KonoSuba 3 – 02 – Guess Who’s Teleporting for Dinner

After a successful sale of pocket lighters at Wiz’s shop, Kazuma & Co. prepare for a formal dinner with Princess Iris. As the only noble among the party, Darkness takes point in this venture, and impresses upon everyone how their usual repartee isn’t going to fly in front of royalty: one wrong word or look and they could literally lose their heads.

As you can imagine, things don’t go that well. Aqua tries to whip out a card trick and drinks too much, Magumin does her Crimson Demon schtick, and Kazuma’s look and tone insult the princess. It’s only thanks to Iris happening to like the sand portrait Aqua made of her (ahoge and all) and Darkness’s manners manage to smooth things over.

When Kazuma won’t show the princess his adventurer’s card, she accuses him of lying about defeating Mitsurugi, speaking out loud instead of relying on the help to speak for her. Darkness responds by slapping her, and blocks the sword of her attendant with her wrist. Then she gently takes Iris’s cheek in her hand and calmly scolds her for insulting Kazuma.

Moved by both Megumin threatening violence on his behalf and Darkness defending his honor, Kazuma finally decides he’ll show Iris’ attendant how he beat Mitsurugi: with his Steal ability. Unfortunately, whether due to lack of focus or something else, rather than steal the attendant’s sword, he ends up stealing … her unmentionables.

While everyone is scandalized by this, both the attendant and Iris are sufficiently impressed that they admit Kazuma must have what it took to beat Mitsurugi. Iris even apologizes out loud and hopes Kazuma will regale her with more stories of his adventures. When he says that he will, she takes that to mean right now, and before she’s teleported away she grabs his hand and he ends up at the royal palace with her. It’s a Kazumanapping!

This was a comedic tour-de-force in which the KonoSuba gang butted up against royal manners and propriety and more or less came out on top. The tension of the earlier parts of the dinner have melted away by the end, and Iris is precisely the cute and curious princess Kazuma hoped for. If he plays his cards right, she might even start calling him Onii-sama!

KonoSuba 3 – 01 – The Dawning of Our Age

While I love Megumin, the spinoff focusing on her and Yunyun just didn’t do it for me. A True KonoSuba needs the whole team involved: Megumin, Darkness, Aqua, and Satou Kazuma. And yes, Kazuma still says “Yes, I’m Kazuma” when the others address him, which is never not hilarious.

Also funny? That due to all of the female attention Kazuma is getting due to his heroic deeds, and his various recent “close encounters” with certain aggressive women, has led to him developing a complex to the point he decides he’s going to change his job from adventurer to monk and live a life of chastity and service.

The gang accompanies him on his journey to the strictest order Luna (whom he had a crush on) could find, with the goal of dissuading him from uprooting his life to such an extreme. When he says his will is as strong and unmoving as a mountain in the distance, Megumin uses her Explosion magic to stylishly reduce the mountain to dust.

When Aqua and Darkness enter a fitful sleep, Kazuma keeps watch by the campfire with Megumin, who puts her hand on his and tenderly expresses her wish that thinks simply stay the way they are for everyone. When Kazuma takes this move as some kind of overture, he enters a cycle of overthinking to the point Megumin eventually simply falls asleep.

As their journey continues, they encounter an adorable and apparently wounded little girl from whom Kazuma instantly senses danger. She’s actually a “Tranquility Girl”, a type of plant monster that preys on good-natured and caring people by turning their protective instincts up to eleven, then preying on them.

Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin fall for her hook, line, and sinker, but Kazuma stays lucid, and they survive the encounter. Kazuma doubles back and observes the girl in her normal state, in which she bitterly laments letting his party go unscathed with the most teeth-sucking I’ve heard in a while.

When Kazuma recovers a mallet from her deceased last victim that creates gold coins when you make a hammering motion, he suddenly decides to abandon his desire to become a monk and heads home with the others. Unfortunately, by the time they return to Axel having planned all the ways they’re going to spend their newfound cash, he realizes he’s lost the mallet.

Oh well, at least he’s back home where he belongs. Just before bedtime, Hagen, from Darkness’ household, stops by with a letter for Kazuma from First Princess Iris, inviting him to regale her with tales of his heroic exploits. While Darkness is weary, Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin are eager to accept the Princess’ invitation.

KonoSuba is so back, people! In fact, t’s like it never left, despite the second season ending seven years ago. The rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, the over-the-top facial expressions, and of course the epic explosions—it’s all there, and all the voice actors remain at the top of their game. There’s even the odd wholesome moments like Kazuma and Megumin by the fire. I can’t wait to watch what happens when these goofballs have to interact with legit royalty!

Solo Leveling – 02 – All By Himself

The “commandments” on the plaque in this chamber prove to be key to survival. Jinwoo figures out that approaching or making eye contact with the “god” statue will only result in a grisly death. Instead, he keeps his gaze low and prostrates himself to revere the statue. In response, it suddenly wears a Titan-like grin, stands up, and starts walking around, crushing people.

It isn’t until Jinwoo also figures out that “praising” the god consists of someone standing beside each of the statues with an instrument, which causes them to play music. He just manages to get to the last of these statues, the singer, to halt the god statue’s advance, but not before he loses his right foot. Joohee tries to heal him, but overexerts herself and bleeds from the eyes and mouth.

The final commandment, “prove your faith”, consists of everyone standing within the circle at the center of the chamber. There’s a red flame for each person, plus a ring of blue flames that constitutes a timer. If they simply keep their eyes on all the advancing warrior statues until the blue flames go out, they’ll pass the test and be safe. But that proves too much for all but three of them, who run for the open exit.

