Sasaki and Peeps brings us one big magical SNAFU in Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons”, complete with a bloody fight and civilian deaths. As you might imagine, this is as huge a problem as the title suggests. And yet, it still falls short of a true action-packed episode due to the lack of action period. At the very least though, we have some decent comedy-drama with a touch of actual drama right at the end to prepare for the next episode.
Sasaki and Peeps Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons”: Detail in Brief
Sasaki and Peeps Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons” is the second episode (you can read my review of Ep. 1 here) You can read my reviews of the first season here. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the light novel series of the same name by writer Buncololi.
Silver Link (Brave Witches, Bofuri, Mission: Yozakura Family) is the animation studio behind this anime. Yūshi Ibe is the director of this second season of Sasaki and Peeps, taking over from Mirai Minato. Deko Akao is the writer, with Nippon Columbia as a whole claiming credit for composing the music you hear in the anime.
Speaking of which: the first opening theme music in Sasaki and Peeps Season 2 is “Unbroken” by Madkid. Meanwhile, “Sukipi no Okage!” (すきぴのおかげ！) by Nonfic is the ending theme song for the same.
Sasaki and Peeps Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons”: The Good
As the title implies, Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons” finally introduces Sasaki (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (JP) and Tyson Rinehart (EN)) to the bizarre death game his young neighbor Otonari-san (voiced by Akari Kitō (JP) and Taylor Murphy (EN)) has been pulled into. Except, he’s not alone here. Not only are there random civilians pulled into it as participants, but Sasaki’s former enemy / new coworker Shizuka (voiced by Naomi Ōzora (JP) and Robin Clayton (EN)) as well as murderous magical girl Magical Pink (voiced by Inori Minase (JP) and Jennifer AuBuchon (EN)). You would think this would result in a multi-way free-for-all melee. Instead, what happens is a very tense ceasefire between the three of them as they try to figure out a completely new faction none of them know existed until now. It creates a situation a bit like a Mexican standoff, but with more magic and less guns.
On top of the story suddenly turning into a thriller, it’s also somehow a good example of a crossover story. Seeing two different factions still trying to figure each other out only to suddenly have a third faction suddenly appear out of nowhere and surprise everyone involved, with said previous two factions now having to figure out who or what this new faction is? It’s actually good ingredients for a crossover fanfiction, just being used in an original story to cross over original factions.
Okay Animation But Great Gore
Honestly, I would say that the animation quality from Silver Link’s animation team for this episode is pretty decent. It’s nowhere near feature-length anime film levels of quality, but it gets the job done pretty well. However, there are spikes of some pretty good quality animation. In particular, the blood and gore in this episode is very well animated. You can tell that the animators really wanted to highlight the blood spilling down and splattering on nearby surfaces, including the one that was inflicting the bloody violence in the first place. It even creates a bit of a genre shift, since previous episodes were almost completely bloodless and violence-free. Nothing like people dying in horribly bloody ways to indicate that the story is getting more serious, don’t you know.
Sasaki and Peeps Ep. 14 “Death Games and Demons”: The Bad
Unfortunately, while this episode has all of the ingredients of a good crossover, the way Buncololi used them was…not ideal, in my opinion. I think they didn’t quite use those ingredients to their full potential. Honestly, I think they could’ve had more conflict happen between Sasaki and Shizuka, and the serial killer magical girl known as Magical Pink. Yes, Magical Pink does just go off and do stuff on her own (like try to murder random civilians on suspicion of them being a psychic), but it’s nowhere near as dramatic as it could’ve been had she chosen to engage in true combat rather than sticking to a temporary truce. Heck, even their brief combat with the death game faction felt disappointing, since they basically one-shot an angel and then refuse to engage in combat with a demon who is actually killing civilians.
And that part is the worst for me. As what are effectively police officers, Sasaki and Shizuka have a duty to protect civilians from attack. Shizuka you can at least excuse since she’s basically a black marketeer who was conscripted into being a police officer. Sasaki though, even though he was also conscripted, he was a normal office worker beforehand. You’d think he’d make at least an attempt to defend the civilians before the demon murders them, but he doesn’t. It feels as though he just abandoned his duty and left them to die.
Even more than that is that this episode can’t seem to decide whether it’s serious or a comedy that you can’t take seriously. It creates a mood whiplash in a bad way, making it seem like you can’t even take the serious moments seriously even though the story is saying that you should. Hopefully, the story corrects this in future episodes of Sasaki and Peeps.
Anime Recommendations
Fortunately, if you want more bloody action and stylish violence, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, Nyaight of the Living Cat, May I Ask for One Final Thing?, TRIGUN STARGAZE, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, and / or Kagurabachi. However, if you want better-written anime series that has better stories, then you might like Spy x Family, Senpai is an Otokonoko, Apocalypse Hotel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, My Dress-Up Darling, This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Hana-Kimi, Journal with Witch, Witch Hat Atelier, Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, The Apothecary Diaries, and / or the 2026 reboot of Magic Knight Rayearth.
What do you think about this week’s episode of Sasaki and Peeps Season 2? Tell us your standoff thoughts in the comments section below.
For more on Anime, make sure to check back to That Hollywood Show.
Reviews