The Apothecary Diaries – 21 – Getting a Good Look

With Suirei in the wind, Maomao refocuses her efforts on keeping the apothecary clean with the Quack’s health (I love their cat-and-mouse dynamic), and learns that his family is the purveyor of paper for the emperor, but that may soon come to an end. The quality of the paper has fallen, but she doesn’t know why until the good doctor says they’ve started using oxen for the manual labor.

Whipping up some quick arrowroot gruel for herself and the doc, she tells him to wet his spoon in order to thin the mixture. The same is happening with the paper: oxen secrete a lot of saliva, and if that’s somehow getting into their glue, it’s resulting in less sticky glue and weaker paper. Seven minutes in, Maomao has solved a mini-mystery that might just have saved the doc’s family’s financial future.

From there we shift to Lihaku, who summons Maomao with what she hopes will be some new news on Suirei. Alas, he’s come to her to ask what it would cost to buy out a courtesan at the Verdigris House; specifically Pairin. His is no longer mere puppy love, nor does he consider her a pet or toy; she is the only woman in his world, and he has fallen for her body and soul.

To that end, he, a military officer who makes around 1,000 silver a year, wants to know what it will cost to buy her out, because he’s heard rumors that might happen soon. Maomao identifies two major regulars of hers, none of whom are a good match, then does a quick calculation of the revenue Pairin brings in to Verdigris and doubles it.

Maomao notes that Pairin is not just a graceful dancer, but an “invincible warlord in bed”; even servant girls have to watch out when her “hunger” grows. The ballpark figure Maomao comes up with is 10,000 silver minimum, which makes Lihaku wince, but he still asks whether he has a chance provided he can get that kind of cash together.

Maomao knows Pairin better than anyone; when she was first brought in, Pairin actually nursed her with that prestigious bosom. She was part big sister, part surrogate mom, and she and the other two princesses and the old Madame all took care of her. Maomao knows there’s some maternity in Pairin despite her insatiable appetites.

With all this in mind, she takes anyone wanting to be Pairin’s partner with extremely critical eyes. In order to properly assess if Lihaku is worthy of her, Maomao has him strip. First his shirt, then his pants. The musculature is there, and Maomao has heard from her sources that he also has stamina.

When the time comes to remove “the final garment” for an assessment of his manhood, the sight of Maomao kneeling on one knee right in front of Lihaku’s crotch is what Jinshi encounters when he enters the room. Needless to say, he demands to know just what the heck is going on.

Maomao is extremely matter-of-fact, even clinical in her explanations. Nothing untoward is going on, she’s simply taking a good look at him to see “if his body is good enough.” Even Maomao can tell from Jinshi’s reaction that he’s jealous, but when she further describes Lihaku, he can’t help but be impressed with her ability to assess someone’s personality based on their body, a crucial skill for an apothecary who might have secretive patients.

When Jinshi steers the discussion to his own body, Maomao says there’d “be no point” in learning about that, because he wouldn’t get along … with her sister. Now that he knows Maomao was inspecting Lihaku not for herself but for her sister, he meets with the man in person, and even offers double what he needs to buy her out. Jinshi would be buying Lihaku’s lifetime loyalty.

Lihaku asks how he can make such an offer to someone he barely knows, Jinshi tells him “his cautious cat” considers him a solid candidate. However, Lihaku respectfully declines his generous offer, asking what kind of man he’d be to welcome his wife with someone else’s money. If he’s going to buy her out and make her his, he’s going to do it himself, the way he thinks is right, and with Pairin’s own input on the matter.

Lihaku and Maomao write to Pairin, and she writes back to Maomao that she’s still got some work left in her at Verdigris, and is still “waiting for her prince” to come. That could very well be Lihaku, and for less than 10,000 silver. As for the rumor about someone buying a princess out, Pairin says that was one of the servant girls “getting the wrong idea.”

Maomao deduces that the one talking about buying people out must have been that man, i.e. Lakan. The preview suggests the biological father and daughter will be facing off next week. Perhaps we’ll learn a bit more about what exactly he’s after, and how far he’s willing to go to get it.

The Eminence in Shadow – 25 – Nothing But Paper

When Alpha learns that they have some “guests” from the MCA in the form of the elite Clovers, she prepares to send Nu to “welcome” them. But Gamma volunteers, and when she’s ignored she volunteers again. So Alpha sends her, along with Kai and Omega.

She does so fully aware that Gamma is the clumsiest person alive, but who can refuse that cute determined face? They get a jump on the Clovers, but while her escorts take care of two of the three, their leader manages to bop Gamma on the head.

If she were an ordinary human, she’d have died instantly. But she’s Gamma, and she’s back in action tonight, baby! Things go about as well as you’d expect for someone with ridiculous magical power but is made entirely out of thumbs. And yet, Alpha still gave her a chance, bless her.

Mind you, what makes Gamma so goshdarn endearing and fun to watch is that she never makes excuses and is never discouraged by her setbacks. Indeed, while she ends up blasting a giant hole in the department store, she manages to accidentally take out the top Clover when he tries to flee. No one is better at claiming the accidental as intentional.

