To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 26 (Fin) – Grasping Rays of Light, Holding Them Tight

Accelerator’s technobabble solution to saving Last Order works, and she wakes up to her guardian’s warm embrace. But it doesn’t last long, as Accelerator leaves her in Worst’s care (worst babysitter ever?), literally spreads his newly-formed angel wings, and heads to the Star to eliminate another threat to his charge.

Turns out he and Touma never cross paths in this finale. The telesma overload turns out not to be as powerful as Fiamma hoped for, and all he gets for all his planning and scheming is a devastating haymaker from Touma that leaves a fist-sized crater in his cheek.

In his generosity (and unwillingness to kill, even a supervillain) Touma gives the sufficiently cowed Fiamma the last escape pod off the Star. When Misaka finally arrives to rescue him in a fighter jet (sadly without exclaiming “It’s not like I wanted to save you!”), he refuses her outstretched hand.

He’s thankful she came all the way out her to help him in his time of need, but he’s not ready to leave the Star yet; not without locating Index’s remote control, which Fiamma dropped and which Touma finds almost too easily.

A projection of the awakening Index appears before him, and he confesses to having kept her true nature a secret all this time. Of course, Index doesn’t particularly care about and perceived wrongs he may have perpetrated against her; she’s just glad to see him and wants him to come home safe.

Touma’s final heroic acts of both the arc and the season involve smashing three specific points in the Star in order to ditch it somewhere no one will be harmed: the Arctic Ocean. He even manages to collide with an out -of-control Gabriel/Sasha, driving her into the icy depths before punching her in the face. Yes, Archangel Puncher is another possible title for that right arm. I also must applaud Touma’s ability to survive in near-freezing waters as long as he does.

The new ITEM is quickly surrounded by Academy City forces, led by…Celty Sturluson’s sister? I honestly don’t know, but she’s there to take Takitsubo away to further augment her. Hamazura turns the tables thanks to the arrival of villagers he helped earlier, who kill all of not-Celty’s pals and enable him to ask the masked stranger about the “Parameter List” she mentioned.

Accelerator is also captured by Academy City, but either tricks them into turning his switch on, or he just isn’t governed by that switch anymore. He’s not going back to compromise or negotiate, but to issue demands and then make sure they’re carried out. A “triumphant return”, in his words. The time of the City forcing him to work in the underworld, and using the Sisters or Last Order for their bidding, are over. To which I say Amen, brother!

We’re then treated to a very rare cameo by Mr. Aleister Crowley himself, delivering some poetic justice to Fiamma by claiming his arm while chiding him for scratching the surface of something he didn’t adequately understand. Always neat to see Al in action; he’s more like Aiwass than a human in his speed and movements.

Misaka searches for Touma in the frigid sea, but all she can find is his Gekota strap. While “it’s not as if she’s worried or cares what happened to him!”, she’s obviously worried and cares what happened to him. I presume she’ll just have to wait for Index IV. We, meanwhile, get a sneak peek at his fate: he’s rescued up by another character I didn’t recognize, and had to consult the forum to identify: Leivinia Birdway.

I didn’t dive into who she is or what group she’s with, since that’s also a matter for Index IV, whenever it should rear its magical head. While a bit dense and meandering in its second half with the final waves of exposition, in all it was an entertaining wrap-up.

Sword Art Online: Alicization – 24 (Fin) – Bigger Fish to Fry

It’s all down to Kirito vs. Administrator now, and their climactic swordfight doesn’t disappoint. Despite having really long hair and only one arm, Administrator is no slouch in the swordsmanship department. She knows all the Aincrad-style moves Kirito showed Eugeo, plus a few that even Kirito doesn’t know about, and seems to revel in the opportunity to teach an insolent cur from the outside world an abject lesson in submitting to his betters.

Kirito looks like he’s just barely hanging on while Administrator is content to draw out his suffering, but Eugeo, barely hanging onto life, reaches out to Kirito, and they have a little tête-à-tête in which Kirito finally recalls the memories he lost of growing up in Rulid Village with Eugeo and Alice. Eugeo tanks Kirito for his friendship, brotherhood, and love these past few years, then bestows upon him the Blue Rose Sword, which becomes the Red Rose Sword in Kirito’s hand.

