Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 26 – The Ant that Slew the Dragon

So, about that attack Fern launched when Frieren gave her an opening … the replica blocked it. And so the battle continues, with Frieren and her replica flipping to the back of the playbook and executing some awesomely powerful offensive spells at each other while Fern flits around trying to find more openings. It’s stressful, but also gorgeous to behold, and at no point does Frieren seem remotely worried. On the contrary, she’s having a blast.

While she and Fern fight her replica, the others head out to face off agains the other replicas gathering at the bottom of the dungeon. They choose their targets based on how good or bad matchup they are against the replicas. Denken is quite right that their ability to work together and communicate means not only can they win, they should win. Even when Sense’s replica ambushes Richter and Lawine, and both have to break their golem bottles.

Ultimately, the only one who believes she can defeat the replica of Sense is Übel, who just shot up in the official Coolest Frieren Mages Ever ranking in my books for this reason. As Land, Denken, and Sense lament, Übel’s mind simply works differently than most humans. Growing up watching her sister cut cloth with scissors, she developed Reelseiden, a spell that cuts anything she thinks it can.

She could cut the indomitable magic cloak of a first class mage in a past test, killing him, because she saw the cloak as cloth to be cut. In the same vein, she’s able to easily defeat Sense’s replica (and Sense herself if she chose to) because hair can be cut. Reelseiden is the manifestation of her own personal intuition, which is separate from the typical rules of magic and logic. Put simply, she’s one deadly gal!

Methode makes contact with Wirbel, Ehre, and Scharf, asking them to take on Denken’s replica, while she’ll deal with Fern’s. She needs to be alone in order to maximize the sensitivity of her mana detection, plus in an adorable cutaway, we se her successfully testing her binding magic on Fern, complete with a friendly “Take that!”, Fern declaring she can’t move, and Frieren poking her face.

When replicas they’ve already defeated start to appear, it becomes clear the Spiegel can continue re-spawning them indefinitely until it is defeated. Frieren’s replica has to be destroyed soon to allow them access to the Spiegel, or everyone’s going to eventually be carted away by golems.

Rewinding back to before they confront the replica, Frieren tells Fern that she’ll give Fern the opening she needs by showing an opening to her replica, thus making it show an even bigger opening. Everything hinges on Fern being able to exploit that opening, and Frieren tells her if she thinks they can win, they can win.

Not only that, Frieren admits she “underestimates” Fern. This is the Age of Humanity, after all. Even in her relatively short lifespan, Fern can surpass Frieren one day, but again, only if she thinks she can.

Some truly heinous magic is unleashed by Frieren and her replica in the final stage of their battle, with Frieren cutting things so close her jacket is shredded and her shoulder singed. But the big opening works, and Fern is able to pummel the replica with offensive magic, blasting her arms off.

But then Fern is once again surprised by the depths and heights of Frieren’s magical knowledge as demonstrated by her replica. Fern is tossed across the chamber and slammed hard against the wall, her staff shattered … and Fern doesn’t even recognize it as a spell, nor can she detect any mana.

True to Frieren, the most powerful magic whips out is so elegant it isn’t even recognizable as magic. But as the replica prepares to finish Fern off, Frieren slips behind her and finishes her off. Fern had to take a bit of a lickin’ so that everyone could keep on tickin’.

Victory! I loathed the potential for an unaccounted-for replica to be hiding in the treasure chamber where the Spiegel resided, but Frieren’s replica truly was its final line of defense. Frieren shatters it, and all of the replicas vanish as if snapped away by Thanos. And just in the nick of time too, judging by the precarious state of the various battles.

Everyone arrives at the treasure chamber at the very bottom of the dungeon to a smiling, congratulatory Sense, who tells them all of them deserve to be first-class mages. As for the “ladies of the hour”, as Denken calls them, Fern once again watches as Frieren gets nommed by another mimic, shouting that it’s dark and scary.

But you know what? After being as badass as she was, she deserves to act a little goofy before the third and final test, for which only two announced episodes of the series remain to tell. More than anything, I’m already loathing an end to Frieren, even if it’s likely to get another season down the road. Few anime in history have succeeded so thoroughly in making magic look and feel so … magical.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

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!

Goblin Slayer II – 04 – Shout It Out

The peace of the training grounds is disturbed by the screams of those working on rebuilding the village. Goblin Slayer tells his students to form a defensive posture and await his return; if he doesn’t return due to death or injury, they’ll have to take care of themselves.

