Hyakkano – 08 – A Time to Kiss

We know the stakes: Rentarou and Kusuri need to reverse the other girls’ affliction or they’ll remain kiss zombies forever. But because they have superhuman strength and speed, avoiding them on the way to the chem lab proves impossible. That said, they’re able to neutralize the vice principal by administering a face-melting drug that only removes her foundation, forcing her to reapply it.

When Rentarou realizes Nano has the girls using a pincer movement, he has Shizuka chase him, as he’s confident he can stay ahead of her due to her low base speed. But when she trips and falls, he has no choice but to run to her and take her to the nurse’s office to treat her. But while Shizuka’s slower and weaker than the others, she’s still a kiss zombie, and she makes her kissing time with Rentarou count before he leaves her hanging—literally.

Karane and Hakari won’t be so easy to neutralize, as the former launches the latter at him like a missle, leaving him vulnerable to both of their kisses. That said, a measure of their original personalities still remain, including their tendency to argue, so Rentarou uses this opportunity to push their mouths together. Since the potion makes you want to kiss the one you love, they end up making out with each other.

That leaves only Nano between them and the chem lab, but as a good chunk of her intelligence and analytical thinking remains, tricking her won’t be easy. Rentarou hides in a locker only to find Kusuri there. After she tearfully declares she’ll stop researching drugs after this fiasco, she produces a vial of reversing medicine.

Rather than give it to Nano as Rentarou thinks, she drinks it herself to grow to her normal size, which Nano won’t recognize. This backfires when Kusuri’s tendency to speak in the third person exposes her true identity, and Nano ties her up with the rope meant for her (and with bondage knots, no less!).

Rentarou decides he’ll use his love for the girls to break his own limiter and run away from Nano, but she eventually chases him to a classroom, smashes through the door, and greets him like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. We saw what happens when a kiss zombie catches you, and the result is no different here.

As Nano smootches away to her hearts content and Rentarou strays out of all reason, the end credits begin to roll. But this is not the end. By luring Nano away, Kusuri eventually shrunk back to chibi size, as she didn’t take a full dose of reverser. This enables her to make another dose in the lab, hurry to where Rentarou is, and administer it to Nano.

Nano, Shizuka, Hakari and Kurane come to in the nurse’s office, none the worse for wear. They also still have clear memories of what went on while they were kiss zombies, but since those memories include Hakari and Karane making out and not disliking it, they each very loudly proclaim that they actually don’t remember a thing.

All’s well that ends well, but Kusuri maintains that since she caused this whole mess, she’ll give up on her drug research forever. She loves Rentarou and the others and doesn’t want to make trouble for them. But Rentarou rejects her sacrifice.

He loves all of Kusuri, including and especially her passion for making drugs. So if she ever makes another mess with her research, he’ll be there to help her clean it up. A teary-eyed but joyful Kusuri leaps onto Rentarou to kiss him, while his manly declarations only reinforce why the other girls love him so.

This episode only reinforced my love of this series, as it once again balanced zany hijinks and steamy action with genuine emotional and dramatic stakes and compelling character development. Rentarou also continues to be the most honorable and rootable yet still relatable harem MC I’ve ever come across.

He remains as much a treasure as the girlfriends to watch, and is never not decisively proving why he deserves all of them and more … ninety-five more, to be precise!

Hyakkano – 07 – Love is the Drug

Rentarou has a horny girlfriend in Hakari, a tsundere in Karane, a shy bookworm in Shizuka, and a logical, cool beauty in Nano. We’ve seen her in the OP and ED, and this week it’s finally time to introduce Soulmate #5: the eccentric chemistry buff, Yakuzan Kusuri. He’s being led down the hall by the others when he and Kusuri happen to lock eyes in passing.

However, their formal introduction isn’t without a few bumps, as he initially made eye contact with a voluptuous beauty, and when he visits the chemistry lab he finds cute tiny girl akin to Shizuka instead. We soon learn that while Kusuri loves Rentaro, drugs are a close second, as evidenced when she has him drink a drug that magnetizes him.

She drinks the opposite polarity magnet drug and ends up sticking to him, which is when Rentarou learns something else: due to her obsession with experimentation, Kusuri abhors wasting time leaving the lab to use the restroom…so she wears diapers.

When the magnetization wears off, Kusuri shows Rentarou a number of other colorful drugs, then confesses to him and asks to go out with him. When he starts wretching into the sink she’s crestfallen, but he clarifies that he doesn’t want to be under the influence of drugs when he accepts her feelings.

