Kage No Jitsuryoku Ni Naritakute S2

So soon? Oh, you know, I thought it was going to take like a few more years but damn, Kage No Jitsuryoku Ni Naritakute S2 hit the air waves again about a year later. Obviously you can tell I was not impressed with this series contrary to popular opinions that a lot of people liked this show. Otherwise, how it got a second season, right? Especially the main character who wants to be a background character but at the same time wants to be some superhero of justice and doing it all from the shadows. How confusing and conflicting. So yeah, why am I watching this then? Oh well, that silly hope of mine that perhaps this season would change my mind. Heh. I should already know myself better but oh well…

Episode 1
Shadow Garden report to Shadow as they note of strange movements of funds in Lawless City, a place that doesn’t belong to any nation. This piques Shadow’s interest as he tells them he will handle this one himself. At Lawless City, Goldy and Quinton think they can best this crazy dude. Got their ass whooped, that’s for sure. Now we see why Cid wants to come to this city. After Claire won Bushin Festival, she dragged Cid here to celebrate her victory. On the way to the Dark Knight Association, some slave trader wants to sell them human pets. Yeah, so badly beaten up, Cid can’t recognize they’re Goldy and Quinton. Later at the alley, he sees a few people beating up a hapless ghoul. But when the moon suddenly turns red, the ghoul fights back. Anyone gets bitten will turn into one too. Cid is in a dilemma whether to do something about it but is saved by this vampire hunter named Mary. He finds her cool?! So now he wants to play this game?! Soon chaos spreads through Lawless City as it becomes like Resident Evil. Sorry, it’s not Thriller Night. Shadow saves a prostitute named Marie from certain death. He spouts cool lines but all obviously borrowed from Mary. This has Marie decide to take her own future into her own hands. Screw whatever contract, she’s getting out. Claire thought her brother is dead but Mary tells her she just saw him alive. She believes Cid is still alive and at Crimson Tower, to be offered as living sacrifice to revive Blood Queen Elisabeth from her thousand year slumber. Both girls agree to team up and head there. Skel and Po are also in this town trying to lose their virginity. Better run if you don’t want to lose your life!!! Crimson watches his rivals, Juggernaut and Yukime fight each other. He thinks they’ll both die once Elisabeth revives. However there seems to be another player joining in the fray. It’s Shadow of course.

Episode 2
Juggernaut and Yukime don’t want to mess with Shadow so they part ways. Then there’s some bloodthirsty grunt thinking he could usurp Shadow as he sensed no magic from him. He attacks but before he knows it, he got cut up. Claire and Mary stumble into Beta in the library. Beta claims Shadow Garden is only here to do research of taking a blood sample from a progenitor vampire. History shows that the possessed and vampires were once from the same bloodline. She hints they don’t get in each other’s way and that is good enough. When #666 (Rose) hears something about Cid, she becomes agitated to know more. Beta tells her off to know her place since Shadow will be the one to deal with Elisabeth. Claire and Mary continue their way but they stumble into Juggernaut killing vampires left and right. Then he attacks them. Both take serious damage especially Mary a fatal one. In order to survive, Mary drinks a bit of Claire’s blood. She revives back to normal. However Juggernaut is still superior. Right before they get killed, Shadow saves them. A single hit is enough to send Juggernaut flying. Mary tells Claire the truth that she is a vampire. A thousand years ago, vampires used to hunt humans and live luxuriously off their blood. But once their weaknesses were found, the tables turned. Elisabeth was living among humans as a ruler of a small fiefdom. She wanted both sides to get along so she and her subjects stopped drinking blood. Haven was created for this. While her subjects evolved and lose some of their vampire touch, Elisabeth remained the same with the typical vampire weaknesses. Then the red moon phenomenon in which turned Elisabeth into a bloodthirsty vampire. This resulted in the destruction of Haven. In order for this mistake not to be repeated, she killed herself and hoped Mary who was her maid at that time, to scatter her ashes into the sea. As she is the Blood Queen, she doesn’t vanish like others so her corpse remained intact. Mary was forced to watch over it for eternity. However she was killed off by Crimson who took Elisabeth’s body. Now he is attempting to use her for his own ambitions. Claire hints she is a possessed and there were signs when she was young. She knows she’ll turn into a monster one day and hopes to have Cid achieve something before that happens. Shadow stumbles into the treasure room. Happy, he thinks of making a flash entrance. Just as Crimson put Elisabeth’s heart into a new vessel to revive her, Shadow kills him off!

Episode 3
Shadow doesn’t find anything he wants here so he leaves. Meanwhile Mary and Claire just stumble into a resurrected Elisabeth who quickly pierces Claire and then drinks her blood. Shadow Garden a little too late to come to her rescue and even if they fight and slay Elisabeth, she can easily regenerate by using their blood. Not even Yukime and Juggernaut jumping into the picture for some fun could do anything. They’re easily taken out. Claire then starts to have an awakening. However she finds herself inside the infirmary of a high school with Aurora before her. Some explanations about her power. Basically what I understand is that her blood types have merged and although she has gained some power, she finds it hard to control. Hence Aurora gives her some weird symbols on her left arm to help control it. When they return to reality, Aurora takes over Claire’s body. As the original vampire, she easily turns the tables on Elisabeth. However Claire’s body cannot handle all the power and breaks. Aurora isn’t panicking and knew this would happen. All this is just to buy time for him to arrive. Who? SHADOW! Now we see him fighting on par with Elisabeth. Beta thinks he is protecting everyone rather than attacking Elisabeth (which he could easily do) but the way I see it, he is trying to protect and minimize all the coins and treasures he stole. The fight reaches its climax and just like that, not sure what Shadow even does, the red moon is gone and everything reverts back to normal. WTF. What just happened?! In the aftermath, Cid tells us about whatever names theses monsters have, ghouls or vampires, they are all just the effect of magic overload. Claire seems sad and lost as she tries to tell Cid about this new power. However whatever it is, he assures her he will always support her. That at least cheered her up. Cid notes Claire will continue to face some struggles but that is how kids grow up. More importantly, he manages to save all his treasure and that translates into a lot of cash back home. Even if it is not enough for him to be set for life and whenever he is in a financial pinch, he can always come back to Lawless City because it’s his piggy bank.

Episode 4
Shadow Garden kills off shady people working for the seemingly respectable Mr Garter who serves Mr Gettan, the president of Major Corporate Alliance (MCA). Everyone has their dark sides. Shadow now goes under the alias of John Smith as he meets Yukime who tells him Garter has a meeting with MCA as they are plotting Mitsugoshi’s downfall. She notes both companies will destroy each other and warns him about Gettan and his exceptional sword skills. He is a dangerous fellow and it sounds like she wants revenge on him. As Cid hangs out with his friends, he notices a different money note. Looks like MCA made their own note and that is why today they have some grand sale to commemorate its release. However this only makes Cid mad because while the Mitsugoshi’s notes were more refined, this is a much cruder copycat. So he goes back to talk to Yukime and I don’t get this money economics he brings up. From what I understand, because people find it troublesome to carry heavy coins around, hence the popularity of paper money and the creation of credit that allowed Mitsugoshi to reap hefty interests from the coins sitting in the vault. The irony that paper has more value than real metal. He has this suggesting of making a profit in counterfeit bills. But Yukime points out it is not legal tender and for it to work, it can only be done on a small scale. With Shadow in shock, Yukime misinterprets his actions that he is not impressed. So she further adds that perhaps with the counterfeits, this will make people doubt the value of the paper money and they’ll run to the bank to exchange it for gold and that’s where they can monopolize the profits. Shadow leaves so Yukime thought he was testing her sincerity. Then we see Delta bugging Shadow to go hunt with her. Raiding one of the secret bases and Delta killing her useless brother. Don’t worry, she has hundreds of brothers and sisters so less 1 weakling makes no difference. She suggests Shadow defeat her father and he too can have hundreds of kids! He’ll pass. Garter reports to Gettan about their reducing personnel over the past few months. This will affect those running their public enterprises. After all, they’ve invested a huge sum in bribing legislators to set up their bank and print their money. However Gettan tells him to do as he is told and is reminded who put him in this place that controls the commerce of this city. Realizing Mitsugoshi is tougher than he thought, he is going to take drastic actions to steal their trade secrets.

Episode 5
Gamma offers to take care of intruders entering their premise. Well, Gamma being the clumsy oaf, blunders all the way and you bet the intruder is pretty confused. Yeah, he knows she is more than he can handle and tries to escape but Gamma’s clumsiness proves to be her greatest luck as she somehow defeats him. Is there anything else to say? And those guys were supposed to be some elite team under Gettan? No wonder he is disappointed. He also laments with the cult running low on resources, it is the best time to show his power. MCA is just a stepping stone until he fully gets all the power he wants. Shadow meets with Yukime as they talk about the distribution of the fake bills they have made. Yukime is hell bent to get revenge on Gettan for taking everything from her. She won’t stop until she takes everything from him. Shadow won’t interfere but advises not to stray into the wrong path. As Alpha realizes the seeping in of counterfeit bills into their store, the same too for Gettan. He narrates about his plan to collapse the faith in the credit of paper money. This is why he has also circulated their own fake bills. By bringing the downfall of credit, this will bankrupt both MCA and Mitsugoshi. But this wasn’t supposed to take effect until all the cult’s assets in MCA were recovered. However those assets are mixed up in the various public businesses and organizations. If they sit back and let this counterfeit circulate, they stand to lose more money. A small group of Shadow Garden that #666 is in, infiltrate a train carrying counterfeit goods. However they are caught by surprise in a trap set by Shadow (in his John Smith disguise). He boots them out of the train. While #666 clearly wants to continue the fight, her comrades advises her not to because they will definitely fall for the same trap since their enemy is strong. #666 laments being weak.

Episode 6
#666 reports to Alpha about how formidable John Smith is. He is in fact on par with all of Shadow Garden. Alpha has more pressing issues like some mission she sent Zeta on. She has not been contacting them so she is assuming the mission going on smoothly despite heavy resistance from the cult. Delta is sent to deal with John Smith. She attacks the train but we know Shadow doesn’t even break into a sweat as he deals with this rampaging maniac. But soon Delta realizes he is Shadow from his scent. She learns he is undercover and doing this as a secret. That is why he forbids her to tell Alpha or his mission will fail. This means she also cannot help him on this mission. In exchange, he gives her another mission to hunt Juggernaut instead. Because Delta has not contacted Alpha and some memento of her was found, they assumed she got killed?! Alpha starts to believe this is all part of John Smith plans to destroy both MCA and Mitsugoshi. With the fake bills circulating, Gettan continues to order his men to search for the source and this means setting checkpoints of everything that comes in and out of the capital. Now it is angry Alpha’s turn to attack John Smith. Try as she might but she cannot best him. Soon with all those unique moves, she realizes he is Shadow. Why do this? He claims he has tossed away that name to become John Smith. This only leaves her madder and more confused. She thinks he believes she is not good enough to support her. In her desperate bid to prove she is of worth, she attacks again but this time loses badly. She is saddened Shadow has abandoned her. Now Shadow meets with Yukime who explains their plan is going well and at this rate the cult will be bankrupt and MCA finished. This will affect Mitsugoshi and soon the kingdom’s economy will fall into chaos. Yukime then narrates about her origins. Especially her lesser clan who always fell victim to conflicts from greater clans after the fall of some god of theirs. Hence they tried to deepen ties with those allied to them. Gettan and Yukime were engaged to each other and she truly loved him. However he soon killed everyone who was a pacifist because his belief is that strength is power. If he doesn’t take it from them, they’ll take it from him. Yukime wasn’t spared and got slashed too as he believed she too rejected him. She survived and made her way up via prostitution at Lawless City after losing everything. Hence her true goal is not to amass a fortune but to find Gettan and take everything from him.

Episode 7
With panic setting in, the public is trying to change their notes for gold. At the same time, many of MCA branches have closed down. Gettan learns Yukime is behind this counterfeit and sensing her nearby, he goes to confront her. Meanwhile Alpha is depressed. She believes Shadow has abandoned them for failing to live up to his expectations. Even with MCA collapsing and Mitsugoshi slated to be next, she doesn’t care anymore. But when she receives news that the cult was supposed to circulate counterfeit bills, she realizes could it be Shadow’s plan to usurp them by flooding their own fake bills before the cult? Then Beta enters with good news as she has deciphered Shadow’s mystery letter to her. Shadow admits he turned traitor to beat the cult in their game. Now that they don’t have MCA on their side, they will be the only losers. He went alone so as not to tie all of them together. Like they say, to deceive your enemies, deceive your allies first. Alpha is relieved that Shadow has not abandoned them. Shadow has been defeating those who want to steal his money. But it seems a huge stash has been stolen and Yukime’s subordinates claim they saw Gettan doing so. He is going to take back what is his! Uhm, I thought he stole them?! Gettan loses to Yukime. But because of the cult’s drug, he powers up to defeat her. He still thinks he can take it all as long as he has the power. Before he deals the finishing blow, Shadow arrives to beat him up. Taking back what belongs to him. With Gettan defeated, Shadow forces him to say what is needed. If he refuses, Shadow beats him up until he does so. While lamenting things would’ve been different if he had that power, he thinks maybe he didn’t want them to take it from him. All he wanted was just to protect. Gettan dies and leaves Yukime in Shadow’s care. As Shadow buries Gettan, Iris inspects Garter’s vault. It is empty and she arrests him. Alpha approaches Yukime and passes her a letter from Gettan. She believes the cult was the reason that led Gettan astray. Telling Yukime the truth about Shadow Garden and all, she wants Yukime to join their side against the cult. She agrees. Mitsugoshi survives the credit collapse since they have stacks of gold lining up for the people. Shadow and Delta are digging through the snow to find his stolen coins. None. Delta trying to get Shadow to make good his promise but he is trying to shift the goalpost and confuse the hell out of her with some guilt trip.

Episode 8
Skel and Po go bug Cid to go hit on some chicks. However he is not in but they see some premium tickets to some hotspring inn. Losers decide to take them and invite some Mitsugoshi chicks. But when they see them in possession of those tickets, they are captured and interrogated! They want to know how they got those tickets. Did they steal them? Obviously they lie that Cid gave it to them to invite the girls. Unsure of this, the rest of Shadow Garden convene to discuss about this. Could this be another secret test from Shadow? Flashback shows long ago when Shadow defeated some guy over some Dragon’s Tears, he told Shadow Garden to keep digging to find it. Well, it hit a hotspring mine and that’s how the inn was established. Since there are 6 tickets and assuming half of it is reserved for the guys, this means only 3 of them can go. Since Shadow Garden wants to be with him, you bet they’re going to fight for it. Well, just rock-scissors-paper. And the lucky ones are Beta, Delta and Zeta. They are not pleased Skel and Po showed up. Where’s Cid? They lie he’ll come later so okay, let’s get going. Of course other Shadow Garden girls are in disguise. Looks like all having an awful lot of fun time as Alpha thinks this is Shadow’s way of giving them some time off. Of course the losers decide to go peep on the girls’ bath section. Security sprays gas into their eyes. It seems their tears cause the water to react. This has Shadow Garden remember the Dragon’s Tears legend. A dragon and a princess were close friends until war broke out. With her kingdom in ruins, the princess cried but the dragon cried more, flooding the entire area. When the princess came to be, the dragon was nowhere to be found and the area is now a lake. So everybody bullies Beta into shedding some tears. The water then activates and turns into a dragon spirit. Shadow Garden goes into action to subdue it. They believe it is Shadow’s intention to free the dragon. The result now rains golden tears. They take advantage of this ‘special event’ to sell them to customers. Alpha has only thanks for Shadow for giving them a great day off. Yeah, Shadow/Cid was never to seen anywhere this episode! The losers return home, not remembering much of what happened today but they think they ascended into adulthood. Dream on!

Episode 9
Rose still has nightmares of killing her father. Now she joins her fellow comrades as well as #559 to do recon over the cult’s suspicious activities at some ruins in Oriana. #559 claims that only she and #666 have received special blessings from Shadow. However she doesn’t trust #666 and will see if she is worthy to serve under Shadow. As they spy at the ruins, they see the cult gathering to activate something and retrieve some ring. However, to #666’s shock, the one who is the key to activate this is her mother, Reina! It seems royal blood is needed. #559 orders to kill everyone and obviously #666 can’t kill her mother and protects her. Reina even pleads for help. #559 deems this as betrayal as the fight rages on. Meanwhile Cid has been wandering around as he notes the situation in Oriana continues to be in chaos. As there is no official ruler since the king’s death, now the fight is between Perv’s faction and those who are still loyal to the old regime. Cid has this idea of a mysterious character coming in to save the kingdom’s situation. He wants to make Rose the next ruler and since she might become lost and a tyrant, he too will step in to guide her to the correct path. Such great dreams. Cid is currently eating at a diner Marie is running. However, ruffians come in to extort their usual protection money in which she doesn’t have. Cid plays the lame pathetic guy to tell them to lay off Marie and gets his ass whooped. Of course later he goes to their hideout and kills all of them and takes all their loot. As Marie is having financial trouble, she is about to resort to selling her body again but Shadow leaves a bag of gold coins. She is happy that Shadow has been watching her. #559 is about to lose to the cult’s general but the moment she sees Shadow in the background, she powers up and kills this f*cker! She is thrilled with his presence as she tells about #666’s betrayal although the other comrades try to reason her actions. It seems #666 has left Shadow Garden and returned to her previous life as Rose. Shadow doesn’t understand a thing they said until he finds out Rose is getting married! He gets angry! What was the killing of her father for then? This is betrayal! She will pay dearly! Shadow dashes off into the sky to hunt down Rose.

Episode 10
I don’t know how but Cid is able to walk into the royal palace because Epsilon is working as some associate to Perv. Whatever. Due to some changes in protocol, ordinary people like Cid are not supposed to enter but Perv will have him demonstrate something. And so Cid dazzles everyone with the piano with his Moonlight Sonata. During that, Cid steals from all the unsuspecting guests their rings and jewellery. Especially that ring from Perv. When Cid wants to go tour the place, a maid who once served Rose, volunteers to do so. Because she has zero silicon as boobs?! WTF?! I don’t know what she’s blabbing about but all Cid cares is asking about Rose whereabouts. Of course she tells him but she also notes how much she hates her because she killed her father and threw the kingdom into chaos. Cid then bumps into some fat ugly guard who starts ranting away about his jealousy because he is in love with that maid. Whatever. Cid sneaks away and makes his way to where Rose is held. She misses him a lot but when he asks about her marriage, she changes her tone and wants him to forget all about her. He reminds her of all the struggles she made up till this point. Is she going to throw it all away and go back to that perversion? All Rose wishes for is for Cid to find his own happiness. That is all. Later, we see Perv abusing Rose. He reminds her that Reina’s life is in his hands so she better improve her attitude. Obviously Cid witnesses it all and now his mind is set. Epsilon talks to #559 about Rose and wasn’t the latter’s fault since the mission failed as she was not told about Rose’s mom. In fact, Shadow Garden knew about it but hoped Rose would never find out. They talk about some ultimate destruction as described in the legends that will destroy the land. They continue to believe Cid has a further goal since he is handling this case himself. Speaking of which, he returns and claims it has been solved. Wow. So magnificent. Meanwhile Perv reports to Mordred that their plan is moving along smoothly. If all goes well, their power in the cult will be secured. This means Perv will be granted a seat in Rounds. And what’s this? Perv having an affair with Reina?!

Episode 11
Cid ponders the situation of Rose being forced into this marriage because Perv holding Reina as hostage. WTF the maid and Epsilon trying to fight over Cid? How unsightly. So much so, Cid had to strip and escape from their clutches and play Moonlight Sonata in his undies to the crowd. Yeah, a better option. Later Epsilon talks to him about some Black Rose legend but Cid’s priority now is to find Reina. Not hard to find. Making out with Perv as they plot they won’t need Rose anymore once the ceremony is over. Rose is surprised when Shadow shows himself before her. He takes her to see the truth. Oh man, how long have they been doing it because Perv and Reina are still making out! More revelation as they reveal they were the ones who drugged the late king. Rose is in so much shock that she faints. When she comes to, she sees Cid playing his piano. Realizing she has nothing left, no more kingdom, betrayed the organization who took her in, only Cid was the one who stayed by her. Let’s run away from this madness. Well, not sure what cryptic lines Cid said but I believe it’s more like don’t give up. He gives her that ring. Cid is now confident that with everything in place, the rebellion will take place at the wedding and that is when the lion will awake. Before the ceremony, Perv realizes his ring is gone. Panicking, he thinks of making an excuse to delay the ceremony but a call from Mordred confirming once this is over, a seat of Rounds will be his. As the wedding starts, Rose makes a shocking statement when she says she will not marry Perv. She accuses him of all the plot and with this ring her father left for it, she puts it on. Suddenly a recording pops up all over the kingdom. It is her father doing his last recording. He knows he is being drugged and by the time this video is out, he will already be dead. He points out Perv as the mastermind behind all this but assures his citizens not to fear because Rose will be their new leader. His final words are his love for his daughter. With the video over, all the nobles turn against Perv. Don’t want to be associated with this scumbag. Just then, Perv gets decapitated. Yeah, his head rolling before Reina’s feet doesn’t even move her! Feeling bored?! She too gets decapitated! The culprit: Mordred. He then activates Rose’s ring to summon the Black Rose. This is the truth behind the legend. A huge demon named Ragnarok starts decimating the place. The kingdom going into ruins again? Not if Shadow comes to play!

