KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 03 – Signs Point to Maybe

For an academy formally known as the “Red Prison”, it sure is laid back! For the second episode in a row there are no real classes; the adults are all out hunting monsters, so it’s free study time at the library. Yunyun is super excited to make two new friends in Funifura and Dodonko, who even do her hair! But when a spider taunts Megumin, she leaps on Yunyun, steals a hair tie to sling at the haughty arachnid.

The vibes are ruined for good when village NEET Bukkorori teleports in—an impressive display of magic by a deeply unimpressive man. He notes how he used to check out the same books as Soketto back in the day, and one of the three locations he can teleport to is the front of her house. The students are so disgusted that they bury him with books, to which I say: What the heck did the books do to deserve such shabby treatment?!

Inexplicably, both Megumin and Yunyun allow themselves to be roped into Bukkorori’s pathetic attempt to court Soketto, first by watching her sweep her front yard from a tree, then becoming invisible and sneaking up on her while she’s training in the forest. For her part, Soketto regards Bukkorori’s behavior as a sign that he hates her. When a pack of “One-Punch Bears” arrives, he uses a flashy Inferno spell to dispatch them in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, Soketto ends up caught up in the flames, which is … suboptimal.

When Soketto hears that Bukkorori wanted a reading (she’s a fortune teller) she decides to give him a freebie, since she technically saved her life (she’s still alive; the bears are not). He asks about who his future romantic partner might be, and she fires up her crystal ball…only no one appears. She apologizes for the somber result and says her fortunes aren’t always accurate. Left unsaid is that there actually was someone in the ball … Soketto’s own reflection.

While he’s problematic on a number of levels, Soketto still considers him “interesting” to the point where she might not immediately turn him down were he to express the desire to grab a cup of chuunibyou coffee some time … but I seriously doubt he’ll ever do any such thing. For one thing, NEETs can’t afford fancy coffee!

During another free study period, Yunyun and Megumin chat about her own romantic futures. Yunyun wants a quiet boring guy who listens; Megumin expects she’ll be too busy exploding things but won’t rule out falling for a peerless hero in a future adventuring party. When the students are ordered to go home in pairs due to monster sightings, Yunyun starts to ask Megumin, but Dodonko and Funifura invite her instead.

Megumin starts walking home on her own, but Yunyun chases after her. She may be Megumin’s self-appointed rival, but she still wants to walk home with her and get something to eat on the way. For that reason, Yunyun will surely embrace the value of truces, during which she can set aside their “rivalry” and revel in their friendship.

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 02 – Augmentation Surge

After picking out a new dagger for Yunyun and failing to get her to see how quickly she can stab between her fingers, Megumin returns home to find that the slightly feral Konekko has caught a black cat “for dinner.” Yes, the origin story of Chomusuke is she rescued her from a little sister who wanted to eat her.

The still-unnamed black cat, whom Megumin assigns as her familiar, is an instant hit with her classmates, pretty much making her super-popular by extension. When the teach denies her a familiar (after all, she can’t even use magic yet), Megumin makes up a colorful enough chuunibyou story that he lets her keep the cat in class after all.

But today’s class is special: the teacher asks the students to meet him out in the woods, where they’ll choose from a selection of very large (but also oddly light) weapons and level up quickly in a traditional Crimson Demon “Augmentation Surge”. Megumin is the first to try to slay a weak-looking lizard already encased in ice, but it ends up being a tougher customer that she initially thought. No matter; she ends up the victor in the end.

When a much larger monster appears in the form of a vicious gargoyle, the students freak out and make a run for it. The gargoyle is blasted by one Bukkorori, son of the village cobbler who dug a pitfall in order to ensnare Soketto, the fairest of the Crimson Demons. He creeps out the girls so much they refuse to help him get out of the hole he dug.

More gargoyles come to life and attack the town, which is utterly destroyed not by them, but the completely over-the-top attacks of their teacher and headmaster, along with four local businesspeople. But as powerful as their magic is, Megumin just isn’t quite as impressed as she was by the Explosion user she met years ago.

In a world where Crimson Demons can completely level their village and rebuild it back good as new in one day, how radical is she really for wanting to master Explosion magic? I’d say not really! Rather, she’s a quintessential Crimson Demon, risking it all to be as big, bad, and inspiring as possible. Still, she has a long way to go.

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 01 (First Impressions) – The Eleven

After the KonoSuba Movie expanded on the origin of Megumin’s chuunibyou style, this third full season of the series takes us back to before she met Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness, and before she mastered her beloved Explosion magic. One day she witnessed it being used by a beautiful mage to destroy a giant monster in one fell swoop.

