Solo Leveling – 12 (S1 Fin) – Shadow Monarch

Jinwoo has gone and backed himself into a corner. The knights keep coming, his fatigue and HP continue to drop, and he has no way to raise them. He eventually ends up on the ground, contemplating his demise once again, and haunted by the voices of those who said he was the weakest hunter ever, and even kinder voices like Joohee who told him he didn’t have to push himself so hard. Even his former, weaker self shows up to tell him that beneath his tougher body he’s still weak.

While that might be true, and Jinwoo may be at the end of his line here, his past self doesn’t account for luck here. Because Jinwoo didn’t do his daily quest—push-ups, sit-ups, a run, etc.—he’s transported out of the job change quest and into the penalty zone. There, all he has to do is defeat a bunch of giant centipedes (which are no problem) and he can level up and recover his HP and mana. He even gets to purchase a new dagger that, while pricey, is perfect for armored foes.

When the system sends him back to the dungeon, he’s ready to go (he also has “ruler’s hand”, which lets him use telekinesis without mana), but he’s irked by the fact the knights just keep coming while the mages don’t seem to be attacking. It dawns on him that they’re summoning the gates that are bringing the endless knights through. So he changes his primary targets from the foot soldiers to the mages. As their number decreases, so do the gates.

The mages try to pivot their strategy by merging a bunch of knights into one giant armored golem, but by reducing the number of targets Jinwoo has to deal with, they are actually lowering their defenses. He carves through the scant knights remaining, destroys the three remaining mages, and then destroys the master-less golem.

With all enemies defeated, the system starts cycling through various messages. First, it analyses the battle Jinwoo just fought and deems that he can switch jobs to Necromancer. Jinwoo isn’t sure about that at first as it’s not a front-line job, but considering how strong he is, perhaps he can be the exception to the rule. That proves to be the case, as all the bonuses he earned end up blowing past Necromancer and advancing to the even more badass-sounding Shadow Monarch.

Jinwoo tries out his new ability to raise a shadow army from the dead knights around him, but it takes three attempts to convince their commander Ignis to serve him rather than a king of old who may never return. Jin-Ah is correct: Jinwoo isn’t late coming home because he has a girlfriend. It’s because he can now summon dead warriors of any rank to fight for him.

This likely means that it’s going to be a lot harder for him to keep a low profile and maintain his anonymity from organizations like the Hunter’s Guild / Association. It also means he’ll probably be able to afford treatment for his mother sooner rather than later.

How he figures into the battle of Jeju Island on which the S-Rankers are about to embark, we’ll have to wait for the confirmed second season. I’ll be watching to see just how far this former nobody can go.

Solo Leveling – 11 – The Red Knight

I’m going to … level with you. I simply do not care about Cha Hae-In, Baek Yoon-ho, or Choi Jongin’s quest to continue a raid on Jeju Island he believes never truly ended. The show has given us little tidbits of these characters, but it’s not nearly enough to get me invested, even if their battle costumes are pretty cool-looking.

I don’t really care about the Yoo brothers and their little tug-of-war for their father’s approval, either. I do care, however, that Jin-Ah has a good dinner and studies well before going to bed, though I was worried her one scene would indicate she’s being targeted by Hwang. Really, this episode is all about Jinwoo’s job-change quest.

His first opponent is a gray knight, and his best dagger can’t chip its armor. He is able to use his bare hands and brute strength to behead the knight and others like him, but he also ends up fighting mages and assassins, and without being able to use full recovery or potions.

It’s quite a handicap, but it’s a testament to how far Jinwoo has already come that he never really panics when the dungeon turns out to be tougher. He just steps up his game to match the intensity. And no foe has had such a threatening aura since the double dungeon than the dungeon boss, Knight Commander Igris the Bloodred.

Igris is as fast as Jinwoo, but much, much stronger, and also maintains his  ridiculous speed while in some top-notch heavy armor. Like the other knights, his armor can’t be penetrated by a dagger, and even though it drops its weapons when Jinwoo drops his, Jinwoo can’t score a good hit, and has to do everything he can not to get hit himself.

Ultimately Igris wears him down, and even when Jinwoo gets a slight hit on the knight’s neck, he’s then pulled and twisted and tossed all over the throne room like a ragdoll being caught in a building implosion. It’s some of Solo Leveling’s best combat animation to date, as while violent chaos reigns I could still tell what’s going on and get a really good sense of the three-dimensional space.

Jinwoo ends up slumped over on the throne, which I thought was going to have some significance—perhaps the throne and Ignis, were waiting for a ruler? The knight summons its sword and prepares for a killing blow, but Jinwoo blocks it with his bare hand. He’s not ready to die, and he hasn’t lost yet.

