KonoSuba 3 – 03 – The Princess’ Playmate

When Kazuma asks Rain if he’s technically been kidnapped and brought to Belzerg by Princess Iris, she asks that he indulge her desire to have a companion for a few days, as she rarely makes selfish requests of anyone. At first, Kazuma’s conscience directs him to comply, but after telling her some stories about his friends and his school in his old life, and she calls him “onii-chan” and repeats it several times at his request, he decides to stay.

Thus begins a period of Kazuma waking up in his cavernous chambers looking like a shoujo character, calling his butler by the wrong name and refusing to get out of bed so the maid can change the sheets. His days are spent playing with Iris, whether it’s hide-and-seek or tag or chess (which she’s very good at). And while perhaps Kazuma is getting something out of this by having an adorable royal little sister, it’s still very nice for him to keep her company.

That’s made clearer by the fact that she isn’t able to attend school, nor can she leave the palace grounds, without an armed royal guard, due to regular surprise attacks from the Devil King’s Army. But after a week, Kazuma’s friends come to bring him home, with Darkness asking Iris in as diplomatic and polite terms as possible that he belongs back in Axel with them. Despite Kazuma dispatching four spirit clones to subconsciously persuade her, Iris agrees to let Kazuma go home.

That’s not before she hosts a banquet in his honor, which turns out to be anything but due to the nobles not knowing who he is and being far more interested in courting the still-unmarried Darkness. That includes Lord Alderp, whose palace was destroyed in a previous season.

When Kazuma jokes to Darkness about being her lover, he’s exiled outside, but he’s soon joined by Iris. While her reasons for liking him sound like insults, they’re not: she’s valued their time together, and the fact he’s vibrant and honest and rude like no one she’s ever met.

He and Lalatina have even inspired her to possibly pursue adventuring once she’s older, as her family possesses innate skills useful to that profession. But before that, her offhand comment about a Robin Hood-like mysterious “noble thief” running lurking about the capital gives Kazuma an in to stay put in this cushy palace with servants.

He asks if he can investigate and catch the thief, and while Claire’s approval is hesitant, the nobles are extremely excited that someone, even an “unremarkable lad” like Kazuma, is on the case. Aqua and Megumin are also on board, but both they and Kazuma get a rude awakening, as they’re assigned to Lord Alderp’s residence for the mission.

In other words, no more palace servants or all-you-can-eat banquets. Instead, what Kazuma has done is given himself and his friends more work to do. That said, if they do manage to catch the noble thief, it will improve their rep in Belzerg. That can’t be bad, right?

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 07 – Meanwhile, at the Demiplane

Makoto returns home to find a huge, majestic new house and a banquet being held in his honor. To his shock, Mio has cooked almost everything, and it all tastes great! His praise brings tears to her eyes, but rather than drag him to the bedroom like I expected, she hurries back to Tsige to try to wring more recipes out of Hibiki.

After dinner Makoto, Shiki, and Tomoe exchange reports. Tomoe hasn’t found out much about the person who created the lake with an arrow (which was Makoto himself), but does report her encounter with the “scumbag” hero Iwahashi Tomoki. She believes someone like him might attack fellow Hyumans once the Demons are dealt with. Shiki also owns up to the monster Mio and Hibiki encountered being a discarded experiment of his from before he met Makoto.

Hibiki informs Mio that she can’t teach her anything else, as she must return to Limia at once. She thanks Mio for saving her and her party in the Wastelands, and also asks if Mio will join them. Mio refuses before Hibiki can even finish talking: even if the world is at stake, the Young Master is all that matters to her. That said, Mio isn’t against at least going to Limia someday, and Hibiki tells her she’ll teach her new recipes then.

Makoto’s next order of business is deciding which of the three new species recommended by Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki. Of the three, only two are approved: the winged Wingkin, and the bodacious Gorgons. The latter were worried about their stone gaze causing havoc, but Makoto is able to nullify the petrifying effect so they don’t have to walk around wearing masks. The only rejects are a race of faerie-like creatures that Emma feels were being too disrespectful to Makoto (Emma is on one all this week).

Back in Rotsgard, word spreads that two infamous sisters are returning to the academy, having “recovered” from some kind of disaster that earned them their infamy. They are the Rembrandt Sisters, no doubt related to the trading company Rembrandts. We’ll see if they join Makoto’s unique, high-difficulty class, which seems right up their alley.

Undead Murder Farce – 10 – Golden Girls

Aya’s interview with the village mayor continues, intersperced with effectively creepy flashbacks to when the three outsiders: Dr. Heinemann, Cnut, and Alma, were “tested” to ensure they weren’t werewolves. Those tests turned out not to be that torturous—making them smell a pungent flower and listening to clanking pots and pans—but convinced the mayor and the villagers that no one among them was responsible for the abductions.

Cnut, the village engineer and carpenter, is Aya’s next interviewee, as he knows more about Rosa and Jutte, the two who were chased to a tower and burned alive in last week’s episode. That happened eight years ago, after years of Rosa living peacefully with her daughter ever since she was found wounded, pregnant, and alone in the woods.