Episode 12
As Shadow relishes fighting Ragnarok, Mordred fights off Beta and Epsilon. He thinks his special sword can best them but how wrong he is and it will be him who will soon know his place. Rose and other Shadow Garden members help fight off other magical beasts. Yeah, the whole kingdom is a mess. Again. When Mordred is defeated, it’s time he spills the beans. He starts off explaining that there are several other dimensions and realms. However as observed, these many worlds revolve around a single point. Maybe that is supposed to be God. However the more interesting stuffs are the revolving worlds. Taking a certain planet as an example, magic did not exist until a world collided into it. Magic then flowed into it. Damn, are they saying this was what wiped out the dinosaurs?! This also begs the question if humans came from another dimension! With this logic, there are also stuffs that went to another world. Lost city of Atlantis is an example. Holy sh*t! You mean that is not fiction?! Thus it is also believed Diablos came from another realm. So back to Oriana’s history, in some war when monsters from another dimension popped up to slaughter all, the cult rescued them by closing the gate. This means the royal blood would be the price to pay and this means Rose was to be offered to the cult when she was an infant. The king refused to do so and look what happened. You think Ragnarok will destroy everything? Well, look at how Shadow is having fun mincing it to bits despite its regeneration! Mordred can’t accept this absurdity so he merges with Ragnarok to become some hideous monster. Even so, no match for Shadow. Yeah, nots sure what Shadow rants about some scientific stuffs. But he kills off Mordred and a light so bright that can be seen from the entire galaxy! Amazing nobody went blind. Shadow sees a strange vortex and touches it. He gets absorbed into it and disappears! Oh no! Well people, you remember Akane? Yeah, it has been years and she has been doing her own investigation over ground zero. She’s still bitter about that tragedy and each time she looks at the moon, she is reminded of him. Then she is kidnapped by punks. This time they are part cyborg! Déjà vu as she might be raped and beaten to death but a familiar sound crashes in. Yeah, it’s that Stylish… Uhm, whatever! But nope. Not him anymore. Because he has upgraded to Shadow! Your worst nightmare is back!

Shadow(per)verse & Shadows House
So haven’t you heard already? Well, there is good news and bad news. I’ll tell you the bad one first. If you’re wondering why this season is shorter than the first season, that’s because there is going to be a movie sequel! Oh my God. The next arc is a movie?! Yeah, that’s bad news to me. But the good news? Because it is a movie so you bet it gives me an excuse not to watch it! HAHAHA!!! I’m set free from this! Hooray! I don’t have to watch this crap anymore! Unless they make another season after that and returning to the TV format… Oh boy… Then I would have missed another arc… Sighs… Why am I even agonizing over this…

As you can already very well tell, I am still not impressed with this season. It continues to confuse me and truth to be told, I don’t even know what is happening but more or less the same thing. Oh you know, Cid playing his Shadow persona and being the overpowered motherf*cker he is, continues to throw his weight around seeing nobody else is close to give him a challenge. Then as usual, his Shadow Garden harem are so trusting of him that they believe all his actions have to do with the good of the future that they can see, only which Shadow himself has envisioned. Yeah, makes you wonder if he is so damn good, why does he need Shadow Garden in the first place if he can do everything himself. Oh right, I almost forgot. He doesn’t. They’re just tagging along and assuming everything by themselves and hence the biggest chuunibyou following ever. Heh. Though I have to admit that the final episode revelation about different realms did sound interesting a bit. No, not because of the existence of many other isekai worlds but rather how the worlds collide and transfer/disappear its essence into the other. Have to admit that is the most interesting theory I’ve heard. And now that Shadow is back to his own world, maybe he can do make do what’s right. He is more powerful than before. Yeah, now he can literally stop an atomic bomb with his own bare hands!

Just like last season, this one splits its season into smaller story arcs. Looks like they stayed true in destroying everything whenever the arc finishes. Yeah. So we start off with this Lawless City thingy and as usual, I don’t really understand what that arc is all about. Perhaps to introduce some new characters and that vampire thingy which I don’t see how relevant is that for this season. Maybe in future arcs but as far as this season is concerned, I was left confused. Next we got that economic thingy arc that also confuses the hell out of me. Spice And Wolf it was not and yeah, perhaps it was just some revenge thingy for Yukime and Shadow Garden to secure more funding. Why need so much more money? Aren’t they already dominating everything? Money is never enough! Finally, Rose’s arc. Oh yeah. I guess I was wrong predicting Rose will get a training arc because screw that and let’s throw Rose into more despair! But hey, at least it gives her character some closure and kill off that pain in the ass Perv. So I guess he won’t be the main antagonist in the long run. Just a small fry. Good riddance. Yeah, looks like Mordred too. Just when he makes his full proper appearance, Shadow erased him. Now he can be one with God. Oh sorry, these people will be burning in hell. Now I have to wonder if the many layers of hell is it because of all the different dimensions’ version of hell clashing together!

Also as you might have guessed, I don’t see the characters changing in much ways and I am still not impressed with them all. Especially Cid/Shadow. Yes, this guy because he is so overpowered, he can do anything he wants. Then as usual, he spews us a lot of his sarcastic monologue. I supposed this is supposed to be the punch line and joke to whatever but I don’t really understand them. Yeah, seeing how bias I am towards this character, I will continue to accuse him that such monologue jokes just fall flat! I don’t find them funny, Cid! I still hate his character of wanting to show off in the shadows despite wanting to be the biggest mob AKA background character. In fact, there was one episode that puts Skel and Po into the limelight. To be honest, that was actually the best episode and my favourite episode of this series! Really! These background characters might be idiots but at least they stay true to their perverted goals. Yeah, surprised that I actually find them more likeable than Shadow and his female operatives. And as cherry on top of the icing, that filler episode has no presence of Shadow or Cid whatsoever! So refreshing!

The other big disappointing characters are Shadow Garden themselves. Here I thought we would at least get a better fleshing out of their past but unfortunately, none of that. Yeah, with only a dozen episodes, looks like the fleshing out will have to wait for future stories in future seasons. But because of that, it feels like they are insignificant. Which is an irony since they are shadowy operatives and should be shrouded in mystery. The closest drama that came was when Alpha thought Shadow abandoned them because she and the rest couldn’t live up to his standards, My dear girl, all of you can never be on par with his standards! It’s not like Cid really cares about it all and lets them do as they wish. And because of that, their perception of Shadow as God puts him so high on the pedestal that it has blinded them in so many ways. Shadow can never do any wrong! There must be a reason why he did so! Because Shadow’s success is 100%, this continues to further clout and cloud Shadow Garden’s perspective of him as they grow bigger and bigger. Yeah, Shadow Garden is just a huge Shadow fan base, RIGHT???!!!

Then the other girls too are disappointing. Again, blame the lack of episodes but it feels that those that have appeared in last season, are even more insignificant here. Remember Alexia and Iris? Yes, still around but they have no prominent role. Just cameos to remind us they are still around. Better than Annerose and Beatrix who didn’t even pop up at all this season. What a disappointment. Better than those useless guys, Goldy and Quinton. Still remember these jokers? The most disappointing of them all? Remember Sherry? Oh yeah. I thought she would return this season to exact revenge on Cid/Shadow. But I guess this is not her season. Hey, can’t rush revenge. Sadly, didn’t even appear here either. Even Akane gets a final episode cameo. This shows she wasn’t a one-off character and might have a bigger role to play. Let me guess, will she be part of Shadow Garden in the future or a new Shadow Garden will be formed in this original world?! So I guess this girls whom Cid/Shadow have all broken before, I suppose don’t want to break them again. Because look at Rose. The sh*t she has to go through before she regains her pride and strength. This all part of your plan, Shadow? And to think he really got mad when he heard Rose went back to be Perv’s bride. Oh yeah. I thought I should see more of that expression especially when his plans don’t go as planned. Oh right, almost forgot about Claire. From the way things look at the end of Lawless City, looks like she is a broken woman. That’s another girl to add to your broken list, Cid. Now it’s your sister. Happy now?

Action wise, still pretty much the same stuffs. By now I should resign to the fact Shadow is so overpowered that not even God can touch him. He isn’t as flashy as last season only because there isn’t any huge events like fighting Aurora or Iris. Art and animation remains like last season and yes, still a lot of dark scenes. While last season’s seiyuus were retained, I thought Cid/Shadow sounded different when he impersonated John Smith. Yeah, they employed another legendary seiyuu for that: Jun Fukuyama. Don’t forget other cameos like Saori Hayami as Elisabeth, Shizuka Itou as Yukime and Tomokazu Sugita as Crimson. The other new casts are Daisuke Namikawa as Gettan (Rock in Black Lagoon), Tsuyoshi Gugita as Juggernaut (Vassago in Sword Art Online: Alicization), Miku Itou as #559 (Miku in Go-toubun No Hanayome), Mao Ichimichi as Marie (Bada in ClassicaLoid), Ai Kakuma as Mary (Rossweisse in High School DxD), Chafurin as Garter (Henpeita in Gintama) and Yuuko Minaguchi as Reina (Akiko in Kanon).

OxT is retained this season to sing the opening theme, Grayscale Dominator. Although their trademark rock style is still there (in fact, sometimes I sound it’s like a copycat of their other songs), this one doesn’t impress me like last season. This season’s ending theme is Polaris In The Night although all have different versions sung by a different Shadow Garden member who did not sing in the first season. So now it’s their turn, huh? This means the ending credits animation remains the boring fashion like in the first. Just a still picture of the Shadow Garden girl in focus as the special effects slowly reveal the whole picture. Yawn… But I have to admit that the special ending theme for episode 7, Everything Is Changing by Mayu Maeshima as a slow rock sounds better than the rest.

Overall, for the umpteenth time, I am not impressed with this series despite my initial fake optimism hoping to change my mind. The stubbornness is strong within me. Mainly Cid/Shadow as the main culprit who bulldozes his way through everything. Yeah, sounds like I’m jealous of him. Okay, maybe I am. Even Superman has a lot more realistic issues than this pure fantasy garbage! Heh. Bet you don’t even remember this was an isekai anime until the final episode to somewhat remind us, right? Only true fans will continue to love this trash because for viewers like yours truly who are still not impressed in the end, this season is more or less the same like the first but only worse because more confusion in the story and characters. Sure, the light novel is still ongoing but you know me, don’t read the source, don’t even want to watch the upcoming movie and certainly hell no I didn’t play the mobile game version that was released back in late 2022. YOU MEAN THERE WAS AN RPG MOBILE GAME OF IT???!!! Don’t tell me they’re going to come up with a Broadway-like stage play! Considering Cid/Shadow, it might crazily happen! How much f*cking attention does Cid/Shadow wants?! All I want is to be a background character and happily watch some decent animes. Is that too much to ask?!

Hoshi No Umi No Amuri

There was a reason why I never wanted to watch Hoshi No Umi No Amuri. So long ago that I forgot about the reason and even the anime itself. Until of course I recently found out that Mamiko Noto had a role in here. How?! HOW?! HOOOOWWW???!!! And just like that, suddenly it doesn’t matter what the reason was, I just need to watch it!!! Whatever this space sci-fi crap this is, hit me with all you’ve got because it’s only 3 episodes long, right? How bad could it be? Looks like I never changed. And yeah, Mamiko Noto better not have just 1 or 2 freaking short lines in it!!!

Episode 1
As narrated, when the sun gave out lots of radiation, children born after that have strong bodies. They are called Adapters. However Amuri Kakyoin seems to be a strange one. Well, looks like her space colony has been destroyed and she’s floating around in space. In fact, bouncing around the space debris like a pinball?! Can you do that in space?! As she bounces around in space, somehow this bubble she didn’t bounce off but she passes through it. Inside is Perrier La Mer and her talking bunny robot, Ukatan. As we learn, Amuri has this strange ability in which her body repels everything. Therefore she cannot touch anything and this became the torment of her life as everyone else bullied her. Not sure what this Ukatan trying to recommend some breathing apparatus but looks like they’re being attacked by some giant robot. As detected by Pulmo Allen and Maria Sklodowska both of the Adapter Support Organization, this robot is bringing them to Galapagos, a giant planet made out of trash. Hence they sent their special team of colour coded mecha riding warriors known as Region Free save them. Don’t know what’s going on with all the chaos as they too get owned by the robots at Galapagos. The soldiers gets blown away like Team Rocket but a girl in a floating capsule, Lin Yunque AKA Suzu tries to save them. She gets blown into Perrier’s bubble and in that instant, Amuri and her kiss. More chaos. What’s going on? Yeah, to borrow from Ukatan’s words, “Unknown! Unknown! UNKNOWN!”!!! All I see are loads of missiles being fired at them to destroy them. Why? Are they treated like trash or something? Oh right. Futuristic AI robots see humans as trash. Heh. Anyway, during all that, Amuri starts to transform. Weird outfit she got there. If you wonder why she doesn’t repel these clothes (and those on her back), it’s because it is made from her own cell. Brilliant loophole. She repels all the missiles the robots shoot at her. If that’s not enough, the big mother robot sending more robots to fire more missiles! Amuri has a flashback of her sad and lonely life. She accepts her repelling ability and deflects all the missiles. She also hums a song that the other girls find familiar. With the huge flashy explosion, luckily our Adapter girls survive the ordeal. However the next emergency as Ukatan reports, the have 0% oxygen left in their life support.

Episode 2
Flashback shows Suzu talking to General Panda about handing some item to some soldier and this destroyed the space pirates completely. Uhm, so those robots are pirates?! She is told to continue her mission. With 1 air candy left each, the girls swallow them and head into Galapagos to find more. Pulmo and Maria are trying to find the survivors and are glad that thanks to Ukatan remitting data back, they are relieved the Adapters are alive. Then Perrier has some horrifying flashback of some horrifying torture. Yeah, it’s unsettling. No wonder she freaks out and panics. It couldn’t come at a worse time as more space pirates appear. Amuri transforms and these are a piece of cake. Until a certain mecha soldier pops up and, uhm, kisses her?! Yeah, the second time Amuri kisses in as much episodes. The soldier now has some of her cells and replicates as her double. This is bad since the double is much better than her as Amuri takes lots of bloody damage. As Perrier watch in horror, her dark side reminds the weakling she is. Flashback shows that all the characters here were on board a space shuttle. Perrier’s power went berserk, causing the disaster. Pulmo tried to help her (since it was also her idea to bring her to space to help cure her) but she failed. Suzu is also frightened by everything and escapes to her imaginary world where she converses with Panda. As Amuri takes more beating and starts singing that song, Panda tells Suzu to sing it. She does as Panda guides her to some item. Upon touching it, Suzu now transforms to some kickass loli. When Deus who is Pulmo’s father enter the scene, Pulmo knows daddy has been hiding something from her. Indeed. It seems he caused this disaster! Why?! He claims it is more than an experiment. In fact, Ukatan is working for him and Deus is pleased with its recordings and orders it to continue recording. Not sure what allergic reactions but Amuri and Suzu are now stuck to each other like a magnet. Then some super blast through Galapagos. Suzu admits she loves Amuri since it was her first kiss. This powers up Amuri somehow as she defeats her clone. You think it is over but before Pulmo can do what she needs to, Maria holds her back. Yes, she is in cohorts with Deus to crash Galapagos into Earth and wipe out humanity except Adapters! Because the trash planet will destroy the ozone, killing all the weak vulnerable humans unlike Adapters whose bodies are naturally immune and strong. OMFG, WHAAAAAT???!!!

Episode 3
So, Deus logic is to eliminate the old world that has all the weaknesses and let the new world have only Adapters. Uhm, why not just let them die out naturally?! Deus forces Pulmo to do certain programmes that includes turning the space station into some mean cannon and the likes, blasting through Earth’s defences. Though, Earth won’t sit back as the nations join forces to protect their planet. But oh well, what can the UN do against such might? With Perrier cowering in fear, her dark side takes over this coward. Folks, meet Vernier. She fights against Amuri and Suzu and the latter duo are no match for her. Suzu tries to kiss her but she just went through. Both then get trapped and fused into some huge missile thingy and realized they have been used for this plot. Yes, there are other unconscious humans inside the capsules that will aid this nefarious plan. It seems they will launch Galapagos and ram into Earth! As this process causes all the girls pain, Vernier thinks all humans should die for humiliating her. Flashback shows her tortures were all part of the spectacle for the entertainment of others. She blames Perrier because ever since her real sister, Vernier died, she created this alter ego and forced all that humiliation on her. When Amuri is about to give up, a voice telling her to do what she needs to do. Right. Remember grandma and sing! Suzu soon joins her and then that voice tells Perrier to do the same because she knows she wants to be accepted too. With that, Perrier re-emerges and transforms. She puts the bad bunny Ukatan to sleep and then reboots it back to her side. Uhm, what the heck did she stick in its butt?! The trio then realize the voice belongs to Femina Novum and being the first Adapter (who also created that song), she has been encased in this capsule ever since. WTF her allergy is harmony?! If she comes out now, she will die. But don’t worry, if they use this well, they can save everything. Now the Earth opens up to reveal its core. WTF, Miracle Burger they call it???!!! Because our Adapters are fighting back as they relaunch Galapagos back into space. Not sure what Femina tells about each of their allergies but everyone accepts it and powers up. This freaks out Deus since his plans are collapsing. No cannon can destroy this shiny pure white Galapagos as it absorbs all projectiles! Maria betrays Deus and rescues Pulmo. She will not help him in his murder scheme anymore. Our Adapters break through the space station and teach all the baddies a lesson. Yeah, the pinball ricochet beat down did the trick! Pulmo welcomes back her angels to a world full of love! Sure, world still has lots of hardships but as long as you don’t give up, everything will be okay!

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Cringe
Well… That was really crappy and messy! All I can say is that I am not impressed with it. Not sure if I read the reviews and comments long ago as many didn’t really have favourable things to say about it. But now that I have watched it myself, I can definitely say that it wasn’t anywhere near good or even passable. Thank goodness it was only 3 episodes. Had it had more, I don’t know if I can stand all the messy and bombastic cringe that I have seen. Yes, only 3 episodes and I am already feeling overwhelmed by all the exaggeration this series offered. Time to go unwind all that and watch even crappier animes?! Haha! I’m so predictable… Which is so sad…

Anyway, the first thing many would notice is that this series is entirely made out of CGI. Ah yes, that dreaded method of animation that would send many veterans in today’s world squirming. To be fair, the animation is not all that bad. Although it is not entirely good either. I am not sure whether to go easy on the CGI department since this anime was made in 2008. Yes, people. 15 years or so is a long time in anime standards! But I can assure you that the CGI quality here still beats those of today and recent ones! Looking at you, KamiErabi God.app! So while the visuals might come off as looking stunning at that time, watching this at this point in time, it just doesn’t cut it. It all feels pretty average to me but like I’ve pointed out, it isn’t all that bad. Of course it is not 100% CGI but a small portion especially Suzu’s imaginary world, the whole visual looked like some kiddie crayon sketches. Maybe that is CGI animated too but I wouldn’t know.

Because of the CGI visuals, many of the characters come out as looking a bit weird. Obviously the animation makes the movements weird but what I’m saying is our main Adapter heroines, they all look like they come from the Ichigo Mashimaro series. Yeah, a famous lolicon series in the past. Note, I’m not a lolicon! Not sure if this series is catering to lolicon fans because definitely you see how young the girls are. Even when you have Pulmo who is a 3 year old genius. A FREAKING 3 YEARS OLD AND ALREADY HANDLING ALL THE COMPLICATED SPACE MANAGEMENT STUFFS! Damn, I think I was still wetting the bed at that age! Oops! Oh right. She’s an Adapter. Oddly, the series which is based on the manga of the same name that lasted for only a single volume. The character designs look much better in their 2D form! They don’t look so much like lolis and definitely they don’t look as derpy as their 3D counterpart. Yes, Amuri looking more respectable in 2D form than this 3D garbage.

Then there is the other ‘draw’ of the series. I think. Noticed in every episode there is this bombastic explosive action? Yup. I think half of the episode is about that. Don’t care what the f*ck is going on. As long as there are lots of grandiose explosions, there you have it, be amazed at what the great CGI effects could do! HAHAHA!!! Oh yeah. It’s all so crazy that I don’t even know what the f*ck is going on. Have explosions, just be entertained! That is all. After all, when you think deep about the logic, space has no air and how the f*ck can they have so much colourful explosions in the midst of nothing? And explosive sounds. How the f*ck can everything go boom in space! How can sound travel in the vacuum of space?! Yeah. Beats me. Don’t ask me. I didn’t went into science stream so I’m not really sure. But sometimes I wonder if the violence is a bit graphic because well, our lolis getting hurt and they’re coughing out blood that looks like they came from Microsoft Paint’s tools. Yeah. Weird.

I don’t even know what the story is about. Save for the plot twist to destroy the Earth and the puny humans. I think they want to tell us some sort of message but I guess I am so numb at this point, I don’t even know what it is. I mean, when you have characters of various nationalities working together, I believe they’re trying to tell us viewers something. SOMETHING! I just can’t quite put my finger on it. The characters themselves are a bore. Our main Adapter heroines have their own issues but with only 3 episodes, how much can they be fleshed out? Sure, they have their own weaknesses and inner demons to deal with (I’m still trying to wrap my head around this allergy term thingy. Ah, never mind. Show’s over, forget about it). So, it’s like trying to say don’t look on the negative side of it. Accept it and use it in a way that is more positive. Yeah well, if the rest of the entire world wasn’t being a dick! I can understand why Deus wants to destroy the old humanity despite this dude is being casted as a one-dimensional villain of the series. I want to laugh at him but considering what I have seen that the girls have been through, curses, they should’ve just destroyed Earth! Had not that new character in final episode AKA Femina AKA plot convenience got in the way! Oh, she’s supposed to be British?! Sorry, her name should’ve been Mary Smith or something! Amuri keeps making weird noises when she panics (“Hau, hau, hau!!!”), Suzu keeps flapping her arms like as though she is flying although she’s in space… SPACE!!! Perrier keeps playing the traumatized girl for the most part, Pulmo being the genius she is because no adults seem to do the job and Maria taking on a motherly role. Yeah, nobody’s perfect. Embrace our imperfectness! Or is the right term allergy?!

