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!

Tales of Wedding Rings – 11 – Bearing the Weight of Destiny

After buying clothes to blend in with Satou’s world and having a meal at a local family restaurant, everyone tries to put a good face on things, but the fact of the matter is they are stuck here for the time being, with only four of the five rings needed to defeat the Abyss King.

It’s fun seeing Nef, Granart, and Saphir in casual clothes, enjoying a bathhouse together, and teasing Hime over her promise to Satou to consummate their marriage upon returning there. As for the expenses they’re wrapping up, Hime’s gramps arranged things so they’d have a place to live and all the money they’d need if they failed to defeat the Abyss King.

The mere fact that Alabaster created such a contingency convinces Hime that it wasn’t a certainty they’d have defeated the Abyss King even if they had five rings. But as the listless, normal days pass, Hime notices Satou has been returning to the spot where they teleported.

She doesn’t want Satou to worry about her world anymore, but to find his own happiness … with her. But his duty as Ring King clearly pulls at him, and is answered by the appearance of the fifth princess, Amber, or rather an artificial replica of her created by the Dwarves.

Sensing the Abyss King would destroy their civilization, they sent the replica of Amber to earth with the ring to wait for her time, and her king, to come. But now that he has, he wavers between returning to the other world to fight the Abyss King, and honoring Hime’s wish to forget about all that.

But it isn’t just the arrival of Amber, and the possibilty of returning, that changes that equation. Nef, Granart, and Saphir have become born and are truly starting to feel just how out of place they are in this world. The happiness Hime wants for all of them may not be achievable here.

Amber, who has waited for Satou for centuries, is content to wait as long as it takes, and even watch over him until he dies, if that is his will. But it isn’t, and he meets Amber on the roof of school to form a marriage contract with her, trusting her confidence that with five rings, their victory over the Abyss King will be a foregone conclusion. Only when he’s gone can the weight of his duty be lifted, and will everyone find true happiness.

Satou returns home to a distraught Hime, still crying about the loss of her grandfather. When she sees the fifth ring on his hand, he tells them they’re returning to Arnulus. When she voices her fear that he might be hurt or die, he tells her the task her gramps gave him to “free” her and the others from the duty of the rings, he didn’t mean run away from or forget it, but fulfill that duty so they can move past it together. She need not fear, because she won’t be bearing the duty alone.

Hearing the sheer dumb confidence in Satou’s voice, Hime is inclined to go along with him. But before they leave Earth, she wants to make love to him. It surely looks like they’re going to get to do the deed, but alas, Satou only makes it to second base when Amber interrupts them at the worst possible time. Worse still, she’s already activated the teleportation spell back to Arnulus, which she can only use once.

So just like that, it’s time to go. Granart arrives with Saphir and a Nef burrito, having picked up on everything that was going on with her advanced cat insight. And now that it’s time to go home, Saphir can’t hold back tears of relief; she really wasn’t enjoying her time there, and who can blame her, when among other things, she was separated from her twin sister?

Komatsu Mikako is effortlessly charming as the slightly mechanical, joke-cracking Amber, and both her design and personality are pleasantly distinct from the others. I also like how everyone was basically fated to return to Earth so that they could meet her and attain the fifth ring. I share Satou’s confidence that they can take care of the Abyss King. My only real doubt is whether he and Hime can manage go all the way before the dang show ends!

The Dangers in My Heart – 22 – Slowly But Surely

The good news? Anna and Kyou are back in the same class for their third year (i.e. eighth grade). Moeko, Serina, and Chihiro are also back together with Yamada. The bad news? Their tacit agreement to keep a healthy distance in public is far easier said than done.

To whit: when Kyou first enters the classroom and Anna learns they’re back together, she calls him by his first name and rushes to him, taking his hands in hers. This gets them some unwanted attention from their new classmates.

Anna’s half-hearted attempt to declare she greeted the wrong person doesn’t fool anyone. Moeko, who at this point is like us in probably thinking just go out already, is happy to cover for Anna’s indiscrection by loudly proclaiming so everyone can hear that Anna has issues with personal space.

Moeko is also happy to be in the same class as fellow gyaru-adjacents Kankan and Kanzawa, and the former earns the moniker “celebration girl” as she spearheaded a flashmob that led to a guy and gal in her previous class to start going out. She wants to know if Anna and Kyou are going out. They discuss this in the classroom after class, where Anna was giving Kyou the gift of a wallet chain for his birthday.

The two hide together in a lectern, and after the girls leave, Anna asks “are we going out?” After a pause she adds that that was what the girls were talking about. As Kyou tries to climb out, his foot catches his chain, and down go his pants, just as Moeko re-enters the room. They’re lucky it was just Moeko, too!

Kyou continues to want to ask Anna out, but has unreasonably high standards for the conditions under which he’ll do it. Surely there are other places they can go than school, which is full of students, some of whom would love to get the scoop on them, like Kankan.

When she overhears Kyou asking to see Anna’s (physical results), they smooth over her suspicion by saying they’re following the task their homeroom teacher gave them to make new friends. To that end, Anna becomes Kankan’s friend by insisting on calling her by a special nickname (Panda) and stoking her long, lustrous hair.

Kyou reports that he’s grown 5 cm since the last physical, and his voice is just about done changing. Anna wants to commemorate his growth by marking his height on the wall. Kyou gets her to compromise by only marking the inside of the bookshelves. When he sees that she marked his spot with “Kyou”, he marks her height with “Anna”, which has her blushing and twirling around, light as a feather.

