Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 06 – A League of Their Own

Two weeks since he became a teacher and the Rotsgard store finding success despite the Ogres running it, Makoto has to fend off incessant political marriage proposals from students, suggesting his status at the academy has risen.

But more importantly, Tomoe and Mio are back, and with significant screen time! In fact, most of this episode is evenly split between them, and something happens I did not expect: they meet the heroes before Makoto! First up is Tomoki meeting Tomoe.

It does not go well for our silver-haired power-drunk young friend. In fact, Tomoki shows his whole ass this week to be nothing but a pathetic twerp who has tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants.

Tomoe doesn’t waste too much breath on him, and what breath she uses is able to dispel his Magic Eye effect on Lime (she herself is immune). When Mora reveals she’s a dragon tamer, Tomoe demonstrates the gap in their power by destroying her staff.

Tomoki wants Tomoe’s katana, then Tomoe herself, but the answer to both is no, and he doesn’t have the power to make her. In fact, she uses illusion magic to cast him, Lily, and Mora back into the forest with the warning that he won’t last long as Gritonia’s Hero if he tries to pull this shit again.

I’ve come to loathe Tomoki, so seeing him cut down a size or two was deeply gratifying, and there was no one better to do it than Tomoe. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like Tomoki will give up on her.

On to Mio, who is trying to discern kelp from seaweed on the beach when a giant wolf shoves her into the surf, soaking her kimono. She prepares to kill the beast with a flick of her fan, but a girl leaps out to help the wolf dodge: it’s Hibiki! Mio is impressed by her contrition and decides not to kill her or Horn.

More importantly to Mio is the fact that this hyuman knows her sea grass, which means she probably has some cooking pointers for her. What neither of them realize is that they once met before when Mio was the Spider Disaster, the first battle Hibiki fought that she couldn’t win.

Just as Tomoki is no match for Tomoe, Hibiki is no match for Mio. She and Tomoe are in a different league, power-wise. But while Tomoe’s encounter with Tomoki was thoroughly unpleasant, Mio and Hibiki have a much more positive, cordial, and productive encounter.

A giant mantis monster maims Hibiki’s tank and she’s forced to ask Mio for help, only for her and her party-mates to watch dumbstruck as Mio beheads the boss with one flick of the fan. When it tears her precious kimono in a last-ditch attack, she unleashes a devastating explosion.

Mio puts Hibiki and her party to sleep, and when they wake up, they’re in their intended destination of Tsige. A note from Mio brings Hibiki to the Kuzunoha store in Tsige where she and Mio come to an understanding. Beren will forge the equipment they’ll need to survive the wastelands, while Hibiki will teach Mio how to cook.

Woody notes that Hibiki has concealed her identity as hero and descended into despair ever since the loss of Navarre, who was clearly more than a friend or a sister to her. Her meeting and befriending another strong woman in Mio is an opportunity to cheer up, heal, and move forward.

Six episodes in and Tomoe and Mio, my two favorite characters in the show, have finally been integrated into the season arc. Hopefully Mio and Hibiki’s friendship endures, and the next time Tomoki messes with Tomoe will be his last! But first thing’s first: when Makoto returns to the Demiplane to check in, something is very off. What could it be?

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 05 – Class Is in Session

In the week leading up to his first lecture as a part-time instructor, Makoto frequents the restaurant where Luria works, where Shiki becomes addicted to the “cream hot pot.” Ilumgand, the golden-haired student who was talking to Luria last week, is watching this, and doesn’t like it. Makoto also meets Luria’s older (but smaller-chested) sister Eva, an academy librarian.

Makoto’s fellow instructor Bright sends ten of his students to Makoto’s first lecture. Their attitude ranges from okay with this as long as it makes them stronger, to skeptical an instructor who communicates through writing and has an assistant will be of any use to them. Needless to say, none of these students have ever met anyone like Makoto or Shiki.

While Shiki is all too happy to play the bad cop, Makoto insists upon being as tough and unyielding teacher as Tomoe. As such, Shiki is the good cop, which combined with his good looks make him an immediate hit with the four female students. The students start out underwhelmed by this ugly young man who can’t speak, so Makoto decides to engage in a mock battle with Shiki to demonstrate his power.

Shiki serves as the aggressor while Makoto defends. The kids think every attack Shiki sends will be the end of Makoto, but in reality none of them get through his barrier. The two put on a clinic of silent spells of all elements, and once they actually start using incantations (in a language they don’t recognize) the battle really heats up.

By the time Makoto thoroughly beats Shiki (who has become stronger since training with Tomoe and Mio), the students are a combination of impressed, in awe, and scared shitless. One of the girls who talked down to Makoto has an arm wound from the debris of the battle, so Shiki heals it with ointment from their new shop and she’s immediately smitten with him.

With that, the first class is in the books. Shiki expects that half of the ten students will be no-shows for the next class, and that turns out to be so. However, the five remaining students are there because they know there’s something special about these classes and their instructor.

In the next lecture, Makoto has them come at him with everything they have, with the specific goal of getting them to experience how it feels to reach their limits of mana and stamina. For all five students, it’s the toughest battle they’ve ever been in, and they all fail, but they also learn a lot.

As for the students, they’re an eclectic group … for Hyumans. There’s Daena, a kid with hair like a black-and-white cookie who is married with a kid on the way. Misra is the son of temple officials who sacrifices his mana to keep the mock battle against Makoto going.