When Garter gives Gettan a report on the Clovers’ failure, Gettan laments the Cult’s current deficit of resources, and makes clear he only needs the MCA to stay afloat long enough to serve his particular purposes. In a flashback we see him witness what looks like Cid in a paper bag mask massacring his village.

Meanwhile, Cid takes some time out of his busy schedule to spar with Alexia, who makes her season two debut. Alexia was one of my favorite characters from the first season so I’m glad to see her again, even it it’s only briefly. Driven by a desire not to be a passive bystander, she’s determined to get stronger for her sake as well as Rose’s, and Cid can’t deny she has gotten stronger.

That night he’s back in his John Smith persona, meeting with Yukime, who has a fresh sample of counterfeit MCA bills for him to inspect. And while you and I both know he can’t tell the real bill from the fake, he still pretends he does and manages to convince Yukime he does. The reality is that the counterfeits are actually of higher quality than the real thing.

Word soon gets to both Alpha and Gettan that the counterfeit bills are circulating in the capital. It occurs to Alpha that their rivals may be trying to tank their paper currency on purpose, since it will hurt Mitsugoshi as well. She’s actually spot-on in that assessment, even if Gettan is the only one who knows of the plan to inflate the MCA credit well beyond its means.

But here’s the thing: that Cult plan shouldn’t have been implemented yet…and indeed we know it hasn’t, because Cid—er, Mr. Smith unknowingly copied the Cult’s plan and beat them to the punch.

Gamma sends 664, 665, and 666 (AKA Rose) to intercept a cargo train out of the Lawless City carrying the counterfeit bills. 664 warns Rose to obey her orders and not improvise. However, like all members of Shadow Garden, 664 probably expected less resistance in this mission.

Shortly after boarding the suspiciously unoccupied train, 664 and 665 end up tangled up in webs of magical thread Rose manages to dodge. The producer of those threads reveals himself: it’s John Smith. Now Cid is officially actively working at cross purposes with his Shadows.

That said, he has no intention of harming them. When Rose rushes at him, demonstrating her power, he suspends her in webs with ease, then tosses all three of them off the train. By the time they gather themselves, it’s too far off to catch, but even if they did, they don’t have a plan to beat that masked man.

Rose curses herself for being “so weak”, not knowing that she was up against the strongest freakin’ guy in the world—and definitely not knowing that’s the same guy who gave her a cheeseburger a lifetime ago. The tragic irony is that Rose is extremely powerful; both back when Alexia could only stand by and watch, and even moreso now that she’s with Shadow Garden. She’s just no match for Shadow.

The Eminence in Shadow – 24 – Another World Is Not Enough

A group of ruffians start threatening seemingly defenseless employees of Mitsugoshi (Gamma’s corporation), but soon wish they hadn’t, as the three girls they’re harassing are actually full-fledged members of Shadow Garden. Alpha is leading a comprehensive purge of any and all threats to Mitsugoshi.

But economic battles in the Royal Capital aren’t just fought with daggers or swords. Po and Skel rock some Mitsugoshi knockoffs they paid out the ear for, while Cid wears the genuine article. His wardrobe is seen to by the girls, and it occurs to him they’ve gone too far in copying the culture of his home world.

To that end, Cid declares he’s going to “reclaim what’s mine”, and adapts an entirely new persona for that task: the “super elite secret agent” John Smith. Sure, why not?! He meets with Yukime in secret to discuss the escalating trade war between Mitsugoshi and the established Major Corporate Alliance.

While those two tear each other apart, he and Yukime agree to “take everything.” Yukime also has a personal stake in this, as she owes the leader of the MCA, Gettan the Sword Devil, a date with her own blade after he scarred her with his. When the MCA coordinates major sales in all its affiliates to leech customers from Mitsugoshi, Cid learns that Gamma & Co. even started their own bank and issue paper currency based on a gold standard.

They learned how to do all of this by listening to partial stories about his world’s economy back when they were little (he namedrops “MHK”, a trusted educational source on Japanese TV). As the Postcard Memory that ends the scene makes clear, Cid is serious about letting the MCA crush Mitsugoshi so he can crush them, then start a whole new corporation…I guess just so he can say he did it?!

After discussing the concept of using paper money to create and extend credit to all of the people all while maintaining the same base amount of gold in a central bank, Cid—ahem, John Smith floats the ideal of creating counterfeit money. She says they’d get caught quickly due to the fact the money they hope to fake is only in use in the capital.

But Cid doesn’t care if they’re caught…he wants them to be caught. No matter what, news of the fake money will spread across the capital and trust in the entire paper currency system will gradually evaporate. He intends to capitalize on the ensuing bank runs, where they can really clean up. Yukime believes he’s test her sincerity, but in truth, she kinda came up with the whole plan for him!

That night, Cid finds himself feeding a half-naked Delta meat from his noodle bowl. When she smells foxes on Cid, he says he was hunting them. Fresh from a bandit hunt ordered by Alpha, she’s eager to hunt with Shadow, and won’t take no for an answer as she hangs off of him.

