Goblin Slayer II – 05 – You Are Orcdially Invited…

This week has quite the pre-credits stinger: Elf gets a leaf in the mail and declares that it’s time to get married. Her phrasing initially makes her friends believe she’s the one who is marrying her cousin, but it’s actually her big sister; she’s simply been invited.

In fact everyone in the party is invited, as is Guild Girl, who like Slayer doesn’t take enough days off. But before they head off, the party deals with a couple goblin nests, including a church that was overrun by the little shits, where all the nuns were either tortured, raped, or killed.

The party spends the night in the church, and Priestess tries out one of her new Steel-ranked miracles, Purify, to heal and reinvigorate everyone around her. Upon Slayer’s return home, Cow Girl is happy and relieved to see him, as always, and Slayer tells her about the wedding she’s also invited to.

With the usual party enriched by two additional lovely ladies, they set off the next day on horse and carriage to the capital. Elf, Guild Girl and Cow Girl are excited to check out the shops for some wedding clothes, and insist Priestess comes with them, knowing she’s quite incorrect about not looking good in anything.

Slayer pays his first visit to the temple and to the Sword Maiden in a good long time, but he’s his usual cold, detached self around her. Despite how happy and comforted she is to see him, he’s just there to drop off the stone tablets they found in the church.

When she can’t immediately discern whether the ancient texts carved into them are about goblins, he skedaddles. You’re right, Sword Maiden, he is mean as hell! That night everyone eats, drinks, and checks out what they bought.

The next morning the group heads out on a raft, and the blue skies, clear waters, and dramatic rocky cliffs dotted with green make for some very lush and pretty scenery on the way. The only concern is that a lot of boats have been lost in this river of late, and Slayer assumes goblins.

While segueing from rescuing horribly traumatized nuns and hi-byeing the Sword Maiden to fun pre-wedding shopping and then being ambushed from above by hundreds of falling rocks makes for some tonal dissonance, that’s par for the course with Goblin Slayer. Hopefully everyone makes it to the wedding in one piece!

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 09 – Get Up

Granat thanks Fern and Stark for saving him, and vows to pardon Frieren, now that he knows she’s the mage whose party saved the town back when his gramps ran it. As for the main threat, Aura has been that for five centuries thanks to a pair of scales that weigh her mana against her opponents.

The one with less mana falls under her control, hence her large army. Frieren the Slayer will admit it is bigger than the last time they met eighty years ago, but she finds Aura’s magic “disgusting.” If a demon is going to insist on talking to her, she has no reason to be nice. I for one am glad Aura talks, because she’s voiced by Taketatsu Ayana.

Frieren dispels the magic Aura is using on the soldiers surrounding her, but Aura assumes she lacks the mana to dispel all of them. She also asks why Frieren isn’t just coming in blasting all kinds of flashy attacks. Frieren says Himmel scolded her, but when Aura tells him Himmel’s gone, she agrees: why not go all out and waste no time?

The church where Granat, Fern, and Stark are located has a barrier, but Stark knows they can’t hide there forever. He gets up as if to confront Lugner and Linie, but he’s actually going to find Frieren and beg her to come back and deal with them. It’s less heroic, but Fern can’t deny it’s realistic.

It isn’t until they’re outside that Fern realizes Luger’s blood is still on her and Stark’s clothes, too late for a healed Luger to pin her to the wall by the shoulder. At the same time, Linie rolls in like a little ball of lightning, conjures an axe just like Stark’s, and delivers a blow that sends him off the battlements to the ground below.

Frieren can’t help Fern and Stark; they have to trust that she left them there because she knew they’d be alright. Lugner and Linie are terrifyingly powerful opponents. Even so, Fern’s calm expression endures even when she shatters the blood vine that snagged her, then unleashes a dizzying barrage of magical attacks at Lugner.

He may have a lot more years under his belt, a lot better mastery of magic, and larger stores of the stuff, but Fern has one thing he doesn’t: speed. She’s even faster on the draw than Frieren, and uses that to great effect. Linie smashes Stark into the ground and prepares to join Lugner, but Stark gets back up, so their fight continues.

While Draht had his wires and Lugner has his blood, Linie has the ability to assess and copy the exact fighting style and weapon of whatever warrior she fights. She first demonstrated it by fighting Stark with the same axe he has, in Eisen’s style, then switches between different weapons and styles in the middle of combat, which combined with her dancerly acrobatics makes for a tremendous spectacle.

When Stark falls again, it’s with the belief he can’t beat Linie, who is fighting like his master. He initially assumes he’s lost, but then remembers a lesson during which Eisen told him the most important thing is for a warrrior to get back up. As long as you’re standing, you haven’t lost. So he gets back up, and realizes Linie’s blows aren’t as powerful as Eisen’s were. Linie is just pissed off she can’t join Lugner.

