Catch the other episode reviews here

Last episode, we had a pretty normal one overall. Project Vogel had a reboot for some reason, and we got some more backstory.

My Thoughts

This episode seems to be mostly focusing on Mahoro, the red-head girl who I swear was named something else at some point, and her radio show gang. We start, very unfortunately, with Masapi and all his creepy video game stuff. Again, the fact that they aren’t immediately creeped out by this shows their lack of self-preservation, which is very worrying to me as an onlooking.

Regardless, even if they have to wear skin-tight motion capture suits this time, the studio has proper lighting and staff now, so you don’t assume it’s some type of drug den, which is always nice. Apparently, their job is to reach the demon lord’s castle in some kind of team-based RPG using the technology we saw before. I mean, it’s neat, but I don’t see how this is helpful. I know I try to logic this too hard, but how are they helping?

I guess testing the technology? Ironing out kinks? Why not get people who know more of what they’re doing then? Like actual beta testers? I assume they’re trying to make some VR RPG, but really it seems odd since you can still see the characters you’re controlling on-screen. So it’s like VR movement without the VR. I don’t think Masapi thought this through, but, hey, a paycheck for playing games is pretty cool. I wouldn’t ask questions either.

We then ditch this for some Mahoro backstory. Apparently, she was lonely as a child and didn’t really have any friends because of the whole child actress thing. It kind of sounds like me, except I wasn’t famous, sadly. Reminding her of that was a letter from her old school asking to come get a time capsule she buried. She doesn’t really want to get it, but Miharu offers and kind of forces herself to go with her, really hammering down the big sister of the group thing.

They go to Nagoya and see the sights and get a little nostalgic. What you would expect. Apparently, the school buried Mahoro’s time capsule again so she could get the authentic feel of digging it up. No school is that caring, but I wish they were. Anyway, it takes them like the whole day to dig it out. All the while, Miharu continues to honestly be best girl by being so genuine and supportive but also stern, making sure Mahoro does what she needs to do no matter what.

Inside the time capsule ends up being an essay Mahoro wrote basically asking her future self if she’s still lonely. This causes her to cry and wish she could go back and hug herself if she had a time machine and say that she does have friends as an adult. Despite how this would destroy time and space as we know it, it’s sweet.

I’ve never mentioned it before, but I get this backstory a lot. I also have written notes to myself in the future. I have about six or seven stored away and read them from time to time. Contents of which are scarily similar to Mahoro’s. Whenever I was really upset, I would write a note to myself as kind of a coping mechanism. I haven’t written one in years, which, I think, is a good sign for my mental health. Anyway, it really does work, and it helps to lock your feelings in an unchanging state like that.

One of them just ended with me saying that if I still wasn’t happy with my life, I should know that my past self was rooting for me too. It shows a few things. That I was really thoughtful back then, and also that I had no confidence that I would actually grow. Well, screw you, surprising sweet past me! I did! I did grow, and now everyone knows it!

Jokes aside, that was a pretty sweet episode. I’m once again impressed by how many topics they’re managing to cover, and all of it while giving good backstory too. They may be a bit generic, but every character is getting developed, which is quite the accomplishment, I would say. I look forward to seeing what happens next time.

Thank you very much for reading

I want mocap RPG already. And yes, I basically stole the episode’s title this time. It was good.