I break down the surprising narrative depth of "The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic," and we'll explore the potential future for "The Unwanted Undead Adventurer" after its protagonist's significant evolution. Join me as I share my candid thoughts on these series' storytelling prowess and the anticipation building up for their potential continuations.
Prepare yourself for a candid critique of "The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids," where I address the series' later episodes and the creative choices that left us scratching our heads. We also get into a dynamic discussion about the future of our favorite shows: will "Mashle" get the third season it deserves? Can "Solo Leveling" maintain its momentum with the shadow army? Find out as we speculate on the narrative arcs to come and share our excitement for what these anime have in store for us next.
I break down the surprising narrative depth of "The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic," and we'll explore the potential future for "The Unwanted Undead Adventurer" after its protagonist's significant evolution. Join me as I share my candid thoughts on these series' storytelling prowess and the anticipation building up for their potential continuations.
Prepare yourself for a candid critique of "The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids," where I address the series' later episodes and the creative choices that left us scratching our heads. We also get into a dynamic discussion about the future of our favorite shows: will "Mashle" get the third season it deserves? Can "Solo Leveling" maintain its momentum with the shadow army? Find out as we speculate on the narrative arcs to come and share our excitement for what these anime have in store for us next.
Hey there and welcome back to Rival Reviews. Hope you guys are having a good week. I know that some people may get depressed when the season is generally coming to a close, but you know, I think for the most part it's been really nice this season. It's been really cool. We've had a couple series that we've talked about on this show and, yeah, let's just get into it. So, yeah, so, further from, obviously, from the time of this recording, solo leveling and Mashal both probably still have one episode left, but it kind of seems, more than anything, they're probably going to be wrap-up more than anything else. And again, as a solo leveling reader, I already kind of know what's going to be happening. Real, no surprise if you are a manual fan. But, uh, let's leave those till the end.
Speaker 1:So, first one that I want to kind of bring up um, wrong way to use healing magic. Um, this one was a strong one this season, I think, in my opinion. Um, I think it was a sleeper. I don't think a lot of people expected it to be as entertaining as it was. Um, I will say, uh, it was kind of a surprise, because I know that at the halfway point, like already, it was kind of seeing that we were going to be going to the war or the big battle or whatever else. But we actually ended up having like big, like review questions and or like uh, not review questions like review episodes about, like you know, the captain's past, about the past team, about what happened to them and kind of like why she is the way she is and the way that she operates, which again is not a negative. It's just that it definitely you stretched it out more than I think it needed to. Like I wasn't ready for the fact that the review of her past was going to take an entire episode, you know, half an episode, maybe flashbacks in between other things that are happening, but I honestly didn't think there was going to be a whole focus for a whole episode. But I didn't hate it and, again, it was well done. It was kind of already alluded to, at least in my opinion, from like the way that she reacted to other things in the past when it came to Yusato and how she, how she was training him and such. But yeah, no, I think it went well and the battle was obviously awesome. I do think everybody kind of did see it coming like, and I'm pretty sure, if I'm not mistaken, I think in the episode where he was fighting the Black Knight, I believe the series was name dropped, probably the best way possible, with the you know the, the girl hero basically saying that the way that Yusato went about beating the Black Knight was very much the wrong way to use healing magic. So it was kind of fun to have that kind of name drop.
Speaker 1:I don't know, some people find it kind of cheesy. I love it, especially when movies do it and especially when movies are like you know, like they know that they're doing it, like I'm not sure if anybody, and again, totally not an anime. But I think one of my all-time favorites is when, uh, uh, it's uh, uh, what's the movie? Uh, the hot tub time machine, and like I'm sure if you've seen it you know exactly what I'm talking about. When he literally like looks directly into the camera, it's like it's like it's some kind of hot tub time machine and it's just like that cracks me up. Like any kind of fourth, like, uh, fourth wall break is just too funny in that regard.