As Rettan’s underling Garter reports that the bandits aren’t working, he mobilizes the “Clovers”, his elite assassins. Cid indulges Delta and they do some bandit hunting in the sewers…or rather Delta does all the killing while Cid checks out their loot.

Among the bandits is Delta’s real-life brother, from when she was known as Sara. In an act that underscores her therianthrope might-makes-right philosophy, Delta kills him on the spot, declaring she’s not interested in weak brothers. She’d rather Cid kill her father, the chief, and make lots of new, stronger children together.

Delta’s late brother Zabra turned out to be one of those Clovers Rettan was hyping up. Granted, he was the weakest, but I imagine the stength gap between the strongest—or even Rettan himself—and Delta, let alone Cid, is wider than the Pacific Ocean. I’m looking forward to watching this war to tear down and rebuild the capital’s economy unfold.

Kimizero – 03 – Boba Freak

Three years after Kurose Maria turned Ryuuto down, she’s not only back in his school, but she’s his seat neighbor again. In a testament to how little he values himself, he assumed she wouldn’t remember him, but she does. After school, Nicole takes Ryuuto to a fast food joint to inform him Runa’s birthday is coming up. Stating that he wants to surprise her like she did with the phone case, he asks Nicole what would make Runa happiest.

While Nicole’s demeanor towards Ryuuto is all hard edges, she’s not hell-bent on shutting this relationship down, which speaks to her love and trust in Runa, despite her history with men. Ryuuto seems to want the same thing she does—to make Runa happy—and that makes them allies.

The Friday before her birthday, Runa surprises Ryuuto by meeting him at the station, and shows him a text exchange between her friends about Nicole going on a date with him. Ryuuto starts by asking Runa out for her birthday, then explains that that was what his meeting with Nicole was about.

The resulting birthday date is a smash, thanks to Nicole knowing Runa like the back of her pristinely manicured hand. When their first stop is a boba tea spot, Ryuuto shows her the map of all the places he tested out before their date. While initially sent up into the cosmos by his detailed report, she’s all for a boba tour of the city.

They both have a tremendous amount of fun, have an indirect kiss-by-straw, and even when Ryuuto has only 1000 yen left for her to pick out a birthday gift (I’ll forgive him since he’s so new to dating), the gift Runa wants costs nothing: it’s the detailed map he made with notes on the boba spots.

That gesture, which not only represented her true feelings (no one had ever done so much research on a date for her) but had the bonus effect of helping Ryuuto save face, combines with the fact she actually offered to pay for her boba tea earlier in the date. This is important, because back at school rumors swirl that Runa makes her boyfriends pay, and when they run out of cash she moves on to the next one.

At the same time, Ryuuto and Maria’s desk are suddenly together as she “forgot” her textbook. Maria also takes the opportunity to apologize for rejecting him back in middle school. She admits that she simply didn’t understand dating at the time (Ryuuto was actually ahead of someone in this regard!), but now that she does, she now knows how “special” Ryuuto is. That may be so, but he makes clear he already has a girlfriend…he just won’t tell Maria who.

While in the hall, Ryuuto spots Runa going into an empty classroom with another boy. He proceeds to eavesdrop on their conversation, rather than simply asking her about the conversation later. This is morally dubious, and left a bad taste in my mouth.

However, I’ll let it pass this once because, again, Ryuuto is extremely inexperienced in dating and extremely insecure and lacking in confidence and self-respect. Witnessing Runa not only turn the guy down, but make clear that she’s withholding the identity of her boyfriend because that’s what he wanted, makes Ryuuto rightfully feel bad about doubting her.

That display of Runa being an absolute rockstar of a girlfriend should have taught him lesson about being able to trust her, and he learns that lesson fast when Maria starts spewing those wretched rumors about Runa squeezing her dates for cash.

While Maria says she hasn’t told anyone, she’s considering doing so because Runa is popular and The People need to know how selfish she is, that spells doom for the tip of Ryuuto’s mechanical pencil. He rises from his desk with purpose and declares, loudly and proudly to Maria and in earshot of Runa and eight others, that he is Runa’s boyfriend. To which I say, Good for you, bro!

No matter what Ryuuto says to Maria, her first impression of Runa was based on those nasty false rumors. I imagine she’s not pleased that the boy with whom she wanted to start fresh is dating her. But if a love triangle is the cost of Ryuuto and Runa being public, I’m fine with it. They couldn’t stay secret forever, and that status had run it’s course. Now I’m looking forward to how they navigate what I imagine to be rough seas to come.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World – 02 – Sweating the Details

Once Mitsuha determines the products from her world that would do well in the new one, and learns that the village is ruled by a local lord, she decides it’s time to move on to bigger and better things. That means saying goodbye to Colette and her bone-crushing hugs, but she promises she’ll return someday.

While aboard the horse-drawn carriage out of the village, Mitsuha realizes that not only is she not appropriately dressed to credibly pass as a merchant, she also stinks from having not bathed in while, so she returns home, washes up, slips on her business suit, and gets down to business.

