The best episode but not for the reasons you might think.
While others might deem this a weak episode because the service level isn’t that high it has something else that makes it impossible for me to hate the episode. The first half of this episode has someone who might as well be a parody of certain types of people. As a result the show ends up providing satire on these types of people when it comes to reading negative reviews.
At the lilim brothel all the girls have been beaten by a guy that arrived there. The receptionist is surprised at this and being the only one left she is fucked next. Afterwards the guy writes a 10/10 review for the place. The scene here gives us less than what the manga did of her. The angle here you can barely see anything. For comparison here is the manga page.
We got a better shot of her here while the anime just pretty much gives us an angle that if you weren’t told it was her you never would had known. Stupid choice but maybe that is the point. The Incubus guy is going around praising everything that Stunk and the others were negative about as he refuses to accept something might be flawed. This is the type of guy that would defend removing angles like that, defend removing nudity that is present in source material but removed in adaptions, defend static images and probably would complain about anyone pointing out other negatives and flaws. In other words the guy is an eccentric fanboy that refuses to accept something he likes could have negatives and gives it perfect scores as a result. Finally a parody that a show about reviewing needed to have in it.
When Stunk and the others get back to the tavern they are told by Meidri that someone has been waiting for them for the past few days. When they go to talk with him he tells them about how offended he was by their reviews and that he visited all of the brothels and have given them perfect scores and they must not know what they are doing to give such low scores. Also seems to be angry that they focus on negatives and point out their issues they have with the brothels they visit instead of just praising them endlessly.
In short Stunk and the others committed the grave sin of having an opinion different from his. It’s not like reviews are supposed to be that reviewer’s own personal opinion based on their own personal tastes and outlook. No, reviews are supposed to be safespace echo chambers where you praise something no matter what and pretend any flaws don’t exist. How dare they point out flaws in what they were reviewing, how dare they apply their own personal preferences and tastes to their reviews. Imagine that, judging something based on their own taste which is what a review is supposed to be. How absurd. Those reviews should be robotic and devoid of any and all personality or opinions of the reviewer. You are supposed to remove the human nature of a review and not show any of your personality in it to give people an idea of your preferences and just praise it and give it perfect scores instead. No flaws exist in anything it’a all perfect and if you dare to point out problems with what you are reviewing then you’re just nitpicking and complaining and a hater because criticism is illegal these days. Just think of the torment he must have went through reading their brothel reviews. Just knowing someone out there didn’t like something he did. Scary shit man.
Thankfully this is all fiction and doesn’t happen in real like. Imagine if someone pointed out negatives they had with a show that others were praising like it was the holy grail of shows. The sheer fucking nerve of someone pointing out these flaws they have with a show and saying it’s not as good as people claim it is to them and why and how it could improve. The goddamn audacity of that fuck. Consume and don’t question it, there are no flaws it’s perfect. Putting their opinion in their opinion review what an asshole. But hey it could be worse. The guy in this episode went around giving all the brothels perfect scores which they didn’t deserve just to spite Stunk and the other’s bad reviews. At least in real life we don’t have people going around giving shows mass perfect scores of 10 all for the purpose of making it the highest rated show ever or alternatively giving it mass 0 scores to make it the lowest rated show ever all because their feelings are hurt that others don’t like said show or are praising it. Crazy stuff isn’t it? These unhonest perfect reviews are way more important than honest ones pointing out the negatives in it. People read reviews to validate their own opinion not read someone else’s opinion after all.
I’m dying at what this guy represents.
The guy tells all of them the benefits of each girl and how wrong they were because their opinion is wrong after all since they should like what he likes and not be negative as much as they are. As they look at the reviews they point out how unhelpful they are since they do nothing but praise the brothels instead of giving honest reviews by someone with likes and dislikes. In other words there is no criticism in them which is impossible as there is no such thing as perfection and anyone that can’t acknowledge the flaws in something is doing a disservice to readers. The purpose of a review is to show others the opinions of someone different from them with different preferences allowing the reader to see multiple different viewpoints and come to their own decision based on that. Praising something as flawless doesn’t do this.
Giving something a 10/10 all because of spite for those hating it and not based on the actual quality of said something? Sounds familiar….
Did they just delete his perfect reviews because they are not legitimate? Don’t they know he is now going to take to monster girl youtube and scream how oppressed he is for deleting them.
Suddenly he is stabbed by an oni girl whom he took money from previously to go review those brothels. She goes full yandere trying to kill him and kill herself as he then tells her he loves her just like all the women at the brothels while everyone else stands around confused at what they saw. Zel tells them the guy won’t die as he is hauled off despite being stabbed in the heart because incubi have two hearts with the second near their dick so he will be fine. As for what to do with his reviews they decide to tear them up for being garbage since his 10/10 reviews were not legitimate and were just him giving places high scores to spite their bad reviews.
Stunk and Zel decide to head to another brothel and ask Crim to come with them. After Crim says he has no money they offer him some in advance so he can go. Crim however doesn’t want to spend it on brothels due to how broke it makes him. Stunk tells him to do quests since if you find a job that offers more than your current one you are allowed time off work to take it. As they try to figure out the job that would work for him based on his resistances they can only come to the conclusion of reviewing brothels and start to take him as Medri stops them because of how much work they have at the tavern. So they are forced to wait since they need Crim due to his popularity.
A foreshadowing to that neet dollar stimulus package we are supposed to get due to the world ending virus.
