Akagami no Shirayuki-hime – 23

Shirayuki has fully settled back into it’s ‘Palace Groove’ with this particularly laid-back, playful and at times goofy episode, which starts with new maid drops a carpet on a lost-in-thought Zen, mildly injuring his neck.

While looking for Garack in the Herbalists’ office, Mitsu knocks over a strange potion that has a hypnotic effect, turning the normally down-to-earth Mitsu into a hyper-loyal, rigid, dashing, doting pain-in-the-ass of an attendant.

Oh yeah, Shirayuki gets Zen’s shirt off…but hold your horses, she’s just applying a balm for his neck. As for Mitsu, his unusually charming behavior utterly fails to charm Kiki, but her slap doesn’t snap him out of it, or out of saying things like he loves Zen.

Zen gets irritated easily with this Mitsu, and it’s primarily because the two already went through this phase in their relationship, where Mitsu acted too over-protectively and spoke more formally to his prince. Zen wants the old Mitsu—the one their years together turned from a glorified bodyguard to a dear friend and brother.

Shirayuki, wanting to lend her strength to Zen the way Mitsu, Kiki and Obi do, works furiously to devise a cure to the hypnotic state after healing Zen’s neck. After some long nights in the library (during one of which Zen visits and the two end up too close for comfort) and a little help from the light of the full moon, she concocts an effective antidote.

But while she thought was simply preparing a medicine for her friend in her spare time, it turns out the proper treatment and reporting on Mitsu’s case was the final test Shirayuki needed to pass to be promoted to full court herbalist. She passes with flying colors, and she can scratch another dream to achieve off her list.

The next one is far bigger: marrying Zen. Could it happen, or at least progress further on the road to it happening, in the next and final episode of Shirayuki Season Two? Or was the leisurely pace and content of this episode an indication there will be a third? We’ll find out in five days.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar – 11

Hey, I’m back from visiting a Mayan pyramid during the equinox to watch Hai’s penultimate episode of the Spring, which begins with a beautifully-rendered flashback-slash -dream in which Mary is suddenly awakened by one of her fellow party members, before heading into the mines that will claim three of them.

It’s no accident that this scene is highly reminiscent of several similar scenes of her present party shooting the breeze during their downtime. When she’s awakened from this happy, mundane memory by Haru, and with “Death Spots” stalking them, it’s definitely not downtime.

Since Mary’s the one with mine experience, even the ostensible party leader Haru must rely on her to show them a way out of their predicament—which is why more and more she and Haru have looked something like co-leaders. To her credit, she doesn’t let her fear or guilt overcome her, and leads everyone into the mines’ fifth level, where the kobolds do a lot of metal smelting.

After a successful and nifty stealth attack, they continue into a former temple of Luminaris, who just so happens to be the saint whose power Mary draws from for her new Dispel skill. The reason she acquired that particular spell is revealed here, as this was the site of her three comrades’ demise.

The thing is, they’ve become zombies, something that came as such a creepy shock that not only does Ranta draw back in fright, but in her moment of fear Yume embraces him tightly, something Ranta does not complain about!

That aside, it’s Mary’s solemn duty to exorcise her three friends so that they can be freed from their wretched existence as shambling ghouls; quite similar to the way FFX’s Yuna sends fiends. The only problem is, Dispel is a very close range spell; she has to be right up in someone’s personal space to pull it off.

The problem is, while they may look like the dessicated corpses of her friends, they aren’t her friends anymore, and they attack the party with the same ferocity as the kobolds would. And this is where this episode becomes about more than just the party helping Mary; Mary is also helping the party.

This is their first fight against opponents who are neither goblins nor kobolds. They may be zombies, but they’ve retained all the skills of the humans they used to be, and they’re tough.

Moguzo has trouble with the more acrobatic zombie tank; Ranta’s theif opponent can fight him off indefinitely; and the mage’s spells outclass Shihoru, who quickly runs low on magic, but thankfully doesn’t become a sitting duck, because Haru observes everyone long enough to determine the proper way to deal with the zombies, who at the end of the day are outnumbered 2-1.

