Sara Talks Anime

I’m listening to Christmas music while working on this post, as my parents have been neglecting to play it themselves, and I want to play Whamageddon! I absolutely did not have to mention this, but I’m just doing so because it’s Christmas season and Christmas is cool. :]

Anyway, in today’s episode, Mizuki gets a stye and has to stay home from work. AKA, we’ve gotten an episode where part of the plotline is “character falls ill”. Thankfully, this isn’t the entire plot of the episode, as the second half of the episode has Mizuki, Futami, and Sato go with Toko to an area where they also get to meet a skilled shogi player.

This was a fun episode for the most part, though Nashida being part of this episode, even if for a short while, really drug it down for me. I would’ve been fine with her just being a one-off character, but to me at least, it feels like she’s overstaying her welcome. And considering what happened in the post credits scene of this episode, I hope that Nashida leaves Futami’s apartment soon. I don’t think I can stand seeing her in future episodes.

Maybe that sentiment’s just coming from seeing Futami’s dog getting so scared when Nashida raised her voice, and I just feel a high aptitude of sympathy for animals.

You hear that, Nashida? The dog, which I only got the proper introduction to last episode, is a character I like more than you! Maybe if you weren’t such a wet cat in all the worst ways possible, you could’ve been up there too!

To me, Nashida as a character doesn’t work in the long term unless the rest of the series is strong enough to support them. As an example, take a look at VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral After Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream. The main character, Awayuki, could be seen as similar to Nashida. But considering how seemingly insane the rest of the cast is, it works because they all kind of…are the kids still using the term “match her freak”?

Nashida, meanwhile, doesn’t really feel like her disposition meshes well with any of the other characters in the series, which makes her a real odd one out. And to me, it feels like she was supposed to be a one-off character for the story arc she was introduced in, but either because they were the creator of the original manga’s favorite or the creator noticed that Nashida was getting popular, they decided to keep her around. If she worked, I wouldn’t have minded too much. (Case and point: Gosho Aoyama deciding to bring the Magic Kaito characters into Detective Conan.)

But since I feel like Nashida isn’t working as a character, I’m not excited to see her on screen. Maybe in the episodes that this series has left, Nashida will finally go back to her apartment long term. I’ve never read the source material, so it’s not like I’ll know what will happen.

But Futami’s the star, and I’m still enjoying what she’s doing, so as long as that stays the same, I won’t let one side character derail my entire experience. Makes me curious what Futami will do next.

Also, unless I get any additional posts out before my birthday, this is the final post that I’m making before I turn 21. If you want to leave early birthday wishes now, you can do that. If you want to wait until December 12th and then come back here to leave birthday wishes, you can do that. If I somehow manage to make a post on my birthday, you can leave birthday wishes there. Only bringing this up now due to the proximity to my birthday. Yeah. :]

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