Hey, thanks for stopping by Anime Rants today! The Summer Olympics are finally over, which hopefully means fewer scheduling delays. Without further ado, let’s continue the episode reviews for Summer 2024 anime. The following episodes were released between August 12th and 18th, 2024.
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf
Episode 19: God’s Unseen Hand and Wolf’s Unseen Heart
Episode Rating: 8/10
Lawrence had his economic showdown with Amati. It was stressful, and at one point, he almost gave up. It seemed like the plan had failed. However, Marc’s young apprentice told Lawrence that he shouldn’t give up, and Lawrence came back to his senses. In the end, Holo helped him win against Amati. It was she who requested the alchemist’s pyrite first, and she was the one who received the product. By selling their stocks at the same time, Lawrence and Holo drove the price way down, defeating Amati.
This episode had such a satisfying ending. When Lawrence and Holo made up, embraced, and went to dance in the town together, it was heartwarming. Though of course, Lawrence didn’t get out of it without at least one angry wolf bite. That was amusing. It was also extremely interesting to learn that Diana wasn’t human, but some form of bird god. I look forward to the last few episodes of this charming anime.
Delico’s Nursery
Episode 2: Creeping Intrigue and Child-Rearing
Episode Rating: 8/10
This second episode was as entertaining for me as the first if not more so. I love the art style, voice-acting, and the opening and ending songs. (The ending song – “Prayers” – was performed by Anonymouz, who also sang “River” for Vinland Saga Season 2. Her voice is amazing!) Anyway, we got to know the children of the vampires a little in this episode. They are all adorable. As for the adult vampires, they are all hot. They also have interesting personalities, though I don’t have a good handle on Dino yet. I don’t know what to think about the villains, either. There’s still a lot to learn.
Twilight Out of Focus
Episode 7: A Fateful Resolution
Episode Rating: 7/10
In this episode, we learned about Jin’s childhood and how he actually met Ichikawa when the two were much younger. Since Jin was overweight as child, I expected there to be a lot of fat-phobic jokes and themes. However, none were there to be seen. It’s just a random fact that Jin was heavy as a child but fairly normal-weight as a young adult. “Fatness” wasn’t used to bring comic relief, nor was it a huge struggle in Jin’s life. I’m glad the anime wasn’t critical or mocking toward overweight children.
As for the main plot developments, Ichikawa responded positively to Jin’s confession in the previous episode. After they watched a movie together and had sex, the two boys officially became a couple. As usual, I was uncomfortable with the sexual scene, even though it was nothing explicit by most standards. These characters are too young for me to sexualize. Besides that, I really like this couple. It’s heartwarming to see them bonding and enjoying their youth together in romantic but non-sexual ways.
Senpai is an Otokonoko
Episode 6: I’ve Got to Decide
Episode Rating: 9/10
The only reason I didn’t give this episode a 10/10 was that the visual quality still isn’t great in this series. I happen to like the parts drawn as cheap, cute cartoons, but it’s obviously a budget-saving technique and rather overused.
Anyway, besides that criticism, this was an amazing episode. It was mostly about the school festival and the feelings of Makoto, Saki, and Ryuji as they all approach the next phase in their lives. There were a lot of funny and cute highlights, such as seeing Makoto in a maid outfit. The episode ends with Makoto finding out about Ryuji’s crush after seeing the picture he keeps in his school wallet. I don’t know how this will go, but I hope Ryuji doesn’t get his heart broken.
Although the school festival and relationship drama were enjoyable, the main reason I loved this episode so much was that it contained Makoto’s thoughts on gender. (Side note: Makoto’s father is the anime dad of the year for being so supportive of his queer child!) It seems like Makoto is going to be genderfluid and/or nonbinary. As they said, “I’m not a boy or a girl; there’s no need to pick one over the other.” As a fellow nonbinary person with a long history of gender struggle, I felt warm and understood by this anime.
Bye Bye, Earth
Episode 6: Concerto in a Land Where Death Blooms
Episode Rating: 7/10
This action-packed episode showed the last survivors of the Topdogs and Underdogs fighting against Tiziano and her army of undead. Everyone worked together and most of them managed to survive, though the priest died protecting Gin Buck, and Gwyn was seriously wounded from losing an arm. They also set the entire cemetery on fire in order to beat the undead army. Finally, it came down to a fight between Tiziano and Adonis. Belle helped out by throwing her sword into Tiziano. The crazed mermaid was finally defeated. She died embracing Adonis.