Speaker 1:Um, so, yeah, so um, as of right now, um, there is no announcement as for season 2 for those who have watched. Obviously they set up that not only is Yusato going on an adventure with his other two friends, but at the end of this episode there was also the explanation of him helping the mom of the little fox girl or I think it's a fox Um, the one that. That that had the vision and basically essentially was the reason for you know, you still being able to save his friends. Um, now she wants him to save her mom in kind of return, um, and that was kind of how the episode ended Um. So obviously we're going to get the explanation on that and then they're going to, you know, go off right into the sunset and call it a day.
Speaker 1:Um, there is no announcement currently for the next season. Um, I do, at least in my opinion. I think it was one of the stronger ones in the season, so I would be surprised that if, out of anything, this didn't get a second season. The source material is obviously there, so I'm not really concerned for that front, but it'll be interesting to see if this gets a second season, because I do think it has the strength to do a couple more seasons, and the nice part about it is that I don't think this will be one of those ones where the second season is just set up for the third season Cough, cough, shield, hero, cough. But I do think that it would be entertaining in its own right. So it'll be interesting to see if it does get an announcement and if it does, I will let you all know.
Speaker 1:Next one I wanted to bring up was the Unwanted Undead Adventurer. I really liked this one. I like, honestly, I think, that one, this one, surprised me Because, like not to say that I thought going into it was going to be bad, it's just I really didn't expect it to be that good. I liked it. I liked the pacing, I liked the story, I liked the idea of everything behind it. I will say, from the middle point kind of, to where we went, it did kind of lull in the middle, just because there wasn't really any more evolution from that point, at least of him Not, until literally the end of this episode when he's basically become like a lesser vampire which, like he, essentially, he's back to looking like a human Further from, like you know, he has like small, like wings that he can extend and shrink and everything else on his back and red eyes. Really, apart from that, he looks totally normal, which was kind of like the end game. I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I like fully. He wants to become human and obviously the also grand thing that he wants is to become myth roll adventurer. But we obviously knew that wasn't going to happen in 12 episodes. Um, I'm really hoping for a second season on this one.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did and I do think that it has the strength and the story to continue. I just I thought, yeah, I think there's a lot of more open-ended questions, like, obviously now that he's done this next evolution, because with every evolution he became stronger and stronger. And this one we didn't see any fights. All we saw is that he evolved, that's it. So we don't know what he can do. We don't know what powers came with it. We don't know any of that um, so that would be interesting to see.
Speaker 1:Um, there's that family that's very clearly interested in him. It's the family of elves. I can't really. They're rich, I can't. They're basically the controller of the village that he lives in and adventures out of. They clearly have some interest in him, so they're obviously going to keep a watchful eye. And then, of course, obviously you know he's only at bronze right now, so there's several levels for him to get to Mithril. So obviously I think just watching the adventure of him doing that as a whole would also be entertaining. I do think, with his new power level, I honestly think that the next time, whatever he ends up doing with the guild, it'll be fairly obvious that he's definitely ready to be promoted. So I think that that will be a part of the, that he's definitely ready to be promoted. So I think that that will be a part of the next season, if there is to be a next season. Um, and yeah, I just I think that that would be an interesting watch and, like I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Um, so, yeah, so I hope that that gets a second season, but but so far no talks of it.
Speaker 1:So the next two that I kind of wanted to bring up Actually, you know what? Yeah, I'll do one at a time. So first one is the Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids, a tank with a rare 9999 resistance skill. This one disappointed me, if I'm going to be honest. I thought it was going to be a lot stronger than it was and it had a really cool, like fun, concept at the beginning, but then it lost me at the end.
Speaker 1:Um, so, essentially from the middle point, like I kind of explained, I thought that this one was kind of, um, you know, interesting in the sense where, like normally, like you know, the whole cliche kicked out of the hero's party, you know, he becomes almighty, powerful, the hero gets jealous and he becomes the big baddie. That didn't happen, um, or anything at all. So already I was kind of like, ooh, okay, different twist on the, on the, on this niche, let's go. Um, but then this kind of took a really I't know odd turn, like all of a sudden he could be, he could become like a dungeon master, even though he wasn't a demon king, but he, he would be able to become a demon king if he wanted to. And then he wasn't only just a tank but a tank that had access to mana, uh, to man, uh to mana and to, to be able to utilize it with his shielding powers and stuff. Um, they didn't really touch a lot on that, just for the fact that he could do it. And there was like one episode where they kind of, you know, focused on he tried, but it wasn't even like a full episode, like it was like a you know a two minute thing, like Ooh, I'm training my focus and mana, mana, um, so that was, I don't know, confusing in a sense. Um, you know, the second to last episode.