The leader of the party is fine to stay, but there’s a problem: Jinwoo can’t walk because he’s missing a foot, and Joohee can’t walk because her legs go out due to all the healing she’s done. So the leader has to be the one to carry Joohee out to safety, leaving Jinwoo to face the full wrath of the statues. It’s here where I had to particularly suspend my disbelief, as the amount of blood coming from his body looks like a lot more than the 1.2 to 1.5 gallons that should be in there…

However, he is still barely alive when he falls on the altar just as the final blue flame goes out. A pop-up dialog box tells him he’s passed the secret quest called “Courage of the Weak.” His reward is the qualifications to be a “Player,” and he’s given a choice: accept and live, or don’t accept and die. Obviously, accepting is the choice here.

7th Time Loop – 01 (First Impressions) – The Constant

We open on a dark, stormy, bloody night. A castle has been breached, and invaders in black jackets are slaughtering knights in white. The leader of the invasion walks purposefully, in no hurry, and cuts down anyone who gets near him.

Even the four elite knights guarding the young princes’ chambers are no match for him. The last knight is very slim and feminine in appearance, with coral hair and full lips. This knight is the only one able to spill the enemy’s blood, but not before being impaled and killed.

As the knight declares she’s lived another full life, she proceeds to undergo the process of magical reincarnation, returning as Lady Rishe Imgard Weitzner. She stands before her fiancé Crown Prince Dietrich as he is leveling charges of being a “devious woman” against her and annulling their engagement.

Not only does Rishe take all of this in stride, she responds as if she knew it was coming, because she does … it’s the seventh time she’s relived it! The first time it came as a shock, and she was disowned, exiled, and thrown onto the streets with only the clothes on her back. But she happened to meet some friendly merchants and ended up becoming one herself.

When she was swept up in a war, killed, and reincarnated, she left with more money and effects, and while she didn’t encounter the merchants, she used the amassed knowledge from that life to become an accomplished herbalist. When she was killed again in the war, she became a scientist in her next life, and a simple handmaiden in the life after that.

In her sixth life she cut her hair short, disguised herself as a man, and became a knight, only to be cut down by one Arnold Hein, Emperor of Galkhein. While this is the only loop in which he kills her personally, Arnold is the one who starts the war in every loop, which always claims her life five years after her engagement is broken.

After excusing herself from Prince Dietrich’s false charges a seventh time, Rishe decides not to use the main entrance to depart this time. That turns out to be quite fortuitous, as who should she nearly collide with as she rounds a corner but Arnold Hein himself!

The shock of suddenly standing before the man who took her sixth life causes her to blurt out his name, including the title of emperor … which at this point in the timeline he has not yet achieved; he is merely a Crown Prince.

Rishe begs his forgiveness, as she’s in a hurry. Resigned to leaving with only the clothes on her back like the first loop, she removes her shoes and leaps out the window, landing into a roll to protect herself, then breaks the heels off her shoes and runs off. Arnold is thoroughly amused by this spectacle.

Delayed by her surprise encounter, Rishe ends up encountering Prince Dietrich outside her house with her parents, guards, and commoner bystanders all present. Dietrich, who is a right piece of work, notes that from the state of her she must be feeling heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief. But Rishe says “grief does not dirty a dress.”

Armed with six loops and a combined thirty years worth of experience, Rishe levels with the prince: she will be okay without him. She says, because she knows, that she can go out into the world and find her own worth, purpose, and happiness.

When Lady Marie, the woman who framed her, speaks up for the Prince, Rishe tells her she holds no ill will towards her, as she knows she only usurped her in order to save her family. She urges Marie to lead a life where both she and her family can keep smiling.

Having left Dietrich on the ground thoroughly chastened and Marie looking quite inspired by her words, Rishe continues on her way, but Dietrich orders his knights to stop her. As one approaches her from behind, her own knight instincts kick in, she steals his sword, and uses it to block a strike … from Crown Prince Arnold, coming around another corner.

The fact that she successfully parries his strike pleases him, as does the fact she knew he was holding back. But then he does something even she in her six lives could not have predicted: Arnold gets on one knee and asks for her hand in marriage!

Having watched her reaction to being spurned by Prince Dietrich and her heroic leap out of the window, to her powerful declaration of independence at the gates of her family’s home and finally parrying his blade, Arnold has evidently become smitten with Rishe … and who can blame him? She’s the complete package.

I don’t know for sure, but I assume he isn’t aware that he is the “constant” that has cut short all of Rishe’s previous lives. It stands to reason that if he doesn’t start a war in the next five years, she won’t die in this seventh loop. What better way to stop him from starting a war than by becoming his bride, and perhaps confidant?

That’s a hell of a premise for a reincarnation fantasy series. This first episode is largely setup, but makes that setup efficient, compelling, and epic in scale. Rishe has worked her ass off in loop after loop; not only does she deserve to end the cycle of death and reincarnation, but she deserves happiness and respite. We’ll see if life as an emperor-to-be’s fiancée will provide that!

Solo Leveling – 01 (First Impressions) – The Least of Us

One night ten years ago, gates to another dimension started opening. This dimension was full of magical beasts who could only be defeated with magic, or weapons imbued with it. Magic then awakened in various individuals, who became Hunters who go on raids defeating monsters and acquiring loot.

