Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 17 – Making Lemonade

When Ilumgand goes berserk, transforms into a giant monster and eats his teammates, the battle between him and Makoto’s students would normally happen immediately. But thanks to a little creative license, it’s placed “on hold” so that Makoto can fully assess the situation and his options.

Fifty other monsters have turned up around the city, making this a full-blown crisis. While Mio thinks this is a perfect opportunity for some of their commercial and political rivals to be culled, Tomoe suggest they take the high road and serve as heroes of the city, earning the gratitude of many important figures.

All those figures happen to be in one place: in the royal box of the arena, essentially trapped. They include Limia’s king and prince (who is actually a princess in disguise as Makoto learns); the king’s right-hand man and Ilumgand’s father; Princess Lily, Root (AKA False), Sairitsu of Laurel, and the biship of the temple.

Makoto comes to the box with Tomoe and announces his intention to help. Tomoe uses her penchant for showmanship to explain that her magic sword enables her to transport everyone to safety. Root gives them an assist by serving as a guinea pig, and everyone but the king, prince, Ilum’s dad, and Makoto teleport away.

Makoto teleports the king closer to Ilum so that he and Ilum’s dad can try to talk sense into the monster, to no avail. When a monster from the city shows up, Makoto dispatches it with non-elemental magic, saving the prince without revealing his mana matter.

Down in the arena, Mio and Shiki issue instructions and encouragement to the students, who have their real weapons back. It’s a tough battle, but Abelia distinguishes herself by asking Sif to enchant her arrows with her explosion magic.

Abelia flies up in to the air in order to aim the fire arrow at the monster’s head, and while she is wounded by the monster tossing its severed hand at her like a Frisbee, she holds her “ground” in mid-air and maintains her aim, knowing her comrades are all with her down below.

Her arrow finds its target and blasts the monster that was Ilumgand to smithereens. She falls to the ground, but she’s soon surrounded by her friends. It’s such a lovely moment I doubt even a perpetual hyuman skeptic like Mio wouldn’t be touched.

Ilum would appear to be dead, but Shiki did mention that restoring him isn’t impossible, just extremely difficult. That leaves open the possibility he’ll be back. Meanwhile, Makoto has surely gained the favor of those Tomoe safely evacuated. Makoto also made a deal with Eva and Luria to retake their homeland of Kaleneon. We’ll see how Makoto and his pals deal with the other monsters roaming the city.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 16 – Dirty Tricks

While visiting Luria’s land of Aensland in Kaleneon, a young Ilumgard Hopleys makes a promise to fight with her someday. Here, in the present, he’s using real weaponry, heavy plate armor, magical medicine, and some kind of mysterious amulet. The fix is in, so the ref allows all this as Jin, Yuno, and Izumo are the three of Makoto’s students to win rock-paper-scissors and fight in the team final.

Ilum also trained with and befriended Hibiki, which makes sense as he’s part of the nobility of Limia and as Limia’s Hero, she is the personification of his ideals. But when fate brings Ilum and Luria back together in Rotsgard, his attempt to reconnect is ruined when his toadies castigate her for abandoning her lands to invasion, and then Kuzunoha intervenes.

It’s interesting watching this scene unfold from Ilum’s perspective, because it fills in a lot of blanks about his character, who had kinda been floating on the periphery. If it wasn’t for the OP and ED, I’d probably think he was just some background character.

I also had no doubt that even with everything stacked against them, Jin, Yuno, and Izumo would have no problem dispatching Ilum and his team of nobodies with ease and style. This may be deadly serious business for Ilum, but they’re just having a fun time showing their teacher how much they’ve progressed under his tutelage.

Ilum hates Kuzunoha, and blames him both for his inability to reconcile properly with Luria and prevent him from fulfilling his promise to Hibiki. While I can’t speak to the perceptive qualities of demons in this show, I can say with relaive confidence that Rona had been watching this guy closely as a candidate for treachery. She supplied him with ability enhancing drugs, and gave him an amulet she claimed boosts magical resistance.

I’ll refer to Frieren’s rules about demons, which is that every single word they say is meant to deceive humans. Rona may not be a Frieren demon, but she’s just as crafty and duplicitous. Just like Zara did in the merchant’s arena, Rona would seem to have exploited Makoto’s naïveté.

He thought he could form an alliance with the demons, but there’s every indication that alliance would only last as long as Rona needed it to to achieve her goals, which have something to do with the amulet mutating Ilum into, well, I dunno … some kind of hyuman-demon hybrid boss that threatens all of Rotsgard?

