Hell’s Paradise – 08 – Blooming Potential

There’s no Sagiri or Gabimaru in this episode. It’s given over entirely to the duo of Tenza and Nurugai, the island’s cutest couple. Tenza came from nothing, was nothing, but was taken in by a member of the Yamada Asaemon clan who believed he had potential.

Now he himself is a Yamada Asaemon, and like his master, has decided that simply executing someone of Nurugai’s potential (both as a person and a wife) would be a waste. Unfortunately, on this island, both of them draw breath at the pleasure of the Tensen.

When then Tensen attacks, Tenza is thrown back and disabled, but before the Tensen can attack Nurugai, he finds his second wind, lops off both the head and hands of his opponent, and flees through the forest with Nurugai. When the quickly regenerated Tensen instantly catches up with them, they’re both saved by Tenza’s master, Shion, a blind mad with a kind heart.

When Shion points his sword at Nurugai and asks why Tenza hasn’t executed her, Tenza shows how much he’s grown by speaking like a man, insisting to Shion that he’s only doing the same thing Shion did with him. Not only does he see potential in Nurugai like Shion saw in him, but she is that something Shion told him he’d come to want to protect.

But while Shion tables the question of Nurugai’s fate for another time, all their time grows short as long as the Tensen persues them. It cuts Shion’s throat, and Tenza digs deep into his swordsmanship to simply buy time for his master and Nurugai.

There was a time when Tenza didn’t believe in his potential like Shion did, and had decided to quit his training. Shion agreed to let him go if he could land a single strike on him.

When fellow Yamada executioner Eizen showed Tenza the grave of Shion’s former student who had fled and become a criminal Shion himself had to execute, it motivated him to not only land that strike on his master, but decide that he wanted to stay and continue to be taught rather than run away.

In the present, Tenza doesn’t run away, but fully realizes the potential Shion believed he had by sacrificing himself to allow his master and Nurugai to escape. Nurugai is beside herself and wants to go back to where Tenza is, but Shion insists that’s not what Tenza would want.

It’s clear that no human, no matter how skilled, is a match for a Tensen. It’s also clear that Jigokuraku is not above teasing enticing executioner-prisoner ships and then promptly sinking them with extreme prejudice. Tenza’s past was efficiently and compellingly laid out this week, and his death is a cruel gut punch.

Golden Kamuy – 43 – A Far More Difficult Path

Over six months after it was postponed due to the passing of a key staff member, Golden Kamuy marks its stirring return with the long-awaited meeting between Asirpa and Lt. Tsurumi in Karafuto. While he’s cordial with Asirpa, his insistence that he fights for a happier world for all—including the Ainu—doesn’t convince Asirpa.

Before they meet, Tsurumi says under his breath that he’ll keep her detained indefinitely in a dark, filthy cell furnished with a bucket and a stool until they find the gold. At the sight of Asirpa’s dazzling blue eyes, so much like Wilk’s, he can’t stop leaking…er…fluid from the brain. So Asirpa makes a break for it, with Sugimoto right beside her.

Tsurumi’s men fan out and search the town, with Usami finding them first and Tsukishima training his rifle at them. When Sugimoto keeps running, he shoots him, but that only unlocks Immortal Sugimoto, who goes to absolute town on Koito and another 7th soldier.

Asirpa holds Sugimoto tight throughout his rampage, and while he was shot a few times, he assures her he’s not hurt bad enough for “his soul to escape his body”. Tsurumi shoots a disapproving look at Tsukishima for letting Asirpa get away, while she and Sugimoto encounter the hooded Russian sniper, who takes them away on a horse.

Shiraishi and Tanigaki catch up to them, but only Shiraishi hops on the horse. Tanigaki has to protect Inkarmat, so he stays behind. They make it onto the ferry back to Hokkaido, but a single 7th soldier follows Sugimoto’s blood trail. Asirpa tells him to shoot the soldier in the leg, but the sniper goes for the headshot, and they’re home free…

That is, until Tsurumi gives chase in his destroyer. The ferry captain, pissed off that a warning shot was fired at a ship full of civilians, agrees to help Sugimoto, even sailing the ferry directly at the ice floes. When Tsurumi’s destroyer opens fire, it blasts away the floes, allowing the ferry to slip past.

When the gap closes and the destroyer attempts to blast its way through, Asirpa, Sugimoto, Shiraishi, and the sniper disembark while wearing white sheets, making them invisible to Tsurumi’s men as they complete their journey on the ice fields.

When they first ran from Tsurumi, thus spoiling any potential deal they might have had with him, Asirpa tells Sugimoto not to tell her not to do things anymore. Instead, he should be thinking of things they can be doing together in the future.