In a way, it feels the characters are wasted because in the mid-intermission, we are shown their vital statistics and other details. Wow. It’s like they’re so real. Not sure if they’re trying to sell them as figurines too but whatever. But the most amusing part of the mid-intermission is the in-anime ad of the Adapter Support Organization. It’s like they’re advertising how great their brand name is. It feels like they’re recruiting like a military but yeah, like it’s as though they’re the only way to live forward for Adapters. Funny. Weird. Cringe?

And ah yes, the only salvation of this series is my favourite Mamiko Noto whom I can’t stress enough that she is still my favourite and definitely the best VA in the world and history whether you like it or not!!! DAMN RIGHT I AM!!! Anyway… She voices Maria and that’s that. Lovely. I am surprised to hear Aya Hirano as Femina. Yes, it was surprised I recognized her voice seeing I should have ‘forgotten’ about her but seeing she sounded a lot like Lucy from Fairy Tail, maybe that’s why I picked her out. For the rest of the cast, they are Yui Makino as Amuri, Michiru Aizawa as Suzu, Momoko Saito as Perrier, Marika Matsumoto as Pulmo, Kiyoshi Kobayashi as Deus and Kiyoshi Kobayashi and Tomoko Kaneda both as Ukatan. Yeah, I guess they needed a crazy robo puppet pet mascot.

The first opening theme, Umi Tori Ka by Yui Makino, I believe this is the theme of the series because it is that magical song that you will hear often. Sounds like a (sad) children song for the most part and to me it’s just passable. Because the more amusing one is the second opener (and also the first ending theme), Yacchaou Yo by Yui Makino, Michiru Aizawa and Momoko Saito. OMFG, this is YMCA loli version! Oh my God!!! YES IT SOUNDS SO CLOSE! And everyone doing some weird dance in the animation. I don’t know if this would make my day or further cringe it. Hau! Hau! HAU!!! If you love the cuteness of Suzu, Suzume No Heitai-san as the second ending theme should satiate that as the song is filled with cute special effects and squeaky Suzu singing in a super cute way. The final ending theme, Keruto No Umi De Kuyurarula is a slow ballad for a somewhat fitting ending.

Overall, this series has been one helluva confusing and crazy. In other words, just average. Lolis with special abilities fighting in space with lots of explosions is perhaps the best way to describe this series in a single line. Yeah. I don’t even know why the series is called so especially the Star Ocean part. Was it to bait fans of the Star Ocean JRPG game? I can see why humans will never evolve to become better species as long as they continue to produce crappy series like this. Yeah, look how much garbage animes I have watched over the years! Such a damning testament. So can I say watching crappy and sh*tty animes is my allergy? Hell, no. Looks like I am actually attracted to watching rather than repelling them! How? How! HOW?! :’(…

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan

Oro, oro? Oh my. Yet another classic anime series has been given a makeover. After Fruits Basket and Shaman King had their successful remake, it is the turn of Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan to get its makeover dues. Initially, I thought this was going to be a new content instead of a remake but as I watched the series, well, it is definitely the latter. Oh well, what to do but to take a look at it because this was one of the early cartoons animes which I watched during my childhood years and you bet this plays a huge part in bringing back the nostalgia as a kid watching weekend morning cartoons. Yeah. Besides, if you don’t know Samurai X, oh sorry, the correct term is Rurouni Kenshin, then you have no right to be in the anime business! Hah!

Episode 1
Kaoru Kamiya catches a wanderer named Rurouni and accuses him for being that famed Battousai going around using her dojo’s name to kill people. He easily disapproves it by showing his dull sword. Can’t cut anything. But then nearby, policemen are getting slashed by this huge dude who calling himself as Battousai. Kaoru engages him but gets injured. Rurouni saves her and takes her back to the place while letting the police chase after him. Back in her dojo, she tells him about this sword style in which her father created. He believed a sword is to give life. So when this Battousai is making a bad name out of it, that is why she is so desperate to clear her father’s name. All Rurouni says that she is too weak to take on Battousai and it would be sad if she losses her life while attempting to protect it. Next morning, Kaoru sees the police are trying to arrest Rurouni for flouting some sword rules. Had not her live-in servant, Kihei Hiruma bribed them, he wouldn’t have gotten off scot free. As Kaoru has info about that culprit that his base is in a neighbouring town, Rurouni realizes the reason he can’t find him since he searched all night. So he makes a visit to that neighbouring dojo and all the ruffians soon gang up on him. Meanwhile Kihei wants Kaoru to sign this contract that will hand over the dojo to him. Shocking but not, he is the mastermind behind this and this fake Battousai is his brother, Gohei. Because of her stubbornness to hand it over, he had to resort to this Battousai ruse. Obviously Kaoru cannot best him but look, Rurouni is back! Is the neighbouring town that close? First, he talks about swords being weapons of death and that is a fact no matter how you sugar coat it. Also, Kaoru’s ideals are only spoken by those who has not shed blood. But he prefers those lies. He hints he is the real Battousai because it has its roots in the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu style. He swiftly takes out all the ruffians with intense speed. Even fake Battousai is no match for him. Kihei got so scared he passed out and soiled his pants! Rurouni tears up the contract and leaves. But Kaoru needs him to take responsibility. Can’t let a girl bring back her sword style alone, right? Not wanting to sound like a confession, he asks for his real name. Kenshin Himura. He claims he is tired of travelling and hopes she won’t mind him staying here for a while. But she is stumped. If he is that famed Battousai, how come he looks this young?! Oro?!

Episode 2
Yahiko Myoujin tries to pickpocket from Kenshin but Kaoru sees this and puts a stop to it. In fact, Kenshin willingly gives him his wallet. Yahiko is not amused about being called a child and throws it back to him. Yahiko returns to some ruffian who beats him up since he cannot cough up the cash. The police surrounds Kenshin for his usual sword flouting rules. Lt Ujiki wants him to draw his sword but Kenshin won’t. With the crowd booing the police, Ujiki abuses his power to have his men arrest them. Anyone resisting shall be slain! This forces Kenshin to draw his and warns him their blades will not cut anyone. If they want a fight, he will be their opponent. Ujiki is happy seeing he can now cut him down via self-defence. Meanwhile Aritomo Yamagata is in town because he heard Battousai is here. In fact, he believes he is not a cold blooded killer and his killings were never in self-interests. In fact, it helped saved many lives. Thanks to him, the revolution would never have succeeded. His purpose is to find and welcome him back to the Meiji army he is leading now. Well, when he heard about a commotion with a man with a scar on his face, you bet that’s him. Kenshin singlehandedly defeats everyone and including Ujiki. No sweat. The crowd praises and is amazed by Kenshin. When Yamagata shows himself and invites Kenshin to join his army, Kenshin politely declines as he thinks he doesn’t deserve such honour. No matter what Yamagata says, Kenshin won’t be swayed. This has Kaoru understanding the free flow in life that Kenshin leads. Unhindered by anything and to freely protect those with his sword. As Yahiko is one of many who witnessed Kenshin’s awesomeness, he decides to change. So when the ruffian shows up for his due money, Yahiko tells him he is giving up this miserable way of life. Instantly he is beaten to a pulp.

Episode 3
Yahiko is taken back to see their boss and he tries to convince Yahiko is of a samurai lineage to give up his honour and just work for him. It’s the only way he can survive. But since he went too far badmouthing how his parents died, Yahiko remains steadfast to quit this business. The other hoodlums start beating him up. Yahiko fights back but it is not enough. Cue for Kenshin to barge him and display his awesomeness. You bet the baddies are scared sh*t of him and are willing to let Yahiko go in exchange for their lives. Though, Yahiko isn’t grateful and thinks he could’ve handled it all himself. Kenshin apologizes for underestimating him again. But this only makes Yahiko feel like sh*t since he wishes to be strong so he doesn’t need people like him to help. Well then, Kenshin sets him up to be Kaoru’s disciple! You bet those 2 don’t get along. Yahiko wants to learn Kenshin’s sword instead but Kenshin doesn’t intend to have Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu succeed him. Bad blood continue between Kaoru and Yahiko until one day, Kaoru’s ex-students come running to the dojo to hide. They claim they were trying to teach some drunkards a lesson and now the whole gang is after them. Yeah. The whole damn bunch! Kaoru recognizes them as Hishimanji Guren gang and are just a bunch of thugs. Would hiding inside the dojo help? Yahiko deduces from the circumstances and it seems it was the students who caused the trouble and even went as far to use the dojo’s teachings to injure them. Hishimanji has a wooden cannon to blast open the door! Kaoru is willing to bear the responsibility of her students as long as they leave them alone. Yahiko will not accept such pity and attacks them. Now they’re mad and want to slaughter. That’s the buzzword because Kenshin just returned. Who this f*cker? The f*cker who can cut your cannonball in half! Now you know who you dealing with? Scram! After Kenshin hears what happened, he tells the ex-students to leave and never associate with this dojo again. Yahiko realizes he can’t be like Kenshin, so he’ll settle for Kaoru. This means he’ll become her student.

Episode 4
Looks like Kaoru found some painting from grandpa and now they have some cash to splash! I guess the concept of saving is unheard of then. As they go out to eat at a restaurant, some democratic rights activists are being rowdy. Thus Sanosuke “Sano” Sagara calls them outside to fight. No matter what tricks they throw at him, he is still standing and he just uses a finger to defeat them. When one is about to draw his sword, that is when Kenshin draws the line. Try it. And so those losers leave. Sano is impressed with Kenshin and wants to fight him but he humbly declines. Sano will be waiting if he ever changes his mind. Sano returns to his clients who are no other than Kihei and Gohei. How the hell did they escape from prison? They want to hire him to kill Kenshin. He accepts the job after learning Kenshin is the famous Battousai. Sano then confronts him at Kaoru’s dojo. It seems he has done his research on him and knows all about Kenshin’s days as Battousai. But he is stumped he suddenly went missing after a pivotal victory and decided not to kill anymore. That is why he wants to fight him and see what has changed. Meanwhile Kihei and Gohei eavesdrop and they know Sano cannot best Kenshin. They will wait for the moment till Kenshin tires out and will shoot him. But of course Kenshin and Sano call out to those brothers as Kenshin knows they are Sano’s employers since not many would know of his past. While Sano asserts his hate for imperialists like Kenshin because of the kind of justice they preach, this is his fight and will not allow any dirty play. He destroys the gun and then change their place to the river bank where they have more space to swing about. That’s because Sano introduces his ‘partner’, this giant zanbato that is too heavy for anyone to master perfectly. As the fight begins, it looks like Kenshin won easily since he is too fast for Sano. However he gets back up and that is when Kaoru realizes they have misjudged him. Sano is strong not because of his strength but rather his ability to take abnormal hits. Hence this fight is not the sharpest or strongest sword that wins but the last one standing.

Episode 5
Well, the fight ended quick since Kenshin is able to deduce the zanbato’s heavy weight and take measures to his own advantage. As he lies there, he reminisces about his past. 10 years ago he was part of the Sekiho Army led by Captain Souzou Sagara, going around to announce some land tax reform on behalf of the government. Sagara had hopes of equality with the rise of the new revolutionary government but one day, they were accused of being a fake army and pretended that tax reform thingy never happened. Sagara went to settle the issue but was branded a traitor and beheaded. This gives Sano the much needed strength to get up and fight Kenshin. He can’t lose. At this point, Kihei shoots Kenshin with his hidden gun but he deflects it with his hilt. Kihei then threatens to shoot Kaoru and Yahiko and tells Gohei to break the kid’s legs. That won’t happen since Sano gives the big guy a major pain. After Kenshin teaches that old fart a lesson, the duo return to settle the score. As expected, Sano loses again. Although he remains stubborn and continues to run his mouth against Kenshin as an imperialist, Kaoru and Yahiko correct his misconception of him. He now wields his sword to protect others. Kenshin further adds about the new era in which many are still trapped in poverty and equality. He doesn’t know when the revolution will be successful, but he is doing this as atonement for all those he killed. The same can be said for Sano. Sano realizes he has lost. Kenshin sounded like Sagara. The big difference is that Kenshin continued his fight while he gave up and picked street fights as an excuse to run away. In the aftermath, Sano decides to move on but won’t forget his past with Sekiho and that’s why he won’t remove the current clothes he is wearing.

Episode 6
A police officer seeks Kenshin’s help. It seems there is an assassin, Kurogasa who has 100% record in slaying all his targets. He also enjoys killing them. A local police chief, Tani is targeted and he thinks he is okay barricading himself with all the guards and defence but that is where he is wrong. Because Kurogasa loves all those challenges. The more people, the more chances to kill. When explained about the strange technique he uses that petrifies others, Kenshin could identify that move as Nikaido Heiho. So Kenshin and Sano go see Tani who thought those band of hooligans he hired is enough to keep him safe. Yeah, those hooligans don’t want to get their ass whoop again by them so they better toe the line. So as they wait, here comes merry Kurogasa, relishing slicing some of the guards down. He uses his skill to petrify the rest but it doesn’t work on Kenshin and Sano. It seems Nikaido Heiho is not some sort of sorcery but fighting spirits. As long as they can keep it and equal to its aura, they won’t be affected. With Kenshin able to defend Tani, this impresses Kurogasa so much that he decides to make Kenshin his next target before fleeing. It could be all part of Kenshin’s plan to turn the attention to him but he laments he couldn’t finish off Kurogasa tonight. On the way back, Kenshin explains to Sano more about the move as well as Kurogasa himself and his origins. Not that I get it, though. Sano returns to tell Kaoru and Yahiko about Kenshin not returning to the dojo for a while to settle things. This makes Kaoru unsatisfied. She will go look for him. She has lost so many people and she doesn’t want to be lonely should she lose Kenshin. In that case, she’d rather put herself in danger! That’s a weird way of saying she loves him!!! ISN’T IT?! Kaoru’s angry aura is deadlier than Kurogasa, better explain yourself Kenshin! She gives him her ribbon to hold on after hearing him out. And then suddenly Kurogasa kidnaps her! OMFG! How the heck did he show up so fast and quietly on a boat?! Is he riding a motorboat?! He throws Kenshin a letter where he’ll be waiting for their duel.

Episode 7
Wow. Look at Kenshin’s mad face as he rips the letter. As Kurogasa waits, he explains to Kaoru that she is just bait to make Kenshin mad and return to his hitokiri man slaying days. Flashback shows when Kurogasa was once in the Shinsengumi, his side faced Battousai. All were killed swiftly except him as he was made to report what happened. But he became thrilled with that and that inspired him to become a killer like him. Kenshin is here and Kurogasa likes the look on his face. They clash swords but knowing Kenshin has been reading his moves, he got a few tricks up his sleeve. Since Kenshin lacks that killer instinct, Kurogasa does his Nikaido Heiho on Kaoru. She will suffocate in a few minutes if Kenshin doesn’t kill him. This makes Kenshin even madder as Kurogasa gets a taste of his might. And he likes it as much as he fears him. Even more so Kenshin announces he is going to kill him. As Kenshin does his killer stance, Kurogasa thinks it is a race to dodge his attack. Doing so will be his win. He does so but didn’t anticipate Kenshin using his sheath to counter attack. Now that Kurogasa’s arm is broken, he cannot wield a sword anymore. Kenshin is going to really kill him and Kurogasa relishes death by his sword. Kaoru doesn’t want Kenshin to return to such ways so she manages to break out and call out to him. As he goes to her, Kurogasa is not done. You think he is going to sneak attack on Kenshin but he kills himself instead. He can’t let the police catch him as they will trace back to his employers. He hints there are many who want to return to the old ways. Now that his arm is busted, staying alive is pathetically boring. He knows Kenshin will return being a hitokiri because once a hitokiri, always a hitokiri. On the way back, Kaoru thanks him for saving her but he thanks her instead. Without her call, he would’ve returned being Battousai. He returns her ribbon. Hope you like it blood soaked! Kenshin vows to never go back being a hitokiri and stay a wanderer until he dies.

Episode 8
Sano takes Kenshin to gamble? Illegal but hey, Kenshin carrying his sword around is illegal too. When Sano hears one of his gambler buddies died earlier due to opium, he becomes mad. But this makes Kenshin wonder how he could afford such expensive drug. Suddenly Megumi Takani barges in and begs Kenshin to protect her. A few goons are here to get Megumi but they are taken out easily. Yeah, being rude and crude sealed their fate. Some recognizes those men working for Kanryu Takeda, a powerful entrepreneur whom many want to avoid crossing paths with. He has his own personal army and speaking of which, here is one, Beshimi warning Megumi to come back or else. He tries to attack her as warning but Kenshin protects her and Sano knocks him out. The plot thickens as Megumi drops packs of opium. She refuses to divulge more but continues to seek Kenshin’s protection. You bet Kaoru is being given the wrong signals of this beauty staying with them for a while. Especially Megumi being a bit flirty with Kenshin. Later there is a commotion at the river. The guys that were chasing Megumi ended up dead. Megumi also points out among the crowd is that Kanryu guy. But more concerning is the man next to him, Aoshi Shinomori. Basically he is the leader of the Oniwabanshu ninja clan. It is unknown why this group joined Kanryu’s side but they have to be wary of him. Even Aoshi is wary of Kenshin. As Kanryu doesn’t want to attract bad rep, he doesn’t want his men to get Megumi and cause a scene. She is after all his golden goose. Though, he hints he got rid of those useless men because only then he feels reassured. As Kenshin seeks more info about the group structure of Kanryu’s army, Megumi tells what is needed but stops short of revealing anything pertaining to opium. She believes Oniwabanshu is getting serious if Kanryu is mobilizing them. She thinks of fleeing while both sides clash. Well, put that on ice because Oniwabanshu’s Hyottoko just crashed in.

Episode 9
Sano tries to take on Hyottoko but it seems he can breathe fire. Kenshin mocks him that his street performance won’t burn any hair of his so an enraged Hyottoko blows all his got until he runs out of fuel. Kenshin is still in 1 piece. Although he refuels, Sano has learnt his trick and grabs the fire sack inside his throat before finishing him off with a kick. Beshimi tries to snipe at Megumi but Yahiko acts faster and protects her. However he is now poisoned. Kenshin knocks out Beshimi. Hannya is here to collect his pals and blocks Kenshin’s blow. He assures as long as Megumi is with them, they will eventually face each other. Yahiko is now going into seizures. Megumi then tells the rest what to do next and the ingredients they need to get. Thanks to that, his condition stabilizes. The doctor is impressed with who wrote this prescription because this person is very skilled in western medicine. Then he realizes it is Megumi. He knows her because she worked for a doctor friend of his until his murder 3 years ago. Some brief history about the proud medical achievements of her family until some war that has her father drafted and killed and the rest of her family members missing. Alone, Megumi drifted around until she came upon that doctor who created the opium. Kanryu bought it cheaply from him and made massive gains from selling this destructive drug to others. Of course Kanryu tried to get him to reveal the refining process but he wouldn’t. In a scuffle, he was killed. As Megumi was his assistant at that time and the only one who knew the process, that is why she is Kanryu’s golden goose. So now that her story is clear, Kenshin believes they will not let her go so it is best she stays at the dojo for a while. Just don’t make a move on Kenshin, as ‘warned’ by Kaoru. Hannya reports to Aoshi about what happened. Hyottoko and Beshimi are out and Hannya’s injuries will have him sit out of any combat for days. Relegated to spying duties, Aoshi orders him to find out more on Kenshin.

Episode 10
While Megumi adjusts to life in the dojo, Sano still doesn’t like her, even calling her the opium girl. Soon, Hannya kidnaps Megumi to bring her to see Kanryu. He wants her back. She won’t. In that case, he will call all his army to burn down the dojo. She has until tonight to think about it. This is part of Kanryu’s tactic to let her return on her own free will. Doing so, that Battousai will not have any reason to come after him and he won’t make enemies out of that legendary killer. So when Megumi leaves them a letter saying she has left for home, Kenshin realizes too late that Kanryu has got her. She has no family left back in her hometown. Kenshin will go take her back but Sano is still sulking over the issue. So Kenshin tells him that he has not looked directly in Megumi’s eyes and saw the loneliness she has been through. Sano being Sano, he stops being petty and joins Kenshin and Yahiko to go raid Kanryu’s mansion. Obviously no matter how many guards he has, nobody can match their speed. Yeah, not even those with guns! What kind of combo did they pull off?! As Kanryu welcomes Megumi back, she is actually here to kill him and then herself. They will atone their sins together in hell. Luckily Aoshi stops her as he notes Kenshin is here. Kanryu wants to hire Kenshin into his fold but no matter how much he offers, all Kenshin wants is the return of Megumi. Kanryu then surrenders but wants an hour so he can settle his own stuffs (he plans to torture Megumi to spill out the refinement process). Kenshin is willing to wait but Aoshi is itching to fight him and disobeys whatever orders Kanryu gives him. Just like Kenshin, Oniwabanshu isn’t motivated by money but battles. Aoshi tells Megumi those dojo guys are here to save her. She laments her efforts go to waste. Aoshi gives her a choice whether to take her own life or die from Kanryu’s torture. His group came here thinking things might get suspicious with the illicit sales of opium but thanks to her, they have come across a formidable foe. The hour is up so Kenshin steps in and his first opponent is Hannya.