Speaker 1:We had the clear fan service of, you know, the, the baths and everything else, of all the, the girl members for no reason whatsoever. Girl members for no reason whatsoever. Um, except I guess you could, you could show the you know exposition almost of the homunculi making the bathhouse and being accepted by the townspeople. But I don't think it had to be a bathhouse and I think we all understand the reasoning as to why it was a bathhouse. Um, it's one of those things that kind of irks me, that it's like not to say that fan service always has a point. But it really irks me when there is no point in any way, shape or form. And, if anything, this episode actually irked me even more for a completely different detail.
Speaker 1:So at the beginning we learned that the twin sisters, or whatever, when they kissed or whatever, they could fuse together and become one stronger person. Already, I kind of thought that that was weird, because it's obviously been established that they're blood sisters and they were basically making out and it was weird, but I overlooked it because it wasn't like a huge focus at all. It was just like a two-second thing transformation sequence. The fighting happened, but when we had this episode, they were able to fuse just by touching hands. So what I gather from that is that they could have just done that every time, instead of making two sisters make it. It's like I said it just it seemed very unnecessary and I know it seems weird that I'm focusing on it, but it just did it when it happened. And all of a sudden they were like because, like, I felt that, like, ok, you know what the creator of this, of this series made a choice.
Speaker 1:I felt that like, okay, you know what the creator of this series made a choice, it was a weird choice, but made a choice that the only way that they're able to fuse is if they kiss. I can accept that, I can move on, but then to show me that they can do the exact same thing just by touching and just by holding hands, it irked me, to say the least. It uh, because then it makes it just even weirder than it already was. So, um, and then yeah, and then the ending of it, you know he beats the big baddie demon, doesn't end up getting another one of those stones for his sister's illness to make her better, and then there's kind of just this ending montage of you know him with the townspeople and they're happy and they're getting everything done and everybody's you know excited. And then it ends after the credits of a scene of him basically going you know, I am the world's strongest tank, and then it like pans up to the sky and then it's over. Credits roll.
Speaker 1:Um, I see very much this being a one-off, um, I would be extremely surprised, um, if this came back with a second season, just because one I do not think it was strong enough. Like, let alone all of my, like, my little complaints and detailed complaints, I don't think it was strong enough, I don't think it was popular enough and, like I said, I the unfortunate part for me, I felt that it started out really strong and then just kind of ended in a whimper, which is unfortunate, because I was really. I liked the niche, I liked the idea of, like you know, instead of focusing on a hero, we're focusing on a tank, which nobody really. You know, tanks are an important part of any kind of, like you know, fantasy party situation, everything else like that. So it was kind of cool to, you know, see it from that angle in that story, and then it turned into something extremely confusing and convoluted.
Speaker 1:I do think the other thing that this did is what they did themselves a disservice by incorporating and and and using all of these different kinds of fancy elements and just threw them all at you, knowing that there was only going to be 12 episodes. Um, because, like you have, like the whole, you know, can he be a mani user? Can he, you know, is he the strongest tank? Is he going to utilize that? Um, what's going on with all these demon king situations? Is he going to become one? What about the homunculi? Why are they so important, you know, and they made it very clear that greed was clearly the creator, um, of lucy and everything else like that, and so what's going to go on with that? And none of it got answered and none of it really had a stamped ending, it was more. Just the fight happened with greed, they won, and and everybody lived happily ever after, I guess.
Speaker 1:And the other thing that I find the reasoning that this won't get a second season is because they didn't, like all these other ones that I've already talked about, have kind of like left an open ended, like oh OK, so you know, if we do get a next season, this will be answered. If we do get a next season, this will be answered. The second one didn't really or this tank, strongest tank, didn't really set anything up for us, didn't set up an expectation for the season two. Like what would we expect on season two? Episode one Didn't give us any of that. So I would be surprised if this got a second season. Another one that I would be surprised about would be 7th Time Loop.