Abelia, the only girl who stuck around, is balanced in physical and magic attacks (and shares a last name with Ilumgand). Izumo is a mage-in-training. Finally there’s Jin, a skilled swordsman and natural leader. Makoto observes and analyzes his students and believes them to have potential, especially after surviving two of his classes.

Unfortunately, teaching this class isn’t the only thing Makoto will have to deal with at Rotsgard. There’s also the matter of Bright-sensei wanting him dead. He sent the assassin Makoto had absolutely no trouble with, and in a darkly-lit meeting that accentuates his hidden evil, he orders that assassin and his guild to redouble their efforts to eliminate Makoto. It should be fun watching them try and utterly fail.

P.S., Tomoe and Mio only get one scene each this week, and their relegation to the margins is my one complaint with an otherwise strong season. I get it: you can’t have characters as loud and OP as they are involved in either the Rotsgard storyline or those of the other two heroes. I just hope we get a little more time with them at some point!

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 04 – Those Who Can Do, Teach

Tsukimichi brings the focus back on Makoto this week as he and Shiki finally arrive in Rotsgard. When they encounter a group of guys in academy uniforms seemingly pestering a young lady, Shiki teaches them a lesson. The woman with aqua hair didn’t ask for help, but she extends an open invite to the restaurant where she works as a waitress.

Makoto thought he’d be taking the student entrance exam for the academy, but the paperwork from Rembrandt indicates he’ll be taking the teacher’s exam. Chalk it up to Morris needing reading glasses, but considering how OP Makoto is, perhaps a teacher is the more appropriate position. Like in the plaza, Shiki is quick to perceive Hyuman slights and rudeness, greatly aging the first employee they encounter; the second one is more cordial.

Makoto and four others are teleported to the test grounds, where they must collect three of one of three colored orbs within three days to pass the exam. This leaves us alone with Makoto as he troubleshoots and monologues. The red orb can only be neutralized and captured with a physical attack, the blue with a magic attack, and the yellow with a ranged attack. But because Makoto is so OP his initial attempts to collect the orbs only end up shattering them.

Over the next couple days he eventually finds the right sweet spot between too strong an attack and too weak an attack, but on the morning of his third day he’s attacked by an assassin. The assassin is no match for him, but was able to make the other three examinees drop out. After breaking his poison dagger with his bare hand (he’s immune to poison), Makoto paralyzes the assassin and kicks him into the stratosphere.

The red orb turns out to be the toughest to capture until Makoto realizes he can use the simple, non-magical knife he borrowed to prepare fish to eat. Once he has a red, blue, and yellow orb, he returns to the academy, where the proctor is gobsmacked. Examinees were expected to collect three of the type of orb that best matched their skills; no one has ever come back with all three types.

Makoto’s misunderstanding made his exam a lot more difficult than it needed to be, and by the end even though the test area was paradise compared to the wastelands he had grown quite sick of it. But thanks to his impressive performance, he is hired as a temporary instructor, and that appears to attract the attention of a certain bespectacled lady.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 01 – Answered Prayers

Moonlit Fantasy’s second season picks up where the first left off, as Makoto is on his way to Magic Academy with Shiki by his side. They make a stop in the town of Obitt, and Shiki searches for the very best inn for the young master (fearing Tomoe and Mio’s wrath if he doesn’t).

Makoto chooses not to wear his mask in town, which gets him some looks. When he stops by the guild, he finds a woman begging in vain for aid against a group of bandits called Moon over the Ruined Castle, which is the same name as a famous Japanese song and one of Makoto’s faves.

Back in the Demiplane, Mio is attempting to cook for everyone, but the first attempt leads to serious casualties as her “curry rice” contains ingredients inedible to demihumans, such as soft emeralds. The camera panning to various characters suffering ill effects of having tasted the curry is a clever way to re-introduce the large cast of supporting characters.

Makoto has decided to follow his heart when in doubt, so when he sees the girl from the guild being harassed in an alley, he rescues her and her werewolf friend. She introduces herself as Lana from Tapa Village; the wolf, whom Makoto heals, is Eto. Makoto introduces himself as Kuzunoha.

Tapa may be a long way away, but that’s no problem for Makoto, who picks up Lana and Eto and flies there, arriving at the gates before sundown. Once there, Lana heads into the village, which Makoto can sense has been attacked again by the bandits. When Eto asks why he’s helping them, Makoto says he doesn’t like a bandit group having the same name as a song he likes. Simple as that!

Mio fares no better in her second attempt. While she uses nominally edible ingredients (meat, fruit, and vegetables), the ways in which she prepared the dishes render them just as inedible as the emerald curry. Tomoe suggests Mio travel the world and hone her skills, and to her surprise, Mio is all for it. So are the others, who are sick of being poisoned!

Makoto “takes a walk” into the forest where the bandits dwell, uses Silence Kai to eliminate all sound in their radius, then uses the confusion to pick off a few of them with arrows. By the time sound returns, Makoto has a lot more targets, so he decides to take them all out with fire, fondly recalling when Emma first taught him.

He doesn’t kill the bandits, but he does make them change their name, and makes it so they won’t threaten Lana or Eto’s villages again. When next we see him he’s back in Obitt, checking in with Shiki, who has found a passable (and expensive) inn in which to stay.

Before heading to bed, Makoto looks up at the moonlit sky and considers when he’ll encounter the other two heroes from Earth the Goddess summoned into this world. That should be interesting! Moonlit Fantasy delivers a quiet first outing in its return, but reminded me why I loved the first: that colorful special-sauce balance of action, comedy, and a smidge of drama … with no melted pot handle aftertaste.