That said, in addition to the magnet drug, his tea contained a love drug, which affects him adversely and causes Bocchi-like convulsions. Thinking fast, Kusuri takes the neutralizing drug into her mouth then administers it to him with a kiss.

He recovers, but to Kusuri’s shock he still seems to be infatuated with her, turning them both beet red. She prostrates herself and again asks to go out with him, but both hair and body start to grow until she take on the busty form of the woman he first saw. Naturally, they’re one and the same.

The neutralization drug also cancelled out the failed immortality drug she takes to shrink to a smaller size, shorter hair, and improves her vision, which makes her lab work easier. Rentaro learns that she’s actually a third-year and thus his senpai. But now that he knows this is the girl he locked eyes with, he officially accepts her as his new girlfriend.

If Kusuri has a problem being one of Rentarou’s five girlfriends, she doesn’t bring it up, and the others are used to this by now, so she’s cordially welcomed. She’s even brought personalized drugs for her new polycule partners. Talk of a bust-enhancing drug angers Karane until she hears how Rentarou described her to Kusuri (slender, beautiful, cute and shy).

When given a “hot stuff” drug, Hakari imagines her already ample bosom and bum growing to absurd size (with visuals akin a similar scenario in the 2000 horror film Faust: Love of the Damned of all things) but instead the drug makes her skin literally hot—so hot it melts off her clothes and underwear. As Kusuri puts it, nothing’s hotter than your birthday suit.

Rentarou comes to the rescue with his used P.E. uniform, the smell of which Hakari enjoys a bit too much (though she still rocks the bell out of it). Thinking of her love of fiction, Kusuri provides Shizuka a drug that gives her fantasy bunny ears that are sensitive in a specific way Rentarou doesn’t fully grasp.

Nano takes a drug that lengthens her hair and make sit prehensile, allowing her to grab Rentarou and draw him close with a kiss. She has other doses, but warns a side effect is baldness. Rentarou will love Nano with or without hair, but admits he loves her hair too, so Nano ditches the extra doses, in an instance of logic giving way to love.

Once all the drugs wear off, the newly-formed sextet some afternoon tea. Kusuri provided to different kinds for Rentarou and the others, but when he insists she go to the bathroom when she has a call of nature, she trusts them not to get them mixed up.

However, while she assumed the girls would consider the slender, “chic” red Thermos their tea, they pick the “utilitarian” blue Thermos because it’s bigger and there are more of them. So when she returns, the other four girls end up sipping tea meant for Rentarou.

This isn’t just a different blend: it’s a potion that was intended to give Rentarou an uncontrollable urge to kiss her. As the girls turn feral one by one, she further explains that it’s not meant for girls, and turns them into vicious “kiss zombies” with superhuman strength and speed.

When all hell starts breaking loose, Kusuri is again crestfallen, thinking it’s happening again … I’m screwing everything up. We see a flashback to everyone in her chem club eventually abandoning her, likely due to her eccentricity. But what she’ll come to learn is that everyone in this group is weird in their own way, and once you’re Rentarou’s girlfriend, he’ll never let you go.

The task before him and Kusuri is to administer the neutralizing drug to all four girls within one hour. If they don’t, they’ll be in this kiss-ravenous frenzy for the rest of their days. The episode ends on a cliffhanger and postcard memory, but I think I already know the solution: Rentarou simply has to have a mouthful of neutralizing drug for when each of the girls inevitably kisses him.

Kusuri marks yet another stretch into heightened reality and absurdity, as her drugs are essentially magic potions. That said, she’s not simply kooky comic relief, as I empathized with her desire to share her passion with others and avoiding loneliness, and her love for Rentarou (and his for her) is as genuine and endearing as everyone else’s.

The question is, will we proceed with just these five girlfriends for the remainder of the cour, or will the show switch up the OP and ED and introduce a sixth, seventh, or more? There are ninety-five soulmates to go, after all!

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 05 – Heart of the Matter

With Sei sequestered to the palace, Jude has to make excuses for her to Prince Ten’yuu, who shows up day after day asking about her. When it becomes untenable for Jude to continue to do so, Johan and Sei agree the best way to proceed is by making herself available to the prince, so they can try to learn what he’s after.

When he spots her packing up a huge amount of mid-level potions and asks how many people crafted them, Sei has to lie and say four to five, because she’d give away too much about herself if she told the truth: she made them all herself.

Lying doesn’t come naturally to Sei, but she does learn one thing: the prince knows his stuff, and seems keenly interested in high-level potions. Believing a good offense to be the best defense, Sei resolves to learn more about Zaideran medicine so that she can steer their lengthy conversations away from places where she could be exposed as the Holy Saint.

