Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 28 (Fin) – Quick Goodbyes

After passing Fern, Serie passes Denken, because while he’s old, he still has a fire burning within. Übel passes too, as does Land, both of whom only need to show up and be precisely who they are (or in Land’s case, not show up, as he’s drinking tea at home). Wirbel passes, because Serie likes how he says magic is only good for killing. Methode passes because she’s extremely capable and talented … and she thinks Serie is small and cute, which she is!

Serie admits to Sense that she didn’t pass too many mages; it truly was a “bumper crop.” After the final exam, Denken makes sure to tell Frieren and Fern that he only made it as far as he did thanks to them, and now he can finally visit the grave of his wife in his hometown.

While in the bakery with Stark trying to decide what treats to buy, Fern encounters Denken and Laufen once more, and the four have tea and cookies together, on Denken’s dime. His wife passed just before Serie  offered the opportunity to bestow first class mages with the spell of their choosing. He also only became a mage because of Frieren’s deeds in the Hero’s Party, and that encountering her during these exams reminded him that magic could be fun.

Wirbel has a little chat with Frieren, telling her how he was initially drawn to becoming a mage because of the deeds of Himmel’s party. He doubts he or his hometown would exist without that party’s deeds.

But he also doesn’t deny that it wasn’t Himmel’s big bold battles that drew him into this life, but the little things: his quieter and less exciting but still fun and rewarding adventures. It’s why even though he’s a hardened military mage, he’ll still help an old lady pick up a basket of oranges.

That’s the story of Frieren as a whole: I greatly enjoyed the big climactic battles, but they also stressed me out. I enjoyed the quieter moments and the little acts of kindness and beauty that define what it means to be a mage of peace like Frieren.

Now her student is one of less than fifty first class mages in the world. Fern may one day be more famous than her, but she’ll still remember Frieren telling her to stop and smell the roses. Serie childishly barring Frieren from the privilege-bestowing ceremony won’t change that.

Memory and history is foremost on the aged Lernen’s mind when he confronts Frieren outside the Association headquarters, and even picks a fight with her that doesn’t last. His reasoning is that he is one of the few people who remember the great mage Flamme, Serie’s first student, and he doesn’t want her to be alone in the future.

If he can kill Frieren, he’ll go down in infamy, but he’ll be remembered alongside Flamme. Frieren won’t fight him, and tells him something he may not realize: for all her petulance, Serie remembers every one of her students, and she’ll surely remember Lernen as well, even if he never etched his name into history.

Serie is basically a genie for first class mages: any one spell they desire is theirs forever. It is quintessentially Fern, then, that she chooses a spell that keeps clothes sparkling clean and pleasant-smelling. It’s here where I’m reminded that Proud Fern is as endearing as Pouty Fern.

It’s a funny spell to ask for, but also hugely practical, considering how dirty all the traveling they do gets, and how much she dislikes doing laundry. Freiren gives Fern an extra emphatic head pat not just because she chose such a practical spell, but because she chose a weird one, just like Frieren would have.

With their business in Äußerst concluded, Frieren, Fern, and Stark depart from the city to continue their journey north to Ende. We learn that while the mages were busy with their exams, Stark was making friends with virtually every damn person in the city, and receives heartfelt goodbyes from all of them.

Kanne and Lawine wait for Frieren on the bridge out of the city to say their goodbyes, promising her they’ll retake the exam in three years. They exchange matane, or see you later, rather than sayonara, a more permanent goodbye.

Fern notes that this goodbye was rather quick, just as it was with Sein. Stark also notes their goodbye with Kraft was just as fast. This too is something Frieren learned from Himmel, and follows in his footsteps as a means of remembering him and how much he meant to her and changed her.

Himmel always said quick goodbyes too, because odds were he’d see the other person again, and he didn’t want it to be awkward or embarrassing when they did. I’ll also take Himmel’s lesson to heart and trust that I’ll see Stark the warrior, Fern the first-class mage, and Frieren the legendary mage, again at some point.

This isn’t a goodbye, but a see-you-later. If by some misfortune we don’t, I’ll still treasure the time I spent watching their travels and trials. It will be impossible to forget not just the big moments, but the small, quiet, cozy, and kind ones. That desire to treasure and inability to forget can be its own kind of magic.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 27 – A Peaceful Selection

No one was killed in Sense’s second exam, but there was a significant casualty: Fern’s staff wasn’t just snapped in the boss fight; it was turned into kindling. When she joins Stark on his meditating promontory pouting and he asks what’s up, she says she and Frieren had another fight. Frieren suggested Fern replace the staff her deceased father gave her with a new one. Stark gravely acknowledges the lack of tact as Frieren being Freiren.

Another casualty was Lawine’s pride, made all the more devastating by the fact she surely hoped that she and Kanne would pass together, just like they do everything together. When Kanne asks if she needs a pat on the head, I was fully prepared for Lawine to put her in a hold and pull her hair, but instead she positions herself for the head pat!

Richter tries to forget his failure get back to the grind of working in his shop, but Denken and Laufen, who passed, make it hard. Before leaving, Denken tells him he’s still an “insolent youngster” in his eyes. When the next exam comes along in three years, Richter will surely be a stronger mage.

While Fern concedes that Frieren probably didn’t mean any harm, more frustrating for her is that Frieren still doesn’t seem to understand her (to this, Stark can only say he doesn’t understand her either). But when Fern happens to pass Richter’s shop, he tells her he’d have made a better profit if she’d just bought a new staff.