Finding another gear, Jinwoo drives his dagger into Igris’ throat, and keeps hacking at it until it’s deep enough to defeat him. He scores a rune stone for something called “Ruler’s Hand”, Igris’ helmet, 1.5 million gold, and an instant teleportation stone.

Unfortunately, he also gets a rude awakening: defeating Igris didn’t clear this dungeon. Dozens of gates open, and knights, mages, and assassins start flowing out by the dozens. While no one of them is something he can’t handle after beating Igris, he’s extremely exhausted and there are dozens of them.

This is the true job-change quest, and it’s a test of endurance. The longer he survives, the more enhancement points he’ll earn, which are needed to be assigned a “higher class.” My educated guess for next week’s finale is that he’ll find a way to earn those points, reach that higher class … and I’m sure we’ll get another mandatory check-in with Jongin, Hae-in & Co.

Solo Leveling – 10 – Kind of a Big Deal

After one more harrowing raid that goes sideways, Joohee tells Jinwoo she’s retiring from hunting and moving back in with her parents. Her reasons are sound, understandable, and releatable, and while the puny past Jinwoo might’ve argued more for her to stick it out, this stronger, less emotional Jinwoo wishes her well, promising to meet up with her if he’s ever in her neck of the woods.

Jinho’s new armor made me literally LMFAO – So gaudy

Despite thinking very soberly these days, Jinwoo isn’t so heartless he’d invite Joohee to join his quota “Strike Team”, which as assembled buy Jinho is a thrown together mix of people who can’t go on raids or are hard up for cash, including Han Song-yi, a high schooler and his sister’s classmate. They all get three million per gate to sit around outside the gate as Jinwoo and Jinho go into the dungeon on their own.

The random hunters assembled to sit around don’t know quite what to make of this, but they’re also not about to turn down that cash. And just a half-hour into what should be at least a two-hour raid, Jinho and Jinwoo come out unscathed, and the gate collapses, which can only mean the boss was defeated. Before they can pick up their dropped jaws, it’s on to gate two of three they’re tackling for the day.

Jinho and Jinwoo’s strike team make the equivalent of $60,000 that first day, so it’s a given that they all come back for day two, day three, and so on. All the while, Jinho is able to harvest mana crystals while Jinwoo continues leveling up and gaining skills. The Stealth mode he gained from defeating Kang is particularly useful, if a bit unsporting. This gate-speedrun sequence has a lively pace and fun swagger to it.

All the C-Rank Gates being bought up attracts the attention of Ahn Sangmin, a mid-level recruiter for the White Tiger Guild. At first he almost seems like a cop abot to expose Jinwoo, but he’s actually eager to make him a valuable member of the guild, as he’s reasonably certain this “E-Rank” hunter reawakened. One night, Ahn and his subordinate give Jinwoo a slight start as they introduce themselves.

Over coffee in a public place, Ahn lays down the brass tacks: he thinks he’s perfect for White Tiger and wants him to join, and is willing to pay him double what Yoojin Construction is offering. Jinwoo states that even at a discount, that would mean paying him over 50 billion yen. He then engages his stealth, demonstrates his power, and gets the truth from Ahn about how he found out about him: he was looking into who was buying up so many C-Rank gates.

Rather than walk away from their meeting with nothing, Jinwoo gets Ahn to agree to pay 600 million yen for three of the C-Rank gates Yoojin controls. The next morning, after they paid Jinwoo, Ahn learns that Yoojin only ever had three gates, and there are plenty more that are going for as low as 50 million.

Ahn gets a text from Jinwoo saying they’re now even after Ahn spied on him. Ahn concedes that Jinwoo played his hand well, and now has his contact info for future opportunities. As for Jinwoo, he’s taken a day off for a “Job-Change Quest” for which he’s now a high enough level to pursue. With Hwang’s S-Ranked brother possibly targeting him, he’s gotta get even stronger than he already is.

Shin no Nakama – S2 10 – A Quest with the Guide

Lavender thinks Esta has betrayed the Hero, but that’s just her interpretation of events. Esta herself has an explanation for why she visited with Rit and Red that’s reasonable to Van, while Ljubo doesn’t even understand why he was woken up so early. As satisfying as it might be to beat the everloving shit out of Van, it’s pointless. They have to try to defeat him with words.

To that end, Rit introduces Red to Van and his party, and she is so sincere in her deep and undying love for him, even someone as prickly as Lavender can’t help but be moved. Red also uses his status as the former Guide of the previous Hero, and the fact he’s still living his life after his role was completed, serves to keep the rhetorically unskilled Van at bay.

Red ultimately gets a chance to interact with Van in his natural habitat of the battlefield, only they’re on the same side this time, fighting a horde of horrific but fairly weak sea bogies. Van is actually open to at least hearing if not following the advice of one who is the Guide in the eyes of the Almighty Demis. Red expertly shows Van in small but compelling ways how he’s coming up short of being the best Hero he can be, or a “finished product.”