On the boat, Sugimoto tells Shiraishi that he’s heard both him and Asirpa, and has decided to believe in her as she tries to protect the Ainu the best way she knows. He knows that this will be a far more difficult path than simply killing their way to the gold.

Asirpa, meanwhile, withholds the secret of the code to Sugimoto, believing that will keep him with her. Where he was once so obsessed with protecting her that he wanted to keep her out of the search for the gold entirely, now she is determined to be a “powerful shield” for him.

Our pals manage to encounter a group of Ainu on a wooden boat who take them the rest of the way to Hokkaido, but days after they fled Karafuto, Ogata manages to steal the dead soldier’s uniform and gun, along with some salted cod, and tells a sob story about coming home after being wounded in the war that the ferry captain eats right up. Always good to see Ogata lucid and focused.

Hell’s Paradise – 07 – The Real Battle

When the two ethereal-looking lovers spot Choubei and Touma, the one with golden hair stands up from their necking session, protests the presence of humans, and transforms into a male form, crushing a fruit in his hand. When Gabimaru spots a little girl with pink hair, he gives chase, leaving Yuzuriha and Senta to deal with the girl’s Groot-like protector.

Yuzuriha swipes Senta’s glasses then drinks some kind of tincture that causes her to secrete a thick viscous liquid from her skin and orifices. Unfortunately, like Senta, we’re not able to see more of her secret ninjutsu, but the next we do see her, the Groot is on the ground.

As for the little girl, she’s extremely quick through the forest, but so is Gabi. When he catches up to her, she Judo-throws him, then later throws a punch that demonstrates strength far beyond the presumed limits of her slender frame.

Gabimaru, desperate to reunite with his wife and thus prepared to do anything, uses his ninjutsu to ensnare the girl in vines. After he monologues about being tired of everything so difficult and warning the girl to tell him about the elixir of life or she’ll “force him to do more,” the girl bursts into blubbering tears. Gabimaru is disarmed, and Sagiri rightfully shoots him a judging look.

Sagiri takes the girl in her arms to comfort her, and they reunite her with the Groot, who tells them he’ll take them to their village for a meal and to discuss the elixir. Yuzuriha agrees with Gabimaru that this could be a trap…until the Groot tells them they have a bath, then she’s on Team Go to the Village.

After Yuzuriha and Sagiri enjoy a nice hot soak (Sagiri insisting she’s not relaxing her responsibilities while making a very pleased sound upon immersing herself made me LOL) Yuzuriha and Senta eat the fruit provided and don’t transform into flower zombies.

The Groot, who is named Houko, explains that there is indeed an Elixir of Life, but it is located at the very center of the island, the map of which is three concentric circles representing the three regions: shore/woods, village, and mists.

Houko is fine sharing this information and showing the humans hospitality, because he’s certain they’re not getting off this island alive. That won’t be because of him—he harbors neither affection nor animosity—but because of the Tensen.

So far, Gabimaru and Sagiri & Co. have only encounter the Soushin—monsters of the forest region. In the central region of Horai dwell the Tensen, who are the gold and pink-haired individuals Choubei and Touma encounter. Described as perfect, eternal beings, no human is any match for the Tensen.

We know Choubei is no slouch, but his giant blade is shattered by Goldie’s bare hand, and both he and Touma are tossed into a pit packed with former human victims, all technically still alive but partially transformed into flowers and in a constant state of bliss.

After Houko’s exposition, Gabimaru heads to the bath with Sagiri tagging along. He chastises her for letting her guard down (we cut to her nodding off after the bath and meal) but she insists she didn’t. When Gabi walks in on the little girl (whose name is Mei), she bursts into tears again.

Mei runs to Sagiri, but Gabi doesn’t understand the fuss; in his village everyone shared the baths except the village chief, who had a private one. As Sagiri pulls up her sleeves and gives the filthy Mei a proper Edo-style bathhouse experience and washes her hair, her remark about Gabi stretching himself too thin takes him back to a memory of Yui saying the same thing.

Gabimaru was initially embarrassed to have his back washed by Yui, but also just dislikes baths. He believes they wash away his “edge”, to which Yui responds by dumping a bucket of water on his head and asking him to clarify if he thinks his wife is wantonly robbing him of his luck in battle.

No, she’s insistent that he’s stretched too thin, and has to take the time to relax and reinvigorate, so he can stay prepared for “the real battle”—her term for life itself. In this battle, he’s the general, she’s the strategist, and victory is living peacefully, honestly, and true to one’s ideals.

Gabi asks if he, as general, can issue a strategic order: for Yui to stop wearing her hair so it hides the scar on her face. He tells her she’s beautiful, making her beam with happiness. We haven’t seen much of Yui, but she makes such an impact in the times we have that I’m confident she’s a worthy rival to Yuzaki Tsukasa for Best Wife of the Season.