Ultimately, her arrogance is her undoing, as she sees Stark wide open with his all-or-nothing attack and heaves her axe into his side. But rather than cutting him in two it barely digs in an inch. Stark wears a wry grin as he’s confirmed this girl is no Eisen, then initiates a Lightning Bolt attack that carves her clean in two. I have to admit: I stood up and cheered.

Linie meeting her end distracts Lugner for a split second, which is all the opening Fern needs to send a fatal Zoltraak through his heart. And so Frieren was right: her apprentice and her frontline warrior could handle themselves just fine against Aura’s lieutenants in her absence. I just hope she’s right about still being stronger than Aura!

What a couple of breathtaking, outstanding battles these were. I’m still all jacked up after watching them. Needless to say the storyboarding, animation, direction, lighting, sound effects, and Evan Call score all conspired to create a sublime viewing experience I won’t soon forget, and that left me craving for the next battle.

Kimizero – 05 – The Last Man

You’d think Ryuuto would be keeping better track of how long he’s been with his first girlfriend ever, but Runa has to remind him of their upcoming 1-month anniversary. Seriously dude? Rookie mistake. So is letting Maria have his LINE contact info. Gotta turn that shit down, man. Nothing good can come of her having your digits.

That said, Ryuuto proceeds to have a lovely beach date with Runa, gets to see her in a gorgeous bikini with matching manicure courtesy of Nicole, and must apply sunscreen to her back. He even picks a time to compliment Runa on her swimsuit when she’s least on-guard. For all the critical hits she scores on him, he can make her heart flutter too.

Their fun in the sun doesn’t last, however, as a forecasted typhoon ends up cancelling their return train. They head to a hotel for the night, which is over twice as expensive if they get two rooms. Runa says it’s okay with her, though, so one room it is.

As you’d expect, Ryuuto feels all kinds of ways about this. Was Runa just okay with the one room, or all the “other stuff” that tends to happen when two people who are dating he night together? Runa can probably sense some tension, but after his bath he plays it cool.

In their adjoining futons in the dark, Runa asks Ryuuto if he wants to do it. But he suspects she’s doing it out of obligation, and when he asks, he’s right. While she does want to do it with him eventually, she doesn’t particularly want to now. Such is the experience of someone with boyfriends who didn’t consider her wants or needs, she never had a choice.

While he’s super-nervous, I’m sure Ryuuto would probably make love with Runa on this night, but only if it’s what she really wanted. Since she doesn’t, he’s perfectly fine with them simply sleeping. He’s not disappointed, nor does he want Runa to be. They end the night with a hug that they both enjoy, and fall asleep holding hands. It’s honestly sweet as hell, in addition to being a pretty nifty exercise in consent.

What isn’t sweet is Maria up in the middle of the night as the typhoon churns outside, trying to come up with a way to be “more like Runa.” In the morning when the storm clears, Ryuuto walks Runa home. Turns out he didn’t sleep a wink last night, but there’s no rest for the weary as Nicole accosts him and pulls him into the restaurant where she works.

She offers him a staff meal while asking how things are going with Runa. She remarks that Runa can be clingy, and messages every day, but Ryuuto actually likes that because it means she’s always thinking about him. The reason Nicole is still concerned is that every boyfriend Runa had before either cheated on her or dumped her (or both) before their two-month anniversary.

Those previous boys were scum, who didn’t subscribe to the “two-way road, two-way road” philosophy of balanced relationships. They simply took what they could and then ran. Nicole has seen enough of Ryuuto to believe he won’t follow that trend, but she wants him to go farther. He can’t do or say anything to make Runa worry about not reaching that 2-month anniversary. He solemnly promises that he won’t, and a rare Nicole smile is his reward. Love Nicole. Such a good friend/big sis to Runa.

Alas, with Maria working behind the scenes throughout the episode I knew that promise would immediately be put to the test. He gets a LINE audio call from Maria’s number, but the person on the other end is talking with Runa’s voice. She says her phone died, so she’s using it to ask him to meet her in the school later that evening.

Perhaps due to how tired he is from lack of sleep, Ryuuto accepts the sudden invitation. And when he arrives in the P.E. storage room, Runa appears to be standing there in the pitch dark, telling him that she wants to do it with him after all. I’m going to assume he can’t see her reddish eyes, because that should be a dead giveaway this is not Runa but her twin sister in disguise!

First of all, goddamn is this Maria a calculating piece of work. This is a new low for her. She’s also got at least some luck on her side, because at this point Ryuuto is probably seriously fatigued. Secondly, it is 100% anime silliness that he can’t discern Runa from Maria, but I’ll allow it because … this is an anime.

Even if he only cheats on Runa accidentally, stupidity and falling for Maria’s tricks is no defense, so whatever medieval torture Nicole enacts upon him will receive my enthusiastic stamp of approval. You’re on thin goddamn ice, Ryuuto … sharpen the fuck up, or you’ll lose the best girl … and, far worse, hurt her.