Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka Isogashii Desuka Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka

The synopsis was interesting. The setting about 500 years have passed ever since humans have been extinct, wiped out by the ferocious and mysterious beasts. Survivors are all living above the ground in floating islands. A small group of young girls are the only ones who can wield ancient weapons and fight off against the beasts’ invasion. However their unstable lives means that death can be knocking on their door any moment. The last living human awakens from his long slumber and decides to become their father. Paternal instincts kicking in? Are you sure he isn’t just a lolicon? Jokes aside, this series focuses on the bond between them and what it means to be a family and protect the ones you love. If only the title of this series wasn’t freaking long enough and to make it look like some harem anime: Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka Isogashii Desuka Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka. Or SukaSuka for short. Literally, why is it even asking if you are busy to save us at the end of the world? Do we have time for romance when the world is being destroyed? Maybe they’re trying to hint to us something about love will save the day…

Episode 1
Chtholly is chasing a cat who stole her badge throughout the slums. Though she catches it, she loses her balance and falls several storeys. Luckily Willem Kmetsch was passing by and catches her. However the citizens are animals and upon knowing they do not have fur or horns, they intimidate them to leave. Willem quickly takes her to a shop to buy a witch hat to conceal herself. He would gladly guide her to the port to leave this place but it seems there is a place she wants to go. They manage to get to a tower that overlooks the heart of town. Once her wish is fulfilled, she hopes he would forget him and then parts ways. Willem hangs out with his friend, Grick who tells him of an easy military job he can make lots of money with no skills or experience. Just as long as you are trustworthy. Willem rejects since he wants to live freely. But since he keeps pestering and ‘threatening’, I guess Willem accepts this military warehouse caretaker job. On the fringes of Sky Archipelago Regles Aile, Island 68, he arrives and makes his way to the base but is attacked by a petite girl, Pannibal. She is then called out by Chtholly for simply attacking. Looks like we meet again.

After getting showered and dressed at Orlandry Merchant Guild’s warehouse, Nygglatho greets him. He isn’t too fond to see his old ‘friend’ and thinks Grick set him up. But Nygglatho is just glad she gets to take care of him as she explains this warehouse is jointly run by the Guardian Wings Military and Orlandry Merchant Guild. On paper they need caretakers from both sides and Nygglatho represents the guild while Willem represents the military. She wonders if he would stay on this island because the previous 2 caretakers didn’t show up after the first day. She can arrange for accommodation away from this island but he’ll stay. He is just worried she will stab him in the back and eat him. I mean, really eat him. Don’t be fooled by this lovely maid. She is a troll (as in the beast) and Willem thinks she is trying to fatten him up and eat him someday. They cut short their conversation since several little girls are eavesdropping. Nygglatho tells them to return to their rooms are she’ll eat them. Willem better be careful… In his room, those girls again bug him but he allows them in. He meets the acquaintance of Pannibal, Tiat, Collon and Lakesh. He answers all their questions before Chtholly has them return to their rooms. After they introduce themselves, what Willem wants to know that this place doesn’t look like a military warehouse nor does it seem to store weapons, but more importantly why are little girls living in this place. Chtholly hints that both questions are related. They are the so called weapons and he is going to be their caretaker. Flashback 526 years ago when Willem was a young lad. A girl who refers to him as father is talking to him about the final war he is about to fight. She hopes he has something concrete to hold on. A reason for him to return. Or else she can’t send him off tomorrow without a smile. So how about butter cake. A super big one for his next birthday. Well, I’m sure that wasn’t the answer she was hoping for but it will do. However that wish will not be fulfilled since a year from then, humanity was wiped out.

Episode 2
Willem cannot believe all these kids are weapons. Some of them are afraid of him, though. Ithea teases Willem to be a lolicon and he plays along. When Nygglatho licks him just to taste him (?!), he gets an idea. He makes pudding for the kids and they love it. Thanks to that, they open their hearts to him. Kids are so easy and honest. Ithea continues to tease Chtholly for thinking about Willem and Nephren notices Chtholly cherishing the hat he bought for her in the closet. When one of the girls, Almita falls off the cliff to retrieve a ball, Willem is shocked that she does not mind her injuries despite bleeding. Even the other kids aren’t worried and continue to have fun. It dawned to him that they do no regard their own lives. He wants Nygglatho to tell him the truth so she brings him down to a vault. 500 years when the 17 beasts were created by emnetwihts, they destroyed all humans including their creators. Everyone has been living up in the floating islands in fear of them ever since. Inside the vault are swords called carillons or dug weapons. They are the only weapons capable of fighting the 17 beasts. But only emnetwihts can use them and if they are all gone, who is using them? Those girls are leprechauns, fairies who have imitated emnetwihts since ancient times and can use their weapons like one would. Their bodies were made as weapons to be expended in battle and fear no death.

Willem notices that Ithea and Chtholly have been gone for a few days. He picks them up when they returned. Their armour obviously ragged. He knows they have gone down to fight the 17 beasts. He knows nothing much except what Nygglatho told them. Ithea admits they are just disposable lives using emnetwihts weapons. Chtholly wakes up in the infirmary, surprised Willem is nursing her fever. She says that in 5 days she is going to die and hopes he will be nicer to her. It seems after centuries of fighting the 17 beasts, fairies are able to predict their attacks with accuracy. In 5 days, Island 15 will come under a powerful timere attack. The beasts cannot fly but a timere can release parts of tis body into the air. Although she knows it cannot be defeated using conventional methods, a fairy wielding a dug weapon can take it out at the cost of her life. She can use it to blow herself up to do some serious injury even if she can’t kill it outright. She wants Willem to kiss her as her final request. Willem seems disappointed that is all she asks for. She throws a tantrum believing she insulted her last wish. What’s wrong with wanting fond memories before she dies? She wants to leave a mark. To remain in someone’s heart. She continues sulking so he kisses he forehead. Then he strips her so he can give her a back massage to alleviate some poisoning symptoms. Is that pain or pleasure?

Episode 3
Nephren notices Willem looking through the file storage late at night. She helps him look for files on timere. Next morning, Chtholly wakes up very embarrassed what happened last night. And then when one of the girls tell her that Willem is now sleeping with Nephren, it’s that yandere look on her face. Going to take a peek… Well, technically she is sleeping on his lap. Chtholly thinks Willem doesn’t understand their struggle. They fight, open Fairy Gate and die. So Willem challenges her to a dug weapon duel. Surprisingly she is easily defeated. He lets in a little secret that the swords use the enemy’s force against them when it hits the blade. Because they don’t know the basics, all they can do is swing around with brute force. She should find a better fighting style that doesn’t involve self-destruction. Chtholly refuses to accept this because it means the deaths of other fairies were in vain. Willem then collapses and starts bleeding. Flashback shows a young Willem almost defeating a beast. However the spells he used became a curse. The beast goes into slumber for a century while Willem becomes petrified. Willem wakes up in the infirmary with Nygglatho nursing him. Nygglatho tells the girls how she was helping a group of salvagers and found Willem frozen in some underground lake. When they freed him, he went berserk and spoke a language they couldn’t understand. Some babel talisman he had helped them communicate. After calming down, they realized he is the last human or emnetwihts as they are called, left. Too bad those girls don’t really get that sad back story. Instead they excitedly rush to Willem and bug him about his heroics. Nygglatho chases them out with that I-will-eat-you look.

Chtholly still cannot accept it all so she takes a night flight but bumps into a patrolling military airship. First Grade Officer Limeskin takes her in a treats her well because her kind is considered ‘heroes’. She tells of her dilemma. Because of his different method, she is now somewhat scared of death. Limeskin tells her about resolve and resignation which are basically the same thing. All warriors have wind in their hearts. She returns only to see Willem doing maintenance on her dug weapon, Seniorious. Not sure about the mumbo jumbo about this sword but there’s a cool light show while in the midst of the maintenance. She tells him about her talk with Limeskin. Because she doubts herself to become strong, she takes up Willem’s earlier offer not to become one. He tries to give her a reward as motivation. Just name anything you want. Except marriage of course. In that case, how about making butter cake for her? Sounds familiar… An older fairy used to make it for them when she returned from battle. It’s no longer on the menu and Chtholly can’t make it. Willem agrees to bake it for her so please come back alive no matter what.

Episode 4
It has been a month since Chtholly, Ithea and Nephren went to battle on Island 15. Willem will continue to wait and believe in them. But he still can’t help waking up from this nightmare that they are no longer around. Currently Willem is taking Tiat to the city of Corna di Luce on Island 11. As Nygglatho explained, when young fairies have harbinger dreams, they are sent to this city for check-up. Since they have time, they look around the city and Tiat is having so much fun since the city is mainly used in many romance movies. Yeah, there was a lizard romance movie she just saw… As the check-up proceeds smoothly, the doctor had to tell why this is necessary to Willem since Nygglatho didn’t say a thing. Not all fairies can wield a dug weapon. Those with such dreams are said to be able to and thus the check-up is to tune them so they can fight as adult fairies. As dug weapons are too precious and the 17 beasts too powerful, they don’t want to force immature kids into battle as it would be pointless. The check-up is also necessary because as fairies are unnatural beings, some may lose their minds and go crazy. But for Tiat’s case there is no need to worry. Tiat has to stay overnight for tuning. She is eager to grown up. Willem wonders if she understands what that means because it denotes becoming a soldier and going off to battle. Willem stays at the military HQ. Next day, a lady named Phyr bumps into him and thought Willem can help her arrange a meeting with Limeskin. He apologizes that dragon dude is away fighting and has put up barriers that prevent any communication. Suddenly there is a commotion. Reports have come in regarding the battle results on Island 15. Willem rushes to get more information. It seems the defence has failed. Willem goes into shock. Shortly, Limeskin, Chtholly, Ithea and Nephren return! Not too sure about the delay in report or something. The moment Willem sees them, he uses some supersonic flash move so fast that no naked eye could catch him to hug Chtholly! My oh my! Well, if the battle didn’t kill her, his monkey grip hug sure would. Oh wait. She’ll die of embarrassment first! So I guess the rest are teasing this emotional boy and he only lets go and calms down when he takes a roll call. Yup, they’re back. But there’s a surprise in store for Willem. Not really. Should have seen this coming because Chtholly slaps him.

Episode 5
Flashback during the battle on Island 15. Chtholly was going all out in fighting the beast. However it spawns quickly. Unfortunately it spawned a never-seen-before creature and thus Limeskin called off the mission and to abandon the island. At that time Chtholly experienced some sort of creepy dream. As Limeskin explains this to Willem, Chtholly blames herself for the failure. If she had blown herself up maybe they would stand a chance. Phyr then comes in to see Limeskin. Despite calling him uncle, she is the daughter of his close friend who is the mayor of this town. Her father has received a threatening note from the Assassination Nights that they will kill him if he goes ahead in some policy. Limeskin cannot help her and suggests Willem. He turns down even before he has to hear what he says. He doesn’t intend to play the hero. There is a citation where the military cannot interfere with politics and Willem’s perception that those on the justice side aren’t any better off as they tend to use violence and force to legitimize their righteousness. Either way, Willem doesn’t care. Oh, time to go pick up Tiat. That doesn’t stop Phyr from following them. Because Tiat is hungry and smells some nice stall food, Phyr takes them to a proper and better place. Phyr and Tiat click because of how much they love the place. Strangely, it becomes a sightseeing tour with Phyr becoming their tour guide.

After a while, they are surrounded by the Assassination Knights. They plan to kidnap Phyr as insurance. These jokers… Anyway, Willem knew they were following them and was using Phyr as bait. Willem then uses his hand as an air gun and shoots them! For real? Luckily the golem guards are here to round them all up. Willem snickers and the girls think he really looks like the bad guy here. Willem gets thanks for nothing since Phyr slaps him for using her. Then she chides him for rubbing her belly when they first met (albeit accidentally) because there is some sort of romantic connotations to it. Then she storms off. Looks like she won’t be needing his help anymore. On the way back, Chtholly knows the trick to his air gun. It was just a distraction and he was shooting coins from his other hand. As his student, she knows his fighting style. She knows he wants to return to fight. That is what they are here for as they’ve on all his battles. Willem admits he spent years waiting for death, wanting to go back to those waiting for him. Meeting them has changed him. He now has a place to return. With them returning alive, it brings him happiness. Chtholly then admits that she loves him. Before they could step into the airship, Buronny Maxi from the military police wants Willem to come with him for there is someone he wants him to meet. Not interested. Till he mentions the name Souwong Kandel. It made him stop dead in his tracks. Chtholly knows the implication of this and presses hard for Willem not go. She threatens to get mad. And then cry. Well, still not enough to stop him. He promises to come back but it feels hollow.

Episode 6
Willem is shocked to see this old sage is Souwong. Likewise that old fart is shocked to see Willem alive. So all the years he cried for nothing? It’s funny to see the duo jabbing each other and Souwong sounding so gay with his comebacks. But how can Souwong still be alive for 500 years? He did die in that battle. But before that he placed a curse on himself and altered his life force. He cannot die of old age or injury and is no longer human. Souwong wants to bring him to see another person. On the holy grounds of Sky Island 2, there is something familiar with this huge talking skull. Eboncandle was the beast Willem fought before being petrified. Souwong would gladly slap him to see if this is just a dream. Eboncandle was also shocked when he woke up in this form. Willem learns that in order for the survivors to escape the 17 beasts, Souwong and Eboncandle used all their powers to levitate some of the ground that became the floating islands as we know today. Somehow that power lasted till today. The 17 beasts were originally biological weapons born as a result of an armed cult’s failed research. You could say that humans did destroy the surface. Souwong considers Willem indispensable to their plan to take back the surface. The plan is to attack the 17 beasts themselves. The battle might require all resources from all the cities. Though they can produce fairies, their problem is the shortage of usable carillons. However this touched a nerve in Willem. Flashback shows Chtholly going crazy with her crazy dream. It caused her to cut the island in half! And right now she is going crazy and losing herself.

Souwong continues explaining that fairies are borderline unstable ghosts. Souls of children not realizing they are dead wandering in the world. He considers them not as living and with his necromancy skills, allowed him to produce fairies from them. Their short lives make it ideal for combat as they produce explosive venenum. But if they generate too much, memories of past lives can eat into them causing mental disintegration. Willem is not please he takes lightly their sacrifice. He doesn’t care about Souwong’s desire to return to the surface or take it back one day. I mean, who will they return to? Who is there waiting for them? He cares more about the fairies who will die soon than the world’s future. Because Regles Aile is a place everyone calls home. Buronny comes in with a report that Chtholly’s mind has start disintegrating. Anxious Willem immediately returns to her side. He is shocked to see her in vegetative state as Ithea says she kept her promise as long as she could. She should have died in battle but because she wanted to see him so badly, she held out. Chtholly is in some abstract wold, following a girl name Elq. Chtholly doesn’t remember who she is but remembers there is something important to do and returns. You can see Willem and Nygglatho’s shock when they hear Chtholly starts talking about Willem giving her many first experiences. From her first tower view to her first loss in battle, it is no surprise he should be the first one to fall in love with. We can do the talking later because hugging and crying out loud is more important. Miracle of love?

Episode 7
On a survey ship, Rhantolk and Nopht are a fairytale about humans as the biggest mistake God made since they created beasts that destroyed the surface. Grick then comes to greet them as his way of thanking his ‘bodyguards’. They are interested to know more about these beasts because they threaten the existence of others but they are also the very reason for fairies to exist. Nygglatho examines Chtholly. She concludes that her body isn’t of a leprechaun right now because her blood had no reaction to whatever chemical that was mixed in. Chtholly is worried it may be a side effect of the coma as strands of her hair are turning red. Other than that, she feels healthy and good. Until things settle down, she wants her to stay away from dug weapons. So what good is a fairy who can’t fight? Nygglatho suggests getting married. Willem’s contract will expire and they need to drill into his head that this place is his home, his family. Since Chtholly is not confident, Nygglatho gives a little push or rather a warning to be quick or some other girls might snatch him. And so Chtholly gets her wish granted as Willem bakes her a butter cake. I’m sure it isn’t so good that she starts crying. Ah, the good taste after having fought a tough battle. Chtholly continues her normal life but has to live with Ithea constantly teasing her about her romance. Nygglatho has Willem and Limeskin meet up. Dragon dude looks weird in casual clothes because he is suspended from service for losing a battle. They talk about Chtholly’s future. As she is not a leprechaun temporarily but on paper she is still a fairy, this means she cannot be discharged nor turn down a sortie. Can Limeskin adjust the line-up? He could but the order might come from someone higher. Willem wonders if Souwong has any influence in the military. He is the top adviser. Willem wants it to send a report that makes it sound like in order to research leprechaun physiology, Willem has chosen Chtholly as a test subject. Souwong will take this as an indirect way of him to be given responsibility of her and will agree thinking he can make him owe him. Willem thinks the problem is to replace Chtholly but he doesn’t know that they have more battle ready fairies. In addition to Ithea, Nephren and Tiat, there are Nopht and Rhantolk too. Right now they are on the surface. A beast attacks a military outpost but Nopht easily cuts it apart.

Episode 8
Willem is ordered to see his superior, Goldey Mogtaman on Sky Island 49 for a mission. He has to transport a huge airship down to the surface where the team there is researching the ruins. As they have found a large quantity of emnetwiht relics, thus a large transport is needed. He gives him see a journal of the ruins. Willem recognizes some of the landmarks. It is his birthplace, Gomag City in the Imperial territory. But it is the dug weapon, Lapidemsibilus that he is interested in. After that he accompanies Chtholly shopping and she likes the idea other people think they are a couple. He tells her he is going to the surface and picked Nephren. He is tired of waiting for others to return. Lapidemsibilus has this ability that keeps its wielder in top-top condition so it might help with Chtholly’s health. This means she too wants to come along with him. While he tries to dissuade her, she is practically stubborn, citing his own words that she too is tired of waiting others to return. Heck, she even got permission from Goldey. But Willem only knows that happened because he thought Chtholly is his lover and many officers usually bring their secretaries on trips.

Willem and Nephren overslept as they do research on Lapidemsibilus. With Ithea waking them up, she didn’t think Willem had a chance with Chtholly but he indicates he has liked her from the start. Starting to look like a real couple, Chtholly gets mad when she finds out he was ‘sleeping’ with Nephren again. That guy considers Nephren like a daughter but when Chtholly asks if she was the one in Nephren’s shoes, Willem would throw her out immediately then. No food for you. Willem then talks to Nygglatho and she tells Willem that Chtholly’s worries are because she views Nygglatho as a rival. Him treating them the same means he sees her as a girl. Nygglatho also rates him highly as a man and doesn’t mind being with him. She would love to be part of his life and family. But since Chtholly’s happiness is her priority, she won’t be going all out right now. Willem has a despicable request: He wants to pretend he didn’t hear all that. All the little girls are rushing out to watch the shooting stars. They’re fooling around on the roof when Almita falls off. Willem uses his supersonic speed to try and catch her but it is Chtholly who is faster as she used her venenum. The kid is okay and Chtholly a bit messed up (though she can’t seem to remember Almita’s name) but it is Willem who is most emotional and worried mad about her. As she is no longer a fairy, he is worried there is no telling what the effects on her body are if she takes such risks. Chtholly brushes off this issue and is confident she will return to normal in no time. But during the bath, she starts to see that creepy dream again. At the end of it, more of her hair has turned red as she remembers Elq.

Episode 9
It might look like Ithea is trolling Chtholly when she asks who she is. But it’s her way of checking if she still remembers. Thankfully yes. Ithea advises her not to remember those past memories and not to exert venenum and trigger it. She might have come back this time but nobody can tell the next. Ithea also tells her a story of a girl she knew who lost her memories and woke up in a strange place. That’s actually herself when she was first brought to this place. So luckily that girl kept a diary which recorded her past self. She wanted to kill herself but it would meaningless so to atone for all that she took over as Ithea without letting anyone else know. Chtholly is motivated to live like there is no tomorrow. With Collon sick for a while, Willem hopes Chtholly can put this talisman charm underneath her pillow to help heal her. But once Nygglatho learns he dismantled part of Seniorious, she blows her top. Dug weapons aren’t toys! Sure, but Collon’s health takes priority. Can’t argue about that. Chtholly talks to Willem about his old home. What was life back then? How was food there? Did he love someone? Do you want to go back? Well, it was 500 years ago. This place is now his home. On some snowy night festival, everyone celebrates by dining and having fun inside since it is too snowy to do anything outside. Chtholly knitted scarfs for all the little ones as presents. Then she dresses up bride-like and cue for Willem to compliment her and ask her whatever. Willem also receives a letter from Phyr thanking them for their help the other day and hopes they can visit again. The day comes when Willem, Chtholly and Nephren leave for the retrieval and rescue mission. They bid farewell to the rest as Chtholly narrates that she actually has lost half her memories of these girls. She was just pretending and putting up a façade. She wonders if she really falls apart, will she still be Chtholly. Right now she wants to hold all those feelings close to her heart because one day it will all disappear too and there will be nothing left of her. When they arrive at the ruins, Nopht talks to Nephren and is sad thinking Chtholly had died. She regrets never getting along with her. When Chtholly says hi, Nopht freaks out and runs away thinking she is a ghost!

Episode 10
Rhantolk and Nopht meet Willem for the first time and are surprised he is an emnetwiht. But Willem needs a favour of them. So he is giving Nopht a back massage? Feels good, right? Rhantolk is sceptical but when it comes her turn, why does she sound more erotic? Thanks for the back massage but Rhantolk won’t give her trust easily thinking this must be his way to trick women for his evil intentions. Whatever. As they talk about the 17 beasts and if their source was from a biological weapon, there must be some sort of organism used as a base. Willem goes down to the base camp to meet Goldey. He sees Grick arguing about sending another expedition deep underground to grab more relics. Grick is against it because it is dangerous, the reason salvagers work in small groups. But what’s done is done. Willem now has to sort out the relics haphazardly chuck into the storeroom just to find the dug weapon. Several beast officers are making fun of Chtholly as more than just Willem’s secretary. But then when she starts cleaning the place spick and span, they respect her. Heck, they become her lackeys to clean the place! Their love increases when she cooks for them and even sews their clothes! Damn you Willem, you better treat your future wife good! And when Chtholly’s intention of coming down here with him is just because she wants to be with him, man they’re crying in envy that she’s too good for him. When a small tremor hits the place, Chtholly experiences that creepy dream again. This time a name, Lillia pops up. She sees Elq in a room. Lillia Asplay, a knight in a sword has taken some serious damage barges in to kill her. She wants to save the world for the one she loves. Chtholly wakes up in her room. She is glad she still remembers herself. Then she goes visit Willem who is tuning Nopht’s dug weapon, Kinslayer. He shows her Lapidemsibilus. He believes it will be the end of her memory loss days. When Willem doesn’t find anything wrong with Kinslayer, he realizes something is indeed wrong. You see, Kinslayer is a dug weapon that is used to only kill humans and yet Nopht uses it to slay the beasts. Remembering Rhantolk’s words, then it hit him hard, the true culprits who are making the fairies suffer. Immediately he hugs Chtholly and though she tries to console him, he springs another surprise by asking her to marry him! He is thankful she helped him find what he wanted, something he wanted to protect, a home to return to, a reason to live. In return, he wants to make her happy.

Episode 11
Chtholly asks Rhantolk the meaning of happiness. Well, to each her own. Now Chtholly can’t really look Willem in the eye in fear of rejection. As they go down to the ruins, Grick guides them. They see an old poster about the forces of the visitor, Elq Hrqstn. Legend has it this world was once home to gods. They attacked humans to wipe them out. The gods in the poster are Carminelake, Jadenail and Eboncandle. The ground caves in and takes them along. Others on the surface are being attacked the beast. They follow the underground cave dug by the underground team and it only leads to their massacred bodies. Chtholly starts acting strange. She hears Elq’s voice and flies off on her own. But the rest manage to keep up and find themselves before a crystalized Elq. At this point, Chtholly’s hair is 95% red. As the place is caving in, they have to run. Chtholly is unresponsive as Willem carries her out. He is by her side as she lays motionless in a bed on the ship. Chtholly is watching the faceoff between Elq and Lillia. After Lillia stabs her, she collapses. Elq explains to Chtholly that humans tried to destroy the world. To prevent that, the 3 gods watching over the world sent in an army to wipe them out but failed because a human hero killed their master first. Their master is Elq. Then they turned into beasts and destroyed everything. Elq says she is the last of the visitors who died as a child. Elq is also the name of Chtholly’s soul. Ever since Lillia killed her, she had been dreaming of becoming like he to put her life on the line fighting for those she loves. That is what those leprechauns are. And just like all dreams, they will vanish and be forgotten. Nopht and Rhantolk are feeling great as they slice the beasts. Thanks to that dubious massage… The beasts also break into the ship but luckily Nephren is around to take them out. Unfortunately she too is at her dangerous limits. Now Willem is seeing a vision of his younger self berating him about he doesn’t care about her at all. He just used a substitute to wield Seniorious. As he couldn’t keep his promise to Almaria, he made a new promise to Chtholly instead. He never saw her for who she was and kept treating her like a child. Willem denies as all he wants is to make everyone happy. He notes he has failed his promise again and after kissing Chtholly, a beast breaks in. Wrong place, wrong time. Somebody needs to get their ass whipped. Elq further explains that by now Chtholly’s mind and body have been replaced with Elq’s. However since she made it here, it prevented her from disappearing completely. Since she still remembers her joys and sorrows, Chtholly is still Chtholly. She remembers Willem…

Episode 12
Willem goes on a killing spree while he regrets being powerless to save anybody. Even if what he is doing now is useless, the only thing he can do is fight. After he saves Rhantolk from being beast fodder, he collapses from his injuries. But a few minutes later he wakes up to return to the fighting. She wonders if emnetwihts are stupidly this strong since he fought without any weapons. He tells he was one of the chosen warriors to fought enemies and saved people. It was his dream so he learnt how to fight and even tune dug weapons. However he realized it isn’t enough to save anybody. Not Almaria. Not Lillia. Not Chtholly. As Chtholly is watching Willem fight with Elq, she wants to fight one last time but Elq protests seeing she will completely lose her emotions and memories and disappear this time. She knows. But she has something to say to him one last time. Nephren is already at her limit. She expends a vast amount of venenum to save the ship’s crew. But now the ship is losing altitude after losing a few engines. Nephren slides off but Willem won’t allow it and grabs her. She warns him her Fairy Gate will open and the explosion will take the ship down. He doesn’t care. He’ll figure a way out. Desperate, is he? She tells him it is a leprechaun’s job to save others. Willem has done a lot to save them already. She lets go and plunges. But Willem still won’t allow it and dives down to grab her. Nopht is also down and heavily injured. Chtholly wakes up from her slumber (her hair now fully red) and takes Nopht’s dug weapon. Nopht tells her not to do it but Chtholly believes she cannot be happier anymore. Because she is already the happiest girl in the world. She jumps down and expends great amount of venenum to cushion Willem’s fall. Then she goes off to fight the beasts on the ground. While doing so, we hear Chtholly and Willem’s thoughts on how they meant a lot to each other, how happy they were together, etc. The beasts finally kill Chtholly as she explodes. Chtholly’s last words for Willem: Thank you. In the aftermath, Limeskin pays respects to the fallen Chtholly and Nephren. Rhantolk and Nopht recuperate in hospital with the latter complaining noisily. Nygglatho and Ithea watch over the young ones who are slowly growing stronger but taking their seniors’ death maturely. Souwong wonders if Willem is dead because he cannot trace his pulse signal. Finally, what looks like to be a new ‘useless’ world, a young baby with striking resemblance to Chtholly is born.

Remember Me The One Who Lives There, She Once Was A True Love Of Mine
I promise myself I wouldn’t cry… But I’m just bad in keeping them… Sob, sob. I am still reeling from the shock of the tragedy. Despite I had an earlier hunch that it would turn out so but I thought I could do a Willem that something would turn around and change things. However in addition for me being sad, I was also left confused with the confusing ending. We are not sure if Willem had died even though Souwong gave us a big hint. Besides, Willem was left down on the surface. Could he have survived? But the most confusing one is the rebirth of Chtholly. Not sure if this is another world or the same world or maybe a flashback at the beginning when Chtholly first came into this world. This series could have been tragically lovely but with that WTF ending, that reduced a lot of points that I would have ultimately given to this series as overall.

Despite the setting of the end of the world, what we mostly get and expected are the deep drama and romance especially between the main characters. Each of the characters might be a little cliché like Willem as the moody guy, Chtholly the tsundere, Nephren the emotionless one, Ithea the lively and cheeky one and Nygglatho the big sister and mother to everyone. Ultimately it boils down to a slow and steady romance between Willem and Chtholly. Unlike most male protagonists in this kind of genre, Willem isn’t a dense guy. He knows it but just finds it hard to show it. Sometimes it gets annoying and it makes you want to just scream to them to just be honest with each other. Sometimes it gets heart-warming to see some of the moments they spend with each other. Their relationship isn’t perfect and they do stumble a lot along the way.

So basically it’s like taking the end of the world to finally make their love shine through. Not exactly the end of the world but the end of their lives. In a way, that is like the end of the world, don’t you think? Too bad I can’t vouch for a harem because imagining Willem with the other young girls makes him look like a lolicon. Oh heck, him playing and taking care with them already makes him look like one. It’s sad that Willem during his final moments were if he was still filled with all the regrets he couldn’t save anybody. I wonder if this would turn him into a ghost and wander the surface and kill beasts? Nah… He can’t be reborn too because only fairies can do that, right? Humans all go to hell! Sorry, just kidding… Just trying to ease up a little on my sadness. I guess finding Lapidemsibilus didn’t help at all.

I can’t help but feel sad for Chtholly sometimes. Her fate is already sealed from the moment she came into manifestation. Even more so when she initially accepted her fate to die in battle. Though Willem changed all that and she got to experience love, that isn’t without its shortcomings. It is heart wrenching to see her go through the mental torture of just trying to stay sane and herself. Seeing her in anguish over her mental breakdown was just disheartening. You will never know when she will forever disappear and it could be any moment. Thus this makes her very fragile and even the more reason why she needs to cherish every single moment she has right now. It is sad that they cannot be with each other anymore but assuming if Willem is dead, then I could at least be at peace that they are reunited in death. Also assuming that new born Chtholly is not canon. So it goes to show that the most important aspect about loving each other is not how long but how much you do for each other within the limited time you have. If they really knew their time would be up for real, would they have sped up their romance? Well, better to have been in love than not love at all.

There are other interesting plots and developments in this series but given the fact that the focus is on the drama and romance, it feels side-lined. It would have been interesting to see the entire flashback of how humans actually destroyed the world and then some of them becoming the basis and source of the 17 beasts as well as what happened subsequently. It would have been interesting to see more about the past life of Willem before his 500 year slumber. It would have been interesting to see the plans Souwong and Eboncandle have in mind to take back the surface. It would have been interesting as well to know how fairies and leprechauns are actually made or come into manifestation. I’m sure they don’t come from an egg. Many of these stuffs are mentioned and explained briefly throughout the episodes so it doesn’t get in the way of the main important stuff. But I feel that the entire story as a whole would be better if they were given some attention too.

One of the other confusing gripes that I have with this series is the naming of its episode titles. I didn’t read the light novel so I’m not sure if it has something to do with it. You see, when the titles for each episode get displayed, the English translation of it differs. A lot. So much so they mean a different thing altogether. Maybe in the broadest and most general of sense but if it was me, I wouldn’t have come up with that sort of title. Yes people, my Japanese is decent enough to understand (and sometimes read!) what the simple title means. For example, an episode that I would have translated as “If this War Ended” (Kono Tatakai Ga Owattara), its English translation was “Starry Road To Tomorrow”. Huh? What about “Disappearing Past, Disappearing Future” (Kienai Kako, Kieteiku Mirai)? “No News Was Good News”! WTF?! I can sense some relatability with “Please, Do Forget It” (Douka, Wasurenaide) with “Evidence Of Existence” but how did “My Happiness” came out from “This Time It Shines”? And this is the ultimate of it all: How do you translate “The World’s Most Happiest Girl” (Sekai De Ichiban Shiawase Na Onna No Ko)? “Chtholly”!!! I know it makes sense but really… The only one that sounded reasonable was “Home Sweet Home” coming from “I’m Home” (Tadaima Kaerimashita). (Edit: I later found out the mid-intermission had stated these second titles).

There are some action bits in here although it is not the main and strong focus point of the series. It gives a reason to see young girls in dug weapons cut down regenerating beasts and blood spilling everywhere. So it isn’t that exciting since we just see the girls (whenever possible) how they just swing the dug weapon around. We don’t see the special properties of each dug weapon and it is a shame since there are a few of them and the only ones believed to be the only thing that can take down the 17 beasts. The action also somewhat signals a sense of danger that the girls can die any time so there is some grimness in this necessary bit.

Art and drawing fare well. Since it is a fantasy setting, the floating islands and the building and town structures take on more of a European feel. Despite the grimness of the overall world (because it feels like everyone is living in fear that the beasts below might somehow invade the skies someday), sometimes it feels out of place that the leprechaun ladies are so colourful in their physical appearance. Yeah, each one has a different natural hair colour that distinguishes one apart from the other. I thought it looked like some magical girl idol show. The designs of the dug weapons I can say they are creative at least from my perspective. They look badass enough and I wished I’d see more of them. Though the ‘lines’ in their blades sometimes make it look like as though they are on the verge of being broken.

When the first episode played a rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair, it was a very lovely cover of it by Tamaru Yamada and I thought it would be the opening theme for the rest of the episodes (though the song was more of an insert song). I really love that piece so much so thinking about this series automatically makes me hum that song in my head! Not to say that I really loved Scarborough Fair but it is one of those decent songs that I would hear if I ever wanted to listen to something from Simon & Garfunkel. Unfortunately Dearest Drop by Azusa Tadokoro became the series’ opening theme for the rest of its duration. For a romance fantasy like this series, playing a lively song doesn’t really quite fit into the atmosphere and narrative of it. It just feels so out of place. Especially the way this song ‘ended so suddenly’ makes it a whole lot weirder. Luckily I get my wish for Scarborough Fair to be played again albeit in the final episode during Chtholly’s final battle. It was powerful. It was sad. RIP Chtholly and Nephren. There are other slow and lovely insert songs throughout the series which have this tinge of sadness to them. The ending theme, From by True isn’t so bad as comparison although it is still a rock piece and personally I feel it still doesn’t fit into the overall mood of this series.

Generally the voice acting is rather okay and nothing really special. Those recognizable are Kikuko Inoue as Nygglatho, Juurouta Kosugi as Limeskin, Cho as Goldey and Mugihito as Souwong. I couldn’t recognize Shigeru Chiba behind Grick since he wasn’t in his usual like One Piece’s Buggy or Maison Ikkoku’s Yotsuya. Same for Rina Satou as Lillia since she has very short and limited appearances. The other casts are Ryohei Arai as Willem (Dorgon in Lance N’ Masques), Azusa Tadokoro as Chtholly (Kotori in Gokukoku No Brynhildr), Akari Uehara as Nephren (Yuuko in Nyanko Days), Machiko as Ithea (Nishiyama in Sansha Sanyou), Tomomi Mizuma as Tiat (Mei Yuzuha in Aikatsu), Kazusa Aranami as Rhantolk (Grenda in Robot Girls Z), Inori Minase as Nopht (Carol in Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) and Takashi Matsuyama as Eboncandle (Lovro in Ansatsu Kyoushitsu). The only voice acting that stood out is Hikari Okada who plays Elq. If you ever wonder why she sounds like an authentic 5 year old, she is. Okay, I don’t know her real age (not explicitly stated) but she is still definitely a kindergarten and at most an early elementary school kid. I never knew a kid’s voice could be so creepy especially when she is as Elq inside Chtholly’s head voicing those creepy dreams. Enough to give me nightmares! Lesson #1, when you hear an innocent child voice in horror movies, run! That’s why they’re so effective in scaring us.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good take on the drama and romance genre of a fantasy setting as opposed to the other real life high school or young adult type. Even when everything seems depressing and no hope but only the end of the world in sight, the notion of love pulls everything through somehow. If everyone can live every day and love everything as if it is their last, the world would so much be a better place. Boring maybe. Sometimes I think the humans of the old here lack love and that’s why they even bested the gods and destroyed everything including themselves. These people really do want to see the world burn down. No wonder other creatures term humans as emnetwihts because it sounds like dumbwits or twits or twats. Oh well. I guess they won’t be around to be offended by that.

Eromanga-sensei

This is what happens when you quickly presume things and start jumping to conclusions based on hype without doing any further research. Looking at the title’s name, Eromanga-sensei. I quickly thought it would be somewhat similar to that perverted series a few years back, Mangaka-san To Assistant-san To. You know, a manga author who is quite the pervert and thus the ecchi antics are often taken out on his assistant. Well, it wasn’t what I was thinking but the plot is something like that. No ecchi antics on the assistant despite technically the author can be considered a pervert. Furthermore, it won’t be as heavy ecchi and fanservice laden as I thought it would be because the titular character is not male but female! What is this stereotype that girls cannot be perverts? Or at least have dirty thoughts. And even more so she is the sister of the main protagonist. Imagine your sister drawing lewd drawings under an ambiguous penname or alias like that but very different in reality. Kind of reminds you of the internet…

Episode 1
A year ago when Masamune Izumi first met his little sister, Sagiri who was also brought to live together then, that was the last time he saw her cute face. Ever since, she has shut herself in her room and attempts to get her to come out has always been futile. So how does she eat? He cooks and leaves her food at her door. Masamune is a high school student but also works as a light novel author. He uses his real name as his pen name. Currently he works alongside a mysterious illustrator known as Eromanga-sensei and their successful erotic series, Silverwolf has just come to an end. Masamune attended an autograph session once the series ended and of course Eromanga-sensei didn’t show up. Strangely, Eromanga-sensei often disses Masamune’s work but in a happy fashion. There is a live streaming of Eromanga-sensei later in the evening so Masamune is going to watch it to see what kind of person this dude is. During the live streaming, Eromanga-sensei draws an illustration for fans. Although Eromanga-sensei makes an appearance behind a mask, suddenly Masamune starts to have this sinking feeling this person is Sagiri! That food he just cooked for her looks suspiciously similar in the background. Eromanga-sensei forgot to turn off the camera once the live streaming is done and is about to change. So Masamune rushes all the way banging on Sagiri’s door to stop her sister’s live stripping from being broadcasted. It is the first time he has seen her face in a year. When asked, she seems to deny ever knowing that person. He praises her illustrations and how it made all her fans happy but she shuts the door. Later Masamune goes to meet his editor, Ayame Kagurazaka and has already finished volumes of a couple of new series he has written. He has also finished the script if ever an anime is needed to be adapted. Wow. More headache.

Masamune tries to talk to Sagiri again and this time revealing himself as the self-titled author whom she has been working with. This time she lets him in. Her room’s pretty neat for a NEET. Sorry for the pun. But don’t push your luck getting too close to her or touch her things. After revealing how he found out about her identity (which she still denies), Sagiri too had suspicions the author was her brother but brushed it off as mere coincidence. Masamune enjoys talking with her as he would like to know more about her. Sagiri tells she started drawing because mom introduced her to it. She became a professional before she knew it. But after mom passed away, she couldn’t draw anymore and started shutting herself in. Till she saw someone drawing on live stream and chatting happily with others. She decided to try it out herself. Masamune also explains why he writes novels and posts them online. When he got his first fan, he was really happy. It made him continue and wonder if that fan is still reading his works today. When Masamune says he wants to get along with her because they are family, this kills her mood. She doesn’t like the idea they are family just because they live under the same roof. She kicks him out although he is happy for the illustration she drew for him. Next morning, Masamune is shocked to see Megumi Jinno at the doorstep. This chirpy girl is looking for Sagiri.

Episode 2
Megumi is Sagiri’s classmate as well as the class rep. She is here to bring her to school. Masamune is weird out when she tries to get all friendly with him. When Megumi notices her charms didn’t work, she asks if he is gay! Then she really says this: If he doesn’t react to her, his dick is useless! WTF?! And get this: She loves dicks! Did I hear that right?! Hope she is just trolling. After he lets her in, he can’t let Megumi go see Sagiri directly and lets her wait. But Sagiri is of course not happy he let her in and wants her kicked out. Even in the same house they are using handphones to communicate with each other… So Masamune puts the speaker on and lets her hear what he has to say to Megumi. Because Masamune’s goal is also to get Sagiri out of her room, Megumi suggests forming an alliance. Megumi loves making new friends. She has made friends with everyone in her grade and realizes Sagiri is the only one left. Oh, she looks like the troublesome type. Megumi goes as far as to suggest cancelling internet subscription! Monster! That is basic human right now! With Sagiri screaming, Megumi realizes the phone is on and that she could hear her. She starts to make ambiguous words and erotic sounds towards Masamune. His natural reaction is pretty convincing too. A loud crash is heard upstairs. I hope nobody died. Although she hung up, Megumi dials her number and lets Sagiri hear when she asks Masamune’s opinion about her. Lots of positive stuffs especially how good her lewd art is. Masamune also wants Megumi to stop assuming they have some sort of romantic relationship just because they live together. But if she doesn’t come out of her room, how can she make friends? Well, she does have lots of friends who treasure her. On the internet. No matter what Sagiri turns out, he will always be proud of her. Megumi leaves for now but won’t give up and come again.

Masamune has a classmate, Tomoe Takasago who also runs a bookstore whom he puts his works for promotion. Seems he didn’t like his works to be on the shelves and rearranges it to the front recommendation but she stops him from messing with her business since currently Elf Yamada-sensei is hot in the market now. Later when Masamune goes to see Kagurazaka, looks like she is in a middle of an argument with a petite blonde who claims she is the number one at Oricon, b*tching and threatening stuffs if she doesn’t get her way. Not that Kagurazaka cares anyway. Kagurazaka introduces them and Masamune is shocked to learn she is Elf. It seems she is here because there is a plan for her to team up with Eromanga-sensei for her next big story. She looks down on him as a lowly author. Pairing up with Eromanga-sensei means they will create the best and perfect story ever! Well, Eromanga-sensei hasn’t replied her yet so it’s still a possibility, no? Kagurazaka still doesn’t care and dismisses her popularity as fluke. Elf continues to gloat how she is the revolution of light novels. She is the light novel herself! So cringey… You lose. Now go home. Kagurazaka warns Masamune that she does have a valid point so buck up. Yeah, earlier on she did call him all his proposals are crap and rejected and hence to come up with new ones. So what does he do? He is screaming outside Sagiri’s door not to abandon him! She doesn’t know what he is talking about but realizes too late she opens the door easily for him. Not sure if Masamune should feel panic now that she wants to do her own laundry from now on. Because he can’t wash her panties anymore? Pervert!

Episode 3
Megumi is back! This time she brought the entire class to cheer for Sagiri to come out! I think it will only frighten her. Well, plan failed after Masamune tells them to leave. Later when he goes to knock on Sagiri’s door, she seems very shaken as she hugs him. No, she’s not in love with you. She thought she spot a ghost from the next door house! Wait, isn’t next door abandoned? Double wait. Is that the sound of piano coming from it?! Sagiri wants him to check it out as she is so scared she can’t draw. Consider it done. So as he goes check it out, he finds Elf playing the piano naked!!! So he has to call her to stop. She rushes to put on her clothes and then learns how he is her neighbour. She then annoys the hell out of him by bragging about her works all turning into anime. Viva anime! She bought this house with cash. Because thank you anime! She lets him into her Crystal Palace (that’s what she calls her home) and they started arguing about nakedness because it seems she has a fetish for it. No wonder her works have the heroine stark naked from the start. So it comes down to who will get Eromanga-sensei. They challenge each other to write a piece in which gets Eromanga-sensei’s approval will be partnered with her. All that confident talk has Masamune shrivelling up like a mole when he returns to Sagiri who was worried he took too long. Scared by herself? While he is explaining their neighbour, Elf starts shooting toy arrows at the window! He then harasses her by stripping his pants and showing his butt! However the real demon to face now is Sagiri. Who is that woman? You get along with her well? You saw her naked too? Get out. Pervert. You’re screwed…

Elf invites Masamune to her home office. From her veranda, they could see Sagiri’s room. Why doesn’t she draw her curtains? It seems Elf is going to deduce Eromanga-sensei’s identity from the internet, based on all the blogs. Her analysis is pretty accurate describing Sagiri’s character. Oh look. Eromanga-sensei is streaming now. Masamune looking worried as he peeks at Sagiri. Then Elf also takes a look. Could she have found the connection? She thinks his sister is having fun just drawing. Honestly she believes she can draw good art and if not for Eromanga-sensei, she would love to work with her. Elf cannot believe Masamune claims he is her fan. When something terrible happened to him, he was down. He read her work and found it funny. He felt at ease. He became her fan. Back then he really felt novels could save lives and has her to thank. She blushes and thinks perhaps he too has saved lives with his work. 2 weeks later, Masamune is not amused that Elf has been laying around playing games instead of working. What about their challenge? Don’t worry. It will come. She’ll write when she has motivation. She’s a genius, remember? When he tells her how he has to write every day because his works sometimes get rejected, she slaps him! Elf has a point too when she argues the reason why his work sucks is because he writes when unmotivated. If you aren’t motivated, don’t write! Shocked at her attitude for work, she replies she has never worked before. You see, being a professional author is just her hobby. The game she is hooked now is the most exciting thing in her life. He feels disappointed thinking he would get inspiration to watch her at work. So he wants to see her work? Come tomorrow. She’ll work. And so he returns only to see her greeting him as a house maid?!

Episode 4
Elf cooks a delicious meal for him. Apparently this also helps in her work because as gets to cook for him, she now understands how a heroine thinks when she cooks for other. She might write novels as a hobby but she still puts all her effort into it. Masamune goes home motivated. He goes to talk to Sagiri but she doesn’t seem happy he is getting along with the neighbour. Then he asks why she only draws her characters with small boobs. No real life reference? It dawned to him that all the lewd poses could be herself as reference. Masamune assures he won’t be horny no matter how erotic she becomes but she calls him a liar. Going back to the neighbour thing, he said they don’t get along but he has been going there every day. He will prove he isn’t a liar by writing a novel that is all about his sister as the heroine. She gets embarrassed and kicks him out. For 2 weeks he starts writing his novel. On judgment day, he goes to Elf’s house. He sees her pushing last minute her work. Once ready, they read each other’s work. Masamune is stunned by her interesting and super erotic story. A story that Eromanga-sensei would want to draw since all the heroines have small boobs. He thought his is a failure but Elf is putting up a frustrating act. How dare he made her read this. Is it that boring? She claims his work wasn’t written for the masses. It was just for one person. And with that, she can deduce Eromanga-sensei is his sister! It’s not fair! She won’t stand a chance against this super ultra passionate love letter. Masamune is embarrassed by it but feels disheartened when Elf shreds her own work since she admits her loss.

So Masamune jumps back to his home via Sagiri’s window?! Landed face first on her small boobs. Anyway, first she shows him a few drawings of girls with big boobs. She was practising the past couple of weeks and has become this good. It all boils down to this. Sagiri is worried and upset that he might have abandoned her and gone to work with a new author, thus the reason he goes over to the neighbour every day. That is why she practiced to ‘power up’ and not lose. Masamune also reveals his side of the story. They decide that they are best suited working for each other. Masamune gives her to read his winning story. Embarrassing but it’s interesting. Then she drops the bombshell that she has someone she likes. Masamune is in shock but he remembers as her brother he needs to support her as family. After that, Masamune tells his big dreams of how he will turn this work into anime, have everyone fall in love with the main heroine, learn lots of money that they can have anything they want. Sagiri takes the first bold step out of her room for the first time even if it is just outside her doorstep. But hey, it’s a start. Because Masamune always gives her dreams, she isn’t going to let him do it by himself. They are going to do it together. Let’s make their dream together.