Speaker 1:The villainess enjoys a carefree life married to her worst enemy. Again, I liked the idea. I thought it was interesting at first. I thought you know that the whole idea of them having a budding romance that was kind of like a slow burn might be cute. But what this show kind of turned more into there was a lot of staring, like.
Speaker 1:I found that like, like, if I fully wanted to torture myself, maybe I would do it just for fun, but I would be interested to see if, like, I went through episode by episode and had a stopwatch of how many times they would just stare at each other and it would pan back and forth between the prince and her and there would just be, like you know, this nice music and everything else, and if they wouldn't be doing anything, they would barely talk and it would just be. There would be no dialogue and it would just be going back and forth between them staring at each other and that's it. And then there was also like those weird scenes where, like I feel as if it like lingered before the cutoff too long, like because I'm okay, obviously, with them staring at each other. That's not the problem I had. The problem that I had was the length as well, as it happened frequently. And, like I said, they have these weird ones where, like they start like staring at each other and then it's almost like it's like three seconds too long before they should have cut off and went to like the next scene. Um, I'm not sure if that's a direction choice, I'm not sure if that's an animation choice, I don't know it. Just, it was something that I definitely noticed more than anything out of this series.
Speaker 1:And the other thing that was kind of that kind of threw me off on this one was as, as I said in the halfway point she wanted to learn and do the training was, you know, disguising herself as a boy knight so she could go through the training and everything else like that get her, you know, physicality back from when she was a knight in her sixth life and that kind of got almost, it seemed, erased by the end of it, because he found out that what she was doing and then even gave her permission, like okay, go ahead, like I won't stop you from doing this. And then there was the whole like oh, but what if the captain of the guards now recognizes me? And then we never saw her go back to the knights. So that part it almost as if like we were just supposed to forget about it and it shouldn't have really happened in the first place and it just went away somewhere and I don't know where it went and it's extremely confusing.
Speaker 1:Then we have the next bit when you know, I think more than anything, like I said, the prince, the prince's brother or whatever Now being on her side side, about trying to make him seem like a hero instead of a villain, and then even more so, it then kind of she kind of almost lost her own action sense with, like basically there was this huge like importance on she wanted this ring because in her you know where she's from, or whatever the ring on the third finger or whatever else represents, like that they're gonna be happy together and blah, blah, blah, blah. And again it seems we've completely ignored the fact that in this last life that you just had with him, he straight up murdered you and just because he seems to be not who he seems to be by these stories, you still lived a life where he straight up murdered you and it just it almost seems as if like the obvious, like fear that should probably come from something like that is completely absent, like I'm not saying that like she, I guess, forgives him, but it is almost as if like there was nothing, fear that should probably come from something like that is completely absent, like I'm not saying that like she, I guess, forgives him, but it was almost as if like there was nothing to be forgiven in the first place. And I reiterate, he literally murdered you. He is the reason you are on number seven, so I don't know. And then, like I said, it kind of just ends with that where they have the you know if it was a normal romance or whatever. It would have been cute, it would have been fine, especially in terms of trying to utilize her strengths that she had with her sixth life as a knight and trying to figure out who this man really is from the inside. And all of that seems to have just poofed, so it left me a little confused and bothered.
Speaker 1:Not going to lie, I would be surprised if this got a second season, um, especially because I don't think it, like I said, I know, kind of another thing is same, kind of similar to what I said about the last one. They didn't really leave an open-ended. Okay, so what direction would we go if we were to get a second season? Because, like now, like you know, she has the ring. She's kind of it looks like she's accepted that maybe she does have feelings for him in a very, very broad way. Now, what? And I honestly I don't know. If somebody could explain it to me, that'd be great, because I was't know. Um, if somebody could explain to me, that'd be great, cause I was left confused. Um, but I I have a lingering feeling that I'm not gonna have to worry about it and we'll just leave it at that. Um, let's go to Mashal next. So Mashal was awesome, like I said, probably my favorite thing coming out of this season.