Back in the present, Gabimaru tells Mei not to be embarrassed by her scar. When Sagiri says that’s not so easy for a woman, Gabi begs to differ: he knows a woman with a large scar, but no one is more beautiful. Not only is Sagiri “dumbfounded” by this respectable comment, but Mei seems to be won over, as she grabs Gabimaru’s sleeve and looks admiringly upon him.

Outside the bath, as Sagiri smiles over the prospect of Gabimaru being a good person who continues to change little by little, Gabimaru wears a fearful face. Even if his wife told him to relax occasionally, he’ll never see her again unless he maintains his focus.

He knows where the Elixir of Life is, and the kind of beings who may stand in his way. He’ll use the information Houko provided to keep moving forward, knowing he’s sure to collect a few more scars before the mission concludes. If he can look upon Yui’s beautiful face once more, it will have all been worth it.

Urusei Yatsura – 21 – Urusei Babies

This week we get a flashback to when Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran were being oppressed by their teacher when they were little tykes. Only their school is in space, their teacher is a robot, and they’re doing most of the oppressing with increasingly violent pranks. As a fan of Muppet Babies, it was great to see these characters as rugrats but still fundamentally themselves, and the all-star voice cast nails their younger versions, as you’d expect.

We also get a good idea about the group dynamics at this early stage in the four “friends'” lives: Benten is the aggressive ringleader, Lum enthusiastically goes along with her mischief, Oyuki doesn’t stop them but merely observes and keeps her hands clean, and Ran always tries and fails to stop them, and always faces the same consequences they do. We already see her fury-ridden alter-ego being forged.

In the present, the four girls are concerned when Oyuki reports that Planet Urchin is being redeveloped, because that’s where they left CAO-2-sensei—stuck and trapped alone on one of those spikes for the better part of a decade. Luckily for them, once he’s free all he desires to to clap them with chalk dust one last time before going on his way. That clapping does involve destroying the wall of their café, but this show rarely dwells on property damage.

The second segment is a little less inventive due to the return to earth (I love it when we’re out in space, and the alien and school designs are weirder), involving Ryouko deciding to make a voodoo doll of her brother …because she’s bored? When he realizes what she’s done he pulls his katana on her, which does him no favors.

Ryouko cannot resist the temptation to do horrible things to the Mendou doll (and thus Mendou himself), so she leaves it in the care of someone she believes she can trust to keep it safe: Ataru. Ataru wears it around his neck at all times because Ryouko asked him, but this is not great for Mendou, as Ataru takes a lot of punishment throughout an average day, and he feels everything Ataru feels.

Initially, Mendou acts to everyone like he’s suddenly being a stand-up guy dedicated to keeping his friends Ataru safe. But then he confirms that Ataru has the doll of him, and that makes Ataru aware of what the doll can do to Mendou. Mendou in turn, makes a doll of Ataru, and the two spar in the most pointless battle imaginable, in which they each dole out the exact same amount of harm to one another with every attack.

Urusei Yatsura – 20 – Never Break the Chain

UY spends a decent chunk offworld this week as we check in on Benten, who gets knocked out by mushroom gas and has the chain she wears like a sash stolen. After getting a bath at Lums (with Ataru nowhere in sight), the two head to Oyuki’s on Neptune, where she has a package for Oyuki.

It’s a VHS tape of all things, with what amounts to a diss track from three middle schoolers who aspire to be as cool and badass as Benten, Lum, and Oyuki. They are Ginger, Sugar, and Snake, and if nothing else they have decent video production and choreography skills. When Lum and Oyuki bristle at the idea they’re “punksters”, Benten reminds them they always followed her into trouble.

Benten races off (without the map to the duel), and is followed by Lum, who is there for her friend, and Oyuki, who wants to be compensated for the VCR and projector Benten smashed out of rage. They end up meeting the three little twerps in a popular cafe on Earth of all places. They produce Benten’s chain, run off, and basically tell their senpais to come and take it.

In the ensuing chase, we learn Sugar can turn invisible, Ginger can play dead, and Snake can shed her skin. But none of these things are enough against Lum’s flight and electricity, not to mention Benten’s brawn and Oyuki’s…well, Oyuki is just kind of along for the ride!

The chill’uns end up luring Benten, Lum, and Oyuki to a vacant lot where their “computer” SALT #1, a giant metal Big Boy mascot that computed their duel strategy, lands right on top of its targets, who are lucky to have been right below a pitfall. SALT #1 then runs out of juice, and when it is replenished with veggie oil, barfs up hundreds of seemingly identical chains and launches back into space.