Episode 5
Masamune seems to have an answer for Sagiri’s confession. First he says he likes her. However he wants to be her big brother. Romance between siblings is out of the question. She gets upset and locks herself in her room. But not before putting out the speaker, turning the volume up to max and screaming at the idiot. Later Masamune discusses with Sagiri that the first step to turn his manuscript into a real novel is a proposal. He wants her to draw lewd illustrations and of course she disagrees drawing lewd pictures of herself. She tries drawing but since he doesn’t find it suitable, she tries to make adjustments as per request. They hear thuds on the window. Masamune takes a look and it looks like Elf firing her toy arrows. He has to catch her when she jumps. In the living room, apparently she is running away from agents sent by her publishing company to watch her work. Looks like they’re getting serious. So she is begging him to shelter her but he isn’t interested. Unless she can help teach him how to write a proposal. Elf wants to meet Eromanga-sensei so they do so via video conferencing. The first thing Eromanga-sensei asks are lewd questions. Elf quickly pushes aside the proposal writing thingy and wants to play games with Eromanga-sensei. And with that the girls get underway with their video game challenge. After Masamune returns from shopping, he catches Elf in the act showing her panties to Eromanga-sensei! Apparently Eromanga-sensei said she would draw an illustration of her if she showed them. The agents come knocking on their door and Masamune returns Elf to them. Good riddance.

Later Sagiri shows the illustration of Elf she drew to him. He loves it and wants to make this character appear in his work. He asks if she can draw more illustrations like this because it might help motivate her. However try as she might she has hit a slump. She needs a big inspiration for this. In short, she wants to see girls other than Elf so she can get inspired so he can conjure up new heroines. To put in her own words, she wants to know if he knows anyone who is well endowed and willing to show her panties! Later Megumi calls Masamune. Time to bug him. I’m sure she isn’t calling just to tell him she is in the bath. No response… She is checking on Sagiri’s progress. He mentions she already made a first friend. Megumi screams in frustration. She wanted to be her first friend. Masamune also feels the same. Seeing she still wants to be friends with Sagiri, she wants him to meet up at the bookstore to discuss her plans. Tomoe can tell Masamune is here to find inspiration for Eromanga-sensei. So can she hop onto Skype and show her panties to her? Not so fast! Megumi is now here and she can tell Masamune as Eromanga-sensei’s author (there is a poster with his penname on it in the living room). Thinking that Sagiri also likes that kind of novels, she is going to start reading such creepy otaku novels. So that’s her plan?

Episode 6
Tomoe is most upset and almost beat her down for insulting light novels. Since Megumi wants to like what Sagiri likes, Tomoe has this devilish plan to slowly make her get hooked on them as she recommends the titles. After a while, Megumi calls Masamune to complain that all these books are so good but they are left hanging. She wants him to pressure those authors to finish it! No can do. So how? Read another interesting novel. But don’t you see that Megumi has reached her goal of liking novels? So now she wants to see her but since Sagiri isn’t too happy to do so, Masamune wants her to give Megumi a chance. She can come into her room but in exchange she pose as her model. Too be safe, Megumi is blindfolded and tied up. Sagiri instantly starts drawing passionately and this scares the heck out of Megumi as she feels those piercing lewd glares. Visually violated. It all reaches boiling point when Sagiri takes off her panties! I can see she is traumatized there. Sagiri feels sorry for her actions. So is friendship the ‘reward’? Well, not quite. Sagiri lends her favourite novels for her to read. Okay. Megumi is more than happy for it. Oh, please return her panties too. Sagiri, you were seriously trying to keep her shima pantsu?!

Masamune gives Kagurazaka see his proposal. She accepts it but can only publish it in a year! Apparently another famous author was quicker than him to get that approval: Muramasa Senju. Masamune goes berserk hearing that name again. Telling this to Sagiri, it seems that he lost out to this author in similar fashion a few years ago. Sagiri wonders if they will have financial problems but she is more than happy to help out by drawing lewd illustrations. That’s not the problem. Masamune made a promise to his aunt that if he can regularly show results as an author, she will allow them to continue their lifestyle. A year is too long and it will be breaking the promise. Plus, Masamune doesn’t know other publishing companies. This is where Elf comes in. Her brother is her editor. Outside the editorial office, they see a meek girl in kimono who accidentally dropped her manuscript. They think she is a rookie author as Elf warns her about the dog eat dog world and will be glad to have her tag along with them. They see Kagurazaka as Masamune asserts he wants his story published this year. She introduces him to Tenkaichi Budokai. A new project where 5 up and coming authors publish short stories and the winner gets the publishing spot. Masamune can’t technically enter since it is only open to rookie authors that just debuted but Kagurazaka can pull some strings. Masamune signs up for it. Kimono girl upon knowing who Masamune is then speaks up. She will not let his dream come true and will crush them. Who is she? She is Muramasa and also signs up the last spot for this competition.

Episode 7
Because Muramasa sells more copies than Elf, the latter has to shut up. Muramasa goes as far as to say she purposely got in his way to delay his publishing by a year because he got in her way of her dream. Masamune feels insulted and puts down the challenge that the winner will get the loser to do anything. Back home, Masamune feels a bit of regret for rushing. He doesn’t know what to tell Sagiri but she calls for him. It seems over the internet there have been rumours that Masamune and Elf are dating (they were going to the editorial office together). Sagiri doesn’t want him to date other women for the rest of his life. So now she controls his love life? Sagiri doesn’t want him to apologize for the challenge he made. They should take this head on. Masamune wants to use his sister story with his bout with Elf for his submission. However the story is too long and needs to be cut short. This is where Elf comes in to ‘train’ him. More like armchair critic… So eventually he is done but look who is at the front door? Muramasa?! She is here to give him the option to surrender and be hers. As in, write only for her. I thought she was going to crush his dream? She wants him to listen to her story. But the moment she steps in, she starts writing. As she is so deep in concentration, Sagiri wonders if he can flip up her skirt and reveal her panties! She heard that. When they think she is writing the continuation of one of her famous works, Demon Sword, Muramasa doesn’t remember! At least its title. She just write novels and doesn’t know what happens after that. This prompts Masamune to ask why she became an author. She just went with the flow after her debut when Kagurazaka told her to keep writing to avoid her family from bugging her all day.

Masamune thinks if she wants to read, she can go to the bookstore. However there are none that are of interest to her. The only way is to write it herself. Asking how authors rate their own works out of 100, it is without doubt they will always rate it 100. But her first fan mail rated it at a million. She then understood what it meant to be an author. Her dream is to write a novel that she can personally give a score of a million. That’s a nice dream but why crush theirs? She believes he got in her way by writing boring romantic comedy that she can’t write battled based stories anymore. This is when Elf tells her to cut the long winded story and be straight up. Otherwise this dense guy won’t get a thing or be motivated. Muramasa admits she is a big fan of Masamune’s works. She read every work of his and was sad when Silverwolf ended. So she diverted her sadness by writing more and more. She wondered why he hadn’t released a new title in a while so to stimulate him, she purposely made him angry by doing all those stuffs. She didn’t realize the situation he is in and would give her royalties to support him and his sister. This is when Sagiri for once bursts out of her room. She is screaming she will not hand her brother over to her. She will not lose him. Sorry Muramasa, even Masamune has to side with his sister. This isn’t a price high enough to defect. He wants to settle this fair and square and it will be his best masterpiece yet. Muramasa leaves frustrated but threatens to kill him if it’s not interesting. Later Masamune read Muramasa’s submitted work. He could tell it is about them. Muramasa then confesses she is in love with him, his writing and the person. His answer? Sorry, there is someone else he likes. The results of the competition is out. Masamune wins and relays this good news to Sagiri. Actually Muramasa won and garnered the most votes but was disqualified for rules violation. Later Muramasa leaves her manuscripts in Masamune’s post box. She gives his work as a million points.

Episode 8
Sagiri is in her yukata. Masamune praises how lovely she looks in it. Just like Muramasa. Care to say that again? He actually did! So hard to come out of her room and now she goes back in. She can tell Muramasa confessed to him but doesn’t know his answer. He says he turned her down. Happy? Even though he still likes Muramasa, she is only the second person in the world whom he likes. The first? Isn’t it obvious? It’s you, Sagiri. Cue to fluster in embarrassment. But all that mood ruined when he asks her why she is in a yukata in the first place. Sighs… Since Masamune will staying at the editorial office for some work, Sagiri claims she can be alright by herself. Yeah, she locks up everything and draws the curtains. But when a delivery comes ringing for a product she ordered online, she is too scared to open and wishes her brother would hurry come back. Later Elf meets up with Masamune. She has a message from Kunimitsu Shidou, the author who lost to him during at Tenkaichi Budokai. He hopes to do a wrap up party at his place. Why would a loser do that? Turns out his submission is also getting published because the publishers decided to publish the top 3 spots. All that hard work… He then calls Muramasa who is in the midst of a meeting with Kagurazaka to invite her over. Flustering at first but she soon finds her composure to accept his invitation. She might have been turned down but doesn’t mean her love will easily change.

Shidou arrives first at his place. Masamune is being too formal so he hopes they can drop the formality and be normal. Elf and Muramasa arrive. In their lovely yukata, they flank Masamune and argue the right to be by his side. Shidou is forgotten… The most pissed is Sagiri as she screams for them all to pipe down. The party gets underway with Sagiri constantly reminding Masamune about being in love with someone else. Each of them tell their dream of being an author. There is an additional dream for Eromanga-sensei: She wants to be the bride of the person she loves. After the guests have left, Masamune goes to be with Sagiri. She wonders if he was scared about that phone call during the other day since he sounded strange. He explains he is afraid of being alone. When his real mom died after getting into an accident while he was home alone, he is scared of being alone ever since. So when he got Sagiri as his sister, he was happy. Sagiri doesn’t view that as pathetic as her own will not to leave her room. She finally realizes that what he wants is a family. However she doesn’t think of him that way and doesn’t want to be his sister. But since he is hopeless, she’ll pretend to be one for a while. Good enough.

Episode 9
Elf suggests a summer data collection and writing camp. And so Masamune, Muramasa and Shidou are whisked away to a resort island owned by her family. Yeah… Also with them is… Legolas?! Actually he is Chris, Elf’s older brother. He is here to keep an eye on her in case she fools around. As expected, this is a fanservice obligatory episode because we have cutie pie Elf in her swimsuit teasing Masamune. So part of her ‘data collection’ would be for him to put lotion on her body. Chris is staring… Feeling so weird… Then they have the water splashing like lovers and also teaching how to swim (only, none knows how to swim). So when Muramasa has finally summed up her courage and put on a bikini, just in time to stop Elf and her evil plans to hold Masamune’s arm? When Masamune soaks in the bath, suddenly Chris screams to him about marriage! Shidou gets the wrong idea about them being gay! Actually Chris wants him to marry his sister. He thought they were dating since Elf was gloating on her Twitter about it. Obviously a prank. Chris is proud of Elf as she is good in a lot of things. Masamune also voices her good points. If he wasn’t in love with someone else, he would have fallen in love with her 5 times. Want to bet somebody was eavesdropping from the other side? After dinner and Masamune contacting Sagiri, Elf takes Masamune out for a walk to the firefly pond. It was the place her parents proposed. She continues by letting him know her father passed away quite a while ago. Before he died, he hoped mom could take care of the kids. She agreed and thus Elf started having lessons in almost about everything. Despite her strict upbringing, she loves her parents because she got to learn a lot of things. When mom wanted to arrange a marriage partner, that was when she drew the line. She will find happiness herself and pick her own partner. Cut things short, Elf considers Masamune to be her husband candidate. Is that a proposal? Of course tsundere caveats come with that since she quickly points out that she isn’t in love with him or anything. She just thought every day would be fun if they were married. So being married is like fun and games? But she is confident of making him fall in love with her. No, he will fall in love with her and nobody else. Also, she tells her real name is Emily. Please propose to her in that name when the time comes.

Episode 10
Masamune finishes his shelved Silverwolf story for Muramasa to read. Morning comes and he gets a rude awakening from Elf waking him up in a flirty way. This is data gathering? Flirting interrupted when Muramasa knocks her head with a ladle. After Muramasa leaves to cook, Masamune tries calling Elf by her real name and it embarrasses the hell out of her. Guess he couldn’t wait for the day to propose to her to call her that. Elf has got the entire day planned out for fun. Too bad she receives a knock on the head by Chris to get back to work. All work and no play… As everyone works on their manuscript, Muramasa is devastated that everyone including her readers know that she has a crush on certain someone based on her recently submitted work. Exploding with embarrassment, she decides to take the bull by the horns by admitting she loves Masamune and how she agreed to come with Elf to this island as part of the plan to be with him. Now this embarrasses Masamune. Elf also reveals how she fantasizes an imaginary version of him alone in her room. Muramasa is dealt a great blow when he wants her to stop that. The charade is interrupted when Chris wants them to get back to work especially Elf. When he notes he is going out for an hour, you can see the light in Elf’s eyes that it is time to play when the cat is away. She has everyone plays the king game and even has Muramasa conspiring to play so she can kiss Masamune. Not sure if Elf betrays her because she calls for the guys to kiss. See how Shidou runs away! Apparently Eromanga-sensei also wants in but how can she play via video conferencing? Elf suggests she will always be king. So we have Elf stripping (swimsuit underneath, don’t worry) and Muramasa embarrassed to tell what panties she is wearing because she isn’t wearing any!

Hate to break your fun but Chris is back. He chides Elf for goofing around and should follow Muramasa’s example. When he asks her next volume coming out, Muramasa says she has stopped writing novels. She explains about her dream to write as many novels. But today’s camp made her realize if Masamune writes novels for her, she no longer needs to write them herself. Elf dismisses that she won’t last a night and go back to writing since a novel nut like her can’t stop writing. Later Masamune talks to Muramasa alone. First he shows her fan letters from a particular fan whom has constantly sent fan mails ever since his debut. The latest one has 50 pages?! He always reads them as it cheers him up knowing that his stories are interesting and worth writing. He knows Muramasa has written these letters. Although she denies, he can tell by the same handwriting. He is showing her this so that he could thank her. He is glad his wish has come true. Although his dream is to have his works adapted into anime and watch it with Sagiri, this is just one of many dreams. So he feels it is a shame for her to stop writing just because one of her dreams is achieved. For him, he won’t stop writing even it that dream comes true. Muramasa overturns her earlier decision and will continue writing. Also, she has found a new dream. It is to make him fall in love with her.

Episode 11
Sagiri is trying to practise welcoming home Masamune. There is always that 1 perfect hit after many failures. But when the real deal comes, she runs back to her room. At least she wishes him from there. And all he got as reward is Sagiri showing off her swimsuit? Okay. Not bad. Later Masamune asks if Sagiri wants to go to a fair in Akiba that is releasing their latest series. Wait. Sagiri going out? Actually Masamune walking with a laptop while she live streams. Along the journey, we hear Masamune narrating about his past on how he came to take up this novelist job. After his mom passed away, his dad advised him to do something to cheer things up. Nothing seemed right until he saw how people wrote and posted stories on the internet. He did the same and at the same time, Sagiri became interested in his works. They communicated frequently and she sent him illustrations from time to time (at this point her drawings weren’t good and she was starting off to be a shut-in). Masamune gets his confidence renewed each time she praises his work. So much so he has decided to become a professional novelist and thinks he is a genius! Well, that’s a start. Dad bought him a laptop to help with his hobby. As the duo communicate ever more often, they try to get to know each other more. Masamune is being honest about himself but Sagiri lies she is a college student. When she learns about his late mom and why he started doing this and the main reason is because she likes his stories, this gives her a bit of motivation to go to school. By the time both graduate elementary school, Masamune has piles of stories ready for submission. Masamune is looking forward with optimism the bright future with this, though she pours cold water on it. Suddenly she tells him she will stop sending him illustrations, stop reading his stories and stop contacting him altogether. She needs to work hard to improve her drawings if they’re going to realize their dream of releasing a book together. Masamune also agrees to work hard and take this seriously. The next time they contact each other, they’ll be professionals. Arriving at Akiba, the siblings see the magnificent display of their new series. On his way back, he passes by characters from OreImo. Masamune is shocked that Sagiri stepped out of her room as far as downstairs! A miracle?! She personally congratulates him on their new series.

Episode 12
With the new series successful, looks like there is going to be another volume. If Masamune isn’t having a writer’s block now. So he needs some ‘advice’ from Sagiri as a little sister. Feeling the need to see her cute, he pets her head. However she cannot stand it and accuses him of being a pervert with lewd thoughts while patting his sister’s head. I guess that’s the end of it. Sagiri also invited Elf and Muramasa here as part of the deal for ‘lending’ Masamune during the data collection camp. They are to be her models. Apparently Muramasa didn’t hear of this since Elf agreed on her behalf. Is she pissed? Not if you say this benefits Masamune. They may start to regret this since Sagiri wants them to wear bikini and play Twister while she sketches the best erotic position. So if Masamune isn’t watching his, how is this going to benefit him? If Eromanga-sensei’s skills go up, then it would benefit Masamune as a writer too, right? Well… I’m sure Sagiri is having a swell time and I’m not sure if the duo can hold up. But I’ve got to be impressed with their flexibility and stamina… Sagiri then notices Tomoe at the door. As she doesn’t know her, she goes to spy her talking to Masamune. She is here to show him an erotic doujin work using Sagiri’s characters. When Tomoe leaves, she hints that if his works become adapted and make tons of money, she’ll consider marrying him! Is it just for the money? Now Sagiri bugs Masamune to see the work. He won’t allow her so she throws a tantrum she wants to see porn?! She manages to grab it when he gets distracted. Now there’s no going back. After looking through it, she is now motivated to draw lewd manga! Yeah, living up to her name. So once she is done with that lewd manga, she shows it to Masamune. He is going crazy not because of how embarrassing it is but rather the main characters having sex are modelled after the siblings! The worst part is that she doesn’t how a dick looks like and is in the wrong place! How do you explain to a girl about a dick? He tries to have Elf help out but she too doesn’t see the problem! Another girl oblivious about the male anatomy! It has come to a point where Sagiri and Elf are going to strip him and see the real deal! Who are the perverts now! So Masamune calls Megumi for help while the girls are pulling down his pants! Megumi sends her illustration but it is a dick of a child. Muramasa breaks her silence and sketches a surreal picture of a naked Greek statue to show them what a real dick looks like. Everyone is amazed! They see her in a new light! She is the most lewd! At the end of the day, I guess everybody had fun. Not sure if they want to keep those embarrassing Twister photos. They say goodbye to Eromanga-sensei but she still denies it.

Ore No Imouto Ga Konna Ni Ero Wake Ga Nai!
What a way to end the season with blatant fanservice and, erm, dick joke? I’m guessing that if more perverts like this series and buy more of erotic materials, I’m sure we’re going to get another season. Until Masamune can figure out another story for Sagiri to draw, I guess we’ll have to be content with this season of weirdness about a little sister who draws lewd stuffs and makes a living out of it. And then they try to infuse some harem and romance in it with other girls in the mix which makes it somewhat funny and weird altogether. It’s like people in the porn industry having normal romantic and polygonal relationships amidst it all like other normal people. It shouldn’t be all that bizarre but it is weird in that sense.

Even way before the cameo appearances of the OreImo characters in the penultimate episode and not doing any research myself at that point, a couple of episodes into the series I was already beginning to feel and having a hunch of how similar this anime is to that one. The plot and characters especially. Not to say that they are identical but you can see some sort of similarity in them. Heck, I even thought about a joke that the OreImo characters would actually pop up and make a cameo! And how true it turned out! And after that I did a little research over the internet (read: Lazy Googling) and found that this series and OreImo were in fact written by the same author. So there, the biggest mystery to the similarities solved. At least for me.

Thus there are tons of trivia for you to spot. If you are into the anime and manga world. From Sword Art Online to Shakugan No Shana to Toradora and even Ookami to Koushinryou (Spice And Wolf) making cameo appearances in posters in the background if your eyes are sharp enough to spot them. Since I am not such an expert here and do not possess that wide knowledge in this area, sometimes I wonder if the promotional posters of those works I do not recognize are made up. But I’m guessing they aren’t seeing they have so many works published over the years so I’m sure they won’t just go out of their way to make a spoof when legally they are allowed to display those works.

Compared to OreImo, Eromanga-sensei is less ‘fiery’ in the sense that the siblings in the former series start off having bad blood with each other. They aren’t on good terms and the brother is often being mad. Here, Masamune and Sagiri might feel estranged but otherwise they work together pretty well but just lack the ways of how brothers and sisters normally interact. Masamune is much kinder and would do all he can to help and treasure his bond with his sister despite not related by blood. After all, aside his father, she is the only other family member he’s got and one who helped him achieve his dream. This guy is pretty normal, caring and understanding that any girl would want as their brother. But still the weird thought that there might be some sort of incest since he is in love with Sagiri. Will they pull off that stunt they did in OreImo where the siblings hold a mock wedding? Only time will tell.

One of the biggest ironies with Sagiri is how she likes to draw ecchi stuffs and because of society’s perception on girls being lewd, it is odd to find her drawing panties of cute girls while not being a total pervert herself. She claims she likes drawing lewd stuffs but isn’t a pervert. Does that logic even hold up? Can you enjoy watching porn and yet be not a pervert to others? Hard to imagine… Especially hearing it from her mouth requesting other girls to show her their panties. Worst, she is only like what, 12 years old? To be drawing this kind of stuffs? Controversial but not my place to say. Understandably she has locked herself in her room for so long that she has zero sense of social skills. Even more surprising how she can always keep her room clean at all times. You’d expect to be somewhat a bit messy but it is clean like a typical girl’s room. So much for the stereotypic otaku shut-in. I believe to make Sagiri look as cute as possible and to enhance to moe effect, the reason she is awkward and clumsy at times. And hence this running joke that she keeps denying she is Eromanga-sensei whenever Masamune calls her so despite the obvious. Because the way she denies is so cute you’d let it slide. So she is like this Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality sometimes with her being the super erotic illustrator but sometimes she’s just an embarrassed little girl.

Other characters add a little flavour and supposedly harem factor to Masamune’s side. Like Elf being the liveliest and the cheekiest of the lot, that kind of act and treatment towards Masamune could only be seen from miles away that she would soon fall for him. What about Muramasa’s initial cold shoulder for Masamune? The seemingly rival who would stop at nothing to bring him down at first? Saw it coming from miles away too. That kind of tough act only hides her true feelings for him. Heck, I believe Muramasa’s love for him began so long ago that she when she chose this penname of hers (her real name is Hana Umezono) it feels like she took it after Masamune’s name. Because sometimes I too get confused when I type and say their name! So close! And hence to show the potential of these girls, we have episodes dedicated to them without all the interference from Sagiri to properly state out their feelings.

Not sure if I can discount Megumi and Tomoe from the line-up yet since it is too early to tell and that they aren’t much in focus. There could be another reason why friend-crazy Megumi keeps coming to visit Masamune’s house and there could be another reason why Tomoe always helps his publishing. If it sells. That final quip from her about marrying him may sound like a joke but my guts tell me that such words are to be taken with precaution because you may never know when a girl will use it against you, considering Tomoe isn’t the front runner, if you know what I mean. Even if they are part of the future harem, they are just minor dark horses unlike the heavyweight favourite duo. Yeah, maybe Shidou for some gay jokes? Well, at least he knows he doesn’t swing that way. I don’t think Kagurazaka would be interested either. She isn’t even that dedicated to her job. Just sufficiently enough to get by.

Coincidentally or not, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka who played the perverted main character manga author from Mangaka-san To Assistant-san now plays a novelist here as Masamune. Also strangely, Yuuichi Nakamura who played the main character Kyousuke in OreImo now plays as Masamune’s father. At first I thought it was Ayana Taketatsu who plays Tomoe (and so I thought I could point out she was also the main character Kirino in OreImo) but it was rather Yui Ishikawa instead (Mikasa in Shingeki No Kyojin). The other casts are Akane Fujita as Sagiri (Sistine in Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi To Akashic Records), Minami Takahashi as Elf (Megumi in Shokugeki No Souma), Saori Oonishi as Muramasa (Vigne in Gabriel Dropout), Ibuki Kido as Megumi (Claire in Seirei Tsukai No Blade Dance), Seiichirou Yamashita as Chris (Kakeru in Orange) and Mikako Komatsu as Kagurazaka (Tsugumi in Nisekoi).

More familiar feels that this series could be a spiritual successor of OreImo because the opening theme also feels somewhat familiar. Claris who sung the opening themes for both seasons of OreImo, reprise their roles for this opener, Hitorigoto. But unlike in OreImo which has different ending songs for each episode, we just have one for Eromanga-sensei. Adrenaline by TrySail is your typical lively anime pop. There is also a special ending theme for episode 8, the slow and lovely Natsuiro Koi Hanabi by Akane Fujita.

Tired of hearing and seeing shades or the fact that I’m mentioning how this anime is so closely reminiscence of OreImo? Well, here’s more. This time the art and animation department. A-1 Pictures who produced tons of animes like Sword Art Online, Ao No Exorcist, Nanatsu No Taizai, Kuroshitsuji, Saenai Heroine No Sodatekata, Working!!, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, Senjou No Valkyria, Uta No Prince-sama series, Shigatsu Wa Kimi No Uso and Fairy Tail, they also did produce OreImo albeit the second season (the first was done by AIC Build). Cute! Everything is so cute here! So don’t be surprised to see similarities between the characters like Masamune and Kyousuke, Muramasa and Kuroneko, Sagiri and Elf and Kirino, Tomoe and Ayase. Except maybe for Chris whom I thought came out from some epic fantasy movie. Hmm… Long flowing blonde hair… Could he be Legolas? OMG! Legolas retired as an archer to be an editor! Also to note, Muramasa always in her purple kimono keeps reminding me of Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi since she too is always seen in her trademark purple kimono and has short hair. Don’t tell me they take her design after her.

Overall, you will either love this anime or hate it. Especially those whose passion are in the otaku world, this could serve as some sort of motivation that being otaku is still niche and going strong. At least in Japan. But even those who love anime and manga might start to loathe the trend of where this industry is going when series like this are being churned out regularly. Whether the industry has fallen far from its grace or taken a different step towards greatness. If this kind of animes become acceptable, will porn be an open thing in the future? This series especially of this genre opens up for discussion a myriad of different opinions. While Eromanga-sensei may not be a masterpiece or surpass the popularity of OreImo, by itself is satisfying not because it is trying to make you love the otaku world and paint it all glitzy and nice but rather the inspiration to make one do whatever one can to achieve one’s dreams. Even more meaningful when you have something or someone in mind to work towards to. Now that you have little sisters drawing lewd illustrations, coming soon, My Little Sister Is a Porn Star!

Room Mate

I guess it is time for the girls to also have one. Because Room Mate is some sort of spin-off sequel to One Room. Only for girls. In the name of equality. In the name of feminism. Oh, screw all that and today’s political culture. Even some girls get lonely too and if 3D men don’t really cut it, perhaps those 2D fantasies could really turn you on. This show could be it if you’re feeling that loneliness in your heart right now. Luckily you don’t need a VR headset to watch this.

Episode 1
We arrive at a huge dorm since starting today we will be the new manager. Outside, a seemingly not too impressed Takumi Ashihara (maybe he looks like that) greets us and helps take in our luggage. We then see Aoi Nishina practising his lines before greeting us too. Finally Shinya Miyasaka comes out in just a towel as he sarcastically says how we got this job because our relatives had no luck in job hunting and thus ended up here as the manager. We could have sued him for indecent exposure and harassment if he wasn’t looking this smoking hot. Takumi tells us their rooms are all on the second floor and points to ours.

Episode 2
Takumi receives a summons to be a certified climber. However he intends to decline since he doesn’t want to be the centre of attention. That night as he watches the scenery from the rooftop, we go talk to him why he climbs. Duh. It’s his hobby, right? It clears his mind as he doesn’t think about unnecessary things while climbing. We encourage him to become a certified climber and will support him. He isn’t sure but we are the first person who ever said something this nice to him. Really?! Maybe he should smile more often. Later he knocks on our door to tell us he is going to do it and become a certified climber. We are so happy. What made him changed his mind? Well, we did say that we are going to cheer him on, right?

Episode 3
We can Aoi’s next role is a samurai one as he practises acting and talking like one. Until he tastes our delicious dinner we made that it brings him back to his normal character. Yeah, nobody made him such a warm and delicious food for so long and he is grateful we reminded him of it. Uhm, thanks? Later we watch Aoi practice and again he is grateful for bringing him a bottled water. Then he tells us how he loves acting but being with us he feels so relaxed that he could tell us anything. It’s like he wants to rely more on us.

Episode 4
Shinya is busy that he doesn’t want our breakfast. But since we put up that sad face, he relents and tastes our ‘horrible’ coffee. Later we serve him more coffee but he gets suspicious. Why would somebody do this if not for an ulterior motive? Then he strips right in front of us. Because he is going to bath. He thinks we are thinking of something indecent and then corners us. Luckily Takumi and Aoi pass by and restrain Shinya to avoid any reported case of sexual harassment. Because of that, Shinya is punished to go buy groceries. He blames it is partly our fault and must accompany him. We maintain our positivism throughout the trip. Next day we serve him coffee and he calls us a dog for being happy.

Episode 5
We interrupt Takumi’s training to tell him the owner has sent cakes for them. He looks very eager to have it. Then we wake Aoi up from his dream land for the same and also bug Shinya about it. Is that guy crying upon hearing it? The trio have their fill on the delicious cakes with Takumi devouring them the most since he likes sweet things. We present them a note from the owner. It is a ban on romantic relationships between the manager and tenants. Was there love blooming in the first place?!

Episode 6
Thanks to that, Takumi seems to be bothered. He avoids us and makes simple mistakes while climbing. Then it turns out he is sick. I thought it was love sickness but he is really down with a cold. We enter his room to feed him porridge and nurse him back to health. Next morning he is fine and we asks why he was avoiding us. He apologizes that he wasn’t confident that if we were together, he couldn’t protect us anymore because of the ban. Oh you silly boy. That is what you’re worried so much?

Episode 7
Aoi suddenly asks us to be his wife! You might have guessed it is for a role he is playing. And either because we’re acting so lovey-dovey or just plain bad, Shinya couldn’t take it anymore and kicks us out! On the rooftop, Aoi sees the next scene is a kiss. Already flustering, Takumi then climbs into the scene. When Aoi explains about his next role, Takumi notes he doesn’t seem to be into this role as much as usual. He becomes depressed as we talk to him. He wonders if he wasn’t acting and the ban was because we asked the owner for it. We assure him the owner came up with this on her own. It made Aoi’s day. His face lightens up as he believes he still has a chance. In his acting or love?

Episode 8
Takumi and Aoi can tell something is wrong with Shinya even though if he doesn’t want to admit it. It’s all over his face. As usual, we go talk to him as he talks about acting cocky during such times. It seems Shinya still has feelings for someone that is already gone. He can’t forget about them and really cared for them. Apparently they weren’t enough for him. He turns to us and thinks maybe we are perfect for him. We remind him of that ban but he pushes us down and tells us his bad boy behaviour. The more he is told he can’t do something, the more he wants to do it. Of course he backs off as it was all a joke. The next day, we found out his ‘lost’ was his cat family in a video game. Yeah, he is really so sad about it. Well, in today’s world…

Episode 9
A cold wet rainy day. Time for a full fanservice episode because the guys will be soaking in the bath. A few abs and ass shots here and there. Maybe this is what girls want… Anyway the trio talk how things have changed ever since a certain someone arrived. Things have been fun lately and they’ve been eating dinner together like never before. Shinya takes the opportunity to say that both of them have fallen for her. It is pretty obvious. Otherwise he won’t have to hold back. I guess it’s the same for him. He further teases that by the time they realize it, we might already belong to him. Aoi protests so Shinya hints in that case they should know what to do next. Why are you looking sad?!

Episode 10
Shinya sheds first blood when he tells Takumi would he not mind if he asks us out. Actually he does. And so with the guys interested in us, the only way to settle is via competition. We will be the judge. First up, Shinya’s video games. Obviously he wins with his ‘finger technique’ since he does this often. Next is Aoi’s stilts. He has got experience walking on them so he wins. Finally Takumi’s wall Twister is just so odd that only he can play it flawlessly. So who wins? I guess we can’t decide. Shinya knows Takumi is hiding something so the latter reveals that he has received a letter for an overseas expedition and will be going. The rest know what to do when he’s gone. Shinya then mocks us this must be nice. All we have to do is act naïve. He warns this isn’t going to last forever.

Episode 11
Everyone is acting strange. Yeah, even Aoi lost his acting chops. Something is going on… Shinya tells us straight that they are inviting us to the fireworks festival. Also, each one of them wants to talk to us individually. Shinya starts first as he tells us he will be away for a while due to work. He even gets straight with us because of that he is giving us time to decide who we want to date! Next is Aoi, he too will be going away for his acting work. Lastly, Takumi. Well, he only complimented our yukata since last episode he already told us he’s going away. So we watch the fireworks as the guys calm us down that they’ll come back.

Episode 12
We’re seeing off the guys. They’re saying goodbye before their long trip. For Takumi, he hopes we stay by his side forever. Aoi confesses he loves us but he wants to say that again when he comes back. Lastly, Shinya is being as condescending as ever as he reminds us we’re his dog. You mean, b*tch? So the seasons pass and when spring arrives, we are glad to see the trio back at the dorm as they welcome us back.

Friendzone Room
You know, I was hoping there would be one ‘funny’ and ‘horrifying’ twist in the end. And that would be the camera turning around to reveal ‘our face’. We are actually a fat ugly lady!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Oh my!!! The guys have been blinded and in love with the fat ugly dorm manager instead all the while!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Whoops… Sorry. Couldn’t resist it. Yeah, goes to show that love is blind.

Despite the familiar setting and flow, Room Mate is a lot more different in its presentation and approach than One Room. If it was exactly the same, it would be a waste and a bore because all you need to do is just switch the genders of the characters and dupe viewers into watching a new series. That would really suck so with this different style, it gives a fresh new reason why those who watched One Room should also watch this. Not because you’re a straight guy or a homo.

The most obvious difference being that instead of focusing 4 episodes per girl in One Room, this one has all the guys appearing together in every episode. I guess even girls dream of their own harem. It is both good and bad because unlike one on one approach, there is not enough quality spent with each of them. Sure, in terms of appearance the Room Mate guys appear more than the One Room girls. But because we have a personal interaction with the girls, this gives us more quality in the bonding and interaction personally with that girl. The Room Mate’s guys’ attention are spread out although each has their own short moments with us in each episode.

The less obvious difference is that I notice that for most of the times, you are not really looking through the eyes of the main protagonist. Yes, there are times when you see through the first person view but like I said, it feels like only half of it. Because if it was so, we wouldn’t be shown the guys while conversing with them from different angles. And the angles of the view do change often. Don’t tell me we are jumping here and ducking over there while we are talking to them! The guys would definitely point it out to us what the heck we are doing!

The small gripe which I have is the misnaming of this series. Because when you say you are someone’s roommate, you are practically living with them in the same room. However as this series turns out, you are a dorm manager and living in a separate room. And this dorm is too big to be considered anything of a room size. Unlike in One Room which is aptly titled because girls visit and come to your room. Instead in here, we hang out with the guys in usually the main living room or dining hall of the dorm.

The pacing and the character development feels similar to One Room. Because with only 4 minutes to spare for each episode, how much solid development can you get? I am guessing that the distinct personalities for these guys are what girls commonly want in their fantasies. Like Takumi who is the taciturn type and also the one with the best body because show me those abs baby! Some like their guys as cute and petite like Aoi. Shinya might look like he is intimidating as well as sarcastic and cold. But I read somewhere over the internet (a long time ago) that some girls like this kind of personality in a guy where they are dominating and take the lead. There is this sort of thrill of being submissive. It goes the same for guys who love dominatrix women. But I guess this explains why Shinya is always acting cocky and being a dick instead of treating us nice like a princess.

Now, this is one of the oddest things about this series. Those who watched One Room would expect some sort of fanservice because it is targeted for male audience. What kind of fanservice do girls get? I know. Guys getting shirtless. Nothing wrong to that. Except that it is done in the weirdest fashion. If you watched the ending credits animation, it starts off as pretty normal because you’ll see all the guys posing and being clothed. But as you watch further, their clothes will slowly disappear leaving them naked at the end of it all! Whether it some magic lighting or some magic detergent or some magic eraser or even some seemingly clothes eating bacteria, everything comes off in the end! Of course, the necessary parts are strategically covered. Unlike girls who can show cleavage and pantsu shots any time, guys just can’t walk around shirtless so this might be the only way to do it? Really feels weird. An exception is the last episode where the guys stay fully clothed. I guess with painful goodbyes and happy reunions, let’s not spoil it with some cheap fanservice, okay?

It goes without saying, Typhoon Graphics who did One Room also animated this short. As usual, hot looking guys supposedly to make girls and gays swoon over. Not the most bishonen of all bishonen but still decent enough to be considered as ikemen (handsome guy). Also, the small casts are Tomoaki Maeno as Takumi (Junichi in Amagami SS), Natsuki Hanae as Aoi (Takumi in Shokugeki No Souma) and Kousuke Toriumi as Shinya (Cecil in Uta No Prince-sama series). The trio also perform the ending theme, Kimi Iro Smile which doesn’t sound all that bad. It is the only song throughout the entire series unlike One Room where you have a heroine singing solo a piece for their arc.

My end impression is the same as with One Room. Cute but awkward at times. As a guy watching this, it is just ordinary. I’ve seen a few reverse harem animes myself so this isn’t all that bad but not that cheesy either. Of course at the end of the day, I’m still a straight guy and watching this doesn’t turn me anywhere near gay. If watching such makes you so, I would have turned gay a long time ago. So you see, not all of us are lucky enough to find that special significant other and the 2D world provides some sort of respite. All we want is to love and to be loved. Even if that lover only exists in our monitor screen. It goes to show that men and women aren’t really all that different from each other when it comes to this sort of things because don’t be surprised that girls even play video games and watch porn. Humans will always be humans.

Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon

Oh boy. After that ‘tormenting’ mix of blending maids with a young boy, I was wondering if they would throw something else to the mix. Thank goodness dragons aren’t so bad. Wait. What? Dragon maids? Imagine combining something that is legendary fearsome and something that is legendary cute. Cool! And so Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon is about a dragon taking shape of a human maid to serve her human saviour. That’s all there is to it. Nothing really epic or suspenseful. I think I can live with this one. Better than having a boy maid, right?

Episode 1
Kobayashi thought she drank too much and is still having hangover the next morning. Because when she prepares to leave for work, a giant dragon is before her! Then it transforms into a kawaii dragon maid, Tooru. So have they met before? Apparently Tooru is grateful when she saved her in the mountains. To show her gratitude, she wants to work as her maid. Maid? But why? You see, Kobayashi loves maids! Well, Victorian era maids. At first she didn’t want to take on Tooru but seeing how dejected she is, Kobayashi gives her a ‘chance’ to fly her to work. Safe to say that is the last time she’ll be riding like that. Tooru needs to be thought the basics of what maids do. Otherwise she might destroy the house or kill any guests at the door! Plus, whenever Tooru is unsure, she calls her fellow dragon friend, Fafnir for advice. Too bad it is kill everything for him! Tooru did some good when she manages to scare off a couple of thieves trying to break in. Will the police believe them about seeing a dragon? When Kobayashi’s colleague, Makoto Takiya invites her out for a drink after work, Tooru is overcome with jealousy. She’s trying hard to hide her killing intent! Tooru thought she could join in the conversation but it is so deep with engineering terms! She will soon learn how ‘dangerous’ Kobayashi can be when she is drunk. She becomes an obsessed maid loving freak as she forces Tooru to be a real maid. On the other hand, Takiya also turns into a typical otaku to give his otaku ideas. In the end, Tooru had to transform into her dragon form to fly passed out Kobayashi back. She lets Takiya see her true form although he would like to think of himself as drunk. Oh, she has some invisible barrier that prevents other humans from seeing her too. Kobayashi buys casual clothes for Tooru as thanks. Then she has her learn hygiene practices from the internet while she is away. Are you sure? Well, time to consult Fafnir… Kill everything! Maybe not… Maybe Quetzalcoatl (or Lucoa if that is too hard for you to pronounce) will help. She goes on ranting about some Midgard tree and its roots… Don’t ask. As the laundry won’t dry in time due to the heavy clouds, Tooru uses her dragon breath to blow them away for a sunny day! Kobayashi returns home and catches her sniffing her clothes. Nice scent? When Tooru sleeps with her, she has nightmares of her past where knights and wizards try to kill her in another world. A sword struck her. Kobayashi asks if it still hurts. It doesn’t now.

Episode 2
Kobayashi accompanies Tooru to the shopping arcade for the first time. It seems Tooru has made friends with all everyone! When a snatch thief is seen, Tooru asks for permission to stop him. As long as she doesn’t expose her dragon self. Okay. But she uses her super speed and strength to overpower him. Well, glad everyone is cheering her heroics. Back home, a little loli dragon is at the doorstep. Kobayashi thinks she is Tooru’s friend but Kanna Kamui starts accusing her as a slut and to break up with Tooru! Tooru almost misinterpret Kobayashi ‘cheated’ on her with a little girl. Kanna turns out to be her friend and is looking for her since she went missing. Kanna mistook their ‘date’ at the bazaar although Tooru blatantly admits she is in love with Kobayashi. But it seems there is another reason why Kanna is here. She is exiled from her world for a prank. Therefore it will be futile to send her back. I guess we know where she is going to stay. Though, Kanna tries to act tough that she doesn’t trust Kobayashi. Okay. He won’t force her. Tears of joy? Kobayashi wants to take the dragon ladies outside to play so Tooru whisks them to some faraway plains. While Tooru relaxes, she is shocked to see the dragons engage in death match! Is this how dragons play? They claim they are keeping it to human standards since they saw it on TV. Sorry to crush your dreams. As Kanna hasn’t been in this world long, Tooru thought of teaching her some human stuffs. Well, there are some she isn’t sure so she probably lied a bit. Cars run on magic, do they? As they continue to hang out, Kanna speaks to her as she thought she was dead. On the verge. She escaped to this world and that was when Kobayashi saved her. Thus she is now her maid to repay her debts. Then they go peek at Kobayashi at work in their dragon form. Don’t worry. They’re hiding behind the clouds. Oops. I think Kobayashi saw you.

Episode 3
Due to the cramped space of her current apartment, Kobayashi decides to look around for a bigger space. She finds one with a rooftop that is a communal space. First thing to do is to clean and pack up their stuffs. Tooru finds old photo albums of young Kobayashi and slacks off. Kobayashi finds her old manga and starts reading, slacking off. Tooru finds an old maid outfit Kobayashi ordered. She put it away since she saw how bad she looked in it. Tooru gets permission to try it on. Chest area a bit tight… They finally move their stuffs over to the new place. Kobayashi uses the rooftop to wash Tooru in her dragon form. Since she is so huge, it feels like washing a car. After a hard and hectic day at work, Kobayashi mistakenly walks back to her old apartment! On her day off, Kobayashi is annoyed by the noises of her neighbours. Tooru on her behalf goes to tell them to quiet. The loud noises are from Ms Sasakibe’s cooking (?!), Mr Yana’s hideous KISS imitating rock music singing and old Mr Soune who is using a drill to carve his wood! Eventually the trio argue and blame each other for being loud. Tooru wants to kill them all when Kobayashi comes up with a solution to organize a schedule the times they don’t want others making noise. Otherwise earplugs can be the other option. Kanna couldn’t find the perfect spot to sleep. She finally does. On Tooru’s lap. Kobayashi wants to invite Takiya for a party here. Tooru doesn’t like it but Kobayashi also has her invite her friends over. Well, Fafnir appeared in his demonic dragon form! Luckily Tooru tells him to turn into his butler form as shown. Finally arriving is Lucoa. Man, she’s got big boobs fit for a porn movie! And she’s dressing like a slut?! While Fafnir gets hooked (and annoyed) playing that Dark Souls game, Kobayashi tells Lucoa that she is grateful for Tooru. Before she came, she wasn’t smiling as much. The same can be said for Tooru. But Lucoa seems to have something against liquor. Tooru reveals something about her being drunk and got kicked out from her goddess seat. When Kobayashi is drunk, she starts harassing Fafnir to be a true butler before turning to force strip the mature dragon ladies.

Episode 4
Noticing Kanna is looking at kindergarten kids walking pass by their place, Kobayashi decides to enrol her in school. But first they need to buy supplies. However Kanna is picky about her stationery as she wants them cute. The bag is expensive so Kanna understands the need not to add any more costs and puts back a cute keychain she wanted. Then there is this interesting point of view when Tooru asks why the school uniform needs to be the same. Kobayashi replies the need to be similar or else one would get ‘eliminated’ as humans don’t like things that are different than themselves. Kanna is so excited for school that she sleeps with her bag on?! Till she realizes how uncomfortable with it and throws it off! Everyone loves Kanna as the new transfer student, thinking she is some foreigner. However Riko Saikawa is jealous and wants to challenge her. Kanna starts crying since all she wants is to be friends. This makes forehead girl repent and step down. Of course Kanna was just shedding crocodile tears. Just as planned… And now Riko is some sort of biggest admirer of her. One day Kanna brings Riko home as the latter is crying. Just now at the park they were almost hit by a ball from few teens playing dodgeball. Because one of them was rude, Riko didn’t like it and challenged them. Challenge accepted. Too late to realize the sh*t she has gotten into. And since Riko isn’t popular, she can’t recruit others for tomorrow’s challenge. That’s where Kanna has her dragon pals to join in. It is no surprise that the dragons owned and dominated the match and send the losers running away in heavy defeat. But after that, the dragons have their own score to settle with each other. Thus the playground turns into a battlefield as the dragons pitch their powerful explosive throw at each other. Yeah, it’s literally hell. Don’t worry. Lucoa can revert things back to normal and tweak people’s memories. How convenient. Next time, try to play normal dodgeball, okay?

Episode 5
Tooru is bored so she sets her invisibility mode to peek at Kobayashi at work. However she gets mad to see her chief scolding her to fast track some project. She trips him. But that bugger continues to tell off Kobayashi to work faster and Tooru as going to explode! So what she do? She trips him multiple times! He just can’t get up! OMG! Is this some comedy? After work, Tooru could tell Kobayashi was around. She wonders if she was that bored so Kobayashi explains she just wanted to know about her more. Kobayashi remembers a colleague telling her how much happier she is now. She wonders how she was like back then. It doesn’t matter because she has forgotten. Oh, the chief got fired for abusing his power. Fafnir decides to live in the human world for a while. Tooru wanted to let him stay here but since Kobayashi shows to no sign, maybe the mountains will do. That night, the news reports a monster being spotted and police are dispatched. Next day, Tooru reminds him not to stand out. Fafnir didn’t like sneaking about to hide himself from humans. Maybe he should just kill everybody… Tooru decides to help him find a place to stay. Fafnir asks her since she has gotten used to this world, can she kill a human when she returns to theirs. She intends to stay here. Even if Kobayashi will die, she treasures these moments right now. She doesn’t want to have regrets. Since no agency is willing to take Fafnir’s gold, Kobayashi has an idea where to house him: Takiya. It seems he has no qualms letting Fafnir stay. In fact they get along well. Yeah, they’re gaming buddies now. Tooru and Kanna watch a spoon bending magic on TV and want to try too. Despite they can easily bend a spoon with their strength, they aren’t happy because you’re supposed to do it easily. So Kobayashi blows her top when her entire utensils are bent. Learning what they’re trying to do, Kobayashi easily demonstrates she can do it! Tooru is shocked, thinking humans have some hidden power. As she doesn’t want to lose out to humans, she goes on a cliché training that includes waterfall mediation, balancing mediation and even bear training? Don’t ask. In the end, she still has brute strength. Tooru then teaches her how to do it via science. She knows what she wants is to understand humans and that’s why she’s desperate when she can’t. She advises to do things that only she can do. So the next magic trick that shows a magician’s assistant being transferred to another box, Tooru pops out in her place instead! Real magic?