From that moment, Megumin decided that’s the kind of mage she wants to be. In the meantime, she lives a simple but carefree life in the village of Crimson Demons, catching crawfish with her little sister and #1 Fan Konekko by her side.

Megumin’s first encounter with Yunyun is when she notices a “hungry look” in her face while passing her near a sunflower patch. Megumin shoves a crawfish in that hungry face, even though Yunyun insists that’s not what she meant. Megumin didn’t know it yet, but she’d just met her top rival.

Megumin’s family is by no means rich, but it’s a house full of warmth and love. When they make a big payday off their magical wares at a far-flung bazaar, her folks make a huge feast, and then present Megumin with a new uniform for attending magic academy. Watching their daughter strike poses in her new cloak brings no shortage of joy to their hearts.

The academy for Crimson Demons known as the Red Prison, features a class of eleven, which may be magically auspicious, but also means there’s an odd girl out: Yunyun, whose name no one can quite remember. Despite being the village chief’s daughter she has very little presence. But she still makes a strong impression by declaring Megumin her rival. Megumin is happy to be challenged.

When Megumin notices it’s missing from the textbook and asks her professor Pucchin about Explosion magic, he tells her and the class that they should avoid studying it, as it’s a kind of “joke magic” with limited applications. Everyone in class assumes Megumin is joking and laughs…except Yunyun, who can tell Explosion magic is important to her rival.

In the Red Prison equivalent of P.E., Pucchin tells the students that the most important part of magical combat for Crimson Demons is looking cool. Thus, their answers to his questions are scored not just by their factual content, but the style with which it is delivered. With everyone else paired up, Yunyun ends up with Pucchin, who shows little patience for her hesitation in trying to look cool, saying it’s embarrassing.

That may not be a common Crimson Demon sentiment, but Megumin pretends to be ill and sits out the rest of class so that Yunyun can get paired with her partner, Arue, who is actually better than the teacher at getting her to come out of her shell. Then Rain falls, the headmaster’s ambulatory tulips scatter, and the students get drenched in mud tracking them down. Once that’s done, Yunyun tells Megumin that whether Explosion magic is a joke depends on who is wielding it.

Megumin’s response is to tell Yunyun not to get too friendly with her rival, bringing a smile to Yunyun’s face. Later, at sunset, Megumin again remembers the day a mage fired off an Explosion spell that changed her life. She can’t cast it yet, but I’m looking forward to watching Megumin, Yunyun, and their nine classmates becoming the best damn Crimson Demon mages they can be!

After this first episode, I’m more confident that spinning off the series with Megumin was the right move. I’ve always been a fan of her energy and charisma, and was always impressed she actually managed to master such a ridiculous spell (though not without passing out after using it).

Takahashi Rie and Toyosaki Aki bring out a winning chemistry between Megumin and Yunyun, as we saw their unspoken friendship begin with little gestures of kindness and caring. It’s not often laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it is sweet, charming, and KonoSuba through and through.

Akiba Maid War – 02 – Oink-cean’s Eleven

Being a café maid was a dream for Nagomi, but after one day it’s become more of a nightmare. She gets scant sleep after her traumatic experience the night before, and wakes to the grunting of Ranko sewing up a graze wound.

The breakfast table is accompanied by TV news reports of the dust-up, while Manager is punished for letting Ranko go too far by having to serve as a golf tee. Life’s hard out here for a maid.

Nagomi can’t reconcile last night’s violence with the calm of business as usual at the Oinky Doink, and the squirt of ketchup causes her to retch. Shiipon suggests she take a “stroll”, which for a maid means handing out pamphlets.

Initially, she’s bullied by rival maids into handing them out somewhere less favorable, but she gets an encouraging pep talk from a kind maid. Unfortunately, just when she’s feeling better about trying her hardest, the manager makes an announcement: the café is going out of business.

She got a loan from an obvious loan shark, using the Oinky Doink as collateral, then pissed away even the meager amount she got at said shark’s underground casino. But Yumechi isn’t about to give up.

The only way to save the café (and the maids’ home) is to win the money back at the casino, which caters specifically to maids. Using the day’s take (a handful of ¥10K bills), the maids hit the slots, table, and wheel, and…lose it all.

But there’s one last slight hope, which is clearly a mechanism by which the loan shark collects maids for human trafficking purpose: high-stakes maid poker using their potential futures as currency.

