Back to Goldsoldier75's Profile Goldsoldier75's Profile

Everything bad about anime.

If you’ve seen my review of The Eminence in shadow, you will know I wrote about that show, summing up why I love anime as a medium, it’s grand, fantasised and uses the medium to tell jokes otherwise not possible.

Well Mayo Chiki is the antithesis of that creativity in the medium of animation, it’s lazy, tacky, dry, predictable, stereotypical pandering garbage, with little to no redeeming qualities, aside from a sense of humour and some fun.

It’s your standard trope filled show, where even the ways that they defy tropes are tropey, yes it’s fun in parts but it’s main appeal is not ... comedy and it knows that, it’s main appeal is sex, it is what I call a “I wish that was me” show, where everything is done so the watcher wishes he was in the main characters place, it’s effective but not artistic, which is why it puts a hard cap on any show which walks that trail, and this show is definitely no different.

It’s got standard somewhat clunky animation which are common style, it’s dub is rather awful (though it does get better through the show), the main character Kinjirou Sakamachi is a classic protagonist his family is one of a standard set, both his parents are not around one is abroad and the other is dead, and his small cute looking sister likes to abuse him, a classic trope for these types of shows.

The other main cast is Kanade Suzutsuki and her butler Konoe Subaru who is shocker a woman, what a unexpected plot twist… if you are 9 and have never watched anime before.

Generally the show is as I’ve said tropey bullshit, and when it does start to get going and you start to hope it can go somewhere, it pile drives something so incredibly boring into your face to make sure you remember that this isn’t a good show.

But one episode is special that is, episode 9, this episode is one steaming piece of garbage I won’t spoil too much but just know this is one of the worst episodes I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching, it’s so poor I just couldn’t not mention it, also episode 13 is literally pure filler.

The actual ending episode is episode 12, which is, reasonably sweet, I will not spoil it, but it goes entirely as you would expect, much like the rest of the series it’s decent but nothing more save for a few well done moments.

And while it can be okay maybe even good in some parts episode 5-6, it’s just out weighed by the bad and the boring, somehow despite having the lowest of expectations I was built up to some hope and then promptly that hope was smashed to pieces like some boy who’s asked out as a dare, I entered expected nothing and was still disappointed.

It’s not bad enough to get a terrible score so instead it scores just below average which is probably the most disappointing way for a show to score, thus I am given Mayo Chiki a 4/10.

At first this may just look like your standard power fantasy, and well in many ways it is, but it’s so so much more.

For me to score a show a 8, it must be memorable, very well polished and have few flaws, this is just that, while it has its flaws namely how from about episode 11 through to episode 14 there is far too much fan service for my taste it more than makes up for it with funny jokes and a simply superb concept and execution.

Its attention to detail is similarly notable for example in the scene where Cid, the weaker half of ... our main character, wiggles his hand free from between the clutches of rose one of his heroines, but her hands stay firmly in their place showing how she’s held his hands so tightly she can keep the shape of his hand in the air, and while this is nothing major it is these little details that build up over time to elevate a show greatly, it’s pacing also helps in this matter, it never drags and yet it’s not too fast to go by you.

Now in a anime like this there a two things that take it to the top of its genre or sub genre, they are:
Jokes and memorable scenes. And this show has the both by the bucket load, I shall attempt not to spoil too much for you, but the fight scenes are excellent they build nicely and manage to layer on the story and not simply run adjacent to it, and the jokes oh the jokes.

There are many jokes throughout the season, some run the course and some are more episode specific, possibly the best running joke or bit throughout the season, is how serious Cid is about his role as a background character, his dedication to acting that role to perfection is somehow laughable and admirable at once, it’s done in a superbly creative way each time it re appears.
This is something we can all appreciate as nothing is worse then a bad repeating joke well perhaps a pretty good joke repeated so many times it becomes a hated joke and you just want it to stop is worse…

But what about Cid’s other much more powerful half shadow? Well shadow is the most stereotypical overpowered character imaginable so much so that even he himself is unaware of how much control he has over the world around him, one example is how he credits his seven shadows for the ‘inventions’ and ‘discovers’, which they ripped straight from his foggy memory of his much more advanced home world, which leads to some great scenes and pleasant jokes.
It also reflects what would be most likely to happen if a teenager was transported to a much more primitive world; there would be a grand revolution of the world around them, as their foggy memories of modern technology and culture would still trump any on the greatest minds of the time.
This is done in a way surprisingly many anime with similar occurrences have failed to do (looking at you “in another world with my smartphone”), I will mention that with a show like this your opinion of the jokes might be very different from my as humour is highly subjective.

In conclusion for me, this show sums up why I love anime as a medium, something of this scale and description would never be possible outside of a book, in a different medium, and that would be a terrible loss, thus I am giving The Eminence in Shadows a 8/10 a great score.

Hopefully you have already read my review for the first season, If not please do consider checking it out, now due to this I will try not to repeat any of my previous points, and instead give fresh reasons for why you should watch this anime.

This season begins in the ‘lawless city’ and its arc is just about my least favourite so far in the show, but luckily it only lasts about two episodes and still has one or two decent gags.

The second and main arc of this season is what Is truly important, I will try to avoid spoilers but simply it is a ... fantastic arc, it’s everything that’s good about this show, it’s witty, silly, smart, funny, cool, and the jokes are excellent.

The third and final arc of the season is good in its own right, it’s more interesting then funny there are a few gags but otherwise it’s fairly serious but it manages to be entertaining in this form as well, the ending is a nice call back despite being rather confusing one can certainly expect another entertaining season will follow after the movie, at least I certainly hope so as I want to keep on watching more and more of Cid’s adventures.

All in all I give the second season of The Eminence in shadows a 7, which is 1 point lower then the first season but still a very good score.