Louise, whom everyone agrees is the “guardian angel” of the village, exposed little Jutte and her mom Rosa as werewolves when Rosa mistook Louise for Jutte and told her not to reveal her ears when she smelled a strong-scented flower.

The final outsider to be interviewed is the most suspicious, at least on the surface. Alma is the newest member of the village, having moved on a whim after visiting to view and paint the nearby falls. She painted lovingly rendered portraits of the missing girls, and also draws a beautiful portrait of Aya while being interviewed.

Alma also reminices quite admiringly about spotting a “beautiful golden wolf”, something she can do since she’s on the village’s outskirts. She’s also caught in a white lie when Aya deduces that she isn’t from a family of artists nor did she receive formal art education, owing to the way she holds her charcoal.

The exchange of the week, and possibly the series thus far, is when Alma asks Aya how it feels to not be able to die, with Aya replying that it would honestly bore Alma to death.

Aya, Tsugaru and Shizuku follow Alma’s advice and take a look at the falls, which are indeed beautiful, and below which is presumably the wolf village. They also inspect the ruins of the tower. While they don’t find anything of note, it’s a gorgeous spot with the setting sun, and Tsugaru catches the glare of Aleister’s spyglass—Banquet is near.

Interestingly, he doesn’t tell Aya or Shizuku about this, but that evening while at Dr. Heinemann’s they end up in a standoff with Agents 3 and 4 from Royce: the spitfire gunslinger Alice Rapidshot, and the calm, cool Kyle Chaintail. Aya proposes a truce until she solves the case of the missing girls, which she believes will take no more than two days.

Later that night we witness Aya and Tsugaru swapping spit for the first time since they first formed their contract, though it’s clearly a routine “medical procedure” that Shizuku doesn’t enjoy watching. The night is then interrupted by commotion from outside: the village has formed a mob with torches and weapons once more.

This time, there target is Alma, who pleads with them to leave her alone, but ultimately can’t control herself from admitting that yes, she is the one who abducted and ate the girls, including Louise. She then transforms into her golden werewolf form and dashes away into the night.

Tsugaru and Shizuku pursue her while carrying Aya in her cage, and Tsugaru, flush with his infusion of Aya saliva, turns out to be more or less a match for Alma in strength. However, Alma slips away from his hold thanks to a gunshot from Alice, evades Shizuku’s gunfire, then snatches Aya’s cage in her jaws, runs to the falls, and tosses the cage in.

Shizuku, barefoot and in her nightgown but still quick as a cat, is able to catch the ring of her master’s cage with her blade and sling her safely to Tsugaru on the bank. Unfortunately, this means Shizuku lands in the water and goes over the massive falls. Despite having never heard a kind word from her, Tsugaru seems genuinely distraught.

The natural next destination for Tsugaru and Aya is the werewolf village below, but they still have to deal with Alma the golden werewolf, not to mention those pesky Royce agents and Moriarty’s clique.

Undead Murder Farce – 09 – The Howling Village

In a flashback, a scared little girl is riding on the back of a werewolf fleeing an angry mob. The wolf and girl seek refuge in a watchtower but the mob burns it to the ground. Eight years later, Tsugaru, Aya, and Shizuku have arrived in Heulendorf, in the German Alps, seeking the Forest of Fangs.

They first encounter the village doctor, Heinemann. Apparently, even in this remote village he’s heard of the Cage User, and begs them to take on a troubling case of village girls being taken in the night and later found torn to bits. It’s been happening every four months.

The villagers are understandably uneasy, and Gustav, father of Louise, the latest girl to be taken, even shoves a shotgun in Aya’s face when he first sees her. Aya tells him she’ll leave if he wants, but she believes she can determine who is behind the abductions, and he lowers the gun.

Aya has a good look around the scene of the kidnapping, and determines that a werewolf entered down through the chimney in wolf form, turned into a werewolf and tossed the room to make it seem like it was insane, then wrapped Louise (who must use a wheelchair to get around) in a bag and escaped through the now-broken window.

Aya is able to also rule out a copycat, as the bite marks on items in the recent scene match those from other incidents. While Aya tells Gustav he’s unlikely to see Louise “alive” again, she is still going to do her utmost to discover her kidnapper.

Aya, Tsugaru, and Shizuku then pay a visit to the elderly, bedridden mayor, who fears the village is done for. When he learns that they’re looking for the Forest of Fangs, he says it’s a place “that doesn’t exist in this world”, but can only be accessed by finding the forbidden werewolf village.

The mayor is loath to tell Aya where the village is or how to use the diamond, but when she bets she’ll be able to name the culprit behind the kidnappings within two days, he agrees to tell her. No sooner is this deal struck than two new cowboy-themed Royce agents arrive on the train.

