Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 08 – Short Straw

It’s Kumiko and the third-years’ last camp. The auditions for prefecturals are on the first night and announced the next morning. But after Kumiko earned both a spot with the euphs and the soli with Reina, there was a very good chance she’d lose that spot to her reluctant rival, Kuroe Mayu.

Heck, the moment Mayu arrived and we learned there would be auditions for each competition, she loomed ominously on the periphery, like Chekhov’s Euphonium.

Even Mayu is aware that she’s a ticking time bomb, and she doesn’t like it. She claims not to have transferred from Seira for individual glory. If she truly does want to be the first chair euph, she’s being tight-lipped about it and insisting the opposite: She doesn’t want to rock the boat.

If she beats out Kumiko for the euph soli, it will rock the boat. Throughout the episode, Mayu presents a symphony of subtle movements and expressions indicating the discomfort and turmoil within.

She knows this because as much as everyone likes her as “Mama”, the fact remains that people think that Kumiko should do the soli with Reina. Reina makes that clear to Kumiko this week as well, pretty much saying that when the Nationals come around, only Kumiko will do.

But the fact she’s noticed Kumiko getting more warnings from Taki-sensei and Mayu getting none means Reina may be prepared for the eventuality she’ll be doing the prefectural soli without her brass girlfriend.

Mayu tries one last time to suggest that she forfeit. Kumiko hits her with the “the best players are chosen at Kitauji” spiel. Mayu reveals she’s never bought that and still isn’t, calling it politeness.

She posits the fallout of taking Kumiko’s part, and that’s when Kumiko snaps back at her that she expects to take the part, which Mayu yet again claims isn’t the case. Kumiko is reminded of the bad old days she’s tried so hard to avoid in her administration.

The morning after auditions but before selections, Kumiko gets up like her predecessors before her and walks out into the dewey, gleaming morning to play a soulful solo. Mayu follows her with her own horn, keeping her distance. The auditions are over. Kumiko urged her not to forfeit, and she didn’t. The die is cast.

Even so, when the names are announced, Kanade isn’t prepared to be left out of prefecturals altogether, nor is Kumiko prepared to hear that Mayu, not she, will be doing the soli with Reina. But she should’ve been.

She created the conditions for it to happen, even when Mayu warned her repeatedly and Kanade told her with her “brutal honesty” that if left to her own devices, Kumiko will pick the short straw.

This might be what’s best for Kitauji … on paper. But psychologically? We’ll see. Kumiko and Mayu are now tied 1-1. The only chance Kumiko has left is to win the soli part in the Nationals. And I doubt Mayu will be any less difficult to beat in that audition.

P.S. I guess Motomu confessed to Sapphire this week, and it looks like she rejected him? And then Kanade gave him a soda as consolation? It’s a little unclear, but also doesn’t matter as much as Kumiko getting booted off the soli!

Mushoku Tensei II – 19 – Into the Sandbox

After Rudy tells Elinalise he has to go after all, she decides to accompany him. When he tells Shizuka, she shows him the secret locations of teleportation circles that could get him and Lize to Begaritt and back well before Sylphie gives birth.

Knowledge of this shortcut doesn’t make his goodbyes to Sylphie any easier, and while she puts on a brave face and assures him she’ll be fine, her trembling hands and tears upon watching him departing show that it will be rough, even with Aisha and Norn looking after her.

Cliff also promises to marry Lize and buy a house with her upon her return, proving she’s not just a youthful indiscretion to him.

Once Rudy and Lize depart from Sharia, it becomes a grand adventure outing in the best traditions of Mushoku Tensei. In a deep, foreboding forest they find a stone that, once unsealed, reveals the entrance to a dungeon that contains the teleportation circle.

They step through it together and end up on the other side. Lize tests to make sure they can return, and is gone a worryingly long time, indicating there’s a time lag. On the surface, a harsh desert environment awaits them, seething with heat bands.

On this journey Lize brought the chastity belt that reduces the effects of her sex curse, but it’s a backed-up Rudy who has a momentary breach of discretion. He’s able to resist Lize, but outside he finds a beautiful woman and walks toward her.

Of course, it isn’t a woman, but a succubus, and Rudy would have been dead meat if it weren’t for Lize’s quick thinking and quicker dispatch of said succubus. Afterwards, Rudy is still suffering the effects of the monster’s pheromones, and bonks him on the head, later teasing him for suggesting they “get dirty” while in his delirium.

