Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – 01 (First Impressions) – Oh, The Humanity!

Unknown to regular kid Misumi Makoto, his parents are actually immigrants from another world who made a deal with that world’s Goddess. They were able to travel to Earth, and in return Makoto is summoned to the other world to be its hero in a time of increased strife.

The only problem is, the Goddess is very shallow, and deems Makoto too ugly to be any hero of humanity. She reluctantly gives him the ability to read and write the local languages and dumps him at the edge of her world. Her fellow god Tsukuyomi assures him he’ll be okay, as living on Earth was akin to walking around with heavy weights on his limbs.

Sure enough, Makoto is able to execute a superhero landing on his first try from a several thousand-foot drop. After three days of wandering, he encounters a cute orc girl with very creepy hands being attacked by a two-headed dog. Without even trying that hard, he puts his fist all the way through the great beast, saving but also frightening the orc, whose name is Emma.

But as she can’t fight or flee, Emma takes him home, makes him dinner, and teaches him magic. Turns out while he’s only Level 1, he’s a quick learner. In no time at all he’s conjuring flames without a verbal incantation. It’s all very pleasant!

To thank Emma for her hospitality, he sets out to deal with Shen, to whom she was about to sacrifice herself. Turns out some goblins were using the legend of Shen to subjugate the orcs, and Makoto accidentally kills them all and destroys Shen’s torii gate.

Shen appears in the form of a giant green dragon, and while Makoto is more than a match for them, Shen possesses the ability to trap their victims in an illusion borne of their own memories; in this case Makoto being asked out by his cute, taller kohai. He soon realizes this isn’t real and breaks free.

Shen, who is extremely intrigued by Makoto’s memories of another world, suggests they form a contract, and Makoto agrees. Shen was hoping for more of a 50/50 arrangement, but such is Makoto’s latent magical power it becomes more like 80/20 in the kid’s favor. Shen transforms into a cool samurai-esque beauty. Roll credits and a charming Irish-y ED with Enka-like vocals.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy is one of the latest products to come out of the non-stop isekai anime Play-Doh extruder, containing nothing original and breaking no new ground. But it’s self-aware, well-executed, the pace is brisk and efficient…and I’m a sucker for friendly dragons! It’s no KonoSuba, but its also not as mean, and Makoto is much more likable than Kazuma. We’ve also only met two-thirds of the main trio, so I’ll stick with this for now.

DanMachi III – 07 – A Beast’s Dream

I respect Bell’s moxie, but I was hoping for something a bit more clever than trying to go toe-to-toe in a melee fight against an opponent two full levels higher than him. Sure, Dix is in a weakened state due to the curse, but that won’t last. At least we get some clarity via his ranting: he’s been able to calm his raging Daedalus blood—and nullify the urge to keep building Knossos—by killing Xenos.

It’s the specific fact they cry and scream like humans that makes it work. So yeah, Dix has been suffering a horrible curse for which not even the bloodshed in the dungeon could lift his entire life. It’s not surprising he’d take whatever form of release that came along; moral implications be damned. But still, he’s one sadistic bastard!

Meanwhile, outside Knossos, the Ganesha Familia have almost finished capturing the Xenos when they are ambushed by a giant minotaur. Everyone is either killed or injured, including Aisha and Asfi. Ryuu manages not to die by dumb luck, as the minotaur hears a wolf howling and departs before finishing her. So much for Bell getting some help from these three!

He’s on his own when Dix shows him the chained Wiene, then rips the stone off her head. Wiene undergoes a horrifying (and no doubt excruciating) transformation into a full adult vouivre, screaming and lashing out mindlessly.

Bell attempts to reach the Wiene he knows by refusing to fight her and letting her grab his shoulder (after swatting him back a couple times). She remembers the first time she accidentally cut him, and actually manages to say his name and weep tears of despair. But it doesn’t last long, and soon Wiene is back to going berserk.

Dix is super pissed that Bell almost succeeded in proving him wrong about Xenos just being monsters by any other name, and they continue their one-on-one battle, but despite being pretty beaten down (both physically and emotionally) he seems to find his second wind, even breaking the blade of Dix’s spear. Then Lyd breaks free of Dix’s curse and fights beside Bell, allowing him to land his Bell Punch square in Dix’s chest.