Shiipon, Manager, and Nagomi all lose their chips pretty quickly (Nagomi doesn’t even know how to play), but Ranko entrusts her chips to Yumechi, who uses them for one final all-or-nothing gamble.

Yumechi almosts pulls it off, with her 8-Jack Full House being beaten by a 9-Jack. But her dealer and opponents were cheating, so she and the others shouldn’t really be the shark’s property. Ranko asserts that position most emphatically…by pulling out her gun and shooting the shark between the eyes.

A gunfight ensues, with even Shiipon and Yumechi brandishing pistols, begging the question of why they weren’t frisked and disarmed on entry? Was it arrogance on the part of their casino maid hosts…or sportsmanship?

No matter: the Oinky Doink maids and the sloppy manager who got them in this mess end up getting out of it, and even when the head casino maid tosses a fuck-you grenade out the front door, Ranko catches it, throws it back, then turns and walks away slowly for that classic cinematic explosion stroll.

A speechless Nagomi watches the burning money fall and be astounded once more by the death and destruction wrought by her roommate. At the breakfast table the next day, the news reports and exploded underground casino, and all she can do is celebrate the fact that at least she’s alive…and not crabbing on a ship in the freezing Bering Sea. That’s something!

The Executioner and Her Way of Life – 09 – Too Much Is Different

Despite her priestess garb, Akari sticks out like a sore thumb among the aristocrats at the ball. Menou warns her not to eat or drink anything, then scouts around the castle grounds and ends up crossing paths with Princess Ashuna. Meanwhile, Momo again demonstrates her impeccable competence by knocking out the guard and gaining access to the Monstrine operation without breaking a sweat. Ashuna doesn’t know who Menou is (she hides her face with magecraft), but she can tell Menou is a strong fighter.

Unfortunately for Menou (but fortunately for us), that means Ashuna wants to fight her. A lusty battle ensues, with Ashuna hitting nothing but air and Menou showing her just how much more mastery over ether she has. Ashuna merely gets toyed with, but still has a blast…even when she’s almost literally blasted. Does Ashuna feels somewhat shoehorned in here just so she can spar with Menou? Maybe…but I don’t mind because even when she’s getting her ass kicked, Ashuna is awesome as hell.

Akari is lamenting how the ball is no fun alone when the big boom and column of flame occur. Then Lady Manon sidles up to her, wanting to know more about where Akari comes from. Akari tells the truth: there’s very little she remembers of Japan, but there’s something about the way Manon likens Akari’s hair her mom’s that suggests some kind of connection. After Manon leaves her, Akari Prime awakens, and is concerned: way to much is happening in Libelle that has not happened in previous loops.

Akari really wants Menou to kill her in this loop, but not having the advantage of knowing how the future will unfold will make that tougher than she’d like. Speaking of tough, Momo soon finds the Iron Maiden and lets her guard down when she frees the young bloodied girl inside.

Helping the girl—not opening the Maiden—springs an explosion trap, and Momo gets a poison spike to the side. Manon is alerted to the trap being set off, and revels in the possibility this could be the day she finally gets her revenge.

The next morning Momo wakes up in rough shape, but with a proud senpai standing over her and patting her head in gratitude. Either the spike or the poison would have surely killed weaker folk, but thanks to her massive stores of ether, Sicilia believes she’ll pull through. Menou, meanwhile, is fed up with half-measures. She wants the Fourth rounded up and their drug ring shut down.

Sicilia, noting how Flarette, unlike Flare, isn’t afraid to rely on others, grants an operation and goes to negotiate with the knights. The Fourth nobles are holed up in Manon’s castle, but suddenly they’re all frozen in time. Akari Prime emerges from behind a cabinet, intent on talking in private with the Lady of Libelle.

Is Akari trying to mitigate the fact she’s no longer sure what the future holds by securing an alliance with someone who can mess up her plans? We may not know what exactly Akari wants with Menou, but we do know her goal, and that she’ll stop at nothing to achieve it.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Entertainment District Arc – 10 – (Be)heading for Trouble

As Tanjirou lies in the rubble, bloody and exhausted, he’s briefly transported back to his snowy home, where a pre, then post-demon Nezuko tells him to stop blaming himself (as if) and keep fighting. The vision is at least enough to wake him up, but he’s almost sorry he did.

That’s because the scene around him is a hellscape of flames, and among his allies, he’s the only one still conscious. Gyuutarou spends a good half of this episode taunting him and laughing at how “disgraceful” he is, especially to have to be protected by his demon little sister. It’s a welcome change of pace from the unrelenting battles of the past few episodes, with no score and only the flickering of flames accompanying the dialogue.

