Chained Soldier – 07 – Housekeeping

Rairen thinks he’s hot shit with his lightning, but 6th Squad Commander Izumo Tenka is able to dogwalk him, thanks to her mastery of portals and singularities. She employs the former to dodge his attacks and teleport where she wishes, and the latter to suck him into oblivion. Tenka has an aloof, ethereal air to her combat style, and like last week the animation and use of color and lighting is very nicely done.

After a debriefing and giving Bizen his autograph (she now respects him a little even though he’s a man), Yuuki is ready for a nice long bath, but forgets that both Kyouka and Himari owe him significant rewards. As expected, they carry them out together, disrobing and assisting with his bath. This scene is also very nice looking; the show doesn’t skimp when it comes to fanservice, making the trashy look classy.

Yuuki travels with Kyouka and Himari to 6th Squad’s barracks, where he’s put to work as a caretaker-for-the-day while Kyouka and Tenka have a meeting. He finds the place very clean, though he still isn’t quite used to doing women’s laundry. Shushu stays at home, her crush for Yuuki still in full flower. She even considers tidying up her room for the first time, since it’s possible he’ll like her more if she’s less of a slob.

This downtime-filled episode is full of great little details that add texture to the new 6th squad characters. We see that for all her harsh words and treatment of Himari, Yachiho is kind of obsessed with her cute little sister, judging from her drom decor, and that Sahara is just as deadly with the wrestling moves when she’s fast asleep and mistakes Yuuki for a pillow trying to flee.

Earlier during the debriefing at the 7th barracks, Himari makes sure to thank Yachiho for saving her life during the Shuuki battle. Yachiho scoffs it off in her tsundere style. At the 6th barracks, Himari watches her sister work out in the gym, and both Yuuki and Sahara encourage her to talk to her.

Sahara believes Yachiho’s Peach ability was borne from her desire to spend more time with Himari, while Himari’s learning ability was borne from her desire to learn from Yachiho. The sisters have a nice little moment when Himari hands Yachiho a towel, Yachiho snatches it without saying thank you, and they start amicably bickering, the way sisters do.

Meanwhile, we get a peek at the humanoid Shuuki’s arena-like headquarters, and learn that Tenka was correct in her uncertainty about Rairen dying. He was rescued at the last second by Shikoku, a snake woman who lounges around looking at relics from the normal world. I also dig Jouryuu, a buff Amazoness with lionine hair and piercing eyes.

Rairen’s plan was to launch a full-scale assault on the Demon Defense Force, but it failed spectacularly. However, it did shoe Shikoku who they’re dealing with commander-wise. She’d previously engaged the 3rd squad without their leader present and defeated them easily, but Kyouka and Tenka are a different story.

As for the two commanders, Tenka ends the meeting with a request that comes as a surprise to Kyouka: she wants “the little slave”, i.e. Yuuki. We saw her teleport into his room while he slept, and watching him in battle has only intensified her desire to possess and use him. The ED visuals in which she plays with a collar suggest she’ll be Yuuki’s master at some point, but I highly doubt Kyouka would part with him permanently.

Synduality: Noir – 07 – An Audience of One

When Kanata leaves Noir in Maria’s care for a day and a night for Magus maintenance, Ellie believes it’s finally her turn to strike while the iron’s hot. Unfortunately, Kanata isn’t as alone in his garage as she expected: as thanks for rescuing her from Range, Ciel has decided to keep Kanata company in Noir’s stead. Unlike Noir, she’s a lot better at household chores…and flirting.

After the house is made spotless, Ciel helps with Daisygore maintenance, singing while she works. She then whips up a homemade dinner for Kanata with real vegetables, offers to share her shower with Kanata “to save water” (he declines vociferously) and pays him a visit at his hammock in the night. It’s here where Ciel learns that Kanata treats Magus and humans the same because his mom was a Magus.

When Kanata tells Ciel about the lost paradise city of Histoire, she sneaks off in the night to make a report to some unknown organization, revealing that there’s more to her than just Kanata’s a second wAIfu. The next morning, Kanata can sense that Ciel’s being more distant.