Kanchal shows up with a bunch of gold and gives everyone their cut. He says he made a deal with the other reviewers that were stealing their idea and they have to pay a share to both the porter guild they used last episode and them in order to keep doing it. In other words they essentially get royalties by having others use their idea of reviewing brothels. Now that they have a large amount of money and a job that will offer more since now their reviews will be shipped all over the place that can justify taking Crim away from work. Meidri still stops them forcing them to wait till he finishes his work before leaving. By the time he is done they are drunk and the bar is no longer serving so they decide to go to the leprechaun brothel where you can get drunk and fuck the girls there.
I would had praised this except for the fact that I can’t fap to headless women. I need to see the full body so it looks like a person not a disembodied torso. Will the BD fix it? Who knows but as it is now it annoys me the way porn does that only shows part of a girl instead of the whole thing.
After going to the leprechaun bar they get drunk and pass out. When they wake up they look around and see that they somehow in their drunk state wrote some reviews and decide to read them since they can’t remember writing them.
Why do we get denied a scene with the two of them.
Reading their reviews they see they are all worthless as they were too drunk to write anything coherently except for Crim who is immune to getting drunk. Crim mentions how after patrons get drunk the receptionist watches them and charges them for everyone they touch thus how they sap money from people so easily. Kanchel notices all their gold is gone as a result and they have badly written reviews to other places as well realizing they went around reviewing a bunch of places while drunk last night. But since they can’t sell them they can’t make their money back either.
In order to make their money back they have no choice but to go on a bunch of adventures and clear dungeons so thy can earn what they spent back and in the process they save the world as well. After that we get an after credits scene with Mitsune getting drunk and with that the episode ends.
Other than the leprechaun part the amount of service in this episode was rather low. However despite this I can’t complain simply because the show for a brief moment contained what I wish this show had did in terms of narrative. It was completely unintentional since this chapter was obviously made long before the anime but the fact that it applies to the show is entertaining. Initially the incubus guy could just be considered a parody of the white knights we see all the time that think you can never criticize something staring a woman and attempt to defend them to get pussy. However it doesn’t feel like that was the intention since I doubt japan has these types the way we do and his main issue seemed to be the fact that he didn’t like their reviews as the main point. As a result this ends up being either possibly deliberate or unintentional satire on reviews and outrage concerning them. This is the big thing I feel the show missed the potential to do and that is to be social commentary on reviewing much like how Shimoneta was commentary on censorship.
The first half of the episode was focused on someone who was so offended that someone didn’t like something they did they proceeded to give it good reviews to counter it while also berating them for having an opinion different from their own. Anyone that has reviewed something has witnessed this. If you dare to criticize something based on your own personal tastes and opinion which is exactly what a review is supposed to be you are bitched at for it because you not liking something somehow offends people to the point that they seethe as if your opinion matters in a grand scheme of things. Seeing that somewhat parodied here was nice as it was this very thing the show could had really benefited from if it did this more often. The incubus guy essentially tries to make them change their reviews because just seeing it somehow causes him emotional distraught unable to accept people might not like something that he does. On top of which it parodies the blind fanboyism we see all the time with shows or even games where flaws and negatives are purposely handwaved away with all kinds of mental backflips to defend it and sometimes even push it as a feature or bonus rather than an issue while deeming anyone that criticizes it is just a hater. Because just admitting there is a problem with something is against the religion of a fanboy.
A series about reviews has a lot of potential material to parody and satirize. Parody paid reviews, crazed fanboys and death threats for saying something negative, review bombing of both 0s and 10s by people that have never watched or played said product, satire reviews done for comedy that people stupidly take seriously, fake reviews with lies, the list goes on. There are so many different venues they could had been taken with a show about reviews providing really entertaining social commentary on how people treat reviews these days. A shame that wasn’t the approach taken as now would had been the best time to make such a show since we live in an era where people take reviews for anything way too seriously. The manga even brings this up in a later chapter which shows there is some very slight commentary in the series but it never went full out with it.
Even the series agrees. Reviews are supposed to be that reviewer’s personal opinion on something based on their preferences, tastes, and bias. That is the entire point of a review to see someone else’s viewpoint. You don’t need to agree with it nor should you use someone else’s opinion to decide if you should or should not read, watch, play, or buy something. They are to serve as guides giving you a look into what others that might be different from you feel and their experience. Never use a score or a reviewer’s opinion to determine if you should like or not like something. Instead use that opinion to draw information from the review about the product and determine if what they take issue with or praise matters to you. Information is the main thing you should take from a review and as long as the reviewer isn’t lying about the content of said work that is all that matters. Flipping out because a reviewer criticizes something is pointless because without criticism there is no improvement. Let alone who cares what someone else thinks it doesn’t stop you from liking something. Likewise flipping out because a reviewer likes something you don’t is just as dumb as it’s not going to impact you in any way. Would had been fun to see the show go all philosophical on reviews at some point.
I usually wait till the final episode to write that much. Anyway next week is the end and based on the title there is no way to know what to expect. The title is vague so you can’t really match it to a chapter so it’s possible it could be anime original. However there are some chapters they could adapt which would work. The OP shows the demon hole brothel and the receptionist from it and yet they have not gone to it still. So it’s possible that chapter could be used for next week for at least one of the halfs. The fact that both Demia and the demon lord show up again in it might also give reason to do that chapter possibly as a cliffhanger for a potential season 2. There is also the the new years chapter which shows a bunch of the girls again or the dream chapter which is about having dreams at a brothel where you can fuck your favorite girl again. Both of these would also serve as good endings by reshowing some of the girls again. So we may get two of those three chapters for next week to end it on assuming they don’t go full anime original. Hopefully the final episode goes all out whatever it is.
Glad this episode did what it did. As the stuff about reviews I wanted to put in my final post but that would had made it too long so getting to do it here is convenient. Now just have to hope the world is still around come next week. Now to get to work on my hentai schedule I’m behind on.
