I don’t want to say “losing interest”, but it’s looking more and more to me as if Sono Bisque Doll and I are two ships passing in the night. It just doesn’t seem to care that much about the relationships, and about Wakana even less. Mostly it just wants to fetishize Marin, go full otaku over cosplay minutiae, and be cute. There’s nothing wrong with those things (though the first one is a slippery slope) but they’re not what I signed up for. If I weren’t already 20 episodes in this show might be on the bubble for me, but as is, not much point in that. The inevitable third season will be another matter, though – the threshold will be raised for that.

Did I learn stuff? Sure, like that bit about a cosplayer telling a photographer that he’s the last in line and having him 180 and be the cutoff. And the stuff about original cosplays was sort of interesting because it directly mirrors what you see with doujins. You have your trademark stuff, you have your original stuff (which can grow so popular as to develop its own fanbase). But honestly, I don’t care that much about cosplay as a hobby so that sort of obsessive micronarrative really isn’t aimed at me.Which is nobody’s fault, just the way it is.

There’s also some sort of subplot going on with Akira, the props cosplayer that Gojo is so hyped about meeting. He assumes she’s a guy, she that he’s a girl (despite his “Ore” designation online). She’s friends with Suzuka, who for some reason is very worried about Akira and Marin meeting up (which they do at the afterparty, with no sign of why Suzuka reacted that way). The whole gender thing is a big theme this episode, as indeed it has been all season in a sort of “Lola” way.

That’s about it, though – honestly, I probably was engaged for about 7-8 minutes max. A misalignment with a show’s priorities is not a big deal in itself, it happens. But it does annoy me in Bisque Doll’s case because I think there’s the potential for something really good and really compelling with Wakana and Marin experiencing the highs and lows of their first romantic relationship. It’s a shame the series just isn’t that interested in that, because I certainly would be.