When Gyuutarou eventually falls, he’ll regret wasting so much time toying with Tanjirou, who was simply playing possum and waiting for a chance to stick a poison kunai in his opponent’s leg, then using Hinokami Kagura to attempt to slice off his head. When Gyuutarou counters with his blades, they’re deflected by Zenitsu, who while still asleep is back in the fight.

As Zenitsu continues to battle Daki, Tanjirou is bailed out by Uzui, who stopped his own heart to keep the poison from getting there, and can also double-wield even with just one hand. Daki, with his second wind, goes in for the win, having charted the musical “score” of Gyuutarou’s moves. Tanjirou keeps up as best he can as Uzui and Gyuutarou exchange slashes with increasing speed and ferocity.

When Tanjirou jumps into attempt another beheading, Gyuutarou stabs him through the jaw with his poison blade, meaning there’s just that much less time for Tanjirou to fight before succumbing that poison. Still, Uzui has him where he wants him, and Gyuutarou’s neck is exposed, so Tanjirou finds yet another higher gear, his scar seemingly spreading across his face in a flame pattern.

After a lot of screaming, Gyuutarou’s head is finally sliced off. At the same time, Zenitsu, with help from Inousuke (who moved his heart so it didn’t get impaled) slice off Daki’s head. The two siblings’ heads fly gracefully through the air, then fall to the ground, bounce, and roll to a rest right beside each other.

The battle is seemingly over, and the Demon Slayers have won…but then Uzui shouts “RUN!”, for Gyuutarou self-destructs, enveloping half the district in a massive fireball. As those flames die down the credits roll with a certain finality, until the post-credits omake is handled by pre-demon Nezuko.

Assuming Gyuutarou was destroyed in that blast, the question becomes who survived. Obviously Tanjirou, Nezuko, Inousuke, and Zenitsu. I find it hard to believe two straihgt arcs would end with the death of the Hashira, and the three wives haven’t quite gotten enough development (or screen time) for their deaths to make much of an impact…so we’ll see.

Vanitas no Carte – 10 – Into the Maw

Upon entering Dr. Moreau’s laboratory of torture and death, Vanitas makes sure to play nice, pretending to be reuniting with his old pal. As long as they’re chatting all friendly-like, Moreau is no threat. The good doctor recalls that unlike the other children, Vanitas (or rather “69” never cried no matter how cut up or battered he got, but he’s probably got a selective memory.

Soon, the casual conversation over coffee becomes a bit too much for Noé, who slams Moreau against the table once he’s heard enough, ruining Vanitas’ plan to keep things nice and copacetic. Then again, Moreau wanted to gouge out one of Van’s eyes so he could study it, so you can’t blame Noé or Roland for wanting to mop the floor with the guy.

Unfortunately, Moreau slips away before he can divulge the “exalted one” with whom he’s currently collaborating. Spider, one of the members of Charlatan, drops in to whisk Moreau away, while one of Moreau’s most deadly experiments breaks out of its cell, looking every bit like Spirited Away’s No-Name, and with just as big an appetite.

Because this Prédateur is a monster made of shadow, Roland and his underlings’ weapons have no lasting effect. Vanitas gets slammed hard against a wall and starts to give up hope, but Noé, who doesn’t know as much about the beast as Vanitas apparently does, insists they can defeat from the inside it if they work together.

Sure enough, Noé provides cover with his fists and legs while Vanitas uses the Memoir to heal and release the child from his curse. The Prédateur turns to stone and crumbles, leaving only Vanitas, Noé, and the rescued child. After Noé admits he grossly underestimated how close they were to dying, he and Vanitas break out in spirited laughter.

Hearing a human and a vampire charms Roland so much, he decides to let Noé and Vanitas escape, using his authority as Paladin. He admits that vampires had nothing to do with this incident, and if anything, it was the Chasseur’s mess for letting Moreau operated under their noses. But more than anything, befriending Noé has turned everything Rolly believed about vampire relations on its head. No doubt he can be a valuable ally in the future.

When Vanitas and Noé finally make it back to the surface, they take a few minutes to rest, with Vanitas leaning against Noé unexpectedly. Noé wonders if it was Vanitas’ duty as a doctor and the presence of a curse-bearer that kept him involved with this incident, of if he uses his crusade to save all the vampires whether they hate him or not as a crutch to get through his days.