Like the first episodes of the other arcs, this is mostly about setting the stage and introducing the players. Since I’m not the best detective I don’t have any ideas about who the culprit, other than perhaps the girl in the flashback. If she survived the fire, she may now be taking her revenge on the village that killed her mother and family.

Undead Murder Farce – 08 – Moonlit Banquet

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but in the parlence of our times, the music in Undead Murder Farce fuckin’ slaps. The music is by Yamaguchi Yuma, who has only done the music for a handful of anime, none of which I’ve seen other than this. But the mood for each of the many battles that takes place simultaneously this week is set perfectly by Yamaguchi’s punchy combination of orchestral, jazz, and electronic themes.

Lupin suggests a truce with Tsugaru so they can deal with the powerful Reynold, and end up dropping an organ on him. Fatima is wounded by Phantom, who has used his years underground to become the master of acoustics. Shizuku looks well matched against Carmilla, until she starts feeling the effects of the vampire’s aphrodisiac venom.

There’s a lot going on, and all of it is fun. Holmes and Watson’s fight with Aleister Crowley is interrupted by the arrival of Moriarty, whom Sherlock had presumed died eight years ago, and his attendant Victor. Even when Moriarty proceeds to provide an infodump of how he’s built a small army of monsters, it’s still kept visually interesting.

His crown jewel is Jack the Ripper, who like Tsugaru is an artificially created hybrid. Tsugaru is a human-oni hybrid, but Jack also has the offensive and defensive prowess of a vampire baked into his DNA. I’m not sure quite what you call what he does to poor doomed Fatima (scalloping? filleting?) but goddamn is it brutal.

Moriarty happens to be the person who stole Aya’s body, and he’s been using it for research; Jack also has a touch of her immortality baked in. He and his troupe of baddies, named Banquet, want Fogg’s diamond so they can locate the last missing piece for his chimeric masterpiece: werewolves. Needless to say, Moriarty is in no hurry to return Aya’s body to her. His research and the discoveries it will reveal have only just begun for him.

Tsugaru might be able to tell he’s got one tough opponent in Jack, who has a lot more going on in his bloodwork than just oni. Jack also recognizes him as the only test subject to escape Moriarty’s dungeon-lab. Tsugaru gives it the college try, but Jack bests him, then deems him unworthy of even being finished off. Jack then fires a flare to signal to the other Banquet members that the diamond has been secured.

He doesn’t know it, but in doing so, he saved Shizuku’s life. Under the woozy sexy spell of Carmilla’s venom, Carmilla is about to slowly have her way with her when Carmilla finds Lestrade’s silver cross and stabs the vampire in the hip. Carm is about to go medieval on Shizuku, but the flare stops her, and she withdraws along with Moriarty and the others.

Aya, Sherlock, Holmes, Fogg, and the other detectives gather back in Fogg’s study to commiserate being well and truly beaten this night, and are joined by a still…amorous Shizuku. While Tsugaru fought Jack, Lupin fled with Phantom, and they presume they took the silver safe with them, as with everything going on Aya completely forgot about it.

As for the Penultimate Night…well, Jack is about to show it to Moriarty and the others when he realizes the pocket he put it in has a hole in it—a hole made by the sticky-fingered Tsugaru while they were tussling. I got a big dopamine kick when Tsugaru cheekily produces the diamond, which he ultimately kept out of both Lupin and Banquet’s hands.

Aya has already translated the writing carved within the diamond, and suggests they hold it up to an arc streetlamp. The UV light emanating from the lamp turns the Europium within the diamond a glowing red, creating a theretofore hidden word: Fangzahnewald, or Forest of Fangs, the location of the werewolves everyone seems to be searching for.

Needless to say, and to quote Sherlock, the game is afoot. Aya isn’t just going to let Moriarty keep her body. She wants it back! Nor does she want him to gain the power to dominate the world. If he did that, she wouldn’t be able to solve fun mysteries with Tsugaru and Shizuku by her side! So Moriarty and his merry band of weirdoes are the logical next target. Until then, this was a superbly fun supernatural crowd-pleaser.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 01 (First Impressions) – Freedom and Results

Oliver Horn is a new first-year student at Hogwarts Kimberly Magic Academy, a school with the design of a breathtaking castle perched upon a hill. While walking through the cherry blossoms to the opening ceremony, he encounters his classmates, and they encounter one another. The one that makes the biggest impact on all of them is a petite samurai girl with a bright smile and a complete disregard for the dress code.

The assembled classmates are greeted by a parade of magical beasts, but one of them gets pissed off when a troll is part of the parade, believing it to be a wrong, even racist practice. She butts heads with her male classmate, and it’s here where I note that she has huge brown hair and he’s a redhead, just like Ron and Hermione! Probably a coincidence.

What likely isn’t a coincidence is when someone in the crowd casts a spell that makes the brown-haired girl’s legs run even though she doesn’t want them to. She’s on a collision course with the troll, and it doesn’t look like he cares whether she’s pro- or anti-troll. Who should come between her and her sudden and unncerimonial demise but the magical samurai girl.