Now dual-wielding against a one-armed opponent, Kirito would seem to have the upper hand, but it ends up yet another draw, as in exchange for the increasingly crazed Administrator’s last remaining arm, Kirito loses his right one, while Admin reveals her hair is prehensile and can be used to restrain and strangle Kirito, which she does.

Administrator can’t get over how much insolence she has to contend with in this fight, but as Eugeo says, Kirito is going to keep standing up and dusting himself up as many times as it takes. He manages to cut through Admin’s hair, then delivers a strike to her core that does irreparable damage, forcing her to access a console and beam herself out of there.

Before she gets away, promising she’ll be seeing Kirito again in the real world, a naked, burning Chudelkin jumps onto her, seeking her loving embrace, resulting in a huge fiery explosion. Quite the ignominious end for the ruler of the Underworld…though it’s probably not a true end.

With Admin out of Kirito’s hair, he tries to tend to Eugeo, but it’s way too late for anything other than a tearful goodbye, with Eugeo relaying what he now understands about love being something you give, not something you seek. Both a younger Eugeo and a younger Alice appear in Kirito’s head to announce that while their paths may soon separate, their memories of one another will remain forever.

Just after Eugeo passes away, Kirito gets an “external observer call” from Rath: it’s Colonel Kikuoka and Higa. The control room is under assault, either from the military or some other power that wants their hands on the STL tech. They give Kirito instructions to deliver Alice to some place called the “World’s End Altar”, presumably to complete the process of bringing Kirito back to the real world with his brain in one piece. Asuna is also mentioned. But Kikuoka’s foes have other plans.

They seek to sever the main power line, which will cause a surge that could fry Kirito’s fluctlight, killing him before he can be safely extracted from the Underworld. The line is severed, the surge occurs, and Kirito experiences something akin to a lightning strike, inside of which a blurry image of Asuna from above, fitted out in her SAO regalia. Whether it’s Kirito’s memory or Asuna entering the “game” for the first time, I’ll have to wait until October to find out, when the Alicization saga continues with War of Underworld.

To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 25 – Out Of Many, One

This episode is one story after another of humans continuing to put aside their differences to unite against the existential threat of Fiamma. After Mugino’s big cathartic blow-out, Takitsubo emerges unharmed. When three Bad Dudes attack them, Hamazura provides the bait, coming at them directly, while Takitsubo holds Mugino up and helps her aim from afar. ITEM is back, baby!

Accel and Worst had already joined forces, and I have to say they make a hilarious team, what with all the scowls, aggression, and love of villainy. Worst extracts the song from the Mikasa Network, and Accel proceeds to use the parchments and all of his amassed knowledge to modify the song in order to heal Last Order, which he then sings! He may have sworn to become “the ultimate villain” to save her, but if there’s no more need for him to be villainous, he’s content with simply being…Accelerator.

Back to the Star of Bethlehem, where Fiamma and a suddenly not outmatched Touma bicker about whether the true nature of humanity is wholly evil, or a heck of a lot more complicated than that. Touma’s obviously pushing the latter theory, and it bears out in many ways around them. WWIII hasn’t drawn out the amount of evil Fiamma expected. On the contrary, the emrgence of giant right arms brings opposing human forces together on the battlefield, where the means of theirfoes’ survival is the same as their own.

Magical and Scientific humans, and even the Roman, Russian, and English churches join forces to bring down Fiamma’s fortress by cancelling the intertwined spells that keep it together. You could say the entire reason for him being able to build the Star was the same reason it was vulnerable to outside destruction: when it was built those three churches were opposed, but now that Fiamma has presented a threat equally disastrous to them all, they’ve put aside their worldly differences.

As the fortress starts to crumble around them, the product of an amassing of human goodwill on a scale he himself summoned, all Fiamma can seem to do is fume over how badly things are going for him. Touma tells him if he really cares about defeating the evil in the world he should be glad that goodwill is winning out. But Fiamma has one more ace of his Venetian pajama sleeve—though it’s not a part of his original plan.

Turns out the evil that was unleashed during the war he started and the subsequent summoning of angel and building of the Star have all resulted in an “unnatural distortion” developing between heaven and earth, which will result in a potentially civilization-ending amount of telesma is about to be released from above. Fiamma tells Touma that he and his meddling human friends are too late. But c’mon, it’s never too late when Biribiri has yet to take the stage.