When the battle turns into a search for a child the bogies abducted in a cavern, Van’s shortcomings are again exposed, as he’s terrible at tracking and way too loud with his clanging armor to be stealthy. Fortunately, that doesn’t end up mattering against the relatively weak bogies. Van is the one to locate the little girl who was taken, and Lavender is such a possessive little twerp she gets mad at the traumatized child for clinging to Van!

Van insists to the parents that “no thanks is necessary” as he was only doing his duty as Hero to defeat evil. Even the tearful smiling face of the little girl doesn’t seem to move him, though at least he doesn’t repeat that thanks aren’t necessary like a robot, nor does he dig into why this happy family isn’t out on the battlefield fighting. So I guess that’s progress? If nothing else, Red has given Van a lot to think about.

Back at Red’s place, Esta is depressed for having failed so completely to get Van or Lavender to ever listen to advice, only for Red and Rit to get through to them in just one quest. That’s when Albert cheers her up with maximum-power words of encouragement that can’t help but make her blush.

Their cute back-and-forth is an echo of Red and Rit’s usual schtick, and I love how they of all people say “that’s enough sweetness for one day.” And while I still don’t expect Van or Lavender to stop sucking anytime soon, but I appreciate Red and Rit’s non-violent efforts to at least mitigate their suckiness.

Solo Leveling – 06 – Eight Legs, Six Heels

Jinwoo estimates that the giant snake boss and the golem boss he defeated were probably D-rank. That makes this spider boss C-Rank, and while he’s not sure he can defeat it at his current level, he’s also keenly aware of the fact that he’s not afraid to engage it in order to find out.

As he launches a series of quick probing strikes, he determines the spider has an extremely tough exoskeleton and periodically spits acid. These strikes drain his stamina, but he’s able to use “Full Recovery”, a Mega Potion-like reward from a previous quest, to get it all back and attack the Spider’s weak spots – its eyes.

Jinho can’t believe what he just saw an E-Rank Hunter do … unless Jinwoo is one of the rumored “False Rankers” who are able to conceal their full strength. When Dongsuk returns, he assumes the boss wasn’t that tough, and Jinho managed to bring it down with his trust fund gear.

He’ll spare Jinho … if he kills Jinwoo. Whether it’s because he’s a good kid and won’t hurt his aniki, or because he knows full well he can’t beat him (or both), Jinho sides with Jinwoo.

Dongsuk’s mage fires off a spell that slams Jinwoo into the mana crystal wall, and he believes that’s that for the Weakest Hunter. But then a window appears for Jinwoo declaring a new Urgent Quest: Kill the six enemies trying to kill him, the “Player,” or he will be assessed a penalty: his heart will stop.

Jinwoo took this job because he wanted some cash to pay the bills, but Dongsuk and his Strike Team just had to be evil assholes. Now the system is giving Jinwoo two choices: kill fellow humans for the first time, or die. There’s no choice, and Dongsuk’s men soon learn they have no chance against him.

In a matter of moments, Dongsuk is all who remains of his dastardly strike team. We’ll never know how many other lower-ranked Hunters they lured into their schemes only for them to be killed in the dungeons and written off as unfortunate casualties of the raid.

Yet despite all of the evil he’s committed, and the fact he tried to kill Jinwoo three times, he still begs for mercy and offers to pay him double what they agreed along with all the crystals. Jinwoo isn’t willing to deal with someone who has already proven untrustworthy. And the C-Ranked Dongsuk may be strong, but Jinwoo is stronger, and still leveling up.

Jinwoo went to a dark place in that dungeon, but it’s not like he had a choice. He may call himself a murderer, but what he did was self-defense; Dongsuk and his men weren’t going to stop until he and Jinho were dead.

When the two emerge and are debriefed by a guild official (whom we saw having tea with a couple friends, one of them working with S-Ranked Cha Hae-In), she assumes, like anyone would, that Jinho and his fancy armor and sword was the hero of the day.

Jinho knows better, but doesn’t say anything that might call attention to Jinwoo. As rain starts to fall, he’s mentions he’s glad he made sure Jin-Ah had an umbrella. He says it as if grasping for something to retain his humanity and sense of normalcy.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 – 12 (Fin) – Nishikata’s Quest

For three seasons and dozens of vignettes, we’ve watched Nishikata undertake a gradual journey of enlightenment and awakening, from an origin point of modest, adolescent…dumbness. This season and this episode in particular, Nishikata’s brain has finally started to get wise to the fact that it has never been about winning or teasing with Takagi. It was more simply about being with him.

As these confusing feelings sprout up in his dinosaur-filled mind, Takagi must know that he’s distracted by the imminent coming of White Day, even if she doesn’t know that Hamaguchi urged him to confess to her on that day. Faced with such a monumental task, Nishikata retreats into the games, creating his most elaborate yet: Nishikata Quest, a series of boxes containing riddles leading to other riddles.

