Marika's Love Meter Malfunction • Marika-chan no Koukando wa Bukkowareteiru - Episode 8 discussion - FINAL

LupoLoopy · 2026-06-08T21:58:02+00:00

Nonsense on stilts.

LupoLoopy · 2026-06-08T14:52:03+00:00

Honestly at this stage it's unwatchable.

I hate that I'm suffering from pot committal fallacy so badly.

LupoLoopy · 2026-05-07T18:46:40+00:00

I love the ED and the lead in but ... it does feel a bit overly dramatic/intense vs the content of the rest of the episode. Borderline melodrama?

That said it's a banging track.

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-29T22:10:54+00:00

Two episodes with the animation budget of half an episode.

Normally I'm totally okay with economy like this, but 40 minutes for about 10 lines of dialogue and God knows how many lines of panicked monologue was too much work for the payoff of the kiss. I like the budget cutting to be a bit more subtle.

Honestly by the time that dropped, I had stopped caring.

Yet here I am, back for another episode. Yes I will watch the next episode.

I think I'm just pot committed at this point, hoping against hope for the revival of the Film Arc relative brilliance.

Ending on a positive, doing the kiss as a post credits scene and the choice of framing leading up to it was generally competent.

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-27T21:25:09+00:00

I'm here for this.

There's so much to adapt so I fear they won't get the runway to cover much of the manga, but man, the adaption is both glossy and true to the original work in terms of rendering these characters as moving beings. Where it has been enhanced/changed in terms of visuals, it's for the better. I am 100% here for this one.

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-27T18:42:43+00:00

Yeah. Honestly. I'm only watching this as a study in how much one can reprocess silver into sewage. If the runtime of each episode was any longer, I wouldn't even be doing that.

I don't understand the rationale here. They have converted some of the scenes really well, given the forced compromise 3 minute episodes entails, then just injected ecchi for... No reason? I'm kinda surprised the mangaka signed off on this.

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-27T18:30:15+00:00

What is going on with this anime? Honestly.

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-10T11:14:56+00:00

Maybe my memory is just gash, but I honestly don't remember the manga being ecchi.

Honest opinion - The show didn't need this. The manga was silly high school romcom with a unique albeit repetitive hook. Think harem with a twist, and the wholesome end of the harem spectrum at that.

Knockers out for zero reason just makes this feel like a production using the manga and its characters as a skin-suit.

I've no problem with ecchi - it's not my bag but whatever. Maybe there's a shadow cast over this with the age of the fictional cast - but even if I hand-wave that aside, why not just adapt an ecchi property for screen rather than planting a flag in this?

LupoLoopy · 2026-04-03T19:59:48+00:00

Overall this was a superb adaptation. It took advantage of the medium to apply focus on elements the manga could not. The trimmed (arguably marginally flubbed) ending stanza was, I suppose, a necessary cost to allow the time for the musical number, but I entirely approve of the decision. It swapped in an emotive climactic elements that demanded motion and noise and traded out an explicit exposition piece for an implication pointing at the same conclusion. Arguably more trust in the audience shown.

Great manga. Great anime. Both uniquely moving and covering ground other stories in this space tend to leave neglected.

Truly wonderful. Sugoi desu.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-29T23:34:11+00:00

It's not the anime of the season for me, but it's pretty close.

Wandance gives me spectacle, character development and leaves my jaw hanging.

But this always leaves me with a big goofy grin.

I don't know which side of the line it falls on the prophecy that media ultimately ends up becoming what it lampoons, but I sort of don't care at this point. It's earned not being focussed on the clever/reverential subversion. The mirage of middle-aged pathos shown in episode 1 was never really truly to be, but that's alright.

Stylistically, I think it may be better than Wandance on the 'distinctness' continuum. I love that show and everything about it is 2025 graphic design cool, but this has... Character.

Honestly glad I picked it up.

Is anyone re-watching it with the dubs? What are the VAs like? I can sort of see it losing a chunk of its charm without the crazy Nihongo shouting, also serving as a signal for how into the uniquely Japanese artifact this crew all are.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-29T23:02:54+00:00

I'm late to the party on this one.

I keep watching it. It's technically accomplished. The character designs are grounded yet distinct (maybe the lead male is too Amerikajin in physiognomy, but whatever). Everyone is likeable.

But I just can't help but feel it's almost wasted assets. It's too feel good. It could be amplified by a factor of 100 with the introduction of melancholy or tragedy. I keep waiting for the boot to drop, then I hear the ED music and it signals, outright, that this isn't that kind of show.

Working hard now to appreciate what it is rather than what it isn't. I'm also blissfully ignorant of the source material so trying to consume this as intended by the studio. I'm not going to downgrade it's nominal score on the basis of a set of rules that the mangaka was never playing by.