Before Mitsuha even starts wheeling and dealing in another world, she’s determined to be prepared for any threat that might befall her. To be fair, that’s the right move; she’s all alone in that world, and fairly petite besides. So she uses her cash savings (which she’ll be able to replenish with gold coins) to get the best self-defense and marksmanship training money can buy.

The show really goes into intricate detail describing and animating the types of weapons she’ll be handling, which I guess speaks to the fact the original creator is a gun otaku. At no point does Mitsuha explore non-lethal forms of self-defense, and even gets into a philosophical debate with the memory of her brother, a stalwart pacifist.

After more gun training and research on feudal societies, Mitsuha procures a scooter with which to get to the village more efficiently, but is almost detected by a group of adventurers. She transports back into her room, scooter and all. I enjoyed how the episode got into the nitty gritty with details like this.

And while I wish Mitsuha weren’t so gung-ho about labeling enemies she doesn’t even have yet as less than human and vowing to eliminate them without mercy by pumping them full of lead, the fact that she’s a stranger in a strange and unpredictable land (and the last surviving member of her family) still stands.

Once she prepares a selection of goods from her world and procures a bespoke wardrobe that’s appropriate to the style of the other world, Mitsuha transports over and is finally ready to do business. So far her charm, humor, practicality, and ambition make her an appealing lead. Hopefully would-be thieves or brigands will steer clear, because they are not going to want her smoke!

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement – 01 (First Impressions) – Making the Best of Things

Yamano Mitsuha’s parents and older brother were killed by means the show doesn’t get into, but suffice it to say, she’s alone. When she fights some aggressive flirting guys and is pushed off a cliff, she doesn’t want to die. But instead of landing on the rocky shore, she wakes up in a soft, sprawling grassland. The giant moon is a dead giveaway: this is another world.

She wanders across the vast plain until she reaches a forest, and there she encounters another human, and passes out from exhaustion and hunger. She comes to in the girl’s home, and while she learns her name is Colette, she speaks another language. For the time being, Mitsuha lives with Colette and her fam and helps forage for mushrooms and the like.

When Mitsuha and Colette are stalked by wolves, Mitsuha shows her mettle (partially inspired by her late, brave and confident otaku brother) by getting Colette to safety and getting the wolves to follow her. But while she’s willing to put others before her, she still doesn’t want to die, and she doesn’t: she transports back to her house. Turns out she can go back and forth at will!

Mitsuha arms herself with her brother’s slingshot, kitchen knives, and pepper, and returns to the other world, and is successful in fighting the wolves off, killing the biggest and intimidating the others before passing out again. Then she has a conversation with a “being of pure energy” taking the form of the lucky cat her brother gave her, and explains her situation.

Frankly, the explanation is fairly half-assed and played for laughs, and isn’t even necessary. All that matters is that Mitsuha can not only travel between worlds, but take items with her. Items like gold.

If she can create a lucrative market for Japanese goods in this other world (a good bet) she figures she can make enough money—roughly 2 billion yen—to retire early and comfortably in either world should she lose her power.

I’ve seen isekai series with enterprising protagonists, but I cannot recall one in which they are able to move back and forth at will, and without any apparent catch. Another factor in this show’s favor is that Mitsuha is a girl, which just makes this feel fresher than if it was another Taro-kun.

Also, while typically a sister would be embarrassed by her otaku big brother, Mitsuha remembers him fondly, and his inherited wisdom proves useful to her on multiple occasions. Mitsuha’s design is fine, but the general animation and art is uninspired and underwhelming. But the series has enough going for it so far to make up for its visual shortcomings.

Bocchi the Rock! – 12 (Fin) – Ultra Super Bocchi-chan

It’s time to play, and BtR get’s right down to it. But while I was relieved Bocchi was on the stage, but there were still things to dread. Would her dad’s old guitar break, or Kita’s voice fail, at the worst possible time? Turns out, it’s the former.

Their first song goes off without a hitch, but early in the second, a string gives out just before Bocchi’s big solo. Before it happens, everyone (especially Kikuri, who breakes out of her drunken stupor) can tell something’s off, even though Bocchi’s playing is okay.

After it happens, Bocchi is ready to spiral into a full-on meltdown, but Kita has her back, ad-libbing a  sort of rhythm solo for just enough measures to allow Bocchi to pick up one of Kikuri’s empty glass sake bottles and pull off a pretty rad bottleneck slide guitar solo.

Bocchi may be mortified, but both the adults and the kids love it. The former are super amused Bocchi thought to go bottleneck, while a lot of the latter didn’t even know what she was doing, but thought it was freaking awesome.

With their set complete, the band takes a bow, and when some in the crowd call out bottleneck Bocchi, Kita shoves the mic in her face. Bocchi locks up, unable to speak without prepared remarks, then asks herself What Would Kikuri Do? … and leaps into the crowd.

While she almost certainly would have been caught at a club where it would have been more expected, here she hits the ground with a punishing thud. Kikuri, Seika, and Ryou think it’s hilarious and Bocchi is now a rock legend while Nijika and Kita are more concerned.

