Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 13 – The Thick of It

Having juggled between the separate stories of Makoto, the Demiplane gang, and the heroes Hibiki and Tomoki and their parties, Tsukimichi now aims to continue squishing all of these elements together. While the weeklong academy festival proves a financial boon for Kuzunoha Inc., Makoto ends up under the Church’s eye, which reflects the will of the hated Goddess.

While Tomoe, Mio, Shiki, and the Ogres eat, drink, and become increasingly merrier and more boisterous, Makoto has to fight off a flock of assassins, including the guy who had already been sent previously to kill him. None of them can put a dent in Makoto’s Mana Matter.

While the Church’s bishop is onto Makoto being far more powerful than he lets on, there’s a parallel political incident involving the nation Hibiki’s mage Chiya is from. They want her back. Princess Lily is also tailing Makoto and his cavorting party from the shadows.

With all these crossed agendas and allegiances, Tsukimichi story has never felt more complex … or volatile. We’ll see if Makoto & Co. can weather all of the myriad challenges that are sure to come while solidifying old bonds and forging intriguing new ones.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 12 – Not Too Late to Apologize

After a bear attacks one of the orcs as a warning, Makoto investigates the deep forest and meets huggable bear, a surprisingly reasonable pack of wolves, and an ever larger bear, essentially the ruler of the forest. Once Makoto makes clear he has no plans for conquest and only wants to be friends, the animals are open to coexistence.

While Makoto is scolding Tomoe and Komoe for picking too many persimmons, another animal friend appears: a giant bird that shrinks to the size of a pigeon to speak to Makoto. Introducing himself as “Boulder Bird”, once Makoto compares it to “roc bird”, he adopts that name going forward. In these guardians of the forest, he’s gained subjects, not to be confused with followers like Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki.

Back in Rotsgard, Jin and Abelia dress up and go out for drinks. Abelia wants to pump Jin for info on Shiki at first, but it become apparent they both want to have another go at the demidragon before summer break is out. We learn a lot from the two. Abelia has no family or home to speak of since her mother passed, so maintaining high enough marks to stay in school is key.

As for Jin, he admits he has a village to go home to, but he left it with a bad taste in his mouth. Another resident of the village, an orphan girl named Miranda, was his first love, mostly because she was so much stronger than him. But when they discovered a giant chimera in a remote barn while on patrol and she seemed to take pleasure in tearing it to pieces, Jin called Miranda a “monster”, and she ran into the woods, never to be seen again.

While he was only a punk kid, how he left things with Miranda never sat right with Jin. So he vowed to work hard enough to get scouted by the academy so he could become strong enough that when he saw Miranda again he could apologize. To that end, thanks to Makoto providing them with one, the whole group, Jin and Abelia included, manage to bring down the demidragon as a sign that they are becoming stronger together.

As for Miranda, well, we know her: she grew up to be Sofia Bulga, the tough-as-nails warrior that nevertheless was squashed by Makoto once he got serious back in season one. Having returned to the abandoned barn where she and Jin last saw one another (and indeed, she momentary wonders whether he’s still alive), she vows to track down her creator, Luto, and “absorb” him, no doubt to become strong enough to defeat Makoto. Good luck with that, kiddo: he’s got a slime suit now!