Slayer meets up with his party and other experienced adventurers, and they prepare to head to the tunnels in order to stop the flow of goblins. Priestess fears the rookie fighters will be targeted by the goblins already above ground, and asks to lead them on her own.

While Slayer and his pals do their thing in the tunnels, The goblins do indeed target the younger weaker kids headed home. They’re able to hold out until Priestess arrives with Wizard Boy, the Rhea warrior girl, and the other older fighters.

While everyone fights back the goblins, who are both on the ground and in the trees, Wizard Boy actually stops and thinks properly about what he can and should do. He doesn’t need to be a goblin slayer here. His job is to protect the others.

Taking a page out of the Dwarf’s book, rather than simply tossing fireballs at the enemy, he uses a spell in order to amplify his shouting, causing the large-eared goblins to flee in pain. Rather than chase down and massacre them, everyone uses the opportunity to pull back to the safety of the town.

As for the adventurers in the tunnel, Slayer has the Dwarf blast a hole in the ceiling, above which is a lake that floods all the tunnels. He then has the mage use ice magic to freeze the water and cause the tunnels to crumble. The goblins are beaten above and below ground without too much trouble.

For her efforts apart from her main party, Priestess ranks up to Steel, and while she surely earned it with her heroism and poise, she still intends to prove she’s worthy of the rank, both to her friends and to herself.

As for Wizard Boy, he came out of the battle with a realization: he doesn’t need to avenge his sister by becoming a copy of Goblin Slayer. Instead, he intends to go adventuring and learn more about how to be a proper wizard.

He’s accompanied by the Rhea warrior girl, who doesn’t take no for an answer and actually induces a jolly laugh from Slayer. As they take off on their adventure together, Cow Girl stands beside Slayer, noting how happy he looks. It was a good night for the adventurers and a bad night for the goblins. Why wouldn’t he be?

P.S. I love how the OP, featuring “Entertainment” by mili, goes SO FUCKING HARD. The vocals, which range from tender and docile to downright Wagnerian, really match Slayer’s inner turmoil and seething rage against goblins.

Goblin Slayer II – 03 – Don’t Be a Stranger

Episode three is a bit of a respite from the goblin battle that preceded it and all about preparation and training. The little Rhea Warrior gets the piss beat out of her by the Onna Kishi because she’ll only get worse in a real battle. The Spearman tries to build up Wizard Boy’s stamina, while Slayer teaches the girls how to use a sling in case they’re out of options.

The day ends with Cow Girl, Priestess and Guild Girl providing a tasty lunch for everyone, and talk turns to dreams everyone has. Rhea wants to “make it” as a warrior even though she’s solo, while Wizard Boy simply wants to get better at defeating goblins.

Priestess tells him about a Wizard she knew wanting to slay a dragon, and when he says that’s unrealistic (unaware she’s talking about his sister) she says it’s a dream; it’s fine to dream. The Spearman also invites Slayer for drinks, and after a quick glance at Cow Girl, he accepts.

That said, I was extremely worried when he was prepping to leave and Cow Girl said her Uncle was also out, leaving her “all by her lonesome.” That dread of potential trouble on the farm affected the laid back atmosphere of the boys drinking at a non-guild tavern.

Slayer doesn’t get too drunk, but the three are tipsy enough to open up about their dreams. Slayer admits that he once wanted to be a legendary hero (kind of like Sword Maiden), but then the real world happened, and now he’s content to slay goblins and train others to do so.

The next day of training, Priestess is having lunch with the Rhea warrior, and with the Lizard Priest’s help, is able to recruit her into her party for an adventure of their own, so they can hopefully be promoted in rank. The Rhea girl warns her not to expect to much of her; I hope they take it easy with whatever their first job is.

Slayer continues to train novices and go out for drinks, and Cow Girl seems a little lonely. She also seems worried, as she drops her mask after he leaves. The village they lived in is being rebuilt, and both of them have mixed feelings, she believes the only thing to do is keep on living as the world turns and accept that change is a certainty.

Of course, some things never change, namely that you never know when goblins will pop out of the ground and swarm around you. One of the men working on the village rebuild learns this the hard way, and when Slayer and the trainees hear screams, Slayer draws his sword and instantly knows what’s up.