But before it does, Benten, Lum, and Oyuki are stuck under its foot in very close quarters. In the heat of the battle, Lum melted Benten’s chain into ash, and while she’s guilty about it, she’s not about to own up to it, lest Benten in her fury take her most prized possession: Darling. So she electrocutes Benten, asking her what’s more important, her stupid chain, or her friends?

While Oyuki comes up with a beautiful and romantic theory about a fellow biker dude giving Benten the chain as a memento, the truth is far more mundane: the chain is the key to Benten’s house. This is why Benten was locked out of her home for ten days and had to bathe at Lum’s—she didn’t have a spare.

To add insult to injury, she unknowingly left her back door open, which allowed the brats to break in, produce another chain, and dare their senpais to give chase once more. But at this point Benten is home and happy, Lum is stewing in her underwhelm-ment, and Oyuki is sippin’ tea. Playtime’s over, punks! Go back to school!

The Fire Hunter – 07 – Lamp Child

This episode stands out as the first one where Touko and Koushi finally meet, but that doesn’t happen instantly. Kira and Touko part ways when the latter says the dog Kanata knows where to go, but when Koushi returns from his excursion with Roroku, Kira tells him about the girl and hound…and also that while she loves her dad, she’s not ecstatic about him treating Koushi like a piece of property.

While Koushi left the city and went into danger with a roving hunter Yuoshichi doesn’t trust, Koushi explains that the experience lent him crucial information for his research and the entire operation, including the fact that Spiders don’t combust before natural flame, and that Roroku can help them bury bottled lightning around the palace and factory in preparation for the battle to come.

Back at Shouzou’s family’s house, Kaho continues to stay by his side, and delcares to Touko and Akira that she’s decided to marry him. Ever since she was sent away by her village she’s thought only of death, but not that everyone, even Touko, have stepped up to help keep her alive, she believes it’s her turn to protect someone: in this case, Shouzou. Also…the Spider kid Kun might be able to warg into bugs?

When Akira declines to take Kanata on a hunting trip, Touko decides to have the hound lead her back to his master’s house in hopes of finding his family there. They only get as far as the front door when a strange ghostly figure appears in the street. That figure is distracted and then neutralized via skyfire by Koushi, and he and Touko run through the rain from what he calls a spy of the gods.

When they find a resting spot, Koushi tells Touko how Kira told him about her and Kanata, and introduces himself as the son of the hunter who saved her. Touko prostrates herself and sheds tears of apology, but neither is needed; for Koushi, this is welcome news. He feared his dad abandoned him and his mom and sister, so it’s comforting to learn he died saving someone’s life.

When Kanata catches the scent of something, Touko spots who she thinks is one of the Treefolk who live in the Forbidden Quarter. Koushi promises to take her there, if she tells him everything she knows about the Spiders’ fire. Little do they know that a spy of the gods is still tailing them. But hey, at least Touko and Koushi have finally crossed paths. With her objective completed, what’s next for the Lamp Girl?

Spy x Family – 14 – Anya Saves the Future

Yor obliterates Keith’s heavy with a single kick, but he still has a dog. But when he tries to sic the shepherd on Yor and it bears its teeth, Yor out-intimidates it and sends the dog running. Keith runs too, but Yor stays with a still frightened Anya, then hugs and comforts her. The talking-to can wait until they get home. What a good mom.

Mister Dog has another vision that Anya picks up on: one of Papa suddenly no longer being in the family, and Anya discovering Loid’s lifeless body in a  pile of rubble. There’s a clock tower and a bell that tolls just before an explosion. Anya has to stop this future from happening, but she can’t tip Yor off to her powers, so she mounts Mr. Dog and runs off on her own yet again.

Yor calls the cops to arrest Keith’s unconscious comrade, and that tips off WISE, who descend upon all of the student-terrorists but Keith. They thumb their noses at their initial interrogators, but then Handler walks in and asks them what they want. When they say “war”, she delivers a  truly chilling speech about what war really is:

Have any of you actually killed a person before? Have you ever been killed by anyone? Have you ever lost a limb in an attack? Have you ever heard bones being smashed? Have you ever smelled festering flesh? Have you ever seen your parents or siblings crushed in a crumbling building right before your eyes? Have you ever seen a piece of your lover’s flesh stuck to a wall? Have you ever been so hungry, you tried to bite into a tree? Have you ever stewed human flesh in a pot? Have you ever had someone close to you deny your enemy’s humanity so they could continue the killing, only to become so mentally broken after the conflict is over that they weep with regret and shame, vomit, and then eventually…take their own life? Apparently, you’ve learned nothing of war at your university … you utter children.