But when there are no more riddles, and he hopes Takagi to be at her most frustrated and defeated, that he’ll give her his White Day present In other words, when all is said and done he not only wants Takagi to be comforted, he wants to be the one to brighten her mood. Alas, his grand plan is dashed when Takagi is unable to make it to school on White Day due to strong winds delaying her ferry.

When he thinks she’ll only be gone for first period, Nishikata tries his best to take good notes that he’ll share with her. But when she texts him that she won’t be coming at all, he realizes how lonely he is without her sitting at the desk beside him…how things just feel “off”. After school, Hamaguchi gives Houjou some white chocolate, but just can’t manage to confess his love to her. But Houjou still looks happy he at least made the attempt.

When Mina finds the first of Nishikata’s boxes on the floor of the classroom (jostled off Takagi’s chair when Takao and Kimura are fighting), she leads Sanae and Yukari on his epic mind-bending quest. When they find the final box bearing Nishikata’s name, Yukari realizes this was all one big gesture of love for Takagi, and insists they put all the boxes back where they found them, lest they spoil loverboy’s efforts.

When Kimura kept Nishikata company during solo library duty, Nishikata noticed that Kimura was reading the same novel as Takagi when she said “I love you”. Kimura recommends the book and lends it to Nishikata, who reads it when he gets home and can’t find the “I love you” Takagi purportedly took from the page. It’s here where the dusty light bulb in his head finally switches on. That time she said “I love you”, like so many other times he remembers, were Takagi expressing her honest feelings.

For that reason, Nishikata can’t wait until tomorrow to see Takagi or give her her White Day gift. Heck, he can’t wait one more minute, running out the door, onto the bus, and running some more to the docks. When he spots Takagi getting into her car and driving off, he chases the car…on foot. Finally, fate smiles on him as Takagi’s car happens to turn at just such an angle that she spots him running behind, asks to stop the car, gets out, and runs to meet him.

In effect, it’s a romantic climax I’ve probably seen dozens of times both in anime and movies and other TV. But there’s something about the way it’s executed so beautifully, and with all the accumulated feelings and experiences these two have been through in three seasons, that elevates what could have felt clichéd in less skilled hands to truly epic status.

Even better, we don’t need the classic “I love you” confession; the fact Nishikata is there at all, chasing Takagi down, is all Takagi needs to know how he feels. And then he comes right out and says he’s there “because I wanted to see you.”

He may think he failed when his White Day gift got dropped and smashed by a car, but the gift doesn’t matter; she doesn’t even open it, instead taking his scuffed up hands into hers and saying he’s already given her the best gift she could have asked for: him, there, with her.

It’s pretty much the best ending a Takagi-san fan could ask for, made all the more satisfying because there’s an upcoming movie that could well elaborate on their new adorable normal. As we’ve come to the end of this season, there few things I’m looking more forward to than seeing these two on the screen again as soon as humanly possible.

Fabiniku – 05 – Ch(armor)ed

Lucius, perhaps sensing that Jinguugi and Tachibana might be useful, has them accompany her and the captive Schwartz to defeat a “Living Armor”. On the way, Lucius admits even he is not immune to “Audrey’s” charms, and feels compelled to give her a candy.

The peculiar thing about the Living Armor, which introduces itself as “Vizzd The Incomparably Skilled”, doesn’t so much kill its victims as…steal their clothes. Schwartz runs in headfirst and is the first to be disrobed, followed by Lucius, who is revealed to be a woman—which wasn’t really a surprise.

When Tachibana gives Lucius her pink dress to cover up, she reveals her slip, setting Jinguugi off. When he puts his jacket on her, the Charmed status only increases—such is the power of the “boyfriend shirt” effect. This leads to the two bickering about their “preferences” while Vizzd can get neither a word nor a blow in edgewise.

Jinguugi’s Charmed status and increasing irritability results in him making quick work of the Living Armor, revealing that Vizzd is really a small girl aligned with the Demon Lord was piloting from within. Lucius takes her to the station an interrogates her, but Vizzd is rescued in the middle of the night by a fellow Demon Lord underling, Kalm.

The next morning, Schwartz is hoping to get a peak at Tachibana in her bedclothes (which, dude), only to discover Jinguugi’s “Door to Tachibana’s old apartment” skill. Schwartz notes how much it seems to be a place where a guy lives, which is the perfect opportunity for Tachibana to reveal that she was once a 32-year-old male salaryman.

Schwartz is crestfallen, but Tachibana shows off her effortless ability to make friends—an ability Jinguugi has always been both envious of and perplexed by. Turns out Schwartz didn’t even know he could bring up a menu with his stats and skills. He seemingly activates one when a massive purple mouth-like opening forms in the sky above them…or could the color be a hint that this is that Kalm lady?