It was nice to see everyone take it easy this week, but the time for taking it easy can dry up fast. When goblins are running amok, dreams must be set aside, and all anyone can do is pray they have the skills, strength, stamina, and support to make it through.

Goblin Slayer II – 02 – Stick to the Plan

The Boy Wizard is rearin’ to murder some goblins, but soon learns that it’s not quite that simple. He also seems to chafe at the Priestess being the party’s leader; surely someone so delicate shrivels into a tiny ball in the heat of battle, thinks the desperately green, compulsive rookie.

The party seeks information from a dwarf craftsman, who like our Dwarf loves to day drink. He says a party of five went in, including two women, but they were all Porcelain and Obsidian ranked. Considering how the goblins treat their captives, it might be best if all of them died.

The party heads in, and immediately the boy is shocked by the level of blood and gore. Even so, when he first heard there were potential hostages, he’s determined to blast through the many rooms of the mausoleum as quickly as possible so he can be the hero.

The other party members go about their usual business, but the boy messes up their pace when he falls for a simple trap of bones and guts that makes him scream in horror, alerting the goblins. He finds the female acolyte, who is alive but being tortured with wire and nails.

In a rare moment of selflessness, the boy warns the others not to come in as the acolyte was bait and now a giant troll has arrived. But Slayer and the others pay his warning no heed, and the Priestess lays down some Holy Light to enable them to fall back with the hostage.

In a brief moment of respite, the boy sees the Priestess laboring from her magic use, and is ready to apologize for insulting her earlier. However, he doesn’t get the chance, as the troll is still ticking, even though Goblin Slayer set his head on fire. I’ll also note that the Goblin Slayer couldn’t seem more put out having to slay something that isn’t a goblin.

That said, he uses a nifty bit of chemistry, having the dwarf summon rain to douse the troll’s flaming head, then using a tosses substance to quickly freeze the heated stone-like flesh. From there, the Lizard, Slayer, and Elf bring the big guy down and mop up the goblin dregs.

It’s a testament to their skill, experience, and teamwork that even with the boy committing numerous blunders that should have killed him and others, this party got through this with minimal trouble.

The party returns to town to celebrate, but it doesn’t feel like a victory for the boy wizard. He knows he fucked up royally, but also knows that even though the acolyte is alive and recovering, he knows that “simply being alive”, as the Elf says, isn’t enough.

The acolyte, the sole survivor of her party, could well be ostracized in the future for her failure. The boy doesn’t know how quick this cuts to the Priestess’ past situation. He also finally mentions the reason why he’s so desperate to get out their and kill goblins: his sister was killed by a poison blade.

It dawns on both the Priestess and the Goblin Slayer that this boy is the little brother of the female wizard in the Priestess’ doomed party. Slayer gets up and leaves, retiring to an alley to remove his helmet, vomit, and curse himself for not being able to save everyone.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 03 – The Naked Truth

We’ve watched the first couple of days of the zombie apocalypse from the POV Akira and the woman in pink (whose name is Shizuku), so it’s good to get an entirely new POV, in this case from the star host Shuu at a gentleman’s club. His latest client is a frightened little girl who has lost everyone and everything, but he promises to keep her safe.

Shuu and his handsome co-workers adopt an entirely different demeanor upon arming themselves, leaving the safety of the club, and setting out into the Shinjuku sun, ready to do battle with the seething hordes of mindless zombies. Akira arrives via motorcycle just as this battle is about to take place.

But let’s back up a few hours, as the show likes to jump back and forward in time. To Akira’s delight, the internet is back, just when he finally has time to reconnect with all of his friends he lost touch with due to his job. He arrives at another solemn moment when he realizes the internet only works because so many fewer people are using it since they’ve been turned.

One man who hasn’t (yet) been turned is his best bud from college and rugby club, Kencho (whose business card reads Ryuuzaki Kenichirou). When shit went down, he just happened to be in the bondage room of a Shinjuku brothel. Thus the woman he was to spend the night with was already tied up when she became a zombie.

He’s been trapped in the room with her for three days with ntohing but water, and he’s starting to fade…until he gets a phone call from an unusually chipper Akira, who asks him to text him where he is and he’ll come for him.

This Akira on the other end of the line is a far cry from the last Akira Kencho saw: they’d gotten drinks about a year ago, and Kencho boasted about how much success he’d had as a big-shot real estate guy. Politician clients, model girlfriends and day-trips to Paris. Akira, at the time, was thoroughly mired and soul-crushed by his job.