Here, Oliver not only shows his ability to herd cats and get the classmates to execute his plan even though none of them know each others’ names (and neither do we—we don’t even know Oliver’s yet) but also his penchant for spell customization, creating a decent facsimile of a dragon’s roar.

That roar distracts the troll, giving samurai girl the perfect opening. As she leaps into the air, she’s covered with glowing mana and her hair turns white. Her magical katana slams against the crown of the Troll’s skull, knocking him out.

Immediately after looking cool and badass as hell, the girl turns around and acts like a big goof, as her hands are still shaking from the skull impact. But her classmate is safe, and so is she thanks to Oliver and the others’ magical teamwork.

When Kimberly’s headmistress Esmeralda apparates into the auditorium with a flourish of lightning, it’s made clear that incidents like the one we just saw are relatively common, as the academy has a student attrition rate of 20%. And by “attrition” I mean death by myriad means both magical and otherwise.

Esmeralda minces no words in making her point, which is surely to sharpen these first-years and get them used to the fact that while they have extraordinary freedom, with it comes responsibility for their own lives and futures. The curt sobriety of the headmistress’ speech is followed by the samurai girl not asking Esmeralda a question, but just recommending a way to reduce headaches.

Once the classmates are magically wafted to the banquet hall, the classmates finally introduce one another. This should feel like last-second infodump—and in many ways it is—but allowing each student to introduce themselves also allows gives us an efficient Cliff Notes of who they are and where they’re from, it also allows for plenty interaction between these six different personalities.

You have the cordial aristocrat oujou-sama Michela McFarlane, complete with drill curls, the mousier animal lover Katie Aalto, the outgoing farm boy/botanist Guy Greenwood,  the introverted tsundere Muggle-born Pete Reston, and Oliver, who has two older cousins at the academy. They all come off as likeable, though Guy is the closest to being grating.

Finally, there’s Hibiya Nanao, the samurai girl, who is far more far-flung than anyone else, and also didn’t have to take any test to enroll. Instead, she was discovered by a faculty member (who happens to be Michela’s dad) and received a special recommendation.

With all the intros out of the way, everyone heads off to their dorms. Oliver is roommates with Pete, and makes sure he’s tucked in before heading out on an pre-dawn stroll. He’s confronted in the garden by a “covert operative” named Teresa Carste, sent by his brother Gwyn to watch over him.

Oliver gets another taste of Hibiya Nanao’s whole fish-out-of-water deal when he finds her topless, purifying herself with water from a fountain. Oliver warns her about the nearby boys dorms, but Nanao doesn’t possess the same Western modesty as he does. What she does have are a lot of battle scars, suggesting she’s no stranger to leaping into death’s jaws.

The reason she was able to save Katie was that she also harbored a healthy, if almost unconscious trust in her peers to back her up and, incidentally, save her from getting killed by the troll. It’s a group I’m looking forward to watching as they grow closer as friends and make each other better mages.

The Genius Prince’s Guide – 08 – Little Miss Vying for the Throne

With help from Mayor Cosimo of the merchant city of Mealtars, Princess Lowellmina has organized a Summit of Imperial Heirs, where she and her three brothers can discuss a “peaceful succession”. She made a point to invite Natra, which is to say Wein, but is surprised to discover he sent his sister Princess Falanya in his stead.

It was actually Falanya’s idea. Sure, Wein had no interest in getting tangled up in another one of Lowa’s webs, and has the excuse of dealing with the aftermath of the civil war. But as we’ve seen in what are informative but rather stiff infodumps with her tutor, she’s absorbed enough knowledge, and wants an opportunity to apply it…while helping her dear brother out.

Lowa soon pivots from her disappointment over Wein not coming, and decides to introduce Falanya to her three brothers. There’s the youngest, Prince Manfred, who seems the shrewdest of the three (though not four if you include Lowa!), the hulking military-backed Prince Bardloche, and the eldest, Demetrio, who is the eldest…and biggest jerk.

Falanya comports herself well in this deep end of the political pool; a testament to her education and diligence. When the three bros start to bicker, Ninym is there to suggest the politest possible tactical retreat: she already promised to speak to Lowa.

However, it’s Ninym who picks up on Lowa’s not-so-subtle cues she wishes to talk in private, and it’s here where the episode shines, as I love how these two drop all rank and pretense and act towards each other like the old classmates and friends (or frenemies?) they are.

As Falanya observes and learns at the banquet, Lowa proposes a deal with Ninym: inside information about the summit of heirs in exchange for Natra joining her cause (which is now a legitimate fourth faction, making up in patriotic fervor what it lacks in teeth). Ninym, who wasn’t born yesterday and understands Wein’s wishes, imitates Wein perfectly in declining Lowa.

It’s not quite as fun when Mayor Cosimo gives Falanya a tour of the city, but Falanya is suddenly inspired upon entering the “Citizen’s Assembly”, which serves as a kind of non-voting delegation of commoners who hash out various proposals and debates.