Episode 11
Kenshin losing against Hannya? Well, only because of some spell he put on him when the exchanged glances before. Of course Kenshin will soon find the solution to this and best him. Something about the stripes on his clothes serving as optical illusion and his arm longer than usual thus Kenshin used his sword as measurement against his attacks. Hannya losing his mask and reveals he has no face. Do we care about his back story? Basically only someone like Aoshi believed in him and took him into his ranks. Loyalty. Game over as Kenshin knocks him out. In the next room, we have this muscular guy, Shikijo. Sano fights him so Kenshin and Yahiko could go rescue Megumi. Meanwhile Kanryu pleads to Megumi to run away together. They can start life anew and atone their sins. However she calls out his lies. What they have done cannot be atoned. See you in hell. Now he changes his tone and blames her for everything. Everything. Now we follow the usual formula of Sano losing to Shikijo’s hard muscles. Shikijo also talks about his loyalty to Aoshi since he picked him up as a nobody. He wants Sano to join them and perhaps he could even surpass them all in strength. Obviously Sano passes and notes Oniwabanshu is just strong. That is all. They are not like Kenshin because he fights to protect others. There’s the difference. This makes Shikijo mad and pummel all the way but Sano somehow becomes stronger and knocks the daylights out of him. Now Kenshin is faced with Aoshi.

Episode 12
Aoshi uses a weaker sword and Kenshin realizes it works well with his speed since Aoshi is a kenpo master. As usual, time for Aoshi to narrate the reason he fights. Basically he couldn’t accept the coward shogun for running away and negotiated for a surrender. Because of that, his Oniwabanshu couldn’t fight. Because had they fought, victory could’ve been theirs. He even details his plan on how to achieve it. Of course Kenshin cannot accept it as it would mean many innocent lives lost. Kenshin manages to overcome Aoshi’s attacks by holding the bottom of his blade and shortening the distance. Aoshi then unleashes his real fighting style, Kaiten Kenbu and slays down Kenshin. You think Yahiko should be his next opponent? Thank goodness Kenshin gets up. He is not dead since he used his sheath to protect himself from its full blow. Kenshin then uses his own bare hands to grab his sword and turns the tables on him. Effectively, knocking Aoshi out for a while and secure his victory. Aoshi warns Kenshin to finish him off now or he will keep hunting him down. Obviously Kenshin won’t because he doesn’t kill now. Kenshin asks there were so many places, positions and proper channels for Aoshi to test his strength and become the strongest, so why did he resort to this? From what I understand, it is to keep the pride of his men. Talk is cut short with Kanryu here to show off his gatling gun. Wow, Kenshin and Aoshi fast enough to dodge those bullets? Oh, Aoshi got hit in the leg. Kanryu then reveals his true goal is to be an international arms dealer. Selling opium was just to secure his funds for that. He brags about the power of money that could be power and bypass all those years of harsh training. Despicable scum resumes his firing but with many targets, he focuses on immobile Aoshi. Shikijo is fast enough to use body to shield him.

Episode 13
Hyottoko’s turn to sacrifice himself. He warns Kanryu of shooting at him filled with fuel. Guess what? Kanryu shoots his head! But it’s also a trap as Beshimi is hiding there and jumps out to shoot his mini drills. Too bad that didn’t last as he took some lead too. Finally, Hannya charges straight at Kanryu and gets holes all over so that Kenshin has enough time to get his sword. Kanryu’s luck runs out because he used up all his bullets. Kenshin might be angry but he still won’t kill and knocks him out. Then when they go rescue Megumi, she is going to kill herself. Sano stops her so as not to let their efforts be wasted. With the police here, Megumi intends to surrender herself despite knowing well that the penalty for producing opium is death. So when she gives herself up, Kanryu is more than happy to reveal everything about her. But Kenshin shuts him up and just says she is a doctor and was under duress to make opium. Oh well, take Battousai’s word for it. Kenshin believes if Megumi wants to atone for her crimes, she should continue to be a doctor and help others. Killing herself won’t bring the dead back to life. Then they realize Aoshi is missing. Oh look, he just got out via the mansion’s secret passageway. Kenshin wants him to fight him and he will willingly lose to give him the title of the strongest. However Aoshi tells him not to be killed until the day he comes back to kill him. Aoshi escapes and Kenshin seems pretty okay to be his eternal target. No point fretting about it, right? Everyone returns to the dojo, much to Kaoru relief. Since the dojo can’t house more people as it is already, Megumi will go live with the doctor. She hints she is willing to be Kenshin’s companion if he gets tired of Kaoru. Aoshi buries his comrades but promises revenge for them.

Episode 14
Yahiko has not been stopping by the dojo lately. Kaoru thinks it is he has found some food. Sano: A girl: Kenshin: Training for his swordsmanship. The only way is to go spy on him. They’ve got nothing else better to do, right? So, he is working at the restaurant they frequent too? Oh, what’s this? There’s this new young girl working there, Tsubame? He is doing labour to help train his swordsmanship. Food, woman, sword training. Yup, all 3 there. But even so, why is he even telling the shop’s mistress, Tae to keep it a secret? Soon we discover that Tsubame is being threatened by a bunch of ruffians to make a mould of the owner’s house key since he brings home the cash from the restaurant. Tsubame doesn’t want to do it but is forced to after all the threat. Now Yahiko enters the scene to teach this guys a lesson. He would’ve won one on one until they gang up and beat him up. Tsubame can’t stand this sight so she gives the mould and they leave. Kenshin and co have been watching but they can’t intervene. This is Yahiko’s battle and if he is to get stronger, he must win his own battles without their help. So Yahiko needs to get stronger but how to do so before those bastards rob the house? Especially multiple opponents. Kenshin’s advice is a tactic to hit and run since enemies run at different speed so when you’re done dispatching one group, you run away until the next batch catches up. That night as the ruffians are about to rob the house, Yahiko steals the keys. Then he corners himself in a dead end to easily fight the bad guys one on one. The leader sees where this is going and tells him men to wear him down. But they see Kenshin and Sano watching from afar. They get scared and run away. The boss is now left to face Yahiko alone. Obviously Yahiko knows his tricks and defeats him. With this case solved, Yahiko finally reveals why he is working at the restaurant: To save up money to buy a sakabato (a reversed blade sword that Kenshin uses). Sano laughs his ass off but what does Kenshin say? My dear boy, it is going to cost a lot. Way much…

Episode 15
Kaoru brings Kenshin to Maekawa dojo since the master is one of her father’s friends and she used to train here. Maekawa has wanted to meet Kenshin but of course seeing that he is old, he won’t be foolishly challenging him. But soon this towering dude, Raijuta Isurugi (and his cocky little disciple, Yutarou Tsukayama) comes in to challenge Maekawa. He agrees but with a few terms. Although Raijuta is not impressed, he accepts the challenge. Obviously Raijuta is stronger as he wins the first round. Although Maekawa is injured, he still wants to continue. Obviously he gets owned in the second. Raijuta is actually going to kill him but Kenshin steps in. Raijuta admits to that since a man has only 1 life and thus a match is decided in the first round. He also laments the decline of swordsmanship especially with dojos nowadays using these bamboo swords. He dares other to challenge him or he will have their signboard burnt. This is when Kenshin agrees to duel him (or Kaoru would have) but also to fight using bamboo swords. As the match begins, Kenshin is just dodging his moves. Raijuta realizes this is a ploy to draw the match so he can’t burn the signboard. When Raijuta unleashes a powerful attack that splits the ground, Kenshin manages to dodge. Raijuta calls the fight off and leaves. Later Kenshin and co get an invitation letter from Raijuta. Sorry, this huge mansion doesn’t belong to him but Yutarou’s dad. He exports swords to Europe as they fetch a high price. One day he was attacked by bandits but Raijuta saved him. Yutarou was so impressed he wanted to train under him. As Kenshin meets Raijuta, the latter asks about his opinion on today’s swordsmanship. As with the law of nature the weak gets weeded out, his goal is to restore the great swordsmanship. However he must weed out useless ones first like those using bamboo swords (the reason he challenges such dojos). Once such useless swordsmanship are eradicated, he will begin the authentic restoration. He wants Kenshin to join him in his cause but of course he declines. As a fellow swordsman, Kenshin too laments the fate of swordsmanship today. However if that fate leads to more murders, he would not accept it and will go so far as to stop him. In that case, we’re enemies from now on.

Episode 16
Kenshin seemingly dodges all his attacks. And when he goes in, he breaks Raijuta’s sword. So they’ll settle this another day? With Yutarou continuing to b*tch about everything, Yahiko shuts him up and if he is so itching for a fight, he’ll take him on at the dojo. Well, well. Yutarou actually takes up his word but goes to fight him in the wee hours of the morning? Then they realize Yutarou has no training in swordsmanship whatsoever since he holds the bamboo sword wrongly. The cat is out of the bag as he reveals Raijuta never trained him once. It is suggested he trains here. Got a problem, Yahiko? Even Raijuta gives his blessing for him to train there. To know yourself is to know your enemy. Whatever. It’s going to be noisy since Yahiko and Yutarou are loggerheads. But Yutarou’s skill is seen improving in this short span of time. Kaoru wants him to continue training but he declines. If he wants to get stronger, he still wants to train under Yutarou. His goal is to put his dad to shame. He was once a samurai but gave up his life to sell swords, putting up fake smiles to European customers. Yutarou continues to explain that night when bandits attacked them, he was appalled his dad grovelled to beg for mercy. It was then Raijuta popped up. His single strike made all the bandits run helter-skelter. That was when Yutarou wanted to be strong like him. He hopes Kenshin will fight him fair and square. But soon Raijuta ambushes Kenshin from behind. So much about honour, huh? As they continue to fight, Raijuta unleashes a powerful strike. Had not Kenshin jump in, Yutarou would’ve bear the full brunt of the force. Everyone is appalled he did this to his own student but Raijuta dismisses Yutarou ever as his student. He is more concerned in reviving his swordsmanship and for that he needs lots of funds. That is why he puts up with this brat and staged that fake robbery. Obviously Kenshin is mad. He will fight him after he sends Yutarou to the doctor. Although his life is not threatened, it seems his nerves and tendons are slashed. Meaning, he will never hold a sword again.

Episode 17
Yahiko, please don’t blame the doctor for being unable to do anything. Medical technology isn’t so advanced yet. But he is not done as he takes Yutarou so he can witness the outcome of the match. Kenshin and Raijuta’s match resumes. The latter doing his specialty moves although Kenshin has figured out the trick behind. Just using the pressure in the air and the wind to cut through. When Kenshin gets a small cut, Raijuta relishes in this. But Kenshin not so impressed. If he is this happy with a small cut, this means he has never killed a man before. Because a real killer won’t be this happy if he doesn’t kill and that he doesn’t know how deep such killer swords are. Raijuta continues to go on the offensive and Kenshin just dodging. Just in time for the rest to arrive to witness Kenshin using one of his Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu style to knock him out with the hilt of his sword. But when he comes to, he takes Yahiko hostage and threatens to kill him. Yahiko dares him and so does everyone else. Kenshin lectures him about murderous swords and tells him his style can only hurt but cannot kill. Warning, abandon your sword now before he faces a real murderous sword and lose his life. Raijuta can only stand there in frustration as everyone leaves. With Yutarou depressed and cooped up in his room, Kenshin talks to his father who talks about his success from the viewpoint of outsiders. But as a samurai, it is a dishonour to sell such souls of a samurai to westerners and in this context, he is a loser. That is why Yutarou wanted to live a different life. He then says they will move to Germany in a week. It has the most advanced medical technology and he hopes his son will forget about swordsmanship. As the gang see them off, both sides cannot find the correct words. They depart with no words exchange until Yahiko tries to attack Yutarou in which he perfectly blocks. Yahiko tells him off to be stronger than Raijuta and shake off all the disappointment of betrayal. Or else he’ll be a loser for life! Yutarou denies he has given up and promises to come back stronger and beat his ass. Kenshin ponders about Raijuta’s obsession with the technique and that he didn’t question the essence of the sword. Should he pursue that, it could’ve opened up a whole new swordsmanship style. It is a blessing he didn’t cross the line by killing others. Seeing Yahiko and Yutarou, he needs not worry about today’s swordsmanship state. Meanwhile Raijuta tries to kill innocent women. He couldn’t and just slashed off a statue. Loser can only cry.

Episode 18
When Tae requests Sano to buy a Nishiki painting for her, well, this guy is so free to do her a favour. But at the stall, he notices a painting of Sagara. He gets the vendor to spill out the details of who drew this and his whereabouts. Although he goes by the name Tsunan Tsukioka, Sano knows he is Katsuhiro who was a member of Sekiho. He goes to the slums and surprises his old buddy. They catch up on times and it seems Tsunan has been miserable for the last 10 years. The only thing on his mind is to get revenge on Sagara and clear Sekiho’s name. He is hell bent on materializing Sagara’s dream and has created very lethal homemade bombs for the past 10 years. The first step to crush the current government is to bomb the home ministry’s place to cause chaos. He will slowly bomb the other ministries and cause all dissatisfied samurais and farmers to revolt. Tsunan claims he is one man show and will take time to do all this. He won’t force Sano into this but as a fellow Sekiho, he gives him until tomorrow night to think about it. As Sano leaves, he rues Tsunan has been so obsessed with his revenge he couldn’t see the present. Tsunan remembers back when Sagara told him to expand his knowledge because the next era will be theirs. However Tsunan still laments failing to protect him. Sano surprisingly wants to hold a big party at the dojo. Don’t worry, he isn’t going to leech of Kaoru. So, Tsunan is sponsoring them? Okay. Whatever. So we see all the usual people gathering at the dojo and having a great party. Tsunan also draws portraits as per requested. He draws Kenshin and learns he was a former revolutionary army. His portrait of Kenshin has no face because he cannot clearly see who he is. When the party is over and everyone is asleep, we learn this is all part of Sano’s last supper plan. He is going to aid Tsunan and although he knows this is wrong, Sekiho holds a special place in his heart. That is why he has no regrets the next time he faces Kenshin as a bad guy and is prepared to be cut down by him.

Episode 19
Tsunan and Sano drop bombs as the front gate as distraction. While the guards are trying to put it out, the duo enter from the back. However Kenshin is waiting. Tsunan throws his bombs but Kenshin cuts off the fuse! Those he can’t, he dodges them! Seeing this is going nowhere, Sano stops him. Bombs can’t stop him. Sano knocks him out and Kenshin lets them go. All part of the plan? When Tsunan wakes up in his room, all his bombs are gone. Sano says Kenshin has taken them all to be buried. Tsunan is distraught his 10 years were all for naught. He is going to kill himself in front of the home ministry to expose their wrongdoings. He escapes but soon Sano catches up as the guys trade punches over their ideals. As Tsunan takes out his 10 year old anger, Sano tells him off there were many other ways he could’ve tried to clear Sagara’s name. Besides, he is 10 years too late. He tells how the people are getting by today without complaining. They’re just living their everyday life at their best and smiling. This means his suicide will not move the world or anything. This eventually breaks Tsunan. Sano explains Kenshin’s reason for stopping them. Because he was part of the previous admin and doing a lot of shady things, this is precisely why he cannot let them do shady stuffs. Even if today’s government is corrupted, that doesn’t mean they have to stoop that low to do something. Tsunan remembers Sagara’s words about fighting the way that suits him best. He picks up his brush. When Sano visits the vendor, Tsunan left his final Nishiki painting for him. It seems he is going to start an illustrated newspaper to expose the government’s tyranny. He might be cracked down hard but it’s better than mindless violence.

Episode 20
As narrated, with Japan opening up to the west, Yokohama is now a settlement for foreigners. Kenshin almost gets bumped into a rickshaw puller, Dankichi Asahiyama. But nearby a young girl is crying since her mom has fallen ill. Don’t worry, a masked doctor, Elder Peaberry will treat her. However, a local doctor, Deian Ishizu is not pleased with this since Elder has been treating patients for free. You see, Ishizu only treats those with money or who can pay. People like Elder will cause prices to fall. Especially in a time when western medicine is now all the rage. Of course, he knows hitting a foreigner is illegal. He is going to do something to the sick woman instead. This is where Kenshin steps in to stave off the goons as Dankichi takes the patients away before Kenshin flees with Elder. As the woman gets proper treatment in her place, Elder wants to take them by inviting them to tea. Kenshin experiencing some western stuffs for the first time. After that, Dankichi takes them on a tour on Yokohama. Yeah, time for some history lessons on some of its famous landmarks! After parting ways, so Kenshin going to lodge in the same room as Elder? He realizes Elder is a woman. Uhm, I actually figured that out a long time ago! Was it not obvious? Anyway, Kenshin soon receives a letter addressed for Elder. Meanwhile Ishizu talks to a foreigner about Elder getting in his way. He understands he wants this doctor eliminated seeing she is intruding on his turf. But since his men cannot best her bodyguard, western dude has a subordinate who craves fighting a samurai. He is Espiral and from his crazy looks and crazy looking rapier, he is itching to fight Kenshin.

Episode 21
Ishizu has a devious plan to spread smallpox so he can get more money in treating people. Then to test Espiral’s skill, Ishizu has a goon fight him and is easily defeated. Elder reveals her cross-dressing because even in the western world, women are not trusted no matter how skilled they are. After parting ways, it seems Dankichi arrives to get Elder as someone has sought for her. But along the way, Espiral stands before them and uses his twisted rapier to dismantle the whole of Dankichi’s rickshaw. Espiral threatens Elder for Kenshin’s whereabouts but oh look, he is here. Espiral challenges him to see whose sword is better. Or Elder gets it. Kenshin accepts the duel and dodges Espiral’s attacks. We learn the trick to his twisting technique and using that force, that is why he is able to twist and break things easily. Like a screw, right? Espiral then uses his ultimate technique that contorts his body in a weird way. When he lunges, the attack finally hits but Kenshin uses that force to repel it back to him, breaking his sword. Espiral expects to be finished off but Kenshin shows his reversed sword to dispel his perception of him as Battousai. Watching Ishizu is not happy and throws the smallpox bottle. OMG, who gonna catch it?! Surprisingly Espiral because he doesn’t want this bout to be further tainted. Ishizu is knocked out by Dankichi throwing his broken wheel! In the aftermath, Elder treats Espiral’s injuries. He is saddened this is how his fate ends but Elder advises him about being lost since his goals are too big. Now that he has decided to change his ways, Espiral now becomes Elder’s bodyguard and will accompany her trip to USA. He changed his rapier to a straight one to reflect his change. As Kenshin sees both of them off, the people give thanks to Elder. This is also when she unmasks herself to shock them the beautiful woman she is. Elder talks to Kenshin about his scar. Kenshin doesn’t intend to change and the scar is a reminder of his past he can’t easily cast off. For now, he will live and protect as many people as he can. If you’re wondering why this mini arc is just Kenshin alone, all this happened about 5 days before he first met Kaoru.

Episode 22
It has been a while since Kenshin has a dream about the Bakumatsu days. Because of that, he is spacing out a lot and looking a bit serious. Meanwhile a medicine peddler arrives at Kaoru’s dojo while everyone was out. Only Sano is in. However Sano can tell he is not a usual medicine peddler from his rough hands. This is when Hajime Saito reveals himself and has a score to settle with Battousai. Sano fights him but is no match for his sword style. When the rest return, they see a hole in the wall and Sano badly injured. Now we see Saito talking to a politician named Shibumi. He is the one who has been ordering assassinations in the background including Kurogasa on Kenshin. He finds it ironic but delightful that Saito who was once part of the Shinsengumi to be working for him and to take this job to assassinate Battousai. Shibumi hopes he is successful because after this job, he will be done doing dirty assassination jobs. As Megumi takes care of Sano, Kenshin continues to put a forlorn look as he analyses the damage and injury that has been dealt. Based on all that, he can tell the only one who could pull this off is Saito. He has returned to settle a score and his skills have not declined a bit. Meanwhile Akamatsu Arundo sees Hajime and doesn’t trust him. Because the job to kill Battousai was originally his. Saito proposes they cooperate. In fact, Saito has set up all the details and even sent a letter to Kenshin for their showdown. This means Akamatsu will have the honour in finishing him off Kenshin. Akamatsu likes the deal and goes off to finish Battousai. Kenshin receives Saito’s letter and heads to the appointed place. However he is attacked by Akamatsu. Obviously Kenshin defeats him easily and makes him spill the beans. Akamatsu feigns cowardice and lies he was forced to do so by Saito. When Kenshin turns his back, Akamatsu binds him in his chains and beats him up.