At the time, Kencho told him to simply quit that job, since it wasn’t doing him any good. But Akira didn’t want to hear it, not then, not from Kencho. Now, thanks to the distraction of a car horn (which also saves Shou’s life), Akira is able to clear out the brotel and get to Kencho…so he can tearfully apologize to his friend for not taking his advice and quitting a year ago.

Kencho wants to say something too, but the horde returns promptly, forcing them up to the roof of the building. The door barricade won’t last, and the only thing to do is  jump, which is actually not that crazy an idea in such a built-up, skyscraper-packed district. With the same conviction as he risked his life to buy beer and save his friend, Akira leaps and lands hard but safe on the roof across the street.

Kencho is astounded, but after a beat, he laments that he won’t be able to make that same jump. Instead, he decides to tell Akira the truth: he hated his job too. He had a knack for it due to his gift of gab and talent for schmoozing, but hated constantly lying, manipulating clients into signing bad deals, and maintaining the fiction of the ideal happy life.

He’s sorry to Akira for showing off when they last met, but Akira already knows Kencho went above and beyond to entertain him and their friends at school and on the rugby team. Kencho admits, loudly and tearfully, that what he really wanted was to be a stand-up comic. Akira tells him again to let go of his dour fake real estate job and leap to the rooftop where he is.

Suddenly suffused with confidence (or maybe just reckless abandon), Kencho listens to his friend and jumps—tossing off all his clothes in the process. Akira laughs harder than he has in years at the muscular naked spectacle, but is still able to grab Kencho when he comes up a bit short and lift him up to safety.

I cannot say how Kencho got his clothes back, but both he and Akira have a naked beer session in front of a fire on the rooftop as the sun goes down. Kencho admires Akira quitting his job, dropping everything, and moving on with his life, even as he’s doing the exact same thing simply due to the zombie apocalypse.

Still, it happened, and Kencho believes true success comes from escaping dead-end situations that cause apathy and despair. Akira and Kencho are now free from the jobs they hated, and free to define themselves how they see fit. Akira also gets to cross off another item on his list: Drink and laugh with my best bud.

This was a beautiful portrait of positive male friendship and love. If the ED ever becomes a reality and they’re joined by Shizuku and “Samurai Girl” in a survivor’s quartet, they’ll surely have to wear more clothes. But this was an exceedingly uplifting reunion.

Like Shuu’s struggle to keep one little girl safe at the club showed, nothing is over in this ruined world until it’s over. There’s still hope, as long as non-zombified humans can still breathe, drink, eat, love, and laugh together.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World – 07 – Laid-Back Adventure Camp

Mitsuha invites the adventuers Sven, Zepp, Gritt and Ilse to her store for tea and to hire them to be her bodyguards as she accompanies them on their next trip into the wilderness. Mitsuha impresses the others with her preparation, strange clothes, and general toughness.

While she’s paying them for protection, a nice side benefit of the adventuring trip is that Mitsuha gets to demonstrate a number of products that make camping and hunting easier, from a pop-up insulated tent to a firestarter. She also gets to show off her marksmanship as she manages to kill a bird with her crossbow that Ilse missed with her bow.

That night, Mitsuha also shares some more cheap, easy-to-prepare food from her world that nevertheless is the best-tasting food the adventurers have ever eaten. She vows to make the food and other equipment affordable enough for hardworking mercs like themselves. That said, when she dons a bikini to take her bath, she scandalizes her new friends; apparently this world is a lot more modest when it comes to coverage!

Other than that little snafu, the only snag in an otherwise educational and problem-free trip is when Mitsuha does into the bushes to go to the bathroom and encounters an ornery boar. When she runs, it gives chase, and she unloads her 9mm pistol at it. Luckily, it’s just enough stopping power to bring the beast down before it gets her, but now she knows to pack larger ammo in the future.

When the group celebrates a job well done at the tavern, Mitsuha breaks out one more artifact from her nation: a gravure mag with pictures that confirm that the swimsuit she wore is perfectly normal where she’s from. While Gritt and Ilse concede that point, wearing that kind of thing here is a different story.

The episode wraps up with Mitsuha trying to create large works of art to sell by teleporting to a quarry and teleporting back while thinking of the form she wants the stone statue to take. But since her art sensibilities are limited, the resulting statues are assumed by customers to be ugly on purpose so they’ll ward off evil. Ah well…you can’t excel at everything!