Episode 6
Riko invites Kanna to her home. She hopes to bring Tooru too since she has her own maid. Folks, meet Georgie. Despite not in a traditional maid outfit, Kobayashi instead takes a liking and starts ranting about the evolution of maids. Wow. So deep… Naturally they both click very well and Kobayashi doesn’t like it. But since they invite her to talk more about maids, I guess it’s not all that bad. However with the duo talking deeply about maids, Kobayashi feels left out. Riko plays with Kanna in her room. I want to say there’s nothing naughty about it but they’re playing Twister… As they play video games, Kanna feels worried if she is making friends well. Riko then admits she likes her a lot to the point she wants to marry her! Kanna agrees! Then she goes on top of Riko! Something steamy could have happened had not Tooru barge in wanting to leave but the maid maniacs won’t let her. Once they do, it is revealed that Georgie is Riko’s older sister and another maid fanatic. Lucoa visits Kobayashi to tell she has a home to stay here. Apparently a kid, Shouta Magatsuchi tried a ritual to summon a demon. She answered the call first. I am guessing he is mostly shocked over her huge tits. What Lucoa wants is for Kobayashi to help explain to him that she isn’t a demon. Shouta comes from a line of mages and was thus performing the ritual. Mages are living here quietly but one day if they have to return to their world, Shouta wants to become a full-fledged mage. Thus he is working hard and that ritual. But Lucoa can’t be a freeloader. She needs to do something. She can’t be a maid since mom does the housework. Whatever she offers, Shouta doesn’t need it. Wow. This kid is level headed. The only last thing left is to offer her body! This freaks him out as he believes she is a succubus. Wow. This kid may be gay. Takiya seems to be training Fafnir to become a full-fledged otaku for events. Fafnir is also addicted to gaming, spending 21 hours and levelling up like hell! He doesn’t sleep or eat! He narrates about humans being hits or misses. While misses are quickly known, the hits take time to know if they’re the right one. It is troublesome to spend time with every humans but he feels the misses who trespass his home to steal his treasure were better. Though, he believes Takiya is a hit.

Episode 7
Beach episode! Fanservice time! Especially Lucoa who is just bordering indecency with those bikini and boobs. Oh wait. She is! No wonder Shouta is so afraid and hides behind Kobayashi as his safe space! So we see them in the usual fun of putting lotion, overpowered watermelon smashing and Tooru turning into a dragon to give them a sea ride. Tooru wants to know about Kobayashi’s family. Pretty normal. Even her way of keeping in touch with them from time to time is normal. But from Tooru’s side, she can’t bring Kobayashi to see her parents because they hate humans. In her world, Tooru would be the odd one for sticking with humans. It’s a reason why she wants to spend more time with her. Kobayashi and Tooru visit Comiket to help cover Takiya. Apparently Fafnir is here but he has his own doujin circle to sell! A few minutes after the doors open, there seems to be an earthquake. Actually the crowd stampeding in! Are you scared Tooru? She helps out in the line and learns how fearsome Comiket can be especially the heat. A photographer thinks she is into character despite her attempts to clarify she is a real maid. During their break, they visit Fafnir’s booth. He is ‘dead’. Only his booth has no line. Not selling well? Apparently his book has real curses in it! Outside, Tooru can sense that there are a lot of other creatures from other worlds walking freely around. The best place to hide a leave is in the forest. When she talks to them, they run away in fear after knowing she is a dragon. She gets permission from Kobayashi to expose a bit of her true form. This has photographers flocking to take pictures of her. My, such a long line. At the end of the day, Kobayashi asks how her first Comiket is. She gets to reassure her love for her. But when Takiya requests their help again for winter Comiket, Tooru runs away! No more torture! I guess Fafnir is another defeated soul. Sales definitely didn’t go well.

Episode 8
For Kanna’s upcoming field trip, she wants Kobayashi to make her bento. But Tooru insists to do it and since Kobayashi won’t back down, it’s going to be a food competition. Lucoa, Fafnir and Kanna will be the judges of this best of 3 rounds. First round goes to Kobayashi since her tomatoes beat Tooru’s salad. Next round goes to Tooru because Kanna prefers hamburgers to bacon and eggs. For the final round, Tooru lets Kobayashi taste some fruit candy she bought. Then it turns out to be a carnivorous creature trying to eat him! Of course Tooru gets disqualified for bringing ingredients from another world. After dinner, another dragon lady, Elma crashes in and wants to take Tooru back. Despite being strict with Tooru, she is actually a nice person. Kanna explains Elma and Tooru don’t get along because they are from different factions. Even dragons have factions? Elma is from the harmony faction who wants to get along while Tooru is from the chaos faction who wants destruction. Does it sound like Tooru’s the baddie? The last time they fought, 3 islands were decimated! So they’re going to settle it again? Not in this house! Tooru opens a portal to the plains where they could fight. But once Elma steps in, she closes it! Sneaky! Elma returns the next day and you can tell she is upset. But looks like her stomach is growling. Here, have a bread. Now that she has had her fill, she leaves happily. Kobayashi is shocked when Elma is introduced as his new colleague. Apparently this is coincidental. Her job is to see if other creatures would be able to live in harmony here. Obviously she lacks knowledge of human’s technology and Kobayashi has to teach her. Elma dreads pay is only in a month. What will she do about food and rent? She explains she can’t go back as she doesn’t have enough power to open a portal like Tooru. Kobayashi buys her a croquette. She’ll be glad to teach her things. When Kobayashi returns, Tooru could smell a different scent on him and gets jealous. Kobayashi is sleeping on her much needed day off but Tooru wants to clean. And she really cleans everything spick and span. When Elma comes by to give Kobayashi a protective charm as thanks, Tooru gets jealous and blows her away! Tooru hints to her that she is selfish and holding back a lot and yet she is being mean. Kobayashi replies about the complexity of human relationship. Sometimes she puts distance with others. She has friends but not close friends. He pats her head and hopes she understands. That’ll do. Tooru will make her a protective charm too.

Episode 9
Kanna wants Kobayashi to come to her sports festival but she can’t citing work. She can’t take the day off as that is the same day of her project’s deadline. She will have Tooru accompany her instead but Kanna isn’t happy. She starts sulking as Tooru tells Kobayashi that Kanna probably wants to be spoilt by her since that’s the reason why she got exiled for playing pranks just to get her parents’ attention. One day Kanna spies on Kobayashi at work. When she comes home, she tells her she doesn’t need to come. Knowing she is just putting up a fake front, Kobayashi decides to work longer hours and beat the deadline so she could have that day off. Kanna is really happy when Kobayashi tells her she is able to come. So for the sports festival, we see Riko loving every moment of it especially the 3-legged race since she gets to have the most physical contact with Kanna. Either she wins it or she screws up. Shouta is embarrassed to acknowledge Lucoa is here because she is always cheering for him and her boobs can’t stop bouncing. Well, that seems to contribute to his victories since everybody else got so distracted. For the final relay race, Kanna slips up and drops the baton. Her class is in last place when she finally passes the baton to Kanna the anchor. Kanna zooms past from last place to win the race and the overall for her class! Everyone praises Kanna as Riko feels guilty and dares not talk to her. Surprisingly Kanna licks her face. She thanks Riko for putting in the effort. Kanna thanks Kobayashi for coming. Despite she can’t go all out like she used to, it’s better to be with everyone else. Kobayashi wonders how much of herself has changed since she is able to participate in this kind of activity.

Episode 10
A guy from the shopping district was supposed to put on a show for the old folks home for Christmas. But he is injured and Tooru volunteers to take his place. Since Kobayashi is busy with work, Tooru rounds up the rest. They brainstorm on what to do and it is decided they adapt that matchstick girl story. Fafnir becomes the director since he sucks at acting. But his authoritarian ways means everybody fails! Lucoa has Shouta cross-dressed and he looks like a real girl! After Elma takes over as director, it seems Kanna is most fitting to be the matchstick girl. As they practice, they also try to infuse a few things to make it interesting like 47 Ronin and magical girl (Fafnir’s idea). Kobayashi and Takiya arrive in time to watch the play. Starts off normal till Fafnir pops up as a demon lord bestowing magical girl powers. Then there is Lucoa as a scantily clad fairy, accidental setting fire on a city, Elma as a samurai trying to avenge her lord by fighting Tooru the head of her clan. Yeah, they even use real fire and magic! The old folks think it is great CGI! Kobayashi thought the play is done for but she sees how everyone is enjoying it. The play is a success and everyone celebrates and parties back at Kobayashi’s place. After everyone leaves, Tooru takes Kobayashi on a night flight in her dragon form. Tooru also has a present for her. Not sure what this thing from the other world is since it is mosaic out. Kobayashi doesn’t look impressed, though… Kobayashi also has a scarf present for her. This makes her happy and starts flying haphazardly. Careful. Don’t want to kill your master on Christmas night, do you?

Episode 11
Tooru wins a kotatsu from the shopping raffle. Now they’re addicted and can’t leave. The maid is becoming lazy… So much so nobody wants to answer the door. Tooru is forced to and each time after attending a neighbour and going back to the kotatsu, another doorbell rings. They talk about the Chinese zodiac and Tooru can’t believe the story in which the dragon comes after the tiger and rabbit. Kobayashi has Kanna and Tooru dress up in their kimono so they can go their first shrine visit on New Year’s Eve. The rest are there too. Tooru gets a great curse for her luck reading. Apparently this must be a good thing for a dragon since she’s so happy about it. After midnight, Kanna suggests everyone visit Kobayashi’s home and share the kotatsu. But the little ones fall asleep and the adults continue their New Year eating. Eventually they fall asleep where they are except for Fafnir who continues to stay away playing video games. I swear that dragon has never slept. They manage to get it up in time to watch the first sunrise of the year. Then it is back to kotatsu addition again. Kobayashi throws an orange skin but misses. Not even Tooru wants to pick it up, giving excuses. Heck, Kobayashi went to pick it up so she can throw it again? Missed again! Why so troublesome? Kobayashi soon receives a call from mom asking if all is well. Tooru doesn’t seem too happy. Tooru wonders why Kobayashi doesn’t return to her family for the New Year. She isn’t on bad terms with them but is used to life like this. What about Tooru? She could go back if she wants to. Tooru replies that living here with her is her life now. Kobayashi gives her first New Year’s money to Tooru and Kanna who for the first time receive them. Shouta despite dreaming of auspicious things, they are all in the form of Lucoa! It’s going to be a bad booby year…

Episode 12
Tooru as usual cleans up the place sparkling clean and does the laundry. All that is left is to make dinner. Unfortunately she is over budget and hopes the chicken store seller could give her a discount. He would like the do some service for her but this price is already as low as he can go. No choice, she goes back to her world to get those ingredients. Well, as long as it’s not her own tail. A flashback shows how Kobayashi and Tooru met. Kobayashi was having a rough day with his boss hounding him over the deadline and covering mistakes of others. Naturally on her way home she started drinking and got drunk. She missed her stop and got off in the mountains. That is where she met injured Tooru in dragon form. But Kobayashi is so drunk that she isn’t scared of her threats. She even hugged her and pulled the mighty sword from her body! Tooru is surprised and grateful since she lost a fight with the gods and ran away here. She didn’t think someone who lacks in faith would be able to pull it out. Kobayashi continues to be a drunkard forcing Tooru to drink. She transforms into a human form to do so. They both get drunk and started complaining about their lives. When all is done, Kobayashi offers her to come stay with her since Tooru is alone in this world. She can also be her maid. The rest as we know is history. When Kobayashi asks if there are humans in her world, Tooru describes a human girl she once associated with. This bandit girl was on the run after attacking a noble and hung out in the mountain ruins where Tooru resided. Tooru threatened to kill her but she isn’t afraid. Bandit girl asked what it’s like to be a dragon because she could do whatever she wanted. But Tooru wonders if it is so since as a chaos dragon, there was hardly anything she could freely do. Bandit girl says if she had freedom, she would become a maid and fall in love with her master. Even if that sounds like enslaving, at least she did it because of her own choice. Tooru then hang out and listened to more of her stories till one day she decided to cross the mountains to the next country. That was the last she saw her and wouldn’t mind seeing her again. She could be why Tooru is Kobayashi’s maid now.

Episode 13
When Tooru is out shopping, suddenly her inner voice is trying to sow doubts that she can no longer keep living like this. It is trying to tell her she is a dragon and not a maid as well as the possibility she will have a reason to return to her world. As much as Tooru tries to fight it off, before she knows it, her father appears. He believes she doesn’t belong here and forcefully takes her back. Kanna sees this and tells Kobayashi that Tooru has returned to her world as she cannot go against her father who is the Emperor of Demise. At first it shocks Kobayashi a lot as she tries to maintain her composure. Trying to live a normal life without a maid is hard. Kobayashi is forgetful, rushing and clumsy. A subtle reminder to tell us to appreciate our maid! So gloomy that Riko doesn’t even have the mood to sexualize gloomy Kanna. One morning, Kobayashi hears Tooru’s voice outside her door. She has returned! But their reunion is short-lived. Her father returns and is not amused she has done so without permission. He reminds her about the rules of the world that must be obeyed and that they can’t interfere in this world. Her feelings to stay here is not relevant. When Kobayashi wants to speak up, father shoots a warning shot breaking her glass! It scares the sh*t out of her! But she gathers her courage to say what she wants. If Tooru wants to stay then she is staying. Can’t interfere in this world? Then he can’t kill her. Then there is some future possibility how dragons might invade this world if they are influenced by this. But Kobayashi argues if it is so, it is not Tooru’s fault and he is just twisting it to make her look responsible. She relates all the good qualities of Tooru. The best one: Because she is a maid! Don’t take away my maid! Father and Tooru then go to another dimension to fight. Kanna brings Kobayashi there to intervene. She lectures him about compromise and respect. They can understand each other if they spend time with each other. They have been doing so for some time and if she can have faith in Tooru, why can he have the same in his own daughter? Seeing her resolve, father although still does not approve of it all, backs down and leaves for now. He will not take it from a creature who has a different lifespan than them dragons. Tooru gives Kobayashi a big hug. They return to their normal lives and it is sure good to have a maid around. Tooru knows there will come a time to part with her master but right now she wants to treasure the time they have together and believes she would not be better off had she not met her.

OVA
Tooru looks like she rigged the Valentine chocolates. That evil laughter… But when she gives it to Kobayashi, she is hinted and warned about the trust that will be forever lost. Instantly she takes it back. Yeah, there was really something in it. If you’re wondering why Lucoa has so many bowls of chocolate, Shouta can guess she is planning to cover themselves in it! In school, Kanna receives lots of Valentine chocolates and this makes Riko jealous. Eventually she gives hers as Kanna seeks permission to eat it now. Riko must like her fingers being sucked, eh? Elma shows Kobayashi she got a chocolate from a colleague. However other colleagues soon give Kobayashi theirs and in no time she has a big haul. You jealous? Kanna who wants more chocolate, returns home and finds Tooru’s hidden rigged chocolate. She eats it and then offers Kobayashi some. The moment she bites, she feels something strange. She realizes too late this is Tooru’s chocolate. Before she becomes a pedo, she goes to sleep. Tooru comes in to check what is wrong. But are things going to get hot between them? Suddenly Kobayashi blows her top at Tooru for wearing to wrong maid outfit. Turns out the chocolate had alcohol properties and it avoided getting her into serious problems. The whole gang take a trip to the hotsprings. We get a bit of fanservice but don’t expect much. Kobayashi asks the question of why the dragon girls take the human form as they do because they could have looked cuter if than this. There is some brief magic process explained but I’m not in the mood for that. This has Kobayashi wonder her dragon form. Each start fantasizing what she would look like. Weird imaginings. Fafnir learns that Takiya planned this trip as part of the community to help look out for them after that Tooru’s father incident. He also considers Fafnir part of this community. Takiya teases him as a tsundere because he says how much he hates him. Later we have weird ping pong matches. Tooru and Elma’s are too fast for the naked eye to see, Takiya and Fafnir looked like some choreographed cheering while Kanna and Riko are just the girliest and cutest! That night, Tooru gives Kobayashi a clean Valentine’s chocolate. As thanks she lets her hold her hand. Give an inch, want a mile. Because Tooru wants to consummate with her. She’s not supposed to say that out loud. Okay. Cut the talk and let’s just do it! I don’t think that’s what she meant either. On the way home, the tired girls are sleeping but Tooru and Elma still have enough energy to fight each other.

Dragon Musume No Iru Nichijou (No, It’s Nothing Epic, Really)
I supposed the sudden change in pace and drama for the final episode is necessary to give some ‘shock’ value because we have been watching their everyday lives and antics, it might be getting too predictable and boring after all. With Tooru’s dad making his fearsome appearance to take her back, at least it shakes things up a little. It isn’t a laughing matter when the maid gets taken away! No way! Never in a million years! I expected it to somewhat end with Tooru getting to stay with Kobayashi because I just love a good sense of justice. What justice? The good guy always gets the maid in the end! Yahoo!

I have a few questions that kept occupying my mind ever since. For example, if dragons can turn into humans in our world, why not they transform and assimilate into humans in their own world? Assuming humans there are the same as those here, it’s not like they could tell apart assimilated dragons, right? Unless they can’t transform here but then again it doesn’t make sense because there is less magic power in this world. Maybe it is a dragon’s pride to show who is boss in the other world. Also, if Tooru’s father mentions about the fear of other dragons following suit and then some sort of invasion as well as non-interference, does it not make any sense because I thought they are from the chaos clan? Creating trouble and destruction is what they’re supposed to do, isn’t it? Am I missing something here? Ah well, something a human like me cannot understand. Lastly, how did Kanna open up a portal to let Kobayashi settle the fight between father and daughter? I thought she was so weak that she couldn’t return to her home? Maybe she has improved so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Aside these unanswered questions, it doesn’t diminish my overall enjoyment for the series.

The characters are lovable and that is what makes this funny series even more enjoyable. But if I have to point out the most ‘boring’ character ever, it would be the titular character herself, Kobayashi. She is somewhat bland, plain and normal. That’s it. She has a bit of her own quirks but that is usually overshadowed by the quirkiness of the other characters around her. Basically she is a nice person who treats her maid well. She minds her own business. But as you might have noticed, having those dragon girls in her live has made her a better person as she smiles more and has something to care about. I have this conspiracy theory that Kobayashi is a female instead of a male is to prevent from making this series look like some sort of horny dragon harem. That is why Kobayashi is also closely dressed and looks like a male to have that androgynous look. Therefore no sexual subtexts and jokes are to be expected if the main character is to be a man. I mean, could you not resist it if you have a maid? I know I won’t… :-/.

The dragon girls add live and colour with each of them having a distinct character. Without them, Kobayashi would have been living the same boring life had not Tooru (maid dragon), Kanna (loli dragon), Lucoa (boobs dragon) and Elma (foodie dragon) entered her life. Well, maybe she would have more peaceful and less intrusive life but it didn’t turn out that way. So for Tooru, she is like the eager maid who wants to serve her master wholeheartedly. She has a potential to become yandere if her master doesn’t give her the appropriate attention and mixes around with others but thankfully this isn’t that kind of anime. In a way, Tooru sounds a bit possessive as she wants Kobayashi all to herself but she has to open up because you know what they say, sharing is caring. Sometimes. That’s why perhaps there is this running joke that Tooru always wants to cut off her tail and slip it into her cooking to let Kobayashi eat it. Well, dragons are lizards technically so their tail can grow back…

Despite the normal but extraordinary master-servant relationship between Kobayashi and Tooru, I can never see that this will turn into some sort of pure romance. It never hit me until I was typing my end thoughts for this blog. Is it because Kobayashi is female? Is this another reason why Kobayashi is a woman? Oh, you’ve never heard of yuri relationships, haven’t you? There are stories about masters and their slaves or maids falling in love and eloping but it never crossed my mind for this one. But the dynamics of their relationship goes to show that despite their different species and world origins, they are able to put aside their differences and trust each other to live a normal life. Case in point for Tooru who mistrusts humans before coming to this world. Now she has a place to come home to and look forward to tomorrow. So can you say that a bad day at work for Kobayashi is actually a blessing in disguise that led to this fateful encounter? I think it is.

Kanna is ‘better’ than Kobayashi in terms of personality despite her monotonous and emotionless character. Well, at least she is moe and cute. You can never beat that. Doesn’t it make you want to hug and cuddle her? Don’t you want to have a dragon pet sister this cute to hold in your arms and squeeze to death? No? Okay. Lucoa sometimes gives Tooru advice but they’re usually not really the best. Basically she is practically useless besides her boobs. Fafnir has surprisingly turned from kill-everything to a hardcore otaku that he is probably the dragon that has assimilated the closest to humans. And of all the human kind, the otaku. See, people. Anime conquers even dragons! Too bad his doujin never sells. I have a theory that he now takes his kill-everything notion to online games. I guess that way is better. Elma was introduced quite late in the series although it feels like it is purposely done for the comedy effect. Strangely despite her constant ‘riff’ with Kobayashi, Elma is quite incompetent and seen as one who loves to eat but can’t afford it. Personally I think she isn’t as useless compared to Lucoa because at least she is seen trying and learning despite still failing. At first I thought she was a unicorn or narwhale because of her single head horn and her fish-like tail but I guess dragons come in all forms of shapes and sizes.

For the human characters like Riko, she is fast becoming stereotyped as some sort of lesbian and gets her kicks whenever she is with Kanna. It is like that loli dragon is a form of drugs for her because each time she has physical contact with Kanna, you can see that orgasmic ahegao face. As though this is what defines her existence and reason to live. A total opposite for Shouta because ever since Lucoa started living in his place, the constant shoving of boobs in his face has left this kid traumatized. And you thought that this would turn him into a future king of perverts by starting young but instead it had a negative effect. This guy has learnt to fear boobs that flat chested girls like Kobayashi are his refuge and solace! I guess lots of boys his age would love to trade places with him but you won’t know the real hardship until you’ve been in his shoes.

If Kanna exists to satisfy fans of flat chested loli, then the same can be said about Lucoa whose existence is to satisfy those who love big boobs (the kind of boobs that exist only for hentai). Dragons having big boobs in their human form may sound like fanservice but I guess this is the only way to not ‘lose’ their majestic assets. I mean, dragons are huge so naturally they would have huge tits too, right? Because of this, it got me thinking that if all the dragon ladies have big boobs (I know Kanna hasn’t have them yet but give her some time and she’ll grow a voluptuous pair), then in turn don’t you think that Fafnir has the biggest dick ever too???!!! OMG!!! I know you’re going to kill me for saying it but just think about it. If it is no exception that the dragon ladies have such big busts, then it is only right for male dragons to have big penis, am I not right?! Probably why Fafnir doesn’t seem to show it is because we might be ‘intimidated’. Or maybe he just has a sma-… Whoops!

The one thing that boggles me although it doesn’t really have any deeper meaning to it is the scene in between the skits in each episode. You see, as each episode can be divided into a few skits, they are ‘set apart’ by a yellow background followed by 5 dots that eventually turn into numbers or symbols. This in turn form some sort of equation, pattern or emoji. Like I said there isn’t anything deep about this and could be for just fun but I can’t help think that there is some sort of conspiracy behind to it all. You know, maybe a cheat code or something?

The art and animation might feel all cute and moe. It fits the comedic and simplistic nature of this series. Animated by Kyoto Animation, they also did a few series that had this kind of art style such as Lucky Star and Nichijou. Yeah, you’re not always going to see K-ON! style or Clannad visuals always. Everything is bright and colourful that sometimes it looks like a cartoon for children. Even if the dragons are in their beast form, they aren’t that ferocious looking. Fearsome, yes. But not that scary enough to scare the daylights out of me. Me? Scared of dragons more than ghosts or bugs?

Daisuke Ono as Fafnir sounds familiar. Well, almost. Because of his butler outfit in his human form, I kept remembering he would be like Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. Just without the grace and devil’s smile. Yuuichi Nakamura as Takiya is also recognizable although no raising his voice and getting mad. Heck, even as a gentle single dad in Amaama To Inazuma has one moment of him screaming at the top of his voice. There is something familiar about Georgie’s voice too. Oh right. It’s Yuko Gotou! Not sure if she is considered retired since fans would know about her health issue many years ago that made her go on a hiatus but in the past few years she did come back a while and do some voice acting. The last I heard from her was in 2015’s Nagato Yuki-chan No Shoushitsu and Ushinawareta Mirai Wo Motomete in the year before. Hmm… Does she have a limit of only voicing 1 anime per year? If so, quota reached for this year!

The rest of the voice acting casts include Mutsumi Tamura as Kobayashi (Sonya in Kill Me Baby), Yuuki Kuwahara as Tooru (Hakua in Shomin Sample), Maria Naganawa as Kanna (Tamaki in Stella No Mahou), Minami Takahashi as Lucoa (Megumi in Shokugeki No Souma), Yuuki Takada as Elma (Rin in Busou Shoujo Machiavellism), Emiri Katou as Riko (Kagami in Lucky Star) and Kaori Ishihara as Shouta (Aladdin in Magi series). It is hard to dismiss the opening theme, Aozora No Rhapsody by Fhana. Some of the lyrics are fast paced almost like a rap. But the thing that is amusing is the opening theme credits whereby the characters are doing cute stuffs. Or weird stuffs. Like the very weird part where everybody stands with their hands apart like a ‘T’ and then spins around! Spin and spin! Human helicopter?! But the ending theme, Ishukan Communication by Choro-gonzu (basically the seiyuus of the quartet dragon ladies) is too cute! The way they sing this song flawlessly and in a cute rhythmic way without tripping the nonsensical but cute opening lyrics is just amazing. I guess it will take a lot of practice and biting my own tongue if I am going to be able to come close and sing the same way as them.

Overall, this anime is funny and enjoyable. Shockingly for me it wasn’t the maid part which I was initially being biased on that will make me love this anime but I was wrong. The maid element didn’t come close as the other aspects overwhelm it. Maybe the maid outfit design wasn’t really to my taste. Decent but still not my favourite type. The skits are light-hearted and funny, the characters are adorable and wonderful and you can learn a few life lessons as well. What? Life lessons? Like being a family despite coming from different backgrounds and worlds. Also, despite our short fleeting time in this world, the most important thing are the times spent together that counts. It could be years or just seconds but as long as that is precious, it is worth more than any gold or silver in the universe. Woah. So deep. So heart-warming. So cute. Sometimes this series might seem like an over the top show about a pet being grateful to its master. We hear a few stories about that in life and seen a couple of them in the movies. But have you got a dragon maid as your pet? No, I don’t think lizards count. And yes, better to have dragon maids than boy maids. Anytime.

Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine

Teachers are the most powerful educational tool to shape a country’s future and generations. Yeah well, it’s hard to say in today’s politically correct world. That is why, we are in need of a lesson in the form of anime. So of a teacher for commoners won’t do the trick, will royal tutors for the royal family help? The royal family isn’t instantly born with all the intellect and genius minds. Somebody needs to help groom them to become better people and leaders. And whose job it is but a royal tutor. And so in Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine, we see how a newly hired royal tutor with the physique of a child is made to turn spoilt princes into trustworthy kings. Hard to take someone who looks like a kid seriously, right? That’s where the power of an educator comes in…

Episode 1
Heine Wittgenstein receives a letter from King Viktor Von Granzreich to become the royal tutor for his sons. Although his firstborn son is talented and next in line to be the next ruler, he cannot rule out the fact that something might happen to him. He has 4 other sons whom he deems unfit for the throne. He wants Heine to give them equal attention and oversee their education. Heine is already stopped at the gates by the guards because of his small stature. Is he the royal tutor’s kid? Thankfully the queen recognizes him and takes him to see the princes. He is told previous tutors quit immediately and that her sons are good people. So when Heine first meets them, they look pretty handsome and noble. Till their characters show. Fourth prince Leonhard is rude and arrogant. Fifth prince Licht is playful and a Playboy. Third prince Bruno may sound polite but say the wrong thing and he becomes cold. Second prince Kai doesn’t talk but gives you an evil stare! Heine wants to interview them so he could plan his lessons. However Leonhard leads his brothers to try and make him quit but they ‘abandon’ him to do their own thing. And so Heine drags Leonhard to his room for his first interview. Heine tries to find out why he hates teachers but he won’t say. He might spout things he hate but it is more of a child’s level. Leonhard finally reveals why he hates teachers. They don’t pay attention to him and always too busy paying attention to father’s mood. He also hates studying and each time he runs away. Thank his athletic abilities for that. So will Leonhard take this pop quiz Heine has? There are hints he might just bolt. He does! But Heine is faster. Leonhard could have gotten away had not Heine picked up his dropped diary. He then reads some of its entries. Heck, every day is some sort of regret. He wants Leonhard to take the quiz or he will read it to everybody! Heine notices Leonhard focused on the quiz once he puts his mind to it. Then he reads an entry about Leonhard lamenting he isn’t good at socializing. He admits he tends to run away and hopes to fix that. Even a prideful guy has his own frailty and sensitive side. After Heine leaves, Leonhard wants to complain to his father but the maid gives him his favourite cake since Heine instructed her to give it to him. There is also a note thanking him for his hard work. I guess he won’t be reporting then.

Episode 2
Next up is Bruno who is supposedly a genius. Bruno immediately takes and finishes his quiz in record time. However he also wants to test him to see if he is competent. All previous tutors were less intelligent than him and Heine must leave if he is no different. So the test? Chess. Bruno lost! Not yet. There are others. Mental arithmetic? Finished faster than him. Music? Multiple instruments at the same time. Trump cards? Royal straight flush! And a stack of pyramid cards too! Heine then reads his suggestion regarding the kingdom’s construction. He praises his level headed thinking but warns certain words which makes it feel like he is blaming others. After Heine adds his own suggestions, Bruno is impressed and now… He wants to call Heine his master! Oh no. This is going to be troublesome. ‘Luckily’ Licht kidnaps Heine to his room just to introduce to his harem. When they speak alone, Licht wants to know since he looks like a kid, is his dick the small too? A kick in the face! Call that an educational measure. Licht sounds like he doesn’t want to take the quiz and giving excuses but before Heine knows it, he is done. Licht then looks serious when he asks the question of who Heine really is. Because all tutors have some sort of title or prestige but he has none. Heine leaves and notes he can’t let his guard down on his sharpness. Lastly when Heine goes to see Kai, he isn’t in his room. Trying to ask the maid about him didn’t yield anything good. She has never talked to him but yet fears him. In the garden, a dog steals his book but leads him to Kai sleeping. He almost got assaulted when he wakes up. Heine is shocked that Kai is supposed to have a notorious temper but instead is a kind soul who loves playing with Shadow the dog. He might look like he is staring at you but is looking at somewhere else. Also, his retarding speech makes others hard to understand. He likes to touch soft things like Shadow’s paws. And Heine’s hands… The king’s youngest child, Princess Adele meets Heine for the first time to get Shadow. Kai has done the quiz and hopes they get along. He likes Heine because he is the first teacher to talk to him. Heine feels embarrassed from the information he got regarding the princes and jumping to conclusions based on that. He rips the unreliable information and notes the need to learn not to judge others based on rumours and gossips. He will have to start from scratch again.

Episode 3
Heine has marked their quiz. All that is left is for them to gather for their first lesson. Bruno is praising Heine so much that it disgusts Leonhard and makes him run away. Bruno and Licht turn up but end up arguing since Licht is quite touchy with Heine. It took Kai to ‘mediate’ and break them up. As Leonhard didn’t turn up, Heine can’t start his lesson. Bruno will go find him but he is spotted eavesdropping outside the door. He is shocked everyone likes Heine so quick. Heine returns their quiz scores. Bruno gets 100. Kai gets 87. Licht gets 60. Leonhard… 1 point?! Even that is a pity mark for writing his name! Leonhard feels embarrassed and blames Heine for making him take that test. Before he could explain himself, Leonhard runs away. Bruno tells Heine why he hates tutors. Apparently his first tutor was very strict on him. As he was more difficult to teach, the tutor singled him out. Ever since, Leonhard hated studying and tutors and would run away. Don’t worry. Heine will teach him that teachers aren’t the enemy. Heine is the first tutor who actually caught up to Leonhard. Is it his manly black stallion? Heine has calculated perfectly to jump off the horse to push Leonhard off without hurting him when they fall into the bushes. Heine tells Leonhard he is very different from his previous tutors and doesn’t intend to blame him for his poor grades. His lessons will be specifically tailored to each prince to bring out the best in their talent. He knows Leonhard can grow as a person as he is aware of his own weaknesses. He asks if running away from his problems solved anything. He hopes he would stop doing so and take his hand and try harder. Well, taking a finger is a start. But since they have fled so far, they have to camp in the woods for the night. Leonhard complaining about eating berries and acorns… Luckily the guards found them and bring them back. Heine is shown his room. The bed is too big to sleep but as he rolls, he got stuck between the wall and can’t move until next morning where the maid had to pluck him out. And so rumours circulating how he got stuck… Leonhard is the first one arriving for his lesson. Heine has got work cut out for him since Leonhard is already exhausted from the few exercises done and the other brothers are quarrelling.

Episode 4
Heine will take the princes to visit the capital, Wiener. At first Leonhard didn’t want to go but after telling the story how Marie Antoinette got the guillotine by the people, he agrees to go. As Licht often sneaks out, he knows how to wear appropriate clothes so as not to let their identities exposed. He dresses up his brothers as gentlemen. Heine guides the princes through the crowded streets. Each of the princes spend some time visiting the shops. Like Bruno in a dilemma to buy all the books but has a limited budget. Leonhard has never bought things from a store before and so he is nervous but the shopkeeper was kind enough. Heine then shows them how to eat a hotdog with their hands without any utensils. When the day is almost over and they prepare to go home, they witness a thief snatching an old woman’s bag. Leonhard becomes upset and wants to go after the thief but it seems Kai has already apprehended him and handed him over to the police. The old lady rewards all of them with candy. Even if Leonhard didn’t help out, the sentiment alone made her happy. On the way back, they see the beautiful lighted up streets and buildings. When Heine asks what they have learnt so far the most important thing, their answers about shops and stuffs weren’t the answers he was looking for. He believes they have not learnt their lesson. It is the people living here and their smiles. Their father the king has worked hard to bring back those smiles so he hopes that they will continue to make the kingdom a better place. Yeah, Leonhard wants to beat up baddies… Well, technically that sounds nice. Back at the palace, Heine is suspicious when Leonhard makes him go for a stroll with him. Pacing up and down… When the princes can no longer hide whatever they are scheming, Heine is surprised that the princes have cooked for him a welcoming party. The steak looks burnt but it is delicious. They each also give him presents they brought from town. Did Kai just get a pigeon from the square? Oh, it flew away… Thanks to their heartfelt gifts, Heine is able to sleep well but he still feels he shouldn’t be here.

Episode 5
The king has returned. He requests an audience with his sons and Heine. My, he looks so young like their big brother. Well, it was narrated he became the youngest king. But does that mean he also became a young father? Viktor cries upon seeing how well his sons are. But on to serious business, he sees the quiz’s results. He is very particular about Leonhard. He throws him to ultimatum to retake this test again in 3 days and must match Licht’s score. Otherwise he will strip his right to the throne. Viktor gives Heine special permission to teach Leonhard for that period. All the brothers also want to help Leonhard to study as they cannot watch him lose heart despite being rivals for the throne. To their dismay, Leonhard doesn’t even know what 1 + 1!!! Serious!!! However when his favourite cake is involved, he can instantly do the maths no matter how hard. Heine believes his anxiety in studying sends him into panic. And so after 3 nights of intense studying, the highest he could get is 15? The test is tomorrow. Heine tells him a different way of thinking so Leonhard goes back to studying. Next day he takes the test. What’s the score? OMG! 59! Oh so close! Everyone is happy but Viktor has already laid down the rules. End of Leonhard? However Viktor points out Heine marking wrongly. Shouldn’t he give him a point for writing his name? And with that ‘loophole’, Leonhard passes! With father wanting him to pay attention and study hard, Leonhard says he still hates tutors but doesn’t hate Heine. He hopes he would keep teaching him. Viktor is happy he can trust his sons in his hands. That night, Heine goes to drink with Viktor in his chamber. It seems they knew each other from way back. There is a condition regarding Heine becoming a tutor here. Something about if his past ever being brought to life.

Episode 6
When Heine visits a café, he is shocked to see Licht working as a waiter. Or he might got it wrong. Just a commoner who looks like the prince. But actually he is indeed the prince! He is secretly working here and worries if his identity will be found out. His flirting with his fan girls almost gave him away. Then he coolly solves a pool game dispute. When Heine leaves, Licht realizes he left a message that he knows his identity! Busted. However there seems to be another person who knows about Licht here. Back at the palace, Heine realizes Licht is being brought straight to Viktor by Count Ernst Rosenberg. Licht is made to explain himself and when Viktor tells him to quit and be more aware of himself as a royalty, Licht gets upset. He never visited when he was sick and all he cares about is his reputation and lineage. Licht runs away back to the café but Heine leads Viktor there. Licht thought father is going to ask him to quit but he surprisingly asks to work here for a few hours. Hey, Licht said he didn’t understand his son, right? Only one way to find out. Licht thought father will screw up and be sent home. Too bad. Viktor is charming with the ladies, speaks foreign languages and is very knowledgeable about books. Yeah, great smile too. Girls want to marry him! Grandmas want him to their grandson! WTF?! So good Viktor is that the owner wants him to continue! As the café closes, Viktor talks to Licht. He apologizes for trying to intrude. He rephrases his earlier word that he was only worried for his safety. Whether he stays or quits is up to him. Licht also apologizes he never knew how hard his job as a king is. His duty is to his kingdom and people. Not really. It is his to his family too. Viktor did visit Licht when he was sick but when he was asleep. Licht feels he can’t work here anymore in light of this but Heine suggests he intends to visit the café every week. That way he could protect him. Licht won’t quit so as not to make his fan girls cry. Heine misjudged Licht as the most mysterious among the princes but notes he is just the most ordinary. What bothers Heine is how Rosenberg knew he was working here. Speaking of him, that guy laments his plan to make a candidate for the throne drop out didn’t go as plan. But there will be more opportunities for scandals.

Episode 7
Heine asks the princes’ opinion as a king about a construction lacking funds. It is Leonhard’s answer of pooling funds that is most impressive. Because of that Viktor mulls his idea which is similar to an insurance system and wants him to write in a report. Bruno doesn’t look pleased. Flashback shows he enjoyed seeing father at work. It was his motivation to become king. However he always hear how people praised Eins (the first prince) and that this genius will be the next king. Bruno shows Heine a speech he is supposed to give a lecture on in a week. Heine’s personal opinion is that he is just merely rehashing with no new ideas. Lots of spelling mistakes too. Clearly he can tell Bruno is troubled but won’t force him tell. His job now is to rewrite the report otherwise he will stop allowing Bruno to be his disciple. Bruno wracks his brains till he manages to write one where Heine is impressed and learnt a few things. He goes present his paper and the crowd gives him a standing ovation! Now many want him to give lectures at their school. Bruno is surprised to be approached by his admired scholar, Dr Dmtri (do mind his unpleasant assistant, Smerdyakov). Dmtri asks if he would leave Granzreich and come to Orosz to study as a scholar with him. Heine notices Bruno coming back late that night. He is approached by Rosenberg who introduces himself as Eins’ high steward. Heine learns about Dmtri’s invitation to Bruno. Bruno is in a dilemma over Dmtri’s proposal. He said his chances of becoming king is zero as long as Eins is around. So why not be a scholar even if it is a much tougher route? It’ll broaden his horizons too. Seeing Leonhard being further praised by Viktor sends him into depression. Of course Heine talks to him so he spills the beans. Heine sees no reason to stop him if he wants to be a scholar. Since he still views himself inferior to others, Heine lectures him a lesson on regrets and own resolve. Bruno goes to meet Dmtri to give his reply. He wants to come to his university in Orosz. But! As a friend in the future. His dream is to become king and if he doesn’t, he will overcome whatever awaits because he made this choice and resolve. Heine heard his heartfelt answer and is impressed. Bruno swears to be his disciple forever! When Rosenberg learns Bruno won’t back down from the throne too, it’s time to move to elimination mode. He wants a report on Heine’s origins.

Episode 8
Kai still has communication problems so he seeks Heine’s help. The palace staffs often fear him due to his intimidating looks and assume threatening things he said when in actual fact he doesn’t say a word. His brothers too would like to help him overcome this problem. At the same time, Adele wants to go to the zoo. It seems Shadow ruined her favourite painting (a hideous portrait of Adele?!) and because of that she hates the doggy and wants to go to the zoo to make new friends. Heine thinks this is also a good chance for Kai to improve his communication skills. At the petting section, he is supposed to ask the groundskeeper for more feed. He couldn’t. When a rabbit bites Adele’s finger, Kai rushes to her aid. The rabbit must be surprised as they realize Shadow has never bitten anyone before. Adele feels bad to return to Shadow. But it won’t take long for kids to reconcile with their pets again. But now they still have to help Kai’s problem. He tries to communicate with the maids. Nice weather… Soft towels… Me like… Uhm… Nothing really changes. But whenever a palace staff is in trouble, he immediately goes to help and his communication skill somewhat improves. Man, Kai has such a monstrous strength. However it is still not enough so he decides he doesn’t want to scare anymore people. Time for Heine to give him a lesson about giving up. He thinks he should start with greetings and thank yous. There are tens of thousands of people in this world who can understand him and it would be a waste to give up because of one or two people. The next time the maid comes to change his sheets, she tries to hurry so Kai thanks her for all she has done. It made her smile and talk. Kai is so happy that he goes to tell Heine this. Good job. When the butler shows Heine the framed hideous Adele picture, the princes realize he is the one who drew it! Adele must have a bad taste in art, huh? Anyway Heine realizes a burnt mark on the edge of the painting. It could be a candle and this means Adele was in danger. Shadow knocked the painting to the ground to save her.

Episode 9
Viktor summons Heine to show him a newspaper article regarding Kai’s violence at military school. He beat up a fellow student, Ralf Von Fuchs. Though Fuchs was expelled, Kai and Bruno were suspended. The article highlights the state’s abusive power to keep this dark secret. Of course we know our princes couldn’t be that violent. Kai admits he did attack Fuchs. Here is the true story. Kai notices Bruno having bruises although he only said it was accident. The more weeks passed, the more bruises he noticed. One day he caught Fuchs in the act beating up Bruno. That’s when he went berserk and started beating up Fuchs. Viktor wants to protect the kingdom’s free speech but at the same time incorrect facts must be corrected. As Viktor has already sent a protest letter to the newspaper, Kai thinks of visiting Fuchs to correct this. Also, it is wrong to jump to conclusions to think he hates them. Heine will escort him but in addition, palace guards Ludwig and Maximilian are also to accompany. Heine and Ludwig go to talk to Fuchs at his doorstep first. He seems repentant and allows Kai to come see him. When Heine goes to get Kai, Ludwig gets kidnapped. Inside, Fuchs tells how he acted out of jealousy and that instructors were afraid of the royalty and took it out on other students. About the article, last week a reporter came to interview him on this but he declined. When Kai is about to shake hands with him, Fuchs pulls a gun on him. His gang members then round them up and throw them in the wine cellar. Fuchs reveals he made up that article and his family ostracized him after he got kicked out from the military school. He plans to use them as ransom. He wants to take a picture of them but they keep making funny faces. When Fuchs threatens to harm Heine, Kai breaks out from his chains! Oh right. He is tremendously strong. He is about to punch Fuchs but remembers Heine’s words and stops. Heine also manages to unlock himself. He’s a genius, remember? After Fuchs is chained, the other gang members come in. Heine easily defeats them with his dexterity and resourcefulness. Man, this looks like an old Chinese kung fu movie. Heine even saves Fuchs from danger. Ludwig managed to free himself and called for backup. Too bad everything is solved. As Fuchs is arrested, Kai hopes he would come to the palace one day and apply to be a palace guard once he paid for his crime. He might not be forgiven but everyone deserves a chance to start things anew. The newspaper soon clears things up but Heine is now confronted with Rosenberg who wants to talk about his past.

Episode 10
Rosenberg forces Heine into his carriage. He knows a lot about Heine because Maximillian is his cousin. As he praises Heine’s efforts in teaching the princes, Heine pulls no punches as he suspects of the recent troubles befalling on the princes although Rosenberg denies he had a hand. As Heine alights back at the palace, Rosenberg says he has discovered his past. He tutored children at a church called Maria Vetsera before coming here. He is hinting he isn’t on their side. Leonhard heard this and is confused. So he acts awkwardly and haughtily towards him. Heine sees Bruno tutoring a few kids. Because they are a bit naughty, he has his hands full. Heine tells him if he cannot handle a few kids, how is he going to command an entire nation on millions? Next, he sees Kai talking well with the palace staffs. Kai is thinking of going back to military school and knows father won’t agree, that’s why he needs Heine’s help. However Heine would prefer him to persuade Viktor in his own words. Visiting Licht, he is learning a lot from the ground level at his café job. Later Leonhard tells his brothers about what he heard about Heine. It made them realize they don’t know much about him and think of finding clues in his room. Privacy intrusion? They think they should enter when he isn’t around but I guess he is right now. He invites them in and it is messy like hell! Books everywhere. Thus the princes decide to help clean up. With Bruno being the master on how to clean, looks like it is going to take a while seeing how picky he is. There is a box in which Heine doesn’t want them to touch as it is private. Of course this only piques their interests as they try to distract him to open it. Eventually they’re caught red handed and he tells them it contains letters and mementos from his previous students. Of course theirs are in there too. His students are always precious to him. All the letters thank Heine and it tells how great a man he is. This motivates them to clean up his room quickly. When the maid comes to serve tea, they accidentally bump and spill everything. The domino effect means everything is a mess again. Time to start from scratch again. At the end of the day, it is all cleaned up. They see an old news article about an enemy infiltrating the palace. They laugh it off but Heine warns them not to assume. What if the enemy was someone who is nice to the king? Someone like him…

Episode 11
Heine wants them to investigate the truth of this article. At first the princes brushes it off but he tells them to imagine themselves as king and have a successor. What if that enemy targets their successor? Can they stay calm about it? As king, a single error in judgment can make you lose the entire country. First, the princes start by talking to the person at the newspaper who wrote the article. Tough luck. Gregor Klein resigned shortly after publishing it and moved. His whereabouts unknown. As they interview the people, none know any more about him. Luckily Licht has his source of information and Gregor is spotted living in the outskirts using a fake name. So they confront him and use a little threat to make him talk. Someone approached him to in the streets write the article. He doesn’t know who as it was dark. Since he needed the money, he agreed and was paid a large sum upfront and the balance into his bank account. Of course the article is hoax. Though, he did his research and found out there was a criminal who caused an incident at the harvest festival just before Viktor ascended the throne. The princes then dig deep into the royal archives for clues. They discover Heine’s name. He was imprisoned for abducting and attempted assassination on the prince who was no other than Viktor then. When the princes go see Heine, he isn’t in his room. His room is empty. Then they go talk to their father for the truth but he will not say anyhow. Until he receives a letter that he finally decides to talk to his sons not as a king but as a father.

When Viktor was still a prince, he often snuck out of the palace to see the realities of life. Not good. A couple of kids stole his timepiece and he chased them to get it back. It was Heine who told those kids to give it back since they shouldn’t steal more than they need. Viktor then follows Heine back to his place, an underground sewer housing orphaned kids. Heine was some sort of their leader. They soon become friends and each time Viktor snuck out of palace, he would meet Heine. Viktor traded his timepiece for a fine wine in Heine’s hands so he could buy blankets and food for the orphans for the winter. During the harvest festival, Viktor snuck out as usual but is unaware the palace is looking for him as they realized he was missing. In town, the guards spotted them and they run. As Heine dropped the timepiece, the guards think he kidnapped Viktor. They continue to run so a guard fired a shot. Viktor used his body to shield Heine. Man, that’s a lot of blood for a kid. Heine becomes mad and beats up those guards! He is going to kill them until Viktor tells him not to before passing out. Heine is captured and thrown into prison. He never defended his innocence and only prayed for Viktor to recover. He was relieved when Viktor came to see him. After Viktor explained, Heine was pardoned. Soon Viktor ascended the throne and built a small church to house those orphans. Heine became a teacher for them there. Heine never knew how to read or write and for him to start teaching others shows a great effort. Viktor and Heine never intended to reveal the truth to the public due to their promise. Now that unfounded truths are surfacing and his past becomes public, he would leave the palace without a word. Oh, looks like that letter is his resignation as royal tutor.