When Bocchi comes to in the nurses office, Kita is by her side. Bocchi takes the time to thank Kita and to tell her how good she’s gotten in such a short time. Kita’s response is a little somber, since she’s resigned to never being good enough to be a frontman like Bocchi, Kit-aura or no. But Bocchi will happily keep teaching her.

It’s here where Kita officially starts calling Bocchi Hitori-chan, which is incredibly sweet. Bocchi delays the after-party to a date TBD, and back home apologizes to her dad for “breaking” his guitar. He tells her no such apology is necessary, but since his guitar is so old it may be time for her to buy her own. When she says all her STARRY pay goes to quotas, her dad produces a fan of 10,000 yen bills.

At first I thought he and her mom had been saving her weekly allowance for a social life she never had until now, but these are Bocchi’s legitimate hard-won advertising earnings from the clicks her videos receive. That’s right; she’s been posting to the Gotou family account, and they all know she’s guitarhero!

Suddenly having 300,000 yen burning a hole in her pocket, Bocchi gets all psyched up about quitting her job, since the cash will cover not only a guitar but her quotas. But when it comes time to actually bring it up to Seika, Bocchi folds like a cheap suit and issues a declaration of commitment to her current job.

She also considers that Seika might let her quit if she buys her a guitar, but when Nijika asks Seika what she’d want Bocchi to get her she says nothing (while privately blushing over how nice Bocchi is). With that, Kessoku Band is off to Ochanomizu, a historically musically-oriented district, to shop for a new guitar.

Once there, Ryou is annoyed when Kita and Nijika focus on the cute accessories, then unassumingly asks if she can try out a certain bass and proceeds to slap the shit out of it, impressing the store manager (and Kita).

When Bocchi spots a sleek black Yamaha, the manager approaches her and she goes to pieces, but Kita is there to operate Ventriloquist Dummy Bocchi, Oddly, even though the point of going to a physical store was to handle a guitar before buying it, Bocchi buys it without handling it. She even flees the store without the guitar, but her friends bring it out to her.

With that, Bocchi straps into her new guitar which she bought with her own hard-earned cash, and she does indeed look awesome, though her family witnesses her promising her dad’s old guitar that she won’t neglect it. Leaving her heavily bookmarked practice books and closet studio, Bocchi puts her new guitar on her back and heads out, saying Be back later not just to her family, but to us, as that’s the end of Bocchi the Rock!

While this was a pitch-perfect ending to the season, I for one hope we get an encore soon, featuring more confidence, more comedy, and more concerts! Until then, Bocchi the Rock! is a late but deserving addition to the conversation for Anime of the Year.

The Rising of the Shield Hero S2 – 08 – Your Sword Till the End

I have to say, I’m really enjoying this more semi-episodic Shield Hero. Last week’s escape from the Infinite Labyrinth was a true bottle episode, while this one expands on Kizuna’s world as well as her own abilities, that haven’t dulled a bit in the years she’s been imprisoned. This week there’s another definite goal: reach the Dragon Hourglass, which in this world serves as a warping point for Heroes.

But wisely this episode starts out with the basics: they need money for food, a roof over their heads, and supplies. Kizuna describes the various races of her world, one of which is Glass’s Spirit People. Naofumi just happens to have a supply of soul-soothing potion that doesn’t exist in this world, so he puts his merchant skills to good us and sells them off to the highest bidder.

It’s a team effort, with Naofumi, Raphtalia, Rishia and Kizuna all doing their parts to ensure they sell all the potion for as much money as possible, which they then spend on new, more location-appropriate threads and gear. I like the new classical Japanese looks. Their day is darkened by the appearance of a “genuis mage” who has figured out how to use the Dragon Hourglasses to warp even though he’s not a Hero.

This guy, Kazuki, reminds Naofumi of Kyou, and doesn’t like him one bit right off the bat. Fortune smiles on his party, however, as a blizzard gives them cover for an easy infiltration of the capital’s central fortress, which contains the Hourglass they need to warp to Sikul.

But while getting in is easy, finding the Hourglass proves difficult, and the fortress is full of dead ends, traps, and a huge number of guards. While Kizuna can’t harm anyone with her hunting sword, she can damage their surroundings that indirectly neutralize the guards.

But there are a lot of guards, which means eventually the party has to split in two groups to lessen their numbers. Turns out this is just another trap, as Naofumi and Raph walk right into the Hourglass chamber only to be quickly surrounded by guards, led by Kazuki and his two personal bodyguards. Taking after Kizuna, Naofumi uses his non-offensive shield’s ability to throw the guards aside.

Kizuna and Rishia then rendezvous with Naofumi and Raph, and Kizuna uses her Hero status to activate the warp. Everyone starts to glow yellow, and it looks like everyone is on their way to safety and the next adventure…but then Raphtalia stops glowing. Kyou, the architect of this latest trap, remotely cackles and taunts Naofumi, saying he’ll be taking Raph to his lab for experiments.