Even though they’re discussing the construction of a new aquaduct, Falanya is enthralled, and watches carefully to see who among the delegates persuades most of the others to his way of thinking (unfortunately, I didn’t see any women in the assembly).

Demetrio, who we immediately learn to be a rude petulant asshole, activates Full Skeevy Villain Mode when he decides he’ll take out his anger at Wein for sending Falanya in his stead by doing…something to Falanya. It’s clear that even in a scenario in which Lowa doesn’t win the battle of succession, it isn’t going to be this guy.

He’s just a bad seed, and when his face twisted as he knocked over his own table of food, I thought him capable of anything, up to and including kidnapping poor lil’ Falanya!

That something turns out to be initially less barbaric, as he suddenly surprises Falanya (and Lowa and Ninym) with a proposal of marriage to Falanya. He says it’s to tighten bonds with Natra, but it’s really because once Falanya marries him, he’ll consider her his property to torment as he pleases. That’ll teach Wein to slight him!

Falanya trembles a bit, but regains her cool and politely responds by saying she’ll convey his proposal to Natra. When Demetrio says he needs an answer from her now, she takes the kid gloves off and surprises everyone in the room with her directness: royal marriages are a matter of state, and she knows full well she’s still too young and inexperienced to make such a decision alone.

Wein’s brother would be so proud…so it’s a good thing he’s here, and was listening just outside the room. On the one hand I’m sure Falanya and Ninym are glad Wein’s there. I also believe that Falanya won’t see his arrival as a failure on her part; as she said, she’s too young and inexperienced for the moves that are going down in Mealtars.

Demetrio will have to tread lightly around Wein to avoid being gutted, but it’s also incumbent on Wein not to doom his country by impulsively slaying the eldest imperial prince, even if he is a prick! Finally, I’m sure Lowa is glad Wein’s there, because she wanted him there all along. Will she be able to draw him to her side, huge hassle though it may be for him?

Meikyuu Black Company – 07 – Operation Eternal Capital

Just as Preston seems to be enjoying Moonlight Fantasy more for the interaction of its endearing cast and not necessarily its world-building or plot, I too prefer when MBC keeps things simple.

That didn’t happen this week, as the meeting with the Demon Lord—who is Rimu’s twin sister—sits on her throne and delivers one long and convoluted infodump about What’s Going On, What’s At Stake, and Ninomiya’s crucial role in Saving the World.

The Demon Lord’s exposition is actually accompanied by actual imagery of a temporal war between the forces of natural order in the world and the corrupting expansion of Raiza’ha that left unchecked will render the planet incapble of supporting life.

But that conceptual ambition isn’t matched by sufficiently impressive visuals. Also, the bottom linie is Ninomiya is standing around either nodding his head or adding his two cents here and there.

Ninomiya, Rimu and Ranga actually arrive at the Demon Lord’s castle as Raiza’ha of the future is about to bring about the end of the world, so at the end of her spiel it’s time for the three to return to the past from whence they came.

Well, Ranga comes from the future, but he’s all in on going back in time with Ninomiya and Rimu. The DL does give Ninomiya a Matrix-like blue-or-red choice, but rather tan return safely to Japan, Ninomiya accepts the challenge of the mantle of savior of this world.

Upon returning, Ninomiya learns he and Rimu were gone a month, and not only is he penalized for the unapproved time off by his boss Belza, but his accommodations were assigned to another employee.

Since he arrives just in time to save Shia and Wanibe in the Dungeon, he, Rimu and Ranga take it upon himself to crash at Shia’s (admittedly pretty nice) apartment until further notice. She’s not particularly thrilled—and is perplexed by the sudden appearance of the extremely cute Ranga—but she’s also a nice person, and so accepts the freeloaders.

That night, the gang avails themselves of a rare instance of Raiza’ha footing the bill at a traditional business dinner and drinks, though Ninomiya must foot the bill for Rimu and Ranga as they are not Raiza’ha employees.

Ninomiya wants to be above socializing with the “rabble” but he knows the consequences of letting Rimu go hungry for too long, and so accepts the additional debt on top of the cost of being AWOL for a month.

In a show as irreverent towards The System as MBC, it’s not surprising that Ninomiya would be sent back to the past as the world’s only hope of salvation only to be treated like a problem employee by the very company that will be responsible for the worlds destruction in 300 years if he didn’t come back.

He also faces a rude awakening as he commences Operation Eternal Capital, as the difficulty of the Dungeon that leads to the ancient ruins has increased quite a bit since he last tackled it. That said, with the power of Rimu, Shia, Ranga, on his side (and Wanibe too, I guess), his Meikyuu Black Company is putting its best foot forward in this quest to save the world.

I just wish the production values were doing the same, but this was a distractingly janky-looking episode, especially when contrasted with the smooth CGI go-go-dancing of Rimu and the Demon Lord in the new ED.

Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood – 01 (First Impressions)

Dark and brooding, stylish and cool, Jouran is the story of a small band of assassins under the employ of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In this alternate history, Tokugawa Yoshinobu is still in power in 1931 thanks in large part to the discovery of the energy source Ryuumyuaku, or Dragon Vein. As a result, Tokyo is a glamorous city where science and Edo-period tradition merge.

Among the assassins is Yukimura Sawa, our protagonist (voiced by Mimori Suzuko, Kamisama Hajimemashita’s Nanami). Sawa is a stoic, no-nonsense young woman who grudgingly shares her living space with the young orphan Asahi who cooks her meals, and is the type to threaten a flirting guy with murder and not be joking.

Her two fellow assassins are the sardonic Tsukishiro Makoto (the striking Shouta Aoi) and the seductive Hanakaze Elena (the musician Raychell), who refers to Sawa as “the little bitch”. Their group’s leader is grim man named Kuzuhara who believes the dissident group Kuchinawa will attempt to assassinate the shogun at a banquet celebrating the completion of the new Tokyo Castle.

Makoto and Elena go undercover as party guests and end up following a bigwig confirmed to be working with the dissidents on the sly. Sawa is notable for her absence from the party, while lil’ Asahi waits at the dinner table in vain.

Makoto and Elena follow the bigwig and his henchmen to a secluded warehouse where an exchange of materials is taking place, and the assassins quickly take down everyone there. Elena uses a rather unique umbrella crossbow, while Makoto uses what I’d describe as a lightsaber katana.

However, their true target, a kemono or “changeling”, is nowhere to be found. Makoto bombs the facility and he and Elena head to the eastern gate of the castle, where he knows one of the vast network of secret tunnels leads from their current position.

Sawa is there, ready to head off the changeling, doing so by transforming into one herself with the help of a white raven. It’s depicted as a volatile and extremely painful process, but once she’s transformed she resembles a serene yuki-onna.

When she realizes her changeling opponent is the young man who flirted with her at the bookstore, she hesitates momentarily, and is wounded, but ultimately takes care of business, slicing off the changeling’s hand and finishing him off with a haunting poem that matches Sawa’s icy beauty and that of the scene:

Amidst the pitiless white snow
A fleeting dream is scattered
The path back leads only to Hell
I have no regrets

Makoto and Elena arrive just after she returns to human form and passes out. The threat to Yoshinobu would seem to be dealt with, but the next day at the official opening ceremony of Tokyo Castle, we witness scenes of carnage involving more changelings, presumably within its walls.

Sawa is recovering at home, but even in sleep she gets no rest, as she’s transported back to when her brother was murdered along with the rest of her family, by Janome, Kuchinawa’s executioner. She’s vowed not to die and join her family until she gets revenge on Janome, but Asahi seems prepared to kill her in her sleep with a kitchen knife. I guess she doesn’t like being kept waiting for dinner, huh?

Like Sawa, Jouran and its familiar-yet-bizarre alternate Tokyo carries itself with a quiet, assured dignity, but just as Sawa is tormented by trauma and tragedy, corruption, suffering, and death lurk beneath the gleaming Shogunate capital, much of it delivered by monsters in suits and with claws.

Assuming Sawa survives her tiny assassin’s attack, I’m excited to watch her continue to walk the line between her official duty and blood debts.

Attack on Titan – 63 – Bread and Circuses

Mister “Kruger” (*cough*-Eren-*cough*) has developed enough of a rapport with young Falco that he’s comfortable asking him to deliver mail to his family from outside the Internment Zone.

Meanwhile, Commander Magath welcomes Willy, head of the Tybur family—and thus the head of Marley’s military. He recognizes that Marley needs a new hero, in the image of Helos of a hundred years ago, and intends to make the IZ the site of a speech he’ll deliver that will change Marley’s course.

As preparations for his speech commence, planning for the invasion of Paradis continues, with the Marleyan commander dismissing Braun’s dilligent and nuanced intelligence of the island to be a waste of time. Braun, Pieck, and Porco (who is briefly freaked out by Pieck’s tendency to crawl like her Titan) watch as their young successors train.

It’s a big day for Falco, who beats Gabi in a full-kit footrace. Gabi has a blind spot when it comes to Falco’s crush on her and desire to save her from the curse of being the next Armored Titan, so when he comes right out and tells her he “cares about her”, she’s utterly confused and angry rather than touched.

Gabi is the kind of wide-eyed dreamer who believes if the Tyburs bring people from all over the world to the IZ, they’ll be able to see that the present generations of Eldians are nothing like their demonic forebears, and aren’t anyone to fear (or systematically eradicate).

Unfortunately, Gabi is ignorant not just to the true attitudes of other nations, but also the fact that most Marleyans will never accept Eldians as equals or even real humans. Tybur’s seminal speech could praise her people or it could condemn them.