Episode 23
Saito visits the dojo and tells Kaoru and Yahiko that police intel states someone is after Kenshin’s life. He is willing to wait till Kenshin returns. Akamatsu thought he has bested Kenshin and then like any dumbass baddie, reveals about the politicians who hired them to get rid of him. Obviously Kenshin is not dead and lands his surprise attack to knock him out. When Kenshin returns, Kaoru spots an obvious worried looks on her face. He is baffled how she knew about this. Then it all falls into place when he sees Saito at the dojo. Yes, both men fought each other 10 years ago when Saito was a Shinsengumi. Kenshin maintains his stand that he will not kill as a wanderer even with this weakened strength, as long as he protects others, it is fine. However Saito notes even that, he fails as a wanderer. Because he had a hard time taking care of Akamatsu, Saito could have just killed his friends whenever he likes. All the battles he has fought, he hoped Kenshin would’ve realized his destiny as Battousai but to his disappointment, 10 years is enough for a man to rot away. How can he protect others if he doesn’t kill? Saito will not accept the current Kenshin as they prepare to fight. At first Saito dominates and pushes Kenshin until he starts breathing hard. But with Kenshin putting on a serious killer looks, Saito realizes he has been slowly returning to his Battousai self unconsciously. Because now Kenshin is faster and takes Saito by surprise. The more the fight continues, the more Kaoru gets worried because this is not the Kenshin she knows. This is Battousai. When Saito swords breaks and Kenshin claiming he will KILL him, it is all the more worrying. Somebody please stop them! The fight turns into a fist fight as both sides go all out hard against each other. Until a police officer stops them and chides Saito for going too far since his original job was just to gauge Kenshin. Popping up is the mastermind behind it all, the former revolutionary fighter and the current home minster of the Meiji government, Toshimichi Okubo.

Episode 24
Saito reports Kenshin is a failure. But Battousai, perhaps there is a chance. Okubo needs to talk privately with Kenshin but since he has involved others, he wants others to know too. Does Makoto Shishio ring a bell to you? You could say he is Battousai’s successor. But he died 10 years ago, right? Of course he didn’t. The government realized his greed for dominance and snuffed him out by burning him. Yeah well, looks like he survived. Now he is back doing assassinations in the shadows and has gathered a group of his based in Kyoto. He is plotting a war of revenge that would split this nation. Okubo has sent many men to put him down. None were successful. That’s why he had to resort in testing Kenshin this way. He is their only hope. Can a rurouni kill? Although the government is willing to close an eye on the laws they have break and even acquit Megumi of her opium charges, the rest call it dirty because they’re using it as leverage against Kenshin. After all, this mess was started by them and now they want Kenshin to clean it up. Who cares if this sh*tty government goes down, right? Better let it die! Everyone is firm against Kenshin going to Kyoto. Okubo will wait for a week to hear his reply. Akamatsu heard everything and tries to bail. However he along with Shibumi gets killed by Saito. As Kenshin thinks hard, he still believes Saito continues to remain true to his justice. Because he cuts down all corrupted and rotten people. Had Okubo been one, he would’ve been slain by his hands. As Okubo makes his way, he is attacked and killed by Soujirou Seta. Looks like Shishio didn’t like him contacting Battousai. Bandits who wanted to attack Okubo are shocked somebody got to him earlier than them. But they just continue to beat a dead horse. Soon, news of Okubo’s assassination is all over. Kenshin and Saito talk to Yamayoshi who is Fukushima’s governor and the last person Okubo talked to. That talk was to chart Japan’s future and truly Okubo wanted to change Japan for the better. Now a good man is gone and there will be chaos. Shishio will definitely take advantage of this. Hence when Kenshin returns to Kaoru, he tells her he is going to Kyoto. He can’t promise he can’t kill but Shishio must be stopped. As for that reversion to Battousai. His fight with Saito was different than Kurogasa. The latter, he reverted to save Kaoru. With Saito, it was just to fight. Her voice did not reach him. He realizes this Battousai has never changed. If he stays here, everyone will be caught up and the higher chances he will return being Battousai. He gives her a goodbye hug and leaves. Poor Kaoru left in tears.

Samurai (Fle)X: X Marks The (Rurouni) Spot
Well people, can they end the season like that? Oro, oro? Kenshin leaving a girl broken hearted and in tears?! It’s like a guy dumping his girl, dammit! Oh, Kenshin you meanie! Obviously not! Because it is only right to continue the next arc with another season! Hooray! It would be an insult and blasphemy for them to end it like that seeing how they teased us with a ‘new’ character right in the final episode. Well, technically speaking. It’s his first appearance, no? That’s right. The next arc would be one of the most important and memorable plots of the series. Even if you disagree, it was for me. So yes, hoping to look forward to the next season and watch again all the awesome group fights in the Kyoto Arc. We’re going to get group fights in this arc, right? Kenshin not going in solo and doing a John Wick and bringing down everyone with his sakabato, right?!

Story/Plot
Fortunately, this remake stays true to the manga source and animates all plots from the source itself. This means unlike the original series, this remake doesn’t have all the filler episodes such as that apprentice sumo one, that runaway locomotive one and yes, that female pirate one. It was no surprise that with so many fillers, the original series blew up to 94 episodes. The remake does away with all that and gets to the point with all the necessary plot. Of course the only arc which I have not seen or recall is the one with Elder (hence aptly named as this series second title?). I truly did not recall ever watching that and it is proof that this remake isn’t just copy and paste of the old and doing away with filler episodes. So with at least this new animated never seen before arc (at least from the original TV series), it brings much value to this remake. And as said, this remake isn’t just copy and paste seeing there are some parts which are shown differently. Oh yeah, I can still vividly remember one part whereby Kanryu was firing his gatling gun away and Beshimi jammed it with his mini projectile before dying. However in this remake, that did not happen and instead Kanryu just simply ran out of bullets. That’s how much some of the episodes especially the important arcs were so memorable for me. Thus I believe that there are many other scenes which also follow this pattern and it gives the remake a much needed new breath of air.

Action
Obviously when you watch this series, it is because of the samurai sword fights or the action scenes, right? Needless to say, the remake makes the action scenes much faster and slicker and they are worth your time watching. Because of that, this greatly makes the remake a great rewatch and you will not be disappointed especially if you are old veteran fans of the series. With that, I can only shiver with great anticipation the fights for the next big arc to come. Oh yeah. I’m having such high expectations right now! Though as far as this season is concern, most of the fight scenes only involve Kenshin since he is the protagonist so it is only logical that he takes on his challengers. Sano has a few moments but nothing compared to Kenshin drawing his sword to protect those in need. Thus if you want a variety of fights from various characters like Shaman King, sorry this season has not reached that stage yet. Because Yahiko still an amateur honing his (bamboo) sword skills and Kaoru remaining useless, oops I mean the moral support for Kenshin.

Characters
Safe to say, not much has changed in terms of character from the original series. They largely remain the same here for those who have seen them in the original. Like Kenshin who has turned over a new leaf but a few motherf*ckers can’t accept that and try to force him to return to his old ways only to fail spectacularly or deceive themselves with false hope he will eventually revert (still watching this from hell, Kurogasa? Keep waiting…). At other times, Kenshin is the same carefree doofus, spouting his trademark “Oro, oro…” at times.  Yeah, sometimes it is unbelievable to find this once cold blooded killer turned into some sort of softie joker. Though, this updated version tries to paint him in a slightly more darker and serious tone especially his bloody Battousai past. Are they going for this Jekyll and Hyde thingy later on when this moral dilemma rears its ugly head again? But still, his skills are real and don’t you dare mess with him. Being a wanderer (because vagabond sounds like a dirty word) may not cleanse Kenshin of his past sins but as long as he is alive, he can make amendments and atone them. Sure, he can’t please everybody but as I can see and expect, he makes a difference for those around him. I’ll be sounding like a broken recorder trying to talk about the other characters because like I’ve said, they’re still largely the same like Sano the straightforward and brash dude, the steadfast and astute Yahiko, the icy and ruthless Aoshi as well as the strong willed Kaoru. Any chance of seeing Kenshin x Kaoru romance in this remake? I wouldn’t bet on it. However if there are a couple of minor characters veterans would notice missing, are a couple of lolis that were staying at the doctor’s place. Ah yes, remember Suzume and Ayame? Sorry lolicons, original source never had them. It is a good thing they don’t exist here because I can only see them get in the way. If not, just being useless. Phew?

Art & Animation
It goes without saying that whenever you have a remake of any classic series in today’s era, it is mainly because there will be updates in the art and animation. This remake of course updates the visuals and obviously it looks much better and superior than the original. Yes, when you compare both the series side by side, you can see how outdated the visuals, colouring and animation quality are. This is also one reason why the action scenes as mentioned earlier look way better than in the original. Thanks to the better visuals, everything is no doubt better looking although no overhaul of the character designs or anything else. Because we can still clearly identify Kenshin with his huge ‘X’ scar on his cheek as well as the other trademarks of other characters, even with the minor and supporting characters. The new visuals also gives the remake a serious and slightly darker vibes. This is because with the lack of filler episodes that were supposed to be comical, we don’t see Kenshin’s chibi and stupid-like expressions like huge bulging or spiralling eyeballs. At least not as frequent as the original one. Yeah. The original series was done by Gallop before subsequently being taken over by Studio Deen for its remainder episodes. For this remake, Lidenfilms did a great job in bringing new life to a classic and beloved series. Hopefully they will maintain this quality in the next season.

Voice acting
Unlike Shaman King, this one has a total overhaul in their entire cast (just like Fruits Basket). Of course the series itself has many OVAs and other spinoffs and there were a few changes to the seiyuus too. But as far as the main anime TV series is concerned, it’s a complete overhaul of the original casts. Oh yeah. How nostalgic and a trivial matter as I remember the first time I heard Kenshin’s original Japanese voice. Because Kenshin sounds so much like a girl! OMFG! Yes, I originally saw this cartoon, ahem, ANIME, while it was dubbed in English! The horror! So when I transitioned later on and being a noob at anime during that time, it was a huge shocker. Yeah, Mayo Suzukaze helmed the original Kenshin voice and back then, Kenshin sounded really weird. Heck, it was the only ever character role she ever voiced in her entire short-lived voice acting career.

Anyway, the remake now casts a male character as Kenshin, Souma Saitou. I don’t know if the producers had the same feeling like me and thought the original Kenshin was too girly and hence had a male helm his character in the remake. Thankfully, this doesn’t break Kenshin’s character and makes his character sound more believable. The rest of the new casts are Rie Takahashi as Kaoru, Taku Yashiro as Sano, Makoto Koichi as Yahiko, Saori Oonishi as Megumi, Yuuma Uchida as Aoshi, Satoshi Hino as Saito, Mitsuaki Madono as Kanryu, Ryoutarou Okiayu as Hannya, Hiroyuki Yoshino as Beshimi, Fukushi Ochiai as Hyottoko, Daisuke Ono as Sagara, Yuichiro Umehara as Tsunan, Kanae Itou as Elder, Shinichirou Miki as Espiral, Tomokazu Sugita as Kurogasa, Kenta Miyake as Raijuta, Ryouta Takeuchi as Akamatsu, Yuuko Oono as Tsubame and Yuko Sanpei as Yutarou. OMG… What’s this… MAMIKO NOT WAS THE VOICE OF TAE!!! HOW THE F*CK DID I MISS THAT!!! OMFG!!! HOW????!!!! I thought I got her voice in the bag! BUT I AM SO ASHAMED!!! Anyway, all are great in reflecting their respective character roles.

Music
If there is a downside to this series, it would be the music. A very big unfortunate that all the songs including the BGMs do not hold a candle or not even close to the original ones. Take for example the first opening theme, Hiten by Ayase, R-Shitei. OMG what the f*ck is this techno rock crap?! It sounds so out of place! It’s not even catchy! I know they want to do something edgy and perhaps want to match the rock vibes of Sobakasu (the first opener of the original TV series). However this one just falls flat and can’t even come close to Sobakasu even if this song is not my favourite of all the themes. Then the second opener, Rurou No Katashiro by Masaki Suda, Tokoyo Ska Paradise Orchestra has some fanfare and orchestral vibes. It comes off as weird more than anything else. Then there’s the modern techno beat of Kissaki by Reol as the first ending theme and some edgy rock beat for the second ending theme, Sonzai Shoumei by Kid Phenomenon. Yeah, all not to my liking.

Because the worst song for me in the original series was 1/2 (second opener of the original), and both the new ones don’t even come close to this cringey 1/2. Yeah. That’s how bad it is. Or at least not memorable to me. That says a lot for these new songs. Heck, even the gay Kimi Ni Fureru Dake De to the cheesy It’s Gonna Rain and the basic Namida Wa Shitteiru sounded way better than these and I would prefer to hear them anytime, anywhere than the new ones. For the record, my favourite from the original is The Fourth Avenue Café followed by Dame and 1/3 No Junjou Na Kanjou. So sue me. As for the BGMs, oh boy, the original had so much good and memorable tunes. A bunch of them in my collection. In this remake, I don’t even notice them. Not even one. Well, at least this proves that they didn’t reuse and recycle those great BGMs but because of that, they just flew by me and never crossed my mind until I am writing this section of my blog! Honest!

Overall
It has been a great remake and obviously because this hits my nostalgia side. The remake has been a solid experience although it still lacks being called a classic masterpiece since it has its flaws. Yes, the internet is still divided whether this remake of a great series is good. With a handful of classic animes getting their remakes in recent years, I have theorized that this is to bring some exposure to the newer generation. I mean, how else to introduce to one of the early classics to the younger people. Because with so much animes todays and other distractions of social media and life, there is no way the young ones will have time to go back and do some retrospective viewing. Even if they heard of this series, there lacked the motivation for them to do so. Unless a remake. It is sad they had to break it into a few cours rather than running straight for a couple of years like the original because our generation has such a shorter attention span and we need to take a break from all the overwhelming goodness or we’ll die from its overdose! Heh. Weaklings. So there you have it. What needs to be said has been said. We’ll see how the next season turns out and then maybe I’ll have more to say about it! Especially Kenshin is the Batman of the anime world because he doesn’t kill others no matter how bad they are. Well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Ororo…

Spy x Family S2

So, the second season came out first before the movie? Not that it matters seeing Spy x Family S2 is here so what better way to find out if we’re closer to completing Operation Strix than ever before. But I guess I’m just fooling myself because I already know the answer well before I even watch this sequel. Playing family isn’t child’s play when it comes to the security of a nation! And of course the biggest motivation to watch this second season is the lovable Anya. Can’t wait to see more cute antics and shenanigans from this cute little loli in her bid to live the thrilling high adventure spy life. And no, I am not a lolicon!!!

Episode 26
Well, what’s with the angry face, Yor?! Apparently she was doing her assassin business last night taking everyone out from this whatever Red Circus organization. A survivor shot her in the butt! Although she took care of it, her butt still hurts like hell! Too bad Loid thinks she is in a bad mood as he has always relied on her. She goes to sleep hoping it will turn out okay tomorrow. Nope. Still that sour face. So Loid invites her to go out on a date to make her feel better (and save this mission!). Of course she agrees since she doesn’t want her colleagues to be suspicious that she has never been on one. Sorry Anya, can’t join in on this one. She is left in Franky’s care but Anya has a great idea to tail them. Obviously Loid can spot their lame disguises but whatever, he’ll pretend he never see them. Loid thought he has figured everything out on this date but Yor is still putting up that face! Strangely, she doesn’t sit at all the places she goes! Butt will hurt like hell! Finally at a fancy restaurant, she pretends and sits on air. Uhm, shouldn’t she have done that for all? Anyway, it seems this a waiter recognizes Yor. He is the sole survivor of Red Circus and is in shock to see her here. He is going to kill her. Obviously Anya has read his mind and needs to do something. The waiter then pours poison into her wine. But after she drinks it all, she feels so much better! Her immunity to all poisons took away the pain! Loid so confused. Wine cheered her up? Don’t understand woman. But not as confused as that waiter as he plans to really kill her himself. As he goes to get his stuffs, he gets into Home Alone-like pranks. Finally Anya reveals herself and warns him to turn over a new leaf or else. Obviously she read his mind but that guy thinks she is Yor’s accomplice and truly gives up, knowing he cannot win. With Yor in good mood, Loid is much relieved. She hopes he would take her out on such a lovely date again. Of course. Anytime. You think it is all over but come next morning, the pain is back! So is that face! Poor Loid so confused. Don’t understand woman!

Episode 27
Bond foresees his death! The cause? Why, it’s Yor’s cooking! The only obvious solution is to get Loid to finish his work fast so he can come home early and fix dinner. Wow, can Bond just run out of the house like that? Trying to sniff Loid’s scent, we see his adventures throughout the city. Now we see Loid trying to infiltrate some lab to get some serum. Due to how hasty Sylvia wanted him to get this done, he lacks info. He is surprised to see Bond here and he thinks he wants to get revenge on his comrades from the experiment. Whatever. They both infiltrate together and eventually tricking the scientists to open the safe where the serum is. Good job. Mission complete. Now we can go home and have dinner. Because Damian is up studying late at night (so as to get Stella), he wakes up late and gets reprimanded to do some dorm chores. His lackeys are worried so they too feign some disobedience to get punished by Henderson to do the same thing with Damian and finish up faster. Seeing Damian is still spaced out and all, Henderson has them on another penalty and that is to go on a field trip with Mr Green. This ex-navy guy takes them on a river ride (how dramatic for them to be drowning in shallow water!) as well as teaching them some camping survival skills. Noticing how Damian is still caught up in the thought that he is fooling around and should be studying, Green tells him about the proper need to relax to stimulate the mind. Then he takes them to a lake where it beautifully reflects the stars. They have a wonderful time admiring it and for the first time in a long while, Damian gives out a heartily laughter.

Episode 28
Another successfully operation to capture a spy by Yuri. He is given a next assignment to observe Franklin Perkin. You see, there are various books and articles that mock and slander Ostania. All lies and conspiracy theories. However a name that pops up in these articles is Franklin. He worked in a newspaper company in the previous admin before being fired. Yuri is tasked to get evidence of all that including the buyers of the articles before more lies are spread and influence public opinion. So we see Yuri observing his every move. In detail. Every. Move. Every breath you take… One day, he is out most probably to find some source to write for his next article since his rent is due. He sees a few kids playing and tosses their toy in the garbage. As they retrieve it, he takes pictures of this, imagining the article of this country’s poverty level. Back home as he writes his article, his father warns him not to do something dangerous. He would’ve kept his job had not for his strange sense of justice. Franklin hints all he wanted was to improve the country his family lives in. Otherwise, mom wouldn’t have… Did it hit Yuri? He seems to pretend not to ever record that. Next day as he tails Franklin to the post office he works, he sees him slip his letter into the mail. This is how he sends to his buyers without any contacts. With this evidence, that seals his doom. Next day as he is going to work, he sees the secret police outside. He knows he is done for and tells dad he won’t be back for a while. Once outside, Yuri arrests him and also mentions the buyers have also been caught. Franklin accepts his fate as he wonders why they were so kind to wait outside. Can’t let his family see his pathetic state. Franklin ponders who is more pathetic: One who is fighting against the government or the government’s dog. Though, Yuri shows some sympathy as he will send some financial aid to his father. Yuri gets his much needed reward when he visits Yor. The pat on his head is definitely worth it all. Anya so disgusted…

Episode 29
There’s this unfounded legend at Eden that whoever eats some pastries made by some unknown but renowned chef, he/she will become an Imperial Scholar. So you bet when Anya and Becky heard about it, they rush all the way there (Anya obviously wants to be smart so as not to be separated from Becky for the next term.) Oh, Damian and his lackeys too. Too bad the last one is bought by George. They try to bug him until he relents. Sure, there are 5 pieces and George only needs 1. This means the rest have fight it out in a game of old maid. The loser doesn’t get a piece. Despite Anya claiming never to play the game, she perfectly wins it because of her mind reading. This has the boys suspect her cheating. If not, can she read minds?! Oh my, Anya panicking there and offers to redo. So the round restarts as Anya tries to fake some moves. It’s not Damian is a mind reader, he can read your face! Anya and Damian are the last ones left. As Anya is so sad she’ll be separated, Damian can’t help notice her sad crying face. Cute? Hence he loses on purpose. Anya wants to share with him but obviously he won’t. Not when she’s doing that cute face! So with Anya getting pumped up and doing her tests, has she gotten smarter? Well, still failing marks. OMG… I guess we just did some myth busters. Franky sells his usual info to Loid. But in return, he needs his help to find a lost cat of a girl whom he is trying to court. Loid not interested. Yeah, do it yourself. So Franky calls many people to get the whereabouts of the cat. Then he stumbles into Yor on her lunch break. She is happy to help him. We see Franky fail from his various inventions. Not sure what Yor does accept being impressed. Finally with that cat showing up, more failed contraptions of Franky to catch it. Finally this suit he made for 10 years (15 minutes warming up?) he is going to use to catch the feline, Yor rips it apart and throws it before the cat (to prevent it from running across the busy road). Damn, the cat gets scared and lets Yor catch it! Nice kitty now, isn’t it? The cat is returned and that woman is happy. The catch? She already has a boyfriend. Let those tears flow, Franky my man…

Episode 30
Yor gets a call to meet her employer known as Shopkeeper at his beautiful garden mansion. For her next mission, it is mainly an escort mission. You see, the Gretcher family might be an underground mafia for generations but they have kept managed to keep the country’s honour. But recently due to infighting, the head and his 2 sons have been killed. The only survivors are his wife, Olka and her baby son, Gram. Leonardo Hapoon who took over the organization is desperately looking for them and has put a huge bounty on their head. Hence it is decided they will be brought to another country to seek asylum. To avoid the coastal guard, she will be put on a luxury cruise as a normal passenger and then rendezvous with a foreign craft. Hence Yor’s mission is to be her bodyguard until she is safely handed over. Of course as there will be assassins after her, she is also allowed to rid them. Since the Gretcher family is his close friend, he owes him a debt of gratitude. Yor might be away for a while so they’ll cook up some working trip as an excuse. On the way back, Yor stumbles into Yuri in the train. He tries to be mature that he doesn’t want to rely on her since he is no longer a kid. But after he departs, he can’t help yearn for his sister. Some things never change. But this makes Yor wonder. Now that Yuri is independent, does it make sense to continue this assassin job? Meanwhile Anya sees the grand prize for the raffle is a luxury cruise. She wants to ride it! She reads the minds of those behind rigging it. And that is how she pulls off the greatest surprise and wins it! Back home when she relays the good news to mom, it seems this is the same ship that she will be boarding. Anya comes to realize of mom’s mission. So will she back off for mom’s sake? Too bad her devil and angel are in cohorts to be selfish AND GO ON THAT F*CKING TRIP! But can Loid take leave? Surprisingly, Sylvia allows it seeing she is trying to cut down shady overtime practices.

