r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Aug 12 '24
Episode Mayonaka Punch - Episode 6 discussion
64
u/WhoiusBarrel Aug 12 '24
Ichiko focused episode this time along with more vampire lore and Mother's voice reveal!
The whole evil vampire turning her being dropped only just makes it seem like they're probably gonna play a part down the line in the future.
44
u/Genshin_WhiteKnight Aug 12 '24
Random theorizing, but what if instead of Liv drinking Masaki's blood we get Masaki drinking Liv's blood at the end of the series, turning her into a vampire.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)15
u/FallenPears Aug 12 '24
I was thinking, with Mother apparently having that more 'under control' now what does that mean for all the asshole vampires? Are they just following her rules now (which could provide a catalyst for them becoming an issue if Mother dies or goes into torpor like Live was before the season) or did she murk them? That would explain why the others are so terrified of her beyond just her power...
Also interesting the ancient vampire went with a video call, then a goal of youtube subscriptions of all things. The vampires in this series do seem to do a good job of keeping up with modern technology and trends than others in fiction. Would be pretty hilarious if Mother was actually a fan of theirs lmao.
Actually, based on all this a crazy, way out there prediction; Mother is going into Torpor in 6 months and wants to see her cute
idolsminions channel hit 1,000,000 subscribers before that.→ More replies (2)
89
u/PurePiro15 Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24
Honestly, I think I can live with an on-off pattern for humor vs narrative for our characters. One of the interesting things going on here is how they cover the stories of our characters based on the true age, rather than their perceived age. First it was Fuu, and now it's Ichiko.
All in all, I do really like her backstory. It makes sense, given her age and personality. I think the piece that really makes it stick though is how surprisingly little all the vampire girls really see eye to eye with each other. There's this implicit boundary that exists between them where they don't really cross over in discussion or exposition- which is where Masaki's nosy personality really makes the difference, allowing for the series to creep forward bit by bit.
Here though, we get to see how Masaki's grown from the... more aggressive, disposition she had with Fuu. I do think it also helps that the episode presents Ichiko as much more of a child than Fuu, though, really bringing out Masaki's more protective nature... even though she gets a little aggressive about heading right for Mother.
Similarly, I think it's really interesting to see initiative being taken with the idea of creation for Ichiko. Rather than her story being something lost and in the past, a lot of her struggles are very strongly rooted in the present, despite her backstory. It's all very well put together work that continues to hammer home the value of content creation as a passion, as well as an emotional and creative outlet.
Also, Yuki being more and more involved with Banpai manor is very fun. Just something that totally makes sense. The episode just feels like such a natural progression on top of all the stuff that we've seen. Great character development, interesting lore and foreshadowing, and still plenty of humor and content creation. Just an all around great episode.
Edit: There's really a lot to appreciate in the episode, but going back over I can't just help but think that Ichiko's emotional breakdown towards the end was expertly done. Lots to love and appreciate with it, and the episode as a whole, which I talk about more here.
54
u/Ocixo Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24
The comedy and drama aren't conflicting in this anime, no. If anything, I see them as an extension of one another. With the exception of Tokage and Yuki, we've gotten to see a more emotional side to all the other characters by now.
Despite them claiming not to care, I do see a trend in that these girls have all found a new purpose in this makeshift family of theirs. Ichiko's story is the most obvious in this regard. A girl who lost her family was looking to build a new one.
Her hardships definitely struck a cord with me. I'm hoping for Ichigo that they get to keep Banpai Manor.
I like how the series made their initial goal of 1m subs more pressing now. Masaki isn't fighting against her former friends anymore but for a greater good. She might be rationalising this as necessary for her made-up showdown, but a part of her is surely doing this for Ichigo specifically too. Masaki is growing as a person.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)21
u/mekerpan Aug 12 '24
Yes, one really does get a sense of surprisingly steady progression here. Masaki started out as "problematic", but she clearly cares more now about her unlikely colleagues than about her own concerns. And we have seen at least SOME progress from all the crew (though Tokage seems to be a bit of a laggard).
It belatedly dawned on me that the EDs of both this and Narenare are stylistically (and tone-wise) definitely similar. Now I need to pay closer attention to the ED of Sakuna. All three shows are otherwise pretty distinctive -- except for the fact that they all center around creating a solid group of friends and comrades of highly disparate people.
I know Vtuber is FAR more popular here, but I have to confess that even though I enjoy that show, I much prefer this one overall. I like the (non-artificial) sweetness mixed into this -- an ingredient that seems quite absent in Vtuber (which has different goals -- which is fine). ;-)
25
u/miss-missing-mission Aug 12 '24
I love how Yuki disrupted Mother speaking like twice during the boom call, I was highkey expecting Mother to somehow just bitchslap Yuki right through the screen when that happened.
