"Man," Rainbow Dash said with tired disdain as she pushed her laptop away and splayed herself across the table in a pose of abject boredom. "Another lame anime season. I can't find a single new show I wanna watch."
Trixie raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were a weeb."
"I'm not a weeb!" Rainbow retorted hotly, lifting her head to glare at Trixie. "Just because somebody watches anime doesn't make them a weeb."
"She's right," Sunset said, not looking up from her phone. "Watching anime doesn't make you a weeb. Being super annoying about it makes you a weeb." She spared Rainbow a quick glance. "Nothing at all, really? I mean you say that every season, then you end up finding something."
"Not this time," Rainbow said boredly. "It's the same old crap." She gestured vaguely as she scrolled down a website. "Fourth season of something I never watched the first season of, another idol project thing, another idol project thing, some actiony thing that maybe I'll watch two episodes of but probably won't stick with, two more everyday high school life shows like Fluttershy and Rarity like, some new basketball anime I'll probably try but after the rugby one last season I'm burned out on sports anime for a while, another isekai—"
"Of course," Sunset snorted.
"—and the usual mix of dumb gag shows and leftovers," Rainbow finished. "Like I said, total snorefest."
Trixie's brow furrowed. "E-sex?"
"Isekai," Sunset corrected. "It's..." She trailed off, pursing her lips.
"It's this type of show they're making way too many of lately," Rainbow said with a disgusted note in her voice. "It's like, total wish fulfillment garbage for actual weebs. Some random loser dies in a stupid accident or something and gets reborn in a fantasy world like from an RPG, only now instead of being a total loser, he's got all kinds of sweet magic and weapons and skills and stuff, and he starts gathering a party that's mostly made of up girls. Usually there'll be one with huge tits, one who acts like she's mad at him half the time but she's really in love with him, that one's little sister who's also in love with him, and a couple other random girls and some kind of super magical pet." She shook her head. "They're all exactly like that and they all totally suck."
Trixie blinked. "That's...weird," she said.
"Yeah, it is," Sunset said. "Nobody knows where the whole isekai genre came from, really, but everybody kind of wants it to just go away."
"But they just keep makin' more of 'em," Rainbow said tiredly. She sighed. "Ah well, at least I've still got Black Clover and Boruto to fall back on. Maybe I'll try to get back into One Piece...ugh, that's such a chore..."
"You could always try watching an older show you haven't watched yet," Sunset said.
Rainbow snorted. "Puh-lease. If I started randomly geeking out over some show everybody was over and done with years ago, I'd look super lame!"
"So?" Sunset countered. "Who cares? TV shows and movies and books don't have expiration dates. There'll always be somebody new discovering them."
"I guess," Rainbow said. "HEY!" she shouted as Trixie suddenly yoinked her laptop away and began studying it intently. "Give that back!"
"In a second," Trixie said. "I just want to see what all the drama's about." Her eyes scanned the open page, and her lips pursed. "Some of these titles are...really long. And unpronouncable."
"Yeah, well, that site lists the titles entirely in Japanese," Rainbow said. "Not that the titles are usually any better in English if they're super long."
"Ugh, light novel titles," Sunset grumbled. "God, I hate light novel titles."
Trixie raised an eyebrow. "What in the?" She began reading aloud, rather dramatically: "There's a rumor about a mysterious phenomenon called 'puberty syndrome.' For example, Sakuta Azusagawa is a high school student who suddenly sees a bunny girl appear in front of him. The girl is actually a girl named Mai Sakurajima, who is Sakuta's upperclassman who is also a famous actress who has gone on hiatus from the entertainment industry. For some reason, the people around Mai cannot see her bunny-girl figure. Sakuta sets out to solve this mystery, and as he spends time with Mai, he learns her secret feelings. Other heroines who have 'puberty syndrome' start to appear in front of Sakuta."
Dead silence fell.
"Okay, what the actual fuck?" Sunset said with a bemused snort.
"Betcha anything Twilight'll be watching that one," Rainbow said. "Or Fluttershy."
"Oh, this must be one of those e-suck thingies," Trixie said. "Lonely thirty-seven-year-old Satoru Mikami is stuck in a dead-end job, unhappy with his mundane life, but after dying at the hands of a robber, he awakens to a fresh start in a fantasy realm...as a slime monster! As he acclimates to his goopy new existence, his exploits with the other monsters set off a chain of events that will change his new world forever!"
"Eeeeyup," Rainbow said. "That's textbook isekai. Well, except the slime monster part. That's...a little different?"
"That actually sounds like a funny gimmick," Sunset said. "Maybe it's poking fun at the whole isekai thing?"
"Maybe."
"Here's one," Trixie said. "A typical morning. The usual music. Their normal lives. The peace these seven girls experience will suddenly be destroyed. By the living dead... zombies. A reality that they never wanted a part of, an amazing and terrifying zombie world. They all share one wish: 'We want to live.' These girls will struggle through this saga, in order to achieve a miracle."
"Wow," Sunset drawled. "That sounds...so completely unoriginal."
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "I'm so over zombies. The promo art for that one doesn't really sell it either."
Trixie continued perusing the page, then ultimately slid Rainbow's laptop back over, shaking her head. "I have...no idea what any of that is," she said disdainfully, "but it absolutely doesn't look like anything I'd be remotely interested in. Of course, I have better things to do with my time than watching anime in the first place."
Her phone chose that exact moment to go off.
Sunset and Rainbow smirked at her, eyebrows raised.
Trixie blushed. "That...that's different, okay?" She fumbled her phone out of her pocket.
"Funny, I don't remember your ringtone being that," Sunset mused as Trixie answered. With a nervous, flustered glance at the other two girls, Trixie turned away and spoke into the phone in a small, embarrassed voice.
"Hi Mommy."
Rainbow and Sunset exploded in howling laughter.