Kyou once thought he never wanted to grow up, but now he wants to be “closer to” Anna, “physically.” Yes, he’s talking about height, but c’maaaahn, we know he means in the other way too. Anna pulls him closer to her inside the library curtains, and this seems like as good a time as ever for him to say what he wants to say…

But they’re interrupted by a gust of wind and the presence of Hanzawa. She pretends not to react, so Anna re-closes the curtains so Kyou can continue. But the wind opens them again, and suddenly Hanzawa is right there, almost like a horror movie! She tries to withdraw smoothly, but trips over a stool, drops her book, and bangs into the door.

When seat assignments come, Hanzawa, who is clearly rooting for them, swaps her seat with Anna so she can sit beside Kyou for the first time. It’s almost too good to be true, and certainly consigns the whole “healthy distance” plan into the dustbin for good. Kyou starts worrying about worrying so much about their closeness that they start drifting apart, which is the last thing he wants and he also seems to recognize as a bad habit of his.

When he sees Hanzawa’s book on Anna’s desk, he sees a piece of paper sticking out. It’s a handwritten letter from Anna to Hanzawa, clearing up her and Kyou’s deal. As of April 10th, she writes, they’re not going out. But Kyou is very shy, like a cat. It’s taken some time, but they’ve slowly but surely built up their friendship.

The time they’ve spent and the closeness they have is “very important to her,” so she’d rather Hanzawa and Kankan not try some kind of flashmob thing on them. Anna also states that she plans to … but Kyou stops reading, afraid of what it might say. I can hazard a guess that she’s planning to ask him out when the time is right.

I feel like at this point, with Kyou trying and failing several times this week, it’s only a matter of time before one of them asks the other out. I think Kyou wants to prove to himself he’s capable of doing such a thing, but even if he doesn’t, I don’t see any problem with Anna taking the initiative. They’ve got three whole episodes for it to happen. I’m feeling pretty optimistic!

As for Kanzawa, it turns out she’s not a busybody, but genuinely curious about love. Even she, with her limited experience and inability to quite grasp the concept, can see it all over Anna and Kyou. Yet when Anna asks for her LINE so she can tell her all about it (implying that she, Anna, knows exactly what love is), Kanzawa gets overly flustered and runs off. No matter, she’ll be back!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 06 – What Will Come to Pass if He Should Fail

Ken and Suzune are back at the palace with no harm done. Ken lets slip that the situation wasn’t nearly as treacherous as the king and minister might believe due to his training, but then sees Rose glaring and not only holds his tongue, but declares that his training has been hunky-dory, concealing how it’s often been indistinguishable from torture.

Kazuki is also glad to see Ken and Suzune are unharmed from their little excursion, and he and Celia notice how much closer the two of them have gotten of late. Celia also talks about how warm Kazuki’s bond with the other two are, and how happy he seems when they’re around. She asks if he’d “let her in” to that dynamic, starting by calling her simply Celia. We haven’t seen much of these two, but I like their vibes too!

Ken is worried Rose was held behind by the minister to get reamed out for letting two heroes get misplaced, but that isn’t the issue at all. Rather, the king has received reports that suggest the Demon Lord’s Army is on the move once again. He asks Rose to head out and scout their advance. His Majesty also asks if she’ll return to leading troops into battle.

This is when we learn Rose was once a full-fledged general, but allowed all her men (and women) to be killed. She hides a scar with her hair that reminds her daily of the debt she can never repay, though she hopes to forge the ideal healer and successor in Ken, training him to the point he’s able to cheat death indefinitely.

While I wish we’d gotten it by means other than Rose simply spouting information about her backstory, I’m glad to learn more about her, and it only endears her to me more as someone who no longer believes she has the right to fight, only to save and protect.

That said, she still puts a major wrench in the Demon Army’s gears when she destroys a bridge they’re building by throwing a whole damn tree at it. Amila’s hands are already full with the surprisingly willful and apathetic Black Knight, but when she spots Rose and shouts her name, Rose flashes a huge smile before slipping away.

I’ll be honest: I felt like Rose was throwing a lot of death flags this week, from the fact that she left Ken on a dangerous scouting mission without a word to him, only an ominous sealed letter and a map that leads him to the Fleur clinic. There, he meets the one-year-older Ururu.

She lets him watch her brother Orga heal a young child with stomach problems, and Ken is in awe of Orga’s dense, deep green healing magic. Ururu also asks about the Rescue Team members, admitting that she and Orga ultimately couldn’t cut it there, even though Rose had such high hopes for them.

When townsfolk enter the clinic to report an accident that injured three people, Orga puts Ken to work. When Ken’s magic falters due to his lack of confidence, Orga gives him a pep talk that helps him calm down. he remembers what Kazuki told him: he wasn’t worried about him and Suzune because Rose had complete faith in him. So Ken trusts himself, and is able to heal the man’s leg completely.

When Ken leaves, Orga tells Ururu the content of the letter, which I also felt was part of Rose possibly never coming back. Instead, it’s simply a warning to Orga to prepare for war. Ururu, like Ken, has no combat experience, so it’s going to be tough, but as long as the siblings stick together they should be okay.

As for Ken, he doesn’t know it as he buys some fruit for Blurin on the way home, but before long he’ll be on those front lines with Suzune, Kazuki, and Rose. Even if he did know, battle would have all felt very abstract were it not for the catgirl from the market touching his arm and showing him a vision of a bad future, Mirror of Galadriel-style.