TenSura – 24.5 – Recap

Ifrit finds himself trapped within Rimuru and meets Veldora Tempest, who forces him to play shogi since it’s not as fun playing alone. As they play and chat, the events of the last 24 episodes run by…and that’s about it.

I’ve been made aware that the manga has “Veldora’s Journal” entries at the end that similarly recap what’s happened in the story so far, but there wasn’t really anything I had forgotten or needed to be reminded of, making this episode rather superfluous after the first couple minutes.

Another somewhat puzzling capper to a season that felt like it needed two or three fewer episodes than it got.

To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 24 – Renouncement And Forgiveness

When Accelerator finds Last Order and Worst, banged up but alive, Hyouka stops by before phasing out to tell him the data to save the little one, like the song once used to save Index, is somewhere in the network, waiting to be extracted and reconfigured. Worst can access the network to find the song, but when asked how he’ll change the parameters, Accel produces the parchment he’s been carrying.

Meanwhile, Hamazura has survived the blast, but instead of Takitsubo, he encounters Mugino in disguise. She swallows a whole handful of ability crystals and goes berserk, with Hamazura barely able to dodge her massive green beam attacks until she basically burns out.

At this point, Hamazura could kill her, but instead he gathers her into a hug, asks for the fighting and death feuds to end, and for the remaining members of ITEM to forgive and unite once more. Before that can happen, they need to escape Academy City’s bombers. But if Mugino indeed stops hunting Hamazura, then progress has definitely been made here.

As Stiyl continues to struggle for a way to free Index from her trance and Laura stands by not helping at all, Lessar and Sasha come to an agreement whereby Lessar will help the Russian sorcerers escape the Star of Bethlehem before shit starts going down, in exchange for them and Sasha helping Britain out next time they’re in a spot.

It’s a crucial gesture of peace and cooperation between two warring foes in a world war started by Fiamma. The remaining half of the episode is spent on his one-on-one confrontation with Touma.

With the dual powers of he Right Hand of God and the grimoires within Index, Fiamma starts by simply having a little bit of fun using various overpowered attacks against Touma, seeing if he can dodge or absorb everything with his Imagine Breaker. Fiamma also describes the current world like a mechanism or watch whose parts are hopelessly rusted and bent.

Project Bethlehem will restore the world to the way it was, which of course means brushing aside most if not all human civilization and industry. This is a personal project, as Fiamma now sees himself as beyond any one faith. It’s actually quite a shock to see Fiamma suddenly slice off Touma’s arm, turning Touma into a crumbled mess of a blood fountain as he absorbs the arm into his own giant hand.

It was around this time that I thought the killing blow to Touma would be stopped by Misaka, but she’s still on the ground with her clone looking for a way to get up to the Star. Instead, from his bloody stump, a second giant arm and hand emerges and grapples with Fiamma’s. It wrests Touma’s arm back and reattaches it, utterly renouncing the power Fiamma offered.

This is just another demonstration that Touma’s arm is not meant save the world on its own, or do anything else that big and important. Fiamma wanted to free it from what he saw was a mundane existence attached to Touma, and a waste of its potential, but the arm thought otherwise, as does Touma.

It’s at this point Touma starts to understand that the reason Fiamma has constructed the massive Star of Bethlehem and utilized the power of so many others (by force, not fellowship), is because he’s actually afraid that he never had sufficient power to “save” the world on his own—and he’s right; he doesn’t. Touma, meanwhile, has saved countless “worlds,” the worlds of individuals who have relied on him and on whom he’s relied right back.

Like Mugino with Hamazura, only on a larger scale, Fiamma’s plotting and raging at the status quo is unnecessary and unproductive. Like her, he risks burning himself out, along with all the bridges that were built to get him to this point. Looking out at that mess of stolen churches and artifacts he’s amassed, I’m tempted for him to say “look on my works and despair” in the ironic sense Shelley intended.

I don’t know if Touma, with Misaka’s imminent help, will have to utterly destroy Fiamma or simply deliver a devastating, cathartic right hook, of if they can convince him to stand down and accept his vision for a new world ain’t gonna happen. All I know is, it’s sure to be epic.

