Herald Anime Club

The Herald Anime Club Meeting 15: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Episode 3, Seiren Episode 3


Meeting Date: 1/28/2017

Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!

Samantha Ferreira: Hey everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club. This week it’s myself, L.B., and Anthony bringing the discussion. (Note: Lydia popped in a bit later in the evening.)
L.B. Bryant: Hello!
Anthony Simpson: Afternoon everyone.
Samantha Ferreira: This week, we’re taking Episode 3 of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Seiren, also known as “piss and gay panic is funny. Please laugh.”
Anthony Simpson: We should mention that the piss and gay panic is for Seiren, not Dragon Maid.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeah, I probably should. Dragon Maid doesn’t deserve that flak at all.
Anthony Simpson: Dragon Maid really hit home with me this week. My family moved into our current house in 1999, and this episode hit a lot of memories of moving that I had of that time. The memories of the mess that having to move out of a house in 30 days and into another house that is still being renovated when we moved in.
Anthony Simpson: It also reminded me of how much I don’t like to clean.


Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. They really captured that feeling well. I moved into my current place about six years ago now, and they just nailed that small, sad feeling that wells up when you’re finally on your way out.
Anthony Simpson: Yea it was hard for me because it was the house that I spent most of early years in then to move into the house my father grew up in.
Samantha Ferreira: Ouch. That’s a tough one
Anthony Simpson: That said we moved out at the right time because a few months after we moved out the tree in the front of the house went through the sewer line and backed up into the house.
Samantha Ferreira: Oh wow! Well, that’s good timing indeed.
Anthony Simpson: In the end though it was for the best since my grandmother couldn’t really live by herself anymore, plus I was living in a different school district than the one I went to and was basically lying to everyone for years about where I lived.
Anthony Simpson: I drove by where we used to live about four years ago. It didn’t change at all since I was last there but it was a nice feeling to see it again.
Samantha Ferreira: That nostalgia’s a nice thing.
Anthony Simpson: Enough about me talking about moving, the second half of the Dragon’s Maid was great.
Samantha Ferreira: But… just don’t do what Miss Kobayashi did and commute to your old place without thinking. (…I’ve, ah.. done that. Twice)
Anthony Simpson: I’ve never done that since I wasn’t legally able to work when we lived at the townhouse.
Samantha Ferreira: You’re lucky, there. You feel pretty damned stupid when the realization kicks in.
L.B. Bryant: I really liked that moment!
Anthony Simpson: So we met some new dragons this episode as well.
Samantha Ferreira: Definitely. We finally put a face to Lucoa and Fafnir.
L.B. Bryant: Fafnir was awesome :)


Samantha Ferreira: I kind of love how Fafnir became a Dark Souls nerd almost immediately.
L.B. Bryant: I didn’t care for Kobayashi’s reaction to the female dragon though
Samantha Ferreira: The “Do all dragons have giant breasts” moment?
Anthony Simpson: I have to wonder if all female adult dragons are busty as hell.
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, mostly just her reaction to her in appearance in general but that moment stands out particularly.
Anthony Simpson: I would have probably had the same reaction Miss Kobayashi’s reaction if I was her.
Samantha Ferreira: It was a bit awkward overall – “You look kinda slutty” was… well… let’s call it “blunt.”
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, I didn’t really like that.
Anthony Simpson: I didn’t care for that. I am not a big fan of slut shaming comments.
Samantha Ferreira: Agreed. And on some level, it just seemed “off” – it was pretty out of character for her


Samantha Ferreira: Well, minus her drunken objectification of women.
Anthony Simpson: I mean some might call me a SJW for that, but I’m sorry I don’t like comments when people wear revealing clothing.
Anthony Simpson: What I meant was slut shamming type comments.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeah, that’s not “SJW behaviour” – that’s just having actual human decency.
Anthony Simpson: Well, given who is currently the US president, I would probably be told I’m part of the PC culture issue that is destroying America.
Samantha Ferreira: We won’t go into that this week. :) I’d rather not have my house firebombed.
Samantha Ferreira: Anyway, moving on! Kind of liked the little bit with the neighbors
Anthony Simpson: That was funny.
L.B. Bryant: I so felt for Tohru in that scene. In my old apartment there was noise constantly due to loud neighbors and towards the end the building being renovated.
Samantha Ferreira: Likewise. It’s hard to not really feel for someone there. Though what the hell was that lady doing while cooking?!


L.B. Bryant: It’s probably best to not ask that question, hehe.
Anthony Simpson: I too am not going to ask what that lady was cooking.
Samantha Ferreira: Hehehe
Samantha Ferreira: That’s the kind of noise where, when you hear it, you just leave the money on the counter, get in your car, drive, and never come back.
Anthony Simpson: Side comment: I remember getting used to the renovations at our current house when they were happening. My dad used to sleep through when they were doing the work since he worked third shift, and would sleep during the day. I remember the workers telling my dad that they could make a cassette tape of them doing work when they were done with our house.
Samantha Ferreira: Aniwho… any final comments on Dragon Maid this week?
Anthony Simpson: Good episode, looking forward to next weeks’ episode.
Samantha Ferreira: Likewise.