Hunters are ranked by their magical power, the most powerful are S-Rank and the weakest are E-Rank. Our protagonist Sung Jinwoo barely makes that rank, as he’s affectionately known as the “World’s Weakest” Hunter. He arrives at a gate for a raid still bearing the wounds from a previous one.

Jinwoo doesn’t fare any better on this newest raid, and were it not for his friend and B-Ranked Healer Lee Joohee, he’d have certainly lost his life to a goblin’s blade. Joohee doesn’t understand why he keeps throwing himself in to such dangerous situations.

She doesn’t have access to Jinwoo’s inner monologue, which reveals he no choice. His father is missing, his mom’s in the hospital, and his sister’s in college. He goes on raids to support his family; apparently a conventional job not involving monster hunting won’t cut it.

In this world, S-Ranked Hunters like the acrobatic Cha Hae-In are treated like celebrities, whether she wants to or not. Even while not on raids, she can use her ability to fight petty crime. There’s also an entire association that assesses, ranks and signs Hunters.

In the cold open we watched a lower-ranked party get torn to ribbons by an army of giant ants, while S-Ranked Hunters swoop in and handle the ants with ease. The Hunter Association’s chairman, Go Gunhee, wishes to harness the power of essence stones and mana crystals dropped by beasts as a clean energy source.

Chairman Go also impresses upon new recruits that the most important piece of advice he can offer is Be Afraid. When they find a tunnel to a boss dungeon, half of the party Jinwoo and Joohee are a part of want to press on and half, including Joohee, want to go home. Jinwoo breaks the tie by voting to press on.

Considering he just almost died, Jinwoo really shouldn’t have gotten a vote. As expected, the dungeon they end up in turns out to be a deadly trap filled with giant killer statues. One statue cuts a Hunter in half for trying to escape, while another statue fires an energy beam that incinerates another.

As the episode ends, it doesn’t look like a matter of if Jinwoo and Joohee are killed, but simply how quickly and painfully. Of course, I doubt he’ll be dying in the second of twelve planned episodes, so someone will either have to save him, or he’ll have to use his weakness as an asset somehow.

Based on South Korea’s most popular manhwa/webtoon, Solo Leveling is one of the most anticipated releases of the Winter season. I’d never heard of it, but it’s a solid enough start. A-1 Pictures and composer Sawano Hiroyuki’s score lend polish and gravitas to the production. The exposition can be clunky, there’s little action, and I’m not quite sold on Jinwoo yet, but it’s early. I’m intrigued enough to see where this goes.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 01 (First Impressions) – Childhood Hero

One night Satou Haruto was trying to catch a rhinoceros beetle in the woods when a pillar of golden light appeared, and with it a beautiful girl and an old man. She asks for his name, and gives her own: Nokana Hime (voiced by Kitou Akari). If he’ll keep her secret, she’ll be his friend. She wears two rings around her neck at all times; one is for her, and one is for her future husband.

Ten years later, Hime has been as good as her word. She and her gramps have been Satou’s neighbors for that time, making her and Satou childhood friends. Now in high school, his feelings for her are starting to run deeper. His jealous friend envy his situation, and warn him that if he loves Hime, he needs to make it known or she’ll slip away.

Satou thinks he has the perfect opportunity to confess when Hime invites him to the summer festival. They have a grand time together, but that’s nothing new; they’re old friends after all. When they end up somewhere private, he starts to tell her he loves her, but is interrupted by fireworks and a bombshell from Hime: she’s moving “far away”.

Satou doesn’t want to accept this; it’s too sudden. Then he sees that golden pillar of light out in the woods and rushes to Hime, who is about to step through. She tells him she’s going back to her world to get married. As she turns to enter the pillar, Satou sees her shed a tear. From the moment he met her a decade ago, he felt like he needed to protect her. He can’t do that by staying put, so he throws caution to the wind and jumps in after her.

He finds himself in a church in the middle of a hasty wedding ceremony between Hime—who is a real Princess whose real name is Krystal Novaty Nokanakita—and a Prince named Marmarugias Gisaras. When the ceremony is interrupted by a monster of the Abyss (no, not that one) crashing through the hall, Hime’s gramps urges her to give the ring of light to her prince.

Of course, the no-name Prince may be a prince, but he isn’t her prince. That’s Satou, whom she rushes to and kisses. The Prince, apparently cool with this (which I like), tosses Satou his sword, which suddenly becomes imbued with bright golden light. With a single determined slash, Satou manages to eliminate the monster, only to pass out.

He wakes up in bed with Hime beside him, telling him they’re in their wedding chamber. Just as he kinda just went with it when the choice to follow her, she chose him over the prince she didn’t know. We learn this will have political consequences, but whatever!

I loved Hime’s mischievous smile when she says “Sorry! I chose you to be our hero!” She dons a wedding gown while he oddly just wears his school uniform as they officially unveil themselves to a largely welcoming populace that is excited their hero and Ring King is from another world.

In this way, the honorable and positive attitude Souta exhibits as he willingly chooses to go to another world (out of love for Hime) is rewarded by a world that welcomes rather than shuns him. Yes, he’ll have to defeat monsters, but he seems to have an innate affinity for that.

After a whirlwind of a day, Satou relaxes in the royal baths, and is joined by Hime, who tells him she doesn’t have a choice as they’re technically newlyweds. Hime worries about the burden she’s placed on Satou, but he believes it will all work out, noting they’re technically still on summer break.

Hime remembers that when she first came to Satou’s world she was bullied for her unusual-for-Japan appearance, but Satou always had her back. While Hime goes on to say she picked him on impulse and they’re both too bashful to admit they’re more than Just Friends, Satou at least makes some measure of his feelings known by saying Hime choosing him made him happy. He never forgot her childhood promise to marry when they grew up, after all.