Upon returning to their room at the inn, she finds her newly-repaired staff lying on her bed, and Frieren dozing in hers. Frieren saw how her words hurt Fern, and decided to make it up to her by yet again taking the inefficient path she knows so well. Fern smiles as she tucks Frieren in, because her master does understand her better than she thought.

With a highly irregular dozen mages passing the second test, Serie is displeased. But it’s not that Sense’s test was too easy, or that forcing the mages to work together was misguided. The simple fact of the matter is that the Frieren’s anomalous presence was a spectacularly high tide that lifted more boats than ever.

While Serie’s grizzled human student Lernen typically proctors the third exam, she decides to call an audible and proctor it herself. Lernen has no objections, in particular because he wouldn’t be able to properly test Frieren, whom he can tell is suppressing her mana.

Serie praises Lernen for being the only person, other than herself and the Demon King of yore, to notice the ever-so-slight fluctuations in Freiren’s pristine suppression, which took over two centuries for her to master. Then Series scolds Lernen for being so old, yet still every bit the timid boy he was when she first took him on as her student.

Kanne is the first to be interviewed by Serie, and the moment the ancient elf senses that Kanne can’t visualize herself as a first class mage, she fails her. She also fails Dunste, Laufen, Scharf, and Ehre in short order. When it’s Frieren’s turn, Frieren already knows she’s going to be failed, because a mage of her age should be far more skilled than she is.

However, by spending so long learning to suppress her mana, she became uniquely suited to deceiving defeating demons. And Frieren also admits she was lucky because she didn’t defeat the Demon King alone. Without any of Himmel, Heiter, or Eisen, they wouldn’t have beaten him.

As for Frieren having the same “useless” favorite spell as Flamme, creating a field of flowers, it actually had an extremely crucial use: showing a young, lost, and scared Himmel that magic was beautiful, and inspiring him to seek Frieren out specifically when he assembled his party.

Frieren also doesn’t give a rat’s ass whether she passes Serie’s stupid test or not. She was beyond a “First Class Mage” before that term even existed; it’s just a label for her. Only one of her party needs to be First Class to access the northern lands, and Frieren is just as certain Series will pass Fern, for the same reason she and Fern beat her replica in the King’s Tomb.

Fern represents the new Era of Humans, and Frieren vows she’ll exceed even Serie’s expectations. That’s precisely what happens, as Serie initially thinks Fern is standing at a distance out of fear of her ridiculous mana. However, Fern isn’t still out of fear, but awe: she can sense the fluctuation in Serie’s mana. This is something not even Lernen has ever able to do, and thus was always a disappointment to his Master.

Rather than say she passes, Series asks Fern to become her student. Fern, as expected, is like “Um, no.” Serie tells her she can take her magic to new heights. Frieren told Fern that no matter how Fern responded, Serie would pass her. So Fern doesn’t beat around the bush: she’s Frieren’s student, period.

Unable to overlook such a promising mage despite her insolence, Serie turns to leave and tells her she’s passed. Fern is now officially a First Class Mage, baby. With that formality out of the way, their quest can finally proceed, though I presume a future second season will continue that tale. How I will miss this monumental first season once it ends next Friday…

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 26 – The Ant that Slew the Dragon

So, about that attack Fern launched when Frieren gave her an opening … the replica blocked it. And so the battle continues, with Frieren and her replica flipping to the back of the playbook and executing some awesomely powerful offensive spells at each other while Fern flits around trying to find more openings. It’s stressful, but also gorgeous to behold, and at no point does Frieren seem remotely worried. On the contrary, she’s having a blast.

While she and Fern fight her replica, the others head out to face off agains the other replicas gathering at the bottom of the dungeon. They choose their targets based on how good or bad matchup they are against the replicas. Denken is quite right that their ability to work together and communicate means not only can they win, they should win. Even when Sense’s replica ambushes Richter and Lawine, and both have to break their golem bottles.

Ultimately, the only one who believes she can defeat the replica of Sense is Übel, who just shot up in the official Coolest Frieren Mages Ever ranking in my books for this reason. As Land, Denken, and Sense lament, Übel’s mind simply works differently than most humans. Growing up watching her sister cut cloth with scissors, she developed Reelseiden, a spell that cuts anything she thinks it can.

She could cut the indomitable magic cloak of a first class mage in a past test, killing him, because she saw the cloak as cloth to be cut. In the same vein, she’s able to easily defeat Sense’s replica (and Sense herself if she chose to) because hair can be cut. Reelseiden is the manifestation of her own personal intuition, which is separate from the typical rules of magic and logic. Put simply, she’s one deadly gal!

Methode makes contact with Wirbel, Ehre, and Scharf, asking them to take on Denken’s replica, while she’ll deal with Fern’s. She needs to be alone in order to maximize the sensitivity of her mana detection, plus in an adorable cutaway, we se her successfully testing her binding magic on Fern, complete with a friendly “Take that!”, Fern declaring she can’t move, and Frieren poking her face.

When replicas they’ve already defeated start to appear, it becomes clear the Spiegel can continue re-spawning them indefinitely until it is defeated. Frieren’s replica has to be destroyed soon to allow them access to the Spiegel, or everyone’s going to eventually be carted away by golems.

Rewinding back to before they confront the replica, Frieren tells Fern that she’ll give Fern the opening she needs by showing an opening to her replica, thus making it show an even bigger opening. Everything hinges on Fern being able to exploit that opening, and Frieren tells her if she thinks they can win, they can win.

Not only that, Frieren admits she “underestimates” Fern. This is the Age of Humanity, after all. Even in her relatively short lifespan, Fern can surpass Frieren one day, but again, only if she thinks she can.