To that end, she meets with the merchants Oscar and Franz, who make the connection between the prince and the sea captain Seiran. Sei also hopes to study up with Liz in the library, but Commander Hawke shows up before Liz to tell Sei he’ll be headed home for a while and wanted to see her. Liz makes a tactical retreat, allowing Al to help Sei devise a plan to deal with Ten’yuu.

The next day at the institute, Ten’yuu comes by as usual, but this time says that he’ll be going to other facilities going forward. Then Albert rolls in to discuss, quite loudly with Sei, his unit’s need for more high-level potions, and asking if she could reach out to her alchemist friend to make some.

Ten’yuu later apolgizes to Sei for overhearing them (which was their intent), and asks her directly if he’ll put him in contact with that alchemist. Sei in turn asks what exactly the prince needs, and he tells her: he’s seeking someone who can brew a potion for muscular distrophy…for his mother.

That’s right, Ten’yuu wasn’t sent to spy on Salutania or steal its secrets, simply to to seek out what he could not acquire in his homeland. Now that Sei knows the truth, I doubt she’d hesitate to help him out. However, Johan has made clear they don’t want Zaidera to know she’s the Saint, so she may have to get a little creative to do so.

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!

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – 10 – The Secret Ingredient Is Love

Sei and Al arrive in Klausner’s Domain and meet Lord Daniel Klausner, who hosts him at his castle. Sei comes to dinner in her Saint’s Robes to show she means business, and it soon becomes clear that this region’s need for her is dire. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have a tasty meal that employs the capital’s new trend of seasoning food with herbs that she started!

Before joining Al and the knights, he says his unit will be scouting for the next few days, giving Sei time to check out the Alchemist’s Holy Land. But while escorting her to her room, Al cannot avoid telling her how stunning she looks in her robes. As one would expect, Sei blushes and runs away from Al, wishing him a curt goodnight.

The next day Sei is more in her comfort zone: making potions at a clip that’s nothing crazy for her but impresses one of Klausner’s venerable court alchemists. It’s clear from the lord and alchemist’s knowing look that her goal is to ascertain whether Sei truly is the Saint. Sei also gets to meet yet another hunk in the alchemist’s grandson Leonhardt, whom Sei regards as a gigantic, dumb puppy.

The alchemist leads her to a dark office where a special book is held in a safe. It is the diary of the Great Alchemist who made Klausner’s Domain the herbal paradise it is. She writes of famine and disease that plagued the land, and how everyone, including her beloved younger brother Curt, seemed doomed to starve. That is, until she unleashed Golden Magic upon the land, healing both the people and their crops.

It’s a moving, inspiring tale, and what happened to her by accident sounds exactly like Sei’s ability…because it is. Soon she pulls it off once again, but first gets warmed up by healing Leonhardt’s mercenaries after they were ambushed by a rare monster. When she hears the Knights were also attacked and didn’t fare any better, she casts a big ol’ Area Heal and runs to the knights…and to Al.

When she spots him covered in blood, she fears the worst, and unleashes her Golden Magic, healing and purifying the entire vicinity. However, Al is actually just fine; the blood on his jacket wasn’t his. He may not make the connection that it is he specifically who fuels her Golden Magic, but Sei confirmed it in the diary of the Great Alchemist, who may well have also been a Saint: the magic is made possible by the power of love.

But even if she accepts that, it’s just too embarrassing for Sei to just come out and say it. So once again she flees before her confused knight. Perhaps, in time (preferably before the series ends!) she’ll be able to tell Al how she feels. I don’t think there’s any chance of him not returning those feelings.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – 04 – With Great Magic Power…

Both Johan and the Royal Magi Assembly director are bound by duty to report Sei’s handiwork to the king, but the only other person powerful enough to properly appraise her power—and determine whether she is the true saint—is the Grand Magus, who is currently in a “deep slumber”.

Meanwhile Sei continues to whip up potent potions at a rate so prestigious Johan has to eventually kick her out of the lab so she doesn’t use up their entire supply of herbs. Sei is working harder than ever, just like she did in her old office job, but the key difference is working hard here is making her happy, and it’s also helping the kind (and handsome) knights like Ser Wolff out a bunch.

She’s so satisfied with her work, in fact, that even when King Siegfried Salutania himself casually approaches her in the library, both to apologize for his son Prince Kyle’s rudeness and to offer her a reward for her services, Sei turns down all material offers. The work, and the good it does, is its own reward.