Unfortunately, regardless of Dix’s status, the damage is done, and he opens a door to allow the berserk Wiene direct access to the surface, where she’s sure to be “dealt with” by adventurers. Bell races after her, stopping only to be healed by Fels’ kick-ass magic. Gros joins Lyd and Rei in going after Bell to help him, even if he can’t admit he can probably trust the Little Rookie at this point.

Wiene emerges first on Daedalus Street, which just happens to be where Welf led Hestia Familia on a hunch. She was immediately vilified by citizens on the surface when she was a cute little kid; I can’t imagine her new form will do her any favors.

Bell follows shortly thereafter, but Wiene is stabbed by a spear thrown by Loki Familia, who are perched on a roof, ready to swoop down and eliminate the threat. Bell then does something that could condemn him, his goddess, and his Familia forever: he shields Wiene from the Lokis, a half-defiant, half-mad look on his face.

This pits him against Ais and every other member of the Lokis who have just been ordered to dispose of the vouivre. It’s an extremely volatile situation where there just isn’t time to explain what needs to be explained, and even if there was, orders are orders. One just hopes Bell won’t have to fight his friend, and cooler heads in Lyd, Rei, and Gros can arrive in time to restrain Wiene and bail Bell out. But I gotta say, things are not looking good for Argonaut-kun!

DanMachi III – 06 – Sagrada Familia

As Ikelos smirks his smirk atop a great tower…somewhere, Ganesha’s suppression force engages the armed monsters. Ryuu, Aisha, and Asfi arrive but cannot find Bell, who is in disguise. That disguise doesn’t last long, however, as he eventually crosses blades with Lyd, who admits his kind destroyed Liviria as revenge for poachers killing their kin.

Lyd can’t quell the rage of Gros or his other kin, which means any hopes for peace between their races has been all but dashed. But if Lyd really wanted Bell to return to the surface and separate himself from this business, he wouldn’t have mentioned that Wiene was among the Xenos captured.

Ryu, a good friend in a tight spot, comes between Lyd and Bell, but when it’s clear Bell isn’t about to head home with her, she provides him with something he might find useful. Of course, that something becomes useful immediately after they part ways, and when Bell encounters Fels.

The orb acts as a key to heretofore unknown man-made passages to the Dungeon, which lead to a labyrinth built by Daedalus centuries ago. Out at the entrance of Babel, the rest of Hesita Familia can only watch from the bushes and wait…until Lili gets the idea to ask her former captor about the network of smugglers.

Lyd, Gros, and the Xenos take a different route through the labyrinth with a another key, but both they and Bell/Fels end up in the same place: a staging area where the captives are imprisoned. They start breaking cages and chains, but they’re interrupted by Ikelos Familia and Dix, who have homefield advantage.

Dix reveals he’s a direct descendant of Daedalus, who went mad trying to surpass the Dungeon by his own hands. His monumental work, Knossos, remains unfinished to this day (like Sagrada Familia in Barcelona), but monster and Xenos smuggling is one of their revenue streams for continuing construction, and Dix & Co. are bound to continue the work Daedalus started…even if he doesn’t seem like a big fan of his ancestor

After activating a curse that has a Confuse and Berserk effect on the Xenos, Fels tells Bell their only choice is to defeat Dix in order to lift said curse. Oh, and by the way…Dix is Level 5. Nevertheless, if Bell wants to save Wiene, he’ll have to get through Dix.

The arrival of an arrangement of the DanMachi main battle theme is welcome, but I wish this episode didn’t feel like so much overly clunky plot mechanics engineered to put Bell in a duel with Dix. The duel itself, however, should be a lot of fun, even if there’s not much to Dix other than he’s, like, a bad dude. Hopefully Fels can provide some magey support to help even the odds…

DanMachi III – 05 – Being Made to Cross a Dangerous Bridge

Dix’s party ends up overwhelming and making quick work of the Xenos protecting Wiene before Dix himself captures her. He even lets the grunts have their way with Ranieh the spider woman, but she kills herself before they can do anything. Ya know, just in case we needed confirmation that Dix’s men are not good people!

The Gargoyle Gros is furious and demands vengeance. He destroys the bauble connecting Lyd to Fels, washing his monster hands of the humans for good. He convinces most of the other Xenos around into action, but Lyd and Rei (who’s still alive; Dix used a different siren as bait) aren’t among them, and follow in hopes of stopping Gros from undoing all of the progress they’ve made.

Human-Monster relations are all about appearances and experiences. Bell may have learned that despite looking monstrous the Xenos are thinking, feeling beings that aren’t united in a singular will to harm humans. But Ais Wallenstein has grown up defeating any monsters who would make any humans cry.

