Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 22 – Gigi’s Zombivery Service

Even when Ichigo demands he say something, Uryuu maintains his silence as he blasts through the barrier around Seireitei, bound for the Royal Palace Ichigo just left. As they regroup, Chad and Orihime are just as shocked as Ichigo. Heck, Ichigo even saw this coming: Uryuu is a Quincy.

In a war between them and the Shinigami, it stands to reason he’d choose his people. Still, the three agree that Uryuu is their Friend, and before anything else can happen, they need to track him down and hear his explanation—even if they have to beat it out of him.

Meanwhile, Bazz-B offers to help kill Uryuu and even compliments Renji’s eyebrows (for which Rukia congratulates him) before they re-engage in the fighting. Meanwhile Ikkaku and Yumichika seem to have Gigi right where they want her…except the opposite is true.

Yumichika correctly suspects she’s goading Ikkaku into striking her because getting her blood on them would be favorable to her. Oh, and Yumichika can also tell that Gigi isn’t actually a woman. This seems to piss Gigi off, and she summons Bambi, whom she’s turned into a ZOMBambi.

Urahara gathers Ichigo, Orihime and Chad and reveals that the 12th Division has prepared a one-time use cannon in the style of the Shiba clan for getting them up to the Royal Palace. It will be powered by the very distortions the Quincy have used to sever the boundaries between Soul Society and the World of the Living. Their efficacy was devised by the Vizard and they were collected by Yoruichi (Hi Yoruichi!)

Ikkaku engages ZOMBambIE and Gigi with his usual recklessness, supported from the rear by Yumichika, who slashes Bambi’s arm before she can turn Ikkaku’s head into a bomb. But their battle is halted by the arrival of one of the biggest blowhard sumbitches in all of Bleachdom: Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri, with Lt. Nemu in tow as usual.

Mayuri and Gigi are classic narcissists, and engage in quite a bit of spicy trash talk. When a drooling (?) Bambi interrupts by saying she”wants it so bad” from Gigi (and it’s heavily implied she’s not talking about her arm—necrophilia might be involved), Gigi cruelly slaps her down.

It’s here where I remember that when she was alive, Bambi gruesomely killed hot Quincy underlings just for fun, but Taketatsu Ayana’s performance still made me feel for Bambi’s plight. Mayuri approves of Gigi’s treatment of “subjects”, but of course she’s no match for his shining greatness.

When Bambi and Gigi fly up into the air to fight Mayuri, he and Nemu calmly prepare a number of recently-prepared devices that capture Bambi’s bombs and delay their detonation for three seconds, so they explode on Bambi and Gigi. It’s a very cool trick that demonstrates Mayuri isn’t just bluster and contempt: he’s a deviously capable customer.

When Mayuri declares he’ll be turning Gigi and Bambi into his two newest test subjects (ick) Gigi summons the goddamn shinigami zombie army she’s been amassing ever since she arrived. Ikkaku and Yumichika recognize many of them.

Mayuri, expressing less than convincing sentiment, says he has way too much love in his heart to bear cutting down his former comrades. So he summons a quartet of his own zombies to do it for him: Arrancar zombies, including Charlotte, who closes in on Gigi with great interest.

When Bambi swoops in to shield Gigi, Charlotte tosses her aside like a ragdoll. When she charges him again, he unleashes his extremely verbose signature Cero, turning Bambi into a glimmer in the sky. Gigi isn’t fazed, however. She just needs a stronger zombie, and she has one in Zombie Hitsugaya Toushirou. I guess the Ice-Boy Wonder is dead after all.

This outing balanced action, drama, and comedy, the Scooby Gang reaffirmed their commitment to hear their four-eyed wayward brother out, and featured Mayuri being his usual bad self trying to out-evil the equally demented Gigi. Dude loves to be bad, but even he looks a little worried with HitZomgaya Toushirou staring him down.

Overlord III – 05 – Battle of Carne

With her village about to be invaded by monsters, Enri is sure some kind of “evil god” is watching over her, testing her as soon as she takes up the mantle of leadership. But whatever shortcomings she may think she has, she’s stand and fight for her village.

