Episode 6 of Tomb Raider King pushes the action further than anything we’ve seen thus far.

The mythical conceits were really at the forefront this week. The introduction of Anubis and Osiris is interesting, and while it’s not exactly a master’s thesis on mythology, it is a good showing for how to incorporate an existing mythos into the world of Tomb Raider King. The pair are powerful foes who challenge Jooheon in ways he hasn’t yet encountered. That alone makes them worth mentioning, but it goes even further. The real joy is that, even though what they do is rather expected (by Jooheon and by the audience, I would imagine), there are enough twists to keep everyone second-guessing. The conceit of Anubis asking the questions that Jooheon thinks he knows the answers to, yet they’re slightly different, is good. In fact, this was one of the ideas I expected/hoped the series would play with back in the very first episode. Knowing just enough about the future to be confident while never being totally certain there haven’t been changes in this new timeline is, well, that’s precognitive superpowers 101. It’s not a huge barrier, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Inevitably though, we do get some monster-bonking action, and it’s pretty darn good. Jooheon does a bit of trap-card-activation-negation with the Code of Hammurabi, then gets right into the backflips and sword swipes. There’s a great sense of motion, the undead and mummies have a solid assortment of gruesome dusty deaths, and Jooheon generally looks cool jumping around with various magical blades. The visual fidelity and creative choreography kept me entertained the entire time. I do wish there was a bit more variety in the monster designs (even if the mummies all looking identical is a plot point), and I wish they had… something else to do? Maybe different weapons or something to give them a chance to do more than just swing their fists in response to Jooheon’s attacks would be nice. Still, the fights were quite good.

The capstone throat-cutting was pretty well-handled too. The shot of Jooheon in the foreground holding his blade out to one side while it blocked the view of the CEO’s recently severed head was a creative bit of framing. This is a big wish fulfillment moment for Jooheon, of course – being able to come back in time and kill a former boss who used him for his own gain. It’s easy to see the appeal of a scene like this. But I also like that it introduces new challenges by definition. This world simply cannot turn into the prior, as he has irrevocably shifted events. That will create new complications and unknowns that (I hope) lead to interesting challenges.

Rating:

Tomb Raider King is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.

To be perfectly honest, I am glad this week’s episode of Chainsmoker Cat turned out so obscene and idiotic. Don’t get me wrong; I have very much enjoyed the fact that the show has been able to flex its muscles as a work of legitimate storytelling and all. Let’s not kid ourselves, though. A chief appeal of Chainsmoker Cat is its brazen dedication to being supremely gross and stupid, and to look damned good while doing it. I will happily endorse regular peeks into the melancholy undertones of these crazy cats’ lives, and you know I am gobbling up all the bizarre worldbuilding tidbits we’ve been getting. That said, I think this might just be Chainsmoker Cat‘s finest (half-)hour, because it showcases such a pristine balance of the weird, the ridiculous, the offensive, and the achingly sad. Sometimes, “fine art” really means “watch a degenerate furry accidentally summon a Nicotine Demon and then subsequently send him crying back to the dark pits of hell with the power of her offensively disgusting lifestyle and rancid farts”.

The best thing about this episode is that it’s the first episode to so expertly utilize nearly every single member of its supporting cast. Sure, Hameko Easygoing Anal Angel is regretfully unavailable to provide the show with opportunities to poke fun at modern influencer culture and jump scare us with a piss joke or two, but we get to meet Yani and Imoko’s deceptively sweet mother, so it all balances out. In addition to the ongoing adventures of the Yani Neko clan, we get to check in on a clearly quite troubled Yaku, while Aru is going through such terrible alcohol withdrawals that her tremors simulate an earthquake that leads to what may be the funniest bit of the entire season so far.

We’ll get to Oya and His Furry Sex Doll’s Bogus Journey in just a moment. For now, I have to point out how perfectly characterized Yani and Imoko’s mother is. She plays the role of the quaint, quietly loving mother who just beams when she gets the chance to spend time with both of her daughters, but she’s also the kind of woman who will shamelessly pinch two cigarettes from her daughter and relish the sweet taste of filtered smoke, only to immediately start spritzing air freshener and chugging breath mints the minute Imoko walks in the door. And does Mama Neko have anything to say when Yani is getting berated by her younger sister for being such a stinky influence on their home? Of course not. She just waits for the next opportunity to slink away and sneak another puff of her daughter’s smokes. Absolutely sinister.

Outside of the delightfully bizarre pre-credits sequence, the best gag of the episode has to go to everything that follows poor Oya getting so caught up in Aru’s alcoholism-induced earthquake that he ends up trapped outside of his apartment butt-ass naked and with his beloved and almost certainly foul-smelling sex doll stuck to his raging erection like a skewered hog. I don’t think Chainsmoker Cat has made me laugh harder than when Saori comes upon the man and tries to make some feeble excuses for the situation that won’t immediately land Oya on a sex-offender registry, and Oya can only beg the woman for the mercy of a quick death. Wait, I might have just lied to you. A playback of the dashcam I keep on my desk for just such an occasion shows that I might have laughed slightly harder at the following bit, where Saori brutally judo chops Yani into unconsciousness to protect the landlord’s…well, whatever a pathetic creature such as this has to cling to when he had vigorously humped the last of his allotted human dignity into the crusty crevices of a silicone beast babe. Lost, like tears in the rain.

So, yes, this episode of Chainsmoker Cat really does have it all. The only thing keeping me from awarding this episode a perfect five stars is the sneaking suspicion that it does still have even greater surprises left in store. Either that, or I am waiting for an episode to combine Yani’s farts, Anal Angel’s urine, that one lump of dog crap from the very first episode, and Oya’s fermented Fun-Dip for the ultimate showcase of reckless debauchery.

Shit. I think…I think I may have just written the greatest sentence of my career…

Episode Rating:

Chainsmoker Cat is currently streaming on
Netflix and OceanVeil.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.