Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games

IT SHOULDVE I LOVE YOU, IT SHOULDVE BEEN!! YOU SHOULDVE ENDED ON A BANG!!

Yeah, this was a totally fine premiere, although the show's most outstanding feature is an actual game franchise being used as its main subject. They have got to pull some strings during production in order to do that. But it did everything it said in the title though, even if what was presented was the most basic strategies in that type genre. I mean, I have experience playing that type of game for many years, and even now I'm still going at it so I can relate, somehow. On a side note, the animation was fantastic and the characters are exquisitely designed; exactly what you need in this kind of story. I may sound a little bit biased, but you should really watch this anime for its premise alone. It's something that hasn't been tackled for a while and I'm happy that it finally received the limelight it deserves. Can't wait to see the shenanigans that follows this crazy episode next.

I have never felt more seen than watching Arisa explain why she plays the way she does. Someone stopped being her friend because she was too good. That is a real thing that happens and this show just put it on screen like it was nothing. I sat there staring at the wall for a while after that part.

the way she says thank you after losing and means it. that tiny thing did more for their whole rivalry than any of the yelling beforehand

Alright I get why everyone is hyped but stretching one match across two episodes is rough for a penultimate week. you get one round and then a cliffhanger. the animation is doing heavy lifting to make me forgive it

I could not stop watching the aura around her when she flipped that switch. the show treats a chair and a controller like a battlefield and somehow the exaggeration lands instead of feeling silly. my favorite moment was the crowd going completely quiet in the last round

Some of the DP spam felt like the animators just wanted cool hits instead of real game logic and that pulled me out a bit. still the tension carried it and seeing Alice adapt was worth the wait

Bro the nosebleed was not on my list for this arc. treating losers bracket fatigue like a health bar drain is such a fun bit. also Alice finally dropping the ego mid match hit harder than I wanted it to

playing from the heart being a real tactical edge because it makes you unreadable is such a good angle for this show to land on. the meta vs instinct thing got me thinking about how I approach ranked myself and I don't even play fighting games

Watching Alice's whole refined act fall apart when her optimal play kept getting punished is the payoff I have been waiting all season for. You can't flowchart your way through someone who is just having fun and pressing buttons at you

Mio spamming those naked Shoryukens against Alice's perfect little flowchart was the funniest and smartest thing this show has done. A bad play that works because it makes no sense to a robot. She's trolling her way into a rivalry and I am here for it

The nosebleed. She sits in a chair and she gets a nosebleed. I did not expect this dumb show about rich girls mashing buttons to make me care this much but here we are

tied 1-1 into the finale is cruel and also exactly right. both of them were trembling by the end. that trembling is what sold me on this whole thing more than any combo did

This episode felt like watching a sports-shounen anime. The match was really intense, and my only complaint about this episode was the damn cliffhanger 😭 P.S. It felt like I was watching a Zone battle from a certain basketball anime.

So, we went from a Daigo Parry, to a Jojo Reference, to a moment of Yuri realization. Pure cinema.

"I can parry shivers with shivers" is the hardest line this show has ever dropped. Aya went from convinced she'd lose to matching Gekido's energy and that transition hit me like a drive rush

The technical breakdown segment was such a treat for actual fighting game heads. They talked parries and frame data like real commentators do and it made every match feel legit instead of anime fluff. Gekido bleeding from his own arcade stick slam was insane commitment

Mio cracking first and crying while Aya pretended to be the strong one was too real. But the hand-holding moment had me yelling at my screen. These two are basically married now this is canon

Every episode keeps raising the stakes. The shift from school life to a nationwide tournament makes the series feel so much bigger, and those new character reveals at the end were the perfect way to build hype.

Aya and the girls standing up for Mio was genuinely wholesome. The episode balanced emotional moments with tournament hype perfectly