is she noticing a threat to the group or Mile specifically? Or is this related to her own past? I’m curious to see what happens.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 6: The school trip episode

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This week’s episode was a bit awkward, but it does a good job of enforcing the character stories from last week. We’re starting to see more of the world through the travels of our band of goofs. I do wonder if this series is having a hard time deciding whether it wants to be serious or silly, though. I think the show excels at being silly, so maybe I’m just biased.

Seeing Mile turn the group’s quest into a class trip was pretty entertaining. I’m always skeptical when a series does a screenshot montage, but I think sightseeing is one of those situations where it fits. The episode also does a good job of steering into the comedy by throwing a modern-style gift shop into the mix.

Reina’s anger at the bandits makes sense in context with the previous episode, so this seems like a reasonable progression for her. I also think it makes sense that she gets defeated by the diverse nature of her enemy, which goes back to her need for backup.

I do think that Reina shifts her personality more quickly than I would have expected, though. Mile’s speech about Reina being family feels like it should be correcting Reina’s impulsive solo nature. However, we see Reina stopping herself from killing as well, which seems like an overreach. Maybe it makes more sense as progression from last week rather than progressing from the events this week.

This might also sound cruel, but I think the episode would have made more sense if the grandfather didn’t survive. It’s weird watching everyone rejoice at the end when most of the caravan was slaughtered. I can see it being unnecessarily cruel to the little girl who already lost her parents. But in that case, it might have fit better if the soldiers had taken the caravan captive. After all, they were soldiers pretending to be bandits, not ruthless killers.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 5: Everyone has a past

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I guess this is the stuff they skipped from the light novel. Last week’s episode teased Reina’s character story, but it turns out that every character gets a chance to share. While it’s nicely compact and all, I do wonder how much of Mile’s story is missing here. I also would have appreciated if the tone of the episode had shifted with the tone of each story. But that aside, we certainly have a colorful cast of rogues.

I’m surprised that the character with the most suffering gets to go first. Well, I suppose Reina has decent reasons for being less forgiving than her companions.

This might just be me, but I felt like Reina’s story could have benefit from some spacing. It’s sad to see her lose her second family, but I think it’s much more effective if reinforcements didn’t arrive right after their deaths. Let her wander a little first. That being said, I liked seeing this explanation for the flashback in the previous episode. I wasn’t expecting this level of darkness in a series like this.

So, Pauline gets it from her mother. That’s my takeaway from her story.

The isekai awakening seems so much less intrusive as a delayed flashback. My main comment on Mile’s past is that the episode seems to go to a disturbing length to force the Cinderella parody on her.

I guess this is the weekly reminder that Mile has the best faces. Also, it’s a pretty small scene, but I think my favorite part of the episode is the depiction of Reina’s inner fire. It’s shown flaring up when she unlocks her magical abilities, but it dims when she finally tells her friends. It’s a cool thing to add.

Mile really knows how to keep a low profile. Part of me wonders whether her friends from the academy will return in the future. It seems strange that they just disappear from her life.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 4: Official duties

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Hoo boy, it’s time to get into the character stories. With the Crimson Vow officially formed, this week’s episode largely focused on the girls as they set out on their new career. As the girls start to get to know each other better, we learn a bit more about Pauline and Reina. As always, it’s a fun episode, and I look forward to learning about these characters.

You have to give Mile credit. She’s doing a great job of introducing Japanese culture to her new world. She’ll make them all weabs in no time.

Time to save the day with some science, I guess. I feel like I have to give Mile credit for not utilizing some obscure trivia knowledge to save the day. She has every right to do so, after all. She was supposedly a genius in her previous life.

I feel like there’s quite a gap between merchant and cleric, but Pauline certainly keeps it fun. Also, she’s moderately frightening.

This is the weekly reminder that Mile has the best facial expressions.

It’s really entertaining to watch Mile gush over her otaku dreams coming true during moments of great peril. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go full otaku while seeing a somewhat realistic mech sequence, but Mile takes it to another level.

I look forward to seeing what happens with Reina’s character. There’s a brief flash of her burning two people to a crisp, but I initially assumed it was a hallucination of what could have happened to the bandits. Based on this comment, it might be more likely that it’s a memory from Reina’s past.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne Episode 3: The rematch

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The time skip in this episode was so random that it makes me wonder if the light novel did the same thing. Regardless, this series has a fun lightheartedness to it that makes really enjoyable to watch. I think it’s almost sad that Mile still thinks she can get away with being average after everything she’s done so far. On the other hand, her friends seem to have effectively accepted this.