He talks about this to Ellie at the canteen, and Ellie is eager to help out her childhood buddy when he tells Tokio “there’s no distance between them,” not knowing quite how happy that makes her. Kanata decides that the best way to cheer Ciel up is to take her somewhere. Little does he know if he hadn’t stopped a bit short and thrown her off balance, Ciel was ready to zap Kanata unconscious so that she could steal Noir.

Kanata has taken Ciel to a remote ruin of an old theater or concert venue, telling her she can sing there as loud as she likes to her heart’s content. Moved by this gesture, and Kanata’s continued treating of her like a human being, Ciel breaks into song for an audience of just Kanata. In her thoughts she admits that despite the fact her heart isn’t supposed to burn, he’s set it ablaze.

The impromptu concert is interrupted by rain that wasn’t in the forecast, which soon leads to an Ender attack. Not to worry; Ciel proves she’s a Jill-of-all-trades by hooking up to Daisygore and synching with Kanata, then obliterating all of the bogies while singing another song. Ciel can truly do it all, but that’s no longer a surprise considering she apparently works for a shady organization that considers Kanata and his dream a threat.

Mouton escorts Noir home, and she has a clean bill of health from Maria. Noir sees Ciel clinging to Kanata and determines that they’ve become closer in the day she’s been gone (though she doesn’t seem to exhibit any jealousy).

While Ciel mentioned one day finding her ideal master, it looks like she’s content to stay with Kanata and Noir for now. We’ll see if her developing feelings for the super-duper nice guy will overpower her sense of duty to that shadowy organization.

Vinland Saga S2 – 07 – The True Master

When Einar and Arnheid are at the well for a few minutes each morning, they’re in their own little world. Neither is a slave, they are just a kind man and a kind woman making a connection that transcends the brutal, merciless world they were unfortunate enough to be born in. When Arnheid returns to the house, Ketil’s wife slaps her across the face for chatting. Arnheid’s dark expression shows she’s back in that world. Back in the darkness.

Einar and Thorfinn are faring quite well so far. Wheat seedlings have sprouted. Einar insists they pray and pray hard to a god…it doesn’t matter to which. As slaves, they have nothing to offer but their prayer. The dream of buying their freedom is alive and well. But Einar wonders if Arnheid has a similar arrangement (I assume she does not).

In the cold open, Snake and his mercs are investigating petty food theft, and declares that the culprits must be punished. When Ketil returns to the farm with his eldest son Thorgil (who is as terrifying and capable as Olmar…isn’t), they encounter Snake, and the two thieves in tow: mere children.

Tired from their journey, Ketil and his son sit down for a meal before dealing with the thieves. Thorgil regales his father and younger brother with “glorious” tales of battle and plunder, and also informs Ketil how well now-King Canute has done for himself, meaning maybe there’s hope for Olmar.

But Olmar hurts his case when Thorgil gives him a necklace of ears, and once he realizes they are ears, Olmar freaks out. Like a a normal, well-adjusted human would. Thorgil also tells Olmar that their father was once a legend on the battlefield, bare-chested, bare-fisted berserker his peers nicknamed the “Iron Fist”.

That brings us to Ketil’s sad duty as master of the farm to mete out justice against those who stole from him. If he doesn’t, it will encourage more theft, and he’ll be seen as soft to his retainers, the mercs, and his sons. But as soon as Ketil learns their names (12-year-old Sture and his younger sister Thora) and circumstances (ill mother, likely dead father), the man still lauded as the Iron Fist develops leaky eyes.

Thorgil quickly recommends each kid lose an arm. Sture says he’ll take both punishments, so Thorgil is fine taking both of Sture’s arms. Pater almost bails out Ketil by suggesting the kids work off both what they stole and what their father owed in rent. Ketil cannot mask how happy he is a non-violent solution is agreeable to all.

…But it isn’t. Ketil may be the master of this farm and an immensely wealthy and powerful individual, but even he is beholden to an even higher master in this world: the master that is burning through England. That master is violence and it demands its tribute.

Ketil must even go against his better nature in the number of stokes of an axe handle, going from five to ten. Sture again protects his sister, and will take all twenty. Thorgil volunteers, but his first stroke almost kills Sture, and Ketil, almost in a panic, takes the handle and completes the beating.