When they were last together, Ais and Bell were on pretty good terms, agreeing to visit that village together someday. But here Bell can already sense her lack of inflexibility or nuance when it comes to monsters. She’s always been a very straightforward person in other matters, so it will be tough for him to convince her some monsters are actually good.

Convincing Ais to join his pro-Xenos coalition becomes that much more difficult when the Guild sounds a citywide emergency alert: Livira on the Eighteenth Floor has been attacked and leveled by “armed monsters”, immediately followed by orders forbidding all citizens, even adventurers, from entering the Dungeon until further notice.

It’s an order from Ouranos himself, not wanting to further escalate the human-Xenos violence. Instead he devises a lighter-touch response involving a Ganesha Familiar suppression force (not kill squad), while also ensuring Bell, possibly the most reliable bridge between the sides, will join that force.

One by one we check in on the major familiae of the city and see how they all react. Loki is certain this is only the beginning and eventually they’ll all be drawn into the fighting; Freya seems intrigued that the Guild is keeping her fam out of it; Hermes is worried about Bell, and so has Asfi summon Aisha, who then convinces Ryuu to accompany her. I for one am always up for Aisha-Ryuu pair-ups!

Dix has what he wants—Wiene in chains—but he doesn’t seem to fully grasp or care exactly what he’s done. By slaughtering Wiene’s escort, he invoked Gros’ rage, and shattered any hope of Gros ever coming around to Lyd and Rei’s way of thinking regarding human coexistence. As for Ikelos, he seems elated his familia has created a waking nightmare.

Bell prepares to enter the Dungeon with the Ganesha Familia, who have orders to tame, not kill, the armed monsters. His role is much tougher, as he must try to re-establish a dialogue with the Xenos while they’re being attacked by Ganesha’s forces.

Just as he and his Familia alone aren’t enough to convince all humans, Lyd and Rei aren’t enough to convince all Xenos. At least he’ll have backup in Aisha, Ryuu, and who knows who else…and I’m sure he’ll be needing it!

DanMachi III – 04 – Seeking the Surface

Hestia Familia’s Xenos hosts provide food and beverage to celebrate the meeting of humans who will accept them. As Bell and the others drink, eat, and dance, they learn a lot more about these intelligent monsters. Like them, they collect loot from the enemies they defeat, be they adventurers or “dumb” monsters.

We also learn that while Lyd is presently the Xenos’ de facto leader, a stronger Xenos has awakened who could challenge his claim as the strongest of them. On top of that, there’s a faction of the Xenos who want no part of the humans, distrusting them every bit as much as the townsfolk on the surface.

Like last week once they reach the Xenos’ hideout, this episode spends most of its time explaining the bigger picture, with “former human” and sage, now skeleton Fels being a useful font of information while Ouranos tells Hestia a lot of the same stuff.

Just as Ouranos hopes Bell and Hestia’s Familia will be the bridge to make people acknowledge the existence of intelligent and peaceful monsters, Dix Perdix and the Ikelos Familia is working to maintain the status quo, killing, capturing, and smuggling the monsters without a moment’s thought to their intelligence.

But neither Fels nor Lyd brough Bell & Co. here to ask for their help, so much as to lay out their plight, as well as their most common desire: to reach the surface and see the sky (and in the Siren Ray’s case, fly in it). Ouranos even posits that it could be the Will of the Dungeon itself (which the Xenos call their “mother”) for Xenos to emerge and yearn to reach the surface.

This is because just as humans die, go to heaven, and are reborn in the lower world, monsters also have a cycle of death and rebirth that starts and ends in the Dungeon. This means someone like Wiene, who learned to speak and act like a human so fast, could have died and been reborn hundreds if not thousands of times.

It’s a lot of fascinating food for thought, but if there’s one demerit to this episode it’s that it is, a the end of the day, one in which everyone is sitting around either talking or listening to people talk about things, rather than watching much in the way of action. The information may be fascinating, but the manner in which it is relayed is somewhat rote.

That aside, the smaller but no less significant immediate ramification of Bell & Co. meeting the Xenos is that Wiene won’t—and shouldn’t—return to the surface to their home. This comes as a surprise to poor Wiene, who cries and screams for Bell not to leave her even though he must, with only a promise he and the others will return at some point.