When Falco visits Mr. Kruger at the hospital, he now has a baseball and glove. After he leaves, an old man sits beside Kruger and introduces himself as “Dr. Yeager”. He warns Kruger not to get Falco, a promising Eldian, into trouble, and talk of lifelong regrets come up, including “that day” when his son (Grisha?) took his sister outside the walls.

While I pondered whether Eren just met his grandfather (later carried away by orderlies when he starts screaming uncontrollably), day turns to night and we’re at a fancy banquet honoring Tybur and his upcoming speech. Falco, Gabi, Udo and Zofia are put to work as waiters, underscoring their status as second class citizens no matter how hard they fight.

Things get tense when Udo overhears foreign guests lobbing slurs at them, but thankfully when he spills wine on a woman, she happens to be from Hizuru, “a country in the Orient” which may well be more tolerant of Eldians. She lies about spilling the wine on herself, sparing Udo harsh punishment.

The next day, Gabi wakes up to find the IZ has been turned into a busy, colorful festival town, and joins her mates and senpais for a day of sampling every kind of food they can. It’s a rare montage of pure fun and joy, which almost surely means it’s probably the last fun they’ll be having for a while.

That night, minutes before Tybur gives his speech, Falco asks Braun to follow him somewhere. He takes him down into a secluded basement where Mr. Kruger is waiting…only his name, as expected, isn’t Kruger. He greets Braun for the first time in four years, and Braun immediately recognizes him as Eren Yeager.

After episodes that give the “bad guys” of previous seasons more depth and illustrating how much the world sucks no matter where you live, we’re finally approaching something resembling the Attack on Titan with which we’re most familiar: Eren and Braun in the same room.

That said, who knows what Eren wants, how he lost his leg, why he’s posing as a wounded Eldian veteran, or what he intends to get out of Braun. Regardless, I remain intrigued.

Fruits Basket – 49 – Wishing for Change

When Kakeru brings up ranger colors, Yuki surprises Machi by asking her what her favorite color is. No one has ever asked her that, and she doesn’t know anyway. She gets up to leave when Miki organizes a lunch meetup, but Yuki doesn’t let her slip away wordlessly, giving the cell phone-less Machi a written note of the time and place of the lunch.

Nobody ever paid any attention to Kuragi Machi. She passes through people and places as if she is invisible. She has no favorite color or preferred restaurant. She calls herself dull, a void, and a defective doll. Her apartment is a mess, because why bother keeping it clean if no one ever visits? She’s watched Yuki and how he’s changed, but can’t see if or how she can do the same.

Still, she took the simple maple leaf Yuki gave her and made it into a lovely bookmark, and possibly also a talisman; a reminder that change is not just possible, but necessary. Just as she’s wondering if her existence is necessary, Yuki answers that question by flagging her down; in her half-asleep stupor she happened to end up at the meeting spot for an even she had no intention of attending.

I’d been hoping for more Machi material, and this week we get lots. Despite her claims of dullness I find her a fascinating example of a non-Souma with Souma-like baggage, and thus an intriguing potential partner for Yuki, whom we’ve learned never had particularly romantic feelings for Tooru. Her problems are also an opportunity for Yuki to pay forward the progress he himself has made.

New Year’s is here, and there too are changes from last year. Yuki will be attending in addition to Shigure, so Tooru and Kyou will spend the holiday at Kazuma’s house, where Tooru is perhaps overly excited to learn that Isuzu is staying as well as she continues her recovery. Unfortunately Rin isn’t in the mood for Tooru’s exuberance.

Considering the line they independently drew between themselves, I’m not surprised Tooru and Kyou are fine with not spending New Years alone together—even though that delays the inevitable. That said, it’s still a hoot to watch them interact, with Tooru playfully hitting of Kyou with the pompom of her new scarf easily making the list of Top 10 Most Adorable Things Tooru Has Ever Done.

Meanwhile the banquet appears to be going off without a hitch. After Hatori performs a dance we sadly don’t get to see and Ayame entertains the others with his magnetic personality, Akito and Yuki seem on the cusp of a détente, with Akito deigning to forgive Yuki his past insolence now that he’s here.

But Yuki, as bold in front of Akito as we’ve ever seen him, deigns to forgive him as well, then goes on about how he’s done blaming others for his problems, and has resolved to be more aware of his flaws and areas in his life which he can improve. Yuki is essentially talking about change, which is anathema eternal Zodiac god like Akito.

Akito likes Yuki the way he is—or rather the way he thinks he is, which is in reality no longer the way he was. Yuki isn’t back because he was cowed or came to his senses or is admitting he was wrong; he’s back as a simple courtesy, which must feel patronizing to Akito. So Akito breaks a ceramic pot across Yuki’s face, and just like that, Yuki’s past and future absences from the banquet are handily justified.

It’s not a severe laceration—just a small cut on the scalp—but if anyone from Prince Yuki had seen their beloved Yuki’s beautiful face thus marred I’m not certain Akito would have made it out of the room in one piece! To Yuki, it was probably worth it to say something to Akito that in a perfect world all Zodiacs would be able to say to Akito: It is YOU who is a useless piece of shit who should just disappear. Mind you Yuki doesn’t actually say this; but it’s implied!