That night, Thorgil feasts with Olmar the mercs, while Ketil retires to his bed—a bed warmed by Arnheid. He weeps into her lap, confiding in her that the “Iron Fist” legend is a complete lie he made up. In reality, he’s as much a “coward” as Olmar, which is to say he would simply rather not commit violence to further his aims. Further, he fears Thorgil, his own son, for committing it so easily.

Arnheid, with a neutral expression, tells him what he needs to hear in that moment: that admitting to being a kind man can’t be a bad thing. But it is a bad thing in this world where his ultimate master demands payment for the life he lives. And lest we forget, Arnheid is not in that bed or on the farm willingly, she’s a slave, and slavery is a vicious form of violence.

That makes Ketil a hypocrite, and even if he’s a repentant one, if he wishes to maintain his wealth and power, he’ll have to continue to be a hypocrite. Notably absent from this episode was Sverkel, the first person on the farm who treated Einar and Thorfinn as humans, not property, paying them for their chores with his horse and plow.

Of the three generations represented by Thorgil, Ketil, and Sverkel, only the latter both talks the talk and walks the walk. Like Ketil, he’s long lost the taste for the kind of life currently enjoyed by Thorgil. But unlike Ketil, Sverkel trying to live an honest life free of trinkets and exploitation. In the waning years of his life, he has rejected the master that currently tortures Ketil and flatters Thorgil.

Vinland Saga S2 – 06 – Too Much Wealth

Cutting down trees was the easy part. Pulling the stumps with just two human bodies is a grueling labor, and threatens to make setting up an actual farm a virtually Sisyphean task. Einar declares that they need a horse. It’s not a matter of convenience. They friggin’ need one. He swallows his pride and tries to ask the retainers, to no avail.

Then grizzled old man named Sverkel overhears Einar talking to Thorfinn about their predicament, and invites the two to two clear his field of rocks, then chop firewood and draw water for him. Einar wonders if the old man is simply using them because he can, but Sverkel is a man of his word.

Einar gets his horse, and the stumps are cleared in a jiffy. In exchange, every time they pick up or drop off the horse, they do some chores for Sverkel. Nothing is easy when you’re a slave, and it’s a lot of hard work to do more hard work but men like Sverkel who at least give them a chance to put themselves in a position to one day buy their freedom.

When the retainers asks where Einar got the horse (which they don’t recognize), he says Sverkel’s name, but the retainers don’t know it. Then they describe the man, and they say that the man who lent his horse to them is none other than the “old master”, Ketil’s father.

Ketil is at Sverkel’s house arguing with him to stop being a stubborn mule and come live with him again, but Sverkel digs in his heels. Living under Ketil’s roof would only cause more arguments. If he’s going to die soon, he’s going to die where he feels independent and at peace. We also see that Snake hangs out at Sverkel’s, and the four men have a meal, almost as equals, as both Einar, Thorfinn, and Snake all listen to Sverkel’s lectures.

Snake is playfully adversarial towards Sverkel, but there’s a reason he hangs out there: Sverkel is a font of wisdom, and people like Snake got where they were by listening and learning from their elders. Sverkel also feels it’s an affront to decency that Ketil is so wealthy and his lands so vast he must hire and handsomely pay men like Snake to defend his land for him.

Once the stumps are pulled, Einar and Thorfinn use plows to grade and till the land, and by the time fall arrives, they’re ready to seed the fields with wheat. Both are now sporting the goatees they have in the OP, and Thorfinn acknowledges, at least privately, that he and Einar have indeed become friends.

Einar, a lifelong farmer, and Thorfinn, a lifelong warrior. Quite a pair. Thorfinn may be out of his element, but Einar will make him a farmer yet. After all, being someone who can make food is a lot more rare and valuable than someone who can take life.

Lycoris Recoil – 06 – Striking a Balance

“You come at the [Lycoris Queen], you best not miss.”—Omar, Probably

When LycoReco learns that the DA’s Lycoris are being targeted by a terrorist, Takina is immediately on the phone with Chisato as she heads to her place. Takina tells Chisato they’ll be living together and switching off nights for security reasons until further notice. Chisato is not just fine with that, she’s delighted she and Takina get to work and live under one roof together, and that it was Takina’s idea.

