Summer 2022 Episode Reviews: Week Seven

Vivian Scheibelein

6 min readAug 21, 2022

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Made in Abyss S2 Ep. 7

To repeat what I said earlier this week on Twitter dot com:

Just finished episode seven of Made in Abyss. If I may, ehem…

WHAT THE FUCK?!

- often jack, but not always (@JScheibelein) August 17, 2022

This week’s episode gives us the payoff to the backstory which was established at the beginning of the season. The adventurers are indeed successful in securing their place in the Golden City only to be met with the harsh reality therein. Their water source is essentially poisoned, and fearless leader Wazukyan is forced to make some hard decisions.

Primarily the hard decision of eating dead babies, and potentially Irumyuui, but based on the wording of that last line it is not exactly clear. As far as effective payoff goes, this episode definitely delivered. I honestly am not sure why I expected it to be less dark considering 1. It is Made in Abyss, and 2. the show already implied it pretty heavily considering the state of the hollow village.

The show’s obsession with human fecal matter will never not be weird, but at least in this case it kind of makes sense. Nobody normally drinks poisoned water and has a good experience coming out of it. Still, the graphic nature of it is hard to get used to. A great episode to be sure, but maybe one you don’t watch while eating food.

Call of the Night Ep. 7

Up to this point, Call of the Night has largely been episodic, focusing on the budding relationship of Nazuna and Kou while occasionally introducing new characters. This episode shifts gears a bit, instead drawing attention to the vampire politics of this world as Kou gets abducted by a group of other vampires after meeting a strange new girl.

The opening for the series teases these characters in every episode, but it was never clear how or even when they would be introduced. In regards to these characters, there are two things this episode does pretty well. First, it gives them each distinct personality even though they only have a single 20 minutes between five new characters. Second, it does the former without trying to immediately info-dump the entirety of vampiric lore.

Far too many shows have fallen victim to the “tell don’t show” idea of storytelling, a tendency probably made worse by just how awful anime production can be. Even anime greats like Fate/Zero have made minor mistakes in that regard. Dropping a 14-year-old in the middle of a room full of vampire ladies and telling him he needs to convert or die is about as direct as you can get, so good on them for that.

RWBY: Ice Queendom Ep. 7

Another episode and…yeah the cracks are beginning to show with this one.

In all fairness, this was a pretty solid episode. Jaune now joins the rest of team RWBY and utilizes his previous nightmare infection to sneak around the castle base. On top of that, we see that Weiss, for all her attempts to act mature, is secretly desperate to enjoy life as if she were a kid again.

I have yet to make this connection, but the thing that really cliques for me about this arc in particular, and why I am still rooting for the series to do better, is because it reminds me a lot of Persona 5. Instead of dealing with the outside danger that is the other Grimm or the white fang, the group is forced to deal with the corrupted mind of one of society’s elite, who also happens to be their teammate.

It is genuinely fascinating, and for what it is, I enjoy it. It is a shame though that the animation is not quite there to consistently match it. Shaft has definitely done a lot better, including my literal favorite anime of all time. But, I am here for the ride now, so I will see where it goes, at least.

The Devil is a Part-Timer S2 Ep. 6

Lots of interesting development in this one, huh? The fog which was worrying our protagonists produces not one, not two, but three demons, one of whom is the former strategist for Maou. The gang begins questioning this new addition but is interrupted by their new job working at the beach. The end of the episode leaves us with a worrying Twist: that their new boss may just be another enemy.

As an individual episode, this was very solid. Not only do we get some good comedic moments between basically the whole cast while they are working at the restaurant, but it also does a lot for the forward momentum of the plot. While I have no idea what Camio’s introduction will mean for the rest of the show, I do hope it doe not turn into a simple mascot for the season, especially since the show already has one. Still, really solid, cannot complain.

Lycoris Recoil Ep. 8

Honestly, I could say a lot of what I just said for Devil is a Part-Timer Lycoris Recoil, as this was also a really solid episode. The whole of the still feels a bit incoherent, but this felt significantly more focused. For some reason, literally no one realized that their business was failing, and so Takina decides to step up as their financial advisor, to great success. The shop becomes a lot more popular as a result. Meanwhile, questions about Makima and the Alan Institute become much more complicated when he reveals that he too was helped by them.

This episode has basically everything you could want out of this show: Funny bits not built on weird sexual humor, touching moments between Takina and Chisato, solid animation, and action scenes that look incredibly badass. If every episode was as good as this one, I would feel a lot better about the series as is. Hopefully, next week’s episode can capitalize as well as this one did.

How are you feeling about the shows this week? Let me know down in the comments.

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