First, Haru backs up Mary as she goes to the front to deal with the mage, punching through her firewall and performing the spell. She briefly reverts to the girl Mary knew before crumbling into a pile of ash. Then Haru gives Ranta an opening to lop off the theif’s leg, whereupon Mary comes from behind and performs the spell on him.

Finally, after Yume’s arrow bounces off the tank’s armor, Haru pounces on him and exposes his arm for Moguzo to hack off with all his might, cutting so close he takes some of Haru’s hair with it. Mary performs the spell and poof, job done. Weight lifted. Did I mention that the combat in this episode rocked? Well, it did.

Mary is relieved, and thanks her new party profusely for their help, but they’re all thankful too. They never got to meet her friends, but they did learn how those friends could fight, and it helped them identify the shortcomings they all still have, whether it’s Shihoru’s lack of offensive magic, to Ranta’s lack of a sufficiently cool finishing move.

What had been a harrowing battle, then, becomes another great scene of downtime where everyone is just sharing a little more about themselves and bouncing off each other, enjoying each other’s company in various ways. It also demonstrates how good this show is at slowing things down and giving episodes room to breathe. It makes the moment the casual rest scene is blown up by the raging Giant Kobold all the more impacting.

Death Spots is smarter than he looks, or at least a far more determined hunter than the party gave him credit for, but out of respect for his formidableness, Haru’s order to the party is to simply GTFO, briefly tangling with the boss to give his people a head start.

Ranta relieves him when the Kobold sends waves of subordinates after them, and after Moguzo uncharacteristically grabs Shihoru when everyone has to jump a great distance, Ranta offers her a hand up.

Finally, after the Kobold simply decides to start bringing the wooden scaffolding the party is using down, Haru nearly falls to his highly-possible death, but his Manato-ing is prevented by—Ranta, who tells Haru that the leader can’t die.

The annoying selfish contrarian isn’t really redeeming himself by staying behind and fighting so that Haru and the others can get away, because he has nothing to redeem. This is who Ranta always was, the situation just never called for this particular brand of desperate heroics.

And I daresay Ranta is every bit as cool as he thinks he is at episode’s end, never letting the Kobolds see him sweat (though he does condemn their crossbow bolts as unsporting!).

Furthermore, both Mary’s and Manato’s experiences help inform Haru’s decision to not send the party back down to try to rescue Ranta. That’s not what he wants, and it’s not what’s best for the party.

Haru’s deep affection for all of his comrades (even Ranta) can be a fatal weakness in a leader, but here he makes the right decision for the right reasons, and the rest of the party concurs with it. We’ll see how it pans out.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans – 24

Well, I’m back, after managing to climb my way out of the Ik Kil cenote, and upon my return I’m greeted with one of the hardest-punching episodes of IBO yet, the climactic Battle of Edmonton. What’s interesting is that most of the time, the city itself is completely untouched by the battle, as are its citizens (none of whom we see) and the parliament that is about to convene.

Tekkadan have six hours to get Makanai there, or everything will have been for nothing. But Gjallarhorn is careful not to appear like they’re interfering in Arbrau affairs, while Mika can’t just barrel into the city and wreck up the place, because Makanai would lose all support he has with such a reckless entrance.

But the clock doesn’t rule this episode. It’s there, but far more important is Orga and Tekkadan’s commitment to demonstrating their version of the Inverse Gambler’s Fallacy: Things have worked out for them so far, so they’re going to keep working out, if only they keep fighting and pressing forward. There’s nowhere for them to retreat to anymore, so it’s not as if they’re swimming in options.

Merribit has an active role in the battle—tending the wounded, which seems like far too big a job for just her and Atra, neither of whom are triage doctors—but she remains convinced they’re doing this all wrong. She’s become the new Biscuit, only she’s even more outwardly opposed to the more reckless plan being implemented, and the costs of which are mounting by the minute; a lot of orphans die today.