America has a history of university students protesting recent wars deemed unnecessary that were started by those who don’t truly grasp its costs. My own mom was tear-gassed and four of her classmates killed at Kent State protesting the Vietnam War.

Perhaps out of a sense of national zeal and boredom being on the sidelines, these Ostanian students decided that war would be fun and are trying to start one with Westalis. Well, as Handler makes perfectly plain even to them, there’s nothing fun about war. All the glory and nobility turns to ash and maggots without fail.

That Handler has such a sobering speech like this in an episode where a grade-schooler riding a big floofy dog preserves the peace by scribbling ketchup on the door rigged with a improvised bomb really gets to the heart of Spy x Family’s essential duality. Half of it is family slice-of-life and comedy, but the other half is the very serious, sometimes desperate struggle to prevent war from destroying that family, and millions of other families.

I love how Anya works through the problem, along with obstacles like not knowing how to read an analog clock, or all the wires on the bomb being black, all while Mr. Dog lends a helping paw or boost when needed, even if he’s not 100% wise to what’s going on. It’s entirely likely that smart as he is for a dog, he can’t make as much sense of his future visions as Anya can, making their collaboration vital.

With her ketchup warning heeded and the clock tower explosion prevented, Loid returns to the family in Mr. Dog’s vision, Back to the Future-style. WISE and Loid then turn to protecting the foreign minister from the still-at-large Keith. This is accomplished, like so many other gambits, by Loid disguising himself as the minister and leading an unwitting Keith on a wild goose chase.

Keith, who is unassailably a villain due to his desire to not only start a war, but his willingness to discard his beautiful, intelligent, and loyal dog as a bomb, thinks he’s got the minister right where he wants him, but gets wise to his tail when WISE agents shoot at him (and honestly, really should have been able to hit him, even in a moving vehicle. Those Ostanian cars ain’t that fast).

When Keith catches up to the “minister’s” abandoned car, he sends the dog after him while continuing in the car. He soon finds out that Westalis’ foreign minister is extremely spry for being a “60-year-old geezer”, as he’s able to evade the shepherd.

Eventually, Loid is done running, rips off his mask, and turns his gun on the lunging dog, to whom he apologizes for getting it mixed up in the affairs of humans. Handler AKA Sylvia’s words solidified his resolve to prevent war whenever it threatens to spring up. Loid may never know that Anya saved his life and began the effort to save the peace from these misguided students, but he sure as hell is going to finish it.

Summertime Render – 21 – Everything Ends Tomorrow

The OP of STR’s Spring cour features a shot of Ushio looking alone and forlorn, which stands to reason: she started out the show having already died. But the OP of this Summer cour features her and Shinpei side-by-side in the sunlight, triumphant and proud. Ever since Ushio was killed by Karikiri, that new OP mocked me with its optimism, but no more.

While this episode starts of on a gloomy, rainy beach, hope is far from lost. Shinpei is still getting the hang of having Ryuunosuke possessing him, but being able to see two seconds into the future is sure to come in handy. As for the little seashell, Shadow Mio tells him it contains all of Ushio’s memories, but only Ushio can scan them. Shinpei then remembers: on the night of July 24th, another Ushio with no memories washes up on the shore…and she will again.

The night of the 23rd could still be anyone or everyone’s last, so the confessions come fast and furious. When Sou confesses to Mio, she initially pretends to be Shadow Mio, only to light up like a beet when Sou correctly guesses that she loves Shinpei. No biggie; they’ll still be friends. He just wanted it off his chest.

That inspires Mio to finally confess to Shinpei on the moonlit roof of their house. As expected Shinpei thanks her, but he has feelings for Ushio, while Mio will always be his little sis. Saying the words are a huge weight off Mio’s shoulders, though she still has to cry into Toki’s bosom while Shadow Mio points out that if they win and defeat Haine, Ushio will disappear and Mio will have her chance again.

But that’s putting the cart before the horse. In the early morning of July 24th, Shinpei first runs a quick explanation for the looping by the gang, explaining how there are two Ushios and then showing them the shell that actually points them towards her sea-bound doppel. Everyone has their role in his plan, but bottom line: getting Ushio back is crucial.

Haine and Shide know that too; after all, Haine copied a good deal of Shinpei. As the shrine festivities commence, the two mutter possibilities to each other, resulting in Haine sending Shide’s doppel into the sea with a fleet of shadows in hopes of finding and destroying Ushio before Shinpei can get to her. Shide fails.

Before opening her eyes, Ushio relives those painful moments on the day Shinpei left. But then she hears Shin calling out to her and opens her eyes, and finds both Guil (with Shinpei inside) and Shide’s double bearing down on her. Guil scoops her up, surfaces, and leaps into the sky. Shide slices Guil up, but the Ushio scans the shell and slices Shide up good with her lethal Rapunzel hair.