She’s showing him what she says only he can see: a future where Suzune and Kazuki fall to the Black Knight. But now that he’s seen this future, he can work to change it. To do so, he must eradicate all remaining fear and doubt in his abilities. For fear, as we know, is the mind-killer.

The Eminence in Shadow – 27 – The End of Winter or Something

This week starts, appropriately enough, with a birds-eye view of the capital covered in mournful snow. Alpha sits by the fire in her bare feet, utterly checked out now that Shadow has forsaken her. But, as Gamma visits her, she knows the reason: he discarded them because they couldn’t reach his heights. She blames herself!

But then Nu arrives with confirmed reports that Gettan has Cult ties, and the Cult was planning to release counterfeit bills. Suddenly, the gears turn in Alpha’s head and she perks up: what if Shadow did what he did in order to steal a match on the Cult and protect Mitsugoshi … protect all of them?

As she considers this, Beta arrives with a letter from Lord Shadow decoded by her and Eta. Before we even hear it’s contents, we know it’s more good news for Alpha that soothes her heart. In the letter, Shadow cops to having to “play the villain” in order to take it to the Cult while maintaining distance from Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi.

He even mentions that all of the gold taken from the MCA during the credit crisis is stored where they helped rescue Claire. “In the end you’ll understand”—Alpha couldn’t accept those words back when she was fighting him, but they were true: she does understand what he did and why he did it.

As for Delta, Alpha can sense she’s waiting outside like a dog that knows it did something wrong, but Alpha, Beta, and Gamma welcome her back with open arms. If she was doing a “hush-hush secret mission” for “Boss” (i.e. eliminating Juggernaut), Alpha is fine with that, because she’s back home safe.

Needless to say, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma have achieved new levels of delusion where their lord is concerned. In truth, I’m not even sure Cid expected Beta and Eta to decode his message, which was written in Japanese after all. I believe he didn’t, because when he reaches the facility where the gold is stored, there isn’t a single coin in sight.

Now we know it’s because Shadow Garden misinterpreted his note, went to this location and took the gold. But when Yukime’s attendants arrive to tell “John Smith” that they fear Yukime has been taken by Gettan, they inadvertently provide him with a scapegoat: It’s Gettan who stole his gold!

Yukime is exactly where she wants to be: standing in judgment of Gettan. However, her first strike doesn’t kill him, and because he’s a Cult member, he cheats by swallowing a magic pill in order and slashes her in the back again. But before he can kill her, John Smith arrives, and proves more than a worthy opponent.

In fact, as expected Gettan can do absolutely nothing against Smith, and he even mentions that this awesome power reminds him of the one who took his eyes. But Cid doesn’t care about any of that. He wants to know where his gold is, and keeps punching Gettan until he tells him.

Of course, Smith is not so clear as to say “I want my gold coins.” Instead, he keeps repeating his desire to “retrieve something very precious to me.” Both Gettan and Yukime believe that “something precious” is her. So with his last breath, he entrusts Smith with Yukime’s care.

Cid walks to where Yukime is standing, she embraces him, and he heals her back. She recognizes the magic and realizes that this is the same boy who saved her life back at her village. This brings tears of joy and gratitude to her eyes, but while she’s right about this being the same guy, she’s dead wrong about his intentions.

You see, because Gettan was choking on his own blood and teeth while saying those final words, Cid thinks he said the gold is buried beneath the snow (as the yuki in Yukime also means “snow”). He walked to Yukime because that’s the spot he thought Gettan gestured to. Sorry girl, he just wants that money.

Garter is arrested by Iris as the mastermind behind the distribution of counterfeit bills and disruption of the market. Yukime rejoins her attendants, telling them the “compassionate” Mr. Smith stayed behind to give Gettan a proper burial, unaware he’s only using that shovel to dig for gold that’s not there.

Alpha appears before Yukime to deliver a letter that Gettan wrote to her which was found in his office. She explains how the Cult got its hooks in him just like it did countless other people with something or someone to lose and proceeded to corrupt and destroy him.

Alpha goes on to reveal that Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi are one and the same, and that the Garden, led by Mr. Smith AKA Shadow, work tirelessly to bring down the Cult and ruin its plans. Thanks to him, they were able to retreive enough gold to end the credit crisis, and with the MCA gone, Mitsugoshi now stands alone atop the economic mountain.

Far from denouncing Smith/Shadow, Yukime accepts Alpha’s offer for her to join Shadow Garden, with Mitsugoshi as the front, and her organization as the underbelly. Considering Shadow saved her not once but twice and allowed her to get her revenge (or at least closure), Yukime is happy to accept.

The only loser in this whole ordeal, besides the MCA and Gettan, is Cid. Or is he? Sure, he wasn’t able to topple Mitsugoshi and indeed his actions ended up making them even stronger than before. And now matter how much he and Delta dig, he won’t find any gold in them snow-covered hills.

But Cid still won, because he still has the love and admiration of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and the others. He doesn’t necessarily deserve it, and he’ll certainly never fully appreciate it, but he has it, and that makes him a winner in my books.

That said, as far as he knows Alpha and the others are still furious with him, so after describing Santa Claus as a demon lord an villain of the highest order (a hilarious exchange), he announces to Delta that he’ll be going on a “journey of self-discovery”, with the goal of returning nonchalantly without apologizing to find that time has healed all wounds.

