What They Say:
It’s time for the Fuso holiday of Setsubun, and that means it’s time for throwing beans and eating yummy Fuso food.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With an episode last week that didn’t do much for me at all, being the worst of the run so far in that it was just scattershot and without focus, I went into this episode hoping things would pick up a bit. The main focus initially is on the Setsubun holiday as the Fuso event is something fresh and new that most everyone can get behind amid the war. What better way to release some stress from all that they’re going through (in the other series). There’s always some fun to be had with this kind of event but I’ll admit some wariness going into it after the way they showed last week they have a hard time figuring out a basic narrative to keep a show together with.
With a little bit of random silliness and physical humor to get things underway, Miyafuji gets a package from home as she’s been missing her family – and gets called out a bit in that the others here are her family as well. Nothing like a little family shaming going on here. The group gets to check out some of the treats included in the box, which go over with mixed results, and it’s cute to see Miyafuji writing a thank you letter and detailing some of what it’s like to live here and who she spends her time with. But, like the previous episode, it seems to work through a lot of shorter set gags rather than something a bit bigger, just under the umbrella of the box that arrived and Miyafuji’s interactions with everyone. That that side culminates with some photography that goes horribly awry does make for a chuckle or two but even that feels forced.
In Summary:
While there were struggles at the start of the series with what it wanted to do it at least felt like it worked in a general sense. But the halfway mark has introduced a weird feeling with it where it’s just a lot of shorter bits that don’t land quite as well and feel like they’re just strung together on luck and happenstance. It continues to be an unfortunate addition to a generally very fun series.
Grade: D
Streamed By: Funimation