Their bath is interrupted by another attack by monsters from the Abyss; this time way more than just one. The two dress as they run to the front gates, leaving others to wonder just what they were up to.

Satou has no fighting training (we don’t even know if he knows any martial arts), but a second kiss from Hime is enough to steel his courage for the fight ahead, while the axe he’s given is imbued with light. Now that he’s been given the opportunity to protect Hime and the world she loves, he’s going to give it his all!

Tales of Wedding Rings has a lot in common with Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, only instead of a platonic trio we have childhood friends. Their situation also reminded me of Tonikawa, both due to the hastily marriage angle and the fact Kitou Akari (who is always great) voices Tsukasa.

I wish it had a slightly larger budget, but Satou and Hime are established well enough such that by the time the plot pivots to isekai heroics I was thoroughly invested in their fortunes, and able to overlook the animation shortcomings (for now). Also, it doesn’t look terrible by any stretch.

That brings us to the elephant in the room: the OP ends with a shot of Satou in bed with a skimpy nightie … and four other women in skimpy nighties, all wearing rings. Then the ED visuals consist entirely of the camera lovingly gliding across these four scantily-clad women bearing come-hither looks. The title is Tales of Wedding Rings, so it looks like Satou won’t just be marrying Hime. So far this was a simple tale, told well, but it’s about to get a lot more complicated!

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 05 – Knight Trials

Upon discovering Rae’s new familiar Ralaire, Claire prepares to report it so it can be killed, and isn’t impressed by its lesser tricks. So Rae appeals to Claire’s vanity by having the slime mimic Claire’s form. This pleases her, and she allows Rae to keep the familiar.

Rae, Claire, and Misha all pass the written portion of the Knights entry exams, so they all move on to the practical. Claire takes Rae aside and again asks her to agree to leave the school if she wins. Rae, who is certain Claire will pass, instead agrees to Claire’s terms if Rae loses.

If Rae wins, Claire has to do whatever she asks. With that, the magical duels commence within a magical barrier set up by the Knights captain and vice-captain. The first duel is between Princes Yu and Thane, whom Misha and Claire have the hots for, respectively.

Yu would seem to have the upper hand with his water and ice-based magic, but Thane is no ordinary wind-user, and manages to get his younger brother to yield. Misha puts up a good fight against Rod with creative use of her wind magic, but ultimately loses the battle of endurance due to lack of oxygen.

The final duel is perhaps the most anticipated among the students: Rae vs. Claire. As expected, the vast majority of the crowd is on Claire’s side, and Rae can’t blame them; she’d normally be on Claire’s side too! When neither girl attacks first, Rae decides to start by encasing Claire in a rock pillar, which she effortlessly melts with her flames.

Rae counters with a personal barrier made not of earth or rock, but tungsten carbide, borrowing a material from her original world. Claire tries to get around the shield by firing a fusillade of fiery blasts, but Claire shoots them all down with earth projectiles.

Claire can’t help but be impressed with the Commoner’s aptitude, rotten though she may be. But she intends to turn the tables by using an elite hereditary beam weapon. Her only mistake is going easy on Rae by firing a warning shot first; she would have surely won if that shot had been on target.

Instead, Rae simply creates a hole for Claire to fall in, then makes the hole so deep she cannot hope to escape. Even if she tried, Thane reminds Claire that Rae can also wield water, against which her fire is weakest. The Knights call the match for Rae by unanimous decision, while Claire is taken down another peg.

The next day the list of new Knights entrants is posted, and to Claire’s shock, her name is on it. Turns out whether combatants won or lost didn’t matter; the point of the practical exam was to determine the would-be members’ magical ability, which was exmplary for all three princes, Misha, Claire, and Rae.

So they’re all in the Knights! Also, because she didn’t lose, Rae can ask anything of Claire. Curiously, she asks for the exact same thing as last time: asking Claire to swear never to give up no matter what. Could Rae still be taking into account Claire’s default status as the villainess in the game, and this is a defense against that? In any case, Claire isn’t about to be rid of Rae anytime soon.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 04 – This is Where the Magic Happens

This week begins with a rather lengthy lecture on the magical system of this world, which isn’t anything fancy. You have your fire, earth, wind, and water, each of which is strong or weak against another, forming a cycle. Rae initially matches my mood about all this: it’s not terribly interesting, and it sidesteps the lesbian romance.

When Misha urges Rae to put in some effort, she demolishes a target and gains the attention of her classmates. Rae is worried she overdid it, but Claire can’t resists destroying a target even more thoroughly with her fire magic, then letting out another exquisite ojou laugh.

While Claire’s intention is to one-up Rae, she doesn’t get the reaction she hoped: Rae is of course overjoyed to have her earthen walls constantly torn down by Claire’s fire. Their magical back-and-forth attracts the attention of Prince Rod and Yu, who try to recruit them into the Knights.

The Knights are basically this school’s student council, and while Claire initially isn’t interested, as it would bring her closer to the princes whose routes she’d rather avoid, she changes her tune when the princes suggest she could be Claire’s knight in shining armor.

Claire then bursts Rae’s bubble by declaring she’ll be taking the exam to join the Knights as well, but it doesn’t burst Rae’s bubble at all. Rae would jump at the opportunity to either save or be saved by Claire.

That becomes more than just one of Rae’s fantasies when a colossal water slime emerges from the woods. All the students turn to flee at the teacher’s urging, but to Claire’s shock, Rae stands her ground and positions herself beside the teacher to help.