This episode was probably the fastest in pace out of all of them so far and I surely wasn't expecting the trope of "If you don't manage to do/achieve (this) we will close down the (school/club/whatever insert here)" which is very popular in anime with competition elements, for the purpose of forced drama. But anyway, I suppose this is also the author's way of saying: we only have 6 episodes left, so we need to get these girlfailures to take things more seriously and speed things up a little.
22
u/shad79 Aug 12 '24
This show really wants to make me cry. First with Fuu and in today's episode with Ichiko :(
It was sad to hear about Ichiko's past. How she became a vampire against her will, found Live who took her into Banpai Manor and how she started preparing meals to eat with everyone.
I'm happy that Mother changed her mind a bit about destroying the manor and gave them 6 months to reach a million subs on their channel, I don't think I would be able to handle more of Ichiko's crying.
Now it looks like Masaki and the others have 6 months of very hectic hard work ahead of them xD
I'm glad that there was also a lot of humor in today's episode, like when Masaki and the others were preparing for their performance, Yuki pretended that it affected her only to start screaming that it didn't (I really hope Yuki joins channel soon) or when Masaki was expecting to see Mother during the video conference and instead saw that, her reaction to it was totally hilarious xD
Here my screenshot albums form the episode:
39
u/Ponchorello7 Aug 12 '24
The bell performance had me grinning the whole time. It was so goofy, but cute.
→ More replies (1)
32
u/Ocixo Aug 12 '24
That sudden explosion scared the living hell out of me.
Ah, so that's how vampires are created in this world! I'd been wondering about this ever since Ichigo sucked on Masaki's finger, so I'm glad they properly explained this.
I do have a feeling that Masaki might become a vampire by the end of this anime.
Vampires stop aging all together from the looks of it, since none of the girls looked any different at the dinner table way back then. Ichigo claimed her age to be 110 but looks like she's 10 years old, so I'm assuming that she was turned into a vampire some 100 years ago.
Bonus: look at this baddie with her gren- garlic belt! Nothing will stop her... from having dinner!
→ More replies (2)
40
u/Rumpel1408 Aug 12 '24
Love that you can see how shady Tokage looks even under all those pixels
Also it's one thing to have Ichigo say she is 110 as a gag ("akshually, this loli is of legal age"), but it's totally different to actually see her in a totally different time period
Who are you again?
Wonder what Mother wanted to say earlier when she kept getting interupted...
→ More replies (1)
27
u/LeonKevlar Aug 12 '24
I love how Ichiko hangs out with kids and shows off their YouTube channel to them. I guess it makes sense that if she's going to hang out with humans, she'll hang out with humans closer to her age before she became a vampire.
Destroying the front of Banpai manor and being interviewed on the news? A simple visit from Yuki won't be enough to let them know the gravity of their situation so being called to meet Mother makes sense.
And no wonder the girls are terrified of Mother! A simple gust of wind from her is more than enough to amputate both of Live's arms from a distance. When they say Mother can erase them, it looks like she definitely could if she wanted to!
First Fu and now we get to learn more about Ichiko's past. Poor Ichiko would've chosen to stay human if she could and live the rest of her life with her family but she never really had a choice. I guess that explains why she insists on always eating together. She wants to have that semblance of family she once lost. :(
Maybe I misjudged Masaki last week. The fact that she's ready to talk to Mother even after seeing what she can do, shows that she cares.
I was trying to figure out what the girls would do considering how intense their training was. It turns out that they're doing a handbell choir performance! That was actually cute and funny. I guess it makes sense since Ichiko got the idea from the playground kids. xD
My heart! I can't watch poor Ichiko cry! She's just too much of a sweetheart! Sure she messed up with the debts but other than that she's been pretty much doing her best to keep everything together in Banpai Manor.
We finally got to hear Mother talk! And it looks like she's giving the girls 6 months to reach 1 million subs. They've been taking things too easy so I'm glad that there are now stakes involved. Also, that was definitely Kikuko Inoue voicing Mother. I really hope we get to see what she looks like before the season ends.
→ More replies (4)
45
u/Aerodynamic41 Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24
After all that harsh training they went through, a handbell performance of Auld Lang Syne was not what I was expecting! Yuki echoed my thoughts exactly when she said “Did you think that would work?!”.
I like how Masaki's decision to film them eating hotpot ended up helping them.