Clearly Vanitas suffered a good deal of trauma by Moreau’s hand; I just with Moreau wasn’t such a goofy caricature of a mad scientist. But Vanitas also seems to bear a good deal of guilt for what happened to his white-haired little brother, “Number 71”. Noé notes that while Vanitas is hell-bent on delivering salvation unto every cursed vampire, he may just be the one who needs salvation most of all.

As for Lord Ruthven apparently putting out a hit on Noé for what happened to Moreau’s lab, well…I guess I should have known a dude that powerful and mysterious was up to no good.

Tokyo Revengers – 13 – Crossing the Bridge

Why? Why is this show still going on? Why did Hina have to die, again, and in the most horrific, heart-demolishing way? What was Kisaki Tetta up to all this time? These were the unavoidable questions going into Revengers’ second cour, and this first episode of that cour had to do a lot of heavy lifting to convince me to stick around Takemichi’s tragic party, rather than executing a tactical Irish exit.

Rather than pass or fail, I must give Revengers…an “Incomplete”. This is purely a bridge episode, literally called “Odds and Ends”, though I appreciate that it’s a little rude to call Hina’s funeral a “loose end”. But the episode starts out by making us relive Hina’s final moments again, which I did not appreciate.

We know for a fact Takemichi isn’t going to let Hina’s death pass; not as long as he has the ability to go back and fix things. Where he and Naoto went wrong is thinking simply saving Draken would fix everything, all while pretty much forgetting about Kisaki Tetta…which was very weird.

Leaving Kisaki completely alone was never going to pay particularly positive dividends in the future, and even if we grant that Takemichi is an idiot who might well not consider Kisaki, Naoto let the joy of getting his big sis back distract him from the fact they had much bigger Toman fish to fry before they could secure a future for Hina.

Takemichi’s plan to become the leader of Toman and “bring it down” from within is an admirable one, but aside from being able to take the odd beating or stabbing we just haven’t seen the level of fighting ability, cleverness, or charisma needed to be one of the captains, let alone the boss. This isn’t something you can get by asking nicely with dog poop on your head.

Also, it’s been clear from the start that Takemichi has clear boundaries when it comes to being a gang member. But outside of murdering Kisaki Tetta (and possibly that Hanma guy too), I don’t’ see how you eliminate him as a threat. And since the days and months run parallel in the two timelines, Takemichi can’t go back any further in time to do what needs to be done.

So yeah, it was an uneven return to Tokyo Revengers, a judgment perhaps best exemplified by an extremely dull montage of Takemichi working and sitting around his still-messy apartment waiting for Naoto to call, all while extremely dramatic music is playing. This show has never been interested in showing its work, but Takemichi’s still just winging it doesn’t bode well for Hina’s future.

Tokyo Revengers – 12 – Hina We Go Again

I knew two things going into this twelfth episode of Tokyo Revengers: this wasn’t the last episode, and Hina was most likely doomed…again. I was hoping to be proven wrong, but when nearly half of the runtime is spent watching Takemichi and Naoto very gradually make their way to Hina’s place, it didn’t bode well.

It was very in character for Takemichi to reconsider seeing Hina at the last second, thinking that it would just be odd for someone she dated twelve years ago to show up one night with her little brother. Fortunately, fate smiles on our crybaby revenger, as he bumps into Hina and she recognizes him instantly.

Once his tears finally subside, their reunion is painfully awkward; so much so that Naoto prepares to ditch them to figure things out themselves—they are adults, after all. Then Takemichi clings to Naoto’s leg, and for some reason Naoto gets it in his head that taking the two out on a drive will be a better idea than keeping Hina away from any and all cars, considering how she died in the previous timeline.

No, instead, as a very obvious and extremely menacing black Hummer follows them, Naoto drives Hina and Takemichi around until he’s called away by the station, so Hina has to take over driving duties alone with Takemichi. Takemichi, meanwhile, notices she’s wearing the four-leaf clover necklace he gave her twelve years ago…yet inexplicably chalks it up to some kind of coincidence.

They park at the Tokyo waterfront, where she has a memory of being with “the one she loves”. Takemichi learns that it was he who dumped her twelve years ago. Considering how easily he almost ended up sleeping with Emma, you’d think he’d remember what a jerk his past self was. Hina, meanwhile, often said how it felt like there were two Takemichis, and the one she fell for was really his future self.

Even so, this is apparently too much for Takemichi, who runs off to the public bathroom, where he thankfully steels himself to confess to her, no matter how badly he’s afraid it will go. It will and does go bad, but not the way he expected—otherwise, he would never have left Hina alone, let alone tell her to go back to the car.

