In my quest to watch more anime, I've been doing by best to keep up with as much as possible. And thank god for that. There are downsides to having a really good season with so many good shows, key one being that there is a lot of good content that’s going to end up unnoticed because we just don’t have the time. Case in point: Last Period.
In brief summary, Last Period is about a party of adventurers in a fantasy-esque world based on Japanese RPGs with Gatcha mechanics. Though, they do try to play it off as totally not a game. The adventurers are not actually human players with lives, but real characters that just happen to be filling those roles.
Up until this past week, the series has just been low key treading over the popular tropes of those games in particular, making good fun but honestly not being extremely remarkable. It’s got this cast of loveable reoccurring villains called Wiseman. That’s really been the only reason why I’ve come back to it for a third week. The main characters themselves are just a mishmash of plain potatoes, nothing really noteworthy about them, barring that one girl whose sole purpose is to break the fourth wall and explain the running gags. Funnily enough, she’s called Meme-san in the subtitles.
All of that changed this week when the characters are sent to a village that’s apparently being haunted. In reality, it’s some of the villagers that are trying to build up the scary reputation of the town for a crossover event – because remember, this is a world that’s really a game even if it pretends that it’s not. And who are they doing the crossover with? Ryukishi07’s Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. This leads to the reintroduction of this wonderful ball of torment.
Now, because of the nature of Last Period itself, none of the horror aspects of Higurashi really come into play and are instead just loosely referenced, like with Rika offering some steamed buns to the mayor. And the use of Higurashi’s atmospheric cicada sound effects. Though Yukari Tamura was the only voice they actually brought in for this cameo, mostly because she was already cast in the show as Choco, the previously mentioned Meme-San.
And you know it was very likely that I would have missed out on this particular cameo. Last Period is a show that, prior to now, has really been under the radar for me. Not so under the radar that I haven’t watched it entirely. There are still some shows I haven’t gotten to yet, but I was this close to missing out on this cameo for one of my favourite anime series ever.
I do find it hilarious that now three of my top 10-ish anime of all time have made reappearances this season, two with sequels and now this third one with a cameo.
Of course now that this cameo is over, the question becomes is it still worth it to continue watching Last Period? Well, I’m going to. I was interested enough to watch it this far, and hell this is just episode three. We might have more good surprising content in the coming episodes. We don’t know. It’s very possible that this was just a really large “jumping the shark” moment. But hey, I’m willing to find out. It’s a cute little show that’s worth the 20 minutes of my time each week, though I don’t see myself trying to catch up with it if I end up falling behind for whatever reason. I just don’t have an attachment to the main cast, which is my problem. If they get actual personalities, it might be easier to latch onto.
But if you really like Higurashi and want to see its reappearance, Last Period is available over on Crunchyroll for you to watch. And if you have never seen Higurashi, my god, go and do that thing. That one’s up on HiDive for legal streaming.
Thank you for watching. Until next time, stay frosty.
