English Dub Review: The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl “A Gorilla Rendezvous with a Dress and Bewilderment”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sophia goes to a dance and is relentlessly bullied by Carissa, the mean girl.

OUR TAKE

Okay, I’m really starting to get sick of this shit. I’ve mentioned plenty already that maybe my expectations of how much action or fighting will be in this show may have been misplaced and that’s okay. There’s plenty of great shows that have minimal fighting and maintain consistently strong writing and compelling drama. But we are now a third of the way through this season and Sophia is still getting pushed around by this Regina George knock off Carissa and, even more annoyingly, also getting pushed around by herself. No, her confidence issues are not going to be solved so quickly just because she now has super strength, but this episode basically has her throwing in the towel before the first punch is thrown, even when people are basically willing to hold her arms up for her, and then punching herself in the face just to make crystal clear that she is only a threat to herself. I don’t feel sympathy for Sophia in moments like these, or even confidence that she’ll eventually figure it out. All I do feel is embarrassment, mostly for her but also for me having to watch her needlessly go through this. It’s legitimately hard to watch.

Again, we’re a third of the way through the season by this point. Carissa as an obstacle needs to either up her game and develop as a character too or get the hell out of the way. I get it, she’s the queen bee who doesn’t want the cute girl of lower station to climb up the social ranks or else she’ll realize that this whole caste system is bullshit. It’s been done. A lot. Even worse is that she’s already using Sophia’s kind nature against her by forcing some random girl to trick her into being stuck somewhere, which Sophia only fakes being stuck in to save that girl’s rep. So we know Carissa is just a petty bitch and isn’t going to change any time soon. But Sophia’s lack of confidence also leads her to believe a lie that she needed a partner for this dance and that Carissa, the known liar, is actually telling the truth while others who tell her there is no such rule are just trying to make her feel better. It’s all just weak sauce. We’re moving on to the second third of the show, so maybe Sophia can put up a damn fight for once?