I never should have doubted Eminence. What this conclusion lacked in awesome combat, it more than made up for with its expertly wrought and highly amusing web of misinterpretations and misunderstandings. I had a big smile on my face as everything fell into place.

Cid broke Alpha’s heart last week, but now it’s whole again, and she and the others are more adoring of him than ever. It doesn’t matter if those weren’t his intentions. He doesn’t know it, but when he returns, Alpha will have a hard time not smiling.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge R – 12 (Fin) – C’est pour le mieux

By dumping Masamune so Yoshino can have her shot, Aki is trying to be a good friend, as well as a more self-sufficient person, making a passable tea rice bowl for herself when Yoshino is out on a date. But even when her stomach is full, it’s evident that she’s still wanting for something…or someone.

It doesn’t help matters that when the new spring term comes around, everyone’s in Class 3-E except for Aki and Masamune, who are in Class 3-A together. Kanetsugu has also decided to start wearing the girls’ uniform, while Yoshino and Neko bury the hatchet. A new year means old feuds die.

Aki is flustered by the fact Masamune sits right in front of her, and talks to her so casually she can’t help but think of when they were dating, which were happy times for her. Heck, Masamune still visits her in the storeroom to deliver a special new bread variety from the school store.

Aki understandably wants to know what Masamune’s deal is, but before he understands what she’s asking, Yoshino swoops in, gloms onto Masamune’s arm, and drags him out of the storeroom. Aki resents them flaunting their romance in front of her, but outside Yoshino ominously tells Masamune “Not yet. Just a little longer.”

Something is clearly Up with a Capital U, but Aki doesn’t suspect anything, or she wouldn’t go to a salon for the classic post-breakup haircut. Her shorter locks are adorable as all get out, but Yoshino freaks out when she see them. Aki makes clear she didn’t think she could get over Masamune without some kind of big change.

Yoshino pounds on Aki with her fists, then urges Aki to head back to school, where Masamune is waiting and will explain everything. Once there, Aki can’t find Masamune anywhere, but does find a letter addressed to her in his handwriting. Assuming it’s some kind of revenge, when she finally spots him outside, she’s poised to give him the mother of all talking-tos.

As she runs out to him, he runs up to her, resulting in them switching places. They do this once more—a nifty microcosm of their relationship thus far—before he finally manages to grab her arm, sending them both to the hallway floor. When a distraught Aki tells her to have all the fun he likes with Yoshino, Masamune unloads a bombshell: he and Yoshino aren’t dating.

He was happy when “Shisho” came all the way to Shinshu to see him and tell him she loved him, but he couldn’t return her feelings. He loved someone else. It’s only since all of the lies and misunderstandings have been cleared up that he realizes his feelings for her never changed from that day he gave her a bouquet in a dazzling field of flowers.

When Aki finally opens the letter, it simply asks if she’ll be his girlfriend. He asks her out loud, just to be clear. She tells him no…her answer isn’t no. More than once, she asks him if he’s sure he’s okay with her, but she’s the only one he’s okay with. She’s the reason he’s who he is, and the only one he could work so hard for.

It’s here, on the floor, at sunset, when the rich, beautiful, huge brat and the self-centered, self-obsessed, selfish egoist stare into each others’ eyes and then seal their intention to date again with a real, honest-to-God kiss. As far as we see, Masamune doesn’t get any hives. He even seems to introduce a bit of tongue into the kiss, but Aki ain’t havin’ it!

Fast forward to the post-culture festival bonfire. Last year both Masamune and Aki were pursued by many a girl and guy for the right to dance with them, but tonight they dance with each other. Neko and Yoshino commiserate, with Yoshino clarifying that Masamune didn’t get hives because he felt safe with his “Master.”

As for Aki and Masamune, their spirited quasi-adversarial dynamic lives on even as they’re an official couple, with each of them able to make the other blush with a word or gesture. Masamune isn’t taking the Cruel Princess’ hand for revenge, but out of respect. And as Aki takes his hand, it feels like all’s right in the world. Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but our lovebirds are beyond that, for romance is a dish best served warm.

The Genius Prince’s Guide – 04 – Lord Gerard the Airborne

Whew…I must confess my head is spinning a bit after all that political ballet, which basically proceeds from the opening minutes (after the newly finished OP airs) to the final ones (there’s no ED this week). It begins with Wein revealing that he knows Lowa’s real real reason for being in Natra.

First, the weapons shipments meant to bolster the empire against civil war are distributed evenly among the three princes, to maintain the three-way stalemate. Their resulting collective weakness will lead to rebellions, but Lowa’s warnings fell on deaf ears, so her plan is to control which nation rebels first so her brothers would be persuaded to take the rebellion seriously.

Mind you, Lowa doesn’t want the rebellion to succeed, but she wishes both for the peace and security of the empire and to ascend as its empress. The nation she’s chosen to bait with an offer of marriage is Marquess Antgatal, who has a dimwitted boor of a son, Lord Gerard.

Lowa had hoped Antgatal would invate Natra to claim her hand, then have Wein and Natra thwart them to protect the throne. But then Lord Gerard arrives, apparently uninvited but lured by a letter to meet with and propose to Lowa in person.

Wein remains friendly and polite despite Gerard looking down on him, which makes Ninym so upset she has to calm herself by enjoying a brief spell sitting in Wein’s lap. As Wein unravels what he believes to be Lowa’s scheme with Gerard, we cut to Lowa discussing these same matters with her retainer Fisch.