Speaker 1:There is no talks about Season 3, but everybody's pretty convinced that there will be a Season 3. Something that I didn't know until I was looking it up to figure out if there was going to be a Season 3 is that the manga is actually finished. So I guess, on the upside, if I don't end up getting a Season 3, I can always read it to find out the ending. Um, but I would rather watch it to completion. That would be my preference, but you know, beggars can't be choosers.
Speaker 1:But yeah, obviously you know the, the the overarching theme of it is and it actually kind of like more focused fully on it at the end, especially where that, like you know, due to the fact that he didn't have magic, actually was to his benefit, because there was, like you know, due to the fact that he didn't have magic, actually was to his benefit Because there was, like you know, barriers involved and there was a guy that had like overwhelming magical power. But, again, because all these wizards and everything else solely act on their magical power, they're so like overwhelmed because of when he uses his physical prowess. So and I feel like that they did a really good job at focusing on that aspect, but then also, clearly, aspect uh, um, focusing on the comedy aspect of it, which is mainly the whole reason why I love watching this, is because it's the ridiculousness that you get from watching one punch man. We're like, you know, the the big baddie, like it's the ridiculousness that you get from watching one punch man. We're like, you know, the the big baddie like gets like overhyped, everything, everybody else has lost hope and everything else. And then this one guy comes in, you know, totally normal guy, he just wants to, you know, go home and eat his cream puffs or whatever, and he takes, he takes out the big baddie to, you know, via knee in the face and it's just, it's great, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Again, there is one more episode coming up, but it kind of looks like it's going to be more of a wrap up, like the big fight's over, he's defeated the big baddie for this season. It'll be interesting to see, I guess, the council there, there there's that one guy that really, really wants to basically off him because he's an abomination or whatever. So it'll be interesting what he has to say now that he's literally saved the whole school. So I think obviously we'll get that aspect in the last episode, um, as well, as I guess where we're going to go from here, because obviously infinite zero is going to come back. We now know that they want mash up um, or they want mash. So we know that's coming up at some point. We just don't know when or why. Um, and that'll be super interesting to see. And obviously, um.
Speaker 1:Last but certainly not least, we have solo leveling one that's probably everybody's going to be very sad to see go next week. We all know that the next episodes title is Arise. So for those who have been Monwood readers and have read it to completion or have even read up to this point, we know exactly what that means. So Ignis will be getting resurrected as the first shadow army, or well, the first shadow member, and then I'm assuming he's also going to take over all of the that's. This is how he, this is essentially how he gets the first um pieces of his shadow army. So that's going to be obviously a very cool scene to see animated um.
Speaker 1:We already know that this has been confirmed for season two, um. There is no actual date date yet, but they did say later in 2024. So the nice part is is that, though we do have to wait, it does seem like we're not going to have to wait super long. Um, which is awesome. Um, again, I know that at first people were kind of talking about the, the pacing of this, and that they were kind of worried. I was even worried. I did not think, like, honestly, the way that they paced it, I didn't think that we were going to get to this point, um, but it looks like we definitely will.
Speaker 1:I do still think that my, my uh prediction of the last line being a rise in the episode and then kind of cutting off and then us having to wait for season 2, I can definitely see that still happening and it will be interesting to see if that works. And, like I said, what we obviously know now, especially if you're a Manwa reader, we have that guy's brother coming to Korea afterwards, so we'll probably get a pan to where he is to kind of go, always on his way, because that'll be the next big baddie that he'll have to face and that'll probably be the main focus of the second season. I would think, um, yeah, so we have that to look forward to and yeah, that pretty much wraps up everything that we watched, or that I watched, rather, this season. Like I said, I was happy with the majority of it. A couple left me a little unhappy, but I enjoyed the journey, so that's okay.
Speaker 1:To kind of bring up a point, I will be taking a break off next week. I enjoyed the journey, so that's okay. Um, to kind of bring up a point, um, I will be taking a break off next week. I think it probably just makes sense because there's not going to be too much to watch, except for those couple episodes. That will finish everything off, and then the new season would start the week after that. So I'm hoping that by that week, um, we will have some new shows to talk about, and we'll talk about the ones that I've already added to my queue and what I'm already excited about and or watched, and we'll go from there. So, yeah, so I hope you guys enjoy and I'll see you in a couple weeks. Bye, bye, we'll see you next time.