But Merribit isn’t in charge; Orga is, and he has the full support and loyalty of the men…er, boys,along with the tacit approval from Kudelia, who absolutely must get to Parliament with Makanai. In not so many words, Orga tells Merribit to stuff her objections where the sun don’t shine.

Since before they were Tekkadan, they’ve been risking their lives, either for their own purposes or for those of their masters. Tekkadan still has masters of a kind in Teiwaz, Makanai, Kudelia and Montag. But never has the need to put aside worries about losses or political or emotional fallout than now.

Even if Orga were to cave to Merribit’s wishes, what does she suggest: surrender? They’d likely all be killed anyway, and all the higher-ups would do is click their tongues in distant disappointment, lamenting Tekkadan wasn’t who they thought they were and moving on rather quickly.

So Orga doubles down, hoping even when his boys see their comrades fall, they’ll fight that much harder so the survivors can survive and smile. It is a full understanding that nothing so much as a place to belong comes free, especially for a band of Martian orphans oppressed all their lives: the orphans who fall shall be bricks in the foundation of the survivor’s future; their blood will be the mortar.

But yeah, for all that to happen, some of Tekkadan has to actually, you know, survive. While I liked how the episode started with the battle already trudging on for three days, if you stop and think about it (or watch how quickly they incur losses in the scenes of the battle we get), you see that the show has suddenly gotten awfully darned liberal with Tekkadan’s strength and resources.

But this is an episode about putting a lot of stuff aside, whether it’s how Tekkadan can hold out so long against Gjallarhorn, or how good a wheelwoman Atra is in a pinch. It’s an episode where both the heroes and the show throw caution to the wind and go for it, and the results are far more thrilling than frustrating.

One could level the criticism that there’s simply too many people fighting for screen time this week, but this also didn’t bother me, as we’re in the climax of the show (barring a third season). So when Eugene suddenly shows up to bail out the mobile workers, we cut to the nervous Makanai faction or Fleurs and Iznario watching from safety, or Gaelio takes Mika on to avenge Carta, I’m fine with all of it.

The most obvious reveal that was coming this week was someone I’ll call “Frankenst’Ein”, but his entrance was still chilling in its ominousness. Laffter and Azee are two of Tekkadan’s best fighters, but the way StEin casts them aside like ragdolls really drives home the point that this guy is bad news. Indeed, Azee, Laffter, and Shino could all be toast, and all in a matter of seconds, which, obviously, would suck.

Not only that, Ein manages to unite all the disparate battle vectors by working so fast he’s almost everywhere at once, undermining Tekkadan’s gains and wreaking havoc wherever he goes. Once he’s done beating up the mobile suits, the power is switched off in Edmonton so that Ein’s Arab reactor won’t cause any more chaos than he causes by ripping up the streets with another badass entrance.

However, on this point, Ein is outmatched by Kudelia, doing probably the bravest (and stupidest) thing she’s ever done by standing her ground and staring Ein down, daring him to do what he will. By doing so, and throughout his dialogue, Ein is not only revealed as an over-powered, formidable fighting force, but not the stablest of individuals, which is understandable considering how much Crank meant to him (and the fact he no longer has a full body).

Kudelia really is going all-in here, giving clarity to a very complex situation: Ein can kill her right then and there, but there will be consequences for the powers that be. Not only that, Kudelia’s able to distract Ein long enough to allow Mika to blast in to rescue her, along with Orga and Atra, at the last second.

Meanwhile, though it’s almost overshadowed by the impending Mika-Ein duel, I kinda cheered inside when Montag Dazzled the Stage and unmasked himself, proclaiming he’ll be Gaelio’s dancing partner for the duration. Great stuff.

I’ve wagered twenty-four weeks on this show (and would bet twenty-four more) and have been vastly satisfied with the rewards. I’m hoping the finale will net me a windfall. Yes, I have a problem, but I can’t stop now, with the finish line in sight.