Oh yeah, we're given a very unique explosion thingy for a start with equally more deceptive and naked graphics. It'll never get old or stuff despite how increasingly effective it is. Like, man... you'd have to wonder how much of my life was affected by this series. But it's not like I have any regrets about it, it is something to be proud of.

We're the classic introductions to the setting once again where we're introduced to a world where swords and magic are real with Kawagoe - you know, the typical cliches and all. We are introduced to our protagonist Recurring Character Sam as his mother is trying to convince him to go out and vote. Like any normal young person just like ours, Sam does not vote thinking his vote is worthless. He decides that sleeping is and just does it.

As you know, here in the States, many young people aren't exactly incentivized to vote due to alot of issues relating to the political atmosphere that was/has created by former President Donald Trump. You can't exactly deny that he had a huge influence on the 2010s and 2020s, and you'll see that here in this entry since bits of it take some inspiration.

Suddenly, Sam just wakes up in the middle of the ngiht because the television turns on. The channel is set to the local news station and the music sets up the tone as the reporter tells everyone in Kawagoe the results. For some strange reason, the amonut of people/voters in Kawagoe is 200,002 and the voter turnout is a shy 99.9995% as the reporter indirectly bashes Sam. The worst thing is that Devil ended up beating current mayor Angel in the ballot which causes Sam to go through a Heroic BSoD.

Then Devil greets all of Kawagoe like some sort of dictator and declares that all of Kawagoe should be bathed in death and destruction, and be for Devils and only Devils. He tells everyone that he intends to wipe out all the humans in Kawagoe and orders his forces to purge everyone on sight. Sam immediately guns for the basement as the Devils weave into Kawagoe.

Sam makes it to the basement and locks out his mother while calling her a hag. She dies super duper fast as Sam narrowly makes it as he refuses to let her inside the basement. As Sam is sheltering himself, the Devils proceed to nuke the city off the face of the Earth and finishing off every human they didn't get.

As you can tell, we've gone very nuclear in just two minutes. Like damn, we gotta have something to excite and/or scare us. I am assuming Kuniko Takahashi had gotten some flak for being "on your face" since this entry's entire narrative is based on the United States's voting system and the political atmosphere that Donald Trump left behind.

So like a survivor from a nuke, Sam steps out and is present with a background that seems to be inspired from Attack On Titan despite being made in 2017. Imagine that instead of nukes, imagine Armin transforming above the Marley Forces at the end of the Marley Arc. So, back on track, Sam sees what happens when one person does not vote - causing the The End of the World as We Know It, seeing that none of the children and elderly were spared. This causes him to break down, blaming himself harshly for not voting.

The sight inspries him to steel his resolve to go out and vote within the next four years. Sam just hangs out in the basement for four years like a NEET and goes to the ballot with the intent to vote him out of office. But no one seems to be there until mayor Devil appears in frotn of him, thanking Sam for not voting as he wouldn't have become mayor if he had voted.

Sam finds out that there is no election as ex-mayor Angel had left the political space after mayor Devil was elected. With no one to oppose him, Devil was automatically elected.

Reality Ensues happened since Angel retired from politics from what is implied to have happened over Devil's purge of Kawagoe. Besides, Devil would've won by default because all the humans in Kawagoe save for Sam were all killed and replaced by Devils. With no humans but Sam in Kawagoe, the population of Devils would've outnumbered his singular vote by miles.

This drives him to do the impossible and Ass Pull a miracle out of his ass. He does what Master Xehanort from Kingdom Hearts and does Mental Time Travel, sending a message from his current self to his past self to go out and vote. Sam just has this ability with no explanation whatsoever, and it just kind of been there. The music helps set the absurdity of the Ass Pull too.

If anyone hasn't played or atleast heard of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], much of the plot is centered around Sora and Riku's test to become Keyblade Masters. The both of them encounter a young man in black robes who isn't supposed to appear because the test they're doing is Inception levels of testing. This young man reveals himself to Sora as Xehanort or rather just Young Xehanort and explains to the boy that his older version of himself urged him to go somewhere in time and influence the events of previous games. The gimmick is that he isn't even aware he is doing this while doing it at the same time.

Of course, The Reveal wasn't taken very well by fans of the series and players alike. It complicated an already convoluted storyline of what is basically a Black-and-White Morality. I mean, you have Sora dividing himself by zero with huge memory loss, Riku skirting between good and evil like a traditional coming-of-age story, and Kairi transitioning from your typical hostage to a full-fledged heroine.

