Princess Connect! Re:Dive – S2 11 – All Done But the Fighting

Saying she’ll protect Karyl is one thing, but Pecorine can’t get within fifty feet of her, as every time she brushes back a bunch of Shadows, another takes its place. Finally Kaiser deploys a “doll-ified” Jun as yet another shield, and Peco, who is already tiring, is gravely wounded when Jun drives armored fingers into her ribs.

Meanwhile, under the palace, Twilight Caravan have been hired by Neneka to get her true body back. When they find Christina there guarding it and spoiling for a good fight as usual, Eriko is more than happy to oblige, as she’s just as up for a tussle and a half. But as berserky as Eriko is, Christina’s Absolute Defense holds up.

While on the run with Yuuki, Little Lyrical and the civvies, Kokkoro is suddenly transported into Ameth’s realm, where they meet for the firs ttime even though Ameth sees her as a friend. She also sees Kokkoro as the only one who can be trusted with a special charm that will keep Yuuki’s power in check, as he’s currently unstable and liable to sacrifice himself to save any other member of the Gourmet Guild.

Back in the bowels of the palace Christina eventually wears three members of Twilight Caravan down, but before she can stab Eriko through the eyes, the two other members of Caravan show up: Anna and Ruka. The latter even manages to land a strike on Christina, who then breaks out Absolute Offense on top of Absolute Defense. Still, Caravan’s goal is to set their client’s body free, not defeat her. But before Eriko can smash Neneka’s holding pod, someone awakens who shouldn’t have.

Pecorine, who simply won’t give up on Karyl no matter how many times Karyl tells her to run, charges up her Princess Strike and defeats (but doesn’t kill) Jun. Jun, free of the “doll-ification”, then serves as Peco’s shield when Kaiser lashes out with her own offensive magic.

With Jun as her shield, Peco loads up another Princess Strike, then another, then another, and what do ya know, it does the trick! Kaiser is finally taken down?! Of course, with several minutes left in the episode plus one more episode to follow, I had my doubts this was a real victory…

At least it allowed Karyl to finally come down from where she was suspended the entire episode, the poor thing, and land right in Peco’s arms. And after all the loud and intense battles, it was nice to have the world return to some kind of quiet, calm normal…even if only for a minute or so.

After that, the “Kaiser” Peco cut down turns out only to be a Shadow clone; the real, and far more scantily clad Kaiser, is the “someone” who woke up down in the palace basement. She’s awake now, and with one little flick of her wrist, Jun is suddenly out of commission. Peco and Karyl are pressed into the ground by intense gravity, and Kaiser prepares to make two more sacrifices to the cause…

…Which is of course when Yuuki shows up in full Hero Mode. Assuming next week is the finale, I’d be perfectly happy with a third to a half of it being taken up by the final battle ending in victory for the good guys, followed by the remaining portion given over to said good guys having a much-deserved rest and feast in Eustiana’s newly-liberated castle. Whatever happens, it is sure to be gorgeously animated.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive – 05 – Hospital of Horrors

This week Yuuki has a bad fever, so the girls take him to the hospital. At least, they think it’s a hospital. The eccentrically dressed (even for this world apparently) Doctor Mitsuki and her nurse Nanaka assure them that they’ll have Yuuki feeling “30% better” in no time, and to leave him in their care.

Turns out Mitsuki and Nanaka are part of a guild of dark mages called Twilight Caravan who bring in the injured to use for their experiments. Their third member Eriko, possibly the most unhinged of the three, is the very person Yuuki “rescued” with an onigiri, and is convinced he’s her “soulmate.” What she intends to do with him is left shrouded in mystery…but it can’t be good, right?

What had been a “make sure Yuuki gets the medical care needs” mission turns into a “rescue Yuuki from the demonic hospital full of loons”—note neither has anything to do with cooking or food. Kokkoro creates a diversion with her stinky backwater ritual while Karyl and Pecorine grab Yuuki and sneak him out of the hospital. But Karyl realizes if the others are going to get away successfully, she must offer herself as bait to distract the doctor and nurse.

While Yuuki is rescued, the party simply swapped his captivity for Karyl’s, who appears in the sky with her thumb up in a less-than-convincing sign she’s okay. However, when they visit another doctor in town, he confirms that Dr. Mitsuki is legit and that the lad will be on the mend in a couple of days. That means Karyl will probably be fine when—and if—she’s released.

While I usually don’t give much thought to source material of anime I watch, the fact that this is based on a game with lots of colorful players was not lost on me when a bunch of new characters were introduced. This week there’s no sign of those, but instead we get yet another set of introductions, and while they are indeed colorful there’s not much else to them, and their antics rob time from the core quartet and their culinary mandate.