On his way out of the bathroom he bumps into someone he recognizes is the present-day Hanma, who promised Valhalla would ensure Toman never had any peace. He’s confused why Takemichi “isn’t in the car.” Uh-oh…

Turns out Akkun is behind the wheel of the Hummer that tailed them, and he drives right into the back of Naoto’s car with Hina—and only Hina—inside. A bloodied, tearful Akkun says he’s sorry, but he couldn’t go against Kisaki—any more than his alternate present-day self could. He even repeats a lot of the same lines he said, further torturing Takemichi.

He’s able to get the door of the burning car off, but Hina can’t get out; the front of the car has crushed her legs. Takemichi hugs her and says he’s always loved her, which makes her happier than he can imagine, but shortly after that she pushes him out of the car, which then explodes.

It’s extremely shitty to find Takemichi back at square one, with the added tragedy of having to witness Hina’s horrific demise this time. It’s also extremely annoying and lame that Hina once again has to suffer and die so our protagonist can grow (…again). While he managed to avoid one possible route that would lead to Hina’s death, now he knows there are others, and it will take at least another trip back to eliminate them.

Had Kiseki or Hanma known that Naoto is the one who enables Takemichi to travel back in time—or that he’s even able to do that—they would probably have made sure Naoto was in the car too. But the fact they carried out the plan without Takemichi in the car means they too left a loose end hanging, and that loose end is bent on exacting revenge by becoming the damn leader of Toman.

Vlad Love – 11 – Undead Bait

Here it is: the Vlad Love Beach episode. When the Blood Donation Club requests a “training camp” trip to cut loose, Chihiro brings up the club’s utter lack of a budget. No problemo; Kaoru finds a steal of a deserted tropical island vacation: just ¥10,000 (bout $90) per person.

Unfortunately, the low cost means they travel by boat, and end up in a homage to The Great Wave off Kanagawa with crippling seasickness; only Mai seems to be having fun. However, they do eventually make it, and the summer sun, white sands and blue sea deliver as advertised.

As the sun sets, everyone save Nami (who goes for a solo swim in the ocean) check out their dilapidated accommodations, which are in such a state due to the immense age of the innkeeper and sole employee, the tiniest of obaasans. When Jinko searches the beach after sundown, Nami is nowhere to be found, save her swimsuit, which means wherever she is, she’s nakked.

The obaasan innkeeper tells them the legend of a Fishman who for five hundred years has been visiting the beach on hot summer nights ever since he and his true love, a beautiful young human woman, were separated. Maki goes on a Creature of the Black Lagoon tangent, but the group decides to head out to the beach and lure the Fishman out, and rescue Nami from his clutches.

After Kaoru dancing erratically in fishgirl cosplay yields no results, everyone agrees, and Mai volunteers, to be the blonde bait sea creatures seemed to love so much in the movies. Tied up like Andromeda as an offering to Cetus, the Fishman emerges from the waves: a hilariously awkward giant beast with the head and body of an eel and muscular human legs—more Trogdor than Gill-Man.

When Katsuno cosplaying as Perseus is smashed under the Fishman’s foot, an 80% charged Franken is activated and transforms into Hulk Mode. In his somewhat lest than three minutes of operating time, he’s able to give the larger Fishman a German suplex, knocking him out cold. The battle is too brief and uneventful to be deserving of the cool poster that flashes on the screen.

Back at the inn there was a running gag of the tiny old innkeeper’s yelling literally bringing down pieces of the inn. It’s revealed she was the woman who fell for the Fishman 500 years ago, and the sight of him unconscious leads her to let out a scream that causes the entire island to explode, ripping everyone’s clothes and giving everyone fluffy perms.

The final loose end is Nami, whom Mitsugu had completely forgotten about as she’d been too busy worrying about Mai. Turns out she’s fine too, as the fisherman’s daughter emerges from the Fishman’s mouth naked but otherwise unharmed and unfazed. The group lines up on the beach to watch the Fishman swim out into the sunrise.

Talentless Nana – 03 – What’s This F-Boy’s Deal?!

With two enemies of humanity eliminated in short order, Nana knows she must be careful not to incite panic or draw suspicion upon herself. But that’s hard when Onodera Kyouya is snooping around, especially when he’s almost if not as good as her at deduction, as evidenced by how he knows the Ice Prince is dating.

She can’t have this guy breathing down her neck, so she makes him her next target, and begins the process of learning his talent and weakness. But following him leads her to discover he’s the kind of guy who goes out of his way to give warm milk to a stray cat.