When Takina sees the state of the place and sets up a chore chart, Chisato inceptions the idea to decide who does what with rock-paper-scisssors. Chisato proceeds to kick her ass at it and Takina gets all the chores. Takina should have known her friend’s preternatural instincts are put to use even in non-bullet-dodging scenarios.

As for Majima, whom ANN’s reviewer has called “Joker” due to his green hair, he’s not satisfied with the progress of eliminating Lycoris. He wants to bring DA down, he wants Robota to find their HQ, and isn’t above using threats and violence against the hacker to make him hack harder.

The thing is, Robota has two masters right now: Majima, and the Alan Institute, with whom he communicates with Shinji’s secretary. He tries to get Majima interested in Chisato as the “chief Lycoris”, but Majima doesn’t care about pawns. Unlike the Joker, he’s not a big fan of chaos either, but wants balance, which to him means terrorists able to operate without being disappeared by the DA.

When Robota gets help from a fellow hacker, that hacker is quickly found out and arrested for being so blatant and reckless. Robota then sends two goons to break into Chisato’s apartment, but they’re not aware she lives below the apparent apartment in a safe house, and when they trip her silent alarm, she dispatches them with ease. All is not lost though, Robota uses footage of Chisato going wild to convince a fed-up Majima she’s worth targeting.

When Kurumi suggests that the terrorists are able to target Lycoris due to their distinctive uniforms, Chisato disguises herself with a huge yellow poncho and believes she’s safe enough to do a solo LycoReco delivery job.

It isn’t until she’s off on her own that Kurumi discovers that the terrorists targeting Lycoris—who got their guns from the deal that Takina got fired—also have footage showing the faces of the Lycoris they assassinated…as well as Chisato’s.

The fact that Kurumi (as Walnut) was hired to hack the DA that day is set aside for now, as the more pressing matter is Chisato’s safety. Takina calls her just in time for Chisato to get hit by Majima’s yellow Nissan GT-R and then menacingly surrounded by his underlings.

Fortunately, Chisato’s injured state is only an act, and she plays possum right up until Majima gets in her face, whereupon she unloads with her non-lethal gun. The rubber bullets actually put her at a severe tactical disadvantage, extending the fight far longer than if she’d used lethal ammo.

Nevertheless, principles are principles, and Chisato tries her darndest to escape her attackers, and even though she’s on foot and they’re in vans chasing her, she manages to even the odds by shooting the drivers and causing them to crash, and sending Majima flying.

Majima must’ve done work as a stuntman, since he’s able to shake off getting thrown from a car and shot in the face with rubber bullets. She turns the tables on Chisato (who again screws up by getting too close to her opponent; a clear act of arrogance on her part) by spitting either blood or liquified rubber bullet (or both) in her faces, rendering those special eyes usesless.

Majima proceeds to beat the stuffing out of Chisato as his underlings circle them and cheer, and while Majima admits that Chisato is “interesting”, he still seems pretty ready to shoot her…until his gun is shot out of his hand by  Takina, who has arrived just in time (thanks to Kurumi locating Chisato with her drone) and neutralizes all of the baddies.

Mizuki and Mika arrive at the scene in the escape car, and Chisato and Takina pile in. There’s still the matter of Robota chasing them in a remotely-controlled car, but Mizuki’s driving prowess is able to shake it off. The baddies’ last gasp is an RPG, but Kurumi is able to slam her drone into the guy at the last minute.

While the RPG fires, the grenade hits not the LycoReco car, but the car Robota hacked and Majima was about to comandeer. Somewhat unplausibly, the grenade blast doesn’t kill Majima, but throws him into the nearby water. Seriously…is this guy a Terminator? If Takina were to chop him up with a sword, would the pieces just turn into little Majima clones?

That said, with the assassination of Chisato thwarted, attention turns to Kurumi, who did hack the DA the day of the arms deal, but was ignorant to the arms deal itself (I wonder if it was Shinji who hired her to hack the DA). She prostrates herself and apologizes to Takina, but Takina doesn’t blame her for getting her thrown out of the DA…she blames her own actions.

Also, if Kurumi is indirectly responsible for the arms falling into terrorists’ hands, she’s equally responsible for Takina finding a new home, new family, and growing so close to Chisato. As for whether the two girls continue living together, Takina says they’ll settle that with one more game of rock-paper-scissors.