Makoto had it all planned out: After congratulating his victorious students, he’d shove off to Kaleneon to help Eva and Luria win back their lands. He, in turn, would be able to run his trading company outside the guild’s jurisdiction. That’s all on hold now that there’s the more immediate threat of Demon Ilum.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 15 – Out of His Element

Half of this episode is given over to the academy tournament, and while I thought Makoto’s students would face stiffer competition, the fact is no other students are a match for any of them, except each other. Jin and Sif blast through their categories without the slightest bit of resistance and end up in the final together. This, despite having to use wooden weapons.

Sif defeating Jin is a foregone conclusion, but that doesn’t take away how impressive Jin and the other members of Makoto’s class were. Not only that, despite having gone up against each other, there’s no hard feelings, and they all come away from the tournament more tight-knit than ever. Princess Lily can see what an amazing teacher Kuzunoha is, and wants to claim him for her kingdom—or at least deprive the other powers of his services.

But while Makoto’s adorable students are to be commended for their showing, they only made Kuzunoha’s enemies more irate. Before the team tournament (which his kids also ace), he is suddenly summoned to the Rotsgard Merchant’s Guild’s leader, Zara Hardis, who proceeds to give Makoto perhaps the biggest dressing-down of his time in this world. All of his physical and magical strength is useless against the bureaucracy of the guild. If he tries to use violence, he’ll be branded an ally of demons.

And therein lies a fundamental issue with Makoto’s desire to be friends with everyone. The Hyuman powers that be will not allow him to consort with demons. Makoto is chastened and bitter over having his naivety laid bare so completely, and while Mio has his back, Tomoe and Shiki, who know more about this kind of stuff, admit that the young master may have bit off more than he can chew with this one.

But if the guild is determined to squeeze Kuzunoha out of the market, with two heroes siding with Hyumans, Makoto decides he’ll go the other direction and, if not outright align himself with the demons, at least look the other way to their activities.

He has his sights set on Kaleneon, formerly part of Elysion, which is not only where his parents’ hometown is, but also Eva and Luria’s home and rightful lands. Zara shook his confidence in business, but with Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki backing this latest plan, Makoto believes he’s making the right choice.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 12 – Not Too Late to Apologize

After a bear attacks one of the orcs as a warning, Makoto investigates the deep forest and meets huggable bear, a surprisingly reasonable pack of wolves, and an ever larger bear, essentially the ruler of the forest. Once Makoto makes clear he has no plans for conquest and only wants to be friends, the animals are open to coexistence.

While Makoto is scolding Tomoe and Komoe for picking too many persimmons, another animal friend appears: a giant bird that shrinks to the size of a pigeon to speak to Makoto. Introducing himself as “Boulder Bird”, once Makoto compares it to “roc bird”, he adopts that name going forward. In these guardians of the forest, he’s gained subjects, not to be confused with followers like Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki.

Back in Rotsgard, Jin and Abelia dress up and go out for drinks. Abelia wants to pump Jin for info on Shiki at first, but it become apparent they both want to have another go at the demidragon before summer break is out. We learn a lot from the two. Abelia has no family or home to speak of since her mother passed, so maintaining high enough marks to stay in school is key.

As for Jin, he admits he has a village to go home to, but he left it with a bad taste in his mouth. Another resident of the village, an orphan girl named Miranda, was his first love, mostly because she was so much stronger than him. But when they discovered a giant chimera in a remote barn while on patrol and she seemed to take pleasure in tearing it to pieces, Jin called Miranda a “monster”, and she ran into the woods, never to be seen again.

While he was only a punk kid, how he left things with Miranda never sat right with Jin. So he vowed to work hard enough to get scouted by the academy so he could become strong enough that when he saw Miranda again he could apologize. To that end, thanks to Makoto providing them with one, the whole group, Jin and Abelia included, manage to bring down the demidragon as a sign that they are becoming stronger together.

As for Miranda, well, we know her: she grew up to be Sofia Bulga, the tough-as-nails warrior that nevertheless was squashed by Makoto once he got serious back in season one. Having returned to the abandoned barn where she and Jin last saw one another (and indeed, she momentary wonders whether he’s still alive), she vows to track down her creator, Luto, and “absorb” him, no doubt to become strong enough to defeat Makoto. Good luck with that, kiddo: he’s got a slime suit now!

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 10 – Saved by Bananas

As Makoto prepares to wrap up the investigation of the Organization experimenting on demihumans, Shiki, Eris, Aqua express their dislike and distrust of Rona. During a one-on-one lunch, Rona warns Makoto about Shiki, Eris, and Aqua, as she once fought both with and against the lich and doesn’t know Makoto knows full well that they’re forest ogres.

Rona has fulfilled her mission in Rotsgard, so she’s headed back to the Demon’s Army. However, she gives Makoto what amounts to her LINE ID, so he can contact her telepathically should he ever require her aid. Always good to have one of the Demon Lord’s top generals!