Yes, Ushio is back, she knew Shinpei would bring her back, and she’s ready to kick some ass. I’m ready to watch! It’s about time the good guys got a solid win, and while I’m sure another setback (or sacrifice) is in store, I’m hoping the promise of the OP with that shot of Shinpei and Ushio together in triumph holds true to the end.

Engage Kiss – 02 – Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You

Demonstrating her competence but also her codependence, Kisara wastes no time using her newly acquired spare key to at least try to get Shuu’s home and business in some kind of discernable order. That means meals composed entirely of bean sprouts. Kisara’s classmates, who clearly aren’t aware she’s a demon, are worried about her boyfriend…and bandages.

There’s also their senpai Mikhail, who is the mayor’s son and claims to be the next mayor. Despite being handsome and rich, no one can stand him for more than 30 seconds, and we also learn his claims are false; he has two older half-sisters clearly jockeying for their father’s job.

Realizing he and Kisara will legit starve if he doesn’t do something, Shuu visits Ayano at the gym with hat in hand. Ayano, a pushover and enabler of the highest order, gets him a job with AAA as a subcontractor, even though she sees Kisara’s photo in bed with him.

The job in question involves running security for a gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bayron’s founding. There’s no auction because there’s no confirmed Demon Hazard, but the deputy mayors are fine with having security who can deal with demons if necessary, especially as there’s threat of a radicalized citizen seeking to assassinate their dad.

While Ayano complains about how hard it is to move in her fancy dress and an adorable Kisara trying to get some of the buffet food into tupperware and avoid Mikhail, Shuu runs into Miles, a cop and old acquaintance whom we learn Shuu lived with for a year after his parents were killed by a demon.

During the mayor’s speech, which is filled with political platitudes, hypocrisy, and outright lies, the demon terrorists pops out of the wall to strike…but Kisara is right there to stop him.

She pulls the demon out of the auditorium and into a quiet hall where they can minimize collateral damage (though with the tallest skyscraper on the island now a teetering ruin, you’d think the damage has been done!). Ayano joins her with her troops, and when she trips on her dress she shoots it so it’s shorter and ditches the heels.

With Kisara, Ayano, and Shuu working with a measure of coordination, it isn’t long until the perp is cornered, with neither French kissing nor Kisara transforming into Demon Mode remotely necessary. That’s for the best, as Shuu and Kisara learn from their boss that the suspect is to be taken alive.

Here’s where the true demon of the on-the-fly logistics and financial sensibility of Shuu rear their ugly heads. With no non-lethal capturing gear, he orders it online at great expense—100% of the $3K they stood to make on this job. To add insult to injury, the delivery van arrives so promptly it does the job of pacifying the low-level demon, rendering the purchase (which is no doubt non-refundable) completely unnecessary.

But before that fun and creative set-piece where the Amazon of this city wins the day, the baddie tries and fails to say his piece and try to get Shuu of all people on board. It’s amusing that Kisara and Shuu are too busy bickering over finances to listen to him, but after the job is complete they confirm they did hear a bit of what he sad about the governments lies and secrets, which led to the loss of Shuu’s parents.

Shuu’s response is that he has no choice. He tried going independent, but it’s a dog-eat-dog floating island, and the very government that messed up his life by keeping the existence of demons secret is the same one he works for in order to eat. He doesn’t like it, but it is what it is. The question is, how long will that remain so?

Love After World Domination – 10 – An Invincible Couple

LWD did a beach episode, so you knew at some point they were probably going to put their hero/villain spin on the school festival episode. Desumi really wants Fudou to come on the third and final day, because that’s when a traditional moon sculpture is unveiled. Couples photographed at that moon will become “invincible.”

Fudou and Desumi know it won’t be easy for the two of them to pull something like that off at a busy festival, but Fudou didn’t expect his comrade Hayato (AKA Blue Gelato) to catch wind of him going to a festival and make him his horse for the day. Meanwhile Desumi has to deal with Anna’s aggressive advances.

This is the high school Kiki and Kyouko (Beast and Steel) attend, but while the latter brings Culverin Bear as her date, as disciplinary officer Kiki is fixated on breaking up lovey-dovey couples.

The lovey-dovey-est of them all are our protagonists, who finally manage to get some alone time in a haunted house, only to be found out by Kiki (who luckily doesn’t recognize her comrade in the darkness).

That said, Desumi ends up right back in Anna’s clutches, while Hayato once again mounts Fudou as if he were a conveyance. If the couple has any chance of getting to the moon sculpture, they’ve gotta shake off these pests.