When the knights again return from a tough battle in Groshe Forest, she finds that Ser Wolff has lost a hand in battle, and as efficacious as her potions are, they aren’t enough to heal him or the many other maimed knights in the infirmary. Worse still, because the commoner Wolff can no longer serve as a knight, he’s lost the right to live in the palace and must return to his hometown, his dream shattered.

Sei, who had just been studying more powerful healing magic, knows that if she succeeds in restoring Sei’s hand she’ll likely no longer be able to pretend she’s an “ordinary person”, and her extraordinary powers will give her even more responsibilities and attention. But whether Wolff was the friend to her he is or just a stranger, she knows full well she wouldn’t be able to do nothing. So, in a powerful scene full of awe and wonder, she takes his arm and gives him his hand back.

When she realizes there’s more work to be done in the infirmary, Sei pulls up her sleeve and gets to work, not stopping until every knight is made whole again. This culminates in using an area-healing spell on the less-injured knights, which drains her energy considerably. Johan and Hawke arrive not to scold her for working too hard or exposing her saintly power, but to praise her for her good works and offer a shoulder to lean on.

Even though part of me, like Sei, fears her peaceful life is about to become more hectic and complicated. That’s especially once the Grand Magus wakes up and appraises her, setting up a confrontation between her and the other Saint, Aira Misono.

I doubt I could pretend any more than she could that I wasn’t the immensely powerful Saint I clearly was. She didn’t ask for the power, or to be summoned, or to be initially passed up for Aira by the prince. But now it’s no longer about what she might’ve wanted, but how she can help the most people. She’s ready to say goodbye to the illusory quiet life where no one expected anything of her, and not look back.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – 02 – Exhausted…In a Good Way

When the Research Institute is rewarded for their diligent work healing the knights’ wounds after the salamander incident, Johan asks Sei if there’s anything she wants, and the result is a brand new kitchen. While contractors in this new world are unreal, the cooking apparently sucks, at least when judged by Sei’s palate.

Johan informs her that chefs will be hired, but Sei actually enjoys cooking. When she presents him with a simple yet savory herb-crusted chicken, he’s bowled over. I find it beyond charming that in this series, the OPed MC makes the best-tasting food anyone’s ever eaten, not just because of her magical power, but because no one in this world has ever tasted food from hers.

Another day, Johan introduces Sei to Albert Hawke, the knight commander whose life she saved with her high-level potion. Sei is not only amazed how perfectly he healed after being on death’s door, but he just happens to be her type, standing out in a world full of handsome men.

It’s Sei’s lucky day, then, when Johan tells her Hawke is going to the southern forest with his knights for a hunt, and she’s welcome to join for a medicinal herb-gathering mission. She also prepares lunch for everyone, and Albert makes it a point to sit close to her as he praises her luxurious cuisine. Sei returns home to her room exhausted, but in a good way—not in the way that eventually did her in in her old world.

The next morning, Sei discovers that the lotion she crafted for her face and skin has also somehow corrected her eyesight, eliminating the need to wear glasses anymore. She also learns from Johan that the meals she’s been preparing have resulted in attribute boosts. If her ability got out it could cause chaos, so he gives her the day off.

Given a surprise vacation day for being too good at what she does, a bored Sei discovers the huge and inviting Beauty and the Beast-style library at the royal palace, and meets one Elizabeth Ashley, a noblewoman who looks like a porcelain doll. Before she sets off back to the institute, Albert offers her a ride on his horse. When she says she’s never ridden, he simply rides home with her in a princess lift.

Sei soon befriends “Liz” Ashley, who informs her of a beautifukl new girl at the academy who grew close with several already-betrothed male classmates, leading one of their fiancées to stop coming to class due to her acne. Liz believes this girl’s confidence would return if her skin condition were resolved, and is cetain Sei is the one to resolve it.

Liz introduces the girl, Nicole Adler, to Sei, who offers her a bottle of lotion she crafted. Nicole is dubious until Liz dabs a bit of it on her own skin, which instantly polishes it to a glorious shine. Nicole’s eyes emerge from her long bangs, and she gives a heartfelt thanks to Sei. Later, she writes her to say the lotion worked wonderfully, and invites her to dinner sometime.

So yeah, it’s all coming up Sei. After all of her hard work in her old world led to her demise, here her hard work has wonderous, even miraculous results that make her the toast of the research institute and royal palace alike. But she’s not totally bereft of problems, as Liz reports fresh rumors involving Sei and a certain “Ice Knight” whose heart she’s apparently thawed with her beauty…

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – 01 (First Impressions) – Keeping Busy in a New World

I loved how elegantly Saint’s Magic Power begins: a lovely prelude preceding the title card, then a quick sequence of overworked office drone Takanashi Sei (Ishikawa Yui—Hi Mikasa!) suddenly being transported to a new world via a summoning spell. It immediately feels new and refreshing simply because its protagonist is an adult woman and not a horny male teen/NEET.