This time, Takina takes Mika and Mizuki’s advice and skips the “rock first” part of the game. When she finally beats Chisato for the first time, her elation and giddy little celebration was one of the highlights of an episode that struck just the right balance between over-the-top cinematic spy action and cute girls with guns having each other’s backs and bums.

Higehiro – 01 (First Impressions) – Inadvertent Guardian

Yoshida had the evening with his attractive co-worker Gotou all planned out in his head. They’d have a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, and if things went well, he’d ask if she wanted to come home with him. He hadn’t banked on the possibility Gotou was already seeing someone for years, and simply never mentioned it at work because she wanted to keep life and work separate—which is perfectly reasonable.

Thus rejected, Yoshida goes and gets drunk with a friend until that friend has to head back home to his wife. Yoshida blabbers about how Gotou “tricked” him, and stole his heart and won’t give it back, but I’ll forgive his attitude as he’s allowed to wallow in defeat, drunk and horny as he is. The bottom line is Yoshida didn’t want to look past sleeping Gotou, and now he’s a little lost at sea.

He most certainly didn’t plan to encounter a runaway teenage girl (voiced by Ichinose Kana) outside his apartment, nor for this girl to offer to let him sleep with her in exchange for a roof over her head for the night. But even when her other options are seemingly ruled out, Yoshida makes it quite clear that he’s not sleeping with a “little kid”, nor is he prepared to leave her to the tender mercies of the night.

So, in his drunk and staggering state, he invites her in, then collapses into his bed to pass out. The girl, no stranger to crashing at men’s houses in exchange for sex (though she is thankfully not shamed for this), sits on the bed and asks matter-of-factly “Hey, are you sure you don’t want to do me?” He’s sure. When asked if there’s anything else he wants, before passing out he mumbles “miso soup.” The next morning, that’s what he gets: miso soup, made by the girl he flat-out forgot he invited in last night!

When he hears how he rejected her offer of sex, he salutes his last-night self, relieved nothing sordid happened. She also mentions how he mumbled about being rejected by someone named Gotou, and whether he wanted her to make him “feel better”. Once again, he declines, saying he’s not so far-gone he needs “a tiny little teenage girl” to do that.

When she points out that her breasts are quite big and asks “aren’t F-cups you can touch better than H-cups you can’t?” he flat-out asks why she’s trying to seduce him…and if she even wants to sleep with him. She says she doesn’t, but then embraces him and says she’s never met a man willing to let her stay for nothing in return, so maybe he’s the “abnormal” one. That’s when Yoshida, God bless him, asks for her ID, a gesture that again makes clear he’s not interested in her in that way.

He learns her name is Ogiwara Sayu, that she ran away from high school in Hokkaido six months ago. When he tells her to go home already, she says she’s sure they’re happy she’s gone, Ichinose Kana’s voice breaking ever-so-slightly. The more Yoshida thinks about Sayu, the worse he feels about it. He takes it out on her to a degree by calling her “stupid”, “dumb as a rock”, and “a spoiled brat”.

But beneath those harsh barbs, he understands that Sayu is not “fine” as she says in the slightest; that what she’s had to do to survive since leaving home is not right or okay. More than she’s an idiot, she’s a victim: both of a home that she felt she had to leave, and to a world apparently full of men who taught her all the wrong lessons and twisted values and standards. He’s also angry that such a kind and sweet young woman couldn’t have a “normal life” and a “normal love”.

Obviously, Yoshida’s positions are showing both his privilege and paternalism. The former was a result of his own upbringing and life experience; the latter was learned through both, just as Sayu learned a certain way of living the last six months. But I can forgive the motives behind his fundamentally principled choice to stop this child from being harmed anymore by offering her a safe, clean place to stay.

I’m not going to pretend that in the real world this isn’t his choice to make. As a matter of law, he should probably go to the police, right? And yet who’s to say Sayu wouldn’t be harmed anyway if he took that route? Considering what she’s been doing to stay away from her home, it’s clear going back there isn’t what’s best for her. Being placed into an overworked and uncaring social services system also wouldn’t be much better.

The fact there are no easy answers or cut-and-dried solutions add a lot of welcome emotional heft to the whole scenario. Yoshida, whom I mentioned is somewhat lost at sea, has encountered a fellow castaway adrift and rudderless, who has the added disadvantage of being far too young to have to endure the waves. So for now, he decides to lash their ramshackle rafts together and chart the course of least harm.