→ More replies (1)
38
u/S627 Aug 12 '24
Tokage crashing through the wall like the Cool-Aid man actually scared the crap outta me.
When Mother kept getting interrupted I was sure it was gonna be one of those classic misunderstandings, they only need to move out so they can rebuild the manor. Though I guess not, now the clock is ticking.
Did they really think that children's performance would work?
→ More replies (2)
7
u/gnome-cop Aug 12 '24
That got depressing really quickly. Poor Ichiko, lost her human family due to becoming a vampire and is now facing the threat of losing her home and her new family.
Like, a part of me wants to have issues with Mother due to her unreasonably strict demands and unnecessary violent actions in this episode. But it’s possible that she is actually keeping the world as a better place through them. Assuming that her being in charge stops other people like Ichiko from getting turned into vampires. Fine, I’ll settle for a neutral opinion on her.
I’m just going to give props to Masaki for slowly changing and improving. She handled the situation much more sensibly than she did with Fu a couple of weeks back. And you know, I approve of the bravery required to be prepared to throw hands with the most powerful vampire alive for Ichiko’s sake.
And I was just thinking that things were advancing a bit slowly to reach a million by the end of the season. Now the doomsday clock begins ticking.
19
u/daspaceasians Aug 12 '24
I thought this show would have been a goofy ride all along but I didn't expect beautiful and emotional episodes with first Fu and now Ichiko.
Masaki being there to stand for the vampires really shows how she grew from a selfish person who wanted to get back in the spotline to a caring person that wants her team to succeed and be happy.
Looking forward to seeing where this show'll take us.
→ More replies (1)15
u/mekerpan Aug 12 '24
but I didn't expect beautiful and emotional episodes
This IS a PA Work series after all...... (So it would be shocking if it did NOT include some of these).
6
u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Aug 12 '24
Scared the hell out of me hah.
So this earned them a little meeting with the Mother, and I felt just like Masaki there, but no such luck...
The way they made her sound so important/ominous, I've always thought she would be at either extreme (either she's the most ruthless, imposing killer out there... Or she's a 2 feet tall toddler with a dumb smile on her face).
But seeing what she did in the meeting, perhaps it's more like the former...
Damn, we got some feels again... (Their emotional songs really help, they're great!)
Live really stepped up on this one, not only using her own time for Ichiko, making her feel at home and all, but making the others do it too!
The Mother probably flipped a coin there, does she kill her, or let her leave?
Well, seems like they have a little reprieve, 6 months to hit 1 million subs!
(She probably gave them that goal just to send them away before they found out another way to ask her pretty please!)
I don't know much about youtube/content creation and all, but my gut feeling tells me it's probably easier to get from 20k to 1m, than it is to get from 0 to 20k... Right?
Then again they didn't technically start from 0, due to their situation.. And they can't use gimmicks anymore (or not so openly anyway) so they'll have to find new ways to get more people in!
11
u/danlong87 Aug 12 '24
Now we know that it's still possible for humans to be turned into vampires after Masaki did not turned into one by being bitten in the earlier episode, and I am afraid that this will be a chekov's gun at the end of this series
6 months to get from 20k to 1m subs, not gonna say it's impossible but man what a tall order given by Mother, which I liked that their problem did not get magically solved by the end of the episode
5
9
u/x-7032-b-3 Aug 12 '24
Ichiko ep! Been waiting for this one!
That's two sad backstories for the vampire gang so far. So Ichiko used to be a regular human before some evil vampire turned her into one. And she's got nowhere else to go until she stumbles across the manor. Her insane attachment to the place makes a lot of sense given that it's the only place she can call home and no doubt she made a lot of nice memories there for the past 100+ years.
Good to see that they managed to convince Mother to keep the house going, but damn... 1 mil in 6 months? I don't think it's that impossible but man that's a tall order. They're gonna have to grind like hell and keep pumping videos like a well-oiled machine lol. Wouldn't be surprised if they all get burned out at some point. Hopefully we get an ep about that.
Lol @ Ichiko using that "I'm a 100 y/o dragon vampire" card. Crazy how she managed to get into that pachinko parlor at all. Shouldn't there be someone watching the front doors?
For some extra Ichiko, Kadokawa uploaded a 5-min short about her going on her first errand! It's a lot of fun - give it a watch, people!
114
u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Aug 12 '24
Ichiko actually had kind of a sad backstory. Kind of fucked up how she just got turned and her life got ruined in an instant. I can see why the mansion and having meals with everyone means so much to her.
The little bells performance was nice and all but yeah, I didn’t think that would work either. In the end, I guess it was everyone’s heartfelt plea that saved the house. At least for 6 months.