ENGLISH DUB REVIEW: Smile of the Arsnotoria “Hug!!!” ; “Sniff…”

Overview

“Hug!!!”

In order to protect the school grounds from the ever-present threat of the bugs, today it’s Arsnotoria’s turn to be on extermination duty. Mell, Little Alberta, Picatrix, and Abramelin all rush to her side to help her with this activity. But then, one word from their shadow cat teacher Perdura puts the entire school into a frenzy!?


“Sniff…”

One morning, Arsnotoria loses her sense of smell. Noticing this, Mell, Little Alberta, Picatrix, and Abramelin attempt to employ “shock therapy” by gathering all sorts of “intense smells” so that Arsnotoria can regain her sense of smell.


Our Take

This time around, Crunchyroll felt the need to release two episodes at once this week with the former episode being the obligatory training one in regards to the magical girls getting used to their powers. These girls are all way too cute. They have a fun rapport with lots of cute banter. But out of nowhere there’s a “warning” flashing across the screen and shit just gets real…


As for the other episode, it felt like another slow burn with the girls still hanging out on academy life, and Arsnotoria still very reliant on her sniffing…that somehow was gone. With that, the others try all ways to help Tori regain her sense of smell, from her favorite food to intense ones for shock therapy, In a nutshell, you might as well call it “covid-the anime”.


Overall, much like the first episode, this show is a mixed bag so far. One minute we see these adorable girls picking and eating wild strawberries and all sorts of wholesomeness. And the next, we’re seeing dudes getting cut in half horrifically infront of a castle. And this time with a “warning” sign in advance before the random violent shit is happening. The intro hints at an impending battle between these magical school girls against these well-dressed aristocratic-looking dudes yet it doesn’t explain how this is properly connected or why at the time of this review…