Fabiniku – 04 – The Black Swordsman

After much walking and much complaining by Tachibana, she and Jinguuji arrive in the first decent-sized town in this new world. Jinguuji doesn’t want to cause another incident like the one in the village where every man basically went nuts over Tachibana’s Unparalleled Beauty, so he hides it in the most inelegant way: a brown paper bag.

The Browns Fan look does keep men from becoming enthralled, but Tachibana does not like it. She wants Jinguuji to buy her a sword, so she takes off the bag to persuade him, and very nearly does. When the weapons store owner presents a golden hair ornament that will divert everyone’s gaze from its wearer, Tachibana tries to haggle the price with her beauty. This leads to more chaos, and to Jinguuji having to toss Tachibana into the apartment for her own safety and that of the people she instantly bewitches.

Back in the wilderness, she proposes staying in the apartment while Jinguuji does all the long-distance walking, but reconsiders this arrangement when heasks her what would happen if she was in the apartment when he died. The solution is that Jinguuji simply spent most of their gold on the dang crown, which Tachibana loves. As she walks through town, no bag on her head and enthralling no one, she notices how everyone is instead focused on her handsome companion.

The fact that Jinguuji is also wearing a Japanese business suit attracts one person in particular…Kirito! Well, he claims his name is Schwartz von Lichtenstein Lohengramm, but he’s actually a fellow Japanese guy who was summoned there by a goddess (not the same goddess who summoned Jinguuji and Tachibana, mind you). He assumes to have met a fellow “hero” in Jinguuji, but Jinguuji isn’t interested in the guy, who is clearly an otaku.

Schwartz also picks up a weird vibe from Jinguuji and Tachibana as they bicker, first thinking of them as a couple, then wondering if they’re a father-daughter pair, but the daughter has developed feelings for her dad which…the kid clearly reads a lot of light novels, okay?

Schwartz gets it into his head that he need s to prove that he’s a hero to these two, so he whips out his holy sword Gram and launches an attack at Jinguuji. We learn from his inner dialogue that the attack was much stronger than he expected, and that he hasn’t quite mastered his sword. This affords Jinguuji another chance to demonstrate his catlike reflexes when it comes to getting Tachibana out of harms way.

It also results in Schwartz being arrested by Lucius, an officer of the town watch, for destruction of property, with Jinguuji and Tachibana also brought in for questioning. Lucius’ boss gives Schwartz a chance to prove he’s a genuine hero summoned by a goddess by giving him a mission-based quest like one gets in RPGs. It looks like Jinguuji and Tachibana will also get roped into the mission to subjugate a “living armor” that collects magic items. Should be fun!

Princess Connect! Re:Dive – S2 04 – The Battle of Monster Island

At this point in the game, there have been so many new character intros in PriConne that not only is there still a great deal of mystery surrounding Yuuki’s whole deal, but I’ve even forgotten some of what we’re supposedto learn. The best I can do is assume his dream of an epic battle of godlike champions (plus him and Pecorine) is either a memory from his past life or a glimpse of the future. All I know is the big bad they’re all fighting looks and sounds a lot like Karyl’s boss.

There’s no time for a leisurely breakfast this week, as PriConne has a lot of narrative and liteal ground to cover, so we go from Yuuki’s crazy dream to an equally crazy situation where the Gourmet Guild has bit off more than they can chew. I love how we enter this latest calamity in media res, only later learning that Peco is passed out due to intense hunger.

On Monster Island to capture a rare and delicious cut of meat, the guild is bailed out by a quartet of beastfolk originally from Landosol, who dwell on the island and are ostensibly led by their resident detective, Kasumi (Inori Minase, whom I’m amazed hadn’t voiced a character on this show yet!) It’s a lot of new characters to keep track of, but when PriConne puts so much love into their designs and veteran talent behind their voices, it’s hard to be mad for the wealth of new faces and voices.

The beastfolk party teams up with the Gourmet Guild and split into two groups of four, eventually finding the stronghold of the island’s Shadows. Another awesome battle ensues, with the characters showing off their distinct weapons and styles of fighting, and Yuuki providing a key assist in powering up Kasumi so she can capture a Shadow sample for further study.

When the dust clears, Kasumi finds herself face to face with a Shadow clone of herself, naming her “Kiiri” and eventually changing her clothes and hair so others can tell them apart. Unlike all the other Shadows they’ve encountered, Kiiri is extremely docile and sweet, and while initially somewhat vacant and mechanical, the more she hangs out with Yuuki and his glowing power, the more she comes alive as a person.

Ramifications of a Shadow clone of Kasumi coexisting with their group from now on aside, the second group meets up to report that a giant golem was swarmed and captured by the Shadows like ants on honey. A digital copy of the golem’s occupant, Metamorregnant, warns the reunited group that once the golem is swallowed up by the Shadows, it will be used to launch an assault on the island’s beastfolk town.