Episode 12
Heine’s resignation is to protect their future as king candidates. Imagine having a royal tutor with a criminal record would tarnish their image. This is for the good of the kingdom. The princes are in disbelief. There is nothing they could do. Because today will be Heine’s last lesson, the princes are awfully early to go see him. Despite they are adamant he is not a criminal, he makes them think what if a royal tutor was really a criminal? As a king, what would you do? You’d kick him out. Heine proceeds to convey their good points and how these strengths will turn them into better kings. And with that, end of lesson. Enough to make all the boys cry. After Heine departs, Viktor sees his sons. He tells them they will get a new royal tutor and will be decided by the council. He can’t decide seeing he can’t think of anyone but Heine. The princes won’t take this lying down. They are going to show how well they have grown and start studying together to prove that they have grown into worthy kings. Viktor sees Heine at the church to tell him about the council’s selection. He thanks Heine because he was able to change the kingdom since meeting him. The same can be said for the princes. Before that they were spoilt brats who only thought of themselves. He also hints his sons might do something silly at the council. Heine knows what he is up to and assures he won’t come. Rosenberg nominates Dr Erwin Von Welsbach to be the next royal tutor. The council seemingly agrees. This is part of Rosenberg’s plan to put someone he knows to control the princes. Then the princes barge in to nominate their royal tutor. Viktor as king wants them to leave but Rosenberg would like to hear their thoughts (so as to shame themselves). As they nominate Heine, the council is abuzz once they hear criminal record. Because he is without any reliable pedigree, this makes it more sceptical even if it is rumours. When the princes are seemingly out of options, that is when they remember Heine’s words. They speak with confidence by borrowing those words and expand on it on what it means and how they will change the country for the better. So impressive that Heine is clapping and in tears! I knew it he would attend. The council is also impressed. In the aftermath, Viktor talks to Rosenberg but it seems Eins has returned and also observed the meeting. He is impressed his brothers have matured this much. Eins then warns Rosenberg to stay out of this. He will still become king by his own power. The princes await their new royal tutor. Guess who is back? Heine at your service! Welcome back sensei.

From Boys To Men
And so they happily teach and learn with each other ever after. Well, this is after all a ‘fairytale’. A work of fiction so we would like our handsome princes to get their way in the end too. I am very sure there are many untold stories as well as unsung heroes in real life that we will never hear that is very similar to this (although it won’t be on a royal scale). But as far as this series is concerned, it is thoughtful, valuable, entertaining and to a point educational in its own right. You don’t need to be someone of royal lineage to learn something or two from this series. Even if the plot seems rather slow because it focuses on the princes’ behaviour and how they overcome it before the final arc drama of Heine’s past coming to light, overall the series is still interesting as it takes time to flesh out the characters. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Even if this series isn’t made as an obvious educational tool, the main focus is on how Heine develops a close but constructive relationship with the princes. It is from that, that we can learn and think about a lot of life lessons that we could also apply in our own lives or imagine if we were in the shoes of the royalty. But I’m not here to bore you about what we could learn to be a better person here. All I’m saying is that if you really pay attention and want to make a difference in your life after this, you can. Making this season entertaining is how they seamlessly insert some of the jokes and light-hearted moments in between the lessons with the princes. It might look a bit out of place for Heine to suddenly become a chibi form when he is mad or sarcastic but it’s hard to not laugh whenever he is in this form. It brings some sort of comic relief to the tension. It’s a good mix and blend for the timing of the funny moments as a few chuckles in between boost your overall mood. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Therefore the blend of comedy might not be to a slapstick point and its style pretty much the same and predictable after a while but it is better than having everything so serious all the way. Yeah, why so serious?

The main characters are lovable and you will quickly grow fond and support them even if you aren’t a citizen of their fictitious kingdom. Of course, from the outside point, it looks like it is painting the royal family to be in such a goody-goody light that in a way it seems unrealistic in today’s world. In such works of fiction, either the royal family is being portrayed as corrupted and evil to the bone or one that is so pure and considerate for the people. For this series’ case, we have everyone in the royal family being so good enough that you want all of them to be kings! I can imagine their fans and supporters clashing when only one is chosen and then a war breaks out… Not in this anime!

Of course despite the royal family being shown as very good and upstanding royals, they are all without their flaws. Especially the princes whom are shown as spoilt and unworthy to be the next king. It only shows that they are just as humans as the common people but because they have a royal title in their name, their treatment and view of everything are different. This is quickly dismissed when Heine enters the seen as he works his magic to change them into better princes. This also goes to show that you need the right person for the job. It is understandable that the princes were sceptical of Heine at first because they do not know him. Their perceptions of tutors are limited and fixed so when Heine manages to get their attention and have them see things in a different light, the walls slowly start to crumble and the door to their heart opens up. As said many times, the princes despite their titles are still only human and with the correct guidance, it led them to a better path. It could have been worse had Heine not touched their lives.

I want to note something about Kai. At first he sounds like he has some sort of speech impediment and this makes him sound like a retard or an accident victim. Sorry if I sound harsh but I can understand for a person who lacks communication skills, the way he stutters is understandable. I know, I speak from experience although it is not that bad. But as the series progress, I notice that his speaking starts to improve and he doesn’t sound like a retard like he obviously was. So good job to Kai for making such a great progress. Not to say the other princes didn’t make any progress but Kai is most visible. Or rather most audible.

But Heine himself isn’t really an angel either. At first he might look like a good person but that is because there is hardly anything that we know about him. We are mostly shown about how he gives his teachings and lessons to turn about the princes. Hardly anything about his past. The fact that he has this stoic look and monotonous voice sometimes make it feel suspicious like as though he has something to hide. But each time he gives great lessons and bursts into his chibi mode sometimes distracts us from that thinking. Maybe we’re just thinking too much. Maybe Heine is just a nice guy after all. His facial expression is stunted like his growth. Whoops! If there is anything you shouldn’t say about him, it is how he looks like a kid… With his past coming to light, it is not for us to say who is right or who is wrong. Everyone has a past. A coin has 2 sides. Even if the princes personally know him and assuming they know him damn well he isn’t a bad guy, what about others who don’t? What about you and me who do not know anything and only have facts from what we hear instead of time spent on to digest who Heine is? So personally I believe what Heine did for the good for the future of the kingdom and the princes is justified. With him back as their royal tutor, as said, everyone should be given a second chance.

Just like Heine, there is nothing much known about Rosenberg except that he is shown to be the ‘antagonist’. Someone who is pandering to Eins and will stop at nothing to subtly bring down the other princes so that Eins will have a higher chance of becoming king. Could it be that he wants to manipulate Eins? Could it be that despite all the praises that he is such a great prince, could it just be misinformation like we heard for the other princes? Well, we thought that first prince will never show up and this would give me another paragraph to speculate who this guy is. Could he be an evil person or someone who is already dead because we never see him in the flesh! OMG! What am I thinking?! However, here he is, making his cameo in the final episode. Hmm… He looks scarier than Kai. Woah. Fearsome bad guy looks! Rosenberg looks like he respects his decision to further intervene but it remains to be seen if this would be the last of it because if you’re a scheming person with own personal goals, I doubt that person would stop at that even when personally ordered. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt since this is such a happy anime. They’re all good guys too. Just some misunderstanding.

Viktor is another great man. A great father. A great king. It is no wonder he is beloved by so many. What I like about him is how he doesn’t force you to do something. He lays down the option and then he lets you think to make your own. He is just stating the facts and the rest is up to you to decide. He is cool and calm and doesn’t rush into making haste decisions. That is why his kingdom has prosper under his rule. I keep thinking about who his wife and the queen is. Because she is never shown throughout the series. The queen I mentioned earlier was actually the princes’ grandmother. Could she be away in another country? I don’t think so. Could she be sick? If so, why hasn’t anybody mentioned about it or any of the princes show concern? In fact, none of the characters say anything about her. Because at this rate I believe the queen has died! Yikes. It cannot be long ago because the latest child is Adele who could just be like 5 years old. So who is the queen of this kingdom? Is Viktor so awesome and handsome that nobody talks about the queen?

Perhaps in fear of turning this series into some sort of yaoi fest (I assure you, there are no moments coming close to that), perhaps that is why Adele and Shadow are thrown in despite they play very minimal role in the series. All the guys are so grown up and hunks and there aren’t any ladies in the main casts unless you want to consider Licht’s fan girls as smoking hot ladies. But for lolicons, they’ll have to bear with only Adele, the cutie pie of the series. And to add to all that cuteness, we also need a furry mascot and thus Shadow’s role is born. Just kidding. I mean, Adele and Shadow are often together so it is like if we are overflowing with pretty boy effects, sometimes they’ll show up to deflate all that. I think.

It goes without saying that everyone here looks exceptionally gorgeous. Even the common people look decently good looking. As though that everyone in this kingdom has this handsome and beautiful genes! No kidding. If the younger princes don’t go on to become kings, maybe they can form an own idol group and sing their way to their citizens and fans’ hearts! No kidding. This series is animated by Bridge who did Devil Survivor 2 The Animation and Mitsudomoe.

I didn’t recognize any of the seiyuus voicing here until Eins showed up. He is played by Daisuke Ono. Saved? For the rest of the cast (whom many of the main ones are newbies), they are Keisuke Ueda as Heine (debut role), Yuuya Asato as Kai (debut role), Yuuto Adachi as Bruno (Trois in Nanbaka), Daisuke Hirose as Leonhard (Kaneda in Litchi De Hikari Club), Shouta Aoi as Licht (Ai in Uta No Prince-sama series), Toshiyuki Morikawa as Viktor (Naraku in Inu Yasha), Takuya Eguchi as Rosenberg (Julius in Re: Zero Kara Hajimaru Isekai Seikatsu), Daisuke Namikawa as Ludwig (Rock in Black Lagoon), Shinnosuke Tachibana as Maximilian (Tomoe in Kamisama Hajimemashita) and Michi Matsui as Adele. Surprisingly the opening theme, Shoppai Namida by Shougo Sakamoto is quite nice to hear. It has this funky and hip hop beat to it that makes it catchy to listen to. The ending theme isn’t too shabby either. The idol-like piece of Prince Night ~Doko Ni Ita No Sai? My Princess~ by P4 with T (basically Heine and the 4 younger princes) also makes you feel like you want to dance to this beat. There is a real life version of this ending credits animation where their seiyuus cosplay, sing and dance. Feels odd…

Once again it goes to show that knowledge is power and a double edged sword. Depending who is teaching and who is being taught, it can be dangerous or empowering. It also tells us how dangerous having little knowledge could be since we will quickly jump to assumptions based on our stereotypes and prejudices. Don’t worry, this series isn’t here to virtue signal to us to become better people for a better future. It is just showing us and giving us a choice. You are free to decide what to become and what to do although you aren’t free from its consequences. So I guess it is time for me to go back to more ecchi fanservice comedies. Looks like I didn’t learn my lesson and need more remedial classes. Sure, okay. I wouldn’t mind if it’s Heine.

Hinako Note

What’s this? Is this some sort of sequel to Death Note? Did that busty exercise instructor decided to turn evil and kill all fat otakus by writing down their names in a notebook that automatically kills people? So what the heck is this Hinako Note? Oh… You mean it is nothing of that sort. I see. Phew. It’s about a girl who is scared of interacting and talking to people but she decides to pursue her dream in becoming a stage actress. Oh… Another cute girls doing cute things. Dang that Death Note parody thingy sounded much better…

Episode 1
Hinako Sakuragi just arrived in Tokyo from the countryside. She gets lost but when a policeman tries to help, she gets scared. What does she do? She turns into a scarecrow! Apparently she is shy of people and turns into one when she panics. That’s why in the countryside she has this ‘ability’ talking to animals that gather around her and the farmers love her because it keeps pests away from their crops! Wait. Shouldn’t scarecrows scare away animals? Whatever. She finally arrives at Hitotose Manor. It looks like a bookshop. She is met with another weirdo, Kuina Natsukawa. She loves books. Books are her friends. But she loves tearing pages out and eat them?! You eat your friends?! Kuina shows Hinako to her room. It is being tidied up by maid (yes!) Mayuki “Mayu” Hiiragi. All residents in Hitotose work here in addition to schooling. Apparently Mayu also works in a coffee shop that is directly connected and behind the bookshop. Hinako explains her reason to move here. She wants to join a theatre club since she was enthralled by watching a performance despite her shy behaviour. Since Fujimiya Girls’ High has the best theatre club, the reason she enrolled here. The next day, the trio hang out at the park. Hinako gets lost and the overwhelming crowd turns her into a scarecrow. Well, at least she is easy to find. Nearby are local troupe members practising on stage. Mayu sees Chiaki Ogino among them and rushes to greet her. This tall and soft spoken girl is the landlady of Hitotose. Despite her demeanour, she was a child actress and used to be in Fujimiya’s theatre club. But as they talk, it seems Fujimiya’s theatre club is on hiatus because the advisor is on a theatre trip. Its members are just doing whatever they want. But if Hinako wants to perform, a small troupe is possible. She could be the leader. The rest wonder if they are being dragged into something… Hinako takes a long hot bath back at Hitotose, pondering about her future. She soaked too long and faints, causing everyone to go into panic mode.

Episode 2
Flashback shows the farmers often used Hinako as their scarecrow to attract the animals since theirs broke. She actually stood there the whole day… Man, she is far more effective and a pro as a scarecrow! Of course they aren’t exploiting her and as thanks for her hard work, they give her loads of vegetables. Funny her mom has her suspicions where she got the vegetables and always coming home late. She thinks she is dabbling in some illegal activity but choose to believe in her! Why not just ask? Hinako learns more about the theatre club’s advisor, the petite Ruriko Kuroyanagi (I thought she’s somebody’s little sister) felt her skills were stagnating and didn’t see herself fit to be their advisor. As Hinako is still nervous, Chiaki explains she was also in the same shoes. Her parents were also actors and she often helped out in their rehearsals. It built her confidence. She suggests Hinako to form a small troupe since there is no telling when the school club will start up again. Hinako still doesn’t have the confidence so Chiaki advises to start behind the scenes like props and scriptwriting. Kuina instantly agrees to join but Mayu is somewhat embarrass and still has her reservations. Hinako has to be the leader of this new troupe because thinking of working in the coffee shop and bookshop doesn’t quite fit her. Besides, nobody wants this troupe to happen more than she does. The first order is to come up with a name. They think of putting Hinako’s name but she decides to go with the manor. Hitotose Troupe it is. All of them exchange contacts and Hinako is glad to have obtained so many in a day. Yeah, her mom is the only one on her call list. That night they even discuss what they should do first as a troupe. They have researched a historical theatre called Suzuran in Shimokitazawa that many dream of performing there. They aim to get there. Well, no harm dreaming big as a start.

Episode 3
It is Hinako’s first day in class. She is so nervous introducing herself that she became a scarecrow. As expected. As Chiaki’s fans have taken the initiative to create an acting society to let her continue acting, she relays the good news to the rest to join. Classmate Yua Nakajima didn’t like how Hinako and Kuina are acting so friendly with Chiaki so this big Chiaki admirer goes to confront them and it scares the hell out of Hinako. Hinako thought she could find solace in the new club but look who is here to continue b*tching? It’s Yua’s turn to be a scarecrow when Chiaki asks what all this is about. Maybe she wants to join? Would she?! Hinako continues to be nervous whenever asked to do things. So Yua always voluntarily and coolly takes over. Looks like she still has a long way if she really intends to stand before a crowd. Back at Hitotose, Mayu has Hinako try out a maid outfit. She also has her cosplay a few outfits before settling back to the maid one. I know, maids are the best right? Of course!!! While she is sweeping outside, her accidental ‘talking’ to her bird has a lost girl enthralled. So Hinako has to use her ventriloquism to not shatter her hopes. Hinako decides to stop being a scaredy cat and move forward so the next day she did the first bold move by talking to Yua and wants to be her friend and thanks her for all the help. Shocking, right? Even Yua is lost for words. Even if it isn’t smooth sailing at first but I’m sure they’ll get used to it.

Episode 4
While the theatre society is practising, Hinako notices a petite girl next to Chiaki. Man, she has big boobs. Could she be Chiaki’s daughter?! Turns out she is Ruriko! She was also a famous child actress and a prodigy. Looks like she is back as she explains herself she ‘ran away’ that time was because she was losing motivation. So blaming her for casting aside her job is the right thing. After visiting many famous European theatres, she is now prepared for the biggest show, the reason why she has returned: The upcoming school cultural festival in a month’s time. Disappointed? Mayu accidentally shows off her dancing and this has others admire her skills. Now they’re bugging her to join as she turns into a scarecrow trying to escape from this ‘hell’. Ruriko catches Hinako humming a song. Then she has her sing to a song she plays on her CD. My, Hinako has such a beautiful voice! OMG! Does this remind you of X-Factor’s Susan Boyle?! Now everybody is all over her. Back at Hitotose, Mayu is upset that Chiaki has been busy recently and thus they have no time to hang out. Hinako and Kuina thought they could cheer her up by being Chiaki’s substitute but this only irritates Mayu. Mayu thought she is going to let Chiaki have it all once she gets back but seeing Chiaki bought those ice cream she remembered, all is forgiven. Ruriko has written tons of scripts for her greatest masterpiece of all time! She is going to pick somebody to play her heroine. Yua is excited this could be her chance but Ruriko shocks everyone by picking, wait for it, Hinako! Yua is of course jealous that Hinako has neither the experience nor skill but in Ruriko’s mind, she is the perfect heroine. Her voice, singing and of course proportions… Hinako faints at this shock so Ruriko starts crying over this sudden decision that makes Hinako feel guilty and accept it. Little did she know that Ruriko was just putting up an act. All as planned… Back at Hitotose, everyone dreams big of Hinako’s role so they decide to pretend like it is the real show. Well, Hinako is still the same scarecrow…

Episode 5
Hinako continues to be clumsy in her practice. This irks Yua. Till she sees her real blessed proportions when she takes off her jersey. More jealousy when Chiaki pays more attention to Hinako. When Yua sprains her ankle, it is her turn to be a scarecrow (and almost ‘died’) since Chiaki’s attention is now on her. The practice continues with Hinako continuing to be clumsy but bumps into Yua most of the time. She really wanted to give her piece of mind to that failure but since Chiaki always cuts in, I guess not. But Hinako might think with all the accidents, Yua is starting to hate her. While Hinako is helping Kuina to clean the bookstore, she finds a beginner’s guide to act. One of the topics is to imitate animals. So the duo try their best to imitate birds by jumping off a ladder to fly? Chiaki joins in when she learns as she demonstrates (sexy) poses of animals. But Hinako’s scarecrow pose seems to come in handy for a while because it does make her look like a soaring eagle. Because the bookstore is too small a space to practice dancing, they suggest to head to the park. Yua wanted to come back to give that failure a piece of her mind and sees them heading out. Time to stalk them. She sees her training hard and the rest guiding her. Even when it is time to go home, Hinako wants to practice more so she could conquer her stage fright and doesn’t want to be labelled a failure. But at the end when she thinks everything will work out, Yua bursts out from her hiding, annoyed that she is barely ready. Yup, she is going to personally train her! Welcome to Spartan training… Nobody is going to fail in a play that she’s in. Hinako is happy to continue and will keep working hard. Also, she views Yua as a kind girl and is glad she doesn’t hate her.

Episode 6
The cultural festival starts tomorrow. Hinako’s class is doing a haunted house and it would be perfect since Hinako can turn into a scarecrow… The theatre society’s main casts dress up for rehearsal. Hinako is shocked that Chiaki is not in the play and working in the background. Hinako had a tough time remembering all her lines last night but when Ruriko tests her by acting out, it seems Hinako could read out her lines naturally and perfectly. But there is a little secret that the Hitotose girls would only know why this is so… Hinako’s little birdie hidden behind her wig is feeding her the lines! The next day, Hinako, Kuina and Yua hang out together with Kuina being the usual glutton. Since they have some time, they would like to practice a little their lines. However Hinako has forgotten them?! Last night she read the lines of other roles and this overwrite her lines?! Let’s hope she remembers them in time or those little birdies doing their trick perfectly. As the play begins, Yua realizes an important prop (a handkerchief) she is supposed to have in hand is missing. Hinako then coolly addresses the crowd to borrow one. Mayu goes up to lend hers but realizes too late she is on stage and is hit with stage fright. Although she is quickly ushered to the backstage, the play continues perfectly and normally. Mayu starts thinking despite her fears, it looks fun speaking in front of people. At the end of the play, Ruriko congratulates Hinako and Yua for a brilliant performance. The small blooper is forgivable and sometimes it adds spice. Ruriko plans to formally start up the theatre club again as she invites Hinako to come make her show business debut! That escalated quickly! But Kuina declines for her saying that Hinako is the leader of their own Hitotose Troupe. Ruriko would love to support them. This has Yua want to join in too since she is ‘worried’ that she is their leader. Thanks for caring anyway.

Episode 7
Summer is here and Kuina suggests going to the beach. She even teases Hinako might attract sharks! She actually believes it! Of course the first order before going to the beach is to buy swimsuits. Mayu is an ‘expert’ in choosing Hinako’s swimsuit but it seems it is getting more risqué. Chiaki looks sexy in this bold bikini but she also decides to use this swimsuit when cleaning Hitotose. It’ll be a waste not to wear the swimsuit again, no? Mayu catches the eye of a clerk who praises her doll-like beauty. But when she recommends kiddie fashion swimsuit, Mayu takes her leave. She feels insulted everyone thinks she is a child. She decides to wear a risqué swimsuit. Her friends see her but they tease her she isn’t ready for that kind of swimsuit. Back home, Hinako is learning how to swim on her bed. And also how to shout for help if drowning? The quintet head to the beach and as Mayu goes to buy some drinks and laments everyone still treats her like a kid, she stumbles into Ruriko who is shooting a drama nearby. She can tell that Mayu is lost. Really, a lost child. Soon it dawned to the rest that Mayu is really lost. Chiaki tries to call her handphone but it seems she didn’t bring it along. At the same time, Ruriko tries to call Chiaki and of course couldn’t connect. Hinako is so worried that she rushes off to find Mayu. She didn’t take her handphone too. Oh dear. Looks like we’re going to have another lost child. When some people talk to Hinako, she turns into a scarecrow. Luckily Mayu and Ruriko have found her and they reunite with their friends. At the end of the day, a couple of mountain animals who got lost cling onto Hinako. They take a group photo before taking a train back. Hinako hopes to come back again next year.

Episode 8
Hinako thought she is confident after the cultural festival performance. But when a customer enters the bookstore for help, she immediately becomes a scarecrow. Still a long way to go… So bad that she did it for Mayu and Yua too… Mayu has Yua try out a gothic dress. When Chiaki returns, Yua gets embarrassed and hides herself. Yua is here to lend her DVDs to Hinako for acting. Unfortunately Hinako inserts them into her VHS player… This girl is too ancient! One day while helping Mayu, Hinako suddenly collapses. She has got a cold as Chiaki looks after her. Hinako is worried about her shift but don’t worry, Mayu is handling it fine. I think. Yup, she is swamped with business. Kuina thinks she can make medicine by tearing a page from a medicine book and grinding it? I don’t think it works like that. And then hanging green onions around her neck? Looks weird. It’s a good thing Kuina didn’t become a doctor. As Hinako sleeps, Kuina dressed up as a white snake thinking its bite could cure her. Only a real snake… But caught in the act by Chiaki. Yua too thinks exorcism will help? Caught by Chiaki. Kuina returns as a dragon? Caught by Chiaki. Is Yua trying to summon a demon? Caught by Chiaki. What’s with these people? Please don’t bother her. Hinako starts to feel homesick but she is cheered up when her friends come in to eat porridge with her. Everybody takes turns feeding her. Hinako feels better and is glad she came to Tokyo. The next day when Hinako is back to health, she is shocked to see everyone passed out! They got her cold. Now it’s her turn to nurse them. Time to get busy. Yua too is sick in her own bed wondering if Hinako is okay.

Episode 9
Hinako receives a letter from mom stating she will be visiting her. Why is she panicking? Does she have little faith in mom not to embarrass her? Because the shopping district is going to have a stamp rally, Chiaki is thinking how to bring in customers. Hinako immediately suggests a performance by Hitotose Troupe. Great idea. Hinako and Chiaki discuss where to hold a practice as Yua eavesdrop. Apparently she got jealous Hinako is getting too much attention and wants in too. Remember, Yua is part of Hitotose Troupe so don’t leave her out. When Ruriko find out, she too wants in and thus on short notice announces a training camp. Where exactly? Right here in school. So when the girls arrive, Ruriko has already laid out the futon. She even has got the pillow ready in preparation for tonight’s pillow fight. Why is this starting to look like a slumber party? After practice, Yua decides to go wash her face. As it is raining and the corridors are dark with flickering lights for horror effects, she starts getting scared. Then something is lurking in the dark… Turns out to be Mayu. Too bad Yua is so scared that Mayu even gets scared looking out for some French doll monster. After dinner, Yua promises never to leave the room. However out of habit when Mayu wants to get a washrag from the home economics class, she volunteers. Dang. Don’t worry. Hinako will come along. I suppose that won’t help. The dark scary hallways are giving Yua the chills. She is left alone when Hinako trudges forward to check whatever they think is lurking ahead. Yua is scared sh*t. By the time Hinako returns with a stray kitten, Yua has already fainted. Bed time, Kuina wants to tell ghost stories! Another round of fainting? Not sure if she did it on purpose. But Ruriko is eager to get started on the pillow fight. While sleeping, Yua accidentally sees Hinako’s sleeping mask and gets freaked out. Her scream wakes up everyone, thinking there is a burglar or something. What a night. Next day when it is all bright and clear, Yua denies she was scared. Why is Kuina taking down excerpts of what she says? As proof? Hinako’s confidence is boosted with their practice doing well. She hopes mom gets to see her performance at her best.

Episode 10
Since the script is done, Mayu eagerly wants to put on a parade. The kind of parade where the actors dress up for final checks. However the rest notes that there are quite a few things to check before having such a parade. Unfortunately Mayu throws a childish tantrum that she wants it now! What to do but to please her? So we see Kuina in a maid outfit, Hinako as a Playboy bunny girl, Yua as Alice In Wonderland and Chiaki a nurse. You happy now? Totally. Later Ruriko drops by to help check the script. She isn’t spared from the dress up too. Dog outfit? When the rest notices a leftover dress, guess who gets to wear it? Everyone is thrilled to see Mayu looking very much like a princess. Ruriko suddenly announces a sudden sleepover to help with the play’s practice. Despite the performance is in a few weeks, there shall be no time left to waste. Or maybe Ruriko is just a sleepover fanatic? While the girls are distributing flyers for their play, here comes Hinako’s mom as an eager beaver to cheer on her daughter. I suppose she arrived way too early because she wants to go sightseeing in Tokyo. Bye. Take care of her luggage please. Ruriko also brings her mom who is a famous model. My, what a tall lady. Even seeing her has Hinako turn into a scarecrow. Backstage before their performance, some talk about their first stage fright and messing things up. As they go up on stage, Hinako’s mom is clearly being loud in supporting her daughter. Is this an idol event? Turning into a scarecrow now… As Chiaki makes her intro speech, Kuina points out to Hinako that Mayu has also been up all night putting up their lines. This makes Hinako realize she isn’t alone on stage. The girls celebrate after the play. It is considered a success although Hinako rues her mistakes. Even mom thought she was playing the scarecrow at first! But as Chiaki reminds her, the crowd didn’t mind. Mom praises her she has acted out her part till the very end and that she has grown up. After Hinako thanks everyone, mom leaves for home via bullet train. She came, she saw, she left in a storm.

Episode 11
Hitotose Troupe decides to do another play on Christmas Eve. After discussion, it will be a small play based on A Christmas Carol. Yua hears about it and would love to help. She even took the liberty to make Chiaki’s costume. Wow. This angelic costume sure makes her look like some sexy Olympian goddess. Hinako actually manages to attract a real deer to help with the promotion and play! If Hinako is a scarecrow and Mayu freaking out at all the people starring at her in this weird dress, don’t worry because everyone is totally into the deer. The play goes well and before the day ends, everyone discovers that Hinako still believes in Santa Claus. An energetic Kuina wakes up Hinako for the New Year’s first sunshine. The girls then talk about their goals for the year like Mayu who seems eager to grow taller that she is drinking down the entire milk carton now. Hinako feels a bit lonely since Kuina and Mayu will be taking leave to visit their families. Mayu gives Hinako her doll as company. Hinako goes to help Chiaki but being with her, she starts feeling awkward with the silence and can’t find something to talk despite wanting to ask her lots of questions. It hit her she doesn’t know anything about her so she wants Chiaki to tell all about herself. She sounds like she wants to be her stalker… Chiaki then leaves for her part time job and has Hinako help her out. She notices the guys starring at Chiaki (obviously) and there is a shady character stalking her from behind the tree. We know it’s you, Yua. So instead of just stalking, care to help out too? Gladly. Noticing that Chiaki is good with small kids, Hinako wishes she is small. Jealous Yua thinks she’s talking about her boobs. At the end of the day, Hinako manages to tell Chiaki she wants to talk a lot more with her. Chiaki agrees and Hinako gives her a big emotional hug. Jealous Yua won’t be outdone and also hugs her. Hinako goes to sleep and is happy she got to know Chiaki better. The next morning, she realizes her entire drool has covered Mayu’s doll. Hinako reflects on the events in the past. So much has happened. She has grown a lot. But still a lot more room for improvement. A whole lot more. Kuina and Mayu return but they got the same snack souvenirs.

Episode 12
Hinako wakes up in the middle of the night only to see Mayu in a witch outfit concocting some poison while muttering Chiaki’s name?! When Mayu tries to deny everything, it only makes Hinako more curious. Plus, Mayu is so cute while flustering! Hinako decides to go tell Kuina but it seems the latter is interested in finding Chiaki in an immodest position. Next morning, it is revealed Mayu was making Valentine chocolates so she could serve them in the café. She was wearing that hood because it was cold. Muttering Chiaki’s name was some sort of ‘spell’ to make it taste better. Yua plans to give her chocolates to Chiaki. Too bad there’s a crowd. Care to join in? When it is Yua’s turn, she is nervous. But Hinako cuts in and coolly gives hers like as though there was nothing. Yua manages to give it to her but it felt so embarrassing. Chiaki thanks her and invites her to Hitotose after school. It is a feast for her eyes seeing Chiaki serving chocolates in a maid outfit. Chiaki receives several tickets from a friend for a play at Shimokita Theatre. She invites her pals to go watch it with her as thanks for the Valentine’s Day assistance. Since it is the place where they want to perform, Hinako is all excited to go check it out. So Mayu is sulking so that she could be invited to come along? The Hitotose quartet close the shop for the day so they could take a train ride there. However when they alight, they realize Hinako is missing! Where is she?! When they go find her, she moved while searching for them! I don’t know how long it took but they eventually reunite. But Kuina couldn’t be even more grateful since she was able to pick up snacks along the way. Lots of them. After the play, Hinako is overcome with emotion. They also noticed another spectator overcome with emotion. Isn’t that Yua? Since Ruriko is also here, might as well hang out together.

Scarecrowing With Hinako
Oh… That was the end? Ah well… I guess I shouldn’t be complaining and expected something more or less like this. There isn’t a deep plot to go about so some may find it boring and draggy and so much so when the end came, it just hit and make you go, “That’s it? No final performance or anything?”. Nothing really exciting or sudden twists (horror! The troupe gets disbanded!) and it is just about the girls hanging out together. Cute girls doing cute things. It seems everyone has a long way to go but then again, what’s the rush?

The characters are cute and lovable in their own way but after having watched too much of this genre, it really starts to feel old. They start to feel more or less the same. I’m not saying that it is bad for this series but generally for me they bring nothing new. You have the typical new girl in town who is nervous, scatterbrain and lacking the talent but she improves a little, gets by every day with the help of her friends. Then you have the nice big sister type, the very moe cutie type, the slacker-cum-carefree type and finally the rival.

Hinako may not be the first main character who is actually very shy in interacting with others (see the main character from Hitohira who has this same shy personality and the series itself is about a drama club) but she is the first whom I know to freeze up and turn into a scarecrow when talking to others of the same kind. It becomes a reflex action and her running joke that she will automatically start to spread her arms whenever she gets nervous. It is admirable that she continues to confront her fear and tries to change it. Though she gets through each trial and looks forward with optimism for the next, I can’t help feel that it is going to be a long way before she overcomes and conquers her scarecrow form. She won’t be up for any Oscars but I can’t help note that maybe those kids by the roadside roleplaying Power Rangers can act better than her… If the entire world is a play and the people are its actors, then Hinako can be said like stumbling through ever scene…

And if you’re wondering what Hinako Note is, well, it’s just her diary that details what she has done or going to do in detail. Quite neat and organized like as though it’s a revision book to study for exams. I’m not one to read diaries so I didn’t really read all those stuffs she has to write. For a while in the initial episodes yes, but subsequently I lost interest. What if I miss an entry about a guy she has a crush on… What?! In this very mild yuri series? I can see none of the girls here falling for guys. Chiaki is their guy!

So as not to make Hinako the only weirdo, Kuina is also a weirdo herself because she likes to eat pages. If this is her other idea of getting her daily fibre without having to eat those yucky vegetables, she’d be so wrong. In fact, Kuina isn’t just about eating pages. She thinks about food. Heck, you should have guessed (if you know your Japanese slightly well) that her name itself is a pun of eating. I’m not sure if acting is a kind of food for her since many of her suggestions would eventually boil down to food.

As usual we must have the rival and the character who shows the most emotions of them all in the form of Yua. Without her, the gang would be less lively because who else would be as competitive and tsundere as her? Chiaki is so nice and soft spoken that I believe I have never hear her raised her voice. Can she even? So nice that sometimes it feels she might actually be an angel descended from heaven. Really. It’s like she could do no wrong and in the minute event she does, you can’t bring yourself to even scold or hate her because she’s so nice.

Lastly Mayu as the cutie pie of the group is my personal reason why this series is slightly more enjoyable. You guessed it! Meido!!! Plus, the maid outfit design is very much to my liking so forgive me if I don’t pay attention what is going on and just gawk at her each time she is on screen. Which is quite a number of screen time she has. It’s like they know my fetish and make her character love to wear the maid outfit as much as possible. Thanks guys. Thanks Mayu. Never change. Your dress. Mayu’s role in the series feels like if they ever need to increase the moe factor, just have Mayu squeal and yelp in her typical girly voice and voila, cuteness factor increased by 100 times. Either you will start fawning or get annoyed. I’m still focused on her maid outfit, yeah…

Sometimes I feel that Ruriko’s character overlaps with Chiaki and Mayu. In the sense that she is soft spoken monotonously and tiny. Because of that, at times I feel her character is quite unnecessary and that she does not bring much impact to the series overall. Even without her in which I can see true as well, Hitotose Troupe can indeed operate independently with or without her. It is just to somehow make it legal and follow the rules that school clubs officially need to have an advisor. Otherwise, I don’t really see much in this acting prodigy that just borders plain weird (even weirder than Kuina eating books) and that her actual talents might be inflated. Okay, I don’t really know how to appreciate this kind of theatrical arts and hence I don’t really see what’s so good and talented about Ruriko. Besides, she leaving her school club and then suddenly coming back didn’t leave a good impression on me. Hope the European trip was worth it.

The series itself lacks fanservice although it is not intended to have one but having Hinako and Chiaki with such big busts sometimes feel there is the need to make some jokes and references about girls with big boobs. Especially to those without such blessed assets. What I want to say is that there is a part where it looks like teasing viewers with the fanservice and that part is at the next episode preview whereby we can see the girls in very ambiguous poses from an ambiguous angle. This is the most fanservice-y part in the series. Like as though this kind of shots are worthy for a gravure, a men’s magazine. A bit naughty without being too naughty.

Art and drawing lean more towards the cute and moe element as seen in other similar animes such as YuruYuri, Gochuumon Wa Usagi Desu Ka, Acchi Kocchi, Kiniro Mosaic and Lucky Star. Because of that, doesn’t Hinako look a bit like Lucky Star’s Miyuki? Just without the glasses and add boobs. Or how about Yua who somehow keeps reminding me something about Lucky Star’s Kagami. Or Mayu’s near resemblance to Kiniro Mosaic’s Karen? Is it me or does Kuina look like a cross between Lucky Star’s Konata and Acchi Kocchi’s Tsumiki? Animated by Passione, they only have a few titles under their belt in these past few years like Rail Wars, Haitai Nanafa and Rokka No Yuusha. Since the series you will rarely see them act a play out on stage, it is the mid-intermission eyecatch segment that you can see the Hitotose Troupe dressed in various costumes in different play settings such as being mermaids and fighting a revolutionary war.

As speaking is an essential part of acting, the voice acting feels okay with each of the characters having their own unique distinct sound to reflect their personality. After all these years, Yui Ogura still has that baby-like voice. And as Mayu here, she makes her character sound even more annoyingly cute to the point you just want to hug and squeeze her. Oops… The rest of the main casts are Mao as Hinako (Papika in Flip Flappers), Hisako Toujo as Chiaki (Kiruka in Shakunetsu No Takkyuu Musume), Miyu Tomita as Kuina (Gabriel in Gabriel Dropout), Marika Kouno as Yua (Niwaka in Akiba’s Trip The Animation) and Yuri Yoshida as Ruriko (Mashiro in Mikakunin De Shinkoukei).

A E I U E O Ao by Hitotose Troupe as the opening theme is as weird and lively as it can get. You have to be good with your tongue if you are to sing flawlessly through this song with some of the lyrics being fast paced and nonsensical words. Like as though this might also be some kind of speech preparation/warm up for budding actors and actresses to improve their speaking. Also as weird as this is the ending theme, Ka-tenko-ru by the same troupe. Though singing wise it is not as weird as the opener.

Overall, this is just an average series and this season’s cute girls doing cute things. People who love this genre would still find it enjoyable with the unique cast of characters and their interaction among each other causing a few funny and cute moments. Others who aren’t into this genre would find it a yawn fest. I’m not sure if acting on stage is the best way to overcome one’s shyness. It’s like doing a bungee jump for those who are afraid of heights or throw those who are afraid of snakes into a snake pit. Well, fighting fire with fire. But remember, don’t get burnt in the act.

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism

Why do I have a feeling that this show is in some ways trying to pander to current feminism? In Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism where a school is run and dominated by females, troublesome delinquent guys from around the country are sent here to be corrected by them. They have to be ‘corrected’ by assimilating to their ways. Or else… No one has succeeded and the ‘peace’ reigns for a long time. Until a guy who doesn’t give a sh*t about all that gets transferred in and fights this system and winning them over in the process. Hey wait. Isn’t this just some action battle harem anime?

Episode 1
The Supreme Five Swords, Rin Onigawara, Mary Kikakujo, Satori, Tamaba, Warabi Hanasaka and Tsukuyo Inaba are discussing a new troublesome transfer student coming in today, Fudo Nomura. He was expelled from his previous school for starting a brawl. Despite knowing some sort of martial arts, he was gravely injured and just released from hospital. Kirukiru Amou waltzes in to warn them about looking down on him. It sounds like she has fought him before. She warns them about his spirit bullets. Rin says she will personally correct him before homeroom is over. Nomura is surprised to see all the girls in school armed and all boys dressed as girls! This fat tranny, Kusuo “Masuko” Masukodera warns him that the only ‘freedom’ they have is to follow the law or you have none. When Nomura enters class, Rin and her classmates immediately pin him down. Since he is unaware of what is going on, cue to explain to us how the Five Swords control the school. A bit of history too when Aichi Coexistence Private Academy which used to be an all-girls school opened up, the girls felt unsafe and were allowed to carry weapons. Thus the custom of arming vigilante groups became a custom to allow 5 girls to carry swords. Over the years, the school has become one in which delinquents from across the nation are sent for reformation in the name of coexistence. Nomura now understands what Masuko was trying to say to him but he is not going to take this lying down. He is given a choice to leave or coexist but he chose neither. He becomes fast enough to escape from his hold and escape but Rin is hot on his tail.

Rin catches and tries to cut him down with her sword but Nomura is pretty agile and adept, using his feet to defend against her strikes. Then there is this Jikishinkage School that Rin came from because she is using her breathing technique to strengthen her muscles, etc. Whatever. Nomura gets his a slash on his side face when his made a rash judgment. He brings out his iron gloves to fight her. When he is backed to a corner, she relentlessly attacks. He is waiting for her to step back and breathe but she knows he is waiting for this moment. But in that brief moment when she does, he manages to place his palm on her ribs. An air gust blasts her away, shocking everyone who is watching. Nomura is pretty confident in explaining this unnamed technique but is shocked when Rin knows it as spirit bullets. Nono Mozunono tries to hit Nomura away from her but accidentally pushes his head down. This means their lips meet! Rin becomes a flustering wreck, trying to hold in her embarrassment. She promises she will castrate him. Did he upgrade from correct to castrate?

Episode 2
Mary thinks it is her turn to teach Nomura a lesson. But her disciple, Choka U. Baragasaki who is part of the Junior Five Swords will act on her behalf. Nomura asks Masuko on how to leave the school grounds. There is a permission slip that he can only get from Rin. Plus, he must get all stamps from the Five Swords. There is also a school store that gets what you need. Of course there is a smuggler who can get you anything you want for a price. Nomura wants a cake. In class, the girls are afraid of Nomura thinking the cake is to trick them into kissing him. He wants to give this to Rin but she is absent and resting in her dorm. Speaking of her, she is mad and confused at what happened. Her temperature is fluctuating. Nomura comes in to give the cake. Now he notices her face since half her demon mask is broken. He thinks she is quite pretty behind it. Why not take it off? She doesn’t want others to look at her without her mask off. Well, you do whatever you want. He requests for the slip but she says that is only for students who are behaving well. When he mentions he wants to see her in casual clothes outside school, she immediately gives the card, hoping this will make up for his visit. He jokes that he could make up the difference with a kiss. Her temperature rises as she faints. As he tries to catch her, Nono walks in and misinterprets this rape scene. Immediately the dorm is on lockdown. Nomura tries to escape this booby trap dorm. Is this really a dorm?

He manages to get outside but is faced with Choka. She took too long in her fancy introduction that Nono catches up. There seems to be some sort of rivalry between Choka and Nono as the latter plays down the former’s fakeness of pretending to be an Italian when she is just Japanese. Nomura dodges Choka’s whip and Nono’s short stick. It might seem he is outnumbered but they claim this is level 2 punishment and the only person who made through this is another delinquent from another school, Amou. She is a rare case of a female delinquent. The duo are not in sync and can’t cooperate well together and Nomura is able to easily use his spirit bullet on Nono who then collapses on Choka. In this dire situation, before Nomura can teach them a lesson, they start crying. Yeah, everyone thinks of Nomura as a bully. In the evening, Rin gives her stamp on the slip to Nomura. But after she learns what happened in the day from her classmates, Sassa Kurasaki and Ui Migii, her temperature rises again. Choka gets her punishment from Mary but she is going to get her revenge on Nomura for laying his hands on her disciple. When Nomura enters class the next morning, all the girls are staying away from him, fearing they would get pregnant by being close. Even you too, Masuko?! With Rin breathing down his neck again, looks like she is going to personally supervise him for the sake of this school’s safety.

Episode 3
Masuko warns Nomura to be careful now that he is Rin and Mary’s target. Nomura remembers a person who withstood their punishment. Amou or as she is known here as Empress sure did. The way Masuko describes how she defeated them with her lethal hand chops makes Nomura wonder if that is the person whom he fought before. Rin comes early to get Nomura. She checks his bag and despite him trying to be sarcastic if she is going to follow him everywhere including the toilet, she plays it cool that if he wants to, she will. Mary arrives and she is not happy Nomura is under her supervision. Mary has got the wrong idea of Nomura’s rampage at the dorm, though Rin clears this misunderstanding up and assures he didn’t do all that on purpose. Rin tells Nomura to head along while she settles with Mary with a girl’s talk. So apparently as you guessed it, their way of talking is via sword fight. Rin lost since she is still recovering. Choka tries to intercept Nomura with her whip. This time he takes out his belt to render her whip useless. But without touching her, she faints. Oops. His pants dropped. Before him now is Amou. She looks a bit different than before. He tries to confirm if ‘he’ has become a girl because the Amou he knew is a boy and tried to recruit him into his gang. Amou says she is different than that person he speak of and has always been a girl. Not convinced, Nomura is going to punch her and see for himself when he is interrupted by Mary’s scream. Oops. His zipper is down. By the time Nomura looks back, Amou is gone. Amou’s flashback indicates she is indeed that person. She beat him up real good when he refused to join her. She remembers attacking him with the perfect strike that would have made him her subordinate. She wonders if she hesitated. But she will never acknowledge that guy and will kill him the next time he sees him.

Nomura is now fighting Mary through the hallways. However he has a hard time dodging her rapier as it is flexible. Each time he dodges, it can ‘turn around’ and poke him. Since she aims for his nerves, it could be a painful pricking each time. The only way is to charge straight in which as expected she stabs straight into him. However she feels her move did not connect. Thanks to the thick manga inside his shirt. Not a fearsome weapon, you say? He hits her head with it! Enough time to put his palm on her rib and do spirit bullets. Mary admits she has lost and allows him to do whatever he wants to her. Anything. So she’s expecting to be raped? But when he won’t do it, she thinks he views her less charming than the rest! You can never understand how women think! Because seeing Rin, Choka and Nono got violated, if she doesn’t get violated this means humiliation! Hey, she was hit on the head with a book. She tries to give her breast for him to fondle. Not interested? Well, he doesn’t like being coerced into it. He wants her stamp however. But she places it in her cleavage. Now he will definitely have to touch them. However he controls himself. This makes Mary rethink about her impressions of boys. They are not as bad as animals as she thinks. Rin arrives and misinterprets the situation. He is dead meat. Mary clears the misunderstanding. Her condition to give her stamp is that now she has to supervise him. Rin is not happy about this and they argue over Nomura being theirs. Erm, doesn’t this look like some romcom harem argument now?

Episode 4
Warabi just returned from Hawaii. She sees the tomfoolery between Nomura, Rin and Mary and is not pleased the mockery this has become. Therefore in addition to making Nomura her correction target, those girls will also be part of her correction. Nomura is shocked to see Masuko crucified on the flag post. Warabi is responsible for this as she claims he has been smuggling contraband into the school grounds. She then has them participate in her Death Olympics (Warabimpics?) in which they need to make their way through various challenges. If they win, Nomura gets her stamp. Good enough for him. She sends her musketeers, Tsunemi Toko, Kinue Tanukihara and Nico Saruwatari to assist them. Because the first challenge will be a sumo wrestling and they need to put on a mawashi (sumo loincloth). Choka and Nono come attacking the musketeers for embarrassing their sisters but they are quickly defeated. Rin and Mary tell them to step down as they have no choice but to participate. Nomura has no problems putting on the mawashi himself. So can the girls do it themselves? Looks like they need some help… So with each tightening and turning, they must be feeling embarrassed. Or do they like that sensation? And Mary is upset because Nomura spent more time on Rin while hers was like so fast? WTF?! Adding to the embarrassment is that there is a camera crew to film and broadcast it throughout the entire school. Nomura decides to go first. So who will be his challenger? Warabi’s bear pet, Kyobo! Man versus beast! As the match starts, Nomura lunges straight for Kyobo. He does his spirit bullet but the bear is too heavy to take the fall. Not even his hidden bullet from the back with his left hand did any good. He surprises everyone when he lifts Kyobo! Apparently he has been training sumo since young by lifting older and heavier men. Nomura must have really lots of strength if he is ranting about Warabi watching from her high horse while she drags the innocent, hurts and embarrassed others. It might look like he ran out of strength when he puts Kyobo down. Actually, he couldn’t be more thankful to whoever wrapped his mawashi because it now comes off. According to official sumo rules, that amounts to disqualification. Nomura and his girls are encouraged with their first win (though, they’re still being tsundere about the team). Warabi is in shock over this shock loss. She wants he team assembled. The games are cancelled. It’s time for war.

Episode 5
Warabi will give the stamp as promised. But he must go through the school building to face her at the rooftop. It won’t be easy since they have to get past her musketeers as well as their assistant clones. To save time, Nono and Choka help to fight the assistants. Surprisingly Satori clears a path straight up to Warabi. Despite she hates Nomura, she doesn’t want Warabi to get her way any longer. The final boss fights involve Nomura taking on Kyobo who is well versed in boxing too, Mary holding down the musketeers from reaching the top and Rin facing off with Warabi in their swordplay. Nomura thought the internet has thought him how to deal with bears. Unfortunately he got a paw punch right in his face. Rin gets injured when Warabi uses ‘underhanded’ ninja tactics in her fight. Realizing that nobody is making any headway, Nomura thanks his girls for the help. This is a way to tell them to not be afraid and just focus on the enemy before them. With renewed confidence, they easily defeat the foes. Nomura has used a lot of spirit bullets on Kyobo so the inner damage has slowly been building up. So when Kyobo starts crouching in pain, Nomura finally has a clear shot of her head and one straight punch is good enough to knock her out. The sorority sisters happily reunite. When Nomura wants to quickly put on the mawashi on Warabi as punishment, Rin and Mary are not happy. So they want to monopolize that technique of his? They start chasing him around. Oh, Warabi gives her stamp.