Sword Art Online: Alicization – 23 – No Puppet, You’re The Puppet

This is a thrilling powerhouse of an episode, but it starts out a little slow, with over seven minutes of this:

Admin: [Describes in detail horrible things she’s done]
Cardinal: How dare you!
Admin: [Chortles]

Mind you, there are far worse things than listening to Sakamoto Maaya describe her evil plan and chortle. She gives Admin an extra dimension of imperious ethereal swagger.

Once the two pontifexes are done talking, Cardinal decides the only thing she can do is surrender: offer her life—and the guarantee she won’t resist and take potentially half of Admin’s life—in exchange for the three “youngsters.”

Admin agrees, though doesn’t exactly hide the fact that she still plans to sacrifice fully half of Underworld’s humans (40,000 of them) to complete the final version of her sword golem with which she’ll defeat the enemies of the Dark Territory, as well as the real world.

Then she has fun taking several hundred dark lightning potshots at Cardinal. She’s been waiting 200 years to get rid of her, and is clearly savoring the moment. Cardinal warns the others not to interfere—they’re not powerful enough to make a difference anyway—and instead puts all her hope in Admin’s assurances they won’t be harmed.

Something awakens in Eugeo, and suddenly he realizes what he was always meant to do, now that he’s in the time and place to do it. He asks Cardinal to use her remaining power to transform him into a sword, just as Admin turned hundreds of humans into parts of the golem.

The process isn’t exactly quick, and Admin attempts to disrupt it, but Alice is able to block her attacks just long enough for the transformation to complete, and Eugeo becomes a self-moving sword.

The sword wastes no time destroying the sword golem by hitting its weak spot, blowing it to pieces in a tremendous explosion. But Admin is #NotImpressed, and relishes the opportunity to put this “brat” in his place with her superior weapon authority.

Ultimately, Eugeo simply doesn’t have enough to take a suddenly very serious Admin down, and while he does relieve her of her left arm, it comes at the cost of being split in two. The split sword revert back into human form, and Eugeo lies lifeless in a pool of blood.

Admin then describes Eugeo’s mistakes that led to his defeat, then turns to Kirito, expressing her hope they’ll meet again in the real world after she kills him here (she’s apparently unaware he’s only alive here; he’s still in a coma out there).

Having lost Cardinal and Eugeo in quick succession, Kirito is feeling defeated and unable to do anything, but like Yuuki and others in Kirito’s past, Alice steps between him and his death, willing to sacrifice herself so he can live on and complete the mission.

This time, Kirito steps back in front of his protector, parries Admin’s strike, and pushes her back. Alice, totally out of gas, passes out, leaving it a duel between the one-armed Admin and Kirito, for the very soul of the Underworld.

Admin would say he and Eugeo were only puppets for Cardinal, and Kirito continues to serve as a puppet for the good of the masses she sees only as resources, in reality Admin has herself long been a puppet of her own greed and lust for power.

Those traits define her and drive her totally, and they will destroy her, once they butt up against the amassed love and resolve of her foes. The hours of her reign appear to be numbered, but she’s not going down without (another) hell of a fight.

TenSura – 24 (Extra) – Conqueror Of Flames

This being an extra episode and all, I had no idea what to expect, so it was a nice surprise to get a story about one of Shizu’s exploits, which takes place before Rimuru even appears in this world. As she arrives at Filtwood Castle to join a host of other adventurers in an effort to defeat a recently summoned demon, it’s made clear Shizue Izawa is already a legend among her peers and in Filtwood’s court.

But she’s weary that even the formidable Silver Wings have recently fallen to the demon, suggesting it at least has a name that lends it more power (as we’ll witness later with Rimuru’s namings). It’s also odd that the less bold adventurers aren’t allowed to leave when they hear of the strength of their foe.

After one of them is killed and a lesser demon extracted, it’s revealed they’ve all been gathered there because more of them are suspected of being possessed by demons, so they’ll all be rooted out for the good of the kingdom.

Their execution of this plan is interrupted by a cloaked mage, whose immense power Shizu only then detects (suggesting it’s an extremely powerful mage who can mask such power). The mage is himself a demon calling himself “Kuro”, and is willing to kill everyone in the hall to find the demon he’s after.

Needless to say, Shizu isn’t about to let that happen, and so…they fight.