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World – 06 – Visiting Friends

Mitsuha raked in 260 gold for Adelaide’s debutant ball, which she converts to 26 million yen. That’s nearly $200,000—not too bad! That also means 1 gold = 100,000 yen, or about $760. It also means 80,000 gold is worth $60,871,200. I guess Mitsuha will be spending her retirement in Beverly Hills!

In any case, the success of the feast in particular had every noble in attendance to order their chefs to step up their game, or else. That’s why Baron Turk’s chef is perhaps a little on edge and overly aggressive in his demand for fish, which Mitsuha makes clear she doesn’t sell direct.

Fortunately for Mitsuha, Lady and Duke Bozes enter the store and scare the chef off. Unfortunately for Mitsuha, she must close her store for the day because Lady Iris drags her back to their manor in the boonies for a long-delayed visit.

Beatrice in particular is jealous of being the only one not to attend Adelaide’s ball, and gets Mitsuha to commit to planning her ball when she comes of age in two years. That night Mitsuha is feted with a celebratory feast, the quality of which she does not comment, and also has to come up with some pretty wild explanations for how the logistics of Adelaide’s ball played out.

Mitsuha talks for so long, she ends up staying the night, and Beatrice visits her late at night to get her to reaffirm her promise to handle her debutante ball. Beatrice impresses upon Mitsuha how ladies are engaged at 10 and become adults and marry at 15.

Beatrice also starts asking pointe questions about Mitsuha’s love life, which we know to be non-existent. At one point Mitsuha wonders if Beatrice has the hots for her, then finds notes under her sleeve from both her brothers and her dad, who paid her to pump Mitsuha for info.

Mitsuha agrees to provide Beatrice with intel, but she’ll pay her for it as well (never doubt Mitsuha’s ability to make a profit from any situation!) Also, the information will be completely manufactured, in order to best mislead the Bozes men and maintain her intriguing, mysterious persona.

When Mitsuha returns to her store, a fight between a fugitive and a bounty hunter bursts inside. Mitsuha takes a quick check of her armaments, but ends up wisely using a non-lethal pepper spray. When the fugitive runs out with one of her knives, she gives chase along with the swordswoman.

She then meets an archer girl, babyfaced spearman, and grizzle greatsword-wielding veteran: the perfect fantasy adventurer/mercenary guild party. Liking the cut of this quartet’s jib, Mitsuha immediately hires them for a mission—the nature of which we’ll no doubt learn next week.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World – 05 – The Debut

Lord and Lady Reiner accompany Marcel and his sous chef to Mitsuha’s for a tasting session. Once again, the menu is exclusively pre-made/boil-in-the-bag dishes, which saves Mitsuha time and money while still exceeding the standards for taste in this world. When the Reiners agree to avail themselves of her services, she doesn’t just want to provide the ingredients and training for the kitchen staff.

If she’s in this, she wants to handle every aspect of fair Adelaide’s big debut party. This marks the first time she’s taken someone with her back to her world—in this case, to a hyper couturier friend of hers who is instantly inspired by Adelaide’s striking beauty. Needless to say, the ethical and metaphysical ramifications of sending someone to her world are skimmed over…we’ve got a party to plan!

Throughout all these preparations, Mitsuha’s store is closed, and we see someone trying to open her door. That made me weary—what if someone got their hands on modern Japanese tech when she’s not there to shoot them? But the debutante even starts off without a hitch, with Mitsuha using projected backgrounds from her laptop and dry ice smoke to add to the theatricality of Adelaide’s gorgeous outfits.

While impressed by the special effects and charmed by Adelaide, the assembled nobles chafe at the paltry portions. But that complaint is answered when they’re presented with an elaborate buffet of foreign delicacies, including fresh fish and seafood. The Bozes family are among those nobles, and Lady Iris snags Mitsuha to chat while her son talks to Adelaide. It turns out Iris was the one trying to enter Mitsuha’s store.

The only real snag the party hits is that it’s been such a blast for all in attendance, no one leaves when they usually would, and the kitchen starts running out of food (and energy). Coach Mitsuha excuses herself from the Bozes, rallies Marcel and the chefs, and improvises, prepping a huge batch of French fries and breaking out a big spread of desserts.