There’s no question that the art, animation, and music were all epic and beautiful in this episode. These aspects have been consistently high-quality in all six installments. That makes it even more disappointing that the story fails to be interesting or clear. This is a poorly told story with underdeveloped characters and scenes that try to force you to feel powerful emotions when you have nothing to go on. In addition, there’s so much jumbled lore that keeps coming up without proper explanation. It might as well be nonsense. However, I will restate that the audio and visuals are amazing.
Random note: I was sorely disappointed to see Benedictine turn into a man. It’s not that he’s not attractive. But I hoped that Benetto’s connection with Belle with would make for an interesting lesbian ship, even if it wasn’t canon. Now it’s boring and hetero, alas!
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Season 3
Episode 18: A Throng of Visitors
Episode Rating: 7/10
As the title suggests, this episode was about the many visitors who came to Tempest in the two or three days leading up to the festival. The Kings of Blumund, Falmuth, and Dwargon were some of the visitors. Their relationships with Rimuru are all going well. Rimuru also visited Engrassia, saw Yuuki and Kagali, and told the five students of magic that they could come to the festival, too. The children and their teacher, Miss Tiss, were delighted for the opportunity to visit Tempest and have fun at the celebration.
The last group of people to visit in this episode was the Hero’s Party. Masayuki stayed quiet like a coward while his overly attached party members kept insulting Rimuru and calling him evil. the most obnoxious one was Jintai, the big warrior. He insisted on some kind of duel between Rimuru and Masayuki. Finally, Rimuru suggested that Masayuki could enter the martial arts tournament at the festival. If he wins the tournament, Rimuru will face him one-on-one as demanded. As the sun set, the land of Tempest eagerly waited for the celebration to begin the next day.
My Deer Friend Nokotan
Episode 7: DeerColle, Streaming, Hospitality, and Such
Episode Rating: 7/10
The initial novelty of this anime has worn off for me, but I’m still enjoying Nokotan enough to keep watching. It brings a smile to my face on most episodes. Episode 7 was divided into three shorter stories. I liked the part in the streaming episode where Koshitan almost had to cut off Nokotan’s monstrous antlers. It was a hilarious and trippy scene. This show keeps mixing horror elements into Nokotan’s traits and abilities.
The best of the three mini-episodes, in my opinion, was the third. Tsubameya’s adult brother runs a coffee café, where he strives to give everyone perfect hospitality. It was humorous to watch Nokotan make his life hell for the entirety of her visit. At the end, she managed to “inspire” him to do better next time – by serving deer crackers.
Suicide Squad Isekai
Episode 10
Episode Rating: 9/10
Episode 10 is the final installment of Suicide Squad Isekai, though it looks like it’s set up in such a way for a sequel to be easily feasible. The final battle with the Undead King was epic, especially after the suicide squad members all put on pieces of the holy armor to improve their powers. We also finally got to see the “trick” that I’ve been calling since the start of the series, wherein Harley and Fiona switch places to accomplish an important goal. The parts with Enchantress were also surprisingly amusing.
The last few minutes of the episode revealed that Rick’s main mission is actually to capture the Joker, who fled into the isekai. Apparently, due to otherworldly magic, the Joker can now shapeshift. He took on the form of Katana (the samurai girl) and caused chaos throughout the series. He also killed the evil empire’s emperor and took over. I was surprised by this plot twist, even though it seems obvious in retrospect. I am highly impressed with the quality and overall entertainment value of Suicide Squad Isekai.
Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
Episode 15: The Girl Who Lived
Episode Rating: 8/10
With the Summer Olympics over, it’s finally time for Yatagarasu to return! And it was quite an exciting episode to return with. The people of the village of Souga were devoured by monstrous baboons who could also take human shape. Everyone died except for Koume, a girl about Yukiya’s age. After confirming that she could take raven form, Yukiya’s family decided to adopt Koume until her missing father was found or confirmed dead. The Crown Prince spread the terrifying news to the whole realm of Yamauchi, putting everyone on high alert against the enemy monkeys.