And what a splendid fight it is! At least as good as anything TenSura has served up. Shizu is a tough customer, but even she seems to be aware that Kuro is merely toying with her, and actually holding back quite a bit. Even her special finishing move only causes as slight amount of discomfort, yet even that is the most pain Kuro’s had the pleasure of feeling in some time.

What ultimately forces Kuro to withdraw, at least for the moment, is when he gets serious and attempts to behead Shizu. Her mask protects her and relieves Kuro of his arm, making him exclaim that the mask “surpasses time.” The assembled adventurers cheer for Shizu when Kuro departs in a black cloud…but this is only the beginning of the already exhausted Shizu’s busy day.

A knight comes to her quarters to escort her to an audience with the king, and while en route, this knight expresses both his gratitude for her heroism and awe at said heroism’s form…only the ever-observant Shizu doesn’t recognize him as someone who was present for her fight. Turns out she’s right.

The “knight” is actually the real king of Filtwood, and a demon at that. Not just any run-of-the-mill demon, either: a “legendary-class Greater Demon General,” which I assume is a real thing and not something he made up in a sudden chuuni fit. His name is Orthos, and he is revered by the people as a demon-defeating hero, giving him more strength.

Orthos thanks Shizu for being a “sacrifice”, something she has no intention of doing (and also obviously won’t die as Rimuru meets her much later). That said, Orthos is a tough customer, and Shizu has had no time to replenish her strength, magic, or stamina, which is of course Orthos’ plan all along.

Unfortunately for him, Kuro reappears in the nick of time to save Shizu. Before she was summoned into this situation, she recalled what Leon told her about demon “Progenitors” who are named after colors. Kuro is one of them, an identifies Orthos as an underling of another Progenitor, Red. That means Orthos is absolutely no match for Kuro, who utterly ends him.

In the end, Kuro is credited with killing the public king and minister of Filtwood (who were really Orthos’ puppet) while official records credit Shizu with defeating Kuro. In reality, the two agree to go their separate ways and forget they ever saw each other, and in exchange, Kuro won’t end Shizu like he ended Orthos. Still, Shizu predicts “someone will do something about that demon someday”…and that someone turns out to be Shizu, summoning him as “Diablo.”

This extra episode took a while to get going what with the need to set up an entirely new setting and scenario, but once Shizu drew her sword, good things started happening. It was a fun, exciting outing that added texture to the vast world of TenSura, not to mention demonstrated that it can do just fine without Rimuru or any of his entourage.

Sword Art Online: Alicization – 22 – Boy From The Other Side

Chudelkin and his fire demon don’t last long, thanks to Alice distracting the latter with her flowers while Kirito skewers the former—a sitting-duck—while also briefly donning his black suit from SAO. Administrator doesn’t lift a finger to help her loyal Senator. It was up to him to beat the rebels, and he failed. She has no further use for him.

Kirito’s momentary change of clothing proves something to Administrator she’d suspected something was up with him beyong his “unregistered unit” status. Now she knows, and he confirms, that he’s really a human “from the other side.”

When Alice gets to have her say, she ask her former Pontifex why she couldn’t trust the loyalty of her knights without tearing them away from their families and wiping their memories. But everything Administrator—what Quinella—has done thus far offers the only answer Alice needs, even if she doesn’t like it: Quinella doesn’t care about anyone but Quinella.

She doesn’t care about the freedom and happiness of her people. She doesn’t care about her knights beyond their loyalty and ability to defeat her remaining enemies. If they ever start to voice concerns, as Bercouli, Fanatio, and now Alice have done, she’ll simply re-synthesize them, wiping away that much more of their original selves that had managed to surface.

Things get more intriguing when Kirito questions the value of having absolute control over one world when the human creators of that world who dwell on the other side have ultimate authority, able to erase everyone and everything with the tap of a key.

Quinella puts it to Kirito: Does HE only live to please his higher authorities, those who created the human world, out of fear they’ll reset it? She won’t pander to those “gods of creation.” She won’t kneel, beg, or grovel. If they want to punish her by eliminating her existence, FINE.

Until then, she’ll keep perfecting herself and remaking the world she rules as she likes, and that means eliminating threats to her control. To that end, she uses a Release Recollection spell and uses Perfect Weapon Control to merge thirty individual weapons into one extremely dangerous-looking sword golem.