As Nana tries to figure Kyouya out, he invites her into his dorm, which is a bit of a mess, but is also full of potentially useful clues. She seems to spot them, but she’s also consistently kept off balance by Kyouya, even going so far as to call him a “low-level f-boy”.

What’s fun about these two interacting when we only have access to Nana’s thoughts is that we’re not sure if Kyouya is putting on a big act for Nana, just as she’s putting on an act for him. This is only heightened when Kyouya produces an issue of the manga Humanity’s Girl, which is obviously Nana’s favorite, because she considers herself humanity’s savior.

Kyouya also pulls the power move where Nana thinks she’s about to leave scot-free, only for him to say “Oh, one last thing…” and then whipping out Nanao’s fancy Rolex. Nana can’t hide her true shock at seeing the Velben good in Kyouya’s hand, since it means Kyouya has been busy.

He also tells her about how it’s strange that the government set up a “training” facility where very little structured training goes on. Since agents like Nana are the Talentless’ last chance to get rid of the Talented, any Talented as curious and suspicious as Kyouya have to go.

Just to confirm her suspicions, we finally hear Kyouya’s inner voice. In a way, that’s a shame, since now we know for sure he’s not already 100% on to her. But he’s definitely getting there!

The next day, Nana sets a clever trap based on Kyouya’s weakness, gleaned by observing his dorm: he’s an anosmiac. That means the next time he heats up the milk in the abandoned janitor’s shed, he doesn’t detect the gas leak, or the closed window, until it’s too late. BOOM.

Bye-bye  Kyouya, right? Wrong. He may have no sense of smell, but that’s not a weakness one can use to kill him, due to his Talent: he’s freakin’ invincible. The explosion covers his body in burns, but he quickly heals, and when Nana runs to the wreckage, she all but confirms to him that she was the one who caused the explosion. Who else knew he was here but Nana, who mentioned the cat earlier?

Even so, Kyouya isn’t totally convinced, and so doesn’t retaliate against Nana…yet. After all, he can’t discount the fact she knew he was in the fire because she read his mind. His parting words to her—“I’m so glad we’re friends.”—is a clear threat. It’s almost like he could out her now if he wanted, but would prefer to keep their cat-and-mouse game going.

Now we know for certain that Kyouya isn’t a fellow Talented hunter like Nana. And Nana definitely has no taste for games; she’s here to do a job as quickly and efficiently as possible. The question is, how is she going to find his real weakness and kill him now that his defenses are up?

Deca-Dence – 09 – Pushed to the Limit

After a cool Kaburagi warns Kurenai not die before he returns, calling her the “strongest, finest woman alive”,  he and Natsume take advantage of the chaos of the latest Gadoll battle to slip through and on to the factory’s barrier unnoticed.

On top of wondering if all the parts of their intricately constructed plan to break the system move how and when they’re supposed to, Kabu is dealing with a crucial unknown: how Natsume will actually react when she learns the truth about the Gadoll, the world, and him.

But when they reach the barrier, before Kabu can tell her anything she urges him to keep up, walking straight through the barrier without any problems. Both impressed with her resolve and realizing he shouldn’t be clouding her focus, he remains silent, and the operation proceeds.

And what an operation! Deca-Dence has been carefully preparing both the practicalities of the plan, the geography of the prison and factory, while also fleshing out all of the players involved. It’s an absolute treat to watch this episode wind up the sum product and let ‘er rip.

Turk initially performs his part of the plan, leading the inmates in a full-on riot in which they toss explosives into the piles of Gadoll shit and create a massive cloud of pollution that not only infects the lake’s clear water the Gadoll need to maturate, but causes to activate their natural defense systems, i.e. Zones.

The pollution of the lake and the berserk Gadoll and their Zones conspire to create utter havoc within the factory, allowing Kaburagi and Natsume to slip in without any of the preoccupied staff noticing. But upon entering a compartment that leads to the “Gadoll Genocide System” they must activate, they’re stopped dead in their tracks…by Hugin, tipped off by Turkey.

A desperate battle between Kaburagi and Hugin ensues, with Jill using her hacking prowess to make it appear that not only are their several dozen Kaburagis to target, but the “Natsume” whom Hugin impales with his hand (causing my heart to skip a beat or two in horror) is really just a hologram, and the real Natsume is safe behind a bulkhead.

Turk sits back and watches his betrayal bear rotten fruit as enhanced security forces start mowing down inmates. When Sarkozy asks Why? Turk simply laughs and tells him that’s how the cookie crumbles, and if he doesn’t like it, tough. Sark understandably feels betrayed by Turk, but still lacks the willpower to do anything about it.