As Bell & Co. return to the surface and meet up with Hestia to pool share what they’ve learned, the group of Xenos caring for Wiene fall into a trap set by the Dix and the Ikelos Familia, using a brutally tortured Ray as bait. What looks like the strongest of the Xenos charges Dix, and is swiftly killed.

Dix has a huge host of humans and demis under his command, and he clearly relishes the monster hunt to come. He and his ilk represent the extreme challenge any attempt at human-Xenos co-existence, as it will be everything the Xenos can do to simply continue existing period!

There’s also the matter of Hestia being reluctant to risk her children and Familia being branded enemies of their own kind and in league with monsters, thus destroying all the progress the Familia has made and resigning them to ostracization and worse. But if they don’t do anything to help Wiene and the Xenos, who will?

DanMachi III – 03 – The Fam Meets Xenos

The Guild hall is overrun by enraged humans and beastmen demanding to know what’s going to be done about the monster in the city that threatened a child. Tulle is pulled away by her boss, who has a very special task for her: she’s to deliver a Mission for Hestia Familia. It’s a simple directive: Take the “dragon girl” and go to the twentieth floor of the Dungeon. Unlike a quest, it cannot be refused.

Once the entire Fam is aware of the sitch, Bell apologizes for getting all of them into this, but Haruhime won’t hear of it. No matter what, he mustn’t regret saving Wiene. She herself was saved, and knows how happy it made her, and Wiene surely feels the same way.

Even mini-stick-in-the-mud Lili concedes that they’re a family, damnit, so they’ll support each other in this too. They come up with a plan for surviving a trip to the Twentieth, where they’ve yet to venture. For her part, Wiene is scared to go to the dungeon, but as long as Bell and everyone is with her it will be fine.

The guild letter also features a very ornate border that catches Hestia’s attention. It turns out to be a hidden message only she could read, directing her to be at a certain place at a certain time. After seeing off her Fam, she follows the letter’s instructions and is approached by a grim reaper-looking person who is actually in disguise.

The reaper leads Hestia through a twisting secret labyrinth until they come to a staircase, and from there on Hestia is on her own. I feared for our beloved flip-flop wearing homebody’s safety, but turns out all this rigamarole was so that Ouranos could meet with her as privately as possible.

Meanwhile, thanks to Haruhime’s buffing ability, the Fam is able to reach the Twentieth floor. When they arrive at the spot indicated on the map, it appears to be a dead end, until Wiene hears singing that leads them to a crystal, which when broken reveals a new route.

The party trudges into a pitch-dark cave, which Bell scans with a torchlight until stopping on a massive Lizardman wearing armor and wielding swords. He’s not alone, and the party is soon surrounded by similarly armed and armored monsters, something they’ve never encountered before.

It’s a tough fight—this is their first time on the twentieth—and the show takes care to make that evident. There’s just so many foes, and not only are they strong, but they’re using weapons! Haruhime prepares to sacrifice her body to shield Wiene, but Makoto and Welf arrive in time to parry the Lizardman’s blade.

That gives Bell enough time to summon his Bell-Fist Attack, which he uses to punch the everloving shit out of the Lizardman’s face, sending him flying. Then something odd and wonderful happens…the Lizardman laughs a monstrous laugh that gradually turns into a human voice! He stands up, dusts himself off, and is joined harpy Bell and Welf first met in the woods.

The lizardman and harpy have names—Lyd and Ray—and the battle was merely a test to see if Bell and the others would turn tail and abandon Wiene when things got rough for them. They didn’t, and so they pass and are welcomed as friends of Xenos: a new and growing race of intelligent monsters.

Turns out Ouranos didn’t summon Hestia as some kind of nefarious plan, nor does it seem he’s a villain (at least not yet). On the contrary, Hestia Familia has already done with Wiene what he intends to do with all of Xenos: protect them. He very carefully reached out to Hestia because he believes she and her Fam can help bridge the gap between the species.

Not all monsters are monsters anymore. It’s a massive paradigm shift, and if not managed properly, it could spell doom for Xenos. I just hope Ouranos’ intentions are as honorable as they seem to be so far.

DanMachi III – 02 – An Adorable Bomb Waiting to Go Off

After consulting with gods she can trust, Hestia determines her Familia will only find answers about Wiene back in the Dungeon. However, Makoto and Haruhime stay home to keep Hestia and Wiene safe. Bell, Welf, and Lili manage to recruit Aisha, who just happened to be passing.