Episode 6
Rin seems to be wearing a different uniform and Mary putting on a new perfume. Trying something? Looks like they’ve got heaps of rivals now. Because every damn girl is fawning over Nomura ever since he looked so cool fighting Kyobo! OMG! Every harem guy’s dream! I guess Rin and Mary are the only ones putting up sour faces. It makes them less cute… Oops. Watch what you say to them. Even more disappointing, he did not notice their change. So they’re complaining and complaining about him. Yeah, it’s sickening to hear them say how they want to correct him. Next morning when they go get him, they are surprised he is waiting for them. Since he notices their difference, I guess it makes them happy and decide to start the correction tomorrow. As they do the usual checking, they find a photo that makes their blood boil. A picture of Nomura and Satomi together in bed. Naked. Scandal! I don’t think they want to hear him out even if he doesn’t remember this. Better run. They’re really going to kill you. Luckily Warabi and Kyobo hide him. After learning what happened, it is obvious this is a trap by Satomi. She is doing this because if she took him out directly, Rin and Mary won’t shut up about it and thus trying to wreck their relationship first. As long as they don’t realize this, she can plot all she wants. Nomura thinks he has a way to clear his innocence. There is a bright light censoring his dick and since he clearly remembers he didn’t have a boner then, he could steal the data as proof. But how is he going to sneak into the girls’ dorm as security has been upgraded tenfold. If he can’t sneak in, he’ll let them in. Warabi likes this plan and goes along with it.

Nomura allows him to be captured by Rin and Mary. Then they torture him to the max although his lips are sealed. When they see a hideous scar on his back, they stop. Then Warabi comes to let him out and they head to Satomi’s room to look for evidence. They didn’t find anything and believes she might be carrying it with her. Right now she is in the bath. Why does Nomura look happy to infiltrate there? Warabi cautions him that Satomi is an odd one. She behaves as though she is a mysterious creature pretending to be human. In the hallway, Sassa and Ui are passing by. Kyobo has to press and hide him against the wall. Remember, Kyobo is female. How does it feel like touching bear tits? Even bears can get stimulated! Almost busting his cover, this time Warabi goes to cover him but her ass is in his face. A little bear diverts their attention for them to escape. That little bear is Domo, Kyobo’s offspring. Searching the changing area, Warabi feels something is off when she doesn’t see Satomi’s sword. Then enters one of Satomi’s masked girl underlings, Misogi. She is said to be Satori’s right hand. Warabi protects Nomura from being hit by her blow dart. Satomi then comes out of the bath. She has expected Nomura to come but didn’t anticipate Warabi to be working with him.

Episode 7
Nomura deduces the masked girls had been tailing him for days and that is how they knew about things and dragged Masuko into this. Satomi disagrees because Masuko was helping all along. Nomura now remembers how Satomi and Misogi snuck into his room when he was asleep. After taking those scandalous photos, he wakes up but Satomi slipped a sleeping pill into his mouth via kiss. The data is in her pouch around her neck. So come get it. Meanwhile Rin and Mary are getting drunk on non-alcoholic beverages blaming a certain man… How disgraceful. Their sisters can only nod and serve. Warabi fights Misogi but the drug is taking effect and weakening her. She stabs herself to stay focus but she is at her limits. Nomura is forced to fight naked Satomi. It’s her plan to distract him. I mean, can you fight with a boner? Nomura is taken by surprise when Satomi attacks are too fast to dodge. He can’t tell what she is thinking from those dead fish eyes of hers. Just when he thought he had figured out her fighting school style, she changes it. And again. And again. He realizes she is from a school that takes a technique from separate schools. Though he is correct, Satomi shows how she could chain those different techniques into one combo. Despite he finds it hard to find an opening, there are times when he notices she gets sloppy. Then it hit him. Might as well take this gamble. He strips naked! True enough she reacts. When a guy shows his dick, girls either focus at it or stare away. Therefore he has rendered her eyes useless. Warabi defeats Misogi using her judo. Once she gets the cure from her, she beats the hell out of her. But she is in for a shock when she unmasks her. Satomi threatens to drop the data in the water. So what is he going to do? He slaps her! If he is going to get expelled, might as well do that with no regrets. She wonders if it is because he got framed, tortured or future plans ruined. No. It’s because he made Rin cry. She is amused by his great reply and finds humans interesting. He says he is human too since the last part she got mad. Yeah, she really does hate you.

Episode 8
When Nomura extended his hand to pull Satomi out of the water, she pulled him in as she heard someone coming in. Warabi’s musketeers have arrived and they see Warabi and Misogi out cold. Toko thought she could unmask Misogi but even with her unconsciousness, the grip is still strong. Tsukuyo then comes to clean things up and has the dorm lady, Eva handle the rest while she goes to settle those in the bath. Satomi hides Nomura but nothing can escape Tsukuyo’s ears. She still plays dumb there is no one around. Tsukuyo will speak to her outside in the yard as there is someone she doesn’t want to hear. Nomura comes out of his hiding as Satomi warns he cannot beat Tsukuyo as he is now and will die if he fights her. Because Nomura collapses from the exhaustion of the torture and fighting. Rin cannot sleep because all she can see is Nomura’s face. She sneaks out but bumps into Mary. They freak each other out. They probably had the same idea. Excuses, excuses. So they accompany each other to drink but can’t leave until the other is gone. It gets worse when their sisters join them. Now they can’t leave. They try to outdrink each other but their sisters just want them to quit this silliness. Satomi then comes in to tell them Nomura is resting in the infirmary (she carried him all the way there while he is naked through the dorm). How does she know that? Because he attacked her in the bath. Time for them to blow their top again. Meanwhile Tsukuyo who has a weak body has caught a cold for waiting outside and is now being nursed by Eva.

Satomi assures Nomura he told Rin and Mary the truth. When Rin comes in looking mad, Nomura fears she told them the twisted truth. But when Rin apologizes, to Nomura’s relief that Satomi did actually tell the real truth. Rin feels ashamed after Satori confessed that everything was her ploy. She allows him to do whatever he wants so he has her close her eyes. Getting ready to kiss? Actually he takes off her mask. What’s this? She would rather have him look at her naked body? He wonders why she wears one so she explains her mom told her she is ugly. Dad cheated on her and left the family. Mom must have seen shades of him in her and told her she was the daughter of a demon and to cover her face when she was around. She felt she could live without shame. By the time she left for school, she was already used to it. So when Nomura told her she was pretty, she was happy to hear it. He gives the mask back to her since she needs to decide herself when she wants to take it off. Above all, he realizes she still loves her mom despite it all. Something he will never understand since he is an orphan and never knew his real parents. Some sword obsessed old man took him in and trained him like hell. Can you believe that Rin is crying? Nomura thought it is right at this point they trade secrets. Now Mary comes in. She also heard everything from Satomi and feels ashamed. She allows him to do anything to her body. Woah. She already stripped? Too bad, instantly rejected. When Nomura returns to his room, Masuko asks what he thinks of him. Not in a romantic sense! He must be a terrible person but Nomura already knew he was the one who drugged his dinner. Can’t blame him as he only did it to protect the other guys. He considers that kind of person to be his friend. Masuko did a special service by washing his pillow case. That’s because that is where Nomura keeps his slip and looks like Masuko has got Satori’s stamp for him.

Episode 9
What’s this? Some monster stalking the trannies in the bath?! Who wants to look at them?! When they complain to Nomura, he really isn’t interested. Not sure if Rin calling him out to go to school is even worse. When word that Amou has left her room and is missing, Tsukuyo also reports how she heard she is putting on carbohydrates. With that, the principal Yoshino cancels today’s class! There seems to be more commotion at school. Warabi and her musketeers are looking for missing Domo. She wants the cub found before Satomi as she knows she’ll treat it as a rough toy. On the other hand, Mary is trying to find Choka’s wig. Wait. What?! So those killer drills are her wig? I knew there was something so unreal about them. Mary and Warabi misinterpret each other’s search (I think there are lots of bear and wig puns in it) and once they realize what the other is looking for, they start arguing theirs is more important. But looks like Nomura has got this case solved. The monster terrorizing the boys’ dorm is Domo in that wig. Everyone for the first sees Choka without her wig. OMG! So different! Barely recognizable. So Japanese… With these missing cases solved, the big problem now is missing Amou. Warabi is glad that Domo is found but is suspicious with Satomi’s lack of movement. They discuss about Misogi and it seems that Satomi and Misogi have the same face?!

They are sisters in fact as they both meet. Misogi is worried her cover is blown but Satomi the sadist slaps her for being a worrywart. Amou steps into the picture. She is describing Satomi as a monster who finds pleasure by looking down on others. Something about the need to constantly create new enemies and then take them out. She finds her pitiful. Empty. A ghost. Warabi spots Amou and Satomi’s confrontation and rushes to the scene. The fight is inevitable. Amou is able to detect Satomi’s fast draw and hurt her. Misogi tries to help but also gets attacked. Flashback reveals that they actually switched place! I’m so confused. I don’t know who is who now. It seems one sister loves looking down on the other. But when the other stole her place and everything else, it was the first time she felt how it was liked to be looked down upon others. Since then, the sisters traded place and acted like the other. Even their parents couldn’t tell them apart. Misogi, despite her face, name and future stolen by Satomi, she still loves her sister. For the first time Satomi shed tears but merciless Amou puts them out of their misery. Warabi arrives too late but she is going to clean the mess up. Too bad not even a combo with Kyobo could defeat her. As though Amou’s body is made of steel or something. Meanwhile Nomura sees Tsukuyo. He disregards Masuko’s warning she is the strongest and most feared among the Five Swords. He is going to get the last stamp and casually walks up to her. Can you say he deserves it when he didn’t see it coming, Tsukuyo’s strike at his neck?

Episode 10
Nomura is glad he is still alive although for some reason Tsukuyo says he just died. What? I don’t understand. Yoshino entrusted Nomura to Tsukuyo and is only given 2 chances of offence. He broke both by breaking into Rin’s room and then into Satori’s room the bath. His third is ignoring her summons. Nomura learns that she is actually blind but makes up for her sharp hearing and fast attacking speed that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Nomura can tell that fast draw is from a certain school since he was from that school too. And there’s this mumbo-jumbo how she deduced him as a fellow student of that school due to how he fought his opponents. She knows about his spirit bullet from Amou. She thought they were friends because on the first day she transferred, she spoke fondly of him. But she doesn’t see them spending any time together since he came here. But yet he quickly became friends with Rin, Mary, Warabi and Satori. Tsukuyo becomes upset since Nomura ignores her to go see what the commotion is on the rooftop. Amou just finished beating up Warabi’s musketeers. Warabi cannot bear to see this and wants them spared in exchange she will allow Amou to kill her. But Amou doesn’t think an arrogant soul like her can save anyone and slashes her face. An eerie scream echoes throughout the school grounds. By the time Nomura arrives, he sees defeated bloodied girls lying around. He is surprised Yoshino is standing behind him and he didn’t even sense her presence. She attends to Warabi. Her eye sights are still intact but her eyelids are injured and need immediate surgery. She can tend to the fallen but wants Nomura to take care of things happening on the ground below.

Amou now goes to face off with Tsukuyo but Rin and Mary intervene. They are going to make her explain what happened but Amou will gladly recreate that scene with their bodies. The duo are so weak that Amou doesn’t even fight them seriously. Even in defence mode she defeats them. Rin realizes too late that her entire body is one big weapon, a single blade. Now she turns her attention to their sisters. Too scared to run? Tsukuyo steps in. First she asks Nono if she is her friend. Out of fear, she says yes. Tsukuyo’s face lights up because it gives her an excuse and reason to fight and protect her friend. She’s praising Nomura for this somehow? There is this mumbo-jumbo about Tsukuyo explaining why Amou’s bare hand combat is comparatively slower to her sword. Not that I really understand or care. Amou dares Tsukuyo to come at her. In a flash, Tsukuyo cuts her in 3 strikes. Too fast to see what happened. It did some damage to Amou but Tsukuyo didn’t get off scot-free either. She too has taken some damage and her sword broke. Amou has the last laugh because she notices her sword isn’t real and is perhaps a toy sword made out of cheap fake metal. Plus, without her sword, she is literally useless as a warrior. Tsukuyo is indeed cornered but she is blaming this on Nomura somehow? Before Amou can go in for the kill, Nomura pushes Tsukuyo away. Then the 2 rivals start screaming each other’s name. Are they going Super Saiyan?

Episode 11
Flashback when Nomura first faced off with Amou. He managed to use his speed to get up close from behind and touch her. He suggested a truce and Amou was more than happy to have one. They became friends. Apparently that face off was because Nomura wanted to protected his girly guy friend. As thanks, he wanted to show him around school. Amou tried to hijack that role but Nomura turned her down. Angry, she cut down his friend! No more friends then. Now, Nomura looked like he failed to block from Amou’s attack. But luckily his thick manga underneath his shirt saves him once more. Tsukuyo interjects about cutting it. She starts talking like a tsundere perhaps he wanted to be her friend. He dismisses it and that friends aren’t people you ask things of or get particular with. It just happens. Some people you want to be friends with but just didn’t turn out that way. Nomura seems to be hesitant if he could defeat Amou. This time Rin and Mary give him words of encouragement to take her out. This makes Tsukuyo wonder if this is what he meant by becoming friends because the girls used to hate him so much. Amou warns to stall fighting her or she may get bored and aim for others. He rushes head in with his speed but Amou is able to fend it all off. Nomura thinks he is dead meat when he makes a fatal move. He is saved when Tsukuyo’s voice guided him over to her side. She then lectures his hesitation which led to his half-hearted moves. I don’t think he needs this lecture now. She hints that Amou has already told him that something will work against her. Nomura takes it as a move that will dig his own great. But he is going to take it as he has too many great things in this school going for him. Amou becomes sad that he is on their side. All she wanted was him. She viewed the world as grey and bland. Everything wasn’t enough for her so she only cut out parts with vivid colour for herself. But Nomura was bright and coloured everything she had already taken into her control. She wanted him but he may have dyed her in his colour. When did she lose sight of that? If only things could go back the way it is. No it can’t. In that case, she’ll kill him.

Episode 12
Flashback shows after Mary ‘submitted’ to Nomura, Amou saw it and her heart started aching. She messed up her room and in short we can tell she is jealous for him. Knowing she is the same as him and will not submit, she decided if he cannot have him, she will kill him! This is worse than being a yandere! Back to the fight, Nomura bares his top so when Amou attacks it, it allows him to go up to touching distance and blow her away. Of course that isn’t enough to put her down. They start beating each other up with their fists and Amou seems to feel nostalgic of this pain. It makes her forget that burning desire in her heart. I suppose this doesn’t make her a masochist. Well, they both look happy trading blows. Nomura supposedly lost but Amou catches him. She realizes he fights not to win but to show where he stands. Because the victor is already decided. Go ahead. Give it your best shot. This is his last chance. Be hers. Nope. With that, Nomura finishes her off. But right after that ended, Tsukuyo know draws her broken blade at him. It’s time to finish their fight. She realizes they cannot be friends. She is disappointed in the way he fights, his balance and stance. In short, she wants him to be her student! In exchange she can give her stamp. It is a great deal to him but knowing Nomura, he is very well going to decline. Before he can say that, those masked girls are going to take down unconscious Amou. They are quickly defeated by Yoshino as she dismisses everyone back to class.

In the aftermath, Nomura is to be expelled from school. Nomura seems cool with it. He then visits Warabi and Satori recuperating in the infirmary one last time. Rin and Mary tries to convince Yoshino about the circumstances but his expulsion cannot be reversed. Outside he is surprised Tsukuyo is waiting for him. Nomura didn’t like she accepted him as her student when he didn’t give a reply. The he finds out Amou has been expelled and making her way overseas now. He wants to go to her and doesn’t care about the rules since he is going to be expelled but is reminded he is still a student of this school until all the paperwork is done. So Amou somehow got it all done? So Nomura is forced to be her student to get the last stamp to rush down to the airport to catch Amou and have a last talk with each other. She tells him to continue being himself and do what he wishes. She remembers she forgot to say something to him during their fight. She walks up to him and kisses him! She wants him to relay the misinformation to the Five Swords that he is hers. Since when was he hers? The moment they met, he has always been hers deep within her heart. Nomura returns as Rin and Mary wait to get him (they’re dressed like they’re ready to go on a date?). They explain that Yoshino was just joking about the expulsion. Yeah. He can still stay. In exchange, Rin and Mary must tightly hold onto his reins. So they gladly ask him to coexist or leave. Neither. Everyone else is waiting at the gates and welcoming back. Nomura is glad to be back.

Unarmed By Love
And so the entire bad blood with Amou was just simply down to because she likes him?! She needed somebody to take away the pangs in her heart? Who better than the one she likes? Wow. What a twisted way to get the attention of the one you like. So even the big and baddest girl of them all is actually the first one to like Nomura. I had a hunch it would be like that. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fun, would it? Better to be a tough kickass instead of the typical girly and charming method. Imagine Amou like that. Imagine her being girly and asking Nomura to go out with her like how a shy teen girl in love would. Unthinkable. It would send shivers down our spine. So I guess in the end, it is for the best for everybody. They beat the crap and those feelings out of each other and settle their differences before walking down their own path. After all, Nomura and Amou are so similar that they cannot coexist. That is why the saying goes, opposite attracts.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if the author knows the meaning of Machiavellianism because he might just saw this word and it sounds and looks fancy without fully understanding what it means and thus borrowed and adapted it into this title. Okay, I’m not really 100% certain of its meaning either but I have a gist about it. Because I thought it has something to do with politics but to use it in high school? Yeah well, if you look at it this way, the girls are oppressing and forcing upon the guys using their own devious principals so in a way that could be seen as Machiavellianism. I think. Or shouldn’t it be Orwellian? Whatever the case may be, it sounds like the word gives the setting and everything else some sort of grandeur and intimidating feel. Heck, I think I sometimes have trouble pronouncing and even spelling Machiavellianism correct. The way the plot this series is seen, it looks like there is hardly any Machiavellianism. At least not for Nomura.

In view of that, we see how this Machiavellianism quickly turns into a farce for the girls especially the Five Swords. Instead of correcting Nomura or even dominating him, they got dominated instead and become his ally. I wonder lackey or love slave is too extreme a term for them. This is quickly seen in Rin and Mary as they are promptly defeated as they turn from honourable swordswomen to love struck idiotic teenagers. I mean, when you have a girl who wears a demon mask and an uptight strict noble foreigner suddenly turning into depraves, it looks like they lost their dignity. At least where the school rules are concerned. The duo immediately become running jokes and humiliating fodder to play out ridiculous acts (sometimes to the point of lewdness) that only a romantic harem comedy can have like spending more time arguing with each other over Nomura. Pride won’t have them admit they like him but it is so obvious in their body language. In other words, they lost their fangs when they lost to Nomura. It is a wonder that with the fall of a couple of the Five Swords, why aren’t the boys rebelling or whatsoever? Ah, I see they have assimilated and been corrected so they too have lost their manly instincts and fangs. Hence, I figure it is a reason why a couple of tranny guys who often narrate the next episode preview and make silly puns and jokes, continuing to be the way they are instead of changing back into their former selves.

Rin and Mary might be the most obvious in their conflicted feelings with their code and Nomura but you could have guessed that the other girls of Five Swords will soon follow (because for plot purposes) albeit less apparent. Warabi compared to the duo is still more respectable since she has a pride and doesn’t descend and make a fool out of herself when it comes to matters pertaining to the heart and Nomura. In a way, she is more helpful and an ally even if we know deep down she has taken a liking for him. Tsukuyo might look like she is the ferocious of them all since she is blind and when she opens her eyes, her pupils look scary. But she may be the most misunderstood seeing that perhaps all she wants is to make friends? Because nobody takes her seriously or being afraid of her, no one is long enough to stay and chat to get to know her. And so as you can see, Nomura didn’t have to lift much of a finger to get her to his side. Also thanks to Amou for bringing forward the final boss fight.

Among the Five Swords, I think Satori is the most intriguing and mysterious due to her very alien-like nature. She is lethal and deadly despite her somewhat retarded looks and tone but that itself could be a very scary thing. I believe she is the most dangerous one Nomura had to face among the Five Swords. Even more confusing is her swapped personality and life with her sister. I know it’s simple that the sisters switched place but it still feels confusing for a dumb person like me to just think about it. Nono and Choka feel as useless as their sorority sisters ever since Nomura came into the picture. Because all they ever do is get into trouble and then the need for their sisters to get them out or exact revenge for them. In conclusion, all of the girls have their own set of issues and personal problems to deal with. It is nice to know about their backgrounds and perhaps that sad past of theirs made them closed their hearts until the right man came along.

And so Nomura can be considered the alpha male of the series because he literally breaks down the pyramid and structure of this school. In other words, no males were manly enough to even defeat one of the girls and even getting up corrected themselves. This shows they have no balls and backbone and thus deservingly get their just desserts. So Nomura like the underdog in most stories, sets out to straighten up everything and the entire plot of this season and reason for him to face off with the Five Swords is just to get their stamp approval to get out of the school grounds. Otherwise, this guy has no reason to actually fight them in the first place if he wants an ordinary and peaceful life.

Therefore Nomura can also be called a saviour, the Jesus Christ to this school as he liberates the rotting and unjust traditions. That is why he is so refreshing and cool that all the girls want him. Don’t you dare get jealous of him since you’ve got no balls to kick ass in the first place. Weaklings like you should know your place! That is why Nomura is such a badass that Amou too wants a piece of him since from a long time. Nomura doesn’t pander to anybody and goes at his own pace. He has his own witty sarcasm that makes him charming in his own way (is it a running joke he often tells others how to pronounce his name especially the accent heavily on the first syllable?). That is why the girls want him. They realize being straight has more benefits than being lesbian! If I was a girl, I would totally fall for him and want this dude to protect me always! Kyun~! And when everything is all settled, they can now fight over him in a shameless harem battle royale. Too bad not this season. That’s why I guess Nomura returned to Aichi since it is a place where he dominates! The only thing that made me wonder was, if he is the kind of guy who freely does things his way, why did he settle to be accepted in Aichi in the first place? This is assuming he doesn’t want to be sent to this correctional facility in the first place. He would have just said no to whoever those adults decided for him and walked away without a care. Maybe he thought it would be the best place for a free and quiet life? Either way, he isn’t regretting his stay now.

The action bits are decent and average, just enough to satisfy. It isn’t that bad but if you want some sort of breath taking combos or super flashy moves all the time, series like Naruto and One Piece fare better (because they have more episodes too). At least each of the fighting characters has a variety of moves that make them unique. Though, I can’t really remember them. Whenever they pull off that move, I would like “Oh, I see… Whatever”. It must be some sort of big deal because each time we are introduced to a new move, we see a huge kanji writing of that move’s name covering almost entirely the screen. Not that I could remember them either anyway. Oh, there are quite a bit of blood too so be warned…

Art and animation are decent, nothing too special. A bevy of bishoujo babes, one bishonen guy and the rest of the bunch as ugly trannies. Everything is also bright and colourful and the character designs unique enough so you won’t get confused trying to make out which character is which. This series is animated jointly by Silver Link and Connect. This isn’t the first time they joined up and produce an anime as they have done quite a few as a team before. Namely, Strike The Blood, Chaos Dragon, Inawa Kuni No Alice and Bonjour Koiaji Patisserie.

What a delight because Mamiko Noto as Yoshino!!! Last episode cameo! It really made my day. Unfortunately I didn’t recognize any one of the seiyuus but if there is one voice acting which I would like to ‘complain’, it would be Kyobo’s. Yes, even this bear has her own seiyuu despite just making a few roars here and there, Saki Fujita (Ayano in YuruYuri). Although Kyobo can ‘exist’ in both chibi and ferocious form, in both forms she sounds literally the same. In other words, her roars sound like pussy. Woah! I am not sure if it is done on purpose because in her original fearsome bear form when she makes that kind of unconvincing weak roar, it just feels so out of place. So unreal. So bizarre. Like as though Kyobo isn’t a bear in the first place. Like as though some little girl is just cosplaying and wearing a suit of a big bear.

The casts of the series include Tasuku Hatanaka as Nomura (Kaminari in Boku No Hero Academia), Yuuki Takada as Rin (Aoba in New Game), Sayaka Kitahara as Mary (Aoi Sorano in Inazuma Eleven Go), Rina Hidaka as Warabi (Airi in Ro-Kyu-Bu), Nozomi Nishida as Satori (Makina Nakajima in Macross Delta), Natsumi Hioka as Tsukuyo (Machi in Kumamiko), Eriko Matsui as Amou (Isuzu in Log Horizon), Akane Kohinata as Choka (Matsuri in Isuca), Miku Itou as Nono (Mafuyu in Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desukara) and Tetsuhara Ohta as Masuko (this guy whose profile picture looks like a tranny is the voice of Gintama’s Yamazaki?!). The opening theme is Shocking Blue by Miku Itou. It is a lively piece with lots of fanfare that befits the action spectacle of the series. The ending theme, Decide by Tenka Goken is rock based.

Overall, this series is quite enjoyable even at times when things just seemed silly (why do they even have a bear in here?) if you can cast away your political correctness because if you have that twisted view of feminism, you’re not going to like the fact how strong girls are being viewed as submissive because all they want is the D. Really. A strong guy who would make them submit. And if you think really about it, this series feels like a man hitting women into his submission! So would you still want to watch this? Of course you should. At least this feels a bit like a different harem since Nomura isn’t really a pervert (more of gentleman at times) although if the situation arises for being a lucky pervert, he’ll take it. No matter how strong women are, they still have sensitive and fragile feelings inside and they need a strong man to support and care for them. Treat them like a lady. Because no matter how tough you are trained physically and mentally, genetically you are still a female, a female and a female. Same goes for men. Get over your misguided teachings or do you need Nomura to come kick your ass and correct you? And yes, there are only 2 genders.

Renai Boukun

Oh wait. Did they make some sort of parody to Death Note? Because this time instead of writing the names of people and killing them off instantly, the names you write in this notebook will have you fall in love instantly after kissing. Wait. What? Whatever. Apparently this is what it is in Renai Boukun. And apparently this is how angels or cupids pair up couples. Forget your typical bow and arrow. All you need is a pen and a notebook to write down those names and seal their fate together forever. It might seem pretty normal by today’s standards. But imagine having being forced to have a violent killer girl, a lesbian girl and the angel herself become part of your harem. All in the name of love.

Episode 1
Seiji Aino kicks out Guri, thinking she is some sort of scam. He is forced to hear her out as she is throwing a tantrum. Apparently she has this Kiss Note in which couples’ name who are written in it will have to kiss. As his name is written in it but unpaired, Seiji must kiss somebody or else Guri will die! Go ahead and die then. As she pleads, he rethinks his decision and before he knows it, she has his lips. To prove Kiss Note works, she writes the Prime Minister’s name and the House’s speaker. Now live on TV, 2 grown men kissing each other! Oh, Guri loves yaoi. She further explains she wanted to write the name of a seiyuu and see him kiss another fellow seiyuu but misspelt his name. That’s how she ended up bugging Seiji. To make up for it, she’ll help him find his love in which Kiss Note guarantees both couples to be forever. Otherwise he’ll be a virgin forever. So now they’re at school to find his potential kissing mate and it looks like Seiji has his eyes on the busty and beautiful Akane Hiyama. When Akane talks to him, Guri tries to prove she is invisible by pulling her pants down! However she can see her! But when Akane learns Seiji has kissed Guri, she views he has cheated on her and now he must die! But they aren’t dating. For now no. But it might be different in the future and so he must pay! Totally yandere! Guri saves Seiji from her knives, though she got one stuck in her head. Don’t worry, she isn’t dead. You can run but you can’t hide! Akane further reveals she knows Seiji likes her and more than anyone else. That’s why she waited for him to confess. But still, he must die for cheating on her! The next thing they know, their lips locked. Guri has written her name to pair up with Seiji. They’ll forever be a couple! Guri then reveals her true self as an angel. More accurately a cupid. Dressing up like this is her hobby. Then she kisses Seiji. She is interested in this love thingy and writes her name down too. Because the duo are paired with her, they are part angel and cannot die. This means Akane can kill Seiji forever!!! Yandere’s dream come true?!

Apparently Guri now lives with Seiji and has brainwashed his parents to think she is their daughter. Then there is this ugly man faced cat, Coraly. He is Guri’s supervisor and throws a little warning. Now that Seiji and Akane are partly angels, Guri must do her angel job properly (in which she sucks). Otherwise Guri will lose her cupid role and go to hell while the duo’s soul will disappear. After Coraly returns to heaven, Seiji hangs out with Guri seeing the guys in his class are jealousy, about to kill him with his closeness with Akane. Guri steals a kiss from him again. This is witnessed by Yuzu Kichogasaki. She chides him for cheating on Akane and steals Kiss Note. He goes after her and almost gets killed by Akane who believes he is cheating on her again. But when Akane tries to kill Yuzu, there is some barrier protecting her. Yuzu heard about Kiss Note and tried to write her name in it but nothing happens. Guri says only angels can write in it. With Akane infatuated with Seiji, Yuzu blows her top and declares her love with Akane. Oh, so this is yuri now? Let me get this straight. They are also both sisters despite their different surnames?! Yuzu is sad her feelings are tossed aside as Akane blatantly declares her love for Seiji even if there was no Kiss Note. How can we solve this? Guri writes Yuzu’s name in it! Watching yuri and incest will be interesting! Now that she has to kiss one of them, Yuzu is eager to kiss Akane. Oh, so she doesn’t consider this as cheating Seiji? So excited Yuzu going to kiss her that she trips on a stone and accidentally kisses Seiji. More blood is going to spill…

Episode 2
Every morning Yuzu stalks outside Akane’s house just to get the trash she throws out! Seiji’s younger sister, Akua has returned. She doesn’t like her brother much and judo throws him. Akane almost killed her had Seiji didn’t explain about his sister. In school, it seems Guri and Yuzu has teamed up to open a love clinic of their own. What a long queue. When Seiji and Akane bump into their class rep, Mari, they thought she has someone she loves but she points out it is the opposite. Guri and Yuzu read some cheesy love poem that belongs to a teacher, Kusunoki. Turns out this guy is in love with Mari and seeing her freezes him up. Mari has no choice but to straighten him back. And so Guri initiates an operation to get the duo together. Seiji is not so sure about a teacher-student relationship but as Akane points out if Mari doesn’t like him, she should have rejected him outright. So while Guri and Yuzu ‘interrogate’ Kusunoki, Seiji talks directly to Mari to ascertain if she really likes Kusunoki. She dismisses the whole thing as some sort of TV drama and her feelings towards him are like those of a mom. Flashback shows Kusunoki got worried when Mari first read his cheesy poem. But she handled it maturely and encouraged him. That’s when he fell in love with her.

As Seiji tries to cheer Kusunoki up, Yuzu comes in with bad news. Mari is being held hostage in town. Apparently this is a ploy to make Kusunoki look good in Mari’s eyes as Guri plays the kidnapper. However they passed by in front of a bank where a real robbery is taking place and got taken hostage for real. So when the rest arrive, the robbers are relegated to unimportant extras as the gang try to sort out what is going on and Yuzu lecturing Kusunoki the courage to take this chance and prove his love to Mari, etc. One of the robbers can’t take this crap and shoots at Yuzu. Luckily Seiji protects her although he gets a flesh wound. Kusunoki mans up to confront the robbers. He is scared but even more afraid if they hurt her. This has Mari judo throw her perpetrator but Kusunoki can only manage a weak punch in his face. When Akane comes by and learns Seiji’s wound is from the robbers, she goes into demon mode to beat the crap out of them! Only she can hurt Seiji! Scary! Even the cops are afraid. Kusunoki sums up his courage to confess what he plans to confess her someday. Cool Mari somewhat agrees with him since it was her intention. She was waiting for their teacher-student relationship to disappear and wait for him to confess. Since he tends to emotionally act on his own and mess up, it made her worry. But after saying all that, Mari still rejects him. She has a goal to graduate and earn a high income job. A teacher’s salary is low, you know. Yuzu thinks they can still write their names in Kiss Note but Mari prefers the old fashion way. She wouldn’t been able to hear Kusunoki’s true feelings then. Sometimes it is better to enjoy the process of love rather than its realization. Yuzu becomes a tsundere thanking Seiji for saving her.

Episode 3
Guri and Akua meet for the first time. She isn’t too happy hearing about her brother’s harem. After Guri tells Yuzu that Akua somewhat hates her brother, the latter instantly takes a liking for Akua and considers her as her comrade. It seems Yuzu wants to dig up dirt on Seiji. Suddenly a black creature whom Yuzu and Akua know as Stolas appears. They run for their lives. Yuzu bumps into Seiji and tells him about the reappearance of Stolas. Akua is stuck up a tree, lamenting nothing on her side has changed. Stolas turns out to be a penguin. But a dangerous penguin. Guri learnt the hard way when she got beaten up by this crazy bird. Stolas turns his attention to Akua when Seiji arrives on scene. He wants her to jump into his arms like last time. She puts her faith in him and does so. This distraction has Stolas bump into the branch. He is arrested by the police team later. As Seiji carries Akua home, Guri believes Akua actually likes her brother. She denies this and almost strangles him.

Guri wants Seiji to go out on a date with her during the weekend. At the park, they see an ideal couple together. Till other women start showing up and accuse him of cheating. When his true colours are revealed, the girl he is dating now slaps him. He is going to hit her back but Seiji intervenes. But he too gets beaten up. Girl power? They unite to beat this guy up and dump him. Guri gives Seiji a kiss as reward. She likes the part of him of helping a girl but ended up getting punched instead. She then discusses about the reason cupids exist is because people who get together like that are happy couples. They realize too late that Kiss Note is burnt! Apparently one of those women had a candle… Without his love tool, even Coraly is unsure what is going to happen. Guri doesn’t seemed fazed as she believes everything will work out just fine. Seiji thinks all the names and effect in Kiss Note will be nullified. Could it be true because the next day Akane is ignoring him. Later Yuzu pops up to taunt him as she heard rumours Akane has dumped him. But if Kiss Note is no more, does this mean her love for Akane is also nullified? Oh no! Tiara, a fellow angel like Guri passes by. She assures them that everything is alright. She goes around to show them all of Guri’s yaoi pairings are still doing fine. Remember, that notebook is just a tool to create a chance for love even if it’s forceful. Even if the notebook is gone, a complete love won’t be easily torn apart. Because Tiara has retired as a cupid and will be playing housewife to a future child, she gives Guri her handphone which was her Kiss Note. Seiji almost gets killed by Akane’s knife. Suddenly she kisses him. She cries about waiting for him but he never turned up. Apparently she read in a magazine on how to attract a boyfriend by acting coldly and was acting like that on purpose. Then she stabs him to death! Oh, he isn’t dead. Guri has written back everything in her new Kiss Note, Love Phone. Time to die again. Yuzu relishes kissing Akane again but Guri doesn’t want her to bother them. So she’ll have to settle for a yuri kiss with her.

Episode 4
Young Yuzu was told by her mom to stay away from Akane as she is a monster. Seiji and Guri are shocked to see Yuzu attending another school. Guri sneaks in to learn she is waiting for somebody. So this manly girl, Keito is her substitute so she can go stalk on Akane?! Guri’s new Love Phone has this app that shows the love compatibility between 2 selected people. Yuzu wants hers and Akane’s read. Very one-sided… As Seiji seeks Yuzu’s explanation about this morning, Akane says Yuzu is from another school. Though she doesn’t care about Yuzu’s stalking, she warns her about causing her family problems. With Guri reading Akane and Seiji’s compatibility as high, Yuzu can’t take this anymore and runs away. More flashback as Yuzu was saved by Akane from bullying. It was the first time she fell in love with her. Although Yuzu blurted out she loved her, Akane brushed it off as silly. Too deep in her thoughts that she fell into a river and almost drowned. Though Seiji saves her, the river is actually shallow. She blames Seiji for stealing Akane’s heart when she worked so hard just to get Akane to notice her. When Seiji says Akane doesn’t really show signs she likes him, Yuzu slaps him. He is in a position that many would envy and yet he is so humble. So please have more pride in yourself. Yuzu is mad at herself for not being able to make Akane look her way. She will never give up on her. Seiji smiles and praises her as strong because she could get back on her feet after learning about her own weaknesses. Akane is here to pick them up. An umbrella for you Yuzu. Happy? Yeah, Akane gets to share hers with Seiji… Yuzu declares to Akane that she loves her and will continue to watch over her even if she hates her. Guri picks up a high compatibility between Seiji and Yuzu.

A girl named Shikimi Shiramine approaches Guri and Seiji as she wants some love advice for a guy she likes. Guri would love to write their names down but the thing is, she doesn’t know his name! It is love at first sight. They agree to help her find out more about this guy. Guri and Shikimi instantly click since they are into the same yaoi fetish. Shikimi waits for them to go search together but only Seiji turns up. That damn angel must have overslept again. So the duo just go off looking by themselves as Seiji explains his troubles with his harem and also explains more than he should about his immortality. It seems the place where Shikimi first saw her crush is an abandoned house. Is she in love with a ghost?! As Shikimi describes her crush that closely resembles Seiji, he suddenly gets trapped in some web. Shikimi reveals that crush of hers is Seiji and takes off her disguise to reveal her true sexy evil form. She proceeds torturing him (it turns her on) and it seems she wants to become an immortal too and steal him from his girls. Guri arrives late at the meeting place. She was packing her BL material? She tells this to Akane and Yuzu. Obviously Akane gets furious learning Seiji is ‘dating’ another girl. Well, what better way to quickly find Seiji than to tell a yandere, right? But when Guri mentions Shikimi’s name, the duo are surprised because they know who she is.

Episode 5
Shikimi is Akane and Yuzu’s cousin. Akane arrives in time and tries to kill her but Shikimi playfully dodges every strike. Shikimi reveals her special skill is to steal anything and topping that is to break the things others love in front of them. Since she is also a masochist, she is the ultimate pervert. Yuzu tries to protect Akane. Her barrier keeps Shikimi away. Shikimi notes she has gotten stronger unlike Akane who has disappointingly gotten weaker. She quips the irony of a weapon girl needed to be protected by a shield. Shikimi laughs in delirium that Seiji doesn’t know what is going on. But when Akane doesn’t want her to tell the reason because she doesn’t want Seiji to hate her, she throws a tantrum. She doesn’t like this normal girl expression and wants the old Akane back. Maybe if she kills Seiji she’ll go back to normal. All the heavy atmosphere is diffused when dumb Guri comes in wearing a prawn mascot outfit. With Shikimi being the smooth operator, dumb Guri converses with her like a happy girl as Shikimi uses her web to keep the others shut. Seiji fears Guri might add Shikimi’s name to the Love Phone and into their equation as she wanted. However Guri declines her. Wait. Does she have common sense? Why not? Guri can feel Shikimi doesn’t have love (despite Guri doesn’t even know what love is) and is empty. Shikimi retreats for now since she got a call from Akane’s mom. She hopes the next time she comes back, Akane will become stronger. She is her favourite toy after all. In the aftermath, Seiji doesn’t blame Akane for whatever despite she hasn’t begin explaining anything. What might seem like Seiji sleeping, Guri realizes he is dead! For real! Akane wanted to kill herself to join him but Guri reminds her like in the fairytale whereby the prince kisses the princes to wake up. After 15 minutes… Nothing happens…

Seiji is of course in heaven as he meets Coraly. He is ushered to see Kami who is obviously God. No surprise he is Coraly’s father (and father to all angels too) but he looks and acts like a hippie old man?! So where is his wife? She ran away when she cheated on him. It’s complicated… Anyway, Kami is here to ask Seiji’s opinion of Guri taking over his place. Not a chance. Too bad. It has already been decided. But before she becomes that, she must know what love is. And this is what Kami wants Seiji to teach her. She was always playing all day but something changed when she met him. Wow. God begging before a human for the job?! Then herald in this slick guy, Maou. Yeah, he is the demon king. He wants Guri to fail and fall to hell so that he could groom her to be the best devil prankster. The big bosses argue that could start Armageddon but Seiji cuts in and believes Guri won’t be interested in both. Her attention span won’t last that long. Kami agrees knowing Guri’s free spirit. But it’s time for Seiji to go back or else staying too long he won’t be able to go back. Akane is trying to kill Guri for trying to kiss Seiji awake. Now his body is left alone. Yuzu having the same kissing thoughts… But Seiji pops back to life, freaking her out. Akane is so relieved that her hug could crush him back to death. Guri is nonchalant and knows he went to heaven. Where could he go after dying, right? With Guri so carefree, Seiji wonders if it is possible to teach her about love.

Episode 6
Akua seems happy when Seiji asks her to join him to go to the beach. All that turn into disappointment when he brought along his harem too. What a bummer. Despite Akane trying to get friendly with her future sister, Akua keeps her distance. Seiji tries to go get food when he stumbles upon Shikimi working in a beach house. She wants to get nasty with him but he advises her not to use her body so easily. Unamused with his virgin pride, she decides to tell him what is happening with their families. Akane never showed emotions as a child and she loved those cold eyes. At least that was how Akane’s mom raised her. Akane’s family is the spear and Yuzu’s family is the shield. This means they are both rivals. Shikimi’s family is a branch and does stuffs for the main family. Both Akane and Yuzu’s mom are now on bad terms. Seiji stops her from continuing. He doesn’t want to know more behind their back and would prefer them to tell him when they’re ready. Shikimi hopes it doesn’t take too long because it might be over by then. She wanted to play with Akane, that’s why she wanted her to be stronger. Otherwise her family is going to destroy her. Meanwhile Akua is being attacked by Stolas! Luckily Akane saves her but devil woman and demon penguin face off. But what’s this? Akane losing?! OMG! Is this true?! Because Stolas keeps b*tching about her being weak, she is sick of hearing it and summons her hidden strength to defeat him. Seiji returns and they’re not too happy he wasn’t around in their time of need. Was he trying to hit on girls? Akane wanted to kill him but Akua whispers Seiji likes strong girls so at least she’s got that going for her.

Guri has the gang gather at school at night to play kimodameshi. This is also because a pair of high school lovers wants to become a couple tonight and has Guri as their mediator. But via kimodameshi? As they walk around, they start getting chased by ghosts and even some famous horror characters. Sorry Chucky, you’re no match for Akane. In a room, Akane and Guri get absorbed by a mirror and when they come to, they realize they’re on the rooftop. Akane takes this chance to ask Guri if she likes Seiji. Yes. But Akane believes she isn’t sure. Because if she truly loves him, why does she constantly saves her rival and keep him at his mercy? If she just wants to prolong this friendship game then stay away from him because she’s just being a nuisance. Seiji carries Yuzu on her back upon realizing she has trying to act brave but is at her limits. They look like a couple but the tsundere denies. When they finally reach the rooftop which is the goal, they see Akane and Guri beating up those ghosts! Guri then reveals the pair are ghosts. Their relationship was not accepted and the ghosts who are jealous of them made a bet that they would only pass on if they reached the rooftop. After Guri marks them in her Love Phone, they pass on. Guri observes Akane interacting with Seiji and remembers what she also told her. Being in love means that whether you are happy or sad, your heart aches. Guri is left confused. Oh, Akane is going to kill Seiji for having Yuzu on his back. Is this part of love too?

Episode 7
Seiji and Coraly are shocked to see Guri trying to stab herself?! Actually she’s trying to find out what it means from Akane’s words about your heart hurting from loving someone. She’s taking it too literally… Guri wants to go to the festivals with him but he can’t. Apparently he is already ‘booked’ by Akane to go to the aquarium. She throws a tantrum and runs off. That is when she bumps into a handsome guy who tries to hit on her. She allows him to date her as she complains how her ‘boyfriend’ won’t go to places she wants. So he takes her to the festivals and they do look like a real couple. The guy tries to persuade her he is a better boyfriend that Seiji and that she doesn’t like him. But as he tries to kiss her, Seiji’s image flashes through her mind. She pokes his eyes and tells him despite all she said, she would still rather hold hands and kiss Seiji. As she runs back, her sandal straps break but she falls into Seiji’s arms. He starts whining about her wanting to do all this and how do you shut him up? With a kiss! Akane not amused… But Guri tells her she might not understand what she said but she still prefers Seiji anytime. Akane tries to kill her… It seems that handsome guy was under the spell of Maou. Coraly warns him about meddling denies he did so directly and promises he won’t. He doesn’t want Guri to hate him. Meanwhile Akane’s mom, Suo confronts Shikimi and knows she has met with her daughter. She wants to know what kind of relationship Akane has with Seiji. Akane is then captured, tied up and beaten up. Suo wants her to break up with him now. She has no choice but to comply.

Guri is having coffee with Yuzu as the latter explains how her natural barrier powers made others stay away from her. Her servant, Tarou Tsuruoka then rushes in to tell of a bad news. Akane remembers her mom telling her to give her heart to others because it will be a weakness and no knife sharp enough will save her. That is why she rejected boys who confessed to her. Till she met Seiji in an alley. He is ‘blinded’ by his cat as he was taking it to the vet for treatment. Seeing he called her a kind person, she was moved and had this notion of always wanting to see him. Meanwhile Seiji is being targeted by the mafia?! Of course he can’t die. Luckily Akua is here to beat them all up. As he thinks if this is Shikimi’s ploy, that girl pops up to reveal it is Suo’s plan to hurt him once she learnt that Akane is dating him. Now she is held captive and they might not see her again. The family has this rule of not falling in love and Akane broke that rule. Shikimi suggests going to rescue her but since Seiji is unsure if he’ll be a nuisance, Akua beats him up and tells him off Akane is her girlfriend and that should be enough to get him moving. Yuzu and Guri are also making their move to rescue Akane.

Episode 8
Guri and Yuzu think they can get past the agents with their cosplay? Well… Guri uses her Love Phone to make them gays! When they find Akane, she immediately attacks them. Guri doesn’t believe Akane’s words that she is dumping Seiji out of her own choice since she was always talking about him. Suo steps in. She is not amused Guri is trying to lure her daughter down the wrong path. Guri says she is Akane’s friend. Shikimi then brings Seiji into the picture. She starts torturing him since Akane doesn’t need him anymore. Seiji doesn’t mind it because he is used to it and Akane’s torture is worse. Suo then slaps Akane. She gives her a sword to show her loyalty. Akane draws the sword to Seiji’s neck. She says she doesn’t love him anymore. Really? With that crying face? Akane goes into complete breakdown as she hugs him. She was fully prepared to give up on him but realizes that she loves him. Guri is happy Akane is back to normal. She starts teasing her and kisses Seiji! Akane would want to kill her now but she has mom to deal with first. Suo is going to deal her punishment when Yuzu’s mom, Ameisha steps in. Seeing a wound on her daughter’s face, she becomes enraged and faces off Suo in an epic power battle! Woah! These hot mamas are really more powerful than a certain cupid! They’re wrecking the place up! Seiji wants to know what is going on so the girls explain. Akane’s family does shady business by disposing anything at any request. Yuzu’s family is the opposite as they protect anybody as per requests. Knowing better about their family structure, Seiji says it is not enough for him to hate them. In addition, Suo and Ameisha fell in love with the same man who would later become their father. Ever since father left Suo, she devoted herself to the family as if in hopes to forget everything. She also tried to raise Akane this way.

Akane wants to be with Seiji so she pleads to mom she wants to love him even if it makes her pathetic or betraying the family. Guri rubbishes the thought that Suo would hate her daughter because she can sense she loves her instead. Ameisha starts laughing at this side of hers. Then she tells her there is no reason to go so far to protect her daughter just because she was hurt once. Ameisha won’t deny that part in herself because it shows she is proud of herself for loving him. After Seiji assures he won’t make Akane sad, Suo lets them do whatever they want. But since she still won’t forgive, she will kill Seiji whenever she gets the chance. Now that things are back to normal, Akane tries to kill Guri for kissing Seiji. Guri claims she was just trying to support her friend. Friend? They’re rivals! Akane pecks Yuzu’s forehead as reward for saving her. She melts into a slime. Ameisha is shocked to learn Yuzu is in love with Akane but at the same time dating Seiji. She starts hounding Tsuruoka for details since he never reported any of it. Shikimi seems to be the only one who isn’t too happy about the outcome. She notices each time Guri is involved, things get boring. Akane once thought of a future without Seiji. Now she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. She is glad to have fallen in love with him. Guri starts to worry when she sees Akane and Seiji’s genuine smile together.