Sure enough, that happens, and for the rest of the episode PriConne shows off its mastery of both scale, kinetic action, and magical chaos and destruction, as Peco rallies the other seven members of the two parties to fight and fight until the threat is defeated. After all, there isn’t a boat big enough to evacuate the settlement.

The eight party members are split between supporters and front-line fighters in the battle, with Yuuki powering up everyone with his glowy powers. Peco, the most powerful fighter of all of them, takes the lead literally running up the hundred-foot-tall golem, then launching not one or two or three but four consecutive Princess Strikes, the final one meant to be the coup-de-grace.

But suddenly, the ring Karyl’s boss gave her glows, and Peco is instantly teleported from the battle to the throne room of her former home, Landosol Castle. She’s welcomed there by Karyl’s boss, but the shocked, pained look on Peco’s face says it all: she is not happy to have been plucked away from her friends in the middle of a crucial battle to save hundreds of innocent people. Karyl’s boss calls Peco Princess Eustania, and it looks like whatever plan she has, she’s putting it into motion now.

A cliffhanger! Like Banished from the Hero’s Party, I tend to prefer PriConne when it’s in sweet, low-stakes slice-of-life mode, just four friends enjoying good food after a fun adventure. But PriConne obviously has larger ambitions, and there’s no doubt in my mind it has the visual chops to pull off whatever it wants, so I’m eager to see where this goes.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive – S2 03 – Seeking the Truth of the Forest

While Peco and Karyl clean the house, Yuuki and Kokkoro do the shopping, and encounter an old friend in the eccentric forest elf Aoi (Hanazawa Kana), first introduced back in the sixth episode. She wrangles her fellow “Team B-B”-mates into lending her some emotional support as she answers the summons of a fellow student at the fancy St. Theresa’s Academy for Girls.

The three enter the awesome Beauty and the Beast-esque library, and Yuuki happens upon a pile of books on the floor, under which lies Yuni, a student and scholar who has a very poor memory, but uses a memo book to keep track of her thesis on “The Fundamental Falsehoods that Lurk in Our World.”

Yuni and her fellow “Best Friends Club” members Chieru and Chloe don’t come from money, so the three allied together to win it by achieving a great feat for the sake of the school. There’s a rumored threat in the woods near the academy of “Green Guardians”, so Yuni calls on Aoi and her knowledge of said woods to aid them in getting to the bottom of things. Aoi, in turn, invites the Gourmet Guild to accompany them.

Once in the woods, the party of eight soon learns that they’re walking in circles and soon become lost; not even Yuni’s semi-sentient pet rock can guide them. Then Aoi gets separated, the team splits up, and one by one vanish into the eerie, thick fog, until only poor Karyl is left to run through the woods in a panic. For a show that leans into goofy comedy, it gets the creepy atmosphere and Karyl’s fear of being alone just right.

It’s an incredible development, then, when we learn that the members of the party were being picked off one by one by none other than Aoi, who had constructed the “Green Guardians” out of wood to be her friends away from the academy. When Peco, Yuuki, and Yuni catch her red-handed, the gig is up. But…as hilarious as this is, it doesn’t solve the underlying mystery.

Graveyards mentioning kings and kingdoms that never existed are then joined by a whole mess of undead skeletons as the forest turns into flaming ruins. There’s also a weird pixelated glitching going on. Something completely unrelated to Aoi’s larger-than-life wooden friends is going on, and it gets right to the heart of Yuni’s hypothesis about a “great deception” in the world.

Everyone is then transported into the memories of the head crowed skeleton, who it appears was once a jolly king beloved by his subjects and in particular one joyful little girl…only for it to all go literally to hell. Something happened to the king, be it some curse or dark corruption, and it sure looks like he presided over the destruction of everything and everyone in his kingdom.

While everyone else is (not wrongly!) wigging out over the scary skeletons with glowing red eyes surrounded by flames, it takes a fellow royal in Peco to notice that they mean them no harm. Like the adventurers in the first episode, the king and the other skeletons simply want to pass on. With a big empathetic hug, Peco does just that.

Many mysteries remain from this very intense quest: why is there no record of the king, his kingdom, or its downfall in any of the books of their world? Yuni apparently already came oh-so-close to unlocking the great overarching secret of her world, only for her memory to fail her and for the academic society to decry her research as pure fiction.

It’s heavily implied, especially from the pixelated glitches, that this world is one of many, just like the one Yuuki came from. But as Yuni joins the others at a tea party at Aoi’s charming home in the woods, she isn’t frustrated or defeated. For her, finding “the truth” has always been secondary to simply learning and absorbing knowledge around her. It’s the intellectual journey, not the destination, that matters most.