Ryuu initially didn’t want to take off work but is determined to protect Bell’s honor from Aisha, so she comes too. Whether it’s because Wiene is somehow sapping his power or the mere fact the monsters they face resemble Wiene, Bell’s fighting just isn’t up to snuff, something both Ryuu and Aisha find strange.

While Lili keeps the other two women busy, Bell and Welf return to the wood where they found Wiene. They don’t really learn anything, but they do encounter another talking monster, who has feathers and asks them if it’s possible to coexist rather than killing each other. They also cross paths with the gang-like Ikelos Familia, led by Dix.

Back on the surface, Ikelos is sent by Dix (he’s the odd god who is given errands, rather than issuing them) to investigate the missing vouivre, and Bell isn’t able to mask his shock about being asked about a talking one. Fortunately Hermes happens to be passing (seems to happen a lot with Bell while in Orario) and bails Bell out, while warning Ikelos he’d better not be up to no good (he is).

Back home, while Wiene plays hide-and-seek with Haruhime, Lili tells Welf, Mikoto and Hestia her earnest belief that their Familia should cease harboring Wiene. Taking emotion out of the equation, Wiene is no better than a bomb going off, so even if she’s despised for it, Lili knows they, and not Bell, must decide before it’s too late. Wiene overhears everything, is devastated, and flees.

As if to underscore Lili’s very legitimate concerns, it only takes a couple of minutes for Wiene to cause havoc, by no fault of her own. When she saves a little girl from falling cargo after a rope snaps, she uses one of her wings to do so. When the girl turns around, she doesn’t see her hero, just a vicious monster. A mob soon gathers and starts stoning her. Before Bell leaps out to save her, Lili goes ahead of him in Elf Mode.

Meeting back in the secret room of Hestia’s old cellar, their original home, Bell holds Wiene and tries to comfort her. But neither he nor anyone else can ease the pain of knowing that on the possibility of her being able to stay with Bell and the others, it’s not looking good at all!

This season of DanMachi is taking a good hard look at the long-established structure of society in its world, tossing an adorable bluish-gray wrench into the works. Yes, monsters have always been mortal enemies of humans and demihumans. But Wiene clearly isn’t. She doesn’t belong in either world right now, but not we know she’s not the only one.

That means either she and her brethren will be destroyed, or the world will have to change to accommodate their existence. Whether Lili likes it or not, Bell and their Familia has been chosen as the ones who will either keep the cycle of hatred and death going, or herald a new era of coexistence.

DanMachi III – 01 – Monster in the Family

Cranel Bell and the Hestia Familia are riding high after their recent victories, but all that could be threatened by one chance meeting in the woods of the nineteenth floor of the Dungeon.

Bell happens upon a naked and positively terrified little monster called a vouivre, who is being attacked by humans and stronger monsters alike. With a heart as soft as his hair, Bell protects the monster, covers her up, and brings her along when the party returns to the eighteenth.

The problem is, once the monster trips and reveals she’s a monster (and not another girl Bell has picked up in a Dungeon) everyone but Bell pulls out their weapons and orders Bell to step away. That’s because monsters and human/demihumans have never and will never get along. It’s just The Way Things Are.

While Bell doesn’t dispute that basic truth, the fact is it’s possible there are exceptions to that truth, and that this monster could be one of them. For one thing, she starts to say words, something nobody has ever heard a monster do. More importantly, she’s not trying to kill them. She seems far more frightened of them than they should be of her.

The other Familia members allow Bell to bring the monster home where Hestia can issue a ruling, but despite being a goddess this is uncharted territory for her as well. For now, she has Bell take responsibility for something that looks like monster but is acting like a human girl, and has him name her Wiene.

From there, Bell spends all his time with Wiene, showing her the ways of the human/demihuman life goes. Haruhime assists and organically comes to take a very maternal tack in caring for her, making sure she’s clothed, fed and happy.

Then there’s an scary, heartstabbingly sad moment when Wiene is just having fun roughhousing with Bell, and her monster claws accidentally dig deep into his arm, causing a spray of blood. After hours of harmless fun, everything seems poised to go sideways in a split-second.

But ultimately what matters isn’t the act of scratching Bell, but the intent—there was none; it was an accident—and her reaction—she’s shocked and terrified to tears. More importantly is how Bell responds, not with anger, but with a warm smile and assurance that everything’s okay. When he smiles, Wiene knows she can smile too.