The more time he spends with Sayu, the more disappointed in his fellow man he becomes. When he heads out to the patio to smoke, she calls him “nice”, but our boy Yoshida is not so deluded to think he’s some saint, and makes it clear to her in perhaps his best line of the episode: “Listen up! I’m not nice. They were shit.” He contemplates the environment that put Sayu in such an unfairly precarious situation, and even implicates himself for “letting her stay spoiled” by giving her a place to run to.

But even as he checks headlines about an unrelated case of a man arrested for kidnapping a teenager, and Sayu walks over him, inadvertently giving him a look up her skirt, Yoshida isn’t about to cut the ropes of her raft free. He found her on those waves, which means he feels responsible for her well-being. That doesn’t just mean a roof under her head, but more appropriate clothes, pajamas, and a futon to sleep on.

Sayu isn’t ready to accept all this without worrying about not being able to repay him in some way. Yoshida is again disheartened by the fact a kid has to think that way, but indulges her by insisting that the cooking and cleaning she’s done constitute more than adequate payment, and that arrangement will serve for the time being.

The next morning over breakfast, Yoshida explains to Sayu that it isn’t the act of shaving that makes him feel old, but becoming too lazy to shave every day. Sayu spares no tact in saying he doesn’t look good with stubble, so he decides to shave after all. The exchange indicates this won’t be a one-way street. Perhaps in helping keep this lonely damaged girl safe, Yoshida can find a new course in life post-Gotou rejection.

Higehiro is fraught with potential problems, as all series involving an adult and a child always are. And yet unlike the horrifically skeevy Koikimo, Higehiro presents its situation, questions and arguments in good faith, and from a place of human decency and empathy. It’s a compelling, hopeful tale of an imperfect person trying to do the right thing for someone who has already been wronged far too much. Unlike Koikimo, I don’t feel like I need a shower after what I saw, but rather want to see what happens next!

The Journey of Elaina – 01 (First Impressions) – The Ashen Witch is Born

Ever since she was wee, Elaina (Hondo Kaede, recently Bofuri’s Maple) dreamed of traveling the world like Nikeh, a great witch who recorded her adventures in a diary. Her parents, the supportive type, told her she could do it if she studied hard to become a witch. She did just that, not only passing the sorcery examination with flying colors, but being the youngest ever to do so at age 14.

Elaina’s next hurdle to becoming a witch would be to train under one as their apprentice, but due to her fame as the youngest ever, she has the door of every witch in the city slammed in her face before she can even state her case. Then she overhears a “dodgy” witch having taken residence in the forest outside the city, and flies over to take a look.

Flan, Stardust Witch (Hanazawa Kana, who is having a ball) agrees to take Elaina on as an apprentice, but like Mr. Miyagi with Daniel-san, it doesn’t seem she has any actual interest in training her, just using her as her own personal assistant. Cooking her meals, collecting ingredients, dealing with spiders in the tub and rubbing her shoulders; this is all Elaina gets to do.

After a month of this, Elaina has had enough, and asks if Flan is at last ready to train her. Flan tells her she has “nothing in particular” to teach her, but she will have Elaina fight her. Flan’s awesome mastery of the elements proves too much, as Elaina can only bob and weave against an onslaught of fire, earth and lightning. This fight was also the point at which I was utterly and completely sold on the show; its fantastic magical combat!

Totally defeated for perhaps the first time in her life, Elaina collapses into a heap and starts to bawl uncontrollably, catching Flan, clearly not used to dealing with teenage witches, tries to cheer her up with butterflies and a crown made of weeds, but settles on a hug, which proves most effective.

Flan also confesses to Elaina that her parents paid her to teach her about setback and failure until she reached her limit. Elaina has the skill, talent, and potential, but needed to learn not to deal with or endure everything no matter what, just because she can.

With that catharsis, and Flan’s strategy revealed, the training continues in earnest. Over the period of a year Flan teaches Elaina everything she knows, and Elaina soaks it all up like a sponge. But unlike her first month, she speaks up if something displeases her. Eventually, she’s good enough to best Flan in a duel for the first time, and that’s when Flan knows she’s ready.

