Back to WouldyoukindIy's Profile WouldyoukindIy's Profile

Do you like Konosuba? Do you want more Konosuba? This is the show for you then.

I will say that it is actually more serious than the original show is mostly because it's the whole quartet that makes the original so silly and chaotic. With less people to play off of, Megumin gets to show off more of how smart she is. And she is a smart cookie, not just with her magic but also with her emotional intelligence. Sometimes she even uses this emotional intelligence to do something other than torment Yunyun, the other character with much added depth from the original. Yes, she's still ... a desperately lonely person who might be clinging to Megumin as her only friend but she's also a diligent person and maybe the only of her clan who isn't a little bit crazy, minus the loneliness.

I can't imagine these characters or the show itself will be as endearing to someone who hasn't seen the original series but that's spinoffs for you. It's still funny but there are a lot of references you simply won't get.

Preliminary Review is Preliminary! This show has amazing potential, imo. Review is no longer preliminary.

It's flashy, it's insane, it is actually trying to say something.

First and foremost, the visuals are what drew me in. It doesn't look like modern anime in character design. They don't all suffer from same face syndrome which is very common these days. It's a small detail but to take the time to make the characters actually distinct in that way shows someone with more passion for visual storytelling. The animation is beautiful to me; being a bit scuffed and off model is fine so long as the action is ... conveyed properly. The transformation sequences are extremely unique without betraying the magical girl root of the trope. The whole show is a love letter to otaku culture and also just general quirkiness. The animation quality does ebb and flow a little bit but they obviously didn't have an infinite budget for this very experimental show so they put it in where it counts.

That being said, the first couple episodes felt a little formulaic, but it really started finding it's stride after episode 3, imo.

The show does not have the most satisfying ending, imo but it is still a fitting ending. Ultimately, this is a very unique show that wears it's influences very openly but has layers of meaning in it

OK, now let's get into a weird theory.

This show is sort of about real world politics, except Otaku are stand ins for anti-capitalist people and SSC is modern capitalism. Evidence for this is some of the word choice. I can't tell you how many Revolutionary_____Army's have existed as real leftist groups, making an obvious parallel to the Revolutionary Otaku Army. First episode features a leader of a revolutionary movement losing heart. This happens all the time. Leaders of groups get tired of the fight and it's not really something you can blame them for. It's exhausting. The next two episodes are general getting the band back together and then introducing a main henchwoman of the villain. Episode 4 is where this connection picks back up for me. The band of older Otaku, called the Otaku Commune for further usage of leftist terms, they run into represent the entrenched leftist orgs that exist all around the world. They fucking love infighting and often have unproductive turf wars over actions and programs. But they also have a rich history and there are definitely things we can learn about their past struggles. They aren't any less true believers than the young kids, but they're better read and way more jaded from literal decades of fighting and probably seeing nothing but pain for it. They don't think the new kids have a chance because they had a chance and couldn't get anywhere. There was one more reference I wasn't aware of. The helmet that Otaku Hero is wearing is very reminiscent of helmets worn during the 1968-1969 Japanese University protests.

Alright, show is over and I think my theory really has legs. Because even if you kill the leaders of an ideology, it's a lot harder to kill the ideology. Eventually someone will take up that mantle. The movement was never just OH and the magical girls.

Funnily enough I saw this title in a joke TikTok and it seemed strangely interesting as a concept since the usual isekai is just a plain old power fantasy.

Haru becomes a sex worker because the world she was Truck-kun-ed into might have magic and whatnot but it has very similar gender politics to the medieval period of our world. Namely, unaccompanied women have little to no rights, little to no options for work, and it's ultimately very dangerous to live there as a woman. With nowhere to go and no real skills of use in a fantasy world, and no cheat abilities like those given ... to her classmate Chiba who tried to push her out of the way of Truck-kun and joined her in this world, she turns to sex work, something she did briefly in her original world. Not deterred, she endeavors to do her best with the situation she's been dealt.

This manga is ecchi bordering on hentai for some of the visuals but it treats it's protagonist as a person, not just eye candy. It has a lot to say about the nature of sex work, the precarious position the sex workers have in that their job is physically dangerous and emotionally taxing. Some men are kind, some men are abusive, some are just pathetic(cough Chiba cough), and Haru does not mince her words about any of them or the situation she's in but she still has to cater to them or else she can't survive. It's her point of view that I feel takes this manga above being just plain smut. It would be good well drawn smut even without it, but it wouldn't be worth a look for any other purpose.

I find it a little hard to categorize this manga into josei or seinen because it's obviously got visuals and situations that appeal to young men, but also has a lot of criticism for the same men that women would appreciate.

I will solidly say this isn't a read for everyone due to the sexual violence inherent in sex work and while Haru isn't just eye candy, she's still objectified frequently in the art. If either of these facts are unacceptable for you, you should pass on this. If you're looking for smut with some commentary on the nature of sex work, I'd give it a read. It's not bad for what it is.