Mikoto admits to being afraid of Wiene despite how harmless she seems—it’s hard to overcome millennia of instinct. Even so, when Wiene praises Mikoto’s cooking, she gradually joins Haruhime in the Wiene Fan Club.

Even Welf files her claws down into stylish black nails, allowing her to playfully poke Bell’s face without hurting him. It seems the entire Familia is chipping in to take care of the poor girl—and they’re starting to see her as one of their own.

When the whole Familia is relaxing in the living room, Wiene learns the word “love”, and Haruhime leads the charge in declaring her love for Bell. Hestia, Welf, and Mikoto echo the words, leaving Lili as the sole holdout, who finally relents and admits she loves Bell too when Wiene flashes those big orange eyes in her face. Bell in turn tells everyone he loves them too, because that’s what a family is.

But later that night, as she lies wearily on the couch, Lili tells Welf that something isn’t sitting right. If they play their cards wrong and word gets out they’re harboring a monster, it could mean the ruin of Hestia Familia. That aside, she just can’t trust a monster, even an obviously adorable one in Wiene. Things can’t stay the way they are.

Bell and Hestia likely realize this as well, but Wiene’s well-being, comfort, and happiness are coming first because they are kind-hearted, nurturing people who will protect the weak and help those who need help. Is Bell getting too emotionally attached?

Wiene’s disturbing “dreams” where she’s “very angry” and everything “gets dark and red” seem to support Lili’s worries about her; she may not be a monster now, in bed with Bell and Hestia, but they have no idea if or how the monster within could emerge.

It’s a complicated development to open the third season. Both Bell and Lili’s positions have their merits, but hopefuly a compromise can be made that doesn’t end up hurting Wiene (if she doesn’t end up being a threat). Meanwhile, Hermes’ Fam is searching for monsters being smuggled as well as chasing rumors about talking monsters; maybe others like Wiene?

In addition, we’ve a harpy character waiting in the wings (no pun intended), a dragon dude who can make a stone clone of himself (I think!) and a moment in the ED when Ais points her sword at Bell—will they end up on opposite sides of this issue after getting along so well last season? We’ll soon find out. DanMachi is back, and it’s humming as usual.

Cautious Hero – 12 (Fin) – Who Cautions the Cautious?

Determined not to let him die alone, Rista opens a gate in the final area of the Demon Lord’s palace. It’s against Divine regulations, but she doesn’t have time to trudge through a dungeon. When she, Mash, and Eruru arrive, Seiya is already trapping the Demon Lord in the Gate of Valhalla.

The only problem is, time and time again the gate fails to close. The episode plays with our emotions as just when we think everything is over (Rista and Seiya even return to their antagonistic repartee), a more monstrous version of the Demon Lord spills out and fights on.

Rista manages to unlock all of her divine healing power—another instance of breaking the rules—but suceeds in fully healing Seiya, only for the Demon Lord to burst out of the gate once more. Seiya is prepared right to the end, summoning a second, bigger Gate of Valhalla to swallow both the Demon Lord and the smaller Gate.

The gambit succeeds, but this Gate can talk (and laugh), and insists upon collecting its payment immediately: Seiya’s life. Rista’s healing can only slow down his deterioration, until all she can do is let herself be drawn into Seiya’s resigned arms and say goodbye. Before he disincorporates, Seiya recognizes Rista for who she once was—Tiana—and his last expression is a smile of relief he was able to save her this time.

Rista leaves the knighted Mash and Eruru under Queen Roselie’s care and returns to the Divine Realm. She’s momentarily haunted by a ghost of Seiya—a low blow for the show, to be sure!—but more than anything you truly feel his absence and a sense of emptiness and emanating from Rista and her house.

The other gods and goddesses try to cheer her up in their own goofy ways, but they can’t change the fact that in saving the S-Class world Gaeabrande, she lost her hero, someone whom she loved implicitly. Aria also has the unhappy duty of bringing Rista before Ishtar, who announces her punishment for violating regulations.

At first, the punishment seems almost too cruel: she must liberate the SS-Class world Ixphoria, the world where her human self died, and where the Demon Lord took over and transformed into a Demonic Realm. Furthermore, her healing powers will be locked away, preventing her from offering any support for her hero. If she fails, she’ll be stripped of her godhood forever.

Just when we (and Aria for that matter) think Ishtar is needlessly piling on poor Rista, Ishtar reports that Seiya’s Double Gate of Valhalla ended up swallowing not only the Demon Lord, but the Chain Destruction effect that would have prevented him from returning to his own world upon dying. She then hands Rista a letter with the name and stats of her new hero.

