Meeting Date: 1/21/2017
Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!
Mike Ferreira: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club. I’m Mike Ferreira, and I’m joined by L.B. Bryant and Anthony Simpson.
L.B. Bryant: Hello
Anthony Simpson: Afternoon.
Mike Ferreira: Today, we’ll be talking about Seiren’s second episode, as well as episodes 1 and 2 for Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.
Mike Ferreira: Starting off, Kobayashi was our “mulligan pick” for this season, so I wanted to see everyone’s thoughts on the show so far. Did we make the right choice?
L.B. Bryant: Absolutely.
Anthony Simpson: It was a good choice.
L.B. Bryant: Over the years it’s gotten increasingly rare for me to literally laugh out loud at an anime comedy but the first two episodes of this series had me giggling like mad.
Mike Ferreira: You and me both. This was just an adorable show, and I’m really loving the characters.
Mike Ferreira: Miss Kobayashi could easily be one of my coworkers
Anthony Simpson: I see a bit of myself in Miss Kobayashi.
L.B. Bryant: Kobayashi is going to take some getting used to because honestly she’s a little bitchy at the moment. I’m sure she’s going to soften up over the next few weeks as her relationships develop with the other characters but yeah, kind of a bitch right now.
Mike Ferreira: Well, that’s the thing.
Mike Ferreira: She’s a programmer.
Mike Ferreira: We’re pretty aloof people
L.B. Bryant: Fair enough.
Mike Ferreira: The back pain is real. Spending 8 hours in a cube will kill your back by the end of the day.
L.B. Bryant: I have no doubts about that.
Anthony Simpson: I can attest as well its no fun.
Mike Ferreira: Yep. Standing desks have been a godsend.
Mike Ferreira: But anyway, though I empathize with Kobayashi, I do adore Tohru. She’s just awesome.
Anthony Simpson: Tohru is adorable.
Mike Ferreira: She really is. She’s just charmingly naïve at times, what with the whole condescension toward humans, followed by simple “how does this work” regarding human things.
L.B. Bryant: I love watching her adjust to the human world. I found it hilarious when they went shopping at the market and Kobayashi noticed that Tohru was better at being social than she is. It made me wonder if it would be a similar situation if I had a dragon maid lol
Anthony Simpson: Well she does have her reasons for her attitudes towards humans and she totally justified in that opinion.
Mike Ferreira: Oh probably :p Everyone adored her there, and Kobayashi’s just saying “Wait… what?”
L.B. Bryant: hehe
Anthony Simpson: That market scene made me relate to Kobayashi more since I don’t like interacting with people when I am in public. Well at least more than is required for the situation.
Mike Ferreira: I hear ya. I’m an introvert to the very end. I usually try to end a conversation as quickly as possible
Mike Ferreira: Kind of liking Fafnir, too. His dry “Kill them all” in episode 1 cracked me up
Anthony Simpson: I’m curious to see if Fafnir is going to show up at some point.
L.B. Bryant: hehe I laughed pretty hard at that.
Mike Ferreira: God, I hope so.
Mike Ferreira: That dry genocidal bent was just fantastic.
Anthony Simpson: It sounds the Dragons that we have met so far have a less than favorable view of humans but what Tohru said in episode 1 this is view is justified.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. Especially when we consider that Kobayashi, herself, found Tohru with a sword in her side
Mike Ferreira: Aniwho, any other thoughts on Kobayashi?
L.B. Bryant: I think we’ve covered pretty much everything that I had to say.
Anthony Simpson: I have nothing else to add.
Mike Ferreira: Okey doke. Then let’s take it to Seiren, episode 2: “What the fuck did you just shove into my teen dramedy?”
Anthony Simpson: Or as I like to call Episode 2: The smelling episode.
Mike Ferreira: That too.
Mike Ferreira: I mean
Mike Ferreira: What the hell?
Mike Ferreira: Like… it starts well enough
Mike Ferreira: but then, like in Empire, it just jumps to this one WEIRD scene with no context
Mike Ferreira: Where our lead’s sitting on the toilet taking a shit, and Tsuneki-san walks over and starts smelling his dick
Mike Ferreira: WHILE HE’S TAKING A DUMP!
Anthony Simpson: I was like WTF
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, that was a very odd dream sequence.
L.B. Bryant: Overall this episode got really pervy really fast.
Mike Ferreira: It really did.
L.B. Bryant: I honestly did not expect it so it kind of threw me for a loop
Mike Ferreira: It was pretty blatant, too.
Anthony Simpson: I was glad that once scene in the beginning didn’t turn into a straight up foot fetishism. I would be have pissed if it did since I don’t like foot fetishism.
Mike Ferreira: Oh god that would’ve been enough for me to say “DONE”
Mike Ferreira: On another note, did not expect to see Tsuneki getting slut shamed, nor did I exactly want to see it.
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, that was really annoying and angering to me.
Anthony Simpson: I didn’t care for that. I don’t like slut shaming in the slightest.
Mike Ferreira: Likewise.
