Hataraku Maou-sama 07 – The Second Layer

Sorry Chiho, you’re shamefully underused this week.

The arrival of a new neighbor ushers in new conflicts and divisions in the seventh episode of Maou-sama. Having been invited by their landlord, Kamazuki Suzuno moves in next to Maou and the others. Meanwhile, Emi gets a gift from Ente Isla in the form of a vitamin drink that actually replenishes her magical power. After everyone runs into each other at Maou’s apartment, Emi quickly deduces that Suzuno is also after Maou’s affection. Eme then catches her up with proceedings back in Ente Isla where people may be trying to pursue Emi all the way to Japan. This turns out to be the case as Emi is attacked that night, though she is able to survive with the help of a convenience store worker. Finally, Chiho and Maou make a shocking discovery in the bento provided by Suzuno to Maou.

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I decided to do something a bit different than I’ve normally done this season when putting together the weekly rankings. Instead of keeping a running ranking as I have done, I waited until the end of the week to put them together. Then I came to find out that I’d rated 2 series in my top 5 for the first time this season, including the number 1 vote. So why not do something entirely different for the whole post? This won’t end well will it?

Hataraku Maou-sama 06 – The Lesser Known Phone Hacking Scandal

The horror, the horror…

Maou, Ashiya, Chiho and Emi go on a late-night adventure at Chiho’s school in a quest to solve a school mystery in the 6th episode of Maou-sama. With a conspiracy raging in Ente Isla, Maou celebrates his promotion to shift supervisor at work with some restaurant fare with Ashiya. However, his money is quickly being evaporated by his new roommate Urushihara (Lucifer). In continuing their quest for more magic, Ashiya and Maou head to a high school where Chiho happens to be a student. Emi joins them in an attempt to stop them from regaining their magic, but eventually they find that the whole thing was just a ruse.

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Since it’s Cinco de Mayo, may as well throw in Mexico’s greatest anime character.

Yet another week has passed in the world of animation from Japan, as well as real time of course. It’s safe to say that we are now firmly entrenched in the middle of the season. Typically, I find that this isn’t a very interesting part of the season. Usually, the really terrible shows have been weeded out by now. Those that do fail in the end will be known about 5-7 weeks from now. So what we are left with is a bunch of shows trying to make things interesting. So how did they do this week?

Hataraku Maou-sama 05: Caught Between Two Places

Emi combines armor and formal business attire well here.

The 5th episode of Maou-sama saw some unusual alliances form as Emi, Ashiya and Maou combine to save the city from Lucifer’s reign of terror. The episode immediately began with the confrontation at the end of the last episode, and Maou deduced that Orba Meier from the Holy Church on Ente Isla was working with Lucifer. A battle then progressed throughout the city before Maou teleported to a location with many people around. He appeared to be mortally wounded, but the despair of the people around him brought his powers back. The final battle occurred as Chiho watched and afterwards Maou returned the city to its previous unharmed state before returning to work in his quest to win Employee of the Month.

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Since the last installment of this particular feature, the following has happened to all of the shows I had been watching:

• Oregairu – since picked back up after I dropped it on episode 1, see I can change.
• Space Brothers – Dropped after the 3 consecutive recap episodes reminded me of how badly this series has been edited.
• Devil Survivor 2, Attack on Titan, Aku no Hana all dropped for being too boring in my opinion

I sometimes worry about stuff like this, probably too often. I find a series boring, it then becomes popular. Or the reverse, I like a show so much early only to have it go in a terrible direction. It feels like I cannot win sometimes. It just becomes a problem having my finger so far off the pulse of what the rest of this community is watching  that I just kill conversation, or get left out entirely. Perhaps I intentionally isolate myself when it comes to the series I watch. Yet it just feels like I’m insulting people by responding “oh, I dropped that” when a show comes up in conversation.

Anyway, that’s obviously not of much concern to you my readers, you want my thoughts on the shows that I’m still watching instead, so here you go.