Love After World Domination

Episode 5

Thank you Love After World Domination, I owe you my life.

This week has less of an overall theme but still manages to generate a lot of tension over the simplest of things. It is largely broken into two halves, with the first focusing on Steel Princess and the second focusing on the feeding ritual.

Fudo and Desumi's inexperience and genuine smittenness (is that a word?) with one another continues to be the beating heart that drives this show's romance and comedy. They are still in the honeymoon/puppy love phase, and neither of them has enough experience to know anything except optimism and naivete. It's really sweet, and reminds me of much simpler times in my own life (well, except for the part where they're part of superhero/villain organizations; sadly my jobs were pretty mundane).

The central tension of the episode is entirely based on when Desumi and Fudo will get to feed each other. And it does get genuinely tense, particularly in the hospital scene where Fudo is constantly dodging apple slices from other women (Gelato Yellow, his mom) like bullets. I think it's great how the idea of Fudo being fed by another woman before Desumi is truly a chilling prospect even as a joke. The fun irony of him thanking his mother for bringing him into the world at a time when he's able to meet Desumi versus his mother almost ruining his chances later in the episode was a great touch too.

Steel Princess gets her time to shine in this episode too. I think what makes her so hilarious is that she is framed as the straight-man character in the Gekkō organization, with everyone else being the over-the-top foil. Nevertheless, the “learning to be feminine” sequence involving her is some truly great deadpan comedy, and ends up subverting expectations with her awkwardness.

What a delight this show is. Please watch it.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Love After World Domination is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.