While the animation of this episode is spotty at best, it kicks into high gear when it counts, like during Anna and Desumi’s high speed chase through the halls. Desumi seeks refuge in the nurses office, where Blood Princess happens to be on duty.

Having bought a little time, Desumi tracks down Fudou, only to find him being used as a horse for Hayato. She can’t very well just stride up to Blue Gelato, but nor can she do nothing with her sweetheart in peril.

Fortunately, Hayato spots Kiki, whom he recognizes at the beach, and they engage in their own breathless chase through the school. This leaves our couple alone again at last, but with the minutes dwindling to get their photo, they’re not sure how to pull it off, considering how recognizable Fudou is as Red Gelato.

Finally, their surroundings tell them what to do. The school is lousy with cosplayers—Kyouko even lost Culverin and ended up with a guy in a bear suit—so they decide to transform into Red Gelato and Reaper Princess…a “fanfic” pairing if ever there was one, but an effective one.

Rather than suspect them of being the real thing, the other students simply chalk it up to amazing cosplay craftsmanship and attention to detail. Desumi and Fudou get their snapshot at the moon sculpture, and with it verification that they are an invincible couple that can accomplish anything together.

That being said, they would have been that even if they hadn’t gotten their picture taken; these crazy kids don’t need their love propped up by legends. Kiki prevails over Hayato, Anna and Blood Princess rest one one another’s back after a great fight, and Kyouko introduces the fake bear guy to her bear guy. All’s well that ends well at the festival.

Fabiniku – 01 (First Impressions) – Old Pal-idigm Shift

Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout is a stupendously ludicrous title; honestly, even my horribly punny title would be better. Fortunately, the show seems to be far more clever and engaging than its name, and it all comes down to its nucleus of two old friends.

Ordinary but horny Tachibana Hinata and hot but woman-averse Jinguugi Tsukasa aren’t friends because they’re similar—they couldn’t be more different—but the fact of the matter is they’ve been friends for 25 of their 32 years, and you can feel that history in the way they act.

A combination of a typical night of drinking and the classic tongue-in-cheek serious-voiced narrator gives us the skinny on their attributes and internal thoughts about one another. Tachibana is trying to get Jinguuji married off, while Jinguuji is fine being with Tachibana forever.

The mixer they attend goes poorly for Tachibana as usual (all the women gave Jinguuji their contact info) and he gets so drunk he’s face down in the park wishing he could be a beautiful woman whom everyone fawned over. Then an exhibitionist goddess makes it happen!

Just like that, Tachibana and Jinguuji find themselves in a strange forest in the daytime. More concerning, Tachibana’s body melts into green goo than reconstitutes into the body of a petite blonde beauty (with very sharp teeth!) voiced by MAO.

As Tachibana so eloquently puts it, she’s gained stuff up top and lost stuff down below, but her speech patterns and mannerisms are still the same old Tachibana Jinguuji knows…and she’s honest, loves, either in the same way as the friends played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad, or something more romantic in nature.

It’s not even that much in doubt that at least part of Tachibana feels the same way…and that’s before they insult and anger the naked Goddess of Love and Beauty while she’s trying to give them their mission to save the world that she casts some kind of mysterious curse on them.

The immediate effect of this curse seems to be that Tachibana and Jinguuji suddenly find each other even more attractive, something neither one wants the other to get wind of. Their brains simply are too used to each other as best mates to properly process what their hearts are doing.

To their credit, neither one immediately dismisses their feelings as a direct result of the curse. Maybe the curse increased their affection for one another, but it was always there. Only now Tachibana is a woman, and because she is still fundamentally Tachibana, she also happens to be the only woman the distrustful-of-women Tachibana could ever fall for.

This results in a Love is War style battle of wills, with the two trying to get the other to admit their attraction. As the the one with the cute girl’s body, Tachibana goes on the offensive, only to find Jinguuji irresistible simply by being Jinguuji.

Meanwhile, Jinguuji hides his outsized reactions behind his usual stoic calm—a skill well-honed throughout the years staving off all those women who fancied him. He’s never thought about his type, but now he knows it, and it’s his best friend in a girl’s body.

As the two struggle with their new reality, a seemingly harmless and cute-looking fluffy white bunny thing interrupts. No sooner do they call it cute than its face unfurls reveal a grotesque monster. Suddenly survival mode overrides scoring flirting points against one another.

Jinguuji instinctively gathers his suddenly much smaller, lighter, and pleasant-smelling best friend in a princess cary and shows off the fruits of leg day. The two fall down a cliff, enabling the monster to catch up, but rather than continue running, Jinguuji decides to make a stand. He never let some woman take away his best friend, and he’s certainly not about to let some nightmare-faced Gossamer do it!