She builds a giant four-sided wall to contain the slime, enabling the teacher and all the other students to launch a multi-pronged attack. However, as Rae expects, this only unlocks a boss slime’s flag. It levels up and grabs a bunch of students with its tentacles…including Rae, who is out of magic.

Rae panics, not because she fears death, but because she doesn’t want to choose between one of the princes to save her, as is the normal progression of the otome. Thankfully, her willpower wins out, and a fourth option, Claire, appears in her “menu”. But in one of the better comedic beats of the episode, Claire can’t save her, as she’s been snatched by a tentacle too!

Claire’s crush Prince Thane ends up freeing her than calling upon her to help him defeat the slime. As they combine their fire and wind magic and exhibit some nifty acrobatics, Rae is in awe of how dashing Claire appears. This is a shining, valiant Claire the game’s programming normally wouldn’t allow.

When the slime is destroyed and everyone is safe, they all praise Claire, because Thane suddenly sidles off. Rae also slinks away, because she knows that the giant slime was only trying to protect its young, which is now all alone in the woods.

After coaxing the cute little baby slime out from behind some shrubbery, Rae forms a familiar contact with it and names it Ralaire. Meanwhile, Claire tracks down Thane so she can properly thank him. In response, Thane tells her he’s sure she could have handled it without him, then pats her on the head.

Rae accidentally interrupts what could be a crucial romantic flag by snapping a twig with her foot, but to her surprise, Claire isn’t angry. She’s relieved that Rae is ok, inspecting her to make sure she’s not injured, and telling her how worried she was. This, of course, makes Rae extremely happy. Even if Claire keeps calling her Commoner, they’ve come a long way.

After the credits, Rae gets to know her new familiar Ralaire, and realizes he’ll need training. There’s also the matter of him technically being a monster. When Misha first spots him she cries out, but upon closer inspection she’s charmed by the adorable little guy, and agrees to help Rae.

Inevitably, their mutual secret is exposed when Claire barges in to their dorm room looking for her brush. Seeing the monster, Claire screams as well. We’ll see if she’s as susceptible to cute things as Misha.

Hyakkano – 03 – Don’t Speak

Yoshimoto Shizuka, the tiny student librarian, has resigned herself to a life of solitude, and yet she still longs for her shining knight. Enter Aijou Rentarou, who happens to reach for the exact same romance novel as her, and we’re off to the lists.

Karane had been my favorite girlfriend so far due to her admirable yet often self-defeating commitment to tsundere values. I never thought she’d be unseated so quickly, and by someone who never utters a single word out loud! Yet Shizuka achieves the feat with ease.

I love how many parallels can be drawn between her favorite fantasy romance novel and her eventual romance with Rentarou. It starts with Rentarou finding out that Shizuka communicates through passages in the novel.

At first she believes this puts him off and she goes to find someone else to help him, but Rentarou never questions why she does this or suggests that she try speaking. He accepts her for who she is. And even when she goes overboard and suggests a hundred books, he’s eager to read them all. After all, romance is his favorite genre!

The only snag is a bureaucratic one: it takes a week to get a library card. So Shizuka gives him her favorite, which isn’t a library book but her personal possession. And it slaps. Rentarou reads all it in one night, and Shizuka brings Volume II the next day, just in case he did.

I cannot stress enough how cute these two are together. Rentarou may be aware that Shizuka is now one of his 100 soulmates after their eyes met, but the fact he must make her happy or she’ll die according to the god of love doesn’t really factor into the equation, because he’s having a blast getting to know this tiny, diligent, charming, romantic girl.

It’s important that Rentarou isn’t laboring to make a connection, the connection is simply there. When he tells her it’s amazing that she knows the novel so well she can instantly pick out passages with which to communicate, he means it. And it is amazing!

The tragic thing is, as amazing as Shizuka is, no one else has ever acknowledged it. She believes her means of communication makes her a “freak.” So when she spots Hakari and Karane flirting in their unique ways with Rentarou, her heart breaks, but she’s not surprised: of course he already has a girlfriend.

Even if he didn’t, she wouldn’t feel worthy. Her classmates called her tendency to speak through the book “creepy”, and her own mother is the one who called her a freak, brutally verbally abusing her until Shizuka is compelled to say a word out loud, but only one: “Sorry.”

While the promo art, OP, and ED serve as minor spoilers because we know she’ll end up with Rentarou, Shizuka doesn’t know that yet, and my heart hurt to see her so discouraged after he had lifted her spirits so high before.

But Rentarou foreshadowed things when he told his other two girlfriends he’d been up late a lot “getting busy”. He felt the odd can of coffee wasn’t sufficient thanks for introducing him to such a wonderful series of novels. He wanted to help Yoshimoto Shizuka in a meaningful, lasting way.

One day after school he comes to the library, and is relieved to find her there. He asks her to download an app, and then import a file to it. When she sees the file, Shizuka is shocked: it’s her favorite novel, in e-book form…but there is no e-book version!

The app turns out to be a text-to-speech program. Rentarou typed the whole damn novel into it over the last few nights. Why? With the speech (which is in her seiyu Naganawa Maria’s voice), those she’s speaking to no longer have to look at the text…they can look at her face while she’s “talking.”

Rentarou makes clear he could never ask Shizuka to speak out loud—at this point it’s part of who she is—but he hopes that this method will help her communicate better with others. When asked to give it a try, Shizuka’s first response in her new e-voice is a confession: I love you.