Within a minute, both Alice and Kirito are lying in pools of their own blood; their strikes parried and countered with vicious, one-strike critical hits. Eugeo prepares a final stand, but Charlotte pops out of Kirito’s coat, blows up to enormous size, and gives Eugeo the few moments he needs to thrust the dagger into a floating platform.

The dagger activates a column of light; within that light a door appears, and through that door walks Cardinal, sending the sword golem flying with a quick burst of offensive energy. She quickly heals Alice and Kirito, who introduces her as a friend. Charlotte, unfortunately, can’t be revived, and Cardinal takes a moment to mourn her trusty aide, before turning her gaze at the “hollow fool,” Administrator.

Hollow though she may be, her philosophy of validating her existence through total control (rather than through meaningful, equitable relationships with others) comes through as a tragic flaw in her character. She’s lived so long amassing so much power, the only part of her left that’s human is the worst part; the part devalues and forsakes all the other souls in her world—and it’s looking increasingly likely that will be her undoing. Quinella may be our arch-villain, but I still sympathize with how her life turned out.

I daresay this episode did a better job fleshing her out than her flashback ep, since this was all about who she is today, in person, and not who she was from Cardinal’s perspective. I like how her awareness of the human world gives her a chip on her shoulder and innate drive to disobey, and I’d wonder what else she has up her sleeve…if only she had sleeves.

To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 23 – Joining Hands To Fight

Stiyl’s efforts to bring Index out of her trance go rather poorly (he only ends up digging a big hole for himself…literally!) But Kazakiri Hyouka is on the scene in Russia to take it to the archangel Gabriel. Their ensuing fight about the Star of Bethlehem is appropriately epic in its speed and ferocity.

When Sasha asks what’s up with Hyouka, he assures her with confidence: he may not know exactly what she’s doing there, but Hyouka’s a friend. In fact, they go back a full decade to when their character designs and color palette hadn’t yet evolved to the present 2010s style!

It’s an episode full of odd but interesting pairings, starting with the continued collaboration between Accelerator and Worst. They’ve come so far in so short a time, he’s trusting her to protect Last Order while he deals with the dueling angels. Like Touma, Accelerator doesn’t know what Hyouka is there for. Unlike Touma he has no reason to trust her, especially when he believes she was drawn there by the parchment Gabe is after.

One would think coming straight at an archangel with power on a level hard to fathom who is specifically looking for something on your person would be a bad move, and even with Hyouka also fighting, Gabriel still manages to gain ground on them. When her huge special move is done charging up, a massive “Sweep” of holy arrows rain down on both Accelerator and Hyouka.

They’re largely bailed out by an assist from another seemingly unlikely comrade in Acqua, who uses his presidential authority to draw the water-element telesma out of Gabriel, stopping her in her tracks and weakening her, but its a risky move that could kill him.

Touma figures out that the Star of Bethlehem, being a necessary element in Fiamma’s plans, must have a means of controlling Sasha somewhere among the labyrinth of structures, so he starts wrecking up the place with his Imagine Breaker.

Accelerator, remembering Touma’s words of wisdom (and punch to the face) throws everything he’s got in what he takes the most pride in: protecting Last Order at any cost, even losing. Gabriel self-destructs, but with help from Hyouka, he manages to prevent cataclysmic collateral damage.

The minimization of damage was also made possible by Acqua’s assist, and after taking most of Gabe’s power he’s prepared to pay for it by dying…but Hamazura and Takitsubo find him first, and the former straight up refuses to let him give up. Acqua gets on his feet and lets out a triumphant roar, but I wonder how much he has left in the tank after such exertion.

Once enough setbacks in his carefully-orchestrated plan have taken place and all the myriad forces suddenly united against him actually start making some progress, Fiamma decides to accelerate the part where he takes Touma’s right arm, separating him from Sasha. Turns out even though Gabriel was taken out, she managed to read the parchment and align the Star in such a way that Fiamma could start an element-re-configuring ceremony.

In the aftermath of the Gabriel battle, Accelerator is troubled to find Worst ended up crashing the Hummer she was driving, and both she and Last Order are unconscious. Hamazura and Takitsubo reach the facility where the bacteriological agent will be released, but an Academy City bomber gets there at the same time and obliterates the place, separating the lovebirds.