Episode 9
It’s back to the usual fighting between Akane and Guri. But Guri starts to notice the closer she gets to love, the more like an outsider she feels. Here is some news for you: Shikimi is a new transfer student in their class! She assures she is only here to watch them as per requested by Suo and Ameisha. She won’t do anything as long as there are no problems. Well, Akane is already in a bad mood… Later Yuzu confronts Shikimi about her whatever schemes. However Shikimi turns the tables by messing with her head if Yuzu doesn’t want her interfering is it because for Akane or Seiji. She can tell Yuzu looks lost. Yuzu remembers mom said something similar. Yuzu was praising Akane while vilifying Seiji. Ameisha could order Seiji to be taken out then but Yuzu doesn’t want that. Instead she’ll solve this herself. Seiji thinks that Shikimi enjoys seeing them in trouble. Maybe if they could get along well in front of everybody. Akane is quick to suggest he just needs to kiss her in public. Guess what? If she can get along with Guri, he’ll do so. A small price to pay for his kiss. Try to control yourself from killing her, okay? The class will be doing a play for the cultural festival. They have decided to make Shikimi the princess, Akane the knight and Guri the love rival. Later Yuzu who is still confused about her feelings, bumps into Seiji. She kisses him! OMG! She claims this is to ascertain her feelings because if she doesn’t feel anything about that kiss it proves… Oh wait. She’s getting so emotional and running away?

Ever since, Yuzu has not snuck into Akane’s class but she is going crazy thinking about everything in her own real class. Banging her head on the desk? Is she alright? Apparently not. After school, she is shocked Seiji is waiting for her at the gates. He is worried she didn’t show up and is here to tell her she too has a part in the play. That’s all? Is he here just to tell her that? When he tries to understand her feelings, she whacks him and leaves. During the play, Shikimi is natural (obvious), Akane sucks and Guri is like her usual idiotic self. Akane is blaming Shikimi for making Yuzu ‘missing’. When Yuzu finally shows up, the drama now shifts to this adlib script. Yuzu admits that she kissed Seiji on her own volition. Akane not looking happy. She was doing it to be sure of her unwavering feelings for her. Akane not impressed. Even if those tears are real. So did she get her answer? She doesn’t know. But she knows her love for her will never change. Akane smiles and says she loves her too much that she goes out of her mind with worry. She hugs her and adds there is no harm coming to love someone else other than her. Just relax and face your own feelings. It’ll make things easier. With all the emotional outburst, Akane thinks this is time to show how well she gets along with Guri. OMG! She kissed her! Passionately! Now she is hounding Seiji for a kiss. I’m sure the crowd is confused but they look entertained. After the play, Yuzu continues to be a tsundere to Seiji. She detests him but doesn’t hate him. Say what? Akane regrets her passionate public kiss with Guri. She then warns Shikimi about trying to break them up. It’s useless. Shikimi then goes to mess with Guri that it is obvious Yuzu is attracted to Seiji. But is she okay with that? If Akane and Yuzu keep getting closer to him, will she really feel nothing about it? Think carefully…

Episode 10
After Akua leaves to stay overnight at a friend’s house, here comes Akane knocking on Seiji’s door. Still remember that kiss promise? Yeah… She is really looking forward to it and prepares herself when Guri just came out from the bath. Mood ruined… Since Akane wants to stay, Yuzu is also here to stay. Even if it’s for a night, she brought heaps of luggage. Are we missing somebody? Oh, Shikimi is at the door. Akane threatens her to leave but she threatens to report to their moms. I guess she is staying then. Yeah, the whole gang’s here. So we have some moments like Yuzu cutting her finger while cooking and Seiji treating it. Akane made super amazing dinner for Seiji and Yuzu but only salad for Guri and Shikimi so the latter duo steal and eat the sumptuous portion. Then it is roles reversal when the girls accidentally enter the bath and violated Seiji’s modesty. What’s this about him not becoming a groom anymore? When Akane shares a moment with Seiji, she doesn’t want to force him into kissing as that wouldn’t make her happy. But surprise! He kisses her. He made that promise so it is only right he followed up on it. It made her day. All the girls will sleep in his room while he sleeps on the couch. Nothing eventful seems to happen that night. Or is it? Because the next morning when he wakes up, all the girls are sleeping around him! Shikimi naked?! Then Akua comes home early and sees this farce. Guess who is going to bear the brunt of her punishment?

Attempts to explain himself ended in vain as she won’t listen. Guri talks to Akua and wonders if she just wanted Seiji’s attention. She has noticed Akua used to be girly but discarded all that. She wants to make her girly again but Akua resists. Guri wonders if she is doing it on purpose because she looks like she isn’t honest to herself. Guri notes she could have become part of Seiji’s harem had he not stopped her. Akua also wonders if Guri likes Seiji because she is always messing around with him. Akua accidentally stumbles into what seemed like a terrorist incident. Actually it’s Stolas! He’s back and more aggressive than before to claim Akua! You can’t run away from this mad penguin who wants to mate with you! Lucky Coraly is here to save her. His cat form won’t be enough so he transforms into his true angel form. Uhm, isn’t this form creepier and funnier? But Stolas won’t be defeated. He is going to get Akua no matter what. That is when Akua sums up her courage to give him a roundhouse kick to send him flying away and broken hearted. When she realizes this is the first time she beat him, Coraly praises her for conquering her weakness and that she has grown. Seiji arrives too late. He is still worried about her and Akua realizes he has never changed. Seeing the siblings like this bothers Guri. Shikimi moves in, assuring Guri can talk to her about anything. Did she take the bait?

Episode 11
Akua likes Coraly in his angel form but is afraid in his cat form? Guri has been missing for a week and Seiji thinks she’ll be back. She never did. Even Yuzu is worried for her. Seiji has to go look for her when Coraly reminds if they cannot to their jobs, their souls will disappear. Shikimi is trying to flirt with Kusunoki. Seiji manages to stop her and lecture her about stealing what is not hers. Not that Shikimi is listening anyway. When he asks for Guri, she doesn’t like how condescending he sounds. She is going to make him submit as she kisses him. Again. And again. Actually Guri is hiding up a tree nearby, deep in her thoughts. She talked to Shikimi about the matters of the heart she doesn’t understand. Now she is depressed and confused as ever. At first she was hiding in hopes Seiji would find her and in turn she will prank him but it has been a week. Does Seiji really care about her? Seiji kissing somebody so long, in no time Akane is going to tear the place apart and find them. She scolds Shikimi for never changing that is why she will always be alone. Shikimi isn’t moved one bit. It’s not like she envies them. She calls Guri out of hiding. First thing, Seiji scolds her how everyone was worried and searched for her and if she was hiding and having fun watching all that, that’s just mean. Seiji might sound mean at this point that Yuzu is just concerned that he is blaming her. When Guri asks Seiji what he thinks of her, his reply he always found her a pain has her exploding inside and suddenly she covers herself in black feathers. Maou then pops up and thanks Shikimi for doing her part. Technically Maou didn’t do anything so he didn’t break the rules. Guri now turns into a devil with horns and dark wings. Nope, it’s not one of her cosplays. Seiji doesn’t believe it his fault that Guri turned out like that but they have to go stop Guri doing her job as a demon by taking people’s hearts and making them fight. Since Seiji still refuses to accept the blame, Yuzu tells him off how he neglected Guri that this sh*t happened in the first place. Akane finally opens her mouth. She couldn’t care less about Guri. She is not her friend and hopes she disappears forever. Yuzu reminds to return the favour when they went to rescue her. Still don’t care. She doesn’t want Seiji involved for her sake. For the first time, Yuzu hates her onee-sama. Seiji goes after Yuzu, leaving Akane behind. Everyone is so miserable.

Episode 12
Yuzu regrets what she did. Coraly suggests they should all die now and go to heaven! Say what?! His third true form is enough to kill them?! When they meet Kami, they learn Guri’s mother is a demon. Because of her half breed, the reason she is unsure about love compared to other angels. So the plan is to send to hell to persuade Guri to come back. Kami is sure these guys can do it. You mean God can’t do it? Shikimi is bored in hell. Her plan for helping turn Guri into a demon is so that she could also become a demon. Maou tells her not to rush it. All will be due in time. She is already acting like a demon. Of course she’s not going to sit around and listen. Flashback how Shikimi always do pranks on others. Guri can tell all she wants is attention. Seiji, Yuzu and Coraly are in hell. This place is like an office district? They hear the demons talk that they don’t like Maou as the head because he makes them work hard. They prefer if Mavro became the head but they also heard they found her daughter Guri. If she becomes the new head, they’ll be free to do whatever they want. Meanwhile Guri rejects Maou’s proposal to become to new head. All she wants is to do normal work. She tells him don’t seek her mom’s shadow in her. Maou realizes he has been rejected again. Mavro told him she was engaged to Kami and left him with the job. But soon she divorced Kami for cheating and her whereabouts unknown. When Maou saw Guri for the first time, it was as though something he had lost had come back. Hell is in panic because Shikimi is walking around like a normal human. Then she had to mess around with Seiji and co and now the hell police is on their tail. However they are easily disposed by Akane! How did she come here? Tiara told her to die. So she imagined Seiji having an affair with another woman and she died of shock! So she’s here to help Guri too as she owes her a favour.

Once they find Guri, Akane attacks her first but Guri just dodges and doesn’t go on the offensive. Akane chides her as her rival but Guri reminds her she is no longer the Guri she knows. If that’s the case, Guri should destroy their love first. She is actually going to do it but Seiji protests and wants her to be the annoying brat she has always been. Because Guri retorted, Seiji believes the old Guri is still somewhere inside. So he argues she should continue to do whatever she wants, etc. However Shikimi is trying to destroy all that and wants her to tell Seiji she hates him. It is then Guri starts thinking. She doesn’t hate him. But she doesn’t really love him either. Something is missing. When Seiji asks what she wants to do, she says she wants to love him. She jumps down and Seiji jumps down along with her. She then transforms back into her angel form and kisses him. She finally understands what love is. The thing that Akane and Yuzu wanted. The thing she is lacking. Shikimi is unhappy with the turn of events. There goes her chance of being a demon. Guri gives her some encouragement that she can get others to acknowledge her by earning love through her own efforts instead of stealing it. If she can do it, she’ll add her to Seiji’s harem. Shikimi is mulling it since it looks interesting. Oh no. More women for Akane to kill. Seiji’s response to all of this? Guri may be idiotic, troublesome and irresponsible but he will continue to rebuke her as the straight man. She can keep doing fun things. Guri wants to kiss him but can’t. She’ll wait for him to kiss her like he did the first time. And so they return to their normal lives as all the girls want a piece of Seiji. Happy ever after?

Literally A Love To Die For
Too bad for Seiji but thank goodness for me. Seiji will now have to live the rest of his ‘exciting’ life with his harem who will always be causing him trouble and killing him. But for me, a dozen episodes of annoyance was really enough. I had enough. Seiji has completed his cycle of rescuing his harem girls from Akane and Yuzu’s mom’s feud to going to hell to rescue Guri and bring her character back. All that is left is to incorporate Shikimi but I don’t think I want to be around when that happens. It’ll be more or less the same. You know, Akane wants to fawn over Seiji. She wants to kill other girls who gets close to him. Yuzu wants to fawn over Akane. She also wants to fawn over Seiji. Secretly. Guri has the permission to do whatever she thinks it is fun. A free pass to be an idiot. Shikimi wants to see everything fail and break apart. Seiji gets screwed by it all. Rinse and repeat. I’m outta here.

Unfortunately as much as I want to try and like the series, I can’t help feel like going back to feel annoyed about it all. The first episode starts off interestingly but as the series progresses, the more I started to feel annoyed by the story and the characters. Not so much about the plot (because it is as paper thin as it can get since this is after all going to be some romantic comedy anyway – what else is there to tell?) but rather the characters themselves feel irritating to me. Even for the main character himself who is supposed to be plain and me not feeling anything for him even if I’m not rooting for him, he too gets on my nerves subsequently.

Okay, let’s start out with Guri. I feel that she is being a troublemaker and a typical idiot so that the series could have its funny moments. Otherwise it would be as bland and boring as hell without Guri bringing up her antics. However Guri being a prankster feels so annoying because it is like she is trying so hard to be the idiot and be funny. Maybe her character is really like that. Either way, it makes her an annoying character. Annoyingly painful to watch. At times she feels confused when it comes to the topic of love. Then she puts on her confused and serious thinking cap but that hardly changes anything because she’ll soon be back to her idiotic foolish ways. So when Guri turned evil in the penultimate episode, there was no love lost. Heck, I think Guri turning into a demon makes her a better character! And then she had to go back being that annoying angel… Ah well, this is whom they all are familiar with. Someone who causes trouble, does whatever she wants. Better know the devil than the angel. Oh wait. Isn’t that reversed? Argh! So confusing!

Then there is Seiji. This guy gets more than he bargained for and bit more than he can chew. Like any typical main guy in a harem series, he is usually portrayed of trying to be fair and reasonable. Well, he sort of is. Because of that, I feel that towards the end when Guri starts getting neglected, they are trying to force Seiji to become some dick. You can sense that when he scolded Guri thinking she was playing tricks on them all, he should know better and could tell from one look that something was wrong with her. I mean, he has been with her for quite some time and I don’t blame him for thinking this might be one of her usual tricks. But he should be smart enough to see that clearly there was something wrong with her. I mean, how often has he seen this depressed and confused side of hers? And so with Seiji trying to look like he cared (because spare the rod, spoil the child), now it makes him look like an ass even more. After all, the girls around him might cause him trouble especially Guri who is an idiot. But hey, they are HIS idiots! Birds of the same feather flock together…

Akane started off as amusing since there aren’t many yandere girls I have seen in my life. Especially one who takes the main character role. Then it gets old when all her character does is either fawn over Seiji or start killing others. In other words, annoying. Yup, it has become the series’ running joke to start killing Guri or Shikimi when they get close to Seiji on purpose or not. Either way, Seiji is still screwed. Turning them immortal is an excuse Akane can stab Seiji as many times as she wants without the risk of Seiji dying. Like a true yandere route. Even Yuzu starts to have this annoying impression since she is trying too hard to get Akane’s approval while playing tsundere to Seiji. What happens when you try to appease everyone? The same thing when you try to catch both rabbits but end up with none. And it feels like she tries to virtue signal to Seiji and Akane when Guri has gone bad. At this point, even Akua feels annoying although she has been one personally throughout the series. She tries to act tough thinking she doesn’t need her brother. It could be that she really loves him and is embarrassed to show her love, hence your rebellious sister character.

In view of all that, I guess the only one who is not so annoying obviously is Shikimi since she has this devilish scheme in her tone and act. She has this mysterious sense of aura that makes it hard for us to guess what she is thinking at times because she is so manipulative. It’s like her role to bring torment to all those around her and revels in tearing happiness apart. Despite her casual expression, could she be jealous she lacks something to love and thus tries to break it apart? Is this why she is always on Akane’s nerves? To test her and ultimately break her because despite Akane’s past and upbringing, she still has something that Shikimi doesn’t: Love. It might seem all she wants is attention but at this point, why just settle for mere attention when she can get love! Don’t waste a single moment! Enter Seiji’s harem now and make his life more complicated!

Kami and Maou as the supposed heads of heaven and hell respectively feel useless and powerless. Of course this is for comedic effect as you can see Kami is some sort of hippie guy who just returned from a Hawaiian vacation. Maou is sneakier but not as badass and evil as you might think. Looks like he’ll be continuing his demon head job. Just the thought that they are holding a mere post, it shows that there is no one true God or Satan, the immortal one that rules over everything. It’s just mind boggling. Even in the afterlife it feels like the living world. No wonder Shikimi is so bored. Being an angel or demon is so boring that it is more fun being human! It is nice to finally know who Guri’s mom is but it would have been better to know what really happened to her after that. Did she reincarnate or really died?! Yikes.

You thought the animal mascots could save some cuteness for the series but I’m so sorry they aren’t. They are either as weird as f*ck or just plain hideous. I mean, take a look at Coraly possessing Seiji’s pet cat itself. It is creepy itself to think that some sick human crawled inside a cat’s body to become a cat. Yikes. And not forgetting Stolas whose character feels so out of place in the entire series. Because penguins don’t normally speak, we are always and I mean always reminded that whatever thoughts you hear from this evil penguin, they are just actually assumption based on his eyes. Whatever. The reason Stolas even exists is to give Akua some sort of screen time since for some odd reason a penguin wants to forcefully mate with this particular girl. This isn’t the first I’ve seen that another species want to mate a human (Monster Musume No Iru Nichijou anyone?) but it is certainly the first for me for a penguin.

Art and animation feel decent. Bright and colourful hues along with your conventional Japanese anime character type. Of course this means that some of the characters look like I have seen from somewhere such as Guri somehow kept reminding me of Disgaea, Steins;Gate’s Kurisu somehow comes to mind when I see Akane and for some reasons Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki in Shikimi. Akua certainly have this uncanny resemblance to the titular character in Fuuka. I have not seen Kuroko No Basket and yet looking at Seiji always compels me to think about that blue haired basketballer. I’m not entirely sure but is Maou designed after Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal? My complaint is that sometimes when the scene gets comical (or to show its comical effect), the chibi form of the characters especially Guri would look odd. For example, her head is just one round circle with simple eyes and mouth. It’s like drawing part of a stick person. For extra content, at the end of each episode, illustrations from various people prove to be amusing.

Once more, it never tires me to hear Sayaka Ohara voicing characters like Suo. That kind of authoritative and commanding voice that portrays a strong and strict independent no nonsense woman that borderlines just evil. Also recognizable are Takehito Koyasu as Maou, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Coraly, Rina Satou as Ameisha, Yukari Tamura as Mavro and Eri Kitamura as Tiara. I got this thought that it was Aki Toyosaki behind Shikimi’s voice but of course something sounded different. Shikimi is voiced by Yumi Hara (Albedo in Overlord). The other casts are Kensho Ono as Seiji (Slaine in Aldnoah.Zero), Manami Numakura as Akane (Retoree in Show By Rock), Yoshino Aoyama as Guri (Yura in Shakunetsu No Takkyuu Musume), Rie Takahashi as Akua (Megumin in Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Shukufuku Wo), Kenyuu Horiuchi as Stolas (Kinemon in One Piece), Hochu Ohtsuka as Kami (Jiraiya in Naruto), Yuka Ootsubo as Mari (Kyouko in YuruYuri) and Shinnosuke Tachibana as Kusunoki (Tomoe in Kamisama Hajimemashita). Yuki Nagano makes her debut as Yuzu.

The opening theme, Koi? De Ai? De Boukun Desu by Wake Up Girls just feels weird. Worse, this song doesn’t sound like it has any tune in it. It just feels flat. As though somebody just mashed up some lines and quickly put it out for release. Although the ending theme by SmileY Inc, Suki Wo Oshiete fares much better, the song still doesn’t resonate with me.

Overall, everything in this anime is so annoying to me that it is hard for me to keep an unbiased assessment. The plot of bringing couples together via a notebook quickly becomes old and forgotten as the characters annoyingly play out what is supposed to be harem comedy antics. It is not that bad but even if it is not that impressive, it left me feeling irritated by it all when the series ended. It should be teaching me about love but instead I got vexed! Grrr! Am I doomed to turn into a demon? Sometimes I wish that this immortality thing would be undone so that Akane can kill off everybody and stay dead forever. Sheesh… But all I can say for Seiji is that if he ever asks the concept of what is love, wait for it, “Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more”!

Youjo Senki

Initially I was sceptical to watch Youjo Senki because of its promotional poster that poses its main character looking like an evil doll. It looks creepy. I thought it was going to be some sort of military horror even when reading the synopsis that in this child-like doll, it is actually a grown man being planted into this body. Yikes! Creepy! But curiosity and my past experiences with military themed animes had me rethink again and so I decided to man up and check it out. So what do you know? The main character in the anime looks nothing like that in the poster. No I can relax and watch this alternate timeline whereby a certain Third Reich became the most powerful nation in the world. Oh, there’s magic too.

Episode 1
The Empire seems to be on the losing end till flying mages with magic spells led by Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff come in to support. As explained, the Empire is a strong military powerhouse but is currently surrounded from all sides by strong potential enemies. Plan 315 was initiated to buy time for a highly mobile concentrated main force to travel to each area and defeat the enemy from within its borders. But the plan looks like it is falling apart. The higher ups (Deputy of Strategy and Operations Brigadier General Kurt Von Rudersdorf, Vice Director of Strategy and Operations Lieutenant Colonel Erich Von Rerugen and Brigadier General Hans Von Zettour) at the Empire’s capital, Berun are ruing the failure of this plan especially the major offensive against the Entente Alliance. Back to Rhine theatre where Tanya’s platoons are, a couple of her men disobeyed orders to fall back and instead went ahead to take out the enemy artillery. In the aftermath, she reprimands them by sending them home for disobedience. They protest since they want to fight for victory or die. She would have killed them for disobeying again but sends them to the rear of the platoon where it is ‘safe’. An emergency meeting is held about their observers encountering enemy mages. They are to go on a rescue mission and Tanya wants to exclude her comrade, Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakova (had a hard time pronouncing and spelling her name) since she is at her limit. She protests and claims she can still fight on. Her insistence has the commander allowing her.

The observers are barely hiding in the trenches but the Republicans use all their power to take them out. Though Tanya’s platoon arrive too late, she views this as a chance to take them out since they used up a lot of their magic. She wants her other comrades to stay out of it. The Republicans made a mistake by underestimating this little girl. She is fast, dodges all their bullets and all of her shots count. Tanya even tries to hold negotiations but apparently the enemy leader isn’t in talking mood. So she unleashes her greatest explosive magic and kills them all. Back in the Republican capital of Parisee, General Pierre-Michel de Lugo, the Ministry of Defence learns about Tanya who singlehandedly eliminated their entire platoon. They don’t know much about her and all they know is that she is known as the Devil of Rhine. Viktoriya learns her reprimanded comrades are dead when the enemy’s artillery struck it. She tries to tell this to Tanya but apparently she knows all about it. In fact, she purposely sent them there knowing that place is an easy target for enemies. So evil! So while the higher ups back in Berun are relieved their redeployment at Rhine has been completed, Rerugen is shocked to learn Tanya was sent there. He has met her once and from his personal experience, he describes her as a monster in the form of a little girl.

Episode 2
Salaryman (as I shall refer to him) is a ruthless employee. He hates those who are useless and shows no mercy. Like a fellow employee whom he just fired. Can’t blame him. Salaryman was just following the rules (which he loves because it is the easiest thing to do) and did no wrong. Because of that, the disgruntled colleague pushes him off and into the path of a train. Suddenly time stops. It may seem that everyone is talking to him but it is hinted that it could be God. He is lamenting the lack of faith in today’s people but Salaryman is an atheist. Plus, he doesn’t believe He is God and refers Him as Being X. Because God wouldn’t allow this to happen. And besides, why is Being X complaining about the explosion in population? Can’t handle it? Poor management on your part. When Salaryman insults how the weak cling to someone when they are in dire straits, this has Being X wonder if he would regain his faith if he was in dire straits. Salaryman realizes the consequence of what he said and tries to take it back. But Being X normally would have sent him for reincarnation and will make him a special case. The next thing he knows, he realizes he is in a body of a baby girl named Tanya. In a world similar to Europe, Tanya lives in a rundown nunnery. Being poor is miserable and war seems to be all the rage. However magic exists this world and those with high aptitude will be scouted by the military. Knowing this would be her ticket for a better life, Tanya quickly drafts in, hoping to survive long enough to get her revenge on Being X. Thanks to the military’s meritocracy, she rises through the ranks within a year and is now qualified to train others. Of course the new recruits are in shock of a young girl teaching them. But Tanya maintains her ruthlessness for those who shows disobedience and would have killed had not the superiors stopped her.

All that is left for her graduation is her training deployment in the north. Her job is to patrol and scout the enemy. It seems relatively easy because it’s like the Entente Alliance was dumb enough to enter enemy territory without being prepared. Tanya gets confident after her side shells and wipes out the infantry. She advances but realizes too late that enemy mages have appeared. She retreats and reports to control who will send reinforcements. However it will take a long time for them to arrive. She requests to leave the battlefield but control denies and wants her to hold the enemy till reinforcements arrive. Tanya is sore since she can’t hold that long. But what pisses her was control’s mention how God is on their side. It boils her blood just to think of that non-existent being. She turns around and goes crazy to fight the enemy. Might as well go out in style. If she runs out of ammo, use close quarter combat. Then she did a sneaky move of self-destruct to take out the group although it wasn’t enough to kill her but enough to make her look she fought tooth and nail. When she is hospitalized, she didn’t realize how good her ‘performance’ was because the higher ups are now treating her like an ace. They award her the Silver Wings Assault Badge in recognition of her heroics. Sure, it’s nice to get rewarded but Tanya hopes this won’t make them send her to the front lines again. Too late to think about child protection agency…

Episode 3
Tanya is happy she gets her wish. She will be transferred to an instruction unit back home. This means this is at the rear and not at the front lines. She plays a little cautious that there is nothing to do but she is told if they send an ace to the front lines, it would look back on them. Yes! For now she is made to do testing. A prototype jewel. Unfortunately it is hell testing this junk as she often bears the brunt of its defectiveness. Worse, she always butt heads with the development chief engineer, Adelheid Von Schugel who always proclaims his theory is always perfect. Well, you can’t argue with a madman, can you? Feeling this is worse than the front lines, she requests to be transferred. Thankfully they approve. Plus, they even scrap the experiment. Tanya is more than happy when she is visited by Being X. He seems frustrated that nothing has changed since 10 years. She sniggers back she isn’t desperate. Being X thinks she needs to witness a miracle but Tanya won’t be convinced over some insufficient observations that are no more than glorious misunderstandings. When she wakes up from this ‘dream’, she sees a card on her table that reads ‘Deus lo vult’ meaning ‘God wills it’.

With the experiment cancelled, Schugel is now able to do experiments he had been putting off. He wants Tanya to take part before she leaves. Reluctantly she does and as expected, the jewel is unstable and going out of control. It could explode anytime. Schugel is confident it will not because last night he had a divine dream telling him it wouldn’t. He was an atheist but now a devout believer. If you pray to God, He will grant your wishes! Either they pray to God or die as martyrs! Before it explodes, Being X appears before Tanya, he says he has blessed her computation jewel. With this miracle, he hopes faith will fill her heart and to spread it. She calls it cheating but each time she needs to use it, she must pray. Reality returns and the jewel is now stable and performing better than ever. All the scientists rejoice. Thus whenever Tania goes into battle like in Rhine, she has to pray to God to activate her magic. So when Rerugen explains how a monster she is, it is because she is the only one capable of using that computation jewel. However Zettour already has other plans for her. Viktoriya is surprised that Tanya has recommended her to be promoted to an officer. She won’t be in the front lines. But you can’t blame her for being a little sceptical. The new place she’ll be sent to won’t blow up, right? Tanya takes a train back to her new posting. She relaxes and thinks good times are upon her. Too bad for Being X, right? Oh, you don’t know what’s waiting for you…

Episode 4
Tanya is enjoying her campus life at the military academy. Because of her medal, she gets respected everywhere she goes. It might look like she is a cautious person who cleans her rifle she always carries along with her every day. But her intention is to shoot Being X whenever he pops up. Can such a being be killed by gunshot? Tanya has the honour to bump into Zettour. As he wants to talk to her, Tanya thinks she has hit it big for the easy life in the upper echelons if she establishes a connection with him. In his room, he asks her to speak freely about her personal opinions of the direction of the war. She believes it will lead to a world war. She is confident in giving suggestions on what to do till she realizes she said a mistake. Something about losing in the short run so as to win in the long run. Worried she might be branded a coward and sent back to the front lines, she tries to sound aggressive by pushing forth aggressive suggestions. He is impressed and she is surprised by herself she could actually come up with that. Zettour wants her to file an official proposal on this. Once done, he sends it to some of his comrades to read. Rerugen is sceptical of this madness but feels that there is some possibility to it. Something about this proposal written by somebody familiar…

While Tanya is having tea, Captain Maximilian Johann Von Ugar comes to talk to her why she drafted into the military at a young age. Her father was a soldier and her mom abandoned her. He is worried because now he has a daughter and wonders if he will have to send her to war, which is insane. She tells him to get to the rear before the madness begins. He must live to fight so that his daughter can’t. It might seem Tanya is being nice but deep inside, she is exploiting his mental weakness. Ugar is and now was her rival for promotion since he dropped out. Now that he is no longer a threat, he is also her valuable ally. Zettour presents the proposal of establishing a rapid response mage battalion. Soon Tanya is called to have a sumptuous dinner with him. After all that fancy stuffs of her redeployment (she is glad all the places on the list are safe zones), the real bomb hits her when Zettour wants her to be in charge of the battalion she proposed. Tanya knows she is in deep sh*t now. That idea she gave is now coming back to bite her. Despite she will have no superior to report to and can freely choose 48 members of her choice, she argues she is not that high of a rank to lead such battalion. Don’t worry. Zettour has everything well prepared. By the time she graduates, she’ll be promoted. Tanya has no choice but to accept it but makes it look like she is looking forward to it. All is not lost since her plan now is to delay the recruitment as long as possible. However after a week, there are tons of recruitment notices piling up in her room! And she thought she made it sound like hell, why do these sick people still want to join?! She believes she can worm her way out of this with an excuse she has no personnel to vet through it all. But hey look. The first person to arrive and report for duty… Viktoriya! Long time no see?

Episode 5
Looks like she is promoted to Tanya’s assistant. And guess what? Viktoriya has also taken the liberty to hire more staffs to sort out the recruitment! Oh boy. Tanya regrets sparing her life. She should have left her at Rhine. Several candidates are being called in to be designated to this new battalion. However the officer in charge interviewing them is just a hologram. Tanya and the other higher ups are being a barrier observing. Those who cannot see through this trickery immediately fail. Only a handful of them passed. Zettour thought her standards are too high. Tanya suggests re-education to devise a new acceptable standard. She shocks everyone by needing only a month when the standard time to train a soldier is 2 years. The new trainees get a real shock on their first day when Tanya starts bombing them with magic shells. Viktoriya is a smart girl knowing how evil Tanya is, has already starting to dig a hole when Tanya was explaining. Everyone manages to survive the bombing for 36 hours. But it’s not over. They have to trek through the snowy rocky mountains to a point in 48 hours without using magic. They make steady progress till an unexpected avalanche floods down. A few have died but Tanya beats them back to live!!! Everyone who sees this realize she is a demon. A fate worse than death would await them if they quit! Therefore when Tanya gives them a chance to quit, everyone vows to soldier one! A month later, everyone graduates. This of course is yet another backfire from Tanya’s plan. A training so harsh that would break any man’s spirit and look how it turned out. Tanya and Rerugen meet to discuss about the battalion’s deployment to the south eastern garrison. Although Tanya wanted more time to train them, the higher ups think they have reached a level where they could be deployed immediately. He advises her to learn Dakian.

To Tanya’s surprise, the Dakian’s troops are somewhat ‘ancient’. Their communications are not encrypted and they have no aerial force. Thus Tanya happily takes her battalion for a live fire exercise and to gun down anybody they see. Despite the large numbers of ground infantry, the mage battalion easily overpowers and destroys the Dakian forces. Too easy that Tanya is bored. Seeing how some of her men decide to play it safe, she decides to show it how it is done by joining the fight. Even when they go on ground, their bullets cannot penetrate their barrier. She orders everyone killed except the commander. Tanya feels odd that they are killing tourists rather than invaders. Then they ransack the place as evidence proof. With the Empire’s reinforcements arriving, Tanya wants to move forward and see how far they can go. They head towards the capital. Such a peaceful and backwater place. Viktoriya suggests attacking now since they have the element of surprise. However Tanya reminds her they are not barbarians and adhere to international laws and ethics of war. They have to give warning and only destroy the weapons factory. So first Tanya puts on her cutesy little girl voice to warn everyone in which nobody seems to believe her as they think it is a child’s prank. Then they fire away and destroy all the weapons factory. Tanya is satisfied. Mission accomplished. Time to head back.

Episode 6
While HQ is pleased with the overwhelming victory in Dakia, they have to be wary of an impending world war. Therefore it is only right they take out the weakest. Next on their plate should be the Entente Alliance who are more fragile than the Republic. However supply is their main problem. As Zettour puts it, their rails in the north are being taxed to its limits. There won’t be enough to launch a major offensive. Rudersdorf has an idea. He wants him to use his ace. And so Tanya’s mage battalion will be heading north to Norden. She feels something is off because they would have taken out Entente Alliance without central forces and that war would be over. It means a foreign entity is intervening. Looks like the Entente Alliance’s council are beginning talks of their next move. They fear they will end up like Dakia. The Empire’s side at Norden is having a tough time fighting foreign mages and bomber planes at high attitude. They are force to defend at all cost because if their supplies get bombed, they won’t last the winter. They can thank God because Tanya’s mage battalion is here to save the day. For the first time they have formidable foes to fight and Tanya is so sadistic in wanting them to enjoy it that she has cancelled reinforcements. Feel free to destroy any enemies as you like. Oh, the team with the least kills will have to pay for the victory party. Tanya then goes to face off with the bomber squad herself. Of course they couldn’t believe a single mage can fly as high as them. She easily takes out the commanding plane. The rest turn tail and abandon mission. But Tanya prays to God as her shell hits some of the planes like homing missiles. As she goes down to the ground to look for survivors, Being X pops in to bug her. He tells her that everyone in the world is out for her blood. How does it feel to fight against the entire world? Tanya is not pleased to hear that but resumes her mission. She then goes to destroy an observation cabin of the Allied Kingdom before they send their data back to HQ. Tanya returns to base but more work is expected of her as Rudersdorf and Rerugen expect. It seems she will be advancing the front lines despite the limited supplies since major powers are starting to intervene in this war. At this point, she’ll take on anybody who messes with them. Colonel Anson Sioux of Entente Alliance isn’t pleased with his promotion. It means his superior is killed and more fighting awaits.

Episode 7
Sioux sees off his daughter, Mary before he gets posted. She gives him a rifle as an early Christmas present. Tanya tells her strategy for the battle. She intends to prolong it past winter to save supplies. However a superior opposes as he doesn’t want to drag out the war. Though this puts a strain on supplies, he argues that Tanya’s plan means she doesn’t care about the lives of the soldiers. As you wish. Later Tanya speaks privately with Rudersdorf and Rerugen. As she states her honest opinion and strategy, she realizes the operation could be just a decoy for a rear assault. They are impressed with her deduction as only a few officers know of this plan. They decide to use her battalion for this surprise attack at Orse Fjord. Tanya’s battalion jumps into battle during the dark hours. They have only 30 minutes to complete this surprise attack. If Tanya or other first lieutenants fail, the mission is deemed failed and Viktoriya must call for a retreat since the other members don’t have equipment to best the defence. The surprise attack works as it takes a while for the Entente Alliance to respond. But their mage battalion is quick to counter. Tanya’s team engages with them as she wants her other teams to continue taking out cannon emplacements. When Sioux sees Tanya, he is shocked and mad to see the return of the devil (he once fought her at Rhine and survived). He becomes enraged trying to get his revenge. At this point, all the cannon emplacements have been taken out. This allows ships from the Empire to bombard the coast. Sioux sees his dead comrades and destroyed forts. He won’t give up and charges straight at Tanya. She prays to God to take out this fanatic. He too prays to God to take out this devil. Too bad Tanya is the devil who made a contract with God so obviously she wins. Sioux is stabbed and thrown down into the icy waters. Tanya takes his rifle as early Christmas present. Tanya calls off her battalion as the Empire’s troops land and seize the coast and rails for their much needed supply. The success of this mission means they have dealt a decisive blow on this war. Sioux’s wife and daughter are in America. They hear the news of the fall of Orse Fjord. With casualties rising and the advancement of the Empire, it is only a matter of time Entente Alliance falls.

Episode 8
Tanya leads her battalion to another victory. But soon she gets word from HQ that there has been a rebellion in Arene City. It was once under the Republicans’ control. The Republicans has also sent their mages to join the rebels and take out the Imperial soldiers in the area. Naturally, Tanya is ordered to go fight there again. She realizes her battalion will be caught in between the hell fire because after they wipe out the enemies, their artillery will begin a barrage to level the place. Since they will be fighting in a city, property damage is allowed. However the problem is distinguishing between fighters and non-fighters. They are not allowed to kill the latter but have to eliminate every single one of the enemy. This doesn’t sit well with some of her comrades especially Second Lieutenant Grantz. As Tanya’s battalion enter Arene, snipers hiding in decimated buildings start firing at them. It is a bit hard to locate and smoke them out with all the buildings and structures. Tanya’s vice commander, Matheus Johan Weiss got shot in the shoulder and is deemed unfit to fight. She has him retreat and will hand him his punishment later for hesitating. When the Republican mages retreat to hide inside some building, Tanya then announces as per war treaty articles for them to surrender and release hostages or else. Of course they wouldn’t. One of the captured Imperial soldiers try to run but the rebels shot him down. This footage is recorded by Viktoriya as instructed by Tanya. After that the Imperial starts the artillery shelling. The devastating damage forces the Republican mages to stop fighting and evacuate the citizens. Grantz cannot take any more of this brutality so he confronts Tanya about it since shelling is to begin again shortly. Orders are to take out the enemies. By sparing them even innocent civilians would mean creating future enemies for the Empire. Because some kids will grow up to hate the Empire and be future soldiers for the Republicans. She will pretend not to hear what he said and after beating him up and ordering him to pick up his gun, Grantz goes crazy and aims and shoots. Rerugen shows Zettour a paper on interpreting war treaties and legalizing wars in cities written by Tanya a year ago. Did Zettour use this plan in this operation? He will use any talented soldier at his disposal. For he is going to give her a very important job to end the war with the Republicans. Sioux is found alive floating in the fjord and recuperating in a hospital somewhere in Allied Kingdom. He claims seeing a light that belonged to God. He told him to destroy that devil.

Episode 9
Tanya is surprised to see Ugar who is now working in the rear guard of the railway division. He lets her in on a secret that there is a plan for emergency transport. It seems the next strategy is to pull out from Rhine. It might sound it makes no sense since they have made quite a progress but the strategy is to make a false retreat, encircle the enemy and take them out. He believes her unit will be asked to serve as the rear guard so the enemy won’t learn of this plan. Back in HQ, the higher ups are discussing this plan. Because the battle at Arene has dampened their supply lines, Zettour’s strategy isn’t to win but to avoid defeat. That is the only way to end the war. Tanya’s battalion is engaging the Republicans at Rhine. Her teams have suffered several casualties. Although given the permission to retreat, she will not do so at this time because it will make the enemy suspicious and catch on to their plan. They fight on until the ground troops make their false retreat. Later Tanya sees Rerugen who praises her efforts that their first stage was successful. Tanya asks as she heard their military is distributing false propaganda via third countries. Even if they make it look like they’re planning a reckless large scale assault to make the enemy believe in it and concentrate their forces, they still need to disrupt and put them in disarray if they are to wipe them out completely just like in Norden. Rerugen gives her the plans for their next strategy, which is to directly take out the enemy’s HQ and leave them in disarray and capture enemy units. However if it was this easy in the first place, the battle at Rhine wouldn’t have been at a stalemate. Their discussion is interrupted when Schugel barges in. He shows her some super rockets that will be used in their next mission. Whatever mumbo-jumbo they’re saying, Tanya doesn’t look impressed. She has some questions and they’re all honestly answered by the mad scientist. Basically you can’t control the rocket’s direction or speed because Schugel believes you just need to just go forward and hit the enemy! That’s all to it! No wonder Tanya has got a bad feeling about this. It’s a one way ticket to hell. So naturally, she hand picks a few of her comrades to ride the rocket. They must succeed this mission as failure means the rest of their other plans will fail. They are basically the head of the entire army at this point. Even the higher ups are nervous and praying for the success of this mission. And so the rockets are launched. Tanya and co drop down once they have reached enemy lines.

Episode 10
Tanya’s battalion split into teams to take out the enemy HQ. Meanwhile Zettour is reporting to a few cabinet ministers about the progress of the battle. Despite their concerns on the toll it would take on their funds, Zettour cannot disclose anything more except that this operation is crucial to the destruction of the Republicans. But they start to get furious when he stays silent regarding the retreat at Rhine so much so it puts their industrial zone in that area in jeopardy. It seems the military is waiting for the right moment for Tanya to report her success. Thankfully her team has destroyed the HQ and ammo depot in time. So when the officer reports their success, Zettour can now has the last laugh as he begins his explanation of the next phase and follow up of this operation. A peaceful flank at the Rhine suddenly explodes over a wide area! It seems the Imperial has been digging underground tunnels to the enemy’s side and placed explosives. Once they have captured this side, they will encircle the main force and totally wipe out the enemy. When the Republicans realize their chain of command is in disarray, they are forced to retreat however the Imperial has tanks and mechanized infantry to block off their escape. Oh, did I mention they sent in the flamethrowers too? Tanya is delighted to receive this news and happily reports to her men about their imminent victory. Now they have the easy task of wiping out any enemy that retreats. After this they’ll return to the capital, celebrate and set for life. Just a little more before she can resume her peaceful life. Suddenly she receives report that an unidentified mage battalion is closing in on her area. Before they know it, a shot is fired and Grantz becomes the first victim. Sioux is leading the Allied Kingdom’s mage battalion for this attack.

Episode 11
The vicious dogfight begins. Allied Kingdom definitely has the superior numbers while Tanya’s side is trying to use altitude to their advantage. Weiss falls into enemy’s trap when he becomes enraged that his comrades got taken down by Sioux. Tanya is forced to pray to God to give her the speed to push Weiss out of harm’s way. Then she turns into her usual speed demon mode and gunning down her enemies. As she engages in the inevitable showdown with Sioux, she realizes he is using a trench gun (like a shotgun?) which is a violation of the international treaty. I thought all is fair in war? When they finally come face to face, it becomes close quarter combat. Sioux allows her to stab him because now he can hold her and take her out as he self-destructs. Tanya remembers him now as she struggles to break free. The fear of death in her eyes and voice. Luckily Viktoriya pumps a few lead into him. Tanya breaks free and shoots him back with his rifle. Sioux explodes but he only took himself out. The Imperial announces a clean-up operation, signalling their victory of this war. Good news for Tanya is that all her comrades are still alive albeit wounded. No casualties. 15 days later, the Empire marches into undefended Parisee. Yeah, they literally withdrew and let the Empire took over. They don’t want their aesthetics destroyed? The diplomats are discussing and sorting things out. Tanya is bored in her HQ and only has Viktoriya as accompany since the rest of the guys are having a BBQ party at some beach. One fanservice I wouldn’t want to be watching. When Tanya hears about Viktoriya reporting about the Republican navy ceasing combat and moving and that it is stated as armistice and not end of war, Tanya then realizes a grave mistake. She wants her men to get ready for assault. Vacation is cancelled. She then pleads to her superior to sortie. She argues the war isn’t over as the Republicans plan to abandon their country and attack from overseas. They must strike in this brief window or lose everything. But she is turned down at every argument. Tanya still has her privileges and invokes some ‘testing’ mission. However she is soon forced to stop when Viktoriya reports orders from HQ to stop whatever she is doing. As a soldier, she must obey or face the firing squad. Tanya lets out her frustration on the furniture…

Episode 12
Tanya goes to HQ to see any higher ups but they are all ‘busy’ celebrating. Luckily there is Rerugen to hear her out. She complains about the military not taking full use of this victory. Rerugen views her unfiltered opinion as arrogant. He shows her a filed complaint that she was trying to disobey order. He warns her despite the special authorities given to her, it is not meant to cause friction in the front lines. As Rerugen tells the reasons why there is no more need for war, Tanya counters that humans make a move on more than just rationalism. They are like beasts. Her proof is mankind’s history and her own experience. She has seen with her own eyes men acting on the pure feelings of hatred that overrides all reasoning. In short, the Empire shouldn’t become intoxicated by a temporary victory. Rerugen feels scared hearing her. It could be an I-told-you moment because an unverified report comes in about the remnants of the Republicans being active in the southern continent. De Lugo is rallying the Republicans how they will fight the Empire to the death. The common people in the Empire are now worried because they thought the war is over but now the Republicans have declared war and their own military is doing nothing. Rudersdorf and Zettour are visibly mad at the turn of events. Although it seems their only way is to go to the south and finish off the enemy, Zettour feels there might be something amiss. Their army is not equipped to cross the ocean to fight. What if another nation intervenes in this war during this operation? Looks like for now it is best to send a small team to fight there and you’ve guessed it, Tanya’s battalion gets the honours. Tanya narrates how the Empire defeated its enemies and failed to realize how the world around has become afraid of them. The irony is that despite the world wanting peace, they are willing to go fight and that prolongs the war. Mary is volunteering to be drafted in the American army so she could be sent across the ocean to fight. She is well aware of the risks and is prepared for it. She makes her tearful pledge of loyalty and swears in the name to bring God’s justice. Look who just powered up. Tanya gives her speech to her troops. First she talks about how God throws them into such cruel fates. And then she vows to kill God. They’ll take over His work and His place. Let’s put God out of a job! While the Empire’s top guns are worried if this plan could work, Rerugen assures and reminds them about Tanya’s reputation, a monster in the form of a little girl.

Despicable Me
And so God also did a cruel twist of fate to me by just ending it like that instead of giving me another season since I’m hooked on the series by the time it ended. Okay, so it’s the producers rather than God. And once again, yet another interesting military themed anime that left me wanting more. I believe it is going to get messier the next time with more nations joining in the fray since we have those cocky English on the west and those crazy ice cold Russians on the east just waiting for the right time. I guess Tanya will have to wait a little more longer to have her revenge on Being X. Could she just pray to God to just beat the hell out of Him? Oh, right. If she is going to beat the sh*t out of that higher being, might as well do it with her own powers instead of using some other power. She is after all the devil and she certainly has the crazy looks of it if she wills it. Imagine the devil as a little young girl. We’re either screwed or totally become her devoted slaves. Either way, end of humanity.

Not sure if I should be feeling conflicted here (I think I shouldn’t) because as the Empire is the focus of the series, they are like the ‘good guys’ while all those enemy nations surrounding them are like the ‘bad guys’. For whatever reasons the war started, watching this anime makes me feel like I want to root for the Imperial. Maybe is it because Tanya is at the helm and how the Empire is going to win? Yeah, everybody loves winners, don’t they? So does this mean I am a Nazi supporter? Pity the fools who can’t even tell the difference between reality and fiction. The Empire may resemble closely to a certain hated group of the past (at least currently in the politically correct culture) and I’m sure you might also see a lot of resemblance in the other nations. Remember, Nazis aren’t even mentioned in this anime. So don’t go screaming your head off because of your own ignorance.

Tanya doesn’t seem like the ultimate evil person herself. Some of her earlier deeds may make her look like a devil and the fact she scorches through the battlefield like on is mainly because we don’t know more about her yet at that point. We are shown that Tanya is a new form taken on by a bitter man from our world and thus will do whatever it takes to secure her future and return. But after getting and leading her own mage battalion, we start to see her in a different light. A competent and effective leader who cares about her comrades and is capable of bringing victories to her country. I know she ‘cheats’ a little at times when she prays to ‘God’ but sometimes you have got to do what you have got to do. Even previously if she was an arrogant and cocky person, sometimes you need to bend a little your strict ways for the better of your future. This is in reference to some moments when she needs to pray to Being X for the much needed power to determine a desirable outcome. Had she been stubborn and not done so, she wouldn’t have lived long enough to reach her ultimate goal to get back at Being X. In the long run, it is ultimately winning against Being X by playing at his own game. Yeah, it is still for her own benefit anyway.

As the series mainly focuses on Tanya, I feel that many of the other characters aren’t given that much of importance. Sure, we do see Rerugen going around to inspect the theatres and Zettour involving in high level strategy meetings or Rudersdorf always smoking his puffy cigar behind his big bushy moustache but that is so much about them. What else more do we need to know about them, old men in uniform? Even Viktoriya doesn’t feel like she is much. Like as though because the entire army are all males, they need another female so as not to make Tanya look out of place. Oh, having a young blonde girl leading one of the most effective squads is already out of place itself. And Viktoriya looking like a girl perhaps slightly older than Tanya, does the Empire only draft young girls into its ranks? And you wonder how a girl like Viktoriya can be drafted seeing she has this sunshiny personality and sometimes a bit retarded. It’s like her destiny to be Tanya’s lapdog or something. The only other ‘lively’ character is Schugel but this mad scientist just has very limited appearance and it sure is amusing seeing him ‘argue’ with Tanya. Both characters at different ends of their poles in their thinking and approach.