While she tries to then walk it back (again, using passages from the novel), Rentarou gathers her in his arms and tells her he loves her too. And again, he means it. She isn’t an obligation, nor does he want to be her shining, dragon-slaying knight. He’s simply fallen in love with her. This re-contextualizes the nature of his soulmates.

These three girls aren’t a burden or a duty. Meeting them, getting to know them, and dating them makes his life happier and fuller. And when the inevitable awkward conversation with Karane and Hakari occurs, something interesting happens. Karane initially believe he’s succumbed to brain rot, but Hakari is overjoyed and moved that he isn’t dumping them just because he’s found a new girlfriend.

As tends to be their dynamic, Hakari takes the plunge into acceptance first, and Karane follows suit. Her objections stem from her tsundere personality, but she truly does want to remain with Rentarou and Hakari, and just by being who she is, Hakari lends her the nudge she needs. The two girls complement each other, and keep each other in check.

As such, the Aijou Rentarou polycule grows from three to four with minimal pain. I can’t wait to see how Shizuka fits into and adds to their dynamic … and how eventually adding a fourth and fifth girlfriend will cause the romantic alchemy to evolve and adapt.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 03 – Not All Fun and Games

Rae has settled into being Claire’s maid, and Claire seems to have a little more of a tolerance for Rae…she even calls her by her name on occasion! She also gains a little more respect for her after watching her go toe-to-toe with First Prince Rod in chess.

Rae’s goal is to keep Rod’s affection points as low as possible, but he knew she was going easy on him and is charmed by that fact. Claire meanwhile really wants to beat Rae at chess, but finds doing so difficult. When Third Prince Yu stops by to give her some pointers, she’s not interested, and the gaggle of young ladies following Yu are none to pleased!

Yu, trying to get a better bead on Rae, proposes a game of poker. Like Rae, I loved Claire’s adorable lack of a poker face, as well as Misha’s strong poker face. Rae’s first hand is a good one, and her first card swap gives her a straight. Rae correctly assumes her hand isn’t good enough to beat Yu, and while she knows he rigged the game, she doesn’t call him out.

Mostly Rae wants to take her leave from Yu as he’s Misha’s childhood friend and she doesn’t want to anger her. While out in the courtyard Rae leads Claire and Lene to where Second Prince Thane is playing the harp. She knows from the game the proper way to approach and talk to him to score affection points, and so is dismayed when Claire doesn’t do that.

When Thane laments that harp-playing won’t prepare him for the throne, Rae proposes a game that might: the King Game. He draws #1 first, and orders Rae and Claire to hold hands, which Rae loves. Lene is the next king, and has Thane pat Claire on the head, which Claire loves.

Finally, Rae is king, and we learn that she and Lene decided before the game that they’d blink out their numbers. Rae orders Claire and Thane to kiss, but he puts an end to the game when he deduces that the King Game doesn’t test one’s kingliness any more than the harp.

Rae does a masterful bit of bullshitting (or is it?) by revealing to Thane that she was actually counting on him to expose her true intentions. His refusal to carry out an unreasonable order (kissing Claire) followed by uncovering Rae’s “treachery”, shows that he does indeed have the makings of a king.

The one most confused by how Rae played the game is Lene. After all, if Rae loves Claire, why would she work to bring Claire and Thane together? That’s more or less answered in the most serious and dramatic scene of the series, as Misha comes right out and asks Rae if she’s gay, and Rae says that she is.

When Claire reacts like she’s in danger, Misha admonishes her for being prejudiced. While Claire is justified in not trusting Rae due to her words and actions, Rae simply being gay doesn’t make her some kind of sex-crazed maniac. The point Misha makes is that no one lusts after anyone, anytime.

When Lene tries to clarify that gender doesn’t matter and Rae just happened to fall for Claire, Rae gently corrects her: There’s no way she’d ever fall for a man. This gets Rae thinking about how she’s never had any luck in love, and indeed anytime she’s tried to take a step in that direction, those she loved drifted away.

When asked, Rae says she may have given up on Claire, but it’s just as accurate to say she never expected Claire to ever return her feelings. As such, she’s simply content to be by Claire’s side. This also explains why she asked Lene to help her bring Claire and Thane closer. Rae’s “end goal” isn’t necessarily to get with Claire; it’s simply to make Claire, the ostensible villainess in this game, happy.

When two random girls start talking shit about Rae under their breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear, Rae smiles and laughs it off—her longstanding defense mechanism—but Claire isn’t so passive. She pours her tea all over one of the girls, then ojou-laughs it off as an accident when it very clearly wasn’t. Rae is speechless.

Misha is also surprised that Claire actually stood up for Rae, but Lene says it’s more a matter of Claire being angry about unintentionally hurting Rae and needing an outlet for her anger, and those two girls fit the bill perfectly.

When Claire orders Rae to follow her out, Rae sheepishly asks if Claire hates her. After a beat, Claire shouts that of course she hates her. Rae responds with a smile and a laugh, but that smile seems more sad now that we know what Rae has gone through in the past and going through now, and that she’s coping with loneliness and unrequited love the only way she knows how, at least for now.

Thankfully, we’re only three episodes into this, so even Rae, with all her encyclopedic knowledge of Claire and the game, can’t say with certainty how things will shake out. She should remember the promise she ordered Claire to make when she won the exam bet: Never give up; never lose hope.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 02 – A Maid Matched in Heaven

While everyone is stunned by her “immeasurable” magical level, Rae stays mum about the fact that she, the protagonist of the otome made flesh, is a water-and-earth dual wielder. This is incredibly rare even for nobility, and it’s the first sign to Claire that Rae isn’t your typical commoner.