And so cruise day is here. Yor goes her separate way to meet her client as Loid and Anya go their own. Yeah, look at Anya’s disappointment to see their 3rd class room. So small. Like a prison. Sorry girl, it’s not a suite. Be thankful you even won the prize. Yor and Olka’s side meet each other in the room. Obviously both sides putting up an act that they’re here to promote their departmental stores (this Olka’s husband, Zeb is just a member of the organization pretending to play that part). Once the guys go out (to check for other suspicions), Yor is left behind in her room. Olka talks to her despite changing her looks and all, Gram still recognizes her. She is tired with all this mafia thingy and just want to live a quiet life. Her son is to only thing left. Money and status do not matter to her now. As she wants to go out a bit, Olka remains positive that Yor will protect her well. But why is Yor acting so careful? Wouldn’t that make her stand out? Well, actually she is not worried about the assassins but rather bumping into her family. Olka lends her a mommy dress so she could blend in. Her family also won’t be able to recognize her from a distance. As they take a breather on the deck, Olka mentions Gram’s name is the same as his father. They then shortly return to her room. But unknown to them, the whole ship has been bugged. And this weirdo informant who has been monitoring it all, picks up this conversation and manages to pinpoint her room from the guest list.

Episode 31
Mission seems to be going on fine with no incidents. Until Matthew McMahon (Yor’s superior) notices a shady man tailing them. He intercepts and tortures him to spill the beans. You can tell he isn’t fit to take on the job as he spills the beans on the assassins working individually to get the target. First come first serve. Obviously Matthew kills him and dumps his body into the ocean. As Yor and Olka are safe back in their room, but did they order room service? Yor is quick to pull Olka out of the way as the bellboy starts shooting. Matthew returns in time to stop him and Yor dealing the finishing blow. Matthew talks about their position being compromised, so he has Yor lead the family to another possible room. Meanwhile we see the other assassins gathering. After being told by the informant, he suggests all of them work together and will get their cut equally. When one suggests just killing any mom with a baby, he is killed off. Apparently assassins don’t like being lumped with those tasteless murderers. Yor brings the family through the part of a ship where they’re having a masquerade party. See how skilfully Yor despatches them looking natural and not causing a scene! Meanwhile Anya is throwing a tantrum at a shop to get Loid to buy this skeleton keychain. Then she senses somebody going to kill mom. Yeah, you can’t miss this crazy looking killer that just passed. This is what Ringo Starr looks like if he is a killer! Anyway, she sees Yor ahead and fears if mommy and daddy meet, the secret is out and the family will end up in divorce and she will be disposed! Loid confused with that kind of expression Anya makes! In order to keep Loid occupied, she has him try out various clothes in the shop. Loid obliges seeing he overthinks about failing this mission of not being a good father! With him occupied, Anya now tries to go do something. Mad killer almost decapitates Yor and co but luckily she is fast enough to dodge.

Episode 32
Yor is shocked to see Anya watching among the crowd! Oh no! But what’s this? Anya clapping and cheering this lady from the circus. Everyone else now thinks this is some act and also does the same. This relieves Yor that her identity isn’t busted. However Yor can’t seem to close in on this guy and feels hesitant. But she gets a lucky break because when the guy finds it annoying everyone is watching and should just kill everybody, this is enough for Yor to close the gap and put him out of commission. Show’s over. Great show. Just in time for Anya to return to papa as he is done changing. LAME!!! Assassin leader goes into the room Olka once stayed. He sniffs the air and can tell the different fragrances used. The informant has no updates seeing everything has quiet down. He also hears some assassins badmouthing him and thinks he will run away with their money. They think of killing him to get their money back. A signal for him to get prepared. Olka is now in a safe room and Zeb complaining how scary those assassins are? So why stick around? Zeb is obviously in love with Olka but he claims he is indebted to her late husband who saved him from starvation after the war. In fact, it was Olka who secretly gave him that piece of bread and he still remembers that taste. Matthew has Yor guard the entrance while he goes to search the rest of the floor and thin out their enemies. He sternly warns Yor to concentrate or they’ll all die. Deep into the night, Yor thinks about her position. She realizes her hesitant was because she was afraid to get injured. If she was, she couldn’t keep this a secret from her family anymore. She needs to get her priorities straight. Dawn breaks as Loid is having some serious thinking about his skills and all. He is the top spy, right? And yet why he couldn’t understand Anya?! Oh man. Must be getting ahead of himself. Anya plans to ditch dad to help mom. However with all the suggested activities, Anya has fun instead and lost track of time! And Loid is further confused despite all his observations, why is Anya still looking upset! Did he make a mistake somewhere?! Anya realizes Loid was really looking out for her so she mentions she wants to be with mommy and daddy. Loid is relieved that she is just a child. They can leave a message for her at the concierge and meet up with her when she is ready. There’s a fireworks tonight so maybe they can watch it together. Yor gets a call from Matthew that the rendezvous ship is ready in 4 hours. So they have to prepare themselves and also be wary for assassins closing in. The informant intercepts a strange message and believes it could be a coded one for their target. Assassin leader has him send this to all the other assassins to stage an ambush.

Episode 33
Assassin leader knows he has stumbled into his targets because of the blend of fragrances from the room and this ‘family unit’ fits the description. So as Yor brings the family to the ventilation part of the ship, a sniper almost takes her out! How the f*ck can she see and hear with all that fireworks distraction?! She takes action and soon all the assassins surround her. Luckily with Matthew killing the sniper and providing backup, there’s going to be a different set of fireworks starting here. If you like the colour red, that is! As Olka retreats into the hatch, Zeb uses his body to protect her from an assassin’s bullets. Thank goodness he is wearing bullet proof vest although it still hurts like hell. This gives Yor a peace of mind as she can fight freely. Yeah, could this be the better ‘fireworks’? WTF Matthew complaining they have to do some clean up?! I mean, each time she kills, he is right behind her cleaning up! WTF???!!! So with many dead assassins, Yor tells assassin leader to give up. Obviously he can’t. Already got some payment and he knows that old bugger will not let them live. It is then a western samurai dude delivers Matthew a knockout blow while Yor tries hard to dodge. She is in danger of being killed many times as she remembers if she died, Matthew will tell her family she has transferred. Assassin leader tells her to give up and he’ll let her have a cut from this. After all, they kill people as living, right? Yor rejects being the same as them. But as she thinks about it, she starts to question why she is doing this in the first place. For her family? Her country? This distraction gets her owned. As she is in a daze and about to accept her death fate, she realizes she can’t give up. Her goal is to protect Yuri’s simple life and it has not changed. Hence if she has to reduce threats to that and cleanse the world, she’ll do it. She doesn’t need peace. With her iron will back, she turns the tides on samurai guy (he’s looking pretty scared now). Meanwhile we see Yuri suddenly becoming sick while chasing a suspect. Resting back home, he remembers Yor taking care of him when he was sick. Yeah, all her methods almost killed him! Even endangering herself just to get ingredients for herbal tea?! It made him realize he needed to get stronger but thankful to have a sister like her. By the way, the herbal tea tasted like sh*t! I bet he would’ve died not because of his cold! And now he buys a similar herbal tea from the store as it is the closest to Yor’s. Well, it also tastes like sh*t! Nothing gets you back up to health like your sister’s sh*tty recipe!!!

Episode 34
Loid reads the lips of the ship’s security they have found a bomb. Since Anya picks this up too and Loid really needs to go stop it, luckily there is a day care centre nearby for Anya to be placed temporarily. Of course she soon gives the lady the slip. Loid disguises himself as he goes to disarm the bomb. Believing more bombs are needed to sink a ship, Loid and others go to find and diffuse them. As Anya tries to find Yor, she hears the thoughts of the informant as he has planted bombs and planning his getaway. She then finds Yor’s needle on the deck. Noticing she is fighting above, she throws it up. A couple of assassins try to go around to kill Olka but they slip on the needle and experience a series of mishaps! Yor sees her needle (she thinks the wind blew it!) and takes it back for her final showdown with the samurai. Safe to say, she wins. Matthew fires a few shots into assassin leader although he manages to escape. Anya so proud it was all thanks to her efforts! As she returns, she passes by assassin leader. Because smells gunpowder and hence a bomb nearby, Anya reads this and then on pretence tells a ship crew she saw some old guy putting something shady in there. I wonder why the informant is on his boat but it is still tied to the ship?! Shouldn’t he be getting away now? Because of that, assassin leader drops by and won’t let him get away. When Loid checks the bomb inside the clock in the hall, no time to evacuate so he dismantles the whole thing and throws it into the sea! Yeah, the bomb explodes right above assassin leader and the informant! But that didn’t kill them. Oh, hungry sharks will! Anya is crediting herself but the mad day care lady has found her and drags her back. Matthew and Yor see off Olka and Zeb. Olka hugs Yor because thanks to her, her child now has a future. She wishes for Yor to find true peace someday. Matthew has Yor meet up with her family as reward for this successful mission. Loid returns and finds Anya sleeping like a baby. A smooth sailing as day breaks when the cruise arrives near land.

Episode 35
Time for a slow and relaxing episode. Yor rejoins her family as the liner docks at the island resort. We see the happy family having fun together and trying all sorts of activities. At the end of the day, both women tire and Loid has to carry them back. But he knows despite Yor being so tired, she kept up with Anya’s requests. A job well done. The Forgers have returned home. Bond couldn’t be happier. Miss him? Loid reports to Sylvia as she notes reports of many missing passengers on board with fake IDs. As the state security intends to not let this get out and thinks another country is involved, they just need to do their part to weed out extremists from their country. Asking how his vacation went, Loid says it is more tiring than his usual missions. Yor gives her colleagues skeleton keychains as souvenirs?! WTF? Apparently Anya accused papa of not buying it for her and had mom do so. And so she thought it was lovely?! Yeah, colleagues not impressed. Yuri is happy as Yor is back. He can’t wait to go see her but this also means that pesky husband is also back. At school, Anya brags to all about her cruise. Everyone impressed including Damian?! Well, just her imagination. Imagine her shock when Becky thought it was normal since she have been on one before. In fact, her family went to a party with the famous actress of a TV show, Rachel. Now everyone is interested and gathers around her to talk more. This infuriates Anya as she will not be ignored! However she piles on the lies about fighting octopus people from the sea?! Everyone ignores her and continues talking to Becky. To rub salt into wounds, the kids even told the teacher of Anya’s adventures! How infuriatingly embarrassing! So back home, everyone can see Anya very depressed. She tells them about her lie just to stand out. Well, this makes the adults awkward because despite lying is bad, all of them are hiding lies! Damn, this is so awkward! Well, Anya has learnt her lesson because she is done lying. Too much work!

Episode 36
Cringe episode warning! After watching the romantic drama, Berlint In Love, Becky thinks she has all it takes to seduce Loid! And so she pays Anya’s home a visit. Anya gives her a tour of the place but you know, rich kid who has seen bigger rooms thinks it is some storeroom or shed… Learning that Yor is out walking Bond, this is Becky’s chance to steal Loid’s heart and become his wife. OMG! When you think about it in the case she is successful, Becky will be Anya’s mom! OMFG!!! However! Because Anya can get to eat good food and play all that, she likes the idea! And so she’s rooting for Becky to charm papa! Obviously Becky panics as she tries to talk to Loid. Loid knows a lot about her family but Becky misinterprets thinking he knows a lot about her because he is interested. Final boss AKA Yor returns so Becky needs to up her game. Uhm, letting her hair loose to attract Loid? As seen in the drama? He’s not moved… In her desperate move, she pretends to be drunk to get close to him. This startles Yor. Only because she thought she has accidentally laced her tea with alcohol! Instantly Yor takes Becky to the hospital on foot! No accident is going to stop her! Yeah, this rides is worse. But when a remorseful Becky tells the truth, she is surprised Yor is not mad. All that matters is that she is safe. Not mad for passing at Loid? Well, lots of people love him. Thinking Loid loves strong women, Becky tries to show off with this hammer game at the fair. Can’t even lift the hammer. Yor helps her but she breaks the entire machine! Oops! Loid in shock and Becky thinks he is mesmerized with her strength. And so Becky wants to become her apprentice so she could one day be strong. Let’s begin training right away! Anya realizes mama is much more fun to be with… Before we forget Fiona exists, we see her mundane daily life from her office job to her secret operative missions. Nothing that impressive. Of course if you have forgotten, she tells us once more that her goal is to become Loid’s wife. Thus, snippets of her training to become stronger so that one day Loid will choose her. Yeah, Loid is so loved. When Loid gives her souvenirs from the trip, she might look like putting on a cold exterior. But inside she is beaming with happiness of love!

Episode 37
Since Anya is infatuated with origami (making Stella stars? I guess if you can’t get ‘em, make ‘em yourself!), Loid takes Bond out for a walk but to train him to capture suspects. Poor Franky gets to play it. Later as they make their way, Bond has a premonition that a child will drop his ice cream and be sad. He goes to try and stop it but is the one who causes it! Yeah, Loid has to compensate the kid. Then, Bond nips and old man to avoid a bicycle crashing into him. While that is prevented, the old man curses the untrained dog and this makes Loid baffled he is acting strange today. So I guess saving a woman from pigeon poo won’t be worth the hassle. But then, a vision of a building on fire and a woman devastated someone precious is still in it. Bond rushes there as the fire has already started. Although it is believed all residents have been evacuated, Bond rushes in. Turns out there is a little puppy still inside. Loid is impressed and thinks Bond can smell stuffs. Bond’s premonition help save Loid from certain fiery death when Loid thinks of doing so to escape. Eventually they manage to escape. They put out the little fire on Bond’s fur and have you seen Bond so skinny?! OMFG! So hilarious?! That’s not the end of it. Bond soon charges straight towards a suspect and bites him. Before the suspect takes out his knife to stab him, Loid punches him out. It is revealed he is the arsonist who set fire on the building as all his oil and matchsticks drop out from his bag. To Bond’s surprise, Loid praises him instead of scolding him. Loid realizes that having to work on missions is not the priority. First and foremost, he must be treated as one of the Forgers. Back home, Loid claims somebody sprayed water on Bond. Of course Anya can read what happened. And so she gives them those (crappy) origami Stella stars for a good job well done. Loid not impressed, though. Can we please get some real ones! Shock!

Live Life With A Little Spies
Wait. So is there going to be another season or not? Seeing the final scene teases us about it, nothing has been conclusive at the time of this writing. Obviously the mission is not over by far and by a long shot and hence “See you next mission” sounds generic-cum-ambiguous enough to make people like me form our own conclusions that there could be another mission (perhaps it is the series’ way of saying see you next time). I don’t think they’re talking about the movie because that came out during while this season was airing. Or maybe they were telling us to go see that (spinoff) ‘mission’.

Honestly, I felt that this season fell short of expectations and it was kinda cheesy. You see, last season we had 2 cours worth of episode and this season was halved that number of episodes. I was resigned to the fact that this season would be condemned to be filler-like seeing they featured characters and their whatever filler-like shenanigans in the series so as not to be forgotten. Yeah, WTF that pastry legend thingy at a prestigious school like Eden. I know it is mostly played for laughs but it felt really out of place. However I have to give credit where it is due because the ‘saviour’ of this season in terms of the story was the cruise adventure arc. Honestly, those few episodes were interesting in which it brought Yor to the fore. It was the much needed story for this season in otherwise what would have been me labelling a boring and disappointing sequel.

As I have come to expect, Operation Strix is not going to end very soon and that is why the story continues. It would be unbelievable if it does because it made everything else looked so easy as well as cheapen everything we have seen. So for better or worse (of course it’s the former), these filler-like episodes and their nonsensical shenanigans are not only for light hearted jokes and laughter. Because as we have seen in the first season, all of which are to build up the Forger family so that when the time comes, the typical cliché and expectation of family bonds will help save the day and make it more believable that the Forgers are more of a real family unit than a make believe group of strangers put together for their own personal agendas. We will then be able to easily vouch and put our support solidly behind them because of all the experiences we have been through with them. Hence it is only right that we put up with these ‘boring’ antics as we have seen from this season. Family bonds aren’t built over just a single night, you know. It takes time.

This means many of the characters especially our main ones stay relatively the same. As you all know, my favourite Anya is still adorable and because of her, she makes many of the sequel bearable because of her innocence and child-like antics. She doesn’t disappoint with her myriad of expressions and each time they never fail to bring a smile to my face. Anya, always be yourself! And then there is Loid who is supposed to be the best spy in the world but in this strict context he must be a very confused father! Imagine he could take down bad guys, infiltrate buildings, impersonate others flawlessly and complete the hardest mission with ease. But when it comes to parenting, this guy is totally lost! Even more so when he just cannot understand how Anya thinks! I suppose this is the running joke of the series because Anya wants to live out her exciting life but needs to be careful not to expose herself as well as to be considerate to papa. Hence some of her actions that confuses the hell out of Loid. Never knew being a father was the hardest role ever, huh?! Think he will fail as a father before as a spy? Nah. Many of real life dads too have such feelings so don’t give up! Don’t ask me. I’m not a father ;p.

Seeing Loid has his fair share of limelight in the last season, it is Yor’s turn to shine with the cruise adventure arc. Not to say Loid has been side-lined this season but he takes a little backseat. We delve a bit more into Yor’s character as she takes on her most dangerous mission yet. Questioning herself if the reason and original goal she does this assassination thingy in the first place. But after all that is said and done, I believe we all know the kind of answer and path that she will choose, right? Though, she still sucks at cooking. Bond has been even more minimal this season and perhaps there is nothing much this pet doggie can do this season. Not very memorable even though that short skit of him trying to avoid being ‘poisoned’ by Yor’s cooking. Hey, dogs don’t have 9 lives like cats, you know! Of course, final season gives Bond the much needed spotlight because he isn’t just a pet but part of the family as well. Oh yeah. A happily family stays together forever more, right?

The other characters are pretty basic and as we know them as before too. Nothing much changes. Like Franky trying to be a skirt chaser but often fails in the end (eternally condemned to be single forever! Like me :’(…) and I suppose that is his running joke and the only reason we can remember him by. Sylvia still the slave driver on Loid but doesn’t want to look like one and trying to be a good HR manager or something. Similarly, we don’t see Henderson spamming his elegance so I guess this is fine. Yuri still obsessed over his sister and no matter what sh*t is thrown to him, as long as it comes from his sister, he accepts it all with open arms! Still hates Loid but whatever. Then there is Fiona who is Yuri’s counterpart as she is still obsessed in making Loid hers. Still hates Yor but whatever. Damian still trying hard to please his father but the question remains if he will further be captivated by Anya. I know a boy’s pride will not have him admit it but yeah, he isn’t such a bad kid. So being frenemies with Anya keeps things alive between them. Yeah. And the most disturbing one goes to Becky. Sure, her obsession for Loid is mostly for laughs but while I find her episode in focus to be funny, I can’t help feel a lot cringe too. Creepy. Because it’s like trying to turn Loid into a lolicon! We give a free pass because Becky is a cute little girl and Loid isn’t moved?! Thank goodness Loid is not a lolicon. And thank goodness I am not a lolicon! Liking Anya doesn’t make me one!!!

One of the few new characters to make his appearance this season is Shopkeeper who is Yor’s true employer. I am going to take his word that he wants to create a better world by eliminating such scumbags. But at the same time I can’t help have some reservations about him. I don’t know, he looks like some undead zombie or mummified mummy out from his bandages! It’s hard to take someone looking like that to have that sort of justice. Maybe it’s all a ruse to bluff Yor into doing her job flawlessly? I don’t know but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I believe he operates on his own or at least a small organization because I don’t see others like Yor. Oh right. Matthew. This guy shows he is more than just an old guy because as a veteran and so seasoned in this line of business, he proves to us that he has not rusted a little bit and is very much a senior who has taken care of Yor. Last but not least, the big fish himself, Desmond remains as elusive as the shadow and does not even appear at all this season. Next contact when? Stoking my dumb conspiracy theory he is an alien from another planet or a spirit from the hell with nefarious plans to take over the world! Heh.

Art and animation remain consistent like in the previous season. Still love the various expressions Anya makes especially when she is flabbergasted, in disbelief, that smug looks or just plain dumbfounded. Gotta love ‘em all, those cute Anya expressions! For the last time, I am not a lolicon!!! Of course with the simple cartoon-like character designs, some really look weird and cartoony. As pointed out, Shopkeeper looking the strangest of the lot. And those assassins on board the luxury liner, yeah it’s like they wanted to design a few variety of weirdoes and the one that takes the cake is that Ringo Starr look-a-like guy. Sickle and chain Barnaby, that’s what you call him, Anya? WTF? Who the hell?! Talking about funny, never expected Bond to look all that skinny when he is wet! Yeah, the fluffy fur really puffed him up. Borf! Uhm, he changes accent too when he is wet? Wow, you learn something new every day.