When Jill discovers they’ve been betrayed and Turk and Sark are the culprits, she yanks Donatello (fighting one last Gadoll battle as a Gear) out of Deca-Dence and has him hunt Turk down, ultimately tossing him in the giant churning vat to drown in rotting Gadoll shit—a fitting end for someone “fine with the way things are.”

Turk’s comeuppance comes just after he left a wounded Sarkozy for dead, ultimately only interested in getting a pardon and rejoining the outside world. But as he suffers a lethal oxyone leak, he remember’s Kabu’s words about taking himself to his very limits.

Rather than lie around and die, Sark decides to take himself to his limits as well, and in doing so becomes the hero he was so intent on becoming. By injesting a tube of super-concentrated oxyone liquor (the titular “super charger”) he essentially becomes a walking bomb whose body is the fuse. Leaping into the vat after Turk, he detonates the Gadoll shit within.

The resulting explosion takes out the factory’s reactor, meaning Jill and Kabu’s plan is still viable. The fouled water starts bursting through vents and walls, including in Hugin’s face at a crucial moment that gives Kabu and Natsume time to escape.

They reach the room containing GGS controls, Kabu hits a couple buttons, and he and Natsume pull two levers in tandem. The GGS works instantly, as Gadoll everywhere spontaneously burst into clouds of black ash, much like victims of Thanos’ Snap.

This confuses Natsume, as the control screens glow within her puzzled eyes: there was no main nest to destroy, just levers to pull…what’s that all about? Injured, possibly seriously, by his scrap with Hugin, Kabu decides to simply come out and say it: the world, the Gadoll, and even his body are manufactured.

Just like that, Natsume’s world is changed forever, and with it the status quo of Deca-Dence. And it was all perfectly set up and executed. Now we await her reaction—and learn whether these revelations end up pushing her sanity past its limits.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 06 – Playing it Dirty

The dealings at the embassy have given Daisuke an itch he can’t scratch, but the deeper he tries to dig, the more HEUSC blocks him with access walls. At a disciplinary hearing, the Second Division gets lightly chewed out before everyone playfully throws Katou under the bus.

No matter how things turned out, he should expect further punishment from the department down the road. Daisuke’s investigations end up crossing with those of elder detective Nakamoto Chousuke, who believes the company that built and smuggled in the jammer and gas is also related to a cold case he wants to solve before retiring.

Katou, who is forbidden from further digging into the embassy case, is hungry for a case, so accepts when Nakamoto asks for his help. When they fail to get any answers out of Imura, a company executive, Daisuke hacks her futuristic car and causes an accident.

By replacing her view of the road with the digital illusion she’d hit and killed a pedestrian, he’s able to arrest her for reckless driving and manslaughter.

Nakamoto watches through one-way glass while Daisuke tries and fails to get anything out of Imura. He’s able to get some strong reactions out of her from hacking into a company laptop, but it’s HEUSC who stops him dead in his tracks by refusing to crack open a highly classified file.

When Katou asks what Daisuke is up to, he gets stonewalled as well, a sign that while they’ve worked well together so far there are certain things Daisuke feels he must do alone. He’s not just keeping things from Katou, but Suzue as well, no doubt to try to keep them out of trouble.

When Katou sees that the case has gotten too personal for Nakamoto, who has taken to using less-than-kosher tactics to get what he wants, he declares he can no longer be a part of it. Despite being the black sheep of the department, Katou is still a rigid by-the-book guy when it comes to justice, and doesn’t buy Nakamoto’s self-serving justifications.

With that, he releases Imura, just when Nakamoto was minutes away from learning from her own mouth the connections between her company and the Kanbe family and her company. But when she starts her car—the one Daisuke had already tampered with—the battery explodes with her and an aide trapped inside.

I can’t believe Daisuke would murder to protect his family, so this must be something those who do have complete access to HEUSC were able to pull off. Both he and Suzue have admitted to HEUSC refusing their commands on grounds of insufficient authorization. But ultimately I think Daisuke is going to have to lower his own walls and accept help from his partner and relative. As for Nakamoto, the case he can’t let go of involves the murder of Kanbe Sayuri.

this case may be the focus of the show from this point on, and this was an episode that paved the way to a satisfying resolution. As for the episode as a whole, the fact it’s not a self-contained, open-shut case makes it a little less satisfying on its own. I’ll also always prefer human beings with motivations and qualities other than the pure evil of nebulous corporate specters.