After dealing with Professor Bright personally (and admitting he and the Org at least see eye-to-eye on the Goddess sucking), he continues teaching lessons to his students, now missing “Karen Force” but gaining the Rembrandt sisters.

Not only do they take every ass-kicking in stride, but they come to Makoto with a united voice, asking if he can keep teaching him during summer break. He agrees to weekly lessons after Shiki fails to make up a scheduling conflict, but insists the sisters return home for the second half of the break.

Just when the seven students, who through their trials-by-fire have become quite a tight-knit and cohesive group of friends, think they have a strategy to defeat the Blue Lizard, Makoto makes them fight two of them, albeit separately.

When the second lizard Zwei is called a jerk, she unleashes a can of extra whoop-ass on the kids, and Makoto apologizes, telling them that she’s a female and didn’t take kindly to the insult. The kids regroup and ask if they can go one more round.

After their training, Makoto takes the students out to dinner, and Shiki informs him he’s told them about the place where they can fight monsters and efficiently level up (they’re all members of the Adventurer’s Guild after all). But Makoto is still worried that they might face dangers if he’s not always present.

His solution, since he’s got ample bananas (for now), is to have Eris keep an eye on them on their training camp. When they pick a fight with a demi-dragon for whom they’re all twenty levels too weak (they’re all in the 70s), Eris traps it in roots and tosses it into the lake, deeply impressing and inspiring the bright-eyed novices. It is indeed going to be a summer to remember for all of them.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 05 – Class Is in Session

In the week leading up to his first lecture as a part-time instructor, Makoto frequents the restaurant where Luria works, where Shiki becomes addicted to the “cream hot pot.” Ilumgand, the golden-haired student who was talking to Luria last week, is watching this, and doesn’t like it. Makoto also meets Luria’s older (but smaller-chested) sister Eva, an academy librarian.

Makoto’s fellow instructor Bright sends ten of his students to Makoto’s first lecture. Their attitude ranges from okay with this as long as it makes them stronger, to skeptical an instructor who communicates through writing and has an assistant will be of any use to them. Needless to say, none of these students have ever met anyone like Makoto or Shiki.

While Shiki is all too happy to play the bad cop, Makoto insists upon being as tough and unyielding teacher as Tomoe. As such, Shiki is the good cop, which combined with his good looks make him an immediate hit with the four female students. The students start out underwhelmed by this ugly young man who can’t speak, so Makoto decides to engage in a mock battle with Shiki to demonstrate his power.

Shiki serves as the aggressor while Makoto defends. The kids think every attack Shiki sends will be the end of Makoto, but in reality none of them get through his barrier. The two put on a clinic of silent spells of all elements, and once they actually start using incantations (in a language they don’t recognize) the battle really heats up.

By the time Makoto thoroughly beats Shiki (who has become stronger since training with Tomoe and Mio), the students are a combination of impressed, in awe, and scared shitless. One of the girls who talked down to Makoto has an arm wound from the debris of the battle, so Shiki heals it with ointment from their new shop and she’s immediately smitten with him.

With that, the first class is in the books. Shiki expects that half of the ten students will be no-shows for the next class, and that turns out to be so. However, the five remaining students are there because they know there’s something special about these classes and their instructor.

In the next lecture, Makoto has them come at him with everything they have, with the specific goal of getting them to experience how it feels to reach their limits of mana and stamina. For all five students, it’s the toughest battle they’ve ever been in, and they all fail, but they also learn a lot.

As for the students, they’re an eclectic group … for Hyumans. There’s Daena, a kid with hair like a black-and-white cookie who is married with a kid on the way. Misra is the son of temple officials who sacrifices his mana to keep the mock battle against Makoto going.

Abelia, the only girl who stuck around, is balanced in physical and magic attacks (and shares a last name with Ilumgand). Izumo is a mage-in-training. Finally there’s Jin, a skilled swordsman and natural leader. Makoto observes and analyzes his students and believes them to have potential, especially after surviving two of his classes.

Unfortunately, teaching this class isn’t the only thing Makoto will have to deal with at Rotsgard. There’s also the matter of Bright-sensei wanting him dead. He sent the assassin Makoto had absolutely no trouble with, and in a darkly-lit meeting that accentuates his hidden evil, he orders that assassin and his guild to redouble their efforts to eliminate Makoto. It should be fun watching them try and utterly fail.

P.S., Tomoe and Mio only get one scene each this week, and their relegation to the margins is my one complaint with an otherwise strong season. I get it: you can’t have characters as loud and OP as they are involved in either the Rotsgard storyline or those of the other two heroes. I just hope we get a little more time with them at some point!