Replacing her apprentice’s flower badge with the star brooch, Flan bestows upon her the status of a full-fledged witch. On Flan’s suggestion, Elaina picks the magical name “the Ashen Witch” due to her hair color. Fran then bids Elaina farewell and returns to her home country, and Elaina returns home.

She’s not there long, as now she’s achieved the requisite of being able to travel the world freely like Nikeh. Her parents keep their word, giving Elaina three simple rules to follow: When in serious danger, run; don’t come to think she’s a “special human”; and come home someday with a smile.

She’s outfitted in new witch’s robes, a kickass oversized hat (along with a spare—it’s windy out there!), and of course, a handsome diary in which to write about her adventures. With that, she says goodbye to the only home she’s ever known, without a particular plan or destination, and journeys in that fashion for three years, finally reaching the age of eighteen.

I for one am glad we got Elaina’s “origin story” at the most logical part of the anime: the beginning. It’s a story beautifully and efficiently told, and delivered the same kind of fuzzy feels as goodhearted witch series like Kiki, Flying Witch, and Little Witch Academia. I can’t wait to see where Elaina ends up landing next week!

Crow is also watching the Wandering Witch, and always has great observations about the episodes’ best moments. Read Crow’s review here.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 58 – Within the Bubble

Whether you consider it testing Sakura or just plain fucking with her, Eriol keeps up his little secret game this week. Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, Kerberus and Yue all show up at Penguin Park when Clow’s presence is felt, but they can’t find anything out of the ordinary and it starts to rain, they all go home.

Eriol’s “trial-of-the-week” this time involves blocking either Kerberos or Yue from transforming back into their disguises. While nobody is in any immediate danger, it’s certainly a hassle to have to hide them from those she believes not to be in the know (namely Touya). More distressing to her is the prospect of Yue never being able to become Yukito again, as she considers them two distinct people she cares about in equal measure.

But again, this isn’t a particularly pressing matter except insomuch as it will be tough to keep what is essentially a winged lion and cultish-looking winged dude in her room indefinitely. So she tries to catch some shuteye, hopeful the guardians be able to change back the next morning. Alas, the situation doesn’t change, and on top of it all Sakura has a Sunday full of house chores to perform.

She puts Kerberos to work doing what he can with his beefy paws; he’s ironically far more useful in a house in his plushie form! When he gets fed up with Yue simply standing around not helping (and Sakura not insisting he help, thus spoiling him just like Clow used to), Kerberos prepares to toss a bag of flour at him, only to himself become covered with it. Sakura takes him into the bath and he suggests she convert and use Bubble to wash him, as Clow once did.

Upon returning to the kitchen, Sakura finds that Yue has helped out after all by cleaning up the flour mess. She broaches the topic of Clow and Yue’s particular devotion to him, noting the look in his eyes when he speaks about him is similar to how her dad looks when talking about her mom.

Suddenly it dawns on Sakura to convert and use the Shield card on her guardians. Eriol’s magic is repelled by the shield, enabling them to finally change back to their disguises. And since Yukito is at Sakura’s house, he might as well stay for dinner!

All’s well that ends well, but Kero-chan is thoroughly unnerved about the possibility of someone with Clow’s power out there unchecked. Whether it’s Kero, Yue, Syaoran, or Sakura, I’m certain someone will manage to connect the strange incidents and Eriol…but with twelve episodes left, a few more trials are likely…in the cards.

Oregairu 3 – 01 – Robot Tears

In the park, in the gentle snow, Yukino submits her request to Hachiman and Yui, a request non-readers have been waiting to hear for five years. When Haruno once asked her if she even has a “self”, Yukino pondered an answer and found the results disheartening. She wants to find that self, a self that isn’t following in the footsteps of Haruno or her mother.

While she’s enjoyed faux independence to this point, now she seeks the real thing, even when it means moving back home. Her request, then, is for Hachiman and Yui to support her in her efforts. They accept, walk with Yukino back home, and encounter a tipsy Haruno. Yukino wastes no time getting things moving, telling her big sis they need to talk.