I really liked Yuni, and Kohara Konomi does a great deadpan reminiscent of Minore Inase’s Sleepy Princess. She fills the role of “brainy scholar” quite well amongst the band of well-meaning weirdoes and airheads, questioning this world rather than taking it at face value, but ultimately not stressing that much over it.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive – S2 01 – Quest for the Legendary Seasoning

Every single one of PriConne’s season two premiere’s 23 minutes is used to pull us straight into its lush, expansive world and not let us go, like those mangy purple dogs that keep nomming on Yuuki. It offers both epic fantasy thrills and comfy cozy little pleasures that come between those big moments, and I absolutely love it to bits.

As thanks for sharing her mushroom harvest, Kokkoro was given a map by Karin at the Guild which leads to a “Legendary Seasoning”. After a tasty breakfast of egg sandwiches, the quartet heads out into the big, beautiful world. The first season was always easy on the eyes, but PriConne pulls out all the visual stops as Peco, Yuki, Kokkoro and Karyl strike out on an adventure.

The four soon find themselves gleefully lost in a vast above-water coral forest. Along with all the eye candy comes top notch chemistry between the disparate characters, the same classy orchestral score, and superb sound design. It also features some great comic timing, with quick cuts that had me laughing on more than one occasion.

They’re stuck in the forest for what seems to be several days, such that when Karyl is sick of fish, Peco and Yuuki trap one of the furry beasties that roam the area. Their meat is juicy and delicious…but ultimately poisonous. The four find out the hard way one by one when they vomit rainbows. The friends and family of the beast they ate surround the paralyzed party. Karyl had me howling when she exclaimed “I don’t want to die in such a stupid way!”

Fortunately, te four are saved by a grizzled old man who has lived in the coral forest for years. In fact, he and his party made the original map the copy of which Kokkoro obtained. He serves as their guide, and Kokkoro learns from his locket that he’s the last living member of a adventurer’s party of four…whose souls happen to still be stuck here in the form of spectres.

The quartet readies for battle, but when physical attacks prove worthless, Kokkoro works off a hunch and initiates a healing spell to help the ghosts pass on peacefully. Turns out that’s what the old man wanted all along, and he too is a ghost. That said, Peco asks the four of them to join them on their search for that legendary seasoning, “Drops of the Sea.”

The ghosts agree, and procure transport to the location in the form of a dang airship that soars through achingly gorgeous landscapes and cloudscapes. This is all happening during the end credits, and it’s a credit to the show that it packs as much as it can into its running time. It’s only fitting that a series in part about food that it offers such heaping helpings of visual bliss right out of the gate.

Alas, they’re never able to procure the Drops of the Sea from the eggs of the giant turtle who supposedly lays them…because the only turtle they find is a male. That said, this was always about the journey and about sharing new sights, sounds, and tastes along the way…even if they were briefly poisoned!

The episode fittingly ends with a meal. Returning home after to long, there isn’t much in the way of food to prepare, but Kokkoro makes it work, whipping up a quick and tasty fried rice-like concoction. When Karyl, a famously picky eater who hates vegetables, spots bits of them in her food, she is weary, but when she works up the courage to take a bite she learns it’s much better with veggies than without.

Everyone scarfs down their dinner and puts their hands together in thanks: thanks for the food, and thanks for each other. Then it’s off to warm beds, restful sleep, another gorgeous dawn, and another fun adventure.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle – 12 (Fin) – Back to the Way Things Were

The Sleepy Princess show, a surprise smash comedy hit of the Fall, closes out just how the title above says: with things back to where they were at the beginning. But at the episode’s start, when the demons find a letter to santa in Sya’s stocking asking to “go home”, they wonder if the princess has finally become homesick.

…She’s not, of course; she just wants to stop by Goodreste Palace to grab her special Christmas woolen undies. Rather than try to stop her (which would probably result in her going it alone), Twilight and the Cleric decide to transport straight into her palace bedroom. Predictably, Sya loses focus and has a quick nap in her lavish king-size bed.

When her mother the queen hears all the noise in her room she goes in to investigate, and lifts the covers to find…Cubey?! Yes, Cleric stowed Cubey away in case a body double was needed, and what do you know, the queen is convinced it’s her daughter! I was waiting for her to comment on how she changed her style while away.

The queen takes Cubey away, but Sya and the demons know they can’t just leave her, so the princess dresses up in one of her coolest dresses and strides down the halls without a care in the world. The three end up hiding in a giant suit of armor to avoid Paladins, but one of them, Evening Star, regales the comrade he thinks he’s talking to with super-embarrassing stories of Sya when she was little. Naturally, Twilight and Cleric can barely contain their delight.

Evening Star chases them until dawn, when he falls asleep instantly (he’s apparently a night owl). The gang regroups in Sya’s room, where she decides she’ll take responsibility as a princess and ensure things go back to the way they were.