Kizuna can’t stop the warping, which means all Naofumi can do is watch and wait helplessly until he’s taken away from Raphtalia. For her part, Raph puts on a brave face, grateful that she was small so Naofumi could pat her on the head and carry her. She vows to be his sword to the end, and charges at the guards as he and the others warp out.

Filo having been separated from the party last week was one thing, but she’s always felt more like a mascot and strategic weapon than an actual character. There’s a lot more meat to Naofumi and Raphtalia’s history together, and seeing them suddenly separated like this was a true gut-punch, not to mention cementing Kyou as an uber-evil big bad.

But while losing Raph must be crushing blow to Naofumi—he may even summon that hate and anger Ost helped him let go of because of this—at the end of the day we have a satisfying, at times heartwarming and thrilling episode with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. I have no idea what comes next, but I can’t wait!

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story – 08 – Live Your Own Life, Then Die

Moments after Rose’s prosthetic hand and wrist shatters after one too many Crimson Rose Bullets, we learn how she ended up with it in the first place: she got in too deep with the underground, and one day (or probably more appropriately, night) she lost, and the price was her hand. Leo only visited her to tell her she was stupid and he was having nothing more to do with her. He found someone new.

Rose meets this someone new, watches her fire a Blue Bullet, then tries to get her to work for her, but Eve isn’t about that. In fact, she didn’t show up on Rose’s doorstep until she wanted to play against Aoi. Fast-forward to the present, and Rose is going to play golf with one arm. Yes, you heard me. And she does.

Not only that, she comes heart-crushingly close to sinking the ball on just her second shot, a perfect shot from 140 yards away. But close is no cigar, which opens the door for Eve to take the win. The episode then jumps forward, to when the construction vehicles are about to level Klein’s bar while she, Lily, and the kids watch.

That’s when Eve shows up in Vipére’s car (and Vipére does a J-turn waaaaay too close to the children) and tells them to hop in, even though the car in question is tiny. Their problems are solved. She opens her new briefcase full of cash (again, a questionable decision in an open convertible traveling at high speed). She won. Rose lost.

From there, things start flying high. Vipére, as a treat, gives Klein’s whole family new identities (a snake keeps her ear to the ground), which allows Klein to buy a new bar, Lily to help out there, and the three refugee kids (from Palestine, Syria, and Somalia, by the way) to go to school for the first time.

Vipére herself ends up on a yacht, seemingly retiring both from golf and from wearing fangs. But while her family’s future is secure, it’s not all gravy for Eve. She meets Rose’s underling Anri on a rooftop, where Anri tells her that as a result of her victory, Catherine has put hits out on both Rose and her. Anri can’t quite kill Eve herself, even though she wants to. Instead, she runs away in tears, telling her to live her life however she wants, then die…with emphasis on the “die”.

Certain for some reason that A., Catherine won’t go after her family and B., Catherine will never know to send hitmen to Japan, Eve gets on a train to the airport bound to Aoi’s homeland, to fulfill the promise she made to meet her on a legit golf course. It’s the promise that drove her stunning victory, bouncing her ball of Rose’s and landing in the cup.

Mind you, shit like that probably won’t fly in above ground golf. But knowing her best years were behind her, Rose always intended for Eve to surpass her, and is glad her ass was kicked so thoroughly. She sits by the water with a cig, having summoned Leo to ask why he gave up on Eve. He tells her because he didn’t believe he could awaken her full potential.

But that time is seemingly coming. As if to underscore the official changing of the guard, Leo’s departure is immediately followed by the arrival of Catherine’s hitman. Before he pulls the (real, not metaphorical) trigger and ends her life, Rose briefly glimpses an ideal possible life when she was on the pro tour, with Leo as her proud caddy. Maybe in another life. This tragic moment is followed up by Eve is on a plane bound for Japan and to her beloved Aoi, who just can’t believe the drinks are free.

I will savor and treasure this episode for a long time, and you should too: it’s about as good as anime can get. Engaging, deadly serious, and absolutely window-lickingly bonkers in the same breath. And with only 4-5 episodes left, I desperately hope we get a second season, as it seems Eve’s golf story is only beginning now that she has emerged from the shadows and leapt into the light. The world would be a better place with more Birdie Wing in it.

The Faraway Paladin – 06 – Warrior Priest

Will’s first episode On His Own is a good one. It starts out quiet and contemplative, as we just watch a tiny Will traverse grand vistas. He’s searching for humans, but finds only more dead cities and towns. He can always pray for bread and purify water, but he’ll soon need other things for sustenance. Sure enough, his patron saint provides—just not in a straightforward way.

The first person Will meets who isn’t Mary, Blood, or Gus is the extremely pretty half-elf Meneldor, an hunter who was pursuing the giant wild boar Will kills in self-defense. They agree to split the boar and share the liver, which spoils fastest. Whether Menel is Will’s age or much older, the two have an immediate easy rapport…right up until Menel says he wants nothing more to do with Will, and warns him not to follow.