The banquet and ball are a massive success, and Adelaide even flashes an angelic smile of gratitude. Other nobles with daughters about to come of age will have to step up their games, which likely means they’ll be reaching out to Mitsuha for her consulting services—where the real big bucks are.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt – 02 – Heart of Gold

After bathing and dressing, Ninym goes to wake Prince Wein up, only to find he’s dreaming of a woman with a bigger chest than hers. What would have been a sweet moment was marred by a dumb boob joke. It’s kind of a harbinger for what’s to come: a tolerable story marred by poor execution.

Last week I forgave the fact that armies looked like grey blobs, and that CGI chess pieces replaced the combat animation for the most part. But after this week’s siege of the gold mine Natra just conquered, I no longer see clever workarounds, but cheap shortcuts. Weeks supposedly pass in this episode, but the action is so poorly portrayed it feels like a long afternoon.

The whole premise of the show is that Prince Wein is a genius, but this week it’s abundantly clear that it doesn’t require a genius to defeat Marden’s larger numbers. Not only are the enemy commanders one-dimensional mustache twirling villains—and racist against “Flahms” like Ninym—they’re also dumber than a sack of bricks, falling for the most obvious traps and failing to understand concepts like “high ground” or “bottlenecks”.

That said, the Marden general’s biggest mistake is the racial slur his pompous envoy directed at Ninym. Wein confirms that the envoy’s words are the general’s, then sets up a raid on the enemy headquarters that ends with him telling the guy that Ninym is “his heart”, and any who wound his heart shall die by his own hand. This is devotion we didn’t quite see last week, and it at least gives this part of the battle a pulse.

Sadly, the rest of the episode doesn’t really measure up, as between the awful personalities of the enemy commanders and the awful production values that I sometimes worried would stray into Wizard Barristers Episode 11. With Wein’s common sense tactics being laughably portrayed as potentially empire-shattering genius, I struggled to find something to keep me watching next week, and for now, that’s the easy rapport between Wein and Ninym.

The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt – 01 (First Impressions) – Can’t Lose for Wein-ning

Despite the obnoxiously-long title, this is not an isekai, but a comedy that happens to take place in a renaissance-level fantasy world. In it the Empire of Earthwold lords over many lesser kingdoms, including Natra, presently led by Prince Wein, whose father the king is ill. The thing is, Wein doesn’t wanna rule Natra, which is in dire financial straits.

He wants to make it just attractive enough to sell to a greater power, then begin the retirement stage of his life. He’s lazy, and wants to take the nearest shortcut, but he’s hampered throughout this episode by another quality he possesses: tactical and strategic genius.

Yes, while he acts petulant goof in front of his personal aide Ninym (and no one else), Wein is in fact too smart for his own good, and enjoys the fierce loyalty and admiration of his older military advisors, who would no doubt change their tune if they knew the jerk was planning to sell their kingdom!

But that threat of being found out doesn’t really factor into this first outing. Rather, Wein plays the role others aks him to play, rallying the troops and coming up with a plan to fend off the army of a neighboring kingdom. Again, he doesn’t wanna, but he’s backed into a corner.

As such, he gives a rousing speech to the toops and executes the battle plan, which works out far better than he was expecting. Part of that is due to his agreement with the Empire to train Natra’s royal forces, once again potentially shooting himself in the foot.

But when the enemy’s general charges his camp, Wein and his aides retreat, goading the enemy into giving chase right into a canyon trap, where Ninym and a force of archers mow the enemy down, cementing Natra’s victory. It’s here where the brutality of war and the quirky comedy clash the most.

Once back at the strategy table with his military advisors, whom Wein knows want to invade their now-vulnerable neighbor, he tries to propose a plan far too preposterous for them to accept…only for them to accept it immediately and assume he’d seen the plans they’d already made.

Prince Wein’s inner voice has a chibi avatar who does all of his internal, genuine reactions while maintaining his princely façade. But if it’s money he wants to put his kingdom in a better position to be sold, invading a gold mine is probably a net-profit proposition.

Genius Prince isn’t going to win any awards with its production values, but other than some muddy-blob-looking armies and quite a bit of still-shots with streaking white lines indication action, it’s an inoffensively adequate-looking affair. The comedy is similarly unimpressively competent.

Mostly, should I continue this show I shall look forward watching Wein’s interesting friend/confidant relationship with Ninym, who stays by his side despite his shenanigans, as well as watching him continue to succeed despite trying to fail. It’s Machiavelli-meets-Bialystock!