Just as “Princess” Cubey is about to speak to the entire Kingdom of Goodreste (with TV feeds reaching to the Demon Castle), Sya cuts in with her own speech thanking her subjects for their love, which has helped her remember she is a princess, not a hostage.

Sya also speaks to how her experiences with the demons have not only helped her learn a lot about herself, but about the ways humans and demons can have better relations down the road. Then she somewhat undermines those words by accosting Cubey while wearing a hastily-scrawled Twilight mask and his cape, declaring he’s taking Sya back to his castle after all.

In short, Sya was only back for a quick Christmas drop-in and hello. In order for things to “go back to the way they were”, she needed to ensure she went back to her second home with Twilight, Cleric, and Cubey. Her mother, who recognized her voice during the speech, seems to understand her daughter’s intentions, and wishes her well on the adventures to follow. What a cool mom!

Sya & Co. return to the Demon Castle where she’s warmly welcomed, and the castle proceeds to throw one hell of a Christmas party. Twilight and Cleric than curse themselves for forgetting the main reason for going to Goodreste with Sya—to retrieve her woolen undies—but Sya seems unconcerned.

For one thing, she may have grabbed them after all before leaving, and is wearing them as they speak (though she’s thankfully grown beyond the skirt-lifting necessary to prove it). Whether she’s got them or not, she seems quite happy distributing other sets to her Teddy Demon friends as thanks for their loyal service. With that, she lets out a big ol’ yawn and drifts off to sleep with her signature “Syaaaaaa”, her final quest complete.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle – 11 – Princess Popular

After waiting in line with the autograph-seeking Teddy Demons, Harpy invites Sya to a pajama party, somewhat disingenuously promising it will result in more cheerful sleep. Sya can’t pass that up, but she needs more information on what a pajama party is…so she hops into the Demon King’s bed to “practice” such a party.

Jumping in bed to practice is an extremely misinterpret-able scenario for, say, Cleric, who also overhears Sya talking about demons and humans falling in love. As a result, his devotion to protecting Sya’s chastity overrides his loyalty to his lord, and he attacks Twilight with lightning. The battle eventually gets too loud for Sya to sleep, but upon returning to her room she gets the cheerful sleep she sought…precluding the need to attend the real party.

Poor Harpy…she just wants to be friends with the princess! The succubus Cubey, on the other hand, has an ulterior motive: she wants to become more popular (popularity literally being the life blood of Succubi). When she learns she and Sya closely resemble one another, she seeks Sya’s tutelage on how to be more popular.

Unfortunately for Cubey and like most things regarding Sya, she isn’t popular on purpose, it just happens. Also, Sya misunderstands Cubey’s intentions from the start, believing her to be a potential body double in need of elite training. This results in Sya tying Cubey up and dragging her around the castle causing havoc, from murdering ghost shrouds to plucking Quillodillo quills to…well, actually, brushing Teddy Demons is delightful!

By the time Sya has Cubey on a cliff overlooking the lava lake impressing upon her the importance of staring death in the eye, Cubey’s struggling and yelling causes the cliff to collapse, and Sya falls into the lava and dies…again. Cubey fails to become more popular or learn anything useful from Sya, but Sya’s quest to get better “rest” succeeds.

Finally, Twilight and the Big 10 are having another important meeting when Sya again busts in like she owns the place, parks herself at the table, and tents her fingers like a petite, adorable Gendou Ikari. Whatever they’re discussing in this meeting is irrelevant: she has a task for them: to determine why the quality of her sleep has been lacking of late.

Twilight brings in Hypnos, noted sleep expert, to determine the cause. He arranges so the group can watch Sya’s dreams in real time, and the culprit to her crap sleep is revealed: “D-Whatsit”, AKA Dawner, AKA Akatsuki, the hero. Out of a desire to hang out, he is relentlessly pursuing Sya in her dreams.

While Cleric has known for a while now that Sya’s fiancée D-Whatsit and Dawner are the same person, both Sya and the rest of the Demons only come to this realization while her dreams unfold. Regardless of who he is, Sya doesn’t want anything to do with him, and shifts between attacking him and running from him. But like a chipper T-1000, he Just. Keeps. Coming.

Eventually Hypnos determines that Dawner is in Sya’s dream thanks to a letter bearing Sya’s signature…which Twilight learns he himself let fall out of his cape and into Dawner’s belt when he was redirecting the Hero’s party away from the still-under construction area of the Demon Castle grounds.

Once Twilight retrieves that slip of paper (not depicted on camera), Sya’s sleeping demeanor instantly improves dramatically to her usual tranquil “Syaaaaaa”-ing. And so, due to her acute aversion to the Hero, Sya further delayed her own rescue. But as we’ve seen, she’s not in any particular hurry to ever be rescued. She’s got the place on lock!