The two have a little battle of wits in separate rooms, each tipping their caps to their respective geniuses. Wein intends to support Lowa in her manipulation of Gerard, but won’t go so far as to lend military support in the crushing of the rebellion.

At that evening’s banquet, even Lord Gerard can tell that Wein and Lowa go way back from their glances at each other. But he cannot possibly fathom how many intricate gears are turning in his host’s nor his would-be-fiancée’s pretty heads. He plays every bit the predictable pawn, putty in their collective hands…until he hears that Wein can handle himself with a sword.

Wein and Lowa’s internal duel of wits is totally usurped by Gerard’s desire to put the prince in his place and impress his future bride with a mock duel of wooden swords. Wein has to delicately balance not totally whooping Gerard’s ass but also not losing so blatantly he either comes off as taking a fall, or just plain weak.

I love how he only has moments to consider what amount of force and skill he should employ against his opponent, and the long and wide-ranging ramifications of such a seemingly innocuous activity. I also love how Lowa reacts to him having to duel someone well beneath his ability.

It’s just that neither one of these schemers could have predicted in a thousand years how the mock duel would end: with the drunken Gerard charging Wein, missing, and then crashing through the window of the banquet hall, and over the damn balcony, breaking his neck. It’s an expertly delivered and timed bit of absurd slapstick that also happens to instantly blast all of Wein and Lowa’s carefully laid schemes into smithereens.

Gerard’s father, Marquess of Antgatal, soon becomes convinced his son was lurder to Natra to be assassinated, and that the princess must’ve had a hand in it. War between Antgatal and Natra seems certain. Wein wants to be the first of the three parties to take the initiative in this newly swept-clean game board, but Lowa beats him to it by visiting his office…to surrender.

She’s decided that preventing the rebellion and saving her empire is more important than claiming the throne—for now—so that’s what she’ll focus her efforts on from now on. Wein has bad news for her if she was planning to borrow Natra’s armies: his kingdom can only afford to deploy 500 troops against Antgatal’s 4,000+.

With a military solution untenable, Wein seeks a political one, in which he and Lowa get Antgatal to confess to his knowledge of the brewing rebellion before a mass uprising occurs. Wein, Ninym, Lowa, and Fisch hole themselves up in the parlor for a long night of planning all new devious schemes. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – 07 – May I Have This Dance?

Winter comes to Roa, and while Eris continues to excel in swordsmanship and earns praise from Ghislaine, she’s just as hopeless as ever with her academic studies. Nevertheless, she’s persevering. While she’d once throttle Rudeus if he told her her answers were wrong, she now simply puts her nose back to the grindstone to find the right answers.

One night, while inspecting his shamelessly realistic statuette of Roxy, Rudy gets a visit from one Edna Rayrune, who tells him about the particulars of Eris’ upcoming birthday party. She’ll be presented as a potential match for a lad form another noble family, whether she wants to be or not—it’s just the way this society works.

As such, she’ll need to perform a dance at the event, and it will have to be perfect, or she’ll bring shame on herself and the Boreas and Grayrat families. Bottom line, Edna wants to take some of Rudy’s tutoring time to spend Eris’ dancing lessons. Rudy is all too willing to get some free time, which he soon uses to explore the world’s other languages.

Winter turns to Spring, and Edna returns to Rudy, having made no progress with Lady Eris. Thus, the inevitable happens: Rudy tracks Eris down in her usual hiding spot in a barn and tells her he’ll help with her lessons by being her partner. While she reacts violently, she also accepts the offer. But in every lesson, Eris always ends up going faster than the music’s rhythm, resulting in their spinning out of control.

In between his dance lessons with Eris and brushing up on the beast god language with help from Ghislaine, Rudy finally gets a letter and package from Roxy, who is amazed he is tutoring the daughter of a lord, and also very much not appreciative of the creepily accurate statuette of her now in the possession of her perverted prince student, who she must immolate regularly.

Within the package is a hand-written textbook in the Demon God language with which Rudy is having the most trouble, despite being young and picking languages up much faster than an adult would. He says he can’t thank Roxy enough, but he could have done so easily by simply not distributing that statuette!

Eris’ big day arrives, and while she looks the part and greets her first suitor properly, their dance goes haywire fast, leaving her face down on the ground as all of the assembled nobles murmur about how the Boreas family is “doomed” with someone like her as their asset.

This is when Rudeus steps up to the plate, asks Eris for a dance, and tells her to close her eyes and not think about dancing, but to think about sparring. As we’ve seen in the past two episodes, Eris is a natural at swordsmanship, including pacing, body control, balance, and footwork. In other words, she’s already good at dancing, just not the usual kind you’d see in at a social function.

With Eris trusting in Rudy and Rudy trusting in her, the two captivate their audience with a gorgeous and lively performance. By the time Eris opens her eyes to see how well they’re moving, she can’t help but smile as widely as possible. As has been the case with their sparring scenes, the dancing is wonderfully staged and animated.

The party is more of a success than Rudy had expected; he captures the attention of several lovely single ladies, and draws the gentle ire of Philip, who’d still prefer if Rudy didn’t draw too much attention to himself—likely for political and strategic reasons.

That night, Rudy, Eris, and Ghislaine have a private after-party where he presents them with wands, as is traditional for a magic teacher to do. Eris, it should be noted, wants one of his statuettes. Ghislaine also gives Eris a gift for passing her swordsmanship lessons: a gold ring that supposedly keeps wolves from attacking you at night.