Some truly heinous magic is unleashed by Frieren and her replica in the final stage of their battle, with Frieren cutting things so close her jacket is shredded and her shoulder singed. But the big opening works, and Fern is able to pummel the replica with offensive magic, blasting her arms off.

But then Fern is once again surprised by the depths and heights of Frieren’s magical knowledge as demonstrated by her replica. Fern is tossed across the chamber and slammed hard against the wall, her staff shattered … and Fern doesn’t even recognize it as a spell, nor can she detect any mana.

True to Frieren, the most powerful magic whips out is so elegant it isn’t even recognizable as magic. But as the replica prepares to finish Fern off, Frieren slips behind her and finishes her off. Fern had to take a bit of a lickin’ so that everyone could keep on tickin’.

Victory! I loathed the potential for an unaccounted-for replica to be hiding in the treasure chamber where the Spiegel resided, but Frieren’s replica truly was its final line of defense. Frieren shatters it, and all of the replicas vanish as if snapped away by Thanos. And just in the nick of time too, judging by the precarious state of the various battles.

Everyone arrives at the treasure chamber at the very bottom of the dungeon to a smiling, congratulatory Sense, who tells them all of them deserve to be first-class mages. As for the “ladies of the hour”, as Denken calls them, Fern once again watches as Frieren gets nommed by another mimic, shouting that it’s dark and scary.

But you know what? After being as badass as she was, she deserves to act a little goofy before the third and final test, for which only two announced episodes of the series remain to tell. More than anything, I’m already loathing an end to Frieren, even if it’s likely to get another season down the road. Few anime in history have succeeded so thoroughly in making magic look and feel so … magical.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 25 – The Age of Humanity

The assembled mages are pondering how to proceed with so little information, but as others arrive, they gain more intel on the replicas, and with it the confidence to take on the Fake Frieren, who is terrifying in its stillness and patience. Dunste confirms it has no mind, while Lawine learned from her brother’s adventuring that the creature making the replicas is called a Spiegel, and is extremely weak once the replicas are defeated.

The third and most crucial piece of information is not only revealed, but demonstrated by Fern: whenever Frieren casts a spell, she ever so briefly stops detecting mana. I love how sheepish she is about it, as after all it’s a common mistake made by baby mages. But all her other strengths mean only a select few can exploit this weakness.

With sufficient intel to proceed, the group forms a strategy. Fern can tell from her smiles that Frieren is enjoying this, and she confirms that, as it reminds her of when she, Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter (if he wasn’t hung over) coming up with a plan to defeat a dungeon boss. Denken and the others are concerned that Frieren and Fern will be facing off against the replica by themselves, but Frieren has the confidence of someone from the party that conquered the most dungeons in history.

It’s rare for a show to come along that wields such mastery of restraint and elegance in the execution of its battle scenes. Frieren’s battles never last long, but they’re never too short. Instead, they are as long as they need to be. In the battles, Evan Call’s score rings out and time is compressed. So much action and invention and mayhem is conveyed in just a few brief seconds. It can jump from Slow Life to Turbo Chaos in the literal blink of an eye.

It can also make expert use of delayed gratification to lend its battles even more weight. Just as Repli-Frieren is about to zap Real-Frieren in the face with a spell, we cut to however many centuries ago when Flamme passed away and Frieren paid a visit to Serie to present her with her apprentice’s will. Now that the emperor has approved it, any human can now study magic, and Flamme wanted Serie to take over the training of imperial mages once she died.

Serie has no intention of doing so, and is angered by Flamme’s “greed”, but Frieren notes that Flamme predicted her master’s reaction with perfect accuracy. Before Frieren leaves, Serie asks her to take a walk with her. While she does, we have a glimpse of Serie’s headspace. She speaks rather coldly about Flamme, having trained her “on a mere whim”, but her attitude makes sense when you consider that the way Serie perceives time, Flamme’s entire life was equivalent to only a few days, or even hours.

I love how when they walk through a very elvish-looking forest, the spirit of a young Flamme follows Serie along, smiling, holding her master’s hand, showing her her favorite spell: creating a field of flowers. Considering how relatively briefly Flamme was alive, Serie was amazed she was able to bring magic to humanity. She warns Frieren not to neglect her training, as the “era of humans” will be upon them before they know it, and if Frieren is going to be killed, it will either be by the Demon King … or a human.

Knowing all of this entering the battle, Frieren keeps her replica focused on her as they fight to a draw. Fern conceals her mana and stays hidden until Frieren creates an opening. Replica Frieren, who has the same vulnerability as her real counterpart, cannot detect Fern’s mana until it’s too late. All Real Frieren has to do is move out of the way of Fern’s Zoltraak, which she can do because she knows it’s coming. Replica Frieren doesn’t, so it’s game over in a flash.

Elves like her predate Zoltraak, they’re unable to react to it as instinctively as a human like Fern, for whom Zoltraak is just a basic attack spell that existed long before she was born. But at the end of the day the replica lost because Real Frieren is a relic from an ancient time living in the middle of the Age of Humanity, and Fern is her adorable human apprentice who was able to best her.

Solo Leveling – 03 – Windows Vista

Jinwoo wakes up in a hospital missing precisely none of his limbs, and is soon visited by two Men in Black from the Hunter’s Association Surveillance Team. While the temple and statues the other five survivors described were no longer there, they have no reason to doubt their aligning descriptions.