She’ll be reunited with Ryuuguuin Seiya, albeit with a thousandth of the power he once had. She’ll have to somehow support him without the use of her divine powers, and he’ll more than likely have no memory of his previous lives with her. He’ll also be just a ridiculously cautious.

Cautious Hero took a very bold turn towards the serious and dramatic in its final two episodes, but it was an incredibly effective turn that felt both earned and necessary. All of the previous clashing of hero and goddess was suddenly placed in proper context, while the emotional stakes shot through the roof.

I was glad for a happy compromise of ending. Ristarte and Seiya will be reunited, but face a far greater challenge than Gaeabrande. If a second season is produced, I’d definitely want to see how they manage, and who will help them.

Cautious Hero – 11 – Seiya the Unready

This episode comes a long way from its comedic beginning, in which Rista leads Eruru and Mash on a shopping trip, she ends up sniping with a clothier about topless and bottomless swimsuits, then gets the idea to arrange an evening that will end with scoring with Seiya.

Things take a distinct turn when, upon returning to the palace at sundown, Seiya is nowhere to be found. No matter what reasons the three can come up with for his absence, and no longer how long they wait, Seiya…just doesn’t show up.

On the verge of panic, Rista visits Ishtar for guidance, where a tearful Ariadoa leads her, Eruru and Mash to a realm where time stands still. There, Ishtar informs them that Seiya has already headed to the Demon Lord to defeat him himself.

The reason Seiya has been so cold and distant to the three of them is that he actually cares for their well-being to the point he doesn’t want to put them in harm’s way. Since the Demon Lord now has a weapon that can destroy Rista’s soul, Seiya felt it best to keep her away from the battle.

Rista also wasn’t aware due to his Fake Out skill, but Seiya has been totally maxed out since the fight with the Dragons, and has been adding skills like Valkyrie’s Gate of Valhalla to make up for his stagnation (it wasn’t sex after all).

There’s more: Aria is in tears because in a different world 100 years ago, Seiya was the Hero she summoned, and he was far less cautious, adopting the catchphrase “Gonna be okay. Something will work out.” The healer of their party was Tiana, a princess from that world…who happens to have the same eyes, face, and voice as Ristarte.

Things wouldn’t work out for Seiya back then, as his party members were eaten one by one by the Demon Lord, whom he’d insufficiently researched. Tiana meets a particularly grisly doom, as it’s revealed she was with child when the Demon Lord ate her.

Finally, Rista learns that she was Tiana, before she was reborn as a goddess. Neither she nor Seiya retained memories of knowing or fighting each other, but fate brought them back together, and Seiya, knowing he was summoned before and failed, became far more cautious, and hence unwilling to let anyone else die this time around.

It’s a lot for Rista to take in, and Toyosaki Aki does as good a job as she can reacting to it all, but this was an awful lot of exposition, rather inelegantly presented in one big plot-bomb. Regardless, the shift from goofy comedy to serious drama was surprisingly effective, and all the information we learned really does enrich what had initially seemed to be more of a skin deep relationship between Rista and Seiya.

Their history, even if there was no overt memory of it, explains not only why Rista and Seiya are a pair again, but why she’s so devoted, attracted, and at times obsessed with him. One could almost call them soul mates. The issue is, she now knows the truth of their past and he doesn’t, and his overarching mission to defeat the Demon Lord and save Gaeabrande overrides all other considerations.

Of course, Rista isn’t going to let Seiya have his way. She insists on joining up with him, and damn the consequences. Ishtar opens a portal for her, and Eruru and Mash announce they’re coming with her out of solidarity—Seiya saved them, after all. Hopefully, things are gonna be okay, and something will work out.

Cautious Hero – 10 – The “Perhaps” Monster

Rosie chalks her dad Warmaster Wohlks’ post-battle transformation to an infant as a curse of the Demon Lord, but he’ll recover in a couple hours. In the meantime, Rista, Eruru and Mash are eager to explore the town, drink, play casino games and shop, but Seiya forbids all forms of fun and entertainment. After all, the war isn’t over.

His overcautiousness comes in handy when Rista is tricked into being separated from the rest of the party by Wohlks, who it turns out is now a worshipper of the Demon Lord, having concluded defeating him isn’t possible. He also possesses a goddess and hero-killing “God Eater” sword that he immediately uses on Rista, only to be interrupted by Seiya, who decided to double-check on her out of an abundance of…you know.