As the civilians flee to a safe-ish gathering place, Enri’s Goblin/Human/Ogre army prepares for an opposing force of other ogres, wolves, and with a combination of archery and siege tactics, they make quick work of the dumber among their foes.

Then the Giant of the East shows up and they start to wonder if they can win this thing. Funny how someone who seemed so powerless last week against Ains is such a fearsome enemy this week. It’s all relative.

As her soldiers fight, Enri ensures everyone is evacuated, but she and Nphi end up cornered by a big blue troll with an excellent sense of smell. The two play a game of cat-and-mouse with him (he’s dumb, but not as dumb as an ogre) but eventually they run out of options and Nphi volunteers to stay behind and buy time for Enri to get reinforcements.

He also picks perhaps the perfect time to finally confess by very cooly asking her to let him protect the woman he loves. Between his potions and spells, Nphi hangs in there, but he always knew one good blow is all the troll would need to kill him. Thankfully, the one good blow he is dealt doesn’t kill him, but he’s definitely in the red.

Enter Beta Lupusregina, for whom neither the Troll nor his boss the Giant are any match. She stops his blow with one hand, thus fulfilling the duty Lord Ains assigned her. Enri returns with unneeded backup, and she embraces Nphi, happy beyond words that he’s still alive. I love how their lovey-doviness is interrupted by Beta showing them a very gross flaming mass of dead troll.

Later that night (the goblins give the couple some time alone), Enri gives Nphi and answer, which is that she’s not quite sure what love is, but she does know she never wants him to leave her side, so if that’s love, she’s in love with him. That’s good enough for him.

The next morning, Enri, Nphi and Nemu are escorted to the Tomb of Nazarick by Yuri Alpha and Beta, and Nemu absolutely loses her shit with how big and clean and awesome everything is. Lord Ains, his skeletal form hidden by a mask and cloak, is perhaps the jolliest we’ve ever seen him, like a proud rich uncle. He makes a note to tell Beta that Nemu is also on the list of people he wants protected.

Among such power, splendor, and charm, Nphi feels a bit outmatched, and that admits that he never had a chance in the first place. But while Ains may be a superior man in many ways, he is inferior in the most important one: he’s not Enri’s type. Nphi is, and so they walk into the dining hall for their George R.R. Martin-esque multi-course bougie meal with hands intertwined. Glad to see these two figure it out!

Overlord III – 04 – Underwhelming Monsters

Despite Beta being scolded for not reporting about the Giant and Snake of the East and West, at least for now it would seem she was correct: they weren’t really worth reporting, at least as credible threats. Sure, they could be a problem for the humans and goblins of Carne, but like Hamasuke they’re not really worth their lofty directional titles.

Maybe, like Beta, I’m underestimating their relative power in this world, but when Ains and Aura (whom he worries isn’t eating enough) actually visit the lair of these apparently fearsome monsters, what they find is pretty underwhelming.

The “giant” is just a troll and the “demon snake”, an old naga. His attempts with the former lead to him using an Aura of Despair spell to knock the troll and his cohorts out, but the naga is willing to submit himself to Lord Ains after witnessing just how pointless it is to try to resist him with physical attacks or even flee with invisibility magic.

Meanwhile, Ains has sent Beta back to Carne with the mission/test of protecting not the village, but the three people he values there: Nphirea, Enri, Lizzy (Nemu isn’t mentioned). Aside from them, Ains doesn’t really care about anyone else. Pretty quiet incremental episode; we’ll have to see how Beta fares in her mission next week at the earliest.

Overlord III – 03 – No Mere Village Girl

This week dispenses with Nazarick entirely and stays focused on Carne and Enri in particular as she suddenly faces a multitude of challenges as its de facto leader.

The young goblin Agu reports that he and his fellow tribesfolk were running from the Giant of the East and the Great Snake of the West, who in the absence of the Great Beast of the South (AKA Hamusuke) are gathering armies to fight the King of Ruin.

Carne Village may well be unable to escape getting entangled in such a conflict, and when the battle comes to its boundaries, they need to be ready. In an odd bit of timing, Beta Lupusregina has paid Enri a visit, and offers to ask Lord Gown for help, but Enri wants to first see if the village is capable of handling its own affairs.

