Everything else is just filler.

Frieren, episode 18

Note to fan-artists: they only blot out half the sky.

Cast expansion was relatively light this week, with only a few of the exam candidates getting fleshed out. This included the cute redhead in hot pants, who got some actual fan-service poses in. Nice cameos by Kraft and the old gang.

Verdict: the art style doesn’t really lend itself to fan-service; fortunately that’s not the point.

Dawdling In Dungeon, episode 2

This week, the highlight is the OP animation and original song, on which they spent more money than the rest of the show. The actual episode settles into its tropes, accomplishing very little in the way of making the characters interesting. Also, SHOUTING IS COMEDY!

Verdict: snore. Maybe they should add a dramatic countdown timer, “days until Falin is fewmets”.

Pon-Pon Girls, episode 2

[not licensed for streaming]

In which Girl#4 does-not-bounce into the story, which is pretty impressive for a gal packing a pair of Death Stars. You can understand why she’s reluctant to visit other mahjong parlors with mostly male customers:

It seems a bit bait-and-switchy to make a fuss about how the OP song features a former member of Nogizaka 46 and current professional mahjong player, when her voice is so distorted by autotune that she barely sounds human. Nothing wrong with the tune, or the pon-pon girls singing the pon-pon parts, but it’s pretty clear that Kana Nakada’s career was never based on her vocal talents.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Verdict: the trailers promised bikinis; maybe that’s what they’re saving the 2D animation budget for. (the 3D budget is going into rendering the automated game table)

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