For a barely E-Rank Hunter like Jinwoo to have survived such an ordeal mostly unscathed, the suits believe he underwent a Second Awakening, which usually results in a rise in rank. But when they test his mana, he’s at the same woeful level, and they have to apologize for getting his hopes up.

The suits leave without asking Jinwoo about the big blue window floating above his head telling him he has unread notifications, but there’s a good reason for that: he’s the only one who can see these windows. That’s confirmed when he has one open when his sister Jin-ah visits him.

It’s kind of refreshing for Jinwoo’s sister to not be a brocon, but rather takes off with her friend who was waiting in the hall when she confirms he’s doing okay. That said, she cares about her brother, and warns him if he keeps this up she’s dropping out and getting a job to help support them and their comatose mother.

After a brief Cha Hae-In sighting (she’s assigned as an instructor in the next big B-Rank raid) Jinwoo uses his sister’s advice about navigating game screens and explores the weird floating windows only he can see. They refer to him as a player in a system, and warn that failure to comply with the system results in penalties.

One window also displays a daily strength training quest: 100 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, along with 10km of running. He dismisses this as ridiculous considering he’s still hospitalized, but when 24 hours are up, his failure to complete the daily quest results in a penalty quest. He’s transported from his hospital room to a vast desert where he has to survive an onslaught of giant centipedes for four hours.

When those four hours are up, Jinwoo is transported right back to his hospital room, and even receives a reward. For the few days he completes the daily quest and receives rewards, points that can be allocated to attributes like strength and agility, and random loot.

When Joohee learns Jinwoo is awake, she visits him at the hospital with flowers, only to overhear from the nurses that he’s in the courtyard running again, determined to get stronger. Joohee leaves without saying hello. In this manner, Jinwoo gradually levels up, and can feel himself getting stronger.

That said, I feel he’s a bit too overeager to get back into the dungeon game. When his random loot for the day is a key to an “Instance” Dungeon, he immediately heads to the entrance to a subway station to unlock the entrance.

While confident he can always run away if things get to hairy, as soon as he enters the dungeon the gate closes behind him and won’t open unless he defeats the boss or uses a teleportation stone (which he doesn’t have). With no choice but to clear the dungeon, Jinwoo heads down the stairs.

When he encounters three goblins, he recalls being stabbed in the chest by one on a previous raid, but finds he’s not only able to dodge their attacks, but is now strong enough to kill all three with his dagger. Just when he thinks things are looking up, a red, metal-jawed wolf monster appears and chomps his dagger to bits.

With no healer present and the wolf howling for its buddies before charging him, we leave Jinwoo in a bad spot. Perhaps there’s someone else in that dungeon. Maybe he’s able to dodge the wolf and find a way to kill it. Maybe he ends up near death again and has a Third Awakening.

Whatever his fate, this episode was an efficient and entertaining walkthrough of the mechanics of his new, very odd situation where he’s still a lowly E-Rank, but is now able to level up his stats on his own. A kind of solo leveling, if you will.

Solo Leveling – 02 – All By Himself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 01 (First Impressions) – The Right Stuff

Usato Ken considers himself an unremarkable, run-of-the-mill high-schooler. He’s intimidated by the likes of Inukami Suzune and Ryuusen Kazuki, the president and vice president of the student council. But on a rainy evening when he forgets his umbrella, he soon learns they’re nothing to fear.

In fact, they’re friendly and generous. Kazuki lends Ken his spare umbrella, and he and Suzune are happy to walk home with him. He learns they’re much nicer and more down to earth than he thought, and despite rumors, they’re not dating (they also thank him for asking about it directly, unlike others).

These opening minutes aren’t just an opportunity for Ken to meet Kazuki and Suzune, but for us as well. It efficiently introduces all three leads as likeable good kids with distinct personalities—a lot like Reign of the Seven Spellblades. Then a magic circle appears and Suzune reveals her otaku side and is jazzed about it!

We kinda know why, too, thanks to what they spoke of just before. Despite being a third-year and the top student in school, Suzune hasn’t figured out what she’s going to do yet. We know Ken yearns for a more interesting life where he can make a difference. And we can infer that Kazuki has the most planned out future of the three.

They emerge in the throne room of another world and are told by a King Lloyd of Llander that they’ve been summoned as heroes to defeat the armies of the demon lord. That’s a lot to take in, but Suzune at least is loving every minute of it. Ken is a lot more guarded by this situation, while Kazuki is straight-up pissed about this sudden abduction.

He makes a good point: the three of them have families from whom they’ve been torn away. But Ken calms Kazuki down, telling him there’s no point in starting a fight. Kazuki stands down, and the king approaches them, goes down to a knee in apology; the entire court does the same.

He knows it isn’t fair what they did to them, but the hour is late, and his kingdom is desperate, as the demon lord’s forces continue to expand. He promises that they’ll find a way to send them back as soon as possible, but for now he humbly asks if they’ll be the heroes they need. Mind you, they only intended to summon two exemplary people from the other world, making Ken’s presence confusing.

Intended heroes like Suzune and Kazuki heard bells before they were summoned, but Ken didn’t. It appears that he was simply caught in the proverbial transporter beam. Nevertheless, he is treated the same as the other two, and evaluated for magic affinity. Suzune learns lightning is her element, while Kazuki’s is light—as in the opposite of dark, perfect against demons.

But when the crystal ball used to evaulate their magic turns green when Ken touches it, the royal mage Welcie suddenly freaks out, grabs Ken, and runs back to the throne room. She informs King Lloyd, who also freaks out. Up until this point, everyone in this show has acted reasonably and amicably.