Samantha Ferreira: Now onto The Sadness… I mean Seiren.
Anthony Simpson: Seiren was….something this week.
Anthony Simpson: And that something I was not bad, but not good either.
Anthony Simpson: I enjoyed the parts of where the Main character and Tsuneki were in his room at the beginning, and I also liked when he called her our on her BS. But then we have the gay panic at the bath…
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. I think that’s what frustrates me most about Seiren
Anthony Simpson: I also have to question the intelligence of the girl’s parents. Like, do they not know the difference between a bikini and bra and panties?
Samantha Ferreira: Let’s be honest.
Samantha Ferreira: Going by the tone of this show: the folks writing this are probably dudes in their ’40s and ’50s, who have likely never actually set eyes on a real woman outside of porn.
Anthony Simpson: I’m not good with the opposite sex and I even know the goddamn difference.
Anthony Simpson: That said, the girl was adorable in said outfit.
Samantha Ferreira: She really was.
Samantha Ferreira: Buuut then we got pee fetishes, gay panic, and these weird “soup drinking’ and “sweatpants imprint” fetishes?


Samantha Ferreira: And I think that’s what’s frustrating me about Seiren – deep down, beneath these weird fetish-y turns, there COULD be a decent show down there.
Samantha Ferreira: The moments that hit home, where we have real interactions with the cast, and actual moments to meet them? They’re quite good! But it gets chucked out the window for cheap pandering time and time again
Samantha Ferreira: I know I’ve said this about another show, almost verbatim. Can’t remember which, though.
Anthony Simpson: The latter two didn’t bother me since I will be honest, and admit that I had weird thoughts in my High School days.
Anthony Simpson: I can see where the girl is coming from about wetting yourself.
Anthony Simpson: The gay panic… well that was awful.
Samantha Ferreira: But they didn’t need to visualize the urination by putting her into a nursery school jumper. That was where I just said “Welp. I’m done.”
Anthony Simpson: I can see where there were going with that since, unless your really shit faced or have serious physical issues, your’re likely to wet yourself when you are really young.
Anthony Simpson: Plus we know she isn’t a childhood friend, so they couldn’t just show them both being little kids and showing her wetting herself.
Samantha Ferreira: Did they have to go there, though? And if they did, they could’ve easily used something else that didn’t scream out the “Sweet Meats” imagery.

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

Anthony Simpson: True.
Samantha Ferreira: It’s just a matter of tact, there. Is tact the word I want to use?
Lydia Rivers: “Tact” isn’t the word I’d use. It’s a show that dumped any potential to turn into a titillation using teenagers, and they layered pedo into pedo with that.
Samantha Ferreira: Lydia, you just verbalized my thoughts perfectly. Thanks!
Lydia Rivers: You’re welcome. It turned from a potential journey of a pervy teen into a parade of soft erotica for the audience. I’m done as well.
Samantha Ferreira: Not even soft erotica – it’s outright fetish fodder half the time.
Anthony Simpson: I also have to question the reason for the gay panic. I get that the MC had the teacher out of there because the girl was in there, but I didn’t think they need to show his erection. At all.
Samantha Ferreira: Dear god no – that gay panic scene was just downright offensive.
Anthony Simpson: I’m not gay and I was bothered by that scene. What made it worse that later the teacher was like I was almost assaulted in the bath. I was screaming in my head “NO YOU FUCKING WEREN’T ASSAULTED! THE MAIN CHARACTER DIDN’T TRY TO RAPE FOR FUCK’S SAKE”.
Samantha Ferreira: YES! THANK YOU! The fact that he screamed assault made it worse!
Samantha Ferreira: WE’RE GAY PEOPLE! NOT FUCKING ZOMBIE SEX OFFENDERS! Even if this guy was making a pass at you, a simple “Sorry, I don’t swing that way” would have fucking sufficed. We’re not going to rush at you in some bizarre goddamn fury!
Lydia Rivers: Until that terrible line I just assumed he was fleeing because he was an adult? That was naive of me..
Samantha Ferreira: Well, he is also an adult. A shitty, shitty adult.
Samantha Ferreira: But, yeah. I’d have even taken it if “That was close! A student was coming onto me” would’ve worked without the outright hate.
Anthony Simpson: Well they did show that the MC had an erection.
Samantha Ferreira: They really… really didn’t need to do that.


Lydia Rivers: Yeah I just can’t. I know we’re supposed to stick with it but I can’t keep talking about it without growing physically ill.
Lydia Rivers: I’m not done because I’m a prude. I’m done because they’re still kids and I am not. I actually must refuse to watch anymore on principle, chief.
Samantha Ferreira: Like Lydia, I’m no prude, but this is a show where I find myself dreading it each week at this point. It’s like… “we’re gonna get 5-10 minutes of genuine, good content, stuffed inside the shit sandwich of at least half a dozen fetishes, including but not limited to urine, feet, food, and pedophilia. OH! And the writers clearly don’t like gay people much at all.”
Anthony Simpson: I don’t get physically ill watching it. I just get a well that a show I watched for the chat each week feeling.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeah. I’m just… I’m done. I’m proposing we drop this one.
Lydia Rivers: I get sick at the idea of being titillated by teens, and since after the first episode the show became all about using those teenagers to provoke boners, I can’t watch.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeah. I can’t do that. I’m just.. this show bothers me
Anthony Simpson: I have nothing else to say in regards to this weeks episode other than the arc is finished next week and I’m interested to see what they do.
Samantha Ferreira: I’m just hoping it doesn’t decline into the depths of the sadness next week.
Lydia Rivers: Children being sad won’t titillate you? Well damn they struck out.
Anthony Simpson: I haven’t seen episode 4, yet so I won’t know until Tuesday which is when I watch this show.
Samantha Ferreira: Anyway, have a great night, everyone
Anthony Simpson: Night, everyone!
Lydia Rivers: Stay shiny!

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