I’ve been having fun with the references in this show. Watching Mile infect her friends with chuunibyou with Sentai stories made this episode so much better.

I suppose the point of the time skip is to get the other girls roughly up to Mile’s level before they venture out into the world. It would be awkward if they held her back, right?

Oh, is she actually going to be a recurring villain? I already forgot her name, though.

I guess the main showcase in this episode is the exhibition match. Each of Mile’s friends gets to showcase her unique talents. Of the three, I think that Pauline was the funniest, since she effectively plays full damage sponge to win. She’s probably the least straightforward of the group.

I was pleasantly surprised with Mile’s fight. Her movements are ridiculous, but I thought that her sword fight looked great. Even though she’s supposed to be incredibly fast like Mavis, her movements were still very clear. It’s more than I would expect from a show like this.

Does this mean that the girls are finally independent? I look forward to seeing how the Crimson Vow fights outside of the school environment.

Granbelm Review: Magic always brings suffering

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I suppose you could call this series “magical girls with mechs”. To be more specific, the show takes place in a world where magic has long been sealed away. However, it’s last remaining vestige is Granbelm, a monthly battle amongst mages who wish to become the Princeps Mage and gaining their one true desire. The main character, Mangetsu Kohinata, is randomly drawn into that battle one night. She’s rescued by Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami, who teaches her about Granbelm and inspires her to help Shingetsu win Granbelm.

While the overall outline of the story is a pretty familiar tale, I think the series has some interesting twists along the way. There’s a lot of discussion about identity and finding meaning that I quite liked while watching the series. The main characters also have strong personal stories, but I would say that this comes at the cost of side characters.

To give an example, I thought that Anna had a decent arc, but I found her personality to be frustrating to watch. Other characters, like Rosa, are completely cast off after the first episode, never to be seen again. On the other hand, I quite liked Mangetsu’s character. She starts out as a girl seemingly stuck being mediocre, and she eventually finds her own sense of purpose.

If I had to point to a single issue that I had with the series, it would be a weak explanation of the world. Granbelm is supposed to be a special competition that happens once a month, and yet the series tends to skip to the battle whenever it can. In addition to that, the magic of the world pretty much does whatever it wants. There’s no sense of consistency when it comes to the abilities that a particular mage has, and it’s hard to tell who deserves to win any given fight.

Unfortunately, the logic behind a magical world is one of those things that I like to think about, so I would say I had some trouble getting through the series. Overall, I thought that it had some cool ideas, though, so I would still be willing to say that it was a decent showing for the season it was in.

Final Score: 7/10

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne First Impressions (1-2): Totally normal

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I totally didn’t delay talking about this series because I was already covering enough isekai shows. That would be crazy. I can’t even call this the silliest premise because Shinchou Yuusha exists, but it’s a hilarious show with less of an end goal in mind. And good lord, the facial expressions are strong.

As a side note, I’ve heard that the anime starts further in the story than the light novel does. It’s something that I plan to investigate more when I get around to reading the light novels, but I haven’t noticed any problems with it so far.

In summary, the series follows Mile, a Japanese girl reincarnated into a new world. In her previous life, she felt isolated by her natural talents, so she wishes to be average in her new life. However, the gods take that request quite literally and adjust her talents to the average of all creatures in her new world, including dragons. This leaves Mile unfortunately overpowered compared to other humans as she sets out to live a normal life.

This series has a fun sense of self-awareness with its jokes, making clear references to things like Truck-kun. I enjoy the lighthearted nature of the show, even if the premise is a bit strange. Mile’s airheaded personality also makes you really wonder just how gifted she is, which I think is a nice character trait. She’s kind of a weird character to try and relate with, though.

The one thing I’m not sold on so far is the “gods” of the world. They’re apparently supposed to be nanomachines or something, with Mile’s main companion being nicknamed Nano in reference to it. I hope there’s something more to them, since “nanomachines” are somewhat of a buzz word.

Come on, Mile. You had an entire life of reading fantasy light novels, and you choose a backstory from this world? Rookie mistake.

I think it’s hilarious that Mile makes friends who get so fed up with her excuses that they end up just accepting her. That certainly sounds like true friendship to me.