The minute Rescue Team Captain Rose stomps into the room, we suddenly see everyone’s panicky side. They try to keep Ken’s magical ability secret, but then he blurts out that his light was green, and within thirty seconds Welcie the mage has gathered him up in a bubble and shot him out of the castle, and Rose brandishes a devlish smirk and gives chase.

She catches him with ease, and carries him to Rescue Team HQ. Green means healing, an extraordinarily rare type of magic. Rose introduces some other Rescue Team members, books Ken judges by their covers because they resemble a wrestling stable more than anything else! Not only that, none of them have healing magic!

Captain Rose intends to whip Ken into shape as a healing magic user, in effect bestowing upon him the significant purpose he desired in his original world. But it’s clear from the fear Rose instills in everyone he’s seen that it may be tough sledding. He’s going to have to step up his game: run-of-the-mill ain’t gonna cut it here!

And there you have it: one minute Ken is befriending the two most popular students at his school as they walk home, and that night he’s in a strange bed sharing a room with a snoring hulk in another world, his old dull life path replaced with a one filled with far more danger and promise.

What Wrong Way lacks in original ideas it more than makes up for with its execution. Its characters are instantly charming and rootable, the dialogue pops, and the production values are solid. This has the look and feel of a show made with care and thought, and I’m excited to see how Ken, Suzune, and Kazuki fare in their fantastic new circumstances.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 12 (Fin) – Tipping the Scales

Rae is certain that she’s lost Claire, and there’s nothing she can do to get her back. But then Manaria grabs her in the hall and asks why she’s giving up and running away so easily. Rae thinks that’s pretty rich coming from the girl who stole Claire from her, but in her thoughts she can’t deny that Manaria is absolutely right about her: she is running away, putting up a “noble front” to avoid the pain of rejection.

Manaria tells her that kind of feelings that “seek nothing in return” end up “warped”. She knows from experience, having bottled up her love for a palace maid, then one day make a terrible mistake, forcing herself on her. The maid eventually disappeared, and Manaria hasn’t loved anyone quite like that ever since. The rumors were true: she sought the clarity of money for sex, but it never satisfied.

Despite her appetites, I’ve been pretty sure since she showed up that Manaria is playing the villain on purpose to bring Rae and Claire closer. While it’s had the opposite effect so far, she knows how to get Claire to make a U-turn: by threatening to make Claire her plaything. That does the trick: the two will make their offerings to the scales of Amour. If Rae loses, not only does Manaria get Claire, but Rae as well.

Manaria later informs Claire of the contest she and Rae are undertaking, and Claire’s first instinct is to resent being used as a prize for their competition. Manaria tells her she’s not blameless, for she refuses to tell her or Rae how she really feels. In fact, the scales may not be measuring her or Rae’s feelings, but Claire’s.

She leans close to Claire to whisper something, and that leads Claire to search everywhere for Rae, only to learn she’s out performing all of the Knights missions on the bulletin board, then admires the necklace Rae gave her in the mirror. Rae’s not fighting through the night to level up, but to acquire an exceedingly rare (0.5%) drop, knowing Manaria will most likely bring a Flower of Flora to the ceremony.

When the day of the ceremony arrives, Claire is standing with Misha, who asks her straight up to say honestly who she hopes will win: Manaria or Rae. Claire says the whole enterprise is insulting (she’s no prize), but Misha hopes it will be Rae. When Claire accuses her of favoring her friend, Misha asks how she feels about Rae.

Claire goes over all of the silly and embarrassing things Rae has said and did, but ultimately looks upon those times with fondness, stating Rae is “far too cheeky for a commoner.” When asked if she’d take Rae back as her maid, Claire says it would be impossible for someone of the nobility to bow to a commoner.

Nevertheless, Misha hopes for a miracle, both for Claire and for Rae. And at first it looks like those hopes are futile, for only Manaria shows up, with the Flower of Flora (of course), and with no opponent on the other side of the scales, she declares victory, takes a knee, and dedicates herself to Claire with the same words she used years ago when Claire thought she was a boy.

Manaria leans in for a deal-sealing kiss when a filthy, tattered Rae appears and shouts “STOP!” Rae makes clear in no uncertain terms that she won’t let Manaria “have” Claire; this makes Claire blush. But Manaria declares victory, saying nothing beats a Flower of Flora for an Amour offering. Rae presents her offering: a little twig with one leaf and a couple of tiny buds.

The offering is met with laughter, but Rae isn’t joking around. Not anymore. After she places the twig on the scales, nothing happens for a dramatically appropriate amount of time, during which Claire realizes her own faith in Rae may be the key. Then a giant goddamn tree grows from the twig, weighing the scales down in Rae’s favor.

The first question everyone has is what the heck is with this tree, Rae explains it’s a Tree of Eternal Love, dropped only very rarely from a particularly nasty tree monster. It’s a secret item that would only be known to a player of the game, since getting it gives you access to an exclusive event CG. Rae vowed not to rely on something like this as it felt like cheating, but against a foe like Manaria and Claire’s freedom on the line, she realized she had no choice.

After accomplishing something no one else had done before in history (i.e. trump the Flora flower) Rae is finally able to be real with Claire. “I’m not capable of the love you see in stories,” she says. “I can’t even say what really matters without turning it into a joke.” But no matter who she loses to or has to kneel to, she will always love Claire. But before Claire can take her hand as a sign that she’s picking up what she’s putting down, Manaria gathers Rae into a hug, earnestly proclaiming that Rae was the one she’s been after from the start!