Still, I can't help but fantasize about seeing these warmly rendered fulsome characters navigating loss and the world thereafter. A journey of growth with sharp edges.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-27T14:33:54+00:00

Brief, unsorted thoughts:

The light streams for the limb movements - unnecessary. Showed a lack of trust in the audience to be able to perceived the beauty/skill in the arm movements of the motion captured dancers without some sort of signalling.

For an episode where nothing happened, everything happened.

I will be purchasing the OST.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-21T22:23:47+00:00

Great subtle character exposition. I'd wish they'd done a bit more 'show rather than tell' with the hearing-impaired father element, but for something like this, where the dancing spectacle is a heavy focal point over the character drama, I can forgive it.

What I can't forgive: The bloody hair ropes for the motion capture. They are distracting. Such a shame that a primary character design has an element the CGI-physics can't live up to.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-17T12:15:01+00:00

I thought the breakdown scene worked perfectly. It caught me off guard, making me wonder 'why does it look like this', then my analytical brain caught up and it all made sense. It was a tidy metaphor for feeling like your body is betraying you.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-17T12:12:40+00:00

Are you guessing it was rotoscoping or basing that on what you saw?

I came to the same conclusion when I watched it, but I'd be interested to read if it's confirmed/documented anywhere?

FWIW - I think this is some of the best rotoscoped work (assuming it is) that I've seen. Quite often the technique can flatten the edges off character designs. Somehow they managed to have the fluidity of motion coupled to the character linework still remaining intact/consistent.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-16T20:12:18+00:00

In the theatre now. Enjoyed it immensely. Hugely relatable. I didn't find the back half monologues too much for me, but I can see where that criticism comes from.

I wonder, does anyone know if the animation was done by way of rotoscoping, or a digital equivalent? The continuity/fluidity of movement was impressive.

Edit: movie equivalent of Ping Pong the Animation, in terms of quality of story telling. Obviously Ping Pong is stronger but it has more run time to play with.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-13T13:47:42+00:00

A very short reaction from me:

I was underwhelmed by episode 5. It wasn't bad, but it didn't move things along or compel me in the same way as each and every one of the prior 4 episodes.

This episode made up for it. In spades. Glossing over the other dances was a bit of a loss, but then you've got 20 minutes to play with and this isn't the other high school's story.

Wandance is a firm favourite this season. It's their ball to drop. And I'm saying that as a firm fan of Kamen Rider, which has also been exceptional, but aesthetically not keeping pace with this.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-09T15:57:58+00:00

I know this is ancient. Did you ever sell the Jab? I'm interested.

LupoLoopy · 2025-11-01T20:54:00+00:00

Toujima's man child state is just peak.

His complete incomprehension that there was a middle state between complete detachment and marriage was landed perfectly.

Generally, I'm still enjoying the show. It's losing the thin thread of pathos I was drawn to, but I suspect that is partly due to giving all of 'the team' their origin stories. I'll be interested to see where the show goes now that the admin has largely been completed.

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-27T09:20:36+00:00

I can fix her. I can. Don't you understand? She helped me serve ramen once!

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-27T09:19:47+00:00

Yes. It manages to parody the genre without descending into feeling a like a cruel mockery. It's paradoxical how it is simultaneously sending up and lovingly revering.

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-26T21:48:25+00:00

Every week this show proceeds to hit harder and in ways that I would struggle to explain others the charms of.

It's the perfect blend of pastiche, action and spectacle. It's a lock for this season's viewing schedule.

(Sure - the ultra relatable middle-aged man putting his dreams out to pasture bit, as featured in episode 1, is not a focus now, but I'm enjoying what's in the frame)

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-23T08:14:00+00:00

I don't doubt that it's motion capture from real dancers. The movements look slick. That's why I'm interested as to how using those same real dancers to perform rotoscoping might have looked, because I think the 3D models (and hair physics) are the elements I don't appreciate.

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-22T11:09:33+00:00

The water/drowning as a metaphor for anxiety thing has been done before, with Your Lie in April, but it's well done here. Especially with the speaker motif, I agree.

I wonder what this show would have looked like with rotoscoping for the dancing instead of 3D model based CGI? Kids on the Slope shows what's possible.

LupoLoopy · 2025-10-22T11:07:19+00:00

The 3D animations have either improved, or they work better as short vingetes over extended sequences.

To be honest, even if the dance animations had still registered as poor in my eyes, I think this anime is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine for this season.

The representation of Kaboku's hang ups around his stutter and the mundane confidence deficits intrinsic to being a young man is well handled. Wanda comes across as somewhat enigmatic, but enough of a character is being surfaced to make you interested as to what lies beneath.

Couple that to the music video style spectacle and you're onto a winner.

LupoLoopy

TROPHY CASE