Days consist of trudging through the seemingly endless sands, encountering strange new creatures and monsters, and eventually come upon an oasis with a bazaar and good food. When Rudy uses his stone conjuring to convey them to the top of a cliff, they encounter two ferocious gryphons, and demonstrate excellent teamwork in defeating them.

That night while dining on roast gryphon chops, Lize licks her fingers and is scolded by Rudy in a way that reminds her of Zenith, who was also sixteen when she first met her. Rudy mentions that Paul wanted to apologize to Lize; he stops short of asking her to tell him the sordid love drama that resulted in Lize to this day vowing she’d never forgive Paul.

By the end of the episode they’ve arrived at the town of Rapan, which is dramatically situated beneath the soaring ribcage of some ancient colossal critter (and also reminds me of Eren’s final Titan form). Within Rapan is the Labyrinth where he hopes to find Paul and Zenith.

As for this episode, it was some really solid adventurer slice-of-life in the desert, immersive world-building, and showed us just how much Rudy and Lize’s relationship has matured—all succubus-related bouts of horniness aside.

Whisper Me a Love Song – 07 – Bad Girl Blood

With Yori and Himari now officially a couple, this series could have honestly ended last week as far as I’m concerned. It certainly felt like an ending, at least for this kind of show where it takes nearly the entire run for a couple to get together. That said, I did enjoy the bonus flirting between Yori and Himari, who are both on top of cloud nine and adorable as hell when they’re together.

Himari ends up meeting her senpai Momoka’s two friends Shiho and Hajime, who also happen to be her bandmates. There’s clearly something between Momoka and Hajime. Himari seems oblivious to this, but more importantly, she doesn’t know sho Shiho is to Aki, nor does Shiho know that Yori is Himari’s girlfriend. Yori also doesn’t understand the bad blood between Aki and Shiho, so she proactively invites Aki to her place to provide a safe space to talk about it.

Aki is always going on about Yori being her “bestie”, so to Yori this is simply living up to that title. As for the story, it basically amounts to Aki once inviting Shiho to join their band, but one day after quite some time (Aki’s hair goes from black to blonde) Shiho suddenly says she thinks SSGirls is a joke of a band and she never enjoyed playing with them. A truly hurt Aki lashes out in turn, and their friendship is torn asunder—if there ever even was one.

Shiho was a wallflower when Aki invited her to join SSGirls, and she’d probably still be one without Loreley, the band she formed with Momoka and Hajime. She doesn’t play music to have fun, but to become the best, and she expects the best out of everyone she plays with. At the culture festival audition, SSGirls performs well, but Loreley blows them out of the water with a much darker, more intense, and technically impressive performance.

Shiho proceeds to confront Aki to gloat over how much better she sounded than Yori, whom Shiho knows Aki has always loved. I don’t know what Whisper ultimately wants to do with the Shiho the character, but at the moment I tend to agree with Aki’s opinion of her when Shiho split from the group: she’s a complete ass! That said, Aki wasn’t painted in the best light when she asked Himari to let her have Yori, so perhaps Shiho can be similarly redeemed. I wouldn’t put it past Himari playing a role in that, but we’ll see.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night – 08 – Drowning Out the Hate

Buoyed by their impromptu live performance as JELEE “impersonators”, Kano wants to move forward with a real debut live show featuring all of them in masks on Halloween. It’s a large undertaking: songs have to be written and practiced; outfits, the stage, a poster designed, and social media needs to be utilized in order to muster their fans to the event. The girls plan all of this at a getaway at an underwater-themed love hotel room booked by Mei over, presumably, a weekend, since Mei and Mahiru have school.

Things are proceeding along, er, swimmingly when suddenly a bombshell drops that threatens to torpedo the entire exercise: a cartoonish meddling SunDolls otaku (who is so evil his lair is bathed in red light) exposes the artist formerly known as Nono-tan as the girl who performed at the Tornado. This creates quite a bit of online stir, since a not-inconsequential number of people online have a problem with a “violent” idol suddenly trying for a comeback without proper atonement, or something.