That’s when he punches the monster right in its core, quite unexpectedly creating a huge hole in said monster’s body. Turns out while he doesn’t look any different, Jinguuji is actually a Level 70 badass. Yes, it’s revealed this world has RPG-style menu screens that pop up in front of one’s face.

Tachibana is a Level 1 Hero, by the way, making Jinguuji her ideal trusty knight. As for their castle, Jinguuji is able to summon what looks like the door to a modern Japanese apartment with one of his active skills; the proverbial rest and save point.

While all the isekai and RPG trappings and their quest to defeat the Demon Lord are sure to play a larger role as our two best friends continue to explore their new lives (and meet more people), I hope the focus remains on how the bond between those two old friends continues to morph and evolve due to a very new and unexpected development.

SAKUGAN – 04 – COLONY OF PASSION

We go from Gagumber and Memenpu parachuting into Jolly at the end of last week to the two in the custody of one Merooro of the Labyrinth’s “Bureau of Regulation.” They’re guilty of Crimes, and they will be Punished, but he doesn’t offer details about what either of those things were or are.

Instead, the father-daughter duo is set loose in Jolly Jolly pending the handing down of sentencing or some such. And Jolly Jolly is…fine. It’s fine! It’s one big Italian Disneyland, complete with canals filled with LCD “water”, a Leaning Tower Colosseum, and ristorantes galore. Memenpu, sick of noodles, decides to sightsee. Gagumber hits up the nearest bar.

After twelve straight rejections by women at said bar, Gagumber finally meets someone who’ll give him the time of day—the woman on the motorcycle we saw a couple episodes ago, whom I assumed was Memenpu’s mom and Gagumber’s ex. Turns out she’s neither, but she is voiced by Hanazawa Kana in Sultry Mode, demonstrating her considerable range.

Turns out this lovely lady, rather inelegantly named Zackletu (sounds more like the name of a kaiju, if I’m honest) is wanted by Jolly Jolly’s mafia, who shoot up the bar just as Memenpu arrives. Gagumber covers Zack and Mem’s escape, only to be captured and almost tortured by the mafia don, only to be saved by Zack because his cell conveniently has a window.

Numerous chases and shootouts ensue, which oddly require more suspension of belief than the action of previous episodes. For one thing, I am not a big fan of characters in like Jumbo who are too impossibly huge to be actual human in shows where everyone else is normal sized. For another, the mafia guys and their don are pathetically dull, and have suspiciously bad aim.

Once the mafia is predictably foiled thanks in part to Memenpu arriving to save her dad and Zack in Zack’s own motorcycle, Zack takes her leave, promising to be back one day for the million Gagumber promised her. Like Jolly Jolly as a concept, this episode was…fine…but after the first three episodes I was expecting something more adventurous than generic colony mob chases.

SAKUGAN – 02 – SEEKING STABILITY

Gagumber has to hit it a few times, but his dusty old Mark Bot shudders to live and he and Memenpu engage in a protracted chase against a kaiju that seems oddly drawn to them. While old and dusty, the Mark Bot is still highly tuned and modified for maximum performance, which means Gagumber and Memenpu are able to keep a step or two ahead of certain doom.

After last week established how deadly the kaiju are, that creates an excellent nervy tension throughout the chase, which combined with the diversity of the environs (from the underground Chinese-style city to the darker depths of the mines) and the top-notch Cowboy Bebop-esque soundtrack make for one hell of a crowd-pleasing 23 minutes.

Even when one pursuing kaiju becomes two, Memenpu soon finds her Mark Bot legs (even if they can’t quite reach the pedals) and uses her inventive genius both to plot the best course out of the colony, but precisely where to place charges around the trapped kaiju so it causes the ground beneath them to crumble in a neat circle shape, where they become fish in a barrel to shoot at…with fireworks that just happen to be stowed in the cabin.

Gagumber and Memenpu’s heroics end up on the radio, and someone we’re sure to meet sooner or later—possibly their ex-wife/mom?—hears the broadcast. The two pay their respects to Walsh and Lynda, and Gagumber impresses upon his wee daughter how shit is not going to get any easier, but when you’re out there in the Abyss Labyrinth you’ve gotta learn to roll with the punches…even if one of those punches is the death of someone you love.

With that, the two pack their bags, take care of the paperwork necessary to leave the colony, and then strike out into the Labyrinth proper. The scenery is stunning, like a dream you never want to leave, as well as highly reminicent of Made in Abyss. Suffice it to say I don’t mind SAKUGAN’s cosmetic similarities to an all-time masterpiece. Let the subterranean father-daughter adventure begin.

P.S. In a truly weird, random easter egg, one of the ramen cups says “Tubular Bells”, the name of the theme to The Exorcist by Mike Oldfield.