The other refreshing catch is that Sei wasn’t the only “Saint” summoned by the Grand Magus of the Kingdom Salutania. A second Saint is summoned right beside her, but despite them having equal standing, the preening Prince Kyle chooses the other young woman, totally ignoring Sei. Rather than follow the chosen heroine, we follow Sei…the “Spare” Saint.

Except for a brief recollection of her in Sei’s thoughts, we never return to the other Saint’s story, though I’m sure she or we will check in on her at some point. Until then, Sei is encouraged to reside on the grounds of the royal palace and basically stay out of trouble. While her life is comfortable and every need seen to by her kindly maid Marie, Sei, a hard worker in her original world, soon becomes quite bored.

Frankly, that’s awesome! For once, our heroine isn’t thrust into an epic battle of good and evil with a ticking clock. Instead she makes do with far more modest stakes that nevertheless make the fantasy setting feel more real and down-to-earth. Watching Sei, so often cooped up in an office most days, happily frolicking on the palace grounds, is quietly enthralling.

Sei soon finds that her real-world interest in medicinal plants and herbs has a magical analogue: an entire institute dedicated to their research. She meets Jude, one of its researchers, who shows her around, and before long it occurs to her that this is where she wants to be: somewhere she can do what she loves and keep busy.

With the institute director Johan’s blessing, Sei decides to join, and to move out of the palace and into the institute. The palace’s aide-de-camp is happy she’s found something to do and pleased to offer whatever she needs. With that, Sei starts her new unexpected new career in potions.

But first thing’s first: she has to learn to make potions, the institute’s top export. Jude goes through the process step-by-step, and reaches the point when he learns that she’s never used magic. You’d think Jude would know this if he knew she was a summoned Saint from another world, but whatever.

Regardless of her inexperience in casting spells, as a Saint she is naturally imbued with more magical power and sensitivity than most. It’s just a matter of learning how to summon and use that power. Within three months, she’s already making medium-to-high level potions the institute usually had to order from outside sources—and making Jude understandably jealous with her rapid progress.

Their playful repartee is interrupted by an emergency: knights who were on a mission to subjugate a forest of monsters took heavy casualties, and several are near death. The researchers are summoned to the palace with all the potions they have in tow. It’s a good thing, then, that Sei has gotten so good at making potions—all of them 50% more effective than anyone else’s—she lost count of how many she’s made!

When they arrive, Sei is initially shocked by the sudden scenes of injured and maimed soldiers, but soon snaps out of it and gets to work administering potions, which have an immediate healing effect. She’s brought before the horribly wounded captain of the knights. When he won’t drink her high-level potion, she insists that he must until he does, and soon recovers nicely.

Both the captain and Johan, his good friend, thank her for saving him. Sei, beaming proudly, is happy she could help. I for one am here for this charming, laid-back yet still engrossing slice-of-life isekai series. Should her titularly omnipotent magic power justifiably lead her to greater things, I’m fine with that too!

 

TenSura – 04 – Shelter, Clothes, and Elves

After Ranga assures Rimuru that he harbors no grudge against him (being given a name counts for a lot in this world), His small band of wolves and goblins races to the dwarven city of Dwargon, where Rimuru hopes to find some cute and/or sexy elves.

Only he and Gobta (the only goblin who didn’t evolve) join the queue that leads through the gates, but they’re quickly harrassed by bullies. Rimuru transforms into a storm wolf but his foes have a whole party of various jobs who attack him all at once…to no effect. Rimuru counterattacks with Menace, and causes a lot more collateral damange than he intended.

For that, he and Gobta are granted entry into the city…’s jail. However, when the warden needs potion after an emergency in the mines, Rimuru fills an entire barrel with the stuff, saving the warden’s three best friends and earning him an early release.

From there, the warden takes him to his brother Kaijin’s blacksmith’s shop. Kaijin has fallen behind on an unreasonable longsword order, but once again Rimuru provides what is needed: first refined magisteel, and then nineteen perfect copies of the one sword Kaijin has completed.

Rimuru and the dwarves celebrate by paying a visit to a kind of elven hostess club, where they’re surrounded by beauties. Oh, and it would seem Rimuru will get the know-how he needs to shelter and clothe his  (hob)goblin village. Everything is looking up!…but for the ominous planting of a boot outside the club. Could it be somebody strong enough to make Rimuru to break a sweat?

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.