Rudy wakes up to find Eris asleep in his bed and defenseless, but before he can try anything sleezy he spots the ring and her wand, and decides not to do anything. He credits that with the ring doing it’s job, but I’d also like to think he felt a genuine pang of morality.

He then makes his way up a tower to the sound of Lord Sauros raping one of his beast-woman servants, another instance of Mushoku Tensei taking an unblinking look at the injustice, inequality, and inherent brutality of this time period, when a lord could do as he pleased with members of lower rungs of society. Rudy seems to shrug it off as just The Way Things Are.

After the servant runs off, Sauros points out a strange red orb in the sky with two sets of Saturn-like rings, telling Rudy that whatever it is, it’s not necessarily “a bad thing.” It’s a very awkward way to end the episode, but I’m sure we’ll see more of that orb next week. Until then, we continue to take the good (Rudy and Eris dancing, Ghislaine teaching Rudy) with the bad (Philip, Sauros, and Roxy’s prince)

Read Crow’s review of episode 7 here!

Deca-Dence – 10 – Not All Right At All

When Kaburagi tries to tell Natsume the truth in a masterfully-directed scene in which we feel her disorientation, Natsume passes out, much like Neo when Morpheus first tells him he’s in the real world (though she doesn’t vomit). Could it be her status as a bug depended on her believing the lie? Did Kabu break her with the truth?

We’re left in suspense after she faints, as the episode cuts to the three techs evacuate the Gadoll Factory. The director tells his subordinate to simply leave the tiny cute Gadoll, as it’s already dying, and the Gadoll sticks two little tendrils into him. By the time he notices they left red welts on his green belly, the elevator goes out of control.

As Kaburagi drives Natsume back to Deca-Dence, she wakes up yelling and he puts the brakes on. Once he calmly explains to her what’s going on, she takes hold of the part about him deceiving her. She’s not shocked anymore so much as betrayed and disappointed. She also wishes Kaburagi never told her the truth—saying this through broken glass is a nice touch, as her world is now thoroughly shattered.

After what is no doubt a wordless trip home, Kabu returns to find Pipe has disintegrated along with the other Gadoll as he expected (it’s an absolutely gutting scene, and perfectly staged and lit). Natsume hangs around the elated Tankers celebrating the apparent end of the war, but when she’s approached by Kurenai, she runs off.

In a way the truth as told to her by Kabu did break her. Wallowing in a dark alley, she no longer knows what to do, who to trust, or if any of her efforts ever mattered in the first place. Having pushed herself to her limits, she finds herself in the same position as Mei when Natsume became a soldier: why couldn’t things stay the way they were?

It’s only when Kaburagi is about to log out when he notices the note Natsume wrote him still lying unread on his desk. It’s a simple message, with the part about letting her know when he’s back crossed out, but still readable. Kabu decides the best way to apologize is to hand-write a letter of his own to her.

The Tankers may be celebrating, but the revolution is not over, and they’re far from free. The cyborg admins basically put Deca-Dence on pause for all Gears, and Hugin stalks around the Tank searching for Natsume. This is especially chilling since Kabu logs out after writing his letter, leaving Natsume alone and exposed.

As for the little Gadoll that could, it is reborn within the dead green factory director’s belly (he and his team don’t survive the elevator drop) It bursts out, Alien-style, then proceeds to devour the three bodies, and begins to…grow.

With the prison overrun by police when Kabu logs out, he, Jill, Donatello and the surviving inmates flee in a jeep, which I believe is the first time we see cyborgs interacting directly with “human” machinery. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition to say the least! When Kabu learns Hugin is in Deca-Dence he races to get to Jill’s hideout so he can log back in.

Hugin hasn’t quite found Natsume, but Kurenai does, and allowing Natsume to talk about how she feels (or doesn’t feel) without judgment. Asking questions about what she should think or feel or do, Kurenai tells her simply that she’s glad she’s back and unharmed, and everything else is up to her; the opinions of others are ultimately only supplementary to her choices. It’s a lovely, elegant scene between the two women in which Kaburagi doesn’t even come up.

That said, when Natsume returns to her home and finds and read’s Kabu’s heartfelt letter, she learns a lot more about him, how he was about to off himself when he met her, and how she changed him for the better. The words of his letter are beautifully accompanied by a montage of the moments in his and Natsume’s lives that he mentions.

With this, Natsume rushes to Kabu’s trailer, and just happens to whack him in the head when she throws open his door; he had just logged back in; great timing! Natsume gets everything he’s said now, but doesn’t like the connotations in the letter that suggest that he’s leaving again. If he is resolved to breaking all the rules, as she says with certitude: “he’ll have her help”.

It’s an absolutely heartwarming reunion and reconciliation of our co-protagonists, and Deca-Dence knows it…which is why it chooses the very moment Kaburagi agrees to let her keep helping him that he’s impaled through the chest by Hugin, who expected him to return to his trailer.

In his haste to reconcile he completely forgot the danger he and Natsume were in. His life’s blood splatters across a shocked Natsume’s face, and back at the hideout Jill tells the logged-out Kabu he can’t return to the Kaburagi avatar. Natsume is all alone with his lifeless avatar, and a sinister, smirking Hugin tells her she won’t escape, for The World Must Be Rid Of Bugs.

