Episode 9 of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction spends a lot of screen time on very little real estate.

A lot of the potential that last week’s episode introduced goes underutilized here. I was hoping that we could spend a little more time exploring all the different reasons people cosplay. Maybe getting into various characters’ backstories while Ririsa toured the cast—trying to find out why she enjoys doing this and clarifying her purpose for her hobby. I know it’s not necessarily fair to judge a show by what it isn’t but we seemed primed for more engaging story beats with how last week ended.

Instead, we mostly get Ririsa crying and overly direct dialogue. I don’t have an issue with the conclusion per se. Mayura rekindling her love of her hobby is great and she gives a succinct reason for having a hobby. “I do this thing because I enjoy it” is not a cop-out answer for anything, especially a hobby! We only have one life and we should enjoy things. We shouldn’t need a justification for every little thing. Sometimes we do stuff to lighten up our time on this earth and that’s completely fine.

But even with all of that said, I think Ririsa comes to her realization a bit too easily. We don’t learn anything new about her or Okumura, and it’s just kind of… done. There are some tears and a concern about timing but it might as well not happened at all. Also, I know Okumura was just trying to be encouraging but the line about not caring about the club room didn’t land well with me either since that was a primary conflict for a few episodes and it seems like it undermines their efforts to solve the problem. Nothing in this episode is outright bad but there are so many missed opportunities that it left me deflated.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

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