Isekai Quartet – 05 – A Talent Show of Ice and Fire

No more messing around: it’s time for the class talent show, with participants chosen at random by Roswaal. First up is the TA, Mr. Rerugen, whose tortured rendition of his country’s national anthem evokes pity and disgust to a degree Darkness deeply envies.

Subaru thinks he can do better with a cat’s cradle shaped like Tokyo Tower, but if the other Japanese are impressed they don’t mention it, while nobody else (including Rem) knows what the heck a Tokyo Tower is. Rem, meanwhile, impresses Cocytus with her flail skills.

Poor Lt. Grantz learns the hard way never to get involved in a talent show skit with Darkness, who urges him to punish her with a whip in front of a mortified class, all of whom label him a scumbag despite the fact he didn’t do anything. When it’s Aqua’s turn, she almost takes out Ains’ crew with a Turn Undead spell, but Kazuma stops her.

The KonoSuba theme continues, including three distinct riffs on the KonoSuba bumper card, only they say “IseQuar!”, and with Megumin doing what we all knew was coming: showing off her Explosion magic to a legitimately impressed (not to mention power-obsessed) crowd. The KonoSuba contingent may be the smallest at four persons, but they’re no slouches in the magical department.

Of course, while Megumin’s Explosion even impresses Ains Ooal Gown, she can only do it once a day, which gives Ains the opportunity to end the talent show not with a bang, but with icy briskness, summoning a shitload of magic circles and changing the weather from a temperate spring/summer day to clouds and snow flurries.

I enjoyed how everyone, well, enjoyed the sudden coming of snow…and Subaru for his part doesn’t bring up the fact that Lia beheaded him in similar weather once upon a time, in a different timeline. Mostly, everyone came away knowing each other and their abilities (or lack thereof) that much more.

One Punch Man 2 – 05 – Reverse Seeded

How long do we have to wait to get the martial arts tournament started so Saitama can start plowing through the brackets? Apparently another half-episode, as we focus on a growing preponderance of monsters and demons throughout the lettered cities.

As for Metal Bat, he seems to get more “pumped up”, and his attacks faster and stronger, the more Garo beats him up, but ultimately the fight is called on account of Bat’s brave, protective little sister Zenko. Garo may claim to be a monster, but he’s not about to hit a kid.

Shortly after taking his leave, Garo is approached by three monsters hoping to recruit him into the “Monster Association,” but he’s having none of it. Class S Rank 6 Metal Knight comes in to take care of the giant centipede, but even he just can’t summon enough firepower to dent the thing, making the battle a draw.

The jellyfish, phoenix and rhino-themed baddies make off with the rich kid, while other monsters start fighting—and beating—heroes they’ve chosen specifically because their heroic attributes favor them, the monsters. The Hero Association (still pitting their hopes that King will be a factor) are starting to panic.

Meanwhile, yes, Super Fight 22 finally commences, with the eighteen challengers being introduced; and they’re all quite the colorful characters, with equally colorful-sounding martial arts schools.

Zakkos is Saitama’s first opponent, but there’s a match before theirs. Sourface reveals he’s twenty—younger than Saitama—which explains both his pre-match nerves and his thin skin when Zakkos rips into Bang’s dojo.

Saitama, older and wiser, simply lets Zakkos say what he wants; he’s here to fight, not argue. Oh, and Saitama apparently doesn’t have to hide his face, as Sourface seems content that he is indeed Charanko and not some impostor.

When a particularly sexy monster, Super S, starts whipping heroes and making them her love slaves, it’s up to Hellish Blizzard and her crew to sort things out. As for Saitama’s first “match”, it’s a laugher; Zakkos was all talk and is in fact incredibly weak; so weak that the person he was to propose to didn’t even bother showing up to watch him. Bummer!

As for one of the higher-seeded martial artists in the fresh-faced Suiryu, he recognizes that Zakkos had some okay moves, but his opponent “Charanko” was just too strong. He looks forward to seeing him in the final.

While it’s always fun when someone comes around who can either absorb Saitama’s punch or deliver a blow that actually bothers him—wait…has that ever even happened?—I doubt he’ll meet his match here, especially considering how easily he dispatched Garo. Still, watching him effortlessly wail on guys is never not fun.