All the times she made Rae jealous by hitting on Claire? That was to get all of those adorable reactions out of Rae. But before she can kiss Rae, Claire puts a stop to it, grabbing Rae and pushing her behind her, declaring that “Rae belongs to me! You can’t take my things from me!” In response to this, Rae hugs Claire in appreciation.

Shortly after all of this hullabaloo, Manaria is called back to her kingdom, where the first prince has died and she’s now a contender for the throne. It’s around this time that Rae finally gets around to realizing that Manaria may have been playing the bad guy on purpose all this time to get her and Claire closer.

Misha, Claire’s flunkies, and the three princes all support Claire and Rae, acknowledging that love takes many forms. This irks Claire, but she can no longer deny that she cares for Rae. After all, she fought for her!

Before she departs for home, Manaria meets with Rae in private to ask her one question: “Just who are you?” Rae probably predicted that finding a secret offering that surpassed the Flower of Flora might elicit some suspicion from certain characters. All she’ll tell Manaria is that she swears on Claire that she isn’t a spy of the Empire, which is all Manaria needs.

We also learn that at some point in the game, Claire, the villainess, is executed, so Rae’s goal going forward is to prevent what for her would be the Worst Ending. Until then, she continues to openly flirt with Claire in class, and not only does Claire not hate it, but everyone around is on board.

Will we ever get a continuation of this nascent romance? Who’s to say? All I know is we end things on a high point, with Rae not settling for unrequited love. Claire, who is classically so easily made to be lonely, need not worry about being alone ever again. Manaria provided the kick in the butt Rae needed to fight not just for Claire’s happiness, but her own. If this story ever continues in the future, you can be sure I’ll be watching.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 11 – Jolene Complex

You’ve probably heard Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, or her apprentice Miley Cyrus’ cover of same. It’s a gorgeous, song full of pain and longing, and reminded me of Rae’s situation here. She cannot hope to compete with Princess Manaria’s beauty, charm, ability, or even confidence.

Manaria could be with anyone, man or woman, but she is taking Claire from Rae “just because she can”. She’s all over Claire to the point Rae doesn’t get any time with her. She complains to Misha, who tells her that if she can’t take it anymore, the only thing for it is to fight her.

Now, it is abundantly clear that a fight is exactly what Manaria wants. But I don’t think she quite wants it for the reasons Rae thinks. While poor Dolly had to beg Jolene not to take her true love away, this feels to me like tough love: like Manaria is forcing Rae to get off the sidelines and act for what she wants.

The thing is, Rae is so sure she has zero romantic shot at Claire, she’s settling for being happy that she’s happy. She recalls from the game that Manaria helped the Heroine (i.e. her). I think she still is, but Rae can’t see it. And then the flunkies ask Rae to protect Claire from Manaria, whom they’ve learned has a “reputation” among the ladies of the night in her kingdom

The prospect of Manaria hurting Claire has Rae on edge, so when Manaria is just outside Claire’s door after Rae bids her good night, she accepts her invitation for a chat. Manaria doesn’t mince words: she has been provoking Rae on purpose. Rae declares that she doesn’t mind if Claire won’t look her way, while also insisting her love for her trumps everyone else’s.

Manaria calls her out on this, saying wishing for her happiness without bothering to consider if she’d make her happiest is nothing but running away and giving up. Manaria even says she feels bad for both Rae and Claire. At the tea party, she says “love is blind” when Claire, who is clearly thinking about Rae a lot, voices her concern with her odd behavior.

Manaria manages to get Rae to agree to a duel, even though they both know Rae can’t beat her. The next day, that’s borne out, as Rae doesn’t mess around and launches her most powerful attacks, which don’t even put a scratch on the quad-caster. Rae fights valiantly and hard, and then Manaria brings the hammer down: Domination. For once, the magical battle animation not only looks good, but packs a genuine punch.

The vicious attack leaves Rae bloodied and unconscious, and who is the first to rush to her aide? Claire, just as Manaria knew she would. Rae isn’t the only one running away from their feelings. No one has known Manaria longer than Claire, so when Manaria continually states that Rae means something to Claire, I believe her, even when Claire denied or deflected.

One need look no further than the faces Claire makes after Manaria yeets Rae: intense concern for her welfare, anger at Manaria for going too far (though Manaria does heal her), and unbridled joy and relieve when Rae opens her eyes. But Rae is so caught up in losing Claire, she doesn’t bask in the rare gifts Claire is so earnestly presenting to her.

Rae believes her loss to Manaria means Claire is now hers, and she no longer has any right to stand beside her. But if my theory about Manaria is correct, she succeeded in getting Claire to be more honest about how she feels about Rae. When the three are assigned to a team and Claire runs ahead, Manaria tells Claire to let her be; she’s fine on her own, but it’s Claire who isn’t fine with Rae on her own.

Claire isn’t acting by the game’s script anymore; she is who she is in large part due to the time she’s spent with Claire all this time. Now that Rae is acting completely different, she wants to know why. She doesn’t like how Rae’s not being herself. Then Rae tells her: she and Manaria dueled over her.

Claire, channeling Princess Jasmine and says she’s “no prize to be won”, which is true, but this is the same Claire who’s fine with her kingdom’s legend of a bunch of guys fighting for a woman’s hand via the Scales of Amour.

Then Rae, now no longer having any fun playing the real-life version of the only thing that made her happy in her past life, continues her steady retreat from Claire’s side, and does something she’d never, ever do before all this Manaria business: she’s mean to Claire. She tells her to go off with Manaria, who was her prince and first love anyway. When Claire tells her she’s not fit to be her maid right now, Rae quits.