Kano apologizes to the others for causing this mess and dragging them into such a cockamamie project, but Yoru, Mei, and Kiui no longer believe she’s dragging them anywhere. They want to make her dream of a live show bathed in blue light a reality. It’s no longer just her dream, but one they all share and have sweated over. When the Tornado manager says the show is cancelled due to potential threats, Mei slaps down an envelope of money as collateral.

But while money talks, ultimately it’s Kiui who finds an ideal solution: have no real audience present, except online. They livestream the performance to their entire follower base, and Kiui also prepares a projector that projects a host of fan art made under the hashtag #JeleeIsThisGirl, with the idea that the real face behind the character doesn’t matter. The livestream sufficiently anonymizes the members. What matters is the music and the JELEE and jellyfish imagery.

Pulling off the project leaves all four girls exhausted to the point of collapsing in Tornado’s green room. They pulled this off, but Kano wants to use the momentum they’ve gained and keep going, putting out another big presentation that is the culmination of all their work on New Year’s Eve.

Unfortunately, her mom was among those watching the livestream, and reaches out to Yoru to commission art for the current SunDolls. Whether she truly likes Yoru’s art or is just trying to screw with Kano by driving a wedge between her and her new girlfriend. Either way, I’m going to assume Hayakawa Yukine’s intentions are neither pure or noble.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 20 – The First Battle Commences

Hell yeah. Tomoe executes her teleporting sword ruse to perfection as she’s hesitant to use it to teleport the leaders of Gritonia and Limia back to their capitals to lead the fight against the demons. Lily and the king must then plead with Makoto to convince Tomoe, which he does. Thanks to Tomoe, Makoto now enjoys their complete trust and gratitude, and they also owe him. Sakura Ayane is so good here pretending to be distraught about her (fake) sword shattering.

Everything’s been going so well, it was only a matter of time before the Shitty Goddess threw a wrench in the works. But Makoto finds himself much calmer and less ready to smack her than their past encounters. The Goddess is also demanding that Makoto do what he was already going to do anyway—assist the Hero of Limia, Hibiki—only he wanted to do so indirectly while he wants him in the capital pronto. They’re about to come to blows when one of the Goddess’ fae servants reports someone the Goddess calls “the meathead” has come to speak to her.

Pressed for time, she agrees not to interfere with Makoto as long as he doesn’t oppose Hyumans. She even agrees to restore his ability to speak the common language, though it seems to backfire. With their hastily arranged deal struck, the Goddess opens a portal over the capital of Limia that sends Makoto and Shiki falling from the skies, but as Makoto tells a panicking Shiki, this is his third such fall; he knows how to deal with them.

As they fall, Makoto decides to take advantage of the fact the Goddess is currently distracted by her mystery visitor, and contacts Tomoe and Mio via telepathy. He asks them to get together an army composed of highland orcs and mist lizards and take Kaleneon and Fort Stella back from the demons. He also asks that they have Luria and Eva act, and find a replacement instructor for him at the academy. Tomoe and Mio have never been happier: for the first time, the young master is asking them to fight for him. He’s relying on them.

Tomoe and Mio head to the Demiplane and organize the army (which includes Ema, Agares, and Liddy), and Tomoe gives one hell of a rallying speech. The force of 100 demihumans charge the Kaleneon fortress, defended by 2,000 demons, like they were shot out of a cannon. The demons weren’t ready and didn’t know what hit them.

Meanwhile, Eva and Luria arrive at the mirage town, where Akina and Haruna tell them the story that the rest of the world (and the history books) will tell: that the two of them won back Kaleneon from the demons. But before a waitress and a librarian can truly reclaim the lands the demihumans are winning back on their behalf, they have a lot to learn about building a community, from engineering to farming.

While the orcs and lizards make mincemeat out of the demon forces, Mio tracks down their general, a mutant mildie dragon named Left. Mio asked his name only so that she’ll be able to report who she killed to the young master. Left seems to think he is the tougher of the two of them, so as Mio’s excited gaze hardens and the dark aura swirls about her, I’m sure he’s about to get a rude awakening.

This episode is what I’d call Peak Moonlit Fantasy, as it combines the usual Makoto/Tomoe/Mio/Shiki silliness with some truly epic scenes of badassery on their part. Makoto was also able to stay calm and logical in the presence of the shitty Goddess. Finally, the credits mark the return of the metal version of “Aa Jinsei ni Namida Ari” as sung by Sakura Ayane and Kitou Akari, one of my favorite ending themes period.