L.B. Bryant: The one bright spot to this episode that almost made up for all the weirdness that came before it was the midnight snack scene which I found particularly sweet and charming.
Anthony Simpson: Which might sound odd to some being that I studied karate for years and was an excellent kicker during that time.
Anthony Simpson: That snack scene was enjoyable.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. This is a werid show.
Mike Ferreira: Like..
Mike Ferreira: there’s some truly deplorable stuff in it, then there’s these really sweet moments where you’re just like “well that’s charming. c:” and it almost makes you forget the bad. Almost.
L.B. Bryant: Almost being the key word there.
Mike Ferreira: Bingo
Anthony Simpson: This is going to come out of left field but I got this Albert Wesker vibe from that teacher with the sunglasses. Mind you he isn’t going to send the STARS team to a mansion to get killed. Maybe it was just the sunglasses that did that for me.
Mike Ferreira: … … … I see it
L.B. Bryant: I’m really on the fence about how much I want to continue on with this series. On one hand, I really do like the sweet moments but the pervy level being raised so high over the course of a single episodes has me concerned about sitting through this week after week if that’s the level that they’re going to aim for with the main character.
Mike Ferreira: I’m also torn here
Mike Ferreira: Like..
Mike Ferreira: will this just escalate? Will it get worse?
L.B. Bryant: That’s my fear as well.
Mike Ferreira: And how are they going to handle this whole “new girl every 4 episodes” thing? Are we just going to throw characters out like used tissues?
Anthony Simpson: true, of course we don’t know how each girls arc is going to progress. Like the arc could be more pervy than say the rest of the arcs. .
L.B. Bryant: That’s a good point
Mike Ferreira: Indeed.
Mike Ferreira: It all depends. I will say I’m a bit torn when I watch this, though. I mean, I WANT to like the good, but then these awkward and downright awful moments just come in like a warm fart and spoil everything
L.B. Bryant: Yeah and I’m a honestly not entirely sure which side outweighs the other quite yet.
Mike Ferreira: Same
Anthony Simpson: (According to wiki the arcs are self contained).
Mike Ferreira: It’s not the containment thing that bothers me, more that we don’t know how they’ll really handle things – like, at this point I don’t trust the team to be competent enough to do three stages of Sho’s life
L.B. Bryant: Are they going to do three stages of his life or are they just going to repeat time ala Amagami SS?
Anthony Simpson: I would say more like SS is.
Mike Ferreira: That saddens me.
Mike Ferreira: It feels like a real waste
Anthony Simpson: It does. Also in a way it does have some benefits with the arcs. Like if you only care about one of the girls you can know which episodes to watch for that arc and not watch the others.
Mike Ferreira: True, but if I wanted that type of experience, I’d just buy a visual novel
Mike Ferreira: It just kind of saddens me
Mike Ferreira: This could be a great series to take risks with
Mike Ferreira: I mean fuck
Mike Ferreira: I still talk about Sentimental Journey, which adopts a similar idea (it’s based on Sentimental Graffiti), and just turns into this beautiful exploration of the cast, one story at a time.
Mike Ferreira: I was hoping I’d see some of that spark here
Mike Ferreira: but they seem to be grasping for the lowest-hanging fruit
L.B. Bryant: It’s possible your hopes were set a smidge high. :)
Mike Ferreira: Oh probably.
Anthony Simpson: I don’t know how episode 3 yet so I don’t know what happens next.
Mike Ferreira: But “setting my hopes too high” would also mean that I was expecting something that wouldn’t creep me out with a girl sniffing a guy’s +2 Rod of Thrusting while he takes a shit.
Anthony Simpson: Do I think it’s a bad show so far? No, I don’t but it is far from my favorite of the season or even a AOTY title in my book.
Anthony Simpson: That is still some messed up shit there. No pun intended.
Mike Ferreira: Yep. I mean, more than anything, I’m not hating it yet. Part of it, yes, but not the show in its entirety.
L.B. Bryant: I’m willing to stick it out a bit longer but I reserve the right to say “done” at some point in the future.
Anthony Simpson: I’m looking forward to the next arc since the next girl is a gamer girl.
Anthony Simpson: I’m going to stick it out for this arc and at least start the next one.
Mike Ferreira: I’m going to stick it out, but I do think we can put in a firm “kill it with fire” if this starts to really dive down by episode 6. Sound fair?
Mike Ferreira: Because, let’s be honest: If everyone hates this, there’s no reason to go forward.
L.B. Bryant: I agree. No need to torture ourselves and make this little feature not fun for anyone.
Anthony Simpson: Agreed.
Mike Ferreira: Awesome. Any final comments for this week’s episodes?
L.B. Bryant: Moar Dragon Maid, please and thank you.
Anthony Simpson: Dragon Maid was great, and Seiren this week had an odor fetish.
Mike Ferreira: Yeah… Here’s hoping Dragon Maid stays awesome, while Seiren figures out what the hell it wants to be.
Mike Ferreira: Anyway, have a great night, everybody!
Anthony Simpson: Goodnight.