There are also a handful of other characters from other nations but their cameo is short that I don’t really remember them. Especially those from higher ranks. Since the series focuses on the Empire, players from these other nations aren’t given much prominence. In a way, characters like Sioux feel a bit like a let-down since I thought he would be the final boss but I have only myself to blame for having too high expectations. Well, indeed Sioux feels like the final boss for Tanya and his character shoehorned in for just this plot. Too bad for Sioux, it feels like his prayers to God isn’t as strong as Tanya’s. Maybe it will live through his daughter and then in the near future another showdown between the young lasses this time?

Sometimes I wonder if God or Being X is just a narcissistic and sadistic being. Call humans dumb or weak to throw themselves into war fighting each other forever. But if he is the Almighty, shouldn’t he put a stop to it all somehow? I know some might argue God shouldn’t intervene but sometimes whoever says their prayers to him will receive some sort of power up. Of course it boils down to individual skill and luck because if everybody starts praying, everything will still remain the same. But as seen here by those who chant in his name, they get some sort of a power boost to their abilities. All you need to do is say his name. You want things to go your way? Pray to God. When word spreads how it actually work and people start doing it, don’t you see this is some sort of blatant and shameless form of advertising? Being X claims he wants to make Tanya believe in the unseen higher power but could it be he just wants to screw her over because he is just bored? With the sudden turn of events at the end, I’m sure it is one of Being X’s sign to tell Tanya she just can’t rest on her laurels yet. Each time she has got her victory, it is short-lived. Something props up soon after.  I am pretty sure Tanya will survive wars after wars because she is a survivor. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Watch out Being X. She is coming for your head. Sorry, but my money is on Tanya! Hmm… Maybe I’m just like God. Wanting another season means prolonging the war and plot for this series just to see Tanya in action and what more she could achieve…

Some of the action scenes are quite entertaining and satisfying. Especially those of the air dogfights between the mages. Not to say that they are so exhilarating that I would be losing my breath each time they start shooting their magic and guns but at least it is well done. The only thing that bothers me about the mages is the magic box that they used to keep them afloat. Different nations have different designs but they all look as weird as f*ck. Like for the Imperial, the box is located in front of their stomach and it is big enough to look like as though they have a big square tummy. The northern side looks like they’re going on a ski trip with one leg. If you think that looks funny, you haven’t seen anything yet. Because Allied Kingdom rides brooms and the Republicans ride metal horses! Truly WTF moments.

Art and animation are pretty decent. While many of the characters look bland because simply every military guy in uniform looks the same, right? The weirdest looking characters are Tanya and Viktoriya. As said, Tanya may be cute as a blonde loli but she still looks a bit weird. But not as weird as Viktoriya. I thought she looks like a creepy doll. Look at her very broad face and very big eyes. Like a doll, right? Creepy, right? It is the sceneries that shine in the visuals. Or rather, devastating. The devastating effects of war can be seen throughout the battlefield like the very dead land in Rhine after a long time fighting, the decimated buildings at Arene as well as the very posh and ‘clean’ Berun. The magic effects are also cool to look at. Some of the scenes can be dark and gory but hey, this isn’t your happy magical girl anime. This anime is animated by NUT, which is their first production.

Aoi Yuuki is absolutely delightful playing Tanya as she sounds both cute and evil at the same time. Sometimes she seamlessly moves in between or from one or another and has that commanding voice whenever she gives orders. She really fits in her role and I can’t think of anyone else better who could pull it off. Other recognizable casts are Saori Hayami as Viktoriya, Shinichiro Miki as Rerugen and Haruka Tomatsu as Mary. The rests are Hochu Ootsuka as Zettour (Jiraiya in Naruto), Tesshou Genda as Rudersdorf (Kaido in One Piece), Daiki Hamano as Weiss (Dante Mogro in Mobile Suite Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans), Nobuo Tobita as Schugel (Souun in Uchouten Kazoku) and Kenyuu Horiuchi as Sioux (Kinemon in One Piece).

There is something catchy about the opening theme, Jingo Jungle by MYTH&ROID. The very effects heavy and techno beat dense music makes it very suitable for any sort of magic action video game. The singer’s powerful voice might be purposely muffled by the effects to sound like as though there are interferences but I think it is the heavy beat that catches my attention. If you want to do some hardcore techno dancing, this music is very much suitable. The ending theme, Los! Los! Los! by Aoi Yuuki feels a bit like military rock music. Also quite befitting the series. But don’t be fooled by her cute singing voice as the lyrics is mainly about going forth to fight for victory and trampling down her enemies, beating them down to the bone and blood. Yikes. Away from all that fast paced rock music is a special ending theme, Sensen No Realism by Mako Niina. Despite it is a slower piece, it still sounds lovely in its own right.

Overall, this anime doesn’t disappoint and it goes to really show that you cannot judge a book by its cover, an anime by its promotional poster and a capable officer by her physical appearance. Interesting alternate world war setting and strategies as well as satisfactory action scenes and a ‘likeable’ main character are its formula of success. The people behind this series must have really prayed to God to make it successful and good. At least to me. Looks like the streak of military themed animes has not failed me in recent years and this anime only increases my confidence in the genre so I will be looking forward to more of such in the future. I pray to God to watch more awesome and entertaining animes in the future. Imagine anime becoming the new religion of the world… Deus lo vult!

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi To Akashic Records

Oh no. I think I can tell what is going to be like when I read the synopsis of Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi To Akashic Records. A school that teaches magic. A new substitute teacher is hired to replace another teacher. New teacher is lazy and doesn’t care about anything. Students hate this bastard. But along the way he demonstrates his competent side when it matters and slowly they believe in him. And some conspiracy behind it all. Yup. This kind of formula of having the main protagonist as a slothful and indifferent dude isn’t all new seeing I can name a few recent animes with this kind of main character (that guy from Alderamin, that guy from Rettousei, that guy in Denpa Kyoushi). I think there is a saying about a clever person is one who hides his cleverness. Or it is the clever man who plays the fool and the foolish women who doesn’t recognize it.

Episode 1
As narrated, the city of Fejite of Alzano Empire is famous for its magic academy and hence why Alzano is a magic powerhouse. Sistine Fibel and Rumia Tingel are such students as they lament the sudden resignation of one of their beloved teachers. They had the misfortune to bump into this guy, Glenn Radars. Though Sistine uses her magic to push him away into the fountain, he tries to act all cool and cocky. Then he freely examines Rumia’s body and thinks he has met her before Sistine gives another magical punishment. As the class waits for their new substitute teacher to replace Huey, you might have guessed that this Glenn dude is the guy. He is already late, waltzes in like nobody’s business, tells the class to do self-study while he goes to sleep in his desk. No wonder some teachers are complaining to the Headmaster Rick as he has no accolades to his name. He is average and third rate in everything and has no teaching licence. He only got in because he was recommended by Professor Celica Arfonia. The other ‘milestone’ is that he enrolled here when he was 11 and graduated at 15. But after that nothing is heard from him. Maybe he did nothing… But don’t worry because Celica will take all responsibility for Glenn, right? Sistine blows her top and throws her book at Glenn to wake up and teach. Even so, he is so unmotivated, has sloppy handwriting and when asked a question he doesn’t even know anything and says to go look it up yourself. It’s no wonder that Sistine is up to here and the only way to relief her stress is to fondle Rumia’s body! I approve! Then a cliché moment when Glenn walks into the changing room with all the girls in their lingerie. Cliché consequences too.

During lunch, Glenn had the nerve to sit next to Rumia and Sistine. While Rumia is friendly with him, Sistine is about to give her honest opinion of his attitude but he cuts her off thinking he wants to try his food. Then he ‘trades’ hers. Flashback shows Glenn didn’t want to do this job but was threatened by Celica. More misfortune as Glenn also teaches their next class. This time Sistine has had it and threatens to tell her father who has significant influence in this academy to fire him. He couldn’t be more grateful! He wants to be fired! That is the last straw. Sistine throws her gloves at him and challenges him to a magic duel. If she wins, he must act like a proper teacher. The class is in shock. Glenn acts like she might have made the biggest mistake of his life. During the duel, Glenn says they will only use one spell: Shock Bolt. Everyone considers this very basic spell that boils down to how fast you can chant its lines. They think Glenn has the upper-hand but is underestimating Sistine. When it begins, Sistine is faster and zaps Glenn. He lost! Like a true sore loser, he calls for extra rounds and even plays dirty but he cannot best her. So he can’t even chant this simple spell? Worse, he acts like he never made the promise and runs away. Sistine has lost all hope for him…

Episode 2
It’s back to the lazy teaching. When Lynn Titis tries to ask him a question, Sistine doesn’t want her to waste her time. She brags about magic being valuable but he catches off guard that magic is useless. He tells them all they don’t know what magic is and that it doesn’t benefit mankind. Oh wait. Magic does have its use. It kills people. As he continues to berate magic, Sistine cannot take it anymore and slaps him. Oh, now you made her cry. Later Glenn sees Rumia doing her own magic insignia experiment and helps her complete it. She believes he doesn’t hate magic. He doesn’t want her digging about his past too much so Rumia tells about her own. She wants to learn magic to repay a debt to someone. When she was banished from her home 3 years ago, she was captured and nearly killed by evil mages. A guy came to save her and it made her vow to learn magic so humanity doesn’t lose its way with it. She hopes he can apologize to Sistine because she feels bonded to her late grandpa via magic. His dream was to step into the Melgalius Sky Castle, the reason he became a mage. As he was dying, Sistine promised to do that in his stead. Next day, Glenn shocks the class by apologizing to Sistine before calling everyone idiots. Everyone thought he is going to give some useless lecture about Shock Bolt but then he surprises everyone how much they do not know about its basics. He continues to awe them with his explanation of what magic really is: Probing the heart of mankind. He demonstrates by doing a fake love confession to Sistine, embarrassing her. This shows how words can influence a person’s mind and hence magic is something like that. Because everyone has been skipping over the basics, they’re just dummies memorizing chants, etc.

And with the sudden change in event, Glenn’s class has become much more interesting and popular with other students joining in! OMG! It’s a full class! Celica and Rick are laughing how it all eventually worked out. Next day as Glenn is rushing late for class, he is attacked by a terrorist. A couple of more then waltz into class and threaten to kill unless the real Rumia shows herself. To avoid Sistine getting killed, Rumia does so and follows them. It seems they know her by another name, Princess Ermiana and is supposed to be dead. Meanwhile one of the terrorists takes Sistine to another room and tries to rape her. He likes to break down such girls who act tough and true enough Sistine starts screaming for help. Glenn then walks in. Sorry, wrong room. Please continue. Are you kidding me?! When the terrorist tires to kill him with his magic, nothing comes out. It seems Glenn has this card, Fool’s World that allows him to negate and seal any form of magic within a certain range. This is one of his original spells. However this means he can’t use his own magic. The baddie laughs at his own checkmate but you know what? If you can’t use magic, beat him up with his fists! And don’t you mess with Glenn because this guy knows how to fight! In fact, the baddie recognizes it to be an imperial military style. Glenn then finishes him off with his legendary magical punch. It’s a kick by the way. That’s why is magical. Oh Glenn…

Episode 3
Glenn contacts Celica who is away in the middle of a magic conference to update the situation. From the mark on their body, he can tell the terrorists are from Researches of Divine Wisdom, a secret society of evil mages. As the academy’s barrier is not easily tampered, he believes this is an inside job. No use for Sistine crying about how useless magic is now. Because bone golems are sent to kill them. Too bad they took out their own terrorist guy. Glenn has Sistine reinforce him so that he could fight them. Once he blows them all to bits, the big boss Reik appears ready to kill a weakened Glenn. Glenn asks if Sistine still has enough magic to disable his magic. Since she doesn’t have the necessary amount, he pushes her off to safety. He then fights Reik and gives this guy a run for his money. When it looks like Glenn has a death wish and takes all the stabbing, it is just distraction for Sistine to chant her magic so that Glenn has enough time to activate Fool’s World and stab him. Glenn is glad Sistine understood his intent. If he had wanted to save her, he wouldn’t have asked if she had any magic left. Glenn is bleeding too much so Sistine heals him enough to get him going. He then contacts Celica to update. Noticing that the barrier prevents anyone from getting out, how would the terrorists get out then? Noticing the teleportation circle in the tall tower, although it might take half a day to rewrite it, well, it has already been half a day.

Glenn barges into the tower to rescue Rumia. He is shocked to learn the perpetrator is Huey. He explains the plan to use his mana as sacrifice to teleport Rumia back to the base. And then some magic bomb he planted for years that will explode the academy. He has Glenn play this ‘game’ to undo the teleportation circle binding Rumia. But he can’t wait for Fool’s World to run out as a lot of time would have run out. Oh, he can’t kill Huey too because by doing so will activate everything. Glenn uses his own blood to write runes to dispel the layers, risking his life for it. He can’t give up because of his dream to become the greatest mage. Even though he realized that world is tainted with blood and has wasted his whole life on it, he still can’t give it up because what would be the purpose of his life then? He spent his entire life trying to become a mage of justice and refuses to let it become worthless. On the last layer, Glenn runs out of mana. Rumia is inspired and breaks through to reach out to him, replenishing and amplifying his mana. Glenn revives and dispels the last layer. Though he still has enough energy to punch Huey in the face. At least he got a lap pillow from Rumia. In the aftermath, Celica explains Rumia as Princess Ermiana who is supposed to have died 3 years ago. Her country has a deep prejudice and persecution for those with special abilities. The only ones who know about this is her and the headmaster. She asks why he decided to continue to be their teacher. He wants to see what they’ll go on to achieve. It’s perfect to kill time too.

Episode 4
Imperial Guards commander, Zelos reminds Queen Alicia VII that the magic competition she will attend has the girl whom they pronounced dead 3 years ago. He is worried this might bring up unnecessary trouble so she’ll keep that in mind. It seems Glenn’s class nobody wants to participate in any magic competitions for fear of embarrassing themselves before the queen. So Glenn comes in with his sure win strategy as he picks the best students for each category. Everyone thought he has been watching them and thus know their abilities well but it seems it all stems from Glenn not having enough money so Rick told him of this competition where he could get some extra bonus. The rivalry even heats up when the classes clash in using the practice grounds. Glenn makes a bet with Halley Astry to bet their 3 months’ salary to see whose class can do better. He might sound confident but Glenn is panicking on the inside. This better work. As the competition gets underway, Glenn’s class does surprisingly well. This boosts their morale as they believe Glenn really has some sort of strategy but in reality he has none. So far so good his luck. Rumia takes part in the magic mental endurance and faces off with last year’s champion, Jaill Wolfheart. Despite being told to drop out, she presses on since everybody is trying their best. When it seems Rumia is about to fall, Glenn declares on Rumia’s behalf to quit seeing it is pointless for her to put up with something painful. Glenn apologizes for not anticipating she would be up against such strong opponents but Rumia doesn’t feel that way as she had fun. However everyone soon realize that Jaill is already unconscious while standing. This means it is Rumia’s victory! Alicia is pleased to see Rumia’s smile and that she has good friends and teacher.

Episode 5
Albert Frazer and Re=L Rayford are surprised to see Glenn at this place. However they have a mission to watch over the Imperial Guards as they received word there have been suspicious activities within. As the competition breaks for lunch, Lynn seeks Glenn’s permission to replace her for the transmutation event as she doesn’t have the confidence. Glenn gives her confidence by demonstrating transforming into Rumia. It’s not that she dislikes this event. It’s just that the image in her mind is still vague. After that, Sistine comes looking for Rumia to have lunch. She had the bad luck to stumble into this fake as she plans to give her sandwiches to a certain guy. All that comes crashing down when the real Rumia enters the scene. She dispels Glenn’s magic and beats him up. Later Rumia gives those sandwiches to Glenn since Sistine threw them away. What a waste. After he has his fill, suddenly Alicia appears before them. First she apologizes to him for being expelled from the Court Mage Corps in an unruly fashion although he dismisses it as he quit. When Alicia talks to Rumia, the latter dismisses she has got the wrong person because Ermiana died 3 years ago. Alicia is sad but has expected Rumia still won’ accept her as her mom after what they did. She hopes Glenn will take care of her. When she returns, Zelos and his guards immediately arrest her.

Sistine talks to Glenn when Rumia hasn’t come back yet. He finds her sitting alone looking at her empty locket. Rumia laments why her mom abandoned her because she is like the devil reincarnate with this special ability. It would damage the royal family’s status if something happened. Although she can’t forgive her, a part of her still wants to call her mom and to be hugged again. Time for Glenn to give his philosophy about choice and regrets as humans. Suddenly the Imperial Guards surround them. They charge Rumia for treason and planning to assassinate Alicia. She will be executed. Glenn defends her since they cannot show proof so they threaten to kill him too. Rumia agrees to go with them to spare Glenn. She accepts her fate of living on borrowed time when Glenn returns to knock them out and save her. He might get convicted too but he believes Alicia would never order such a thing and that somebody else must be behind this. They run away from reinforcements. Glenn thinks they need to see Alicia in person but doesn’t need to. Because Celica is best friends with her and should be by her side. He contacts her but it seems all she says is that she cannot tell him anything and is hinting he is the only one who can salvage this situation. Glenn starts cracking his brains when Re=L attacks.

Episode 6
Flashback shows Alicia’s personal maid, Eleanor Chalet whispered to Celica that she has put a conditional cursed necklace on Alicia’s neck. They will put Alicia’s life to use for the sake of Divine Wisdom. Albert stops Re=L dead in her attacks. While Glenn is surprised to reunite with his old comrades from the Imperial Army, Albert tells him of a plot to eliminate Rumia. Right now, Alicia and Celica are watching the competition from their VIP seats. It might look like nothing but they’re actually being held hostage. So while Glenn and Rumia run away from the Imperial Guards, Albert and Re=L take over commanding their class for the competition. It might feel odd to put their trust in strangers but it still doesn’t change the fact they have to win or else they’ll never hear the end of it from Glenn. Glenn’s class makes a comeback from the slump to tie with Halley’s class. Thus the final decider in the final event sees Sistine defeating her opponent for the overall win. During the awards ceremony, Albert and Re=L goes up to receive the award from Alicia. Suddenly they turn into Glenn and Rumia. It seems they swap their appearances and the Imperial Guards have been chasing Albert and Re=L all the while. Celica then puts up a barrier to keep out the Imperial Guards. Glenn thought it is over when he wants Alicia to give the orders. However Zelos differs. He will take responsibility by taking his own life after this but Alicia must sacrifice a lot to preserve her own.

Alicia then gives a roundabout speech for Rumia to be executed as well as how much she regretted giving birth to her. Rumia’s heart is broken as Glenn knows something is off. Could it be that Alicia cannot say the truth? Why lie now? When he notices the necklace and she replies she doesn’t want it removed, he knows Alicia loves her daughter. Zelos attacks Glenn as Alicia throws away her necklace. Glenn knows about the conditional cursed necklace whereby one will die if it is removed, a set time passed or reveal how to undo the curse. The only way out was to kill Rumia. But why didn’t the curse activate then? Glenn’s Fool’s World. With the curse removed, Alicia is free to hug Rumia and show her love for her. Albert and Re=L confront escaping Eleanor and want to know why she tried to kill Rumia. Akashic Records. That is what she is for. Unfortunately Eleanor escapes so they warn Glenn about Divine Wisdom infiltrating this far into the kingdom. They will return once they have the countermeasures. Later Rumia talks to Glenn on how he knew Alicia wasn’t lying. When Rumia was kidnapped, she pleaded to him to save her. He saw her tears. Rumia now understands why he remembers their promise. Glenn wants to treat the class with his new ‘wealth’ but looks like they got ahead of him. Yeah, all of them are so drunk especially Sistine all over him. It costs all that he has just earned. Back to square one.

Episode 7
Glenn almost gets attacked by Re=L again. This is her way of greeting? By looking at her outfit, it looks like she is going to be a student in the academy. He heard the government has assigned a formal guard to Rumia and dispatch a mage to undercover as a transfer student but he didn’t expect it to be Re=L. However Re=L prefers to protect Glenn than Rumia so he noogie abuses her. Re=L is introduced in class. She can’t lie and almost gave away her identity. Glenn had to tell her what to say. But when asked about her relationship with Glenn, she says he is her everything and will live for him. The girls are in awe but the guys are heart broken by this ‘rejection’. Why does Sistine look worried? However the class is now scared of her because during magic training, she uses her brute force to destroy her target! Don’t mess with her. But with Sistine and Rumia talking to her, soon the class once again opens up to her. Glenn takes his class to a field trip at an army’s research facility. They aren’t too fond till he explains there is a beach nearby. Get the hint? Yes, babes in swimsuits. Viva sensei! Glenn knows Albert is watching close by and talks to him. He realizes Re=L is just a decoy and the real guard is him. He warns Re=L is dangerous despite what happened in the past. The guys push their luck as they want to sneak into the girls’ room but is thwarted by Glenn. Re=L has never seen him so happy before. He may be like that since he started working in the academy but in the military, he was gloomy as f*ck. Late Re=L talks to Glenn about why he left as she feels her life is useless without him. He wants her to live her own happy life and seems to be fitting well among the students. However this upsets her. She doesn’t think it is wrong to live her life protecting him and blames Rumia and Sistine for stealing him away from her.

Episode 8
As the students trek to the research facility, Sistine and Rumia get a rude shock when Re=L refuses to be helped by them as she tells it in their face she hates them. Glenn hopes they will give her some space since it was partly his fault saying a few harsh words to her. The director of this facility, Burks Blaumohn guides the students around. There is this topic of reviving the dead they talk about. Basically from all that mumbo-jumbo about this forbidden art is that you create duplicates from copies. I think. Glenn assures it won’t happen since many will have to die to revive one person but Rumia is seemingly looking worried. Re=L continues to sulk and be a loner. Sistine and Rumia want to do something about this so Glenn tells them to wait for her as he will go find her. Re=L is shocked to see her brother. Because he is supposed to be dead. He explains he almost was. 2 years ago when she defected and earned her freedom, he was still Divine Wisdom’s slave. The only way to save him is to get Rumia. However Glenn stands in their way. He hopes she can save him using this chance. Meanwhile Albert knows this is a trap but can’t intervene since a barrier is set up. Instead he has to play with Eleanor. Despite burning her, she can regenerate. Not your typical necromancer, she summons zombies to her aid. Glenn cuts in to protect Re=L. Before things can go his way, Re=L stabs him!!! OMG! Did you see that coming?! From now on, Re=L will live for her brother’s sake. So much about loyalty and promises. Once Glenn is down, Eleanor escapes. Sistine returns to her room and is shocked to see Re=L killed Rumia! Blood everywhere! Re=L assures Rumia is still alive. In utter shock, she threatens to shoot her but Re=L dares her. She couldn’t. Time’s up. Re=L takes Rumia away. More shock for Sistine when Albert brings Glenn in. He still isn’t dead but they can use some revival magic arts to bring him back. Since that requires huge amounts of mana, the reason he needs to borrow hers. He tells her to decide whether she wants to carry on crying or kill him. So while he sets up the ritual, she has to do CPR on Glenn. You mean kiss him? Stop thinking about that. It’s life and death! And so her first kiss goes to… Rumia is shocked to see Re=L defected and from her mouth how she killed Glenn.

Episode 9
Thanks to Sistine’s great mana, Glenn comes back alive although Sistine is out from exhaustion. When Albert explains the military found a link misappropriation of funds and Burks, Glenn realizes Albert never said this to him because he was planning to use Rumia as bait. But this would reveal Re=L’s identity as well. Albert admits he is as guilty as his superiors for this but if Re=L gets in the way of Rumia’s rescue, he will not hesitate to kill her. Glenn cannot be the one to say because he ran away and abandoned his comrades. Now that her brother has popped up, do you think she will listen to him? Even so, he will pound it into her no matter what it takes. Albert is glad he never changed and a single punch in his face for desertion is all it takes to forgive him. Burks is impressed with the development of this revival project thingy. Whatever he is doing, he is causing Rumia tremendous pain. Thanks to Albert tagging a tracker on Eleanor, he knows where to go. Burks decides to unleash his creations to stop them. Too bad the chimera and this, uhm, Bulbasaur (?) got easily defeated. Burks decides to go face them himself instead. This guy turns into a hideous monster. Albert decides to fight him and let Glenn move on. Eleanor escapes since she can’t die at this place and leaves the rest to the fake brother. Meanwhile all the students are worried about Glenn and Rumia but Sistine assures them to put their trust in him and wait because Glenn promised he’ll return.

When Glenn enters the room, Re=L without question protects her brother. Glenn realizes she will not listen no matter what he says even if it is obvious she is being tricked. Seeing how much she loves her brother, Glenn wants her to tell what her brother name is. Strangely, she can’t remember and it hurts her head. This allows Glenn to pin her down using his gravity magic. Glenn then punches the fake brother because he knew he was a phoney the moment he called Re=L by her name. Re=L also regains her memories. Project Revive Life or Re=L for short. She is born in a lab from the sacrifice of many. Rainer and Sion were conducting this experiment. Sion wanted to stop as he didn’t want any more sacrifices. However crazy Rainer killed him along with Ilushia. 2 years ago, Sion betrayed them and reported to the Imperial Court Mage Corps in which Glenn was the one he contacted. He wanted to leave the organization to stop this project to save his friends. But when Glenn and his team raided the place, Sion and Ilushia were already dead. All Glenn had was Re=L whom he protected that had inherited memories from Astral Code. Fake brother calls this a failure and Re=L a piece of junk. Because thanks to the completion of the ritual, he has now 3 Re=L clones at his disposal. Glenn protects Re=L from them. Re=L is confused he would do such a thing after all that she has done. It means she is important, right? Also, she has important friends now. Re=L gets back her motivation and kills her clones. Fake brother begs for his life when Glenn is about to kill him. That crazy eyes might hint he would do it. Nope. A big knockout punch instead. Albert has finished burning Burks on his side too. Rumia is freed and they are reunited with their friends. Sistine and Re=L share an emotional hug. So while Glenn watches his students play beach volleyball, Eleanor is glad she has got the entire ritual needed Project Revival Life.

Episode 10
While watching the students play beach volleyball, Albert notes to Glenn how Sistine resembles a lot like Sara Silvers. Eleanor speaks to her Grandmaster that Rumia’s power is maturing. For now they are to observe closely. As for the organization plotting to bring her rebirth, Eleanor is given the freedom to deal with them the way she sees fit. Re=L stays in the hospitality of Sistine’s parents and makes up with her friends. When Glenn thanks Sistine for reviving her, she can’t help blush about the kiss. This prompts Re=L to think he hurt her in some way and is going to kill him. Wait a minute. Now she is going to protect Sistine? What ever happened to always Glenn first? He almost got crushed by a carriage. Out comes a man named Leos Kleitos. Sistine knows him because he is her fiancé! Although Sistine remembers the promise they made when they were young, she thought it was just a kiddie promise. Apparently he is serious and is in love with her. Leos is here as a guest instructor. His lessons are very clear and perfect but Glenn wonders if the students actually understand what it means to wield such magic instead of just knowing it exists.

Leos talks to Sistine privately. Of course our usuals go spy on them because unlike Glenn who is happily vouching for her, Rumia has this bad feeling about this guy. Woman’s intuition? Glenn surprisingly proposes to Sistine. But she declines. Her reason is about her promise to grandpa to unravel Melgalius’ Sky Castle’s mystery. She needs to learn more about magic for that. Gee, I was thinking she was going to say she loves another. Leos doesn’t want her to waste time on something useless and instead wants her to support his research in military magic. That is when Glenn pops up to protest and tell Sistine to continue following her dreams. Leos wants him to stay out of this but Sistine says he is very much related. Why? Because they are sworn lovers! That’s why she can’t marry him. So now the cat’s out of the bag. Glenn instead plays along and agrees to it. Though he lies about sharing a bed last night, it made Sistine reveal they only kissed. Leos gets mad and it seems it is Glenn’s ploy to reveal his true nature. Glenn then challenges him to a duel. He accepts and will discuss the time and place later. Now that it has come to this, Glenn is going to involve his entire class! He will train them in magic so as to stand a chance to him. He is really looking forward to win this so he can be rich getting married to Sistine and not work anymore. Later Albert meets up with Glenn to tell him there are rumours Angel’s Dust has been smuggled in here. Glenn is shocked because the method should’ve been destroyed last year. Apparently not. That drug sounds like it turns you into a zombie for others to control. Albert knows Glenn wants to join the investigation and rejects him before he could say. In fact, he is here to tell him to stay out. He wonders what Sara died for and that Glenn sees Sara in Sistine. Leos talks to someone and it seems getting Glenn to duel him was all part of the plan for his foundation of justice.

Episode 11
The magic duel begins. A side wins when the enemy base is captured or the enemy commander is taken out. At first, Leos’ side might look like he is winning. Till Glenn plays ‘dirty’ by luring Leos’ students into the forests where he had laid many traps beforehand. Because time is up and no clear winner is decided, the duel is a draw. Glenn seems okay about it but everyone sees how Leos is chiding his side they could have easily won had they follow his instructions. Not a pretty sight. Since Glenn comments on the failure of a team rests on its commander, now Leos throws his glove at him. It will be him who will challenge him this time. Sistine protests since she isn’t an object but Glenn cuts her off and sets tomorrow’s date as one on one. This makes Sistine slap him and hate him. Albert and his team are investigating Angel’s Dust and are horrified to see its fifth victim. They didn’t know it has spread this far. We hear Leos’ evil plan to marry Sistine so he can have full advantage over that branch family and thus his seat as the next family leader will be secured. That night, Sistine catches Glenn mumbling about Sara and wants to know more about her. So he starts telling his story about a certain brat who wanted to be the mage of justice and studied hard. But he got dismayed by magic’s limitations and bloody reality and came to hate magic. He only continued because of a certain friend who continued supporting his dream. But on a mission, that brat let that girl die. So he gave up being a mage altogether and became a shut-in. Happily ever after. Glenn adds that he might not know what he wants to do but seeing how Leos is denying her dream makes him mad. Sistine is glad there is at least one person who still supports her dream, that’s why she needs to keep working hard. Her smile reminds him so much of Sara. Leos had to ruin it all because as a military researcher, he has access to confidential files. This means he knows all about Glenn’s past. Especially Glenn the Fool. Glenn warns him to stop or they’ll settle this now. Leos continues to talk so Glenn fights him. But Leos summons Tupas (summoning of imaginary beings while in trance) and beats the crap out of him. Because it’s not a spell, Fool’s World cannot work. Glenn limps away in defeat. Sistine wants to go to him but Leos threatens to accept his marriage. Otherwise he would spill the details about Rumia and Re=L’s secret. Sistine is praying Glenn would save her. But come next morning, he never showed up at the duel and never returned to the academy after that.

Episode 12
Sistine fears Leos and the reason why she accepted his proposal. That scary face is enough to make the devil cry. You know she doesn’t want to do this when she even says she’s giving up her dream to face reality. Even Re=L feels the need to cut him down but was restrained by Rumia. Apparently she went to talk to Glenn before he disappeared. He told her to leave it to him. So let’s sit by and put our trust in him for now, okay? A week has passed and now the wedding ceremony is here. Not tears of happiness apparently. After exchanging vows and about to kiss, this is where Glenn finally pops up to object and kidnap Sistine. She is supposed to be happy to be saved by him but why is she still crying? Yeah, what took him so long. He explains after Rumia went to see him, he went to come up with a plan. No matter how much he thought, he would end up at a disadvantage and needed a plan that would lure Leos out into the open. Uhm, so I hope that long absence wasn’t just for this. Their conversation is cut short when people under the influence of Angel’s Dust surround them. They’re like an angry mob with knives and pitch forks except they’re as slow as a zombie. Oh wait. They become fast like kung fu monkeys when they start chasing them. Glenn shows his true nature when he violently fights back. Oh dear. Did Glenn actually kill them?! No wonder Sistine looks so scared sh*t like as though he is a different person. Albert’s team ambushes the church to rescue the students who are also surrounded by Angel’s Dust zombies. Sistine is now scared of Glenn that she won’t let him touch her.

When Leos pops up before them, Glenn tells the imposter to reveal himself. He is former Imperial Court Mage Corps Executioner, Jatice Lowfan. So what happened to the real Leos? Jatice gave him Angel’s Dust and he died immediately. It happened somewhere after their magic duel. The guys tell Sistine to run. She isn’t part of this world. Since she has served her purpose, Jatice in particular warns Sistine not to intervene with his fight with Glenn or he will kill her. What has a girl got to do but run and cry? Glenn realizes (although too late by now) that everything that has happened was set up by Jatice since he has some clairvoyance abilities. His goal is the same as before: To exact justice by killing all powerful mages of the army and important figures in the empire. His end goal is to obtain Akashic Records. Something that will make him rule the world. Now the guys start their hard hitting magic fight. Sistine calms down and starts thinking what she has done. She knew she did wrong to Glenn but what can she do to help? Just before Glenn gets owned, Sistine returns to protect him. I guess she has decided. She is going to bring him back with her to the rest because her friends and important ones are irreplaceable. Thus Glenn and Sistine team up to attack Jatice. With Sistine blowing away his magic, this allows Glenn to give a good punch in his face. Twice. The second one making Jatice look like he got crucified! Although Jatice admits his defeat, I still feel it is a draw. Because Sistine is exhausted after running out of mana and Jatice will ‘respect’ her by retreating for today. Glenn carries Sistine to be reunited with their friends. In the aftermath, Glenn looks like is here to stay as a teacher and is taking his job seriously. Celica can rest with ease and leave it to him as she plans to leave for a while to explore the underground labyrinth. Glenn returns teaching his students.

Hard Bastard
It is one of those endings that feel rushed since the season is ending so they have to cram in a lot of stuffs just to end it ‘right’. And so the final episode feels like it is to shoehorn in a lot of stuffs and throw in some potentials for the future. So much has happened with Sistine almost breaking down from an emotional roller coaster ride (almost turning her into a damsel in distress), Angel’s Dust as a minor and unnecessary distraction since it didn’t do much and perhaps a legit reason to kill off Leos (heck, anything else would be justifiable to kill off that guy) and introducing a new powerful enemy on Glenn’s plate because instead of dealing with Divine Wisdom as the main antagonist, now he has to deal with a guy whose name is twisted and conveniently-cum-lazily named after that term for righteousness. Well, at least the other good news of everyone being reunited and going back to where they like is that Sistine isn’t bound to any engagement anymore. Thank goodness, right?

And so it turns out as cliché as it gets because as expected and very early in the series, Glenn is shown to us as a despicable man. From being a lazy bastard to a sore loser, qualities that will naturally make others hate you for being an ass. Like as though they want us to hate him very badly. However we can’t not because we know he is the main character but the way he acts as the ‘villain’ looks fake unlike true villains whose vile nature is more believable. As fast as Glenn has been established as a bastard teacher, as fast they smash that believe that he isn’t what he seems. More than meets the eye. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Like as though this goofy act is to cover up a tragic and terrible past. I mean, would anybody care about it in the first place? I’m sure his students would but that is only after he wins them over. Had he not shown his true worth that earned their respect, it would still be nothing. In a way, being this kind of character is much interesting than your typical strict by-the-book sensei, don’t you think? Everyone loves a sporting joker, right? Oh wait. One more thing. Did he really kill all those people affected by Angel’s Dust in the end? Oh who cares, right?

The 3 main ladies of the series do help make the plot interesting since each also has their own issues (basically the plots for this series) to deal with like Rumia supposedly the dead princess, Re=L’s actual identity and Sistine’s dream and goal as well as her engagement in matter. Why is it that such girls have to be engaged to typical bad guys like Leos? In a way, the trio have their lives touched and connected by Glenn. That’s why they are probably closest to him than any of the other students since he came to their rescue. Speaking of the rest of the students in Glenn’s class, I think this is where it ‘fails’ since nobody really cares about them and they are just there for the numbers. So as to make it look like a real class despite the main focus is always on those ladies. Heck, I don’t even remember their names even if they were being called a few times. Like that bespectacled guy who always has that condescending and sceptical tone in the way he talks and asks questions. Or that twintail girl. And a few other generic plain looking guys we don’t give a damn about.

Could this series be a harem potential with the 3 leading ladies as budding prospective as his love interest? It might seem Sistine would be in the lead since Glenn often calls her as white cat instead of her real name. He does call her Sistine but very rare. Chances of you winning the lottery are better than him calling her real name. It is fundamental psychology when a guy keeps teasing you with such a name means he likes you, right? And most probably Sistine looks like Sara. And Sistine is constantly being confused with her feelings and acting like a tsundere so there is a big chance about that. So it overshadows Rumia and Re=L because the former having her life saved by Glenn typically means there is no reason why you should not fall in love with him and for the latter who has been pandering about protecting Glenn her entire life and despite showing signs that she jumped ship to her newly made friends, this doesn’t mean she has abandoned Glenn. She just added more people to protect to her list.

Despite having the Akashic Records in the series’ title, this season doesn’t actually touch on this subject except for the fact that Rumia has something to do with it. Even if it sounds like it has something to do with the bastard magic instructor and I’m sure it does. In fact, you will hear them use the word bastard more often than Akashic Records as I wonder if bastard sounds more effective as an insult since rokudenashi basically means a good for nothing or a bum. So does a bastard have the same connotations as that? Or did it get lost in translation? Sure, Akashic Records gets mentioned a whole lot more in the final episode so as to remind us that is the biggest culprit of the plot if ever another season beckons.

Artwork and animation look pretty decent. Nice flashy effects especially the magic effects and magic circles. Nothing really much to complain about except perhaps the design of the school’s female uniform because it seemingly exposes their belly. The skirt is already so short and then what it seems like suspenders connecting the top to the skirt as well to the knee socks, personally I thought it makes them look like a slut. I mean, compare this to the guys’ uniform which looks more decent and respectable. Makes you think if the headmaster had some sort of fetish in the first place. Also at the end of every episode, an end card illustration from various people. Personally, I think all of them have this same look and feel despite being illustrated by different people. Visual novel style of art, that is.

Also at the end of every episode, a funny segment of the series since the characters are in their chibi form on a stage. This is supposed to be the next episode preview but usually they go off ranting about other stuffs that aren’t really related to the plot (because if they do, it will technically be like spoilers, right?) like Celica complaining she doesn’t have enough screen time, Sistine being trolled by Sara and the suspense of explaining what Akashic Records is, in which we’ll never hear because the supposed people who are supposed to explain them ‘runs away’. And then there are other stage antics which supposedly make it funny and cute from quiz shows to cats to strawberry tarts. If the real story is too depressing and sad for you, this one should take some weight off that. Or not.

Haven’t heard Eri Kitamura in a while but could still recognize her here as Celica. Not bad, right? Youko Hikasa as Eleanor reminds me of one of her sly villainess roles like Nachetanya in Roku No Yuusha. The other casts are Souma Saitou as Glenn (Kain in Kyoukai No Rinne), Akane Fujita as Sistine (Sagiri in Eromanga-sensei), Yume Miyamoto as Rumia (Megumi in GJ-Bu), Ari Ozawa as Re=L (Kirin in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk), Hiroki Takahashi as Albert (Hisoka in Hunter x Hunter series), Saori Oonishi as Alicia (Vigne in Gabriel Dropout) and Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Jatice (Ban in Nanatsu No Taizai). The rock based opening theme is Blow Out by Konomi Suzuki while Precious You as the ending theme by the trio behind Sistine, Rumia and Re=L sounds more like idol pop.

Overall, still an entertaining series despite starting out as very cliché and being predictable at times. Everyone loves a guy like Glenn who started out as being a dick but is serious and capable when the time calls for it. It is only so because of the psychology aspect playing on our guilt that we judged him too early and now that he is such a cool guy, our only atonement is to admire and look up to him. There is a saying that goes: The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence. Not even magic can cure that.

Tsugumomo

Japanese have this believe that something in your possession for a long time will start forming a soul and mind of its own. That is why you always throw away your old stuffs lest you want to be haunted many years down the road when you decided to get nostalgic and find some ‘treasures’ in your attic or storeroom. Okay, just kidding about the last bit. So I guess it’s time for another anime using one of the old Japanese superstitious. Tsugumomo tells of an ordinary young boy who has been keeping a keepsake of his late mom for a very long time. And then it starts to manifest a beautiful but cheeky and haughty spirit that it makes you wonder who the real master is. Supernatural incidents start occurring around them as they go solve them before it gets out of hand. Have we heard this kind of story somewhere before?

Episode 1
Kazuya Kagami has a white snowy obi belonging to his late mom. Its sakura scent comforts him at all times. As he is about to leave his school’s rooftop, an amasogi wig attacks him and pushes him off. He is saved by a tsukumogami named Kiriha. She is not pleased he doesn’t remember about her. The wig possesses a girl and continues to attack. Kiriha forces Kazuya to become her servant if he wants to be saved again. Kiriha uses her obi attacks but tries to persuade the possessed person to use her strong will to reject the amasogi and not give in to her desires. It falls on deaf ears and Kiriha is about to kill her when Kazuya tells her to stop. Luckily Kiriha only stabs through the wig. She explains that this classmate of his has a crush on him. That made the amasogi possessed her. Oh wait, get this. She isn’t a girl but a boy in drag! Kazuya thought Kiriha disappeared for good but when he returns home and sleeps, he finds her sleeping next to him. His scream alerts his sister, Kasumi who rushes all the way to his room, ready to kill whatever threatens her brother. Luckily Kazuya tosses Kiriha aside and calms the situation down that he just fell out of bed. Now he is going to get it from Kiriha. She is going to explain everything but Kazuya has deduced everything. He knows Kiriha is from the obi due to the scent. Since it is missing after that commotion and a girl in kimono popped up in it, it could only mean that Kiriha is its tsukumogami. Kazuya becomes her errand boy and at the same time has to keep her hidden from Kasumi who is totally infatuated with her little brother. Creepy. He thought Kiriha went away when he heard nothing. When he goes to take a bath, he didn’t realize she is there. He expected to be beaten up but she has him wash her back. Then she returns the favour by doing the same. And then she did something naughty to his dick… Don’t ask. Kazuya would have let her sleep on the guest futon but she has him sleep together on his bed. So crammed… Despite all the sudden chaos, Kazuya feels it is all perfectly natural. It must be that comforting familiar scent. Till she starts rolling all over you.

Episode 2
Kazuya is late for school and then gets lectured by the class rep and also childhood friend, Chisato Chikaishi. He blames Kiriha because she smashed the alarm clock and when she wanted to tag along, he tricked her to turn into an obi but put her in a box and tied it up and left her behind at home. Because Kazuya hasn’t finished his report, Chisato forces and accompanies him to finish it at the library. She asks if she could come to his place and tutor him like old times but he declines fearing that Kiriha would cause trouble. Speaking of which, when he goes to put back the books, Kiriha is here! Payback time. Chisato finds it odd that the door and windows are locked. Trying to smash it won’t do any good either. Are they trapped? Kazuya introduces Kiriha to Chisato as his cousin who is knowledgeable in the occult and may help them get out. She explains about tsukumogami that is split into 2 categories like tsugumomo (spirits born out of tools after many years) and amasogi (spirits born quickly out of desires/feelings). Unlike tsugumomo which has developed full conscious, amasogi are newly born emotions and can be dangerous. She gives them some sensors to detect amasogi spirits. Seems it is reacting to everything. In that case, Kiriha uses her obi drill to smash through everything! The reality then turns into an endless library and a golem made out of books attacking them. But since it protects Chisato, Kiriha realizes she is the host and has Kazuya remember what he said to her in the library. She pinpoints that home tutor thingy and wants him to grant her wish. When Kazuya allows Chisato to come to his home, everything reverts back to normal. You think he would realize Chisato’s true feelings but what a let-down. He thinks she likes tutoring people. Bummer. On that day when she arrives, she blows her top seeing Kazuya sleeping with Kiriha! He overslept because she smashed his new clock. Chisato apologizes for what happened that day but Kiriha explains the cause is from malison, the distortions in reality. It exists everywhere and could shape the world if it is powerful enough. Normally it is harmless in normal density but what happened showed there are high levels of density unusually gathering in this area. She blames the local god overseeing this area, Kukuri.

Episode 3
Flashback shows Kiriha and Kukuri in a ritual involving young Kazuya. To seal his excess spiritual energy, his memories were also affected. The problem is Kiriha would lose her powers and revert to a normal obi. She doesn’t mind that. In class, Kazuya is beaten up by his friend, Shirou Shiramine. Yesterday he met this busty miko priestess, Kokuyou who seems to be looking for Kazuya. Not to miss this chance to grope her boobs, he decided to treat her at a diner but she ordered everything from the menu! And finished everything! Shirou had to pay for it all. So young, so in debt. When everyone realizes their lunch is missing, could it be another work of amasogi? Then Kokuyou barges in looking for Kazuya. There’s your culprit. Right in the act. She wants him to follow her to see Kukuri but Kiriha disagrees. Kiriha gets upset when she is labelled as washcloth girl. The only way to settle this is via arm wrestling. It’s not that arm wrestling you think. It involves using a hand as a sword, trying to strike your opponent and bring her down to the ground. Kiriha wins. Kokuyou brings them to Hakusan Shrine to meet Kukuri. Kiriha is not impressed by their reunion since Kukuri is hiding herself behind a Noh mask. Then they start arguing over their arm wrestling record of wins and losses. On to serious matter, Kiriha wonders if the seal had broken since it is expected to last until Kazuya matures. Kukuri says it has not yet as Kazuya’s memories are still sealed. Kiriha suggests to reapply the seal to soothe the malison but Kukuri can’t do that yet. She wants Kazuya to be a malison cleanser. Ever wondered why recently strange occurrences happen around only to him? It’s because he is a beacon for malison. He will be the root of danger to everyone wherever he goes. Kiriha is not amused by this and doesn’t want him to listen. He tries to take him to leave but the barrier blocks them. Kukuri gives him a chance to accept this task or else. Since Kiriha is stubborn to allow it, Kukuri will then eliminate the seed of calamity. No matter how much Kiriha runs and protects Kazuya, Kukuri’s power in controlling the water droplets dominates. Then she drops a giant water bomb on them.

Episode 4
Kiriha still manages to protect Kazuya but is at her limit. However Kiriha has shrunk in size. Stubborn Kiriha will not give in and Kazuya wonders why. Because it’s the reason for being here. Kukuri drops another water bomb and this time they pass out. Kazuya realizes he is in a strange world and meets a funny woman (she tries to be funny by fails), Kanaka. She wants him to save Kiriha by destroying the old promise she is bound to. And to do that, he must get stronger. Protect her instead of being protected by her. He returns to reality to realize his lips locking with Kiriha. He tells her to return to her original as he will use her to attack Kukuri. He invokes her real name, Ayasakura and turns her back into an obi. He learns quickly to use her as a weapon and although he breaks through Kukuri’s defence, he fails to nail the final strike. Kukuri threatens to kill Kiriha so Kazuya is forced to accept this malison cleansing duty. When Kukukri’s mask breaks, she loses her power and reverts to her cute loli form. Time for Kiriha to give her payback. Spreading her legs for ultimate humiliation? Later Kukuri explains all this was a ploy to force Kazuya to use Kiriha. As Kukuri’s power is drying up, Kazuya as a tsugumomo user is what she needs. Knowing Kiriha is stubborn to protect him, thus a little nudge was needed. Yeah, they almost died. Then more Kiriha abuse. Kazuya takes Kiriha home. More bathtub bonding? Kiriha knows that ultimate drill attack Kazuya did belonged to Kanaka who is no doubt Kazuya’s mom. She had Kiriha promise if something happened to her, please help take care of Kazuya. Noticing Kiriha has no normal clothes to wear, Kazuya tries to ask Kasumi for her old clothes. But she goes off ranting about his awakening and possible chance to steal his heart. Too bad she burnt the cooking. Probably it’s not the best to ask her. So he gets some from his friend, Osamu Osanai. Why does he have them? Let’s say they’re his inspiration for his manga. My, such dangerous risqué clothes he has there. Osamu gets the wrong idea about this too and ‘understands’.