Later that night, the Goblins capture several Ogres who Enri is able to convince them to fight for her, thus bolstering the defense of the village.

When Nphirea informs Enri he won’t be able to accompany her to E-Rantel tomorrow, Enri laments that she may be the only one in the world in her current situation. When they cut to another person in such a situation, Lord Gown, I half-expected him to sneeze, since someone was talking about him.

When Enri reaches the gates of E-Rantel, she’s quickly arrested and brought in for questioning. The wizard on duty identifies some powerful magic both in Enri and in the trinket Lord Gown once gifted her, which she learns is worth thousands of gold.

Just then, Momon enters the room, has a quick side-chat with the wizard, and Enri is released, just like that. It’s nice to have friends in high places, and nothing is higher than Adamantite.

Enri visits the very bureaucratic Adventurer’s Guild having to plead poverty, or at least tell them her village can’t bear the cost of the protection it will need without a subsidy from the city, acknowledging it won’t cover the entire cost. Enri drifts off while waiting, but when she wakes up, everything seems to be arranged, almost as if the attendant had been threatened to assist Enri or else…

Upon exiting the city (where goblins dare not enter) Enri gifts her protectors with stout new weapons. Upon returning home, she discovers a kind of “reverse coup”: everyone has conspired to agree that she and she alone should lead the village. It’s an honor she never asked for, but one for which no one else is better qualified.

Even Beta believes that, but as Enri is being officially installed, Beta hovers high above, laughing, when Yuri Alpha arrives beside her. While we had witnessed Beta being all buddy-buddy and helpful with Enri, here we see a different side of her; a sadistic side.

Now that things are going so well for the village, she really wants to burn it all down to see everyone’s faces. I wonder if Lord Gown would approve, if Beta is just having a moment, or if she truly hopes to watch the village perish. I for one hope she’s disappointed, and Enri and her ragtag defense force can hold off whatever’s coming from the forest.

Overlord III – 02 – Chili con Carne (Village)

Unsure of what to do next due to his relative inexperience as an overlord, Momonga opens the floor to his subordinates, and gets a rude—well, polite awakening when Demiurge immediately suggests they’re working towards a path to world domination.

That didn’t exactly occur to Momonga until now, but he pretends to know exactly what Demiurge is talking about, making for a hilarious exchange between the flustered Momonga’s inner thoughts and Lord Ains Ooal Gown’s unswerving resolve.

OverLord never disappoints when it comes to interpersonal humor, and this opening scene is no different. But it’s also a productive scene: the decision is made for the Tomb of Nazarick to declare itself its own country, separate from the complications of being merely an organization affiliated with another nation.

When Demiurge is asked what made him think they’re on the path to world domination, he holds up Carne Village (which we haven’t been to since the first season) as an example of Lord Ains experimenting on a smaller scale with ruling something, rather than pillaging and destroying.

That provides a nice segue for our return to Carne, where Enri is still stacked, Nphirea is still eccentric (and has yet to confess his love for Enri), and Nemu is still adorable. We get a nice slice-of-life act with the humans and friendly goblins working together to rebuild the village.

In a private moment, Enri angrily ruins a knife after thinking about all of the hardship she, her sister, and her fellow villagers were forced to endure. It’s a lot for her toned shoulders to bear. Meanwhile, Nphi’s goblin friend works out a plan where he’ll do various bodybuilding poses when it’s time for Nphi to say something cool to impress Enri.

When word comes from a goblin scout that there’s…something lurking deep in the forest, Enri decides to go in anyway. She has no choice: herbs that have to be harvested immediately grow within the forest; herbs she needs to create potions and medicines that will net capital for the village.

She and Nphi are escorted by a three-goblin team, and shortly after coming upon a prize crop of their treasured herb, something comes out of the forest: a young, wounded goblin being chased by a beast. Enri and Nphi overrule the cautious goblins and decide to fight the beast and save the kid.

Thanks to the brute force of the goblins and the handy potions and magic of Nphi, the beast is defeated and the child healed. He is a member of the head family of a tribe, and warns that the “Giant of the East” has allied with the “Demon Snake of the West.” Sounds like two worthy foes Nazarick need to sink their teeth into.