With all of last season’s seiyuu’s retained, the new ones added include Junichi Suwabe as Shopkeeper, Kenyuu Horiuchi as Matthew (Wilhelm in Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu), Aya Endo as Olka (Tchaikovsky in ClassicaLoid), Junta Terashima as Zeb (Code in Boruto), Kousuke Toriumi as the assassin leader (Nozel in Black Clover), Kazuyuki Okitsu as the informant (Nagare in K), Hiroshi Shirokuma as Green (Warrod in Fairy Tail) and Hinata Tadokoro as Franklin (Tanabe in Karakai Jouzu Takagi-san). This season’s opening theme, Kura Kura by Ado is a lively piece but I find it a bit chaotic. Especially the opening animation credits. I know many such animations try to be bombastic and abstract with all the chaotic stuffs. But the one taking the cake in making weird is the Forgers doing that strange walk with big steps. Like, WTF?! The ending theme flows to a calmer pace. But Todome No Ichigeki by Vandy featuring Cory Wong just sounds okay to me. It must be just me as the song somehow reminds me of bands like those from the 70’s or 80’s, like you know, Earth, Wind & Fire and The Commodores. Strange.

Overall, this season is just okay in my standards. Doesn’t break any new grounds from the first season and it is more of the same shenanigans all just to build up the development for future plots. If not for the arc in the middle of this season, it could’ve been one disappointing season filled with nonsensical (some would call it comical) series of fillers. And of course Anya is the big reason to take off some of the negative points despite what some others have said negatively about her. And for the last time, I am not a lolicon for her!!! So is she going to read our minds and hint to the producers to make another season? Can Bond see that future and tell us? Or we should just wait patiently until it comes out because that way is more elegant. Elegance, people! Oh screw that. Putting on Anya’s smug face and turning it into a meme is more fun.

Alice In Cyberland

What the hell is this? Imagine taking Lewis Carroll’s most famous works and giving it the cyber twist. That’s right. That’s how you get Alice In Cyberland! Well, actually it isn’t Alice In Wonderland in the virtual world, this 1996 retro OVA series used a few references from that beloved classic and give it a few cyber terms. So what happens when cyber criminals wreak havoc over the internet? If the police can’t help who else can save the day? Oh yeah. A bunch of hacking master girls who can dive in and kick some cyber criminals’ ass. Oh boy. I can see how this is going to turn out…

Episode 1
You think the world is in chaos but it’s just our girls, Alice Minazuki, Rena Otori and Juri Yagami playing a game. Later we see Alice has lots of fond memories of her late dad. Aww… However this world chaos thing may be real because as some military dude is concerned that those darn cyber anarchists may be on the move. He fears what they do will isolate Japan from the rest of the world! Don’t worry. Those guys at some info bureau will prevent that from happening. I don’t know how, but they will. Alice receives a strange message from Lucia claiming she is not alone. Who the f*ck is Lucia? Now we see our girls take swimming lessons at school. However the pool soon starts to get filthy and all. Emergency. Class is cancelled. Not only that. Japan is experiencing some sort of electronic meltdown as all devices malfunction or stop functioning altogether. Worse, some people start to lose their memories! With this spreading all over the news, Alice can tell somebody is spreading some virus to erase memories. So as she tries to save her treasured data folder containing memories of her dad, later it seems she cannot override whatever programme because it is going to delete all those data! Too late to unplug the power?! That is when some ugly tentacle monster busts out of her monitor and tries to teach her a lesson for some hacking. I don’t know what happened but cyber anarchist panics when he notes she is trying to force a shutdown when he is still logged in. Uhm… WHAT?! So that’s his weakness or something?!

The blast forces Alice into another dimension in which she meets this cyber goddess or something. Yes, she is Lucia and she assures all her data is safe. She also tells her Cyberland is her world and has the power to save it. Alice does a few research and just like that she knows how to transfer one’s consciousness into the virtual body in the cyber world! OMFG!!! How convenient!!! So with her friends, they suit up and enter the chamber tank in Alice’s basement as they enter Cyberland. Hell, if this is how the virtual world looks like, it sure looks f*cking crappy! So as they go around looking for the virus culprit, they stumble into that ugly mofo cyber anarchist. They fight and this battle is being picked up by those info bureau guys. Alice uses some power to free them from ugly mofo’s grasps. Uhm, is he melting?! Oh wait. He just turned into an even more grotesque form. They warn him to log out now or he’ll forever be trapped. As usual, idiots like him don’t listen and so he is defeated. He leaves behind chips and motherboards?! I don’t know. Can’t make them out. In the aftermath, order is restored and all erased data have been recovered thanks to an anonymous helper. Guess who. And so our guy at the info bureau has to scratch his head who the heck saved Cyberland. The answer is closer than you think… Yeah, those guys did no sh*t either to stopped the attack.

Episode 2
Wow. We are told Cyberland divided into 8 levels based of importance? Who the f*ck cares?! Anyway at some children’s park, this discount Cell (of Dragonball fame) starts attacking! OMFG! Somebody think of the children! Luckily Alice and co arrive to save the day and as Juri evacuates the kids, he noticed this blonde child, Charlie. Uhm, starting to fall for him. ARE YOU A SHOTACON, JURI?! Bad guy disappears before Alice could land the finishing blow and Charlie also mysteriously disappears. Back home, Alice tries to analyse the sword weapon the baddie dropped. There’s this password code created by programmer Bill Atkin (who?!) and so she takes on the challenge to crack the code. Yeah, they could put in any equation and we still don’t know what the heck it is! And as you’ve guessed it, Alice cracks it. In school, Charlie pops up before Juri’s monitor and just like that she plays truant to go have fun with him in Cyberland! F*cking shotacon! Of course the teacher finds out and drags her back to reality. Later Juri really wants to see Charlie again so she sneaks off into the chamber to dive into Cyberland. She notes Charlie is now a little grownup but there is this Cell dude attacking them. Juri tries to protect him but Charlie saves her by booting her back to reality.

Meanwhile Alice finds herself in a strange place. There’s this big turtle there. He doesn’t care about her because he created this place for himself to laze around. So this guy is Bill and looks like he got played out by the company he is working for. Feeling betrayed, I guess he released this programme into Cyberland. He won’t say more so Alice threatens to delete this world. OMFG, Alice you’re acting like a thug! Bill then discloses Henri Hellgate, the boss of the company he works for and he has created virus to hunt down some self-replicating programme and leaves no traces of it behind. Efficient. Alice gets a distress call from Rena about Juri and before she leaves, Bill gives her some secret weapon. This maid outfit? Huh? Juri is back and promises not to do such unauthorized stuffs again. Noting about Charlie, they visit Henri’s company to talk to the boss himself. OMFG, they can just walk in and talk to him?! This guy so kind to tell them Charlie is not human but AI. He is the father and technically his mom is a chip! You see, Charlie is programmed to replicate himself countless times. Too bad if he does so in Cyberland, it will cause problems for everyone. That is why he sent someone to erase him before damages could be done. And so the girls rush back to Cyberland to protect Charlie. He is now an adult and there Cell is. Alice uses Bill’s secret weapon (a sword) to slash Cell. Now he is deleted! Juri and Charlie have their last moments. It seems Charlie knows his procreation will cause problems and that is why he is going to stop it. He is happy to have met Juri. Thanks for the memories. Charlie uses a self-destruct programme. Goodbye, Charlie. In the aftermath, Juri returns to normal and hangs out with her friends. I guess she got over Charlie pretty quick.

Down The (Cyber) Rabbit Hole…
What the heck did I just watch? Well, obviously not a great show and even though the whole thing sucks and feels disappointed, I am generous enough not to call it one of the worst animes of the year. Still bad, though. Just not as bad as I thought it would. But yes, still bad. With only a couple of episodes, you wonder what the heck it could tell. Considering both episodes are standalone and do not even relate to each other at least in the story and plot. My guess is that this was to promote the game of the same name which came out earlier in that year. Uh huh. So if you are curious to find out more about the series and these cyber ass kicking babes, go play the game. They will definitely have more content. That is, if you can find the game that is already out of production. And since this game was made for PS1, good luck finding that first generation PlayStation console too!

Now, one of the problems that I faced while watching this series is that the cyber technology that they portrayed here. Oh yeah. In short, IT JUST FEELS FREAKING ANCIENT! Heck, this shows the people’s mentality and vision of what they perceive of the future of the cyber world back in those days! Uh huh. 1996 was like almost 30 years ago and look how freaking far we have come in terms of advancement of the internet! NOTHING AS SEEN HERE! Oh yeah. Don’t I feel old! Even more so when I spotted the use of a floppy disk. A FREAKING FLOPPY DISK! Of the 5.25 inch kind! DO YOU YOUNG ONES EVEN KNOW WHAT A FLOPPY DISK IS ASIDE BEING THE SAVE ICON!!! Oh man. I really do feel old. But yeah, diving into the virtual world and fighting bad guys like as though they’re fighting in the real world, everything really feels so outdated. I guess animes of that time really love this kind of virtual concept, huh? I mean, look at the previous few retro OVAs I watched like Boku No Marie and I Dream Of Mimi. Don’t they have the same kind of vibes of diving into the virtual world? It’s so fantasy and sci-fi-like! Especially watching at this point in time when everything just feels so laughable. I’m not saying that I am super proficient with the internet or electronic terms but watching all this, it sure brings in a lot of lame laughter as well as the nostalgia of how freaking old I am now. Sighs. Yeah. We’ve come a long way. I’ve come a long way!

Everything else feels like a disappointment and of course I’m going to blame that with only 2 episodes to boot, nothing gets fleshed out properly. Before you can warm up to the characters, it is already over and I don’t even know anything about them. Not that I care at this point. So what about Alice, Rena and Juri leading double lives? High school girls at day but crime fighters in Cyberland at night. Wow. So awesome. Alice such a great hacker, misses her dad dearly (trying to play tough to claim she has no dad, huh?) and you can guess she is the main character. Rena and Juri aren’t so prominent even during battles. Juri at least a bit has some lime light with that Charlie love thingy but it didn’t amount to anything much.

Heck, even the cyber battles just feel one kind. Strange should I word it? After all, in a time when internet was still at its infancy, perhaps the people’s mentality of a virus then was really some ugly looking monster. Yeah. Hey, at least their bark is worse than their bite compared to today’s more destructive virus programmes! Like I said, this series was perhaps to promote the game so whatever story you are hoping for, is non-existent. Those cyber anarchists? Like as though they have been forgotten and never existed in the second episode! If this series was in today’s era, I feel all the characters here will be scared in their pants and auto delete themselves! Oh yeah. What a terrifying internet we have today. On a trivial note, I wonder if they were poking fun at Bill Gates because they split him into 2 characters here (at least by name, Bill and Hell-GATE) and if Hellgate sounds like a better name for a rock band than a technology corporation, do note how sh*tty Windows are today with their unscrupulous methods! And we still use them! Like yours truly! :’(.

Art and animation feel like subpar. Sure, they reek of retro 90’s style animation but at times I noticed the quality is not there and you can tell when they animate the fireworks. Yup, that’s your tell-tale sign that the quality will not be up to mark. When you have fireworks that just looks like some pea shooter dots, it says a lot for the rest. Obviously our main heroines, they look 90’s style bishoujo because we’re going to need those male audience to buy the games, right? Yeah. Voice acting is pretty normal and I wouldn’t bother noting it accept that I noticed Kikuko Inoue as Lucia. Oh yeah. Once again, it is this legendary seiyuu that I find in some obscure anime. Yeah, she really is forever 17, no?! And the other one I noticed is Megumi Ogata as Charlie. Yeah, hate to admit it but she is actually older than I think she is. OOPS!

Overall, this anime is sure disappointing and perhaps it could’ve been better had it had more episodes to flesh out the characters as well as the story. But then again, maybe I should wish for a remake or old obscure series to get such treatment because high chances I wouldn’t like it. Yeah, let old retro and obscure shows stay dead. Even if they are sh*tty and crappy. This is the legend they have made so let it stay that way! Thanks to the connectivity of today’s internet, we are being occupied with even sh*ttier stuffs. Normal people, hackers and cyber criminals have evolved a lot more so if Alice and co are going to tackle today’s problems, they’ll need more than just a 5.25 inch floppy disk to crack the code! Yeah… Sighs… We’ve definitely come a long way. I have definitely come a long way!

Shy

Are we ready for a new anime superhero franchise to take on the world? Seeing how mainstream and popular Boku No Hero Academia has become, will there be others in the same genre that will step up and be its rival in the superhero genre? Forget about the western ones that are heading towards the hellish woke downwards spiral! Let anime teach and remind them the true meaning of superhero! So will there be a new superhero challenger? Well, I’m not sure if Shy would be that rival considering to have a superhero named so and to even stay true to that emotions of embarrassment, that just raises a lot of eyebrows. I mean, unless we’re talking about some Jekyll and Hyde persona, how can a person so shy be a world superhero? All that doesn’t matter as long as the hero does his/her job in saving and protecting those in need, right? Don’t be shy now…

Episode 1
As narrated, wars all over the world have ended. However strange people with superpowers suddenly emerge to help preserve the peace. Because of their strange outfits, they are called heroes. Uhm, did they plagiarized Boku No Hero Academia somewhere? Now we shift our attention to Teru Momijiyama. She stays true to her name and she is perhaps Japan’s most shyest person. Even more so, she works as Japan’s hero under the moniker, wait for it, Shy. You wonder how she can do her job if she is so shy. She has a fish mascot, N. Vilio AKA ABO as her partner. Soon, the roller coaster nearby stops dead in its tracks, leaving its patrons hanging upside down. Shy goes to save them but Iko Koishikawa tells her to save others first. She’s going to save everyone so the order shouldn’t matter. Shy does so and when Iko is the last one, the roller coaster goes off by itself. Shy uses all her strength to stop it but it seems Iko is injured and unconscious. In the aftermath after Iko is hospitalized, Teru becomes depressed over her failure to save someone. Even more so, the media and irresponsible parties are blaming her for it! This takes a toll on her so much so she can’t transform. She dreads of being a hero when a real hero, Pepesha Andreianov pops up to give her some great advice that heroes can’t save everybody. Even so, they must continue what they do. She leaves for an urgent mission. Teru continues to be depressed as she hears more unsettling rumours about Japan’s hero. But when a nearby building catches fire, she sees Iko’s brother wants to be a hero and rush in to save others just like Shy. Only, a slab going to fall on him! Teru dives to save him. She gets her hero mojo back as she enters the building to scout for survivors. She hears a baby’s cry. Her trauma activates when she realizes the mother has no pulse. This doesn’t deter her as she tries to save them. She thought she failed again but luckily Pepesha is here in the nick of time to assist. Later Iko’s brother thanks her for that day and relays the good news Iko has regained consciousness. Pepesha then takes Shy to space. Actually the HQ for heroes. She brings her to meet Unilord, the leader who oversees the heroes. She claims despite wars have ended, there are darkness in everyone’s heart and there are parties trying to take advantage of that to bring chaos. Hence their real duties as heroes are to protect such. Teru returns to school and to her surprise, Iko transfers to her class and is seated right next to her. Though, she still blames herself for being the only person she couldn’t save.

Episode 2
Teru continues to worry about Iko’s thoughts on Shy. She was after all injured because of her inability to save her. Teru even catches her crying her alone and thought the pain was unbearable. After bringing her to the infirmary, Iko tells her how she got it. Teru wonders if she hates Shy because had she been saved, she wouldn’t have been injured. Iko denies because she would never hate those who worked her especially Shy who saved her. Wow, this brings Teru to tears. As she goes to the toilet to freshen up, this strange boy, Stigma starts to corrupt Iko. He puts a dark ring on her finger to let all her true emotions bottled in her heart out. When Teru returns, Iko has started transforming into a monster. She starts to feel hurt as crystals start spiking out from her body. As Stigma puts it, her true feelings filled with rage and hatred. As ABO analyses the crystal materializing is her hate for someone, Teru assumes it is towards Shy. But as we see, her parents perished in a fire to save their children. That hatred is towards herself because had they not saved her, they wouldn’t have died. Not wanting Teru to get hurt, Iko tries to kill herself. Teru transforms and stops that. She wonders why she won’t ask for help. Iko is starting to lose it. Desperate, now she pleads for help. Teru transports her to an open space as ABO completes his analysis. Just separate that ring from her. As the corruption starts to overwhelm her, Iko starts blaming Shy and other heroes. Why weren’t they there to save them? ABO warns Shy not to listen to her but on the contrary, Shy will do it so as to answer her with all her heart. Iko then starts attacking her while she just stands there and take it all in. Flashback shows a young Teru was depressed after someone died. She thought it was futile to save someone when what lies ahead is emptiness. Grandpa told her how people are happiest when they live for others. Even in death, that person continues to live on in that person’s heart. They risk their lives for that connection. As Iko continues to blame herself for her parents’ death, Shy hugs her. That kindness dispels her corruption as Shy is able to easily take off the ring. In the aftermath, Iko apologizes for all the troubles but Shy is okay with it. She also dispenses grandpa’s advice about passing kindness to others. Whenever she feels guilty, she pass on that kindness to someone. If everyone could smile because of that, nothing would make her happier. And so Iko thanks Shy for saving her.

Episode 3
Teru and Iko on a date. Oh sorry, I meant hanging out to get to know each other well. At the shopping complex, they find a lost boy and Iko being the outgoing type, she helps him reunite with his parents. She after all has a little brother herself. Then they notice a poster of Stardust. He is also a hero but is also a famous rock star. Not only that, he has established a lot of charitable and aid groups around the world. Soon, Pepesha contacts Teru and wants her to bring her and her friend to their base for a meeting. Stardust will also be there. Iko meets Unilord for the first time as we learn that Stigma has been spotted around the world. It is believed he wants to ‘free’ people’s hearts. The heroes are surprised that Shy was able to have the ring completely intact. Something about she tried to understand Iko’s heart and somehow it worked. Further analysis of the ring shows that it uses a person’s heart as energy to crystallize since it is filled with unimaginable powers. This is the same concept on how their hero’s bracelet works. Only, this ring forces itself deeper to bring out all the darkness within. Stardust had an experience with this as a friend of his was forced upon a ring. How he solved it? He cut off his friend’s finger! The true reason Unilord called Stardust for this meeting is because since he is one of the few who can act without mercy for his own sake, she wants him to fight Shy. Shy lacks battle experience and Stardust is the right person to do it. After all, there is a chance Stigma might appear before her again. Pepesha wants to do it but Unilord will not allow it since she has grown too attached to Shy. Shy agrees to do this. Stardust wonders if she is serious because is she going to quit being a hero forever if she loses? Going over the rules, whoever loses their will to fight and has their transformation undone, loses. But Stardust is confident that if Shy manages to land a single punch on his face, she wins.

Episode 4
Shy keeps throwing punches but she just cannot hit him. But he could easily land a nasty one for her. He tells her off that her emotions and naivety makes her weak. That is why she rejects victory. He continues to beat her up and this makes the ladies squirm. He further adds insult that she is so weak and making her friends worry all about her. However Shy has not given up. Because of her friends cheering for her, she can continue to stand up. But still, she gets pounded and Stardust continues that this naivety of hers will get her killed by even more heartless enemies. But reverse psychology from Shy. Because she thinks Stardust being a heartless person and going all out against her is his form of kindness. So that she could get mad at him and fight back! Stardust’s flashback shows he got involved in some fight. So his friend talked to him that despite others called him heartless, he fought back to prove he has a heart. He suggested he become the nicest person in the world to prove to others that they were all just talk. As Shy starts to punch back at him incessantly, she runs out of power and her transformation undone. Stardust says she is not cut out to be a hero since she runs on emotions and burns out when she overuses them. However it is fools like her who will change the world. He admits his lost since she was able to touch his face before she came undone. Teru has been sleeping for 2 hours at the base and when she comes to, she learns heroes, Lady Black and Doctor Schwartz have healed her. They are from Black Cross, a medical international organization created by Stardust. Lady Black seems to have an issue with Shy as a hero. She believes just like Stardust she is too emotional to be as one and she made a civilian nervous. Heroes are supposed to be reassuring! So if she is ashamed of herself, quit being a hero now! Back home, Teru apologizes to Iko for the troubles but vows to become stronger. On the news, a riot in China and definitely Stigma was behind this. This strengthens Teru’s will that she can’t falter now if she wants to be everyone’s hero.

Episode 5
Teru is visited by Piltz Dunant (Lady Black) since she needs to follow up on her patient. While Teru is all fine and okay, looks like Teru needs her to treat an old lady of a stationery shop who has a chronic back pain. That sure hit the spot. Once she is healed, she thinks of hiking up a mountain since it is a special place for her and her late husband. And just like that, Teru is now hiking with granny and Piltz. This isn’t going to be a hiking anime, huh? Obviously Teru has no stamina and what a shame, granny can beat her! She is surprised to learn Piltz hates hiking despite she is pretty good at it. She claims there were naysayers who said she couldn’t do it and she did it to prove them wrong. At the top as they take a break, Piltz reveals the truth: She lost both legs in an accident when she was young. Growing up in a mountainous country like Switzerland was certainly a challenge but she did not let that stop her. She will not let her disability limit what she can do! The same can be said for Teru but she needs a hell lot more stamina training! Piltz hints she doesn’t mind training her to be a proper hero. As Teru ponders how she could use her heart’s power more efficiently, she couldn’t concentrate in classes. And what’s this she keeps thinking of heat/fire? Until she stumbles upon a calligraphy of the word flame, a tall girl thinks she is interested to join. Being a person unable to say no, Teru is then made to sit and watch the calligraphy club president doing his beautiful strokes. As she tries some out herself, the president’s great advice how in calligraphy you have only 1 chance and you pass that expression from your heart to your arm, that character on paper is born from the flick of the wrist. This gives Teru great motivation so she returns home and starts her own calligraphy. She writes ‘flames’ and is proud of it. Uhm, this isn’t going to be a calligraphy anime, huh? But she puts too much heart in it so much so the paper is on fire! Literally it’s on fire!!! Oh sh*t!!!