A smouldering battle ensues within the cathedral, with Wohlks swallowing a Demon Spirit Orb to transform into a young Demonkin warrior, and for the first time Seiya actualy meets his match. When the God Eater shears off one of Seiya’s arms, things look bleak, but it was all part of Seiya’s plan. Due to his mastery of Valkyrie’s special skills, Wohlks also loses his arm as a result of taking Seiya’s, giving the Hero the opening he needs to dispatch him.

After falling, Wohlks transforms back to an old man, but with the mind of a child. Roselie turns away, not considering the traitor her father anymore. Seiya, demonstrating uncharacteristic emotional intelligence (though of course executing it in the worst way, by slapping the shit out of her face again), urges Roselie to say goodbye to her father before he passes away or she’ll regret it forever. She does, and gets one last wonderful head pat, and then ascends to the throne.

While Seiya recovers over three days, Rista encourages Eruru and Mash to have fun in town while they still can…only Seiya wakes up in the middle. Yet, surprisingly, instead of pooh-poohing Rista’s suggestion, he seconds it, saying two or three days of R & R won’t hurt. After that, it’s on to the toughest opponent yet, the Demon Lord himself. In what new ways will Seiya prepare himself for the final boss?

Cautious Hero – 09 – Riding the Valkyrie

Kilkapul sacrifices himself and his family in order to summon the “hyper-conceptual reaper” Thanatus, who merely splits into two copies when sliced in half and even manages to lightly bruise Seiya. Even when they retreat to the Divine Realm, the reaper follows them, and makes quick work of every god and goddess that tries to bring him down. Meanwhile, Seiya’s party just runs.

Seiya may not know how to beat Thanatus, but he has a pretty good idea who could beat him: Valkyrie. He knows she’s painting, and and sets things up so an attack by Thanatus destroys her almost-finished canvas, enraging her into fighting. She ultimately defeats Thanatus by using “Gate of Valhalla,” a godly technique she believes no human could achieve. But Seiya wants to train with her and prove her wrong.

When Rista checks in on the two, they appear to be banging in Valkyrie’s bed, but Seiya insists it’s “just training,” I’m a little skeptical, as Rista is, but she’s gotten so obsessive about her love-hate relationship with the lout that she’s taken to making dolls out of her own hair—and developing ever more manic faces. She’s also developing a self-defeating neurosis about her body odor, leading to compulsive bathing till her skin is raw.

Ishtar informs them the fourth Heavenly King and his army are advancing on the Roseguard capital, so Seiya & Co. head back to Gaeabrande. But the boss is dealt with not by Seiya, but by the “Warmaster”, an elderly but extremely powerful knight who dispatches the HK with one shot and the army with another. The catch is, after his immense attacks he reverts to infancy, leading to the strangest Ristaface to date.

Cautious Hero – 08 – Does A Goddess Smell?

Rista quite suddenly learns through Aria that Seiya may be in grave danger, as the archery goddess Mitis was exiled to the forest because she’s a nymphomaniac who preys on human men. When she, Mash and Eruru arrive, however, Seiya already has the situation well in hand.

Not only does he decline her taboo offer to copulate like there’s no tomorrow, but he’s able to deliver a five-arrow attack that “satisfies” her anyway. And so Mitis joins SAOA’s Administrator as the second woman antagonist in recent memory to fight a battle while buck naked.

Now that Seiya is perfectly prepared to fight Beel Bub, Cautious Hero takes to the skies, where the bugman has already taken Roselie hostage after she recklessly demanded a fair fight from him. Seiya calls upon Rista to provide a diversion so he can snipe Bub, as well as catch Rose when Bub drops her.

The aerial setting is a nice change of pace for a show that’s already had boss fights on fields and in caves, and as Rista says (or rather is told to say by Seiya), it is a really nice day—especially above the clouds!

After Bub is defeated, Roselie naturally doesn’t show the slightest bit of gratitude, while Seiya is content to “let the dog bark,” as it were. This time, Rose is able to control her temper, and tells him about the sacred legendary armor located in the vilage of Izale.

Seiya assumes it’s sacred legendary cursed armor, but the party heads to Izale to find it anyway, hoping to rest after two consecutive tough battles. What they find instead is an Izale in flames and the armor destroyed by an Adamantoise summoned by the third of the Heavenly Kings, Kilkapul, who has been watching Seiya and is confident he can put him down for good.