This wounds Claire worst of all, and you know it because while she maintains her aristocratic composure in officially accepting Rae’s resignation—she even calls her “Miss Taylor”—she also tears up in the process. Rae knows she’s fucked up badly, and wants so badly to unsay what she’s just said, but also believes she can’t take it back, so she walks away.

As she does, Claire doesn’t stop smiling her sad, sad smile, for even the Commoner has left her, even though she promised she never, ever would no matter what. Rae has gone and made herself a liar in the eyes of the one she loves. It will not be easy to recover from this, but I think I know one person who will do all she can to help both her and Claire make up, just because she can: Manaria “Jolene” Sousse.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 10 – Princess Perfect

Lene is not replaced, making Rae the only maid tending to Claire at school. But when it comes to little things like brushing Claire’s hair, Rae has a long way to go. Claire is still down in the dumps about losing Lene, and Rae tries her best to cheer her up by maintaining continuity with her flirting.

When Claire receives a letter from her “dear sister” Princess Manaria Sousse (Mizuki Nana!), Claire cheers up completely. Like the rest of the school, Claire is absolutely smitten with the tall, slender, silver-haired fox with rose eyes. Claire regards Manaria the same was Rae regards her.

Rae knows about Manaria as one of Claire’s only allies in the game, but just as no one is meant to root for the villainess, no one would normally consider her a rival in love. But that’s exactly what Manaria is, and she seems to know it and revel in it.

The reason for Claire’s affection isn’t mere puppy love. Manaria earned her love, by being the only one to approach her and tell her no one blamed her for what happened with her mother. She made it so Claire could finally cry, then stopped her tears with a chivalrous vow to always protect her.

That was ten years ago, and Claire initially mistook Manaria for a boy. But once she learned she was a girl, her love and admiration for her didn’t change in the slightest. That’s because Manaria is perfect at pretty much everything, from academics to arts to athletics.

One thing Rae could be sure of herself about was her magical prowess, but, but Manaria also happens to be an exceedingly rare quad-caster. Manaria also seems to have quite the emotional intelligence, as she isn’t believing for a second that Rae is only an member of Claire’s staff.

Manaria, like Prince Rod, seems to appreciate when someone like Rae brushes her off; pretty much everyone else treats her like a goddess walking the earth. And even if she kinda is, that must be trying and even stressful sometimes! She and Rod duel, and she effortlessly neutralize his fire minions with spell-breaking magic.

Claire can’t stop going on about how great “onee-sama” is, but even Claire can tell Rae is acting sullen, even correctly deducing that she’s jealous. Claire continues to operate on the assumption Rae is just messing with her, but even she must wonder if Rae would even go so far in her act as to feign jealousy.

Fortunately, there is a method by which Rae can prove her feelings for Claire are genuine: the kingdom’s longstanding tradition of the Amour Ceremony, involving the weighing of offerings on a set of scales to test true love. The Amour ceremony is coming up, so Rae will get her shot.

Rae shouldn’t have to prove herself, but her insistence on placing Claire’s happiness before her own leads to Manaria putting the moves on Claire and whispering sweet nothings to her while Rae watches and completely falls apart in her maid tea duties.

Unlike Claire, Manaria can see that Rae is serious, and that she’s more than just some nobody commoner. I’d love it if she were game omniscient too—what if she could read her mind?—but that aside, Rae has a choice to make. She can surrender, as Rod did, to Manaria’s overwhelming advantages. Or she can choose her own happiness for once, and fight for Claire’s love. May the best girl win!

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 09 – Claire the Clement

Thanks to Rae buying Claire time to set up an extremely magical ray spell the two are able to defeat the chimera before it can hurt anyone. The battle requires that Claire trust Rae to keep the monster away from her while she’s a relative sitting duck, and that Rae trust Claire not to accidentally hit her with the spell. Rae’s trust in Claire goes without saying, but that Claire trusts in Rae now says a lot about how far they’ve come. They even high-five each other!

But then there’s still the matter of the masked mystery man. He confronts the girls, stating he’d hoped the chimera would kill as many nobles as possible. While this reveals his affiliation with the commoner movement, it doesn’t say much else about who he is or why he took this particular roundabout way to try to attack them. When he tries to stab Claire, Thane swoops in and gets grazed. The blade is poisoned, but Rae is able to heal Thane without any issues.

With the Aurousseaus arrested the mystery man vanishing, and the angry mob dispersed, everything is wrapped up on this one evening … which is honestly fine with me. I’ll be honest: I watch this primarily for the cute interactions between Rae and Claire, not magical combat or political intrigue. The show almost seems to acknowledge that when it’s announced the movement has gone quiet. This leaves what is to happen to Lene and Lambert.

One thing is clear, despite her head maid and oldest friend Lene betraying her as part of a plot to do harm to the nobility and even holding her at knifepoint, Claire has no desire for Lene or the Aurousseaus to die for their crimes.

Yet execution is the indicated punishment. So when she and Rae are given an audience and asked what reward they want (and even Claire has to admit Rae’s valiant look is on point), Claire asks for the execution sentence to be commuted. When the prime minister voices his doubts such a thing could be done and the king is ready to go with his opinion, Thane once again steps in to offer his two cents.

Claire and Rae can only say that the Aurosseaus have done for the kingdom justify leniency, but it’s a matter of scale. Thane presents an alternate argument that proves more persuasive to the king: if he truly desires more of a meritocracy, he should put his money where his mouth is. The king then decrees that Lene, Lambert, and the Aurosseaus shall be exiled from the Bauer Kingdom.