Because Rae isn’t included in the overall ranking, Claire considers their bet off. However, Rae was careful to make her promise to do one thing for her “if she didn’t win”, and Claire did not technically win. Fortunately, Claire doesn’t ask for anything lewd; just for Claire to promise never to give up.

While this seems like a random request, the fact of the matter is Claire ends up losing everything in the otome—she is the designated antagonist. Rae intends to keep forging route of her own making—a route that ends with winning over Claire.

For now, Rae’s strategy seems to be remaining in Claire’s presence as much as possible. To that end, she applies for an open maid position in Claire’s household. The head maid informs an exasperated Claire that Rae is actually the most impressive and qualified maid by far, and her apparent devotion to Claire only makes her a more enticing candidate.

Of course, the last thing Claire wants is for this creepy commoner to serve as her maid. Her father Dole, third in line to the throne, initially takes her side, but a few cryptic yet knowing phrases from Rae and a brief private meeting later, and Dole is insisting Claire take Rae on, citing a Francois’ need to “hold a restive horse’s reins”. Political blackmail—You know I love it!

Claire grudgingly accepts, and warns Rae that she’d better do everything she says. We meet Claire’s other maid, Lene, who has served Claire since childhood and acts like a big sister. Lene takes an instant liking to Rae, which makes sense as she’s one of the few people who know Claire as well Rae does, if not better.

The benefit to Rae is obvious: she has an easy excuse to always be by her beloved’s side, even at a tea party with Claire’s noble friends. When told she likes Claire and awful lot, Rae says she doesn’t like her, and her reward is a look of shock from Claire. Of course, she doesn’t like her, she loves her.

When the time comes to bathe Claire, Lene handles the washing of her body, while Rae is tasked with washing her hair. Claire admits Rae is quite good at this, and Rae takes the opportunity to praise Claire’s hair, which is naturally straight but put in curls by Lene every morning to honor her mother.

Lene like Rae and has high hopes for her, but Claire, always possessed of the lowest possible opinion of commoners (that is, those who aren’t Lene), believes Rae will eventually give up her games and make a run for it. When Lene tells Claire to stop calling Rae “commoner”, Claire says she’ll stop if Rae stops with the lovey-dovey talk. Rae, of course, immediately refuses.

That night, Rae sees to it that Claire is okay after spending so long in the steam. She sits beside her bed saying she’ll stay until Claire falls asleep. Claire sits up and tells Rae to come clean: why does she keep claiming to be in love with her? Rae tells her: she’s so cute she can’t stand it.

When Claire dismisses her love as skin-deep, Rae also says she loves her personality. That’s when Claire one has her realest moments yet, admitting that she knows she doesn’t have the kind of personality that people like. She’s convinced Rae is one of those people, and demands to know what she’s “really after.”

Rae tells her the truth: she loves her; there’s no ulterior motive, political or otherwise. She draws in close so their moonlit eyes meet, and says if Claire doesn’t believe her, she’ll do her best to make her believe her. With that, she leaves Claire, who blushes into her sheets. It’s the first sign that her tough armor is finally starting to crack. That said, I’d hope that the hard edges of Rae’s pushiness are smoothed off at some point.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 01 (First Impressions) – The Thrill of a Girl with Drill Curls in an Ill New World

Oohashi Rei, who like Akira in ZOM 100 worked for an exploitative company, would unwind after work with Revolution, her favorite otome (dating sim) game. But one night the TV screen gets all glitchy, and the next thing she knows, she’s being dressed down by none other than her favorite character in the game, who is not of the designated hot guys, but the villainess Claire Francois. And Rei couldn’t be happier.

Rei, now “Rae Taylor”, has somehow been transported into the world of the game. Now occupying the same three dimensional space as her digital crush, she wastes no time taking her hands in hers and declaring her love for her. Claire…doesn’t know what to do with this, but one thing’s for sure,it throws her off! She’s supposed to be an effective bully, but none of her bullying works on Rae. It only makes Rae love her more.

Honestly I was surprised how up my alley this show turned out to be. Serizawa Yuu is a hoot as Rae, who is unabashedly head-over-heels for Claire, and while I’m not too familiar with Claire’s seiyu Nanami Karin, she knocks it out of the park with a suitably haughty performance, complete with enough robust ojou-sama laughs to give anyone using them for a drinking game serious alcohol poisoning!

I also love how Rae, when she was Rei, didn’t give a shit about the prescribed dating routes in the game, but interacted as much as possible with Claire. She does the same when thrust into their world, only remembering the three hot princes existed when they show up in the middle of Claire trying and failing to psychologically abuse her. Rae even gets Claire to neg the sensitive second priest she actually likes, a tremendous self-own!

This show may only work if you like both Rae and Claire, and get why Rae loves her. Claire may be a rich bitch and a bully, but Rae points out how Claire never goes too far in her bullying, and she’s also cute as hell when she’s flustered, which is constantly in Rae’s presence. But like a bug to a bug light, she just can’t resist trying to put a commoner in her place.

To that end, she challenges Rae to a duel involving their upcoming exam scores. If Claire wins, Rae will leave the school. If Rae wins, Claire has to do something, anything she wants. And while Rae isn’t that confident in her table etiquette, she’s extremely confident in the written exam since she did exhaustive research on the setting of the game when she wrote a doujinshi in her world. She’s also above-average to exceptional in magical abilities.