Episode 5
To help improve Kazuya’s skill, Kiriha trains him. Let’s say he’s got a long way to go. There is even a body hugging moment just to tell him that in her human form she can be easily killed like normal humans. However she is not sure in her obi form as it has never been tested out. Meanwhile, Kukuri’s shrine is so poor that the repairs are bare minimum. No money, no service. Too bad it got destroyed in the storm. Kukuri checks on Kazuya in training. She wonders why he is struggling so much so Kiriha mentions all the awesome thing she saw in that fight was just fluke. Kukuri is starting to worry if she had made the wrong choice. Oh, you’re screwed. Kiriha continues to laugh hard at her upon learning her shrine is now temporarily at a playground. Kazuya goes to see the student council president, Tadataka Tadata (his name is so tongue twisting). He is that guy who had a crush on Kazuya! Anyway, he called Kazuya and Kiriha over because of an amasogi event. The tabletop RPG society forcefully occupied the room of a social studies club. When he sent his assistant to reprimand them, he came back screaming there was a monster. Soon they realize the door to that clubroom is gone and the hallway is blocked by walls. Nakajima from the tabletop RPG society pops up and wants Tadataka to sign the papers to assign his society this clubroom. As he won’t, Nakajima draws and materializes a Minotaur from his sketchbook. There is only so far they can run so Kazuya has to use his brains. Realizing the sketchbook is the amasogi, this means anything drawn there can be erased. He uses the fire extinguisher to erase part of the drawing but it still isn’t enough. With the Minotaur cornering them, Kazuya then uses what he learnt from Kiriha, using her as a rope to seize another fire extinguisher and put an end to this farce. It may look like Nakajima repents after that by tearing up his sketchbook but he has one last paper left and materializes another Minotaur. However Osamu knew this would happen and swapped the sketchbook with another similar looking one. This means Osamu has his real amasogi sketchbook and draws up a fire dragon to end this for good. Osamu further tests the sketchbook by drawing a mature and busty Kiriha. Kazuya likes this version but the abuse is 10 times more sadistic.

Episode 6
Hiroshi Ookado confesses to Chisato but she declines since she already has someone she likes. No prizes to guess who that is. But dense Kazuya later was dumb enough to ask her about it. Of course she won’t tell. Kazuya notices in her bag an old doll. When he arrives in school next morning, everything seems to work like a dating simulation! Seeing Ookado talking to Chisato again, he thinks he has threatened her to be like this. However Chisato is cold towards Kazuya and slaps him when he tries to shake up Ookado. When Ookado whispers nobody can beat him in this Pure Heart game, Kiriha realizes that galge is the amasogi. Of course they have to stop it but Ookado sends his harem to beat up Kazuya. Kiriha will find the amasogi and turn the game off while Kazuya tries to win back Chisato. He seeks Osamu’s help and he starts giving the flowchart of the game’s system. So basically Kazuya has to carefully increase her affection level and not to be too rash. He can’t depend on the standard answers and have to use the free answering mode. All is going well until a surprise event (he had to mention Kiriha’s name) turns all his efforts to naught. Osamu says there is another way to maximize her affection level at this point. However it is risky as it involves a bug. At the crucial event where Ookado is going to confess to Chisato under the legendary sakura tree, Kazuya intervenes and shows Chisato her old dolls. He wants them to play house like they use to. The old memories bring her back as she goes with Kazuya. Ookado is depressed since even in the game he can’t even win. A real loser? Kazuya and Chisato rest in the infirmary while Kiriha and Osamu continue to look for the amasogi. When Kazuya wakes up, he is tied down and naked Chisato all over him and wants to f*ck! Ookado is found and spills the beans that the Pure Heart game he plays is a PC version. Osamu realizes what this version is: A porn version! So they rush to shut down the PC and destroy the CD. When Kiriha arrives, she saw them separated and cowering in shock from what just happened. I guess we’ll never know how far they went.

Episode 7
Kiriha abuses Kukuri for her fake predictions and thus the recent amasogi events. Sorry, Kokuyou can’t help. She’s got to do part time jobs to earn some money. Kiriha only stops when Kazuya threatens not to give her pudding. Kukuri even borrows their house to take a bath and the lolis get into silly arguments about their little bodies. Next morning, Kazuya is shocked that his family knows all about Kiriha. He has been trying to keep her a secret so hard. Kasumi already knows the day after she saw him in bed with her. While dad, Kazuaki goes a long way back. When he was dating mom, Kiriha often come in between them and abused him. Yeah, those were the days. Later that night when they visit Kukuri’s shrine, they see it has been torn down because a parent complained her kid got hurt. With no place left to stay, I guess Kazuya has no choice but to bring them to his home. At first his family is against it. Of course Kasumi can’t accept Kokuyou’s monster tits. But when Kiriha recites Kazuaki’s cheesy romance diary entry, he immediately accepts. With no money, Kiriha forces reluctant Kukuri to visit another nearby local shrine to loan some money. Taguri Kanayama welcomes them into her Kanara Shrine. They will play a card game of pairs. Sounds easy, right? You get the loan amount that you pair. But wait. There’s a catch. Not all cards are loan amounts. Many are sick twisted fetishes like boobs smooching, ear nibbling and armpit sniffing!!! WTF???!!! Kukuri reveals a dark secret that they play this game to satisfy Taguri’s fetish. Yes, she loves little girls! No wonder Taguri is thanking Kukuri for bringing a fresh ‘sacrifice’! You can’t run away from this now, Kiriha! And so Taguri dominates this game as the lolis are put through utter hell of modesty violation and humiliation. They get a desperate idea with Kukuri having eager Taguri accompany her to the toilet while Kukuri switches the cards. When they return, Taguri can sense the cards have moved. She knows because she can see the fingerprints on the cards. But she fell for this trick and loses her turn as the cards remained in the same place. Kukuri knows this trick and placed fake fingerprints while rubbing off certain cards. Though a great tactic, Taguri points out to an obvious rule: If you touch the cards not on your turn, all cards belong to your opponent. Checkmate. And so they won 175,000 Yen but the price they paid was far too great. Thank you for your patron. Please come again.

Episode 8
In this first half of the episode, we have everyone like retards because they don’t talk and mostly grunt. So we have Kiriha lazing around till Kasumi forces her to do some work or else she won’t get pudding. Then they go shopping and Kiriha again throws a tantrum when she doesn’t get her pudding. Yeah, she’s even singing a pudding song. In the end, everybody has a nice meal and delicious pudding. In class, everyone is shocked that Shirou is popular with the girls. No, you’re not dreaming. Kazuya is forced by Kiriha to make him reveal the amasogi so when Kazuya accuses him of using some tool, dumb Shirou accidentally reveals he is using some cologne. This has all the guys turn into zombies to grab the cologne! Wait. So this is like High School of the Dead?! They gang run away from the zombie horde till they are at a safe spot to let Shirou spill what happened. He confessed to a girl but she rejected him as she knew he had similarly confessed to other girls before. Shirou cursed his luck because he bought this cologne thinking it would work. Then he heard a voice from the cologne telling him not to give up and use it one more time. The rest is history. Kazuya trusts Shirou will end this by his own hands or face some malison backlash. As Shirou smashes the bottle, it bounces and it spills on Kazuya. Now all the woman, young and old, fat and ugly are after his ass! For some reason, he takes the bottle with him and goes home to take a bath to wash it off. Because now Kasumi comes in to join him followed by Kokuyou and Kukuri and then Kiriha and Chisato. Now Kazuya has his own harem as they give him to best skinship bath ever. Then as they decide to take turns ‘deflowering’ him, that is when he smashes the bottle to end it. Should have done this earlier. The next day, Shirou reeks of foul body odour and it lasted for a week. Man, everyone in class must have ‘died’.

Episode 9
Tadataka calls for Kazuya, Chisato and Osamu. When they enter his room, his wig slips off! Kiriha explain about amasogi going peacefully if it fulfils its desire or destroyed by its host but becomes malison atonement when destroyed by another. The atonement depends on the nature of the amasogi. Tadataka explains the case at hand. It seems girls of a former year one class has been harassed by a girl named Eiko Nago who wants something. So? Eiko has been dead for 2 years via suicide! They go around to search for clues that include Nanako Nanakai from the newspaper club who is also on this case as well as a fan club. They catch Nanako trying to interview Kosakabe, an ex-member of the fan club. Suddenly Kosakabe is freaked out by the appearance of Eiko who is demanding a letter! Kazuya tries to intercept but Eiko runs away. Kiriha feels something strange about this amasogi. Like as though it has another goal. Kosakabe explains how a group of girls formed a fan club over a cute boy they like. But that guy took an interest in Nanako and jealousy built up. Kosakabe couldn’t take it and left and she thinks subsequently her suicide was due to being bullied by the group’s leader, Muratsuki. Digging further into this, they discover Eiko has a sister who is registered in this school. I’ll save you the suspense. That girl is Nanako. After her parents divorced, she changed surname.

Kazuya and Kiriha intercept the ghost of Eiko before it does something terrible to Muratsuki. Kazuya then calls out Nanako who is the brains behind this. She reveals when she touched her sister’s hair, it turned into her and wanted to use this chance to find out why she killed herself. Muratsuki explains that Nanako tried to distance herself from the boy so as not to hurt their feelings but they continued tormenting her. The day she jumped off the building, Muratsuki saw a suicide note left behind. She didn’t tell anyone for fear it contained their names. She never read it and brings it to them. Nanako reads Eiko’s note which is addressed to her. Aside from the boy she likes, it seems she has a malison growing on her chest. It was trying to make Eiko kill her sister. Nanako couldn’t take it anymore and killed herself. Nanako goes into grief upon learning the truth. She blames herself for the one who should have been dead. Kiriha realizes the amasogi’s goal to make Nanako read the letter so it could kill her with such feelings. Kazuya then fights his, uhm, hair titan? It gets dangerous since Kazuya is trying to be a hero and reckless despite Kiriha’s advice to run away. He can’t. He is taking responsibility over Nanako’s case. Eventually he defeats it as Kiriha tells Nanako that her sister’s love was strong that she was willing to risk her life to protect her. So don’t wish for death and let Eiko’s sacrifice be in vain. Kiriha then praises for Kazuya’s improvement but beats him up for defying him.

Episode 10
Nanako looks okay. However she has lost her voice! Kazuya is sad that she too is a victim of malison atonement although Kiriha is not sympathetic since it was her fault in the first place. As Kazuya leaves school, he is being attacked by a girl named Sunao Sumeragi. Not even Kiriha could keep her at bay. When Kiriha goes in for the kill, Kotetsu intervenes. Sunao chides him for doing so and has him revert back to her tsukumogami sword. Sunao explains she is a malison cleanser and was testing Kazuya’s skill. She is disappointed he cannot even defend himself and thus not fit to replace Kanaka. They go see Kukuri as more is revealed. Sunao returned from training only to learn Kanaka has died and her weak son wielding her obi instead. That is why she wanted to test his strength to see if he is up to the task. Believing he is not so, she challenges him to a duel over this position. Flashback reveals Sunao was devastated when her brother, Suou was killed. Kotetsu blamed himself for being weak and this made Sunao angrier. She claims Kotetsu as her own and will make him a toll in her revenge. However the demon that killed her brother got killed by Kanaka. She became mad and tried to attack Kanaka. Now that the object of her vendetta is gone, thus her vengeance will be against Kanaka. She will beat her so her brother can rest in peace. Kanaka agrees and will wait for her. But no matter how many times she challenged her, Sunao failed to beat her. So she went away for training and by the time she returned, she was gone. Sunao even shows her all the techniques she is going to use and gives them a week to come up with a plan. Kazuya falls into depression holing up inside his room. He feels responsible for being a malison magnet and doesn’t mind staying in here forever for everyone’s happiness. So the guy who wanted to take responsibility for his malison attraction decided to not care anymore? If Kiriha’s beat down doesn’t change him, next she strips him and hugs him naked! WTF?! This is supposed to make him feel at ease? Anyway, Kiriha’s lecture includes him running away, he will always have her as his aid and if he is gone she will be lonely. I guess that’s enough for him to snap out. At the same time Kiriha returns to her adult form. I guess it’s for this next cliché scene because Kukuri and Kasumi enter and misinterpret the whole thing. Yeah, Kiriha was inside him alright. Inside his blanket with him.

Episode 11
Kiriha and Kazuya are discussing the range and effectiveness of the attacks. While Sunao’s sword has a shorter range, however she can shoot projections that exceeds its range. Also, if you’re talking weapon to weapon head on, a sword can always slice through cloth. Sunao is training with her master, Honoka and is doing well. However when Kotetsu cautions Sunao to not underestimate Kazuya, Sunao seems to know what to do to counter attacks from him. She wants Kotetsu to follow her orders. A tool need not have an opinion. Kiriha and Kazuya further discuss about their ability to shoot projections. Based on Kazuya’s skill level, he can shoot 2 fake ones and including herself he will have 3. In the event Kiriha is hurt, it will take some time to regenerate as long as she has spiritual power. She wants him not to hesitate to use her. He vows to protect her, causing her to be embarrassed and starts abusing him. Kazuya dreams of Kanaka. At first she laughs at how brutal Kiriha’s torment was. She reminds him Kiriha has always been protecting people so it feels odd that he tells her that he will protect her. Kanaka goes a step further by projecting all the naughty stuffs Kazuya had with the girls. This is his dream so he is supposed to be able to get rid of it. So he prefers macho men to these girls?! Kazuya mentions he prefers how things as they are now and doesn’t want to change much. When Kazuya tries to connect to dots of Kanaka as the previous malison cleanser is his mom, he just couldn’t. Kanaka points out no matter how hard he tries, a seal prevents him from doing so. The match day is here. Kukuri is the judge. There are 3 ways a match can be decided: 1) The water doll breaks (damage taken by either side will be transferred here since you can’t have them dying for real); 2) Going out of the shrine grounds; 3) Forfeiting. As it begins, Kazuya uses feint moves to counter attack Sunao’s attack. Although it works, the damage is not enough. Everything is according to what they have strategized. Sunao might look like she is falling for this trick all the time is because she wants to take it all and show how strong she is. Is that being a masochist? When Kiriha takes some damage, Kazuya is forced to do damage control by running and evading. Cornered, the only choice left is for Kazuya to use the real obi to defend from charging Sunao. So he comes up with this new technique to stop her charge: Hand Weave Watershed.

Episode 12
With this new move, Kazuya is able to fight back and as the fighting get intense, eventually it becomes a standoff. Neither side has any more power for range attacks and the duel seems to be headed for the one who dares make the first move. It looked like the match is to be Kazuya’s advantage since all he needs to do is be defensive and naturally Kiriha’s power will soon restore. However Kazuya wants to go the extra mile and fight Sunao head on and win her at their best. So Kazuya and Kiriha combine in some divine possession to turn into some God-like character?! Then they exchange blows super fast that your naked eyes can’t see. Since when did this become Naruto?! In the aftermath, Kazuya wins after Kotetsu’s hilt breaks. A pat in the butt by Kiriha as reward? Honoka tells Sunao that Kotetsu’s blade is still in one piece but Kazuya could actually have broken it but held back. Be grateful he did. Shortly, Kazuya faints. Back home, Kiriha and Kukuri discuss the effects of using divine possession that took a toll on his body. Apparently they tried it out during training but it was for a short while and less strenuous. Despite Kazuya is conscious, his body cannot move until it heals. We shove the serious talk for the moment to bring you this episode’s fanservice as Kiriha coaxes Kukuri to help bath Kazuya. Yup. She made him clean his dick!!! A metaphor of a crane… Battle mode on! That isn’t enough because deep in the night, Kiriha takes further advantage of this by wanting to give him his reward. More like forcing herself on him since she gave him no choice. Yeah, she strips and rapes him?! Imagine to Kukuri’s horror next morning to find them naked in bed. Even Kasumi is pissed and is trying to use this moment to make Kazuya sleep with her. What the?! Good thing or not, Kazuya doesn’t remember what happened. Meanwhile Sunao gets scolded by her mom that as the heir to her clan, not only she lost the duel but damaged Kotetsu. In order for her to inherit the house again, the only choice is to marry Kazuya. Say what?! Kokuyou reminds Kukuri to help out in the reparation of their shine because her part time jobs aren’t helping to cover the costs. Frolicking too much with Kazuya? Time to visit Taguri again… No! Just no!!! Kazuya’s class gets a new transfer student: Kiriha! I guess she’s here to make his life even more a misery. At least his mom’s nostalgic obi is the one ruining it.

Well, Obi Damned!
Well like always, there is always more room for development in the future seeing that the real sh*t hasn’t hit the fan yet. In the case of Kazuya, he hasn’t really begun his malison cleanser job whatsoever yet and there isn’t any big threatening evil boss that we know off that only the main character could fight, finish off and save the day. Therefore for this season, it just feels like child’s play for Kazuya although from his point of view he went through hell from Kiriha’s abuse, sexual harassment-cum-abuse, becoming a spiritual detective for a few amasogi cases and finally the sudden accusation and challenge from a fiery women.

So the plot feels generic and somewhat predictable. It feels like the need to churn out a supernatural + comedy anime this season and thus Tsugumomo became that target. You’ve got some normal high school kid with a dead parent having his seemingly normal life changed after he gets to know a supernatural girl. And then they go about trying to do some good by cleansing some malison and of course the season ender facing off with an avenge obsessed rival. Hardly anything exciting for me these days since I am so ‘advanced’ in watching anime :-/.

The only episode that I found really funny and laughing all the way was when the girls were playing that sick card game against Taguri. Personally that is the funniest and best episode in this series has to offer. Call me sick or degenerate but with nothing else special or going for this anime, this kind of bizarre moments make the series stand out even if it is for infamous reasons. I hope this part won’t give lolicons and pedos some weird ideas. Is it me or does Kiriha and Kukuri at this point remind me of Ilya and Miyu?! I know they are very much different but I can’t seem to shake this off every time I see these lolis paired together.

The characters are also boring just like Kazuya himself. Either the main character is some overpowered hero with a destiny to save the world or he is some weak sh*t ass guy being bossed around. It’s the latter for Kazuya because seeing him being dominated over Kiriha is this series way of trying to make it feel funny and retain our attention. For more added effect, Kiriha loves abusing his crotch whenever he goes out of line. It’s like this series’ running joke. Yeah, how many main characters ever get their crotch grabbed and mistreated like that? And if Kiriha isn’t taking out on Kazuya, she would be doing far worse stuffs on Kukuri. Ah, it’s a sin to be weak. (Her running joke seems to be stemming from the poor life she is forced to live due to lack of donations and funds). So how can a weak wuss like Kazuya get through all this sh*t? Because he is main character. Period.

Then you have Chisato who is Kazuya’s childhood friend and you can see it from miles away that she has a crush on him but that crush is unrequited. A potential for romance or harem but not likely. Because Kazuya is so focused on his obi girl. I bet Chisato is smart enough not to confess and let status quo because if she does, there is a high chance she will be rejected because naturally mommy’s boy would prefer violent supernatural girl who is also part of his mom’s keepsake. Yeah, that is 2 for the price of 1. Her role feels wasted after she had a couple of episodes focused on her before halfway point. Trying to add more variety of characters are Kazuya’s friends like the pervy Shirou and still-waters-run-deep Osamu. They too don’t really add much despite having a few moments of screen time. Eventually it is got to be Kazuya and Kiriha who has to get it done.

The fight scenes also feel meh. Not really exciting to see one swing around cloth hardened at steel at enemies. Besides, sometimes I feel Kazuya is like a simpler anime version of DC’s Green Lantern because albeit his limited powers, depending on the creativity of his mind he can shape whatever weapon or shield Kiriha needs to be at times of need. I guess this is one of the pros of having a weapon that isn’t fixed in shape. With him carrying Kiriha in his backpack and her obi protruding out like tentacles, I thought he also looks a bit like Dr Octopus. And when the obi wraps around Kazuya arms, it somewhat reminds me of X-men’s Colossus.

Oh yeah, there is some fanservice scenes too. Like as though a mini distraction for those who are starting to feel the plot is average, the characters are mediocre and the action is unsatisfactory. Maybe a little pantsu shots to distract you? Uh huh. Maybe that is why Kokuyou exists in the first place. We always need that busty female so that guys would stop thinking so hard because blood from their head would quickly rush down to make their other head below harder. Haha! Oops… I also feel the same thing for Kasumi because you don’t often see a horny sister character whose dream is to get done in by her brother. Okay I made that up but watching how her character plays out, it is safe to say so. Just like Chisato, you’ll never see that kind of love materializing. And thus to ‘ease’ the thought that Kazuya will never materialize his harem, thus the fantasy of the fantasy of him being surrounded naked by the series’ females. This guy can actually make it happen because all the girls will it if given the chance. Chisato’s unrequited love, Kasumi’s sisterly love, Kiriha the sadistic familiar, Kukuri’s supposedly guardian love (taking responsibility as an excuse to be with him) and Kokuyou won’t really mind it all, all Kazuya needs to do is to say it but he can’t since he is a wuss. And thus we miss a great potential for a lucky pervert. Damn you Kazuya! Oh, with Sunao mentioned as his potential bride, things are sure heating up. Oh boy. Kazuya has so much on his plate that if the malison doesn’t kill him, his harem will. Not to mention Kiriha’s nature as a violent and horny obi has taken a few years off his life…

There might be a few terminologies in the series but don’t worry, they’re not as bad that it will give me a headache like those heavy sci-fi series. But still, if you are unsure of the terms that are going to be so often used here, at the start of each episode, the narrator will define an important term very much related to the series or that episode in particular. So if you have forgotten what an amasogi, malison cleaner, local god and kamioni, be sure to check out this section again at the start before the opening credits animation. Oh, and they got cheeky with some of the terms too when they include galge and pudding…

The artwork and animation looks average and nothing special. In fact the characters look plain and simple. I guess art style like this don’t quite cut it these days seeing the amount of animes that we are being churned out every year and every season. This kind of art makes it feel that this series is targeted for younger children. But you can’t really blame the studio, Zero-G since they are relatively quite a new anime production house (I know it’s not really a valid reason but I’ll cut them some slack) and so far they only have Battery (a baseball anime), Piace: Watashi No Italian (a food anime) and Dive (a diving anime) to their name. But then again, seeing that some CGI is employed in certain scenes (especially malevolent amasogi ones) you might think technology have come a long way in helping and improving animation. Guess not. There are still amateurs and cheap software out there to help churn out your average anime.

Voice acting feels pretty standard. Nothing to shout about. I only recognize Ayana Taketatsu from the crowd. For some reason, I thought Kana Hanazawa was behind Kanaka’s voice but something felt off. Turns out it was Kotono Mitsushi (Boa Hancock in One Piece) instead. The other casts are Yuko Sanpei as Kazuya (Sasha in Seikon No Qwaser), Nami Oozora as Kiriha (Satania in Gabriel Dropout), Noriko Shibasaki as Chisato (Ayaka in Kami-sama Minarai: Himitsu No Cocotama), Yurika Kubo as Kukuri (Koume in Urara Meirochou), Eriko Matsui as Kokuyou (Amou in Busou Shoujo Machiavellism), You Taichi as Sunao (Anzu in Prison School), Rumi Ookubo as Kotetsu (Chinatsu in YuruYuri), Sachi Kokuryu as Shirou (Arthur in Nanatsu No Taizai) and Shiho Sasaki as Osamu (Wakaba in Pupipo).

The opening theme, Metamoriser by Band Ja Naimon feels weird. Because it sounds like the song is all over the place. Its fast paced franticness makes it feel the whole song is messed up, not sure if the singing is trying to match the beat of the song or vice versa. Anyhow it just feels odd listening to this supposedly anime pop rock. At least the ending theme, I4U by Michi sounds better by comparison although it isn’t really to my liking either.

Overall, just your usual average anime of the season. It’s like a catch-22 situation because you watch this show if you’re bored but then again if you’re really bored, don’t watch this show as you will become even more bored. It is the same thing you watch this show because you have some free time on your hands but then again if you really do have a lot of time to spend watching animes, you are better off watching something else. Now I know why people especially in Japan throw away or recycle their porn magazines because keeping them too long might manifest a horny tsukumogami who is out for your libido every night.

Rewrite S2

After that horrifying bad ending in the first season, I am really hoping that the second season of Rewrite would make amends and at least give me some salvation. I know it feels like a tall order from viewers who are having high expectations since the way the first season ended but at least we can always hope for a reasonable ‘miracle’. After all, what was the name of this anime again?

Episode 14
We start off with Kotarou trying to protect Kagari in pain from Kotori who is trying to kill her and blaming him for whatever things he did that eventually didn’t save her. Just when Kotori backs down and believes in him, Kagari is sniped out by Chizuru. Kotarou then wakes up from a dream. Apparently another dream. He makes his way to the same hill where Kagari is always seen doing something to that giant circuit. Each time he gets killed off. Then we see the many different dreams of Kotarou. In fact, each one is a different alternate reality. That’s right. He has dated each of his occult club girls in different timelines. In other worlds he is some monster hunter. Thus each time Kotarou is killed in that world, he is reborn again and has been doing this loop for countless times. So for now, he tries to concentrate in getting close to Kagari in which of course always gets him killed. Maybe his ways aren’t friendly enough? Until one time he just got depressed ranting how lonely he is and cannot understand why he has been singled out like this. That is when Kagari opens up to him and allows him to be close by. Curiosity really kills the cat as Kotarou is curious about the circuit. Putting his face close to it, he suddenly sees the different timelines of humanity. The dense information is hurting his head. He notices that in each of them, everybody and the world died without knowing what the Key is really for. Kotarou thinks Kagari is trying to find a way to destroy humans for ruining the environment too much. Kotarou continues to watch Kagari. He wonders what he can do to help. Maybe some coffee? Hey that worked! And after 3 cups of coffee, it finally broke down the barrier between them. She allows him to step on the circuit. He is so happy that he starts crying despite not really understanding what the heck is going on in the big picture.

Episode 15
Kotarou thought he could help out with her research. But with his brain being overloaded with all the information, his head explodes! OMG! Sometimes Kotarou finds himself in some astral space but there seems to be some sort of limit in which he can go higher. He needs to go higher to see for himself about the meaning of life, etc. But for now he wants to help Kagari’s research. So far he narrates this circuit is a flowchart shaped like a giant tree. It contains information on the very origins of the world in which the primal form of life is called Aurora. As it gave the Key to aid with the creation of life, it also can have it destroy life. Branches that disappear represents worlds that have ended. With different possibilities, thus the tree branches out. More information flowing into his head but luckily didn’t pop this time. Bad news: Kagari killed him. The next time he comes back, he apologizes. Nothing like a can of coffee. As he continues to observe her, he realizes Kagari’s goal is to start a re-evolution before the planet’s resources run out. But everything ran out and even an intelligent being like Kagari is at her wits end. So to take her mind off for a while and change of pace, he takes her somewhere. A little dance on the rooftop? But then they are interrupted by a demon attacking. After he kills it, he realizes Sakura is the one behind this. Does she hate life so much that she wants to eradicate it? He believes he is here to protect Kagari. Sakura sends more demons to attack. This makes Kotarou realize he wanted to save everybody at first. So he had to pick one out of the different possibilities. But in each choice led to some loss. He thought he was Kagari’s protector but it turned out he was her killer. So thanks to Sakura, he realizes the truth, has changed and freed from that role. Declaring war on Sakura, he wants Kagari to finish her research. He knows he can’t protect her alone so he is going to gather the other occult club members. And just like that all his harem girls are back. And don’t forget Yoshino too.

Episode 16
Kotarou briefs his girls about their roles to protect Kagari. He hands them their weapons. Hmm… Kotori has twin Chibi Moths now, Dima and Lyuba. But Chihaya has a giant log? Whatever. The gang then try their hands at a simulation in trying to find a way to save Earth. Somehow they all end up destroying it. Some instantly! They get to see the evolution and revolution of mankind in one of the timelines. Kotarou hits that void in his memory again. He starts remembering he was killed by Kagari and ended up in coma for 10 years. He is much older than his harem than thought to be. Is it why Kotarou looks like all grown up now? So he believes that lapse of time in which he got involved too late was the cause why the world gets destroyed. Kagari shows Kotarou branch worlds that ended in deaths now have uncertain futures. He praises her for a good job and writes a message far away from the tree to commemorate it. But then it starts linking up to everywhere! Not sure what new future is born. Although Kagari has completed her research, she locks herself up in a cocoon as it will take time to put her theory into action. At this point, Sakura has sent countless of demons to attack. But as everyone try their best to stop them, the waves are endless and one by one they fall. Kotarou is the last one left. He is surprised to be saved by Sakuya. He apologizes for being late as it took some time to unite his various selves to come here. Eventually they fall and Kotarou turns into some vicious beast to go all out before getting devoured too. Dying Kotarou sees the moon and wonders if this is where they’ll start over. He thinks Kagari used the remnants of Earth’s Aurora on the moon while she was all alone to make a replica of Earth. He can’t accept it but then vanishes into nothingness.

Episode 17
Kotarou is named Bond and with his comrades in the desert fighting against, uh, ISIS?! Anyway, he narrates he has been an outsider his entire life since young. He attends seminars held by Martel, supposedly some scientific organization trying to save the environment. He met Iko Fuku who had him babysit Akane. So boring his life that by night he becomes the self-proclaimed Earth Saving Hunter going around hunting demons. He doesn’t bother to learn more or why they exist. He is just in for the thrill since he can control his blood. One day his hunting in the forest almost had him killed by those demons but was saved by Esaka and his team. He becomes friends with them and learns that they are just ordinary people with requests by the university to hunt those demons. They are trying to investigate new species and hopes he could keep this a secret. Don’t worry. Kotarou has no friends. Kotarou soon meets their new neighbours and is left alone with their child, Kotori. They don’t like each other. Especially she didn’t like how she saw him beating up thugs to return a kid’s wallet. That’s still violence, right? Her family also attends Martel’s seminars. She calls it crap, their so called scientific way of natural selection of letting natural disasters wipe out civilization. She accuses him of running away despite he attends the seminar because of his obligation to his parents. One day Kotori brought home a dog. It was abused by its previous owner so it is wary of anyone like Kotarou who just doesn’t give a damn. Then it desperately ran away (bit off its collar till there is blood!) and since Kotori was shaken, Kotarou ‘coincidentally’ found it and brought it back to her. She cried tears of gratefulness. Although the dog opened up a little bit, it still remained wary till the day it died. Kotarou starts thinking how similar he is to that dog (staying idly in one place). His relationship with Kotori also didn’t change but he gets anxious thinking about how she cared for that dog. He thinks of quitting Martel.

Episode 18
Being the coward he is, he can’t quit Martel easily. He told his parents about it but they wouldn’t allow it and they argued. They then arrange him to talk to Sakura. Although she asks trivial questions, there are a few odd words she used like night, forest and demons. She asks the last question if he would change himself or the environment when encountered with something unacceptable. Don’t know. To really quit Martel, he runs away from home and has Esaka bring him to a special facility that trains people with special abilities. Kotarou trains and learns the basics to become a demon hunter. However reality hits him when he always scores last in rankings. He is put into the weakest group that includes Imamiya, Touka and Nagai. The top elite is Mikuni. Kotarou tells us their superhuman abilities are divided into 3 categories: 1) Poaching that specializes in hunting; 2) Slashing that specializes in cutting; 3) Tainting that specializes in controlling body organs. This last category is where Kotarou falls in. Kotarou continues to do averagely. It demoralizes his spirit as he wonders if being superhuman is all that great. Esaka then personally trains him. Of course he still sucks. Though, he continues to train hard. In the final mock battle training, all teams lost except for Mikuni. A small party is thrown for them after that. Kotarou still feels he is lacking a lot so Esaka advises him not to be negative. If everyone was an ace like Mikuni, the organization would collapse. For his current ability, he can be a fine soldier. Kotarou realizes Nagai is not around. Esaka tells him she has quit. She was already at her limits. As superhumans don’t take setbacks well, he hopes he won’t break too.

Episode 19
Kotarou is now part of Guardian as a trainee and goes with the name Suzuki Bond. Taking after some super spy? Better work on your introduction. While hanging out, he stumbled upon lost Akane. Thanks to the tag on her, he manages to return her to Iko. Akane might look like she hates him but she’s just being tsundere and shy since she obviously likes sitting between his lap. Kotarou learns more about demons, Guardian, Gaia and all those other stuffs. His team are supposed to do some surveillance in town for the Key. Touka likes getting posted to school for her day shift. Esaka promises if she does well, they can arrange graduation for her. So they’re in town doing their surveillance but is it me or do they stick out like a sore thumb? They hear an emergency signal that the team nearby is being attacked. Kotarou advises going against orders to help but Imamiya and Touka want to hog the glory and climb the ladder. Of course Kotarou had to chase after them. In the forest, he gets more worried when he sees Akane’s dropped tag. Sh*t hits the fan when he sees Mikuni’s team get wiped out and Mikuni himself getting killed by the armless T-rex. He manages to find Akane cowering up a tree. But first he has to take care of a wolf demon. Once done, he puts Akane safely somewhere since some glowing light nearby is attracting his curiosity. He sees Kagari and knows she is the Key. Despite he knows he must destroy her, he spares her and leaves. Kotarou reports to Esaka about Mikuni’s death and the demons. However left out reporting Akane and the Key. He hopes these mini betrayals will not become regrets later. Kotarou wants to learn how to use a gun since he knows he lacks in offensive power. Esaka tries to caution what he is doing as he explains why Nagai quit was because she was losing her superhuman ability. It somewhat weakened over time due to her frail mind. But having too much could be a problem too. Take a look what happened to Mikuni. Many want to be heroes but end up dying. Kotarou assures he only wants the strength he needs and not become a hero. Esaka recommends him to a private security firm where he once trained in his younger days. If Kotarou survives, he hopes he will become his elite soldier. Kotarou narrates he was looking for something to get him out of the rut. He couldn’t find it in school, Martel or Guardian. His act of letting the Key go somewhat saved his life. He can’t work in Japan anymore and is running away out into the world.

Episode 20
In some Middle Eastern country, Kotarou and his team of superhuman soldiers are fighting terrorists. Kotarou had his first kill and goes into trauma. He wanted to kill himself but a local girl, Yasmin stopped him. He is also treated poorly by his comrades who look down upon him because of his inferior power. Everyone except Luis. During their off days, they usually hang out and play with Yasmin and the local orphan kids. On a mission to destroy a narcotics factory and seize its ingredients, the team is besieged by demons. Kotarou and Luis go in search of the summoner. Luis fires and shoot in his reflex thinking he has found them. To their shock, the summoners are Yasmin and those kids. Some of them dead and a few gravely injured. When Kotarou reports to his commander, he shoots and kills the wounded! Luckily Yasmin and a few others were hiding somewhere or it would have been a complete massacre of kids. This makes Kotarou and Luis feel sick of Guardian’s methods. They make a run as far as they could before the factory is being bombed. Luis sacrificed himself to let them escape. Yasmin and the rest are also wounded and want Kotarou to leave them behind and escape. He will not and uses his Rewrite to heal them. It converts some of his life force into power but he doesn’t mind. In the aftermath, he relocates Yasmin and the rest to a safer city. He then goes on secret solo missions to rescue kids who have superhuman abilities or summoners. He then puts these kids under Yasmin’s care. All of them got along well as Kotarou surmised that human nature is the reason Guardian and Gaia were at odds. After 2 years away from home, Kotarou gets a call from Esaka to return to Japan. He sees Yasmin for one last time and she thanks him they can live with smiles on their face. Erm, wrong time for a pun but isn’t she crying now?

Episode 21
Kotarou returns to Esaka. Seems he lacks manpower for Guardian’s operations. Kotarou doesn’t think his power is of any use. Esaka notes he is still the same but that suits him best. Kotarou meets Kagari. Although it is his first meeting, he felt they have met elsewhere before. She tells him Earth is dying thanks to its sad memories. At this rate it has not the vitality needed for re-evolution. Thus the ruin comes naturally when Kagari is filled with sad memories and the only way is to bring her fond memories. She chose him as he is the only human who can see her and needs a servant to influence others. As reward, she allows him to fondle her boobs. Imagine the saviour of Earth is known for boobs fondling too… Kotarou returns to his old Guardian team to gain access of information. Then he easily infiltrates Martel since their followers are like zombies. He manages to get into its inner circle, becomes a summoner and full-fledged Gaia member. However Kagari wants him to stop his investigation as there is no time and wants him to eliminate Gaia and then Guardian. Kotarou reminds he is not some superhuman and to trust him. He promises he won’t betray her and everything will work out. Yeah, trust in him. He scolds her about the thought of killing Gaia’s demons because they will notice her and once they find her, it’s game over. Kagari is sad that humans are intelligent and perceptive and yet failed to create fond memories. Kotarou goes to see Shuuichirou Suzaki, Martel Group’s leader. There is a faction war between him and Sakura. Unlike Sakura who hates everything, this guy wants to make profit. Kotarou’s job is to spy on Sakura’s faction. One day Kotarou gets upset when Kagari wandered to town by herself just to understand humans more. What if she gets into a crossfire with Guardian and Gaia? She threatens him not to get hostile with her but he says he is mad because he cares. One night he stumbles into Kotori. She knows Kagari too. It seems the girls know each other the same time Kotarou discovered Kagari. Amazingly they managed to miss each other all this time. Kotori has been protecting Kagari all this while with her barrier. Of course she always wanders. Kotarou is horrified upon learning Kotori revived her parents as zombies. He threatens to drag her home but she starts crying he doesn’t know how lonely and sad she was. She doesn’t understand why he is mean to her by wanting her to live by herself. Kotarou notes this is the second time seeing her cry and this one hurts him deep.

Episode 22
Kotarou goes to see Sakura and knows it won’t be easy deceiving her. After he leaves, he finds Akane looking for bugs (demons?!) in the forest. He returns her to her house. He realizes Nagai is now her guardian. It seems Nagai’s days as Guardian has been erased from her memory and she goes by the name of Tsukuno now under Gaia. Kotarou is summoned by Suzaki thinking he is trying to betray him by meeting Sakura. But from the recording excerpts, she already knows all about that and even Suzaki’s goal. Suzaki then brings Kotarou to an alternate space where an alternate city is being built, City of Stone. This is the worst case scenario when the world is destroyed. A small population would come to live here in this artificial afterlife project. Suzaki has sold rights to those who wants to live here and use it to fund its development. The more it approaches completion, the more the Key became indispensable for him. After Esaka is posted overseas, Kotarou takes over looking after his café. Kotarou gets into another argument with Kotori about her zombie parents. Again he makes her cry as she will not give up on mom and dad. Soon Suzaki gives Kotarou information that Sakura has made this Tsukuno woman as her protégé. Knowing about her Guardian background, he believes Sakura must have found her successor there and is Akane. Imagine the scandal it would become if they suddenly disappeared. Kotarou’s job is to kidnap them and this will make it easier for him to be promoted. While he waits for the signal, Suzaki has gathered his executives for a meeting with Sakura. However she jumps ahead first by announcing she has found a successor. She is Akane and Tsukuno will be her guardian. She also knows about their past and if it will cause a scandal, she will resign immediately. Suzaki calls Kotarou to call off the mission. Later Kotarou meets with Akane and she hints about Kotarou once saved her was it because he had someone else to save. He is frustrated he is busted so Kagari chides him for making the same mistakes. His head understands the planet will die but his heart acts differently. If it comes to pass, he will accept Earth as ruined. This makes Kagari mad that humans haven’t the slightest shred to survive. Why being born then? For the first time she shows emotions as she goes berserk. To stop her enrage, Kotarou kisses her. Some sappy romance drama here as he claims he is doing this not to save Earth but because he loves her! Kagari only feels humiliated and doesn’t want him around. If he won’t remove himself, she will leave herself. Bye.

Episode 23
With Martel showing signs of large scale operation, Kotarou kills summoners before they could find Kagari. At the same time, he also betrays Guardian by killing agents who are getting too close to her position. With the conflict getting worse by the day, Kagari is also regressing like her speech slowly becoming simple and retarded. At this time Esaka returns. He gathers his men to round up Suzaki. During interrogation, Suzaki recognizes Kotarou among the agents and when that happens, Kotarou immediately puts a bullet in his head. Kotarou who has been communicating secretly with Yasmin for some operations all this years, gives her a final order as Sakura has finally set her plans in motion. Kotarou hopes that the people will learn about the truth of Guardian and Gaia and be forced to change. Looks like tomorrow will be Judgment Day and he wants Kagari to witness those fond memories together. With Gaia sending in countless summoners, Esaka also has Guardian send more backup into the city. Kotarou meets Kotori one last time. She doesn’t care about this planet or fond memories. She cares about the promise they made younger to show her around the festival. This is when Kotarou pulls the gun and shoots her ‘parents’. He decided to choose Kagari and has planned to do it a long time. He also reveals he hated Kotori. In turn her face lights up in rage as she curses him. Kotarou sabotages Guardian’s helicopters in the area. Kagari is already resigning to fate that this planet will cease but Kotarou doesn’t want her to give up until she sees it. But now he is forced to fight Esaka who has deduced he has been the rat. Esaka dominates but falls for his blood trap. Kotarou admits he has been betraying Guardian by protecting the Key. He tells his plan to stop Kagari from slaughtering mankind to have a promising future. Everyone’s death won’t be in vain.

Episode 24
Sakura is really pressing on in destroying the world with demons killing everybody. Kotarou knows he needs to stop the singing Gaia people at the top of their tree temple to avoid Kagari from suffering and causing ruin. I take it, they are horrible singers! Jokes aside, Kotarou is intercepted by his Guardian pals who are mad at him for betraying them. He manages to escape, save them in the process and enough time to tell them how he is going to do something and leave the rest of the future to them. At the temple, Kotarou faces off with the Earth Dragon who has taken a mind of its own. It considers all Gaia members as its children and if they want the world destroyed, it shall make that wish come true. After a hard fought battle, Kotarou reaches the top. Lots of dead Gaia singers. Hah. Their own singing killed themselves! Okay, stopping with the bad jokes. Kotarou is shocked to see Iko among them. She felt her children had no future and ended up here. Kotarou finds Akane and leaves Dima and Lyuba to her. Kotarou is slowly turning into a tree. He treks to where Kagari is resting and wants to see her badly. Here she is. She is thankful for the fond memories. However it is too late. Had it been a little earlier, things could still be saved. Among the last talk include Kotarou confessing he loves her. She tells him to do his final job so he forces himself to stab her. After she kisses him, she disappears. Yasmin writes in her diary the legacy of Kotarou and how he helped guided and saved many. It seems there are still many survivors eking out a decent living in the world although Earth is slowly headed for ruin. Kotarou’s girls are before a tree. They do some spell to extract a supposedly demon familiar. Kotarou in a butler outfit? They might regret doing so because Kotarou isn’t just going to do whatever they want. I mean, 5 contractors won’t be enough. Tens of thousands if he is to do great things with his great power. So how much can they get for the price of just 5 contractors? Enough to the moon. Kotarou then transports them there. Kotarou and Kagari happily and emotionally reunite. They wanted to see each other for so long. They kiss and leave the girls in shock. Hey wait. No boobs fondling reward?

Re-wreck: Please Save My Earth
Erm… Wait… What? Is this considered a good ending? Man, I thought it was going to be a bad ending again but since Kotarou ended up with Kagari in the end, I guess it wasn’t a bad ending? Oh heck, I don’t even understand the whole lot especially the ending in which he needed his harem girls to just fly to the moon. Oh, he was waiting someone to extract him and enough power to get him there? Are they going to live on the moon forever because you know, Earth is on a slow death process. It’s like saying that there is no ultimate hope for humanity. Live your last wretched lives the way you want. Adios. Screw all you humans while we who tried so hard to save the world continue to frolic and enjoy our golden eternity together. Plus if Kotarou ever gets bored, he gets to play with other girls. Assuming they’re staying. Oops. Strayed too far…

It is sad to say that this second season doesn’t fare any better than the first because despite a big chunk of this season can be simply put as Kotarou playing double agent in order to save Earth in the bigger picture. Making it worse is that the harem factor is totally gone. I mean, isn’t what this visual novel is supposed to be? Not sure. Didn’t really play the game. Come on, what is this anime without the girls around the main character guy even if he is so cliché? So instead of having cliché female girls, we are now treated to a totally brooding young adult Kotarou on a personal secret mission to save Earth. The supposedly interesting interaction of Kotarou and his girls are missing as Lucia and Chihaya are close to non-existent and Akane reduced to a kid who strays. Kotori has a better screen time but she sounds like a lonely stubborn little brat and didn’t really feel important. I know Kagari is the main star too but she too feels meh. Her lesser screen time means lesser impact and although I felt she was an annoying character in the first season, at least she was funny to say the least. Here, it’s like she lost all of that and just feels monotonous. Like as though all that we have seen them gone through together in last season didn’t happen. No more naughty fanservice jokes? You might argue that this is another timeline and alternate world. In that case might as well just rename it to a different anime. It just feels different in the sense you rearrange the same blocks of a puzzle to form a different outcome.

Speaking of that, the first 3 episodes which tries to explain to us the craziness of everything, I think I just got overly confused there. What? Parallel worlds? Different outcomes? Whatever. If I was in Kotarou’s shoes, my head would have really exploded if I got too close to that giant circuit. No kidding. I’m just too dumb to understand what’s going on. Then they decide to kill off everything and everyone and perhaps start anew (or maybe restart, because rewriting doesn’t sound right either) with this Bond thingy. Heck, I don’t even get it why they nicknamed this the Moon and Terra arc. I know, I said I didn’t play the game so I am pretty much clueless about the route this season adapted. I don’t really see it happening on the moon, that’s what my thoughts are. Unless you’re telling me this Bond arc thingy was happening on the moon. I thought it was on Earth? Oh right, that is what the Terra part is. Wait. I thought they said they were restarting from the moon? Damn this is so confusing!

As for the characters, Kotarou as said is hogging the limelight since he is going to be the hero and destroyer of Earth anyway. I feel he has changed for the better although not as good as he should have been. Better than his teenage version in the first season but comparatively he is still useless in many sense. Like his low self-esteem. I mean, if he didn’t deem himself as useless, why run away to another country in the first place? I still don’t completely understand his Rewrite powers. Last time I remember he is supposed to rewrite laws that would suit him the way he sees fit. He can’t seem to use it often here because it has its drawbacks and side effects. So he relies mostly on his blood weapon thingy.

I don’t have much to comment on Kotarou’s girls because I already said about them in a few paragraphs ago. Because of the various different alternate worlds, they could really make a spin-off series if they really want to milk some cash to give fans of certain pairings something to squeal about. If you still remember those comical fairies, Pani and Gil, feel free to forget about them because they don’t even make a cameo. Even Chibi Moth had its screen time. And Sakuya too despite he was coming in late and at the end of the first arc. What a waste but better than nothing, right? Whatever. And Yoshino whom I was hoping would play a more significant role here too didn’t matter in the end. I also wondered the point of Nagai and her becoming Akane’s guardian when we don’t really see it happening. This must be one of those mini trivia for those who remember an unrelated moment in the first season of a mysterious lady chasing a tsuchinoko. Yeah, there’s your dotted lines connected.

At first I thought it was refreshing that the opening theme for this season is an instrumental. A very short one too as it only lasts for 30 seconds. Even the ending themes are instrumental. It feels different and unique but unfortunately those are for the first 3 episodes. For the remainder when Kotarou became super spy agent, somehow I feel Last Desire by Maon Kurosaki just doesn’t really fit the theme. Fast paced, lively, heavy on the strings, has some enigma feel to it. I don’t know. I just don’t feel it is right. The ending theme, Instincts by Runa Mizutani is a slow piece. Sounds slightly better and has this Key feel to it.

The artwork and animation remain pretty much the same as last time. The background and sceneries are still decently gorgeous despite I want go so far to say they are breath taking or a masterpiece. Though, the CGI demons still feel out of place and don’t really blend in with the whole thing. Sometimes the quality drops and becomes very obvious especially during action sequences (which isn’t particularly that exciting either) but then again, this isn’t supposed to be an action adventure. Blood still aplenty, though. One thing unique this season is the choices/options in the form of words that Kotarou has to make that pops up on screen before the one he selects becomes the only word visible. It might not seem like much as this is more of visual than anything.

Overall, my guess is that hardcore fans and those who played the game and understand its lore well enough would comprehend and appreciate what both seasons offered. Otherwise, casual viewers like me will be utterly confused as we are thrown into something so unfamiliar with like as though we are watching a foreign language movie with no subtitles that is very heavy on the dialogue part. Interesting but not quite enough that it will want to make you have forum discussions of it. Despite I did mention the spin-off possibilities of stories from other alternate worlds, I won’t be calling for any more rewrites (needed to do a pun on this. Sorry, can’t resist) because sometimes it is better to just keep the series buried and dead. Give it a rest. No more sequels, no more prequels, no more reboots, no more remakes. No matter how you keep beating a dead horse, it won’t come back to life and become a better horse.