Will was just going to follow the river to the nearest settlement, but he receives a divine vision in his dreams from Gracefeel which seems, at first, to depict Menel’s village being attacked. When Will arrives, it turns out Menel is doing the attacking. Here we see just how well-trained and ready for anything Will is thanks to his three parents, easily neutralizing all the bad actors.

Repeatedly addressed as a warrior poet by the grateful villagers, who are a collection of adventurers, bandits, fugitives and various outcasts, and thus always at each others’ throats. Their no-nonsense elder is barely keeping it together, but one thing everyone agrees on is that the half-elf and his five co-bandits should all be hanged.

Will, who wants to avoid any more killing due to the edicts of his goddess and teachings of his family, negotiates a fine compromise: the village will be compensated in gold, while Will hires Meneldor to help drive the demons out of his village. When Will proposes they just rush in and take care of it, Menel is skeptical, but again, this is Will, who we’ve already seen kill a god. Clearing the village should be a piece of cake…but that won’t make it any less fun to watch him do his parents proud. Who knows, maybe Menel will become his official first friend in the process.

The Faraway Paladin – 05 – Live Right and Die

This episode starts out with a lot. A lot of inner monologue of Will as he accelerates to the temple where he hopes he’s not too late to save Mary and Blood. For while he was able to gain the blessing of Gracefeel and hold his own against Stagnate, his lack of experience showed in his ability to be easily tricked. Then again, failure is the ultimate teacher.

It’s a very shounen-y first five minutes where everything Will is doing is explained in his head in minute detail as it’s happening. I found all the hurried narration mostly redundant and distracting, detracting rather than contributing to my immersion in the scene. But all’s well that ends well: with his training and the blessing of both Gracefeel and Mater, he defeats Stagnate.

Gus is about to break out the 200-year-old booze, and Mary and Blood try to rise from the ground, only to fall back down. With Stagnate gone, it turns out their time on this world, in this form, is up. Will doesn’t want to hear this, and thinks it’s mean and cruel to be faced with this right after killing a god, but the fact Mary and Blood are even there in physical form to say goodbye is a miracle made possible by Gracefeel.

After those heartfelt goodbyes where Mary and Blood reiterate how they consider Will their child, Will prepares to head out on his personal journey. Gus has been “hired” by Gracefeel to continue watching the seal on the High King for ten more years, then he’ll pass on as well. After that, dealing with the high king will be up to Will…or I should say, William G. Maryblood, taking the names of his parents as his last name and his gramps as his middle.

The episode ends on a bittersweet note with a flashback to the human Blood and Mary talking about settling down after all this, getting married, and having a kid—which Blood just assumes will be a boy and Mary goes along with it. Fine; not sure why a girl couldn’t be trained to be a warrior, but whatevs! It’s here where they also agree on the name of that future child: William, or “helmet of will”, knowing he’ll inheret their iron wills.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – 12 (S2 E01) – Eyes Forward

After a longer-than-expected hiatus, Mushoku Tensei is back, and I’m pleased to report it’s just as good—and occasionally unnecessarily lewd—as ever. There’s a new OP, and it’s awesome. There’s a new ED, and it’s beautiful. Rudy, Eris and Ruijerd are still on the Demon Continent, and learn that largely due to Ruijerd’s Superd status, booking passage on an above-board ship back to Millis Continent will cost a literal fortune.

While Rudy is always quick to determine and execute a course of action all on his own, Dead End is a party, and both Eris and Ruijerd wish to help him share the burden of figuring out just how to make that fortune without taking their entire lives to do so. Meanwhile, training with Ruijerd is only making Eris a more formidable fighter; I don’t know if their combat animation counts as sakuga but it remains top-notch and extremely fun to watch. Ditto her wonderful expression of joy when she scores her first hit on Ruijerd (who was distracted by Roxy!)

After having another dream with the creepy smooth god dude Hitogami, Rudy learns he actually entertained the guy more by going off-script. This time he decides to do exactly as Hitogami’s advice says, and he is promptly rewarded. By feeding a starving urchin the food Hitogami told him to buy at the vendors, he ends up befriending the scantily-clad Kishirisu Kishirika, the “Great Emperor of the Demon World”, who could pass as a member of Zvezda.

As thanks for sustaining the life of her physical body for at least another year, Kishirika gives him one of her twelve Demon Eyes: the Eye of Foresight. She does so by roughly replacing his existing normal eye on the spot, which looks…painful! But upon returning to their inn he ends up saving a man he bumped into form a falling pot, and within a week he’s able to sue the eye to defeat Eris in combat. This understandably makes Eris very upset, but Rudy was too excited about his new eye to foresee that.

New eye or not, Rudy reminds himself that his mission isn’t to “power up” but to get Eris home. And even if he were to exploit the eye for profit, it would likely take too long to make the necessary cash to book passage. So he decides, on his own, again, that he’ll pawn off his staff in order to get the cash. Only when he leaves in the night to do this, Ruijerd stops him.