On the morning the exam scores are posted, Claire thinks Rae has bags under her eyes because she’s nervous about the results, but she’s wrong. Rae simply stayed up all night thinking of what she’d ask Claire to do for her after she won. And win she does, scoring higher than Claire in two of the three exams. Only two of the three princes scored higher than Rae in the written exam, while Rae takes the top spot with her “unmeasurable” magical power.

I’m in Love with the Villainess has a simple, fun premise that’s a great twist on your standard otome isekai story. Where past villainess shows I’ve watched make the villainess a tragic or sympathetic character, Claire is portrayed as advertised: she’s a real piece of work with drill curls. But love comes in all forms, and not only does Rae love her, but it’s totally understandable why she does. We’ll see if Claire ever comes around to accepting those feelings.

Tenten Kakumei – 08 – Brother’s Keeper

Laine’s life has been one ordeal after another. First she was born a commoner, hardly the most desirable station in this world. When her parents died, she was sent to an orphanage, where her unconscious power caused her to attract the adoration of some and bitter resentment of others.

Then Baron Cyan adopted her, and before she knew it she was the Crown Prince’s handpicked bride. It’s that latter part she thinks back on while looking into her tea. She saw a poor girl fall in the street and thought There but by the grace of God go I. She also remembers admiring Algard.

She admired him because he vowed that when he became king he’d demolish the walls between nobility and commoners. But now, like Euphie before her, Lainie is feeling lost and useless, and Ilia is there to give her small comforts like tea and kind words of support.

But suddenly, that pleasant moment is interrupted by one of Anis’ alarms and the lights going dark. Ilia tells Lainie that the villa has an intruder, and quickly whisks her away to the safety of the castle. I already admired the hell out of Ilia for many reasons, but add to those the fact she doubles as a bodyguard!

And she’d be an effective bodyguard against most anyone…except royalty like Prince Algard, who brutally impales her with a spear of light and then snags Lainie up like a fish on a pole. He tells Lainie he won’t apologize, nor will he seek forgiveness, before impaling her through the chest as well.

We know what he’s after: her vampire magicite. It is probably what he’s been after all this time, but Anisphila once again ruined his and Lord Chartreuse’s plans by harboring Lainie. At this point he believes he knows what must be done, but also knows he can’t do it without stealing someone else’s power.

The post-lecture gathering goes on seemingly forever, with Anis totally checked out. Then Moritz approaches her and is extremely pushy in his apologies for what went down with Euphie. Then the alarm goes off and he physically restrains her, and his friendly mask drops.

Moritz is Chartreuse’s son and Al’s buddy, and his job is to keep Anis and Euphie here while Al gets the magicite. The plan almost worked too, because Anis and Euphie took a summons that amounted to an elaborate diversion as a sincere attempt to sway some of the magical ministers.

When Moritz starts raving about Princess Anisphilia suddenly going mad, Anis says eff it and unleashes her dragon power to force him to let go of her. When a magical attack is thrown her way, Euphie is immediately there to reflect it.

Just when it looks like the two are in for a protracted fight against the guards who are swayed by Moritz’s ranting and Anis’ odd behavior, Tilty steps in and immobilizes everyone but Anis and Euphie, allowing them to fly off without delay (this time with Euphie carrying Anis). Great teamwork all around!

They arrive at the villa courtyard where Ilia and Lainie lie bleeding out. Anis assures them both they’ll be fine. Euphie starts using healing magic but isn’t sure she can save Lainie, but Anis tells her to do her best and hopefully Lainie’s vampiric body will heal itself.

That said, with the magicite now in Algard’s possession, all bets are off. While Anis had a dragon tattooed on her back, Al goes the Final Fantasy Big Bad route and just shoves the magicite straight into his chest. After a little wrenching in pain, his eyes turn red, and he looks much more like an opponent to be worried about.

More distressing than what Algard has done is why he’s done it. At the end of the day, both he and Anis have the same basic vision for the kingdom: one where everyone will be on equal ground. Except in his case that will be achieved through the wielding of the absolute power the vampire magicite provides.

A life of waiting has thoroughly curdled Al’s personality, to the point where he’s not even going to try a peaceful or bloodless path to reconciling nobility and commoners; he’s just going to kill and subjugate who he needs to until he’s satisfied a new kingdom has been born.

It goes without saying Al doesn’t believe magic should be used to make people happy. He sees his magical ability and his position as heir apparent to the throne to be nothing but curses, so of course he has no problem exacting suffering on others.

On the surface Al’s your typical deranged villain who is probably going to end up destroying himself before being beaten by our heroes. But there’s a lot more dimension to him. I still find him a pitable man (probably the last thing he’d want to hear). For someone who says they’re abandoning emotion (like his genuine affection for Lainie), he seems awfully angry!

What I can’t say is exactly how much Anisphia contributed to the creation of the present villainous monster that is Vampire Bro Prince. Al truly hates her for having so carelessly cast aside her birthright, and it could be she spent so many years buried in her magicology she neither spent enough time nor kept a close enough eye on her increasingly troubled little brother.

Now, desperate for power, Al took a shortcut and stole it from Lainie. Can we really say Anis is any better for having killed an ancient and noble dragon and taken its power? I don’t know, but at least Anis wants to make the world a better place for humans the right way, with cooperation, understanding, and rad inventions.

But at the end of the day, if Algard insists that the one with the most power wins, then she’ll indulge him by using her power—which she is confident far outstrips his shoddily stolen vampirism—to stop him. It should be one hell of a battle.