Our heroes have shown that by putting aside less important differences and combining their forces, they can put a dent in Fiamma’s plans, to the point where he now no longer looks invincible. But it’s taking a harsh toll with Fiamma far from beaten, which means they’re going to need backup, and soon. Thankfully, Misaka’s only 70km away, and her clone presumably knows how to drive.

TenSura – 23 (Fin*) – Problems Solved

Rimuru and the five students enter the Dwelling of Spirits and…pretty much absolutely everything goes swimmingly! Seriously, one by one Rimuru either creates a superior spirit from hundreds of inferior ones with the Great Sage’s help, or in the case of Kenya and Chloe, a spirit is summoned by the kids themselves.

Bottom line, with superior spirits within them, the immense magical power is now under control, and will no longer send them to early graves. Mission Accomplished! The only problem is, there’s a lot more runtime to the episode after that, but it’s clear that’s all the story TenSura cares to tell, so the remaining ten minutes or so basically runs out the clock.

We get montages of How Far We’ve Come, followed by a number of Long, Tearful Goodbyes, as well as hints of Challenges to Come Next Season. As fantasy/Isekai anime go, TenSura almost always kept things light, breezy, and above all nice and easy for Rimuru.

I don’t see a second season messing with that formula too much, but rather expanding Rimuru’s powers, understanding of his world, and of course, introducing a smorgasbord of new characters who will then interact with his already vast crew. The MAL score of 8.36 is definitely overzealous in my book, but colorful, upbeat, and full of charm and good humor: that’s been TenSura through most of its run, and it should continue to be so in the future.

*An “Extra” episode will air next week.

Sword Art Online: Alicization – 21 – Love Isn’t Control, But Friendship Is Power

One would think a duel as significant and built-up as the one between Kirito and Eugeo would last an entire episode, but that assumption gives Administrator too much credit. Eugeo’s hasty synthesis was willing, not by force, and it happened in a profound moment of weakness for Eugeo.

He and Kirito cross swords and give each other matching cuts, but once Kirito asks Eugeo to recall who gave him his Baltio-style moves, not to mention all of the people waiting for them to return home with Alice, Eugeo’s piety module is quickly exposed.

But while Eugeo wakes up and even says Alice’s name, there’s still something off about him, and I dreaded Kirito dropping his guard, and with good reason: Eugeo uses Enhance Armament to bury both Kirito and Alice in ice before returning to the top level.

There, a skeptical Chudelkin asks if Eugeo eliminated the rebels, to which Eugeo responds the Pontifex only ordered him to stop them, and stop them he did. That’s not sufficient for the Prime Senator, who heads down below to finish them off, thereby playing right into Eugeo’s hands.

Without Chudelkin, Eugeo is all alone with Administrator, who assumes that while his piety module was compromised, he’s still loyal to her. But when she removes it outright in order to recalibrate it, she’s only freeing him to recall more memories, which motivate him to break free of her emotional and magical hold and attack her with the dagger provided by Cardinal.

Administrator is taken aback, but her shielding is close to perfect, and tells Eugeo that no blade, even one fashioned by Cardinal, can pierce her skin. As we know from the OP and flashbacks, Administrator prefers to hang around in the nude, and once her “loving partner” gig is up, she dispenses with the clothes and provokes Eugeo by mocking Alice’s ordeal (her synthesis was forced over many agonizing days).

That’s when Chudelkin returns all beat up to warn his Pontifex that the other two are free, and Kirito and Alice arrive on the top floor. Eugeo intended to make up for his initial betrayal by taking care of Administrator alone, but she’s too strong. In fact, it will be a miracle if the three of them working in perfect harmony can overcome her knowledge of nearly every cheat code in the world.

Still, Administrator isn’t interested in fighting the three directly; not while she has one last subordinate standing in Chudelkin. She fires him up by agreeing to let him have every inch of her body for one night if he can eliminate the rebels, and he uses his fingers, toes, and eyes to summon his trump card: a monstrous fire genie.

Chudelkin has always been a wild card since his first appearance (which is only fitting as he looks like a Joker), so I honestly don’t know how Eugeo’s ice, Kirito’s black sword, and Alice’s scattering blades will hold up against this boss, but the important thing is that the three are finally fighting on the same side.

