In this week’s episode of Gabriel DropOut, Gabriel takes on a part time job in order to pay for… microtransactions in her MMO game. She is hired as a cafe waitress by an old man who is a coffee connoisseur and only wants to spread the joy of coffee to his customers. Well, needless to say, Gabriel isn’t exactly the person to help with that, unfortunately… Right from the start, she sounds like a disrespecting punk with no manners when welcoming guests, she is unable to take orders properly and refuses to work more than one day a week…

Also, during the episode, her air conditioner stops functioning and takes salvage at Vignette’s to escape the heat where shen then undresses to cool down, exposing her body to Vignette but being censored with what she calls, “Holy Lights” (my second favorite moment in this episode)!

The moment in this episode which really made me laugh was when Satania decided to stop by the cafe Gabriel works at, not knowing she works there and both of them being surprised upon sight. Satania sees this as an opportunity to boss Gabriel around (which she does later on), but Gabriel surprisingly keeps her composure when seeing Satania, until she charges her without hesitation to cover her mouth shut, and winds a huge right hook to the gut of Satania leaving her winded and gasping for air, and then Gabriel tosses Satania out the front door saying “Thank you! Come again!”. The funniest scene I’ve seen yet in this series! I can’t wait for more to come.

Besides being a very visually appealing anime, Hand Shakers has been rather... Nonplussing storywise. We were treated to a few brief seconds of action in the first episode in a scene that has not been seen in a hot minute in anime. Now in episode three though, the story starts to pick up after we listen to the pair from Centeotl Group for most of the episode.

Tazuna and Koyori show up on a date at the restaurant that Chizuru and Hayate work at. Besides being slightly illogical that a girl with the body of a nine year old is the boss, the store seems pretty normal. After they leave though, Hayate and Chizuru reveal their true intentions. After paying them back for their time, Hayate and Chizuru trigger the Ziggurat forcing Koyori & Tazuna to fight. Of course though, you see how Chizuru is bullied and punished in the corporate world (yet another moment when anime parallels real life!) and then bam. Battle.

This is what we have been waiting for! Dagger Shadow makes her appearance with her massive Shuriken and starts attacking. What continues on is actually a pretty cool looking battle and Blade Shadow appears too. Koyori just sits there annoyingly as usual grunting rather than speaking, but if both Nimrods can attack, then maybe Koyori has a chance at becoming interesting. That is, of course, if she can get past the mute-loli phase. I sure hope that the series is now going to balance all of this story out with more good action. Then it will mean that Koyori is viable. However the preview did reveal more action next, so there is something to look forward to next week too!

The second season of Ao no Exorcist so far has been a tale of suspicion and betrayal - and episode four is no different. Not only do the students distrust Rin, but there’s also the witch hunt for the traitor amongst the Kyoto Branch Office and Myoda Sect - the main suspect for which is Ryuji’s forever-absent father. However, in this episode we’re at first led to believe it’s Juuzou, before the situation turns, revealing that it was in fact Mamushi. Completely manipulated by Toudou, she chose to betray those around her, and now both of the Impure King’s eyes are in Toudou’s hands…

However, this wasn’t what made this episode so great for me. The moment which really hit home was after this climactic event had passed - and Rin steps in between Ryuji’s and his father while they’re arguing. With so much happening so fast, poor Rin really hasn’t had the chance to really grieve for his father or his position as the son of Satan, and it certainly doesn’t help that he’s always putting on a brave face. But when he steps in to try to mediate between Ryuji and his father, we see just how broken he is. How his own father’s death haunts him, as well as how he wants to protect his friends from having to go through the same experience.

However, this inevitably ends in Rin flaring up with anger - quite literally. Despite working so hard to make the first step to control his flames, he completely destroys his own efforts, revealing his true identity to the Kyoto Branch Office workers and those from the Myoda sect. Now he must start again from one to gain not only his classmate’s trust, but the trust of many others. He must also deal with his trauma regarding his past. This arc is going to get real heavy real fast - but I’m already strapped in and prepared for an emotional ride.

Aggh, this has got to be a surprise hitter for me this season. Demi-chan wa Kataritai reminds me of Monster Musume in a way without all of the excess amounts of fan service, although there is clearly a harem forming here.

I just love that one moment in episode 4 where all the demi humans want a hug from Takahashi-sensei. If you did not see that this was a harem anime, this is probably the moment where you really see it unfolding into harem. Takahashi first hugs our little vampire, Takanashi, then the dullahan, which I still think it is a bit off putting since she is just a disembodied head in most scenes, as her body gets left behind or is not a big contributor in comparison to her head. Then Satou-sensei gets all excited and, because she’s a succubus, she turns into “sexy” mode and tries to hug our strangely honorable main character, Takahashi-sensei. I loved seeing Satou-sensei’s face go into seductive mode and then she goes all out hungry as it looks like she is trying to attack our main character. It is too funny! Then Satou-sensei gets rejected. Oops!
Demi-chan wa Kataritai looks like any harem anime, but it looks like it’ll be a fun anime this season. Yay!