When Hatori cleans up the cut, Yuki also makes sure to apologize to him for blaming him for erasing the memories of his childhood friends. He now knows better, and that Hatori too was young and had to obey Akito. Hatori tells him, quite rightly, that there’s nothing to apologize for.

Tooru and Kyou actually end up alone together anyway, as Kazuma steps out and Rin has an early night. Hatsu stops by, but to be with Rin. Explaining Shisho’s mention of Kyou and Rin’s propensity to stare each other down as kids, Kyou tells Tooru that he felt like he stole Shisho from him, and so came to not like her.

As for Tooru’s New Year’s wish (which Kyou asks her for before he tells her his), while last year she wished for Kyou and Yuki to get along (and by their standards, they pretty much do now) this year her wish is arguably more ambitious: for the curse to be broken and happiness to come.

Against a Zodiac system that has endured for centuries without change, Tooru is wishing for change…for revolution. And by golly, if anyone can move the gods in the heavens to grant that wish, it’s Tooru. If they don’t, they can expect no quarter in the scarf pompom-thrashing to come!

Want to read more about episode 49? Check out Crow’s review here!

Re: Zero – Memory Snow

Firstly, this OVA/Movie isn’t new: it was released back in October 2018…but it’s new for me! And frankly, after one and a half seasons of watching the cast of Re:Zero in chibi form sharing the screen with the casts of 3-4 other isekai shows, it’s a rare pleasure to finally see Subaru, Rem, Ram, Emilia, Roswaal, and Beako in their normal proportions, in a more slice-of-life setting.

While these initial screenshots are disconcerting, one can be rest assured that neither Subie nor anyone else goes through anything horrible or traumatic in this Memory Snow side story; the worst thing that happens is he wakes up to an increasingly cold manor. Turns out the cold is emanating from Puck, who is undergoing Hatsumaki, a periodic semi-controlled bleeding-off of mana. It’s fun to learn that Ram shares Subie’s extreme dislike of the cold.

Subaru’s first date with Lia is postponed until the Hatsumaki is over, but he makes the best of a chilly situation by taking a page from his homeland and organizing a snow festival on the manor grounds. Everyone makes a snow sculpture while Subie, the village elder and Roswaal serve as judges. Even Beako gets in on the action, while Ram and Rem’s collaboration of a Subaru-Roswaal hybrid statue gets middling scores for being so creepy.

At the post-festival banquet, Roswaal cracks open a stash of booze hidden under the floorboards of Subaru’s bedroom. This results in what I believe is our first taste of both Tipsy Emilia and Tipsy Rem, who while unassailably adorable in their playful drunkenness, have limited energy stores and it’s not long before both are using Subie’s lap as a pillow. Ram, on the other hand, can mostly hold her liquor.

The group migrates outside, where Puck expands the Hatsumaki to give the villagers and surrounding lands a lovely late night snowfall; the spirits soon appear, thousand points of light dancing around the sky. Beako and Rem deliver their barbs to Subaru regarding his being named after a star of all things, but by night’s end everyone can jump in bed content after a very full, fun day spearheaded by Barusu.

With Puck’s Hatsumaki waning, the story closes with Subaru and Emilia finally having their date—and Lia unveiling her adorable outfit for the occasion. While this outing lacked its parent anime’s sadistic bite or any measurable stakes, it was a strong affirmation of the real reason why I kept watching Re:Zero, and will be tuning in to its second season: the characters. Subaru, Rem, Emilia & Co. are eminently fun to watch, whether they’re chibis in a high school or playing in the snow without a care in the world.

Val x Love – 05 – No Obedient Banquet

All nine Valkyrie sisters attend the campus festival despite knowing the chance of an attack there is high, because they have the opportunity to all level up at once. The greater the risk, the greater the reward. Takuma is his usual insufferable scaredy-cat self, but that doesn’t stop him from ending up spilling viscous white liquid all over Yakumo or having to fish an eel out of Misa’s clothes—pretty standard lucky lecher stuff.

When the enemy (whom they don’t know is Garm) strikes, he robs the women of their source of power, the Einherjar by impaling him through the stomach and locking him in the bounded cube, while all the other festival attendees are converted to akuma minions that keep the sisters plenty busy. First sister Ichika and Natsuki protect the entrance, while inside Garm toys with Takuma, counting on him to do nothing and die as he enjoys a McDonalds banquet.

Things start to get dire as Itsuya and Mutsumi end up overwhelmed by akuma army and their various appendages, providing more ecchi content. But it’s Natsuki’s earnest belief that Takuma will indeed stand and fight when the time comes (because he’s done so and saved her many times before) that holds more power than all the T, A, and ahegao. Upon standing, Takuma is swiftly taken down by Garm, but Second sister Futaba finally locates them. He held out just long enough; now a Valkyrie has access to the Einherjar, and the tables can be turned.