While the raven people do whatever they can, the mysterious drug known as sagecap continues in circulation. A large, tattooed man named Tobi as well as a thin, fluffy-haired man are shown plotting something in a dark basement as they flog a captive man. We don’t yet know who these people are, but the fluffy-haired man definitely knows important information about sagecap. Meanwhile, Yukiya struggles to trust Koume. She seems to be a yatagarasu, but she might be hiding something. To be continued.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Episode 7: The Melancholy of Kokorowa
Episode Rating: 8/10
Sakuna was permitted to visit the Capital, dwelling place of the Gods. Kokorowa, a goddess of inventions and Sakuna’s best friend, was dealing with conflicted feelings. She received great status and honor since Sakuna left, and so, she didn’t want Sakuna to come back. Sakuna’s visit went well, and soon, she returned to Demon Island. Still, Kokorowa’s feelings did not improve. She was afraid of being replaced by Sakuna, whom she felt was better than her in every way.
Over the course of this episode, three years passed. On their fourth harvest, Sakuna and the human settlers grew a much improved crop of delicious rice. They called the divine rice “Amahoho” and sent some of it back to the Capital as an offering to Kamuhitsuki. The great deity was so impressed she said she wanted to bring Sakuna back for good. That was upsetting news for Kokorowa to hear. At the end of the episode, a demon appeared and left a bag of rice in Kokorowa’s room. What does this mean, and what will the envious goddess do?
Tower of God Season 2
Episode 7: Mazino Magic
Episode Rating: 7/10
Apparently, viewers were supposed to know who Urek Mazino was, but I didn’t. But according to the Tower of God fandom wiki, he is #4 among all the Rankers. Mazino is considered one of the strongest men alive. In this episode, he faces off with Viole, nearly killing him. All Viole managed to do was put a scratch on Mazino’s face, in addition to protecting Miseng, who was in the way of the battle. After being fatally wounded, Viole mysteriously regenerated with some kind of cursed power. However, he stayed unconscious for the next few days.
Mazino was there to capture Zygaena’s child, rather than one of its flowers. Thus, Viole’s team passed the test with the rare flower in their hands. A man from Fug tried to pressure Wangnan to kick Viole off the team. From Fug’s perspective, Wangnan and company would slow down Viole and hinder his mission. However, Wangnan refused to cooperate after seeing everyone’s resolve to continue climbing the tower with Viole. A few other things happened, but that’s all I have energy to cover for a recap today. This episode deserves more discourse, but I’m completely wiped out. Sorry.
~Thank you for reading~
Anime Rants 
Well, it is certainly confirmed, now, that the baboons are a people, not just one or two mindless monsters. Savage and cruel, though, which is even worse than being crazy, as simple madness does not lend itself very well to deliberate infiltration, sabotage, subterfuge, etc. An intelligent monster – a human monster – is worse than any other. As for the girl, Koume, she probably does have her secrets, but I dare to suspect that we may have just met young Taruhi’s future wife, heheh! Interesting detail, though, how the prince/emperor said, very specifically, that he does not have power to harm her, a yatagarasu. What could that mean, I wonder?
I am intrigued by the developments in Sakuna, as well. For her best friend to be so jealous, and keep it so secret, bodes ill. Even worse, however, is for a demon to simply move about the divine palace freely, even giving her something with which to act against the object of her envy. The implications of that are numerous and foreboding: that someone knows of her jealousy and knows how to manipulate her without letting themselves be known; that whatever Sakuna is doing really is a threat to some nefarious power in the shadows, and they are cunning enough to act indirectly for know in order to undermine her; that the rice is of unknown origin and quality and could well be poisoned or otherwise meddled with to strike at the head goddess herself; and, of course, that there may be active traitors within the palace itself already, and we have no idea how high that goes, perhaps even to the very top.
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Twilight Out of Focus – The pacing and flow of their relationship was handled well and the author does a great job of not using tiresome tropes to delay romantic progress. This was seen with the first pair too.
Senpai is an Otokonoko – Makoto’s dad is a W dad. I can’t help but want to root for Ryuji, but he’s totally gonna be on the losing team.
My Deer Friend Nokotan – I hated the fact that the Deer Convention was off-screened. All that work for it just to be off-screened.
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