Back on track though, we're brought back to the very start of the story to a familar covnersation between Sam and his mother about voting. Even thoguh he thinks it is not worth it, he might as well just do it. He goes to the polling area and just picked who made sense to him the most just like what a regular voter would do. We're immediately shown the results and.. Sam's vote did nothing as he voted for Devil or something. Somehow, Devil talks to him and mocks him for attempting to use the power of voting proper. This screw-up motivates him to run for mayor himself in the next four years to come.

...and we get an entire sequence and narration of how he amassed the power and means to become a candidate running against Devil, then it has him inspiring people to make Kawagoe great again while skipping on the details that Devil ended up nuking Kawagoe when he won the vote. Obviously, the quick narration of what he's been doing the next four years is what I think of as a condensed version of Donald Trump's rise as President, although he did convince alot of people of his ideals and beliefs; its complicated with Trump though.

Election Day comes at the speed of sound as Sam emerges from the basement he sheltered himself in while increasing his power and reputation as a Anti-Devil politician. Coming out as a uhhh... racist but it's kind of understandable since Devil did go out of his way to introduce and induce Fantastic Racism. Don't take it out on the writer, this is just a story written from a Japanese perspective and I'm sure she did not mean to make it offensive. To me, it's not even that bad, it's just funny.

So, they meet up like real men and Devil complinments Sam for making himself an equal to him. The both of them wait on the polls as they wait to see who Kawagoe adores/likes the most. I kind of forgot that they're doing a Popularity Vote and not one with the Electoral Vote. The results come in through the reporter once more and the amount of voters in Kawagoe is uhhh... 100,003 which means that half of population was killed off. The big problem now is that the results are not what Sam wanted as Devil ended up winning with a 50,001. Sam is at 50,000, and... 2 for uhhh.. Rachel.

Due to Sam working his way up, gaining political influence and power, and inspiring others to become Anti-Devil and willing to vote for him. He did not account for his rise to political power to inspire someone to run for mayor. Turning this entire situation into another case of Reality Ensues and s Deconstruction of Sam's political rise. This sudden development shocks Sam causes him to complain as Devil does a Morton's Fork on the situation because Sam's efforts amount to All For Nothing.

Sam crosses the Despair Event Horizon over the fact that being too inspirational caused him to lose the ballot. He rips off his skin like those guys ripping off their shirts in anime and decides by logic that if he were to fuse himself with Rachel, his votes would rise from 50,000 to 50,002 and thus he would be the victor.

Rachel flees and hides herself from Sam, lamenting that she is the reason why Devil won the ballet in the first place, tellnig us that Sam did not vote for Devil but instead chose Angel. Sam quickly finds her like some sort of Horror Flick villain with an image that would be nightmare fuel. He's come for her lviers, and all of her body because why not.

She does the impossible and reveals the fact that she also can do Mental Time Travel and sends a thought from her present self to her past self to vote for Angel instead of Devil. Sam does not want this to happen as Rachel's Mental Time Travel would turn everything he went through into a Retcon or rather a Cosmic Retcon, and thus into a All For Nothing.

The Retcon works and the Rachel that gets these thoughts or thought suddenly decides to read up on the policies of who she is voting for despite wanting to vote for Devil. Turning the vote for both Angel and Devil into a tie of 100,001 each. This sudden turn of events causes Devil to ask what happens next sicne they tied, and Angel declares the ballot is hers. As if to decide who becomes mayor, the Election Committee checks the laws and it dictates that Trial By Combat would be the deciding factor.

So, Running Gag aside, they're suddenly transported to the Final Battlefield and both of them become Large Hams and.. the screen just turns off and goes back to the reporter. Of course, in another bout of Reality Ensues, Angel beats Devil to a pulp and smites him on the spot because typically "good guys" always wins against the "bad guys".

Sam comes home and talks with his mom about learning a lesson about the pwoer of voting. It's not the politicans in the seat of power/leadership, it's about the people who vote for them or the voters. Sam telsl his mother to get back in the kitchen and cook him a meal as politely as possible.

Oh wow, we have a proepr Aesop, another one despite how utterly crazy the entire narrative was. Of course, it is kind of a Ripped from the Headlines narrative.

The cast list is small, and just in case the narrative was offensive to anyone - I'll do my best to explain what those characters are about from a Western Perspective. And will try not to be bias despite how devastating the real-life counterparts were before and after.