Episode 6
Stigma laments heroes judge people by their hearts and lock them away with nowhere to go. Don’t worry, he won’t destroy the world. It is the heroes who will be destroyed. He thaws out Tzveta Kooriskaya from her icy captivity. Shy and Pepesha are being summoned by Unilord as they will head to North Pole for a mission. They rendezvous with another hero waiting there, Mianlong. According to the research officer, they received a distress signal from a ship stuck in the ice floe. As they ride a helicopter there, it seems Shy is amazed by the strange formation of ice. Uhm, do ice spikes happen in North Pole? Well, luckily they get out in time as the spikes penetrate the copter. Attacking them is Tzveta and she thinks attacking heroes would warm her up. Pepesha thinks she is a victim of Stigma but is attacked and told off not to assume people’s hearts! This is wokeness of a different degree? Now they wonder if she is Stigma’s comrade because she doesn’t have a ring. The heroes attack but Tzveta won’t easily go down despite her lackadaisical attitude. At one point, Shy needing to get rescued by Pepesha before death knocks on her door. Pepesha is in shock when Tzveta hints she knows her. This allows icy girl to deal a severe blow and freezes her. Tzveta takes a liking for Shy since her flames are warm. The fight continues until Mianlong is able to scratch her with his claw. It is not to hurt others but to put them to sleep. It is then Stigma pops up to collect Tzveta. He talks about this Stigma name the heroes have labelled him. Must be lovely to have someone call you by your name. Like how he named Tzveta and this other comrade, Weepy. Because of that, he thinks of naming his own group Amarariruku, the ones who dream. Such a memorable and enigmatic name that will stay in your hearts forever, right?

Episode 7
Our heroes discuss about Stigma’s stunt. Most probably it is to test the heroes’ power. Pepesha is feeling down because she is baffled who Tzveta is. Only people close to her calls her “Pesha” and yet she can’t remember Tzveta. More coincidence when they notice Stigma and his team are all children and the names he gave them are all child-like. Unilord has brought a secret weapon to help them: Iko. Sorry, she isn’t going to be a hero but Unilord believes she is an unknown variable against Stigma. The ring has been further analysed and it is believed to be part of Stigma’s heart materialized. Hence it can be said he is trying to spread his heart all over the world. This is when Iko reveals the vivid thing she remembers when she was wearing that ring. She saw a huge chasm that is believed to be Stigma’s wounded heart. Looking into it, she also saw his ideals on the world. Though in abstract form, she saw people joining hands to become one with the planet. Shocking to say, his goal is world peace. Also, everything was so child-like as if he was refusing to grow up. Pepesha soon has this feeling about Tzveta. She felt a lot like her. Tzveta = Pepesha? Not sure but once she heals up, she’ll do more thorough investigation. Back on Earth, Shy’s popularity has increased after the fire incident. Because of that, a stage request for her to promote this magical girl series, CiviRevo. Yeah, the producers must be a fan of her seeing the lead character looks almost like her. While Teru is afraid of crowds, ABO believes it is best she builds her hero image. And so she is here, in front of a huge crowd of enthusiastic kids. During Q&A, many kids ask her about what it’s like being a hero, etc. Never thought she is that famous, huh? But one kid claims she isn’t a hero. Because a real hero wouldn’t pretend to be another hero! He’s got a point! Other kids scoff him but he runs away. Later Shy talks to him and looks like the only hero for him is that CiviRevo girl and so Shy impersonating as her is blasphemy! But when she saves him from a tumble and spouts lines of moderation and love, she sounds so much like his favourite character. And because of that, he now likes her and believes she is that hero! The real CiviRevo! Shy’s reward for this is a full special Blu-ray box set of CiviRevo! Yeah, she got emotional watching all of them.

Episode 8
Teru leaves Japan for Russia to help Pepesha in uncovering the mysteries of her childhood. Going back to the orphanage she once grew up, they meet the director Isaak who gives them a warm welcome. The kids still remember Pepesha and she is awfully popular with them. Without Pepesha’s help of sending money every month, the orphanage would’ve closed down. In the library, they go through old photo albums. Then a nostalgic picture drops out. It is a picture of her mom, Letana AKA Lenya who also grew up in this orphanage. She was also an alcoholic and you could say this is why Pepesha took after her mom! Alcohol can help adults turn into kids, huh?! Thank goodness these girls are cute, if you know what I mean! Just kidding! During lunch, Pepesha is reunited with a long time staff, Natalia. She has them look through her old photo album of her during her younger days. Can’t believe she was this beautiful, eh? But as Teru goes through the album, she realizes the very unsettling resemblance Lenya as a child to Tzveta. This confuses Pepesha. Mom is already dead and she has no sisters. Suddenly a loud scream outside. Everything else has been frozen. Amarariruku must be here. Noticing a person frozen in ice, once Shy melts it, Kufufu Kekerakera gives a surprise kick. Psycho girl is part of Amarariruku and wants to happily kill everyone in this world. Tzveta is also here as Pepesha wonders if this is Stigma taking advantage of her heart to make Tzveta in Lenya’s image. Tzveta notes she has no memories prior to her awakening at the North Pole. She only somewhat remembers about Pepesha and this place. Either she loved it or hated it. Pepesha thinks Tzveta is mocking Lenya but Tzveta approves of Stigma’s ideals and knows she hates this world. She uses her power to turn this orphanage into her domain.

Episode 9
Tzveta creates this place from her heart and claims making it permanent will turn it into heaven. Others fall unconscious as Kufufu starts her comical fight with Shy. Laugh or cringe? Kufufu won’t go down easily! And she’s laughing all the way! While Tzveta and Kufufu are having their moment, Pepesha has Shy back her up as she plans to take everyone out from this domain. Pepesha seemingly succeeds as she penetrates through the barrier. However she comes back right in. Tzveta explains the whole area is part of her heart and that they can’t leave. They’ll return right back to her. She adds how a heart is made of the world, emotions and memories. She already has the first 2 and the only thing missing are memories. Believing it is fate that had them reunited, she came here so that she could peek into her heart. She uses the orphanage people to tell Pepesha to succumb to her fate and resign to this ideal world. After all, reality is nothing but pain. But despite their outlook, Pepesha could see deep into their hearts that they are afraid and pleading for help. This makes her mad as she attacks Tzveta directly. However this is a trap. By making her mad, her emotions wavered and this allowed her to peek into her heart. Tzveta absorbs Pepesha’s power as she has a glimpse of Lenya’s younger days in the orphanage till she grows up and left it to the point she gave birth to Pepesha. She is left in shock as Tzveta calling out the outside world full of lies and sh*t. Is this Lenya’s true feelings? Amidst the confusion, Tzveta freezes her.

Episode 10
Time to delve a little bit into Lenya’s history. At least the time she left the orphanage and trying to live her own life. It was the first time she realized how cold the world was. Or rather how f*cked up everything was. With Pepesha in tow, Lenya was having a hard time making ends meet. The recession had her being retrenched and she was months behind her rental payments. When Lenya gave what was little left of the food to Pepesha, little girl tried to be considerate to share but Lenya blew her top instead. This makes Lenya wondered if she would be a good mother for Pepesha. Because she started thinking it would be better for herself to disappear. But seeing her innocent demeanour, she realized she can’t give up. Then at a bakery she tries to get a small cookie but the kind owner gave an entire cake instead. As she left, some jealous hobo mugged her as Lenya fell into the cold river. Lenya accepted her fate that this world is cruel and hoped children like Pepesha will not know about it. Hence she was willing to become a demon to destroy it. She will protect them all from this hell. It seems Shy has also seen the same memories although Kufufu continues to keep her at bat. Tzveta confirms she is Lenya and she will embrace any hatred in this world. As she beckons Pepesha to come with her, Shy breaks in and gives her piece of mind that she has no idea how precious she is to Pepesha. Tzveta notes her warm flames are not needed anymore as her own freezing cold power starts to overwhelm. But Shy fights back. All she can sense is only loneliness. Shy knows because she saw the same in Iko. Trying to sacrifice oneself for others. The reason Pepesha is here now because of her love that she shares with others. That is how she became a hero. As Shy is willing to share her pain, she hopes Pepesha can deliver her feelings to mom. You can tell Pepesha is back to her groove as she transforms into a hero. She was afraid of hurting mama, scared of being hated by her. Now she realizes she should’ve just told her how she felt. Time for their first mother-daughter fight. Make that a big one.

Episode 11
Pepesha has always been holding such regrets. Both thought suppressing their emotions would make the other happy but obviously they were wrong. It seems Tzveta is about to be taken in by her words but Kufufu interrupts. She brings Tzveta back to her usual self as her power grows further. What is the most powerful thing that can break through all that icy exterior? Ah yes, the warm hug of a daughter. More flashbacks as we see Pepesha blaming herself, thinking mama hated her and that’s why she died on her own. Natalia dismissed that and showed her all the letters she wrote. More endearing mother and daughter clips as we see them both wanting to stay with each other. Lenya promising to drink with her once she becomes an adult. Pepesha regretted not telling mama she loved her. From that day, she changed herself and worked hard till she became a hero. But she has never forgotten mama’s love. Not even once. And for the first time she says those magical words: I love you. Once again, Kufufu tries to get between them but Tzveta knows it is over. Kufufu is sad she will disappear but Tzveta accepts her fate and tells her to return. With the fight over, Kufufu escapes. Tzveta explains about this body created from the heart and when this place crumbles, so will she. But thanks to them, she is able to escape from the nightmare. She reveals Stigma’s powers are to make dreams of others come true. That is why Pepesha was able to be reunited with her seeing Stigma took advantage of that wish of hers and created a version of Lenya meant to harm her. It seems Stigma wishes for a world for children without adults and since he is unable to make his own wish come true, hence the creation of other ‘children’ AKA Amarariruku. She hopes the will foil his plans to destroy the current world. Tzveta thanks Shy for helping her to bond with Pepesha again. For her last wish, Tzveta and Pepesha drink together. Taste of love? Tzveta thanks Pepesha for being born to her and that is reason enough for her to be alive and her life worth something. Of course, her final words before disappearing: I love you. With mom gone, Pepesha moves on.

Episode 12
Natalia talks to Pepesha about Lenya as she was someone whom she looked up to. Even as a child, Lenya always acted maturely and always helped others. She was like a hero. And now her daughter is a real hero. Stardust and Lady Black just arrive as Unilord has sent reinforcements. Uhm, a bit too late, don’t you think?! Well, glad it’s over. Unilord also relays the good news that all governments and heroes agree to share info about Stigma and Amarariruku. You mean they weren’t? Pepesha gives Stardust an intact ring from Tzveta to have it analysed. Shy thanks him for the training but he says he did nothing to deserve such since she became strong on her own. Lady Black also admits she has become stronger. Now we see Stigma consoling Kufufu. He notes that even if one’s body disappears, the heart remains because it is eternal. So don’t worry. Tzveta and everyone will all become one in the end. With Teru returning to Japan, she is a bit sick and under the weather. Well, it was a whole lot of cold in Russia. Iko takes this chance to help nurse her. As Teru sleeps, she dreams of her sister used to take care of her when she was ill. The thing she liked best was her back rub. Oh, Iko just heard her sleep talking. Don’t get funny ideas! Teru reveals about her older sister although she died many years ago. Iko assures her despite all that they have gone through and Teru being a hero, they are just normal girls living a normal life. Teru soon gets well and returns to her normal school life. We’re so normal! Meanwhile a mad Doki Baragaki is looking for Stigma but finds Kufufu in her endless fishing for Tzveta? Both are about to fight but are stopped by Inori Hallelujah who preaches love! She further talks about the wonderful world their master has given them and that by sharing this world with all of humanity, only true tranquillity will be attained. So where is their master of theirs now? Making plans to save the world. Speaking him, he notes everyone dreams differently. If everyone can have the same dream, that will be great.

One Brick Shy Of A Full Hero
Hey. I thought this series was supposed to have 2 cours? Oh right. It is getting another season but a split season nevertheless. No wonder I thought something was wrong when the season ended a bit prematurely. Like, did they forget to animate the next cour or something? So yeah. Looks like we’re getting another season but at this point in writing, we’re not sure when it’ll come out yet. My, are we being shy of the details of the sequel? Heh. Sorry if you’re going to hear me make silly shy puns throughout the rest of the blog! Yeah. I’m not shy about it! More like cringe!

Anyway, this season as I can see just feels pretty satisfactory and if I should say just an introduction of the darker things to come. After all, if we want to compare this to the more established Boku No Hero Academia, that series already has so many seasons under its belt. Of course I’m not saying that to match all that, they need to have the same number of episodes (quality > quantity, of course). It is going to take some time to see if this series can rival Boku No Hero Academia or even better still, become one that is able to stand on its own without having to always be compared to Boku No Hero Academia and stay in its shadows. So as far as this first season is concerned, mostly the first half is about Teru/Shy coming to terms of her shyness as a hero and the second half focuses a lot more on Pepesha and fleshing out her character. Of course with the help of Shy who is obviously the main character.

For starters, the origins of how these superheroes came about is not explored. Yet. Right at the start of the first episode, we were already being told that it was not known how these people got their powers or even how they came about. I take it as they don’t want us to question such and just to go with the flow. Don’t bother asking silly questions about their origins because you’re definitely not getting them answered here this season. And of course this means my dumb conspiracy theories rearing its ugly head again to start thinking that these superheroes are aliens from another world! But that is quickly crushed as we see they are normal people from Earth with back stories of their own. So how they got these Quirks superpowers is the big question mark that everyone will be dying to know. Is it in their special genes? Or is it every hero here scored exactly 80% on their maths exam in high school?! HAHAHA!!! Just kidding! So yeah, for these heroes to have powers that aren’t really fully explained, it gives a lot of room for plot convenience. Oh you know, hero using his/her special moves during fight sequences so don’t be surprised this weirdo starts shooting flames or other projectiles. They’re heroes. They’re supposed to do that.

And that includes why they wear such embarrassing costumes! I mean, look at Teru/Shy. Already such a shy person and this is the outfit she wears for her superhero persona? Did she choose it? Oh heck, who the f*ck designed this sexy outfit that exposes her delicious thighs to the public? Yeah. We like it. Thank you very much. With the heroes wearing such flashy outfits, it only reinforces my conspiracy theory that the heroes derive their powers from their suits. Uh huh. Is it no wonder why Superman flies around wearing his underwear outside!!! He has got no luxury to be shy about it since saving lives and protecting people from evildoers comes first! Oh yeah. Being a superhero also means putting up and wearing such silly cosplay outfits so that the public can easily identify and differentiate them. Yeah, superheroes are just like any uniformed profession…

Now the other beef I have is how a nation chooses its hero. In fact, are they even aware of their own country’s hero? From what I understand, not many know of Shy’s real identity. Which begs the question on how she became a hero in the first place. How the f*ck can a shy person helm such a huge responsibility and even represent a country?! Sure, being shy is not going to be the limit that prevents one from being a hero, but you have to ask how the f*ck Teru became one. Oh sure, mysterious manifestation of powers. Yeah. That one. Even so, shouldn’t everybody in Japan know who she is? My next big question is that if a nation can only have 1 hero at the same time. Japan. Russia. Germany. Switzerland. China. Too bad USA is nowhere to be seen for now. F*cking Switzerland gets a representation but not good ol’ US of A. Yeah, I know they want to score some brownie points by being inclusive with some nations. But I don’t see the same nations having another hero. So is there some sort of policy that only 1 nation can have 1 hero? Who the f*ck created that policy then?! And if a nation becomes independent, will this hero nation thing work too? Imagine if Hokkaido splits itself from Japan will there be a new hero representative?

It is great to see that humans have stopped fighting among themselves. Oh wait. I’m foolish to generalize that line. They only mentioned a third world war was stopped thanks to the heroes. But that doesn’t mean that all human conflicts have been resolved. So yeah, makes me wonder if the nations still need a military. I mean, no more wars, right? So why keep the military? Border control? Considering nations still exist in a political sense (and that is why we have heroes of different nationality), I bet the warmongering people are just lying low and waiting for the right moment to get back to killing. Not unless Stigma resets the world first.

Initially I thought this season would highlight some of the issues superheroes faced. At least in the early parts they were hinting about wanting superheroes to be regulated after how Teru failed to successfully rescue Iko from her predicament. I thought it would set a darker tone for this series and just like how Boku No Hero Academia’s recent developments are. But what happened to all that? Next thing you know, Shy is now popular with the people. Especially with the kids. I am crediting her cute sexy outfit help make that change. People are after all fickle minded creatures. And now the governments of the world have agreed to help each other against Amarariruku (still a f*cking nightmare for me to pronounce and spell this tongue twisting name!). Oh well, better than fighting among each other.

Good or bad thing, there aren’t a lot of characters here. Yet. Well, if you compare to Boku No Hero No Academia. For this season, we have to be contented with the few heroes and characters. Even so, not all of them have proper fleshing out and some just touching the surface. One small copycat from Boku No Hero Academia is that for the mid-intermission, a random character’s stats will be displayed although it is very brief. Just stating the real name, nationality and likes. But I guess it is still better than Boku No Hero Academia that spams every heroes’ Quirks in every DAMN EPISODE!!! Thank goodness we have none here! All because we don’t even know what powers these heroes have! Even like Shy, I’m not sure what her powers are except lately she can produce flames. Is that her primary power or is it some sort of speed because her back has some sort of a weird ventilation or exhaust cover thingy. But can we all agree these heroes’ true power are to save and protect the people? Definitely.

Talking about Teru, you wonder why they even make a shy girl as the lead heroine and hero. Because this is Japan. Fans would definitely find some moe in a girl who is extremely shy! Oh my God! Do you not see how freaking cute Teru is when she is embarrassed! OMG! Do you not want to make her your waifu???!!! Only in Japan where you can turn such undesirable trait and brainwashing everybody else to accept that such flaws are cute. Oh yeah. Gotta love Shy/Teru now. Thank Japan for making shyness a cute acceptance factor. She may not have a great and memorable impact like All Might from Boku No Hero Academia who is just oozing with American confidence and assurance. But hey, at least she’s cute and, uhm, shy? Anyway as we have seen and come to expect, Teru may be shy and living up to her name but when it comes down to when it really matters, she shines and acts a lot like a true hero. Of course at the start we see her having some self-esteem issues but this is only natural. Because yeah, it’s part of the ingredient to build up a character. Better than making one overpowered with no flaws from the start. So while Teru may have troubles overcoming her shyness and we won’t see that going away for the time being (and lose her moe kawaii factor? NO WAY!), as a hero she has grown into someone formidable. Especially opening the eyes of veteran hero, Pepesha during her darkest moment. The moment Shy truly shined. So she Shyned. HAHAHA!!! Sorry, stupid pun.

The other character receiving a reasonable amount of fleshing out is Pepesha. Just to let us know that even veteran heroes have their own past and problems that they need to overcome. If they can’t by themselves, then this new kid on the block will. So it’s nice to see that alcohol loving Pepesha has come to terms and moved forward and it had me thinking if she was drinking and being drunk most of the time, was it to hide this regret of hers? Oh I don’t know. Maybe she loves drinking and that’s that. Even so, that didn’t stop her from continuing to drink, right? So is she going to wait till Teru reaches of age to have a drink with her? Teru after all delivered mama to her so she’s like her second mom, if you know what I mean.

Other characters are just average as far as this season is concerned. Firstly, ABO. I don’t know why only Shy has this flying shrimp as her helper. I don’t see the other heroes having their own pet mascot. Even so, ABO feels a lot insignificant and it is like he plays a passive role in assisting her. Sometimes doing her house chores and the likes. I thought he would be something like a Disney sidekick but he is just boring to say the least. Then there is Iko to prove that Teru has another friend so as not to be casted as a loner. After all, a shy person doesn’t have much friends, right? So yeah, with a Stigma victim veteran, she could prove pivotal for the heroes’ fight against Amarariruku. She could surprise us (and Teru) by being Japan’s second hero. Assuming that single hero per nation policy does not exist.

Unilord gives off this enigmatic feel because she always wears her mask and never shows her face. It got me thinking she might be an alien or even an android. Yeah, there may be a twist to it and so to let our guard down, her character seems to like to make jokes that none are impressed. Trying to be more human, huh? Yeah, my dumb conspiracy theory also says she might be Teru’s dead sister! For shocking plot twist, but of course! Need to turn up a notch, the emotions in Teru and another stepping stone for her to overcome and become stronger. I hope I’m wrong. Lady Black and Stardust don’t feel like your typical superhero because one’s a serious b*tch and the other an apathetic and heartless bastard. Probably the same logic how a shy person like Teru can be a superhero. Because all that doesn’t matter as they are also humans and have their own personalities, fears and flaws to conquer. All that it matters is that they help those in need and people will remember them by their actions rather than this personality of theirs. That is what it means to be a true hero, right?

Stigma and his merry team of Amarariruku feels like an evil version of Peter Pan his Lost Boys. Oh well, just because they are all children. I bet Stigma too is one of those kids who got the raw end of the adult world and thus the reason why he wants adults gone because children are pure and innocent. Oh yeah. You do remember