Not long after exiting the palace, Claire and Rae celebrate in jubilation at the same time. When Claire takes exception to Rae “copying” her, Rae starts to dance with her, and eventually Claire’s scowl turns back into a joyful smile. The next time the two see Lene, she and Lambert are headed out of the city for good. Rae calls her over to say her goodbyes and also provide some recipes that may help her with her money situation.

Lene thanks Claire and Rae for being the ones to save her and her family from execution, (although the Arousseaus have also disowned Lene and Lambert), and apologizes for what she’s done. At first Claire lets her go without saying a word, but then calls out Lene’s name and says she’s not saying goodbye for good, because she’s certain they’ll meet again someday.

After that final exchange that brings a smile to Lene’s face, Rae can tell Claire just might need a hug. When she refuses one, Rae gives her one anyway. While this is iffy consent-wise, it turns out to be the right move, as Claire needs a few moments to have a cry over everything that’s gone down.

The whole part about Lene and Lambert being incestuous lovers ends up being neither here nor there. Since so little was explored about it, it probably could have been left out of this entire mini-arc, as wanting to save his beloved sister (in a non-incestual way) would have been a perfectly adequate motivation for their treason.

As for Rae, Claire’s opinion of her continues to improve the more time they spend together. Knowing as we do that Claire returning her feelings isn’t necessarily Rae’s end goal, it is good to see them getting along more often. That said, the preview for next week suggests Rae’s about to have some female competition for Claire’s affections.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 08 – Labors of Love

Well now, our kooky isekai lesbian rom-com has suddenly taken a turn towards the serious and dramatic. Since it’s dealt with serious matters before—like Rae opening up about her sexuality, or Claire’s past family trauma—this isn’t entirely out of left field. But it still toes a fine line, trying to have its usual goofy moments between Rae and Claire while also, say, having them interview a severe burn victim: a commoner named Matt.

As expected, this isn’t a simple matter of a noble lashing out at a commoner out of hatred. The alleged attacker Dede claims he only intended to intimidate, not harm, and his wand malfunctioned. My first thought was that the smirking masked mystery man must’ve made it look like Dede attacked the kid, with the intention of igniting the already shouldering embers of civil discord between noble and commoners.

And hey, it’s working like a charm. Word has gotten out about the attack, and there’s a commoner mob at the gates. Adding to the complication is the fact that it was Prince Yu who was first approached by Matt regarding the commoner movement. As his mother was a former cardinal of the church—a third group in this conflict with its own motives and ambitions which also believes in equality for all, at least in theory—Matt may have thought he could sway Yu.

The commoners want Dede severely punished, but he gets a slap on the wrist instead: one week’s house arrest. That only increases the temperature, ruins the Knights’ efforts to keep the peace, and forces the academy to suspend classes until further notice.

When Rod and Thane (who had a different mother who passed) turn on Yu, who tried and failed to get an audience with his mom, Claire posits that the church may be trying to create a rift between the princes. The brothers resolve to keep a united front going forward.

Unfortunately, the time for trying to talk things out seems to have passed, and Rae urges Claire to confine herself to her chambers tomorrow. When Claire refuses, citing her duty as a Knight to stay at the front lines, Rae casts a sleeping spell on her. After getting Lene to confirm she loves Claire too, Rae trusts the maid to care for Claire, and tells her not to come out of her rooms no matter what.

Rae knows, not doubt because she played the whole game, that the gate will fall that night, and so it does, thanks to the masked mystery man stunning the guards. But while the princes hold back the mob, Rae heads to Lambert’s magical tool workshop, where he finds him trying to retrieve a monster-summoning bell.

Thanks to her game omniscience, she also knows that Lambert and Lene are in love with one another despite being blood siblings. Even though their family relies on the nobles for their wealth, their more personal needs take precedence, especially when it comes to light Lene is essentially being held hostage.

Rae’s interrogation is interrrupted by Lene, who threatens to cut Claire’s throat if she doesn’t stand down. This is a major escalation, and reveals that Lene values her and Lambert’s agenda even over the girl she’s served practically her whole life.

Thankfully, the standoff is ended by Ralaire, whom Claire has taken a shine to and kept in her pocket. The baby slime bites Lene’s hand and disarms her, allowing Rae to take up a defensive position beside Claire who has since awakened from the sleep spell and heard everything.

Rae and Claire ask the siblings to stand down, but then they’re interrupted by masked mystery man, who repairs the broken monster luring bell and, exhibiting his hold on Lambert, urges him to summon the monsters, or he and Lene won’t be able to leave the country together to start a new life.

Lambert does as he’s told, unleashing a ferocious chimera that shrugs off Claire’s fire attacks. Rae slows it down with her earth daggers, then creates a bubble of water to carry her and Claire (whom she princess carries) out to the courtyard.

After another futile fire attack from Claire, Rae encases the chimera in ice, but knows it won’t hold forever, and shows signs she’s already low on mana (her burning the candle on both ends can’t have helped). Rae takes Claire hand and declares that they’re about to embark on their first “labor of love” together, thus bringing us back around to the premise of the show.

But with all this going on, what I found most interesting is that Rae doesn’t know how this is going to play out. The masked man’s machinations didn’t happen in the game. She doesn’t know what this new story thread is, or even who he is. That’s a nice parallel for our own slight bewilderment over all this serious dramatic plot suddenly being dumped on us.

She may not know who her enemy is, but she doesn’t know who it isn’t: Claire Francois. As long as they stick together, and with some help from her friends (those who aren’t named Aurousseau), Rae intends to come out of this unforeseen storyline as the victor. And victors get head pats!