While the party has meshed well in the last year, seeing Rudy again try to go off on his own and solve everything frustrates Ruijerd, because it makes him feel like Rudy still doesn’t trust him. Rudy counters that he doesn’t want to do anything illegal and thus “evil” that Ruijerd would not approve of, like stowing away or smuggling, as it would likely fracture the party.

Here, Ruijerd once again exposes Rudy’s biggest blind spot—Eris—by pointing out that selling the staff she gave him (and which clearly means so much to him) would fracture the party too. So Ruijerd makes a compromise: he’ll turn a blind eye to smuggling and the like if Rudy keeps his staff and keeps him and Eris in the loop about what they should do from now on.

Right on cue, the man Rudy saved the day he got his new eye introduces himself: Gallus Cleaner. Could he be the sort of unsavory figure who can help get two noble humans and a Superd across the ocean? Are Roxy and her two Fang companions trying to avoid crossing paths with Rudy, or victims of back luck and timing? I’m excited to find out, and to watch more of Rudy, Eris, and Ruijerd’s adventures this Fall.

Sonny Boy – 02 – Kindle Blue Fire

While technically a beach episode, there’s not a ball or a bikini to be found. There are crabs—you gotta love crab—as well as a makeshift open-air classroom with rows of desks and a chalkboard, but otherwise the sand is just another flat surface for Nagara to lie on and wile away the hours.

When Nozomi catches a crab, it cuts her hand up pretty badly with its claw, but she soon heals; just another one of the rules of this “This World”, as the egghead Rajdhani calls it while explaining the situation.

While most of the class is in tents on the beach, Mizuho has, presumably through the three cat Amazon power called Nyamazaon, built a Disney princess castle full of stuff, but otherwise isn’t that different from Nagara in her fondness for straight chillin’.

Another girl steals makeup from Mizuho’s vast collection of things with impunity, but that and other items acquired from Nyamazon start to burst into blue flames, rumors spread that Mizuho is doing it intentionally.

Mizuho doesn’t help matters by stirring the shit on social media that the recent election was rigged in Michi’s (AKA Pony’s) favor—which is the truth; the extremely Kyuubey-like Hoshi helped rig it. Pony and Hoshi learn Mizuho is behind it and try to exact an apology, but Mizuho is stubbornly refuses.

When they confront her at the front gate, Hoshi uses his power of showing everyone potential futures to depict the entire island covered in blue flame; everything destroyed. On top of it all, Mizuho is exhausted and filthy from looking for one of her cats, who has gone missing.

While the rumor may have well gotten started since Mizuho is a natural target for envy and resentment among the other students due to her extremely cool power, Nagara still blames himself for blabbing about Mizuho knowing something about the flames, which got twisted into “Mizuho is responsible for the flames.”

But thanks to Rajdhani’s research and a retro Game Boy, it is determined that the blue flames appear every time someone receives something without a fair exchange. Among the things that burned-up, only Raj’s Game Boy was exchanged for some toys he made with his power, and only it escaped those flames. Therefore, it isn’t Mizuho’s doing, but the Rules of the World.

Among the students, most of whom end up in the “Punish Mizuho” camp/mob, only Nagara and Nozomi want to help her. They both know she’s not doing this, but also know that she hasn’t explicitly defended herself, which isn’t doing her any favors. Nagara also finds the missing cat, and unlike two previous instances of letting birds die, this time he takes care of the animal like the non-heartless person he is.

The two decides to go to her—nay, run to her, just as she’s literally making it rain fat stacks of cash, which soon burn up and set fire to the whole island. Mizuho, overcome with relief her kitty is safe, admits that she should have simply stated her innocence from the beginning. It’s an all-around wonderful performance by Mizuho’s seiyu Yuuki Aoi—which comes as no surprise as she’s one of the best in the business.

Nagara, Nozomi, and Mizuho oversee the ruined island—the realization of Hoshi’s vision—and concede the fact that they can’t live there any more. But then something happens: as the sun rises over the ocean, the island essentially resets itself to before everything burned up.

It’s as if the island, which set the rule of fair exchange, is forgiving all of the students for their stumblings as they learn of those rules and correct their misunderstandings. Mizuho comes down from her castle and apologizes, but only for making it rain flammable money…not the stuff she was accused of doing but didn’t really do.

Mizuho also stops by the beach where Nagara is lying to give him a token of her appreciation for finding her cat: a hat to keep his face out of the sun. When he asks if he needs to give her anything in return for it, she says with a gentle smile that it’s “her treat” before walking away.

This episode was significantly less weird and frightening than the first, but that tends to happen when you take the inscrutable black void out of the equation. What it was was another relatively straightforward exploration of how the court of public opinion can be wrong—in school or life—and it’s up to those who know it’s wrong to speak up. Nagara grew as a person in this episode, as did Mizuho, and they each gained a friend in the process.

Credit also goes to Rajdhani for not giving up on trying to make sense of the place, thus confirming the injustice being done to Mizuho, as well as Nozomi, for lending Nagara the encouragement to correct the injustice. Just as she’s the “Compass” who can see the ways out of these other worlds, she’s also a moral compass; a check against both rampant authority and rampant apathy.