We are onto our main protagonist and main character, his name is Sam and he is a Recurring Character turned into a Ascended Extra. Sam found himself hiding in the basement of his home after finding out that his unwillingness to vote caused newcomer Devil to become mayor. Witnessing the fruits of his inaction, seeing Kawagoe reduced to a burning and smouldering wasteland. He resolves himself to right the wrong he made on that day. Stepping up to cast his vote to do so.

Sam is very much the protagonist and main character of this entry's narrative due to the huge amount of screentime he's given over the other characters. He starts out as your typical guy who does not want to go out to vote, not giving a care what happens. But then he transition into The Atoner saddled with a extreme parody Deconstruction of Decided by One Vote and Murder by Inaction. Then he slowly but gradually becomes a Ripped from the Headlines Expy of Donald Trump with a mix of Master Xehanort before he became President, specifically the Patriotic Fervor bit.

Sam himself is supposed to represent a parody version of how a regular guy, let alone a Basement-Dweller working his way up to a political leader. Think of all those leaders that were talked about in history class, he's the most basic rise to power guy you can find. Depending how you feel about what Sam's character is supposed to represent, you can either see it as inoffensive, tactless, or highly offensive regardless of what perspective you take.

I mean, you guys gotta understand that Donald Trump was like on the news almost 24/7, something that no other President has ever done. The world was exposed to him like crazy for four years, so some people have really fresh memories of how much he affected the world.

Onto the general antagonist of the story, Devil, the newcomer who becomes Kawagoe's mayor. Through the power of a singular vote, Devil wins the election to become Kawagoe's mayor. With the political power in his hands, he orders his forces to purge Kawagoe of its humans so it can be a city of Devils, made by Devils, and for Devils.

Devil's entire role is to basically be a President Evil, act as Foil, Deconstruct Decided by One Vote, and showcase how evil a Absolute Xenophobe can be. He also functions as a Non-Action Big Bad since all he does is mock Sam for attempting to not make him mayor of Kawagoe.

If you want to think about it, Devil is technically a parody of most American elected politicans. They just kind of sit there and do nothing after getting elected, although some of them do set out to do what they promised and achieve with mixed colors. Of course, Devil wanting Sam to not become mayor is a normal thing when the elected politican sees someone becoming a threat to their position. Well, not that Devil actually does anything, he is following the laws that keep Kawagoe together.

Then you have... Rachel who appears within the last five minutes of the entry's narrative. Rachel was jsut a regular voting-age citizen of Kawagoe, having survived the purge that Devil had enacted. Seeing Sam rising up throguh the political sphere inspired her to run for Kawagoe's mayor as well, not knowing what it would do to the ballot.

Rachel's entire character exists to act as The Reveal or sudden Ass Pull, and to be one of the series many many 11th-Hour Ranger and Last Episode, New Character. I usually don't include these characters because their plot relevence is absurdly not important in the grand scheme and that there is nothing to write about. In Rachel's case, she has plot relevence that is very important to the narrative.

Basically, she is the reason why the plot happened in the first place due to being one of the voters who voted for Devil, and that's because she didn't bother reading up on what he was all about. Then she comes in ruining Sam's attempts of becoming mayor. Although, she was telegraphed before the ballot for Sam and Devil happened.

It is kind of Sam's fault for being so inspirational to the surviving human population of Kawagoe.

This is one of the few entries to that feature one of America's political aspects into the forefront. The entire narrative is a huge parody take on America's voting system from the perspective of a Japanese Perspective. It was written to be a parody and Meme video first with your typical Kuniko Takahashi writing behind it. Given it was written in and around 2017, alot the stuff that happened after that year becomes a very very much unintended Harsher in Hindsight.

To lightly touch on the matter, Donald Trump went above and beyond what Sam's character was attempting to parody. Exhibiting traits that many would say is unbecoming of a President and world leader. It does not help that when Election Year came, the American Voting System was in a ever increasing struggle to be filled with intergetiy.

The narrative itself serves decently because of its parody and Deconstructive aspects despite the subject matter. If you remove the Ripped from The Headlines aspect, the characters themselves are quite funny in their own little ways. But not many people will find it funny since alot of what the narrative and characters depicts unintentionally mirrors real life.

Outside of that, while I will suggest people to watch this entry as a fan of the series. I will suggest and warn to watch this entry with moderation as the writer herself did not mean to offend anyone.