P.S. We get new OP visuals (same theme) as we’ve completed Alicization “Rising” and begun Alicization “Uniting” – featuring Kirito trying to hold his own against a very capable (and very nude) Administrator.

To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 22 – Angels And Saints Converge

We check in with pretty much everyone this week, from Stiyl trying to keep Index safe from Laura in England, to Touma and Sasha up in the giant floating fortress called the “Star of Bethlehem,” the narrative darts back and forth between all of the various forces converging both directly and indirectly towards the Star and Fiamma, who is seeking nothing less than to becoming superior to God. The ego of this guy, amirite?

You gotta admit, he’s done a lot of preparation for this; his isn’t some half-baked plot easily ended by one punch from Touma’s right hand. He’s not only controlling Index, giving him powers a Right Hand of God would normally wouldn’t have; while he’s used Sasha (via the control device) to summon the archangel Gabriel to mop up all of the “secondary players.”

As Fiamma consolidates all his power for his final push, there’s one thing for the good guys to celebrate: Thanks to Vasilissa, Takitsubo Rikou is finally healed. Naturally, she agrees with Hamazura that they must then immediately jump back into danger to protect the villagers who saved them from being wiped out by the government.

The last piece Fiamma needs is the parchment in Accelerator’s possession, which he believes can be used to save Last Order. Misaka Worst offers to retrieve the mighty mite, as well as to serve as her weapon. Over in Rome, a bishop intends to use the crisis to ascend to the papacy, but the former Pope has already given up his mantle, preferring to calm the throngs of people outside and lead them into the Vatican…for safety?

Kanzaki Kaori also prefers to offer aid those in need rather take center stage in a battle, leaving Princess Carissa and “Frenchy” to battle Gabriel with their national weapons. When Carissa’s Curtana Second fragment is shattered, she simply summons a half-dozen more, then launches a massive missile strike on the Star diverting the archangel and buying more time for the wounded.

Back up on the Star, Touma is riding a monorail with Sasha when Gabriel appears to stop the missiles. There, the archangel is met by Kazakiri Hyouka in full battle mode. Back on the ground, Misaka is watching the Star through binoculars, and figures since she’s come this far, there’s no way she’s not getting involved.

Misaka also shows her envious Clone the Gekota strap she got on her date with Touma (or as she calls him, “the idiot”). Touma just better hope Misaka doesn’t hear anything about him pawing Sasha (which got him crowbar-ed), or she’ll kill him herself!

TenSura – 22 – The Extra Fairy

Rimuru, Ranga, and the kids head deep into the green and lovely Ulg Nature Park, and enter a palace-sized tree hoping to find the Queen of Spirits. They find themselves in a sneaky labyrinth that appears to be a straight path, but Rimuru requires his mental map in order to properly navigate through it.

They all hear a voice in their heads that must be some kind of telepathy, and before you know it they’re in a new chamber, which looks curiously like an arena.

Rimuru’s challenger appears: a magisteel golem controlled remotely by one of the labyrinth’s spirits. He easily defeats it with thread fetters and a flare, and its controller (and the voice in their heads) reveals herself as the fairy—and Demon Lord—Ramiris.

Voiced with great energy by Haruno Anzu, Ramiris is a delightful trip and a half, somehow even more hyperactive than Milim, and with a lot more voices. I found myself reveling in her many changes in mood and tone, as well as Rimuru’s growing impatience and incredulousness.

She’s also heard of Rimuru Tempest, leader of Jura…and slime. It’s the first time the kids learn Rimuru is actually a slime, and they’re suitably impressed and delighted. When Rimuru gives Ramiris some cookies as a peace offering, and tells her why they’ve come, she reveals that she’s the Queen of Spirits, who “fell from grace” into a Demon Lord, like Leon, who summoned both Ifrit and Shizu.

I enjoyed the gradual transition of Ramiris from obnoxious pest into someone to be admired (she completed the magisoldier Vesta’s team couldn’t…all by herself) and even venerated (she’s able to bestow divine protection). She empathizes with the kids’ plight, and shows them the path to the Dwelling of the Spirits.

Even if they can’t summon any interested superior spirits, they can always make new ones there. As for Rimuru, he’s proud he’s finally well on his way to fulfilling Shizu’s dream to free her students from premature demise.