Review: Gēmusetto: Death Beat(s) “EbMaj7; E9”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Makasu and pals arrive in a new hell, this time being a city full of Chinese people who have killed themselves at some point or another who instantly find Makasu’s “suicide by ego” death at the hands of Inti to be fascinating. They also mention that they were ruled by Yama, the god whom Makasu and Josie defeated last time, so Dr. Legs tries getting Makasu some cold medicine in order to keep him from mentioning it, but that only ends up making Makasu addicted to the pills and turning him EVIL! He then becomes a crazy despot who hunts down his former friends, so Tytti tries using him as bait to lure the Center of All Death straight to them. Makasu snaps out of things, though it may already be too late.

OUR TAKE

We’re at the halfway point for this crazy season and things are not any easier to explain, though it continues to be the shitpost it set out to be. As we take a tour through the long catalogue of anime tropes to poke fun at, having the hero turn evil for a second and then reflect on his actions is certainly one that they hadn’t tried yet, probably because Makasu was already not a great person to begin with. I’m not sure how much of this show I’m supposed to take seriously before I just start not getting the joke, but the first season clearly showed Makasu to be a selfish, egotistical, and self-centered person who didn’t much care who he hurt…at first. Part of his arc in that season, from what I could tell, was coming to terms with his past as that person and then ultimately paying the price for it after realizing he helped Inti kill all the Incan gods in tennis and HOLY SHIT THIS SHOW IS SO DELICIOUSLY STUPID. But yeah, it seems that part of his development this time is trying to become a better person, even in death, although he’s clearly been grappling with that, confusing the idea of friendship with just people liking him, which people to seem to once finding out he killed Yama.

Also worth mentioning is that this gives Josie and Tytti, the other holders of Musical Battle Robots, to bond a bit and grow a bit outside of Makasu’s involvement. Josie is also facing up to his own past misdeeds while wanting to hang onto the only friend he’s made, even in death, and Tytti…loves her boat. Did I mention that I thought Tytti was going to be the villain when I saw her in the OP? Her design just screams bad guy to me somehow. Also that I wish that this show still did an OP for each episode, but I guess that’s probably something they had to cut down on from last time, along with the runtime. And even with the Center of All Death, the goal of their journey, right in front of everyone, I still have no idea where this insanity might go, despite us still having six episodes spread across two weeks left. It looks like they’re being secretive with the promos this time so we’ll have to wait until next week to see what happens.