If that weren’t enough, our little Gadoll friend has grown quite a bit…into something that looks bigger than all of Deca-Dence; perhaps the largest Gadoll ever. Kabu and Jill watch as it rises over the horizon, no doubt still hungry and ready to devour everything and anyone it can get its hands on.

This giant Gadoll, sole survivor of the GGS, may even be out of the control of Hugin and the system, unless that ship in orbit has some serious space-to-ground firepower. If that’s the case, perhaps the Gadoll can be somehow used to help break the system, instead of just everyone.

Stay with me here…but what if the Gadoll, with their potential for collective intelligence, know that Kaburagi and Natsume were kind to Pipe? That’s all I’ve got for now, because as audacious as Deca-Dence continues to be, I can’t see this ending with the heroine being unceremoniously killed off.

The God of High School – 05 – Punch Pals

Mori’s semifinal fight with Mr. Brazilian Jujitsu is as short as Daewi’s against Mira, if not quite as violent. While Mira has no hard feelings—the stronger fighter won—and is on the mend, how Daewi beat Mira doesn’t sit right with Mori, and believes there’s a score to settle with their mututal friend.

Neither Mori nor Daewi pull any punches, as the latter is just as ferocious against Mori as he was against Mira, and also makes it clear hes never thought of either of them as his friends, which begs the question: why’d he crash Mira’s wedding? I guess he just doesn’t consider them friends compared to his one and only BFF, Woo Seungtae, who had his back at school and was a willing and enthusiastic brawling partner.

Daewi made a deal with Park to win the semis and the finals “overwhelmingly” so Seungtae could be treated with nanomachines, but it’s too late. Park informs Daewi his friend is dead in the middle of the match and Daewi shuts down…until Mira arrives, delivers a goodbye letter Seungtae wrote, and tells him to get back into the match.

He does so, but after some very spirited brawling replete with stylized ink brushstrokes, Mori ends up besting him, but gives him a hand up once the match is over. Both Mori and Mira end up helping Daewi back to the locker room.

While nowhere near as bad as the last episode, Daewi’s great epic friendship felt both rushed and simplistic, with way too much emphasis on hollow machismo. GoHS also continues to insist that the three leads are best buds without evidence beyond the fact they all love fighting (and getting beaten up). This episode didn’t do enough to convince me to keep watching.

Attack on Titan – 58 – The…Attack Titan

The entire flashback with Grisha being rescued by the Owl, Eren Kruger, is being retold by Eren as Armin writes it down and Mikasa listens in an adjacent cell. Eren is able to provide this information from many years ago thanks to his coordinate status.

Among the things he learns is that once given the powers of a Titan, a subject of Ymir will only live 13 years, something Mikasa dismisses out of hand, as she’s probably committed to making sure her beloved Eren lives to at least 100.

Kruger doesn’t have any comfort or solace to give to Grisha, because he was never given any himself. He’s only been able to survive as an Eldian spy within Marley by actually acting the way a Marleyan would; injecting his countrymen and casting them over the wall one after the other. By the same token, he deems Grisha so suited to save Eldia because he has already set that path into motion by leaving the gates of the ghetto with his sister.

Leave it to Titan to break up all that dourness with a couple moments of levity, such as when Eren seems to pose when he repeats what Eren Kruger called his Titan: the Attack Titan. This is funny on several levels, as Levi waves it off as latent chuunibyou on the teenage Eren’s part, while the older Hange is ignorant about such things. More than that, though, Eren finally gets to say the title line—a title that in English perhaps never should have had that confusing “on” in it…

There’s also the suggestion that for the duration of their imprisonment, Mikasa only ate the bare minimum to stay alive, and thus was literally wasting away without Eren by her side. But their sentences are commuted and they’re free to go, seeing as how they’re heroes of humanity and all.

“Free to go” is relative, however. They’re out of the stockade and back in uniform, but they are ordered to attend an audience with none other than Queen Historia, who feels a connection to Ymir’s letter similar to Eren’s with the books and photo they found in the Basement.

While the words of the letter seem to be not much more than the “love letter” they appear to be, it’s clear Ymir sent it in its form in order to deliver far more and different information to Tory; she’s just not sure what to do with it, or even whom to tell. She’s just glad to see Eren, Mikasa and Armin, and embarrassed when they all bow before her.

At the hearing, Hange delivers the report full of revelations provided by Eren and recorded by Armin, all about the reality that their kingdom within the walls being but a tiny sliver of the real world, and that the vast majority of that world is dedicated to their destruction.

As he listens to the testimony with everyone else, the new memories provided by Grisha continue to swirl in his head. He notes that the Titan into which Dina Fritz transformed was the same Titan who ate his mother and Hannes. When he met that Titan later and touched it, a similar surge of information suddenly flowed into him.

Now he knows why, and he almost blurts it out, but thankfully Hange can sense why he ends up holding his tongue, and chalks it up to his chuuni phase to the assembled bigwigs. What Eren now knows is that it’s possible for him to gain the vaunted powers of the Founding Titan—the main mission Kruger gave Grisha when he sent him to the walls—by touching Historia while she is a Titan.

He’s loath to bring this up because he doesn’t want to see Historia suffer any more than she already has. But what if, like Grisha and Kruger and so many other subjects of Ymir before them, he’ll have to sacrifice something important in order to gain that which will restore Eldia.