The next morning, Hachiman stows Yui’s much-improved cookies in his desk and greets Komachi, who has already made him breakfast and is preparing for a strenuous day of interviews for entering high school. Their semi-antagonistic banter may feel a tad performative to an outsider new to their interactions, but that’s mitigated by the fact the banter flows so organically and is studded with moments of genuine sibling affection.

While waiting for Komachi to meet up with him for some shopping, Hachiman runs into Kawasaki Saki and her own imouto, Keika, who’s a lot younger than Komachi. Saki remarks how Hachiman is so used to spoiling his little sister, he’s totally unaware he’s doing the same to hers. Then again, at a time when Komachi is growing up fast—entering high school, ye gods!—Hachiman is happy to pamper a little sister without pushback.

Hachiman brings up Saki’s brother Komachi shows up, elated and hyper, then when Komachi arrives, Saki observes more of their brother-sister banter. Considering her extreme reaction to Hachiman’s offhand “I love you” during the cultural festival, and her reactions to Hachiman here, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s developed a teensy little thing for him.

From there, Hachiman and Komachi go on a multi-vector shopping trip, though Komachi earlier remarked that any attempt by her bro to call it a date was “creepy”. Still, the two clearly have a ton of fun flitting from one place to another, culminating in buying groceries for dinner, which Komachi prepares after doing all of the house chores without Hachiman’s help.

These are all efforts by Komachi to make up for slipping in her chore duties during her high school entrance prep. Hachiman never made a big deal out of any of it, but the fact Komachi wants to make it up to him, and he doesn’t resist, says a lot about how much their relationship has improved even as the two go through such major changes in their lives. She then kneels, bows, and formally thanks her brother for taking care of her to this point; she’s to a large degree the person she is thanks to his care and love.

Like Yukino, Komachi doesn’t want to be pampered and spoiled forever as she ends up following a pre-determined path. The two women seek to strike out and prove to themselves they’re capable enough stand on their own and choose their own road to travel, while still accepting moral and practical support from their family and friends.

Hachiman can’t help but tear up over Komachi’s mature display. Rewarding days, months and years lie ahead as Komachi will continue to make him proud…but his days of wiping chocolate from her face are over.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 04 – Into the Woods

Sakura is super-hyped about a Sunday picnic with Tomoyo, but that particular bubble is burst when Touya reminds her that she has to do all of the house chores on Sunday, as a result of switching days with him earlier. Still, after calling to postpone (and Tomoyo’s sumptuous basket lunch is already prepared, *sniff*!) Sakura rolls her sleeves up and gets to it, briefly transforming into Housecleaner Sakura and enlisting Kero for laundry duty.

While she first discovered the Clow Cards in the basement, up until this point none had started anything in her house. That changes when in the process of cleaning she finds not one but two cards, one of them smudged with ink. When her dad calls her to come to the bus stop to bring him a file he forgot, she leaves the cards alone briefly without writing her name on them, but that’s long enough for the woody mischief to begin!

After hearing ominous groaning sounds, Sakura opens the basement door to find a gigantic tree has sprouted. She releases her staff and seals the card, but it soon returns with a vengeance, since the card itself is still in the basement with a second card. As Tomoyo arrives to help (but mostly to dress Sakura up and film her) the tree re-sprouts with a vengeance, threatening to destroy the house…something Sakura can’t allow to happen.

Donning a super-cool pink pop costume complete with winged headband and moon boots, Sakura braves the labyrinth of branches until she reaches the basement and locates the source of all the trouble. According to Kero-chan, The Wood is a very gentle card, but the second card, Rainy, is basically The Wood’s rowdy enabling friend, raining on the tree and spurring its growth. In order to calm The Wood down, Rainy must be dealt with.

Sakura ends up fighting water with water, summoning Watery to create a feedback loop of water and rain and eventually restraining and sealing the mischievous Rainy. With the catalyst for growth gone, Kero urges patience, and after a moment the branches withdraw, leaving the structure house rather implausibly intact (though Kero said it was gentle; in this case extremely so!)

Still, the aftermath leaves the house a horrendous mess, but have no fear: Tomoyo volunteers to help Sakura and Kero set everything right, and by the time Touya and her dad come home the place is sparkling once more. The first of likely many “stay-at-home” episodes, we got a glimpse of life in the Kinomoto residence, where every family member in. We also witness Kero-chan’s lifeless “Plushie Mode” for the first time!