Or perhaps not; perhaps Eren is supposed to break that cycle. After all, another part of Kruger’s mission to Grisha was for him to fall in love with someone in the walls, raise a family, and love them. Now there are people Eren loves, and perhaps there are lines he won’t cross, even for the sake of saving the world.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online – 04 – The Game is the Game

Back to the “present” of Squad Jam (though not far enough into the present where Karen is entertaining her diminutive friends IRL). I tell ya, this show can give one temporal whiplash like nobody’s business.

Having defeated the pros and after another scan, LLENN and M determine they’re one of only three squads remaining. One of them ambushes them from hovercraft in the lake, forcing the huge M to set up his “space battleship armor” shielding, while the tiny LLENN remains just plain hard to hit.

Safe behind his shield, M is able to pick off the hovercraft gunners one by one and takes out the last one with a well-placed grenade that detonates underwater, sending the craft and its occupant flying and vulnerable to LLENN’s killshot.

M was able to kill all of those enemies without creating bullet lines, because he learned to aim without his finger on the trigger or using Bullet Circle assist. But when the next scan comes, the last team is not only right on top of them, but in position to take a shot at LLENN, not missing a fatal spot by much.

M grabs LLENN and races out of there with one of the hovercraft, getting shot in the process, but LLENN heals the two and they prepare for a counterattack. But first, LLENN lets M read a letter he was going to read before they were ambushed.

Immediately after reading the letter, he pulls a gun…on LLENN, saying he’s “sorry” before pulling the trigger. His shot misses; LLENN’s agility wins out again, and moments later his safety is on and she has her gun trained on him, demanding to know why he betrayed her.

M merely responds with streams of tears, begging the Pink Devil not to kill him, because he doesn’t want to die. It’s a 180 in M’s character, though he did mention he prefers fighting from a distance and from the safest possible position.

In this instance, with LLENN’s P90 at his throat, he’s suddenly way out of his comfort zone, so it’s understandable we’d see a new side of him. But it doesn’t explain why he suddenly pulled his gun on her. I suspect there’s a real-world reason for it. All I know is, LLENN’s reaction to his sudden change in character was priceless.

Violet Evergarden – 09

A tool cares nothing for itself. It doesn’t even consider itself a “self”. It only has purpose in the hands of its master. No master, no purpose. Violet was only able to get as far as she did as an Auto Memoir Doll because she thought the Major was out there somewhere, they would one day reunite so she could be issued fresh orders.

Despite Gilbert’s attempts to appeal to her humanity, Violet had been so conditioned for carrying out orders and nothing else that even when she loses one arm to a bullet and another to a grenade, she’s still compelled to try to dress his wounds with her teeth, until he has to all but order her to stop.

But now there are no more orders to look forward to, and Violet is lost in her past. She revisits the ruin of the castle where he fell, perhaps harboring a glimmer of hope everyone was wrong, and Gilbert was there after all. It doesn’t take long for that hope to be crushed, which is just about when Claudia and Benedict arrive to pick her up.

Claudia explains his need to withhold the truth from her when she was admitted to the hospital; she was more concerned with Gilbert than herself, but Gilbert demonstrated to Claudia on the eve of battle that he never saw Violet as a tool or weapon, but an ordinary girl he’d taken it upon himself to care for.

Gilbert had hope of his own: that one day Violet could be an ordinary girl with a purpose and emotions and dreams all her own. And even if he wasn’t around to meet that girl, he entrusted Claudia to care for her in his stead. Claudia perhaps understood more than Gilbert did just how difficult a transition from weapon to person would be.

Still, he doesn’t regret how he’s handled things. Cattleya thinks him heartless to tell Violet she’s “burning in the flames of what she’s done”, but it’s true, and it’s not something unique to Violet. Everyone has lost people, and parts of themselves. There’s nothing for it but to accept those flames, and they’ll gradually subside.

Upon returning to Leiden, everyone is worried about Violet, but also keep their distance out of respect. She sits in her dark room, alone with her flames, her grief and regret. She dreams of returning to the steps where she last saw Gilbert, but he’s not very nice.

Dream Gilbert essentially repeats the words his brother said to Violet at the port—words that appeal to her guilt over being able to write letters that connect people with the same hands that took the lives of so many others. She cries. She makes a mess. She puts those hands around her throat and contemplates joining the major.

Then there’s a knock at her door and she receives a letter; her first. Before reading it, she helps deliver some letters an errant delivery boy abandoned, and seems to enjoy ensuring the thoughts and hearts and souls of those who wrote them find their way to where they belong.

The letter addressed to her was written by Iris and Erica, figuring writing Doll-to-Doll was the best way to maintain that respectful distance while making sure Violet knew they were worried about her and are hoping and waiting for her to return. Additionally, Spencer requested her by name to ghostwrite an apology/thank you letter for his sister Luculia.

In this way, Violet gets back to work, the embers still glowing but the flames perhaps gradually subsiding. Spencer’s hope was to express gratitude for the one who got her back on her feet, all the while unaware that he’s helping Violet to do the same.

On her way back to the office, she spots a newspaper article featuring Princess Charlotte and her new husband meeting with children, as well as an advertisement for Oscar Webster’s newest play about Olivia. It’s a little on the nose, but it’s important that she she be reminded of what she’s done since her military career ended.

That’s because when she rushes to Claudia’s office to ask him if it’s really, truly all right for her to live on, he tells her that while the things she did back then can’t be undone, neither can the things she’s doing and will continue to do as an Auto Memoir Doll. Not only is it all right to live on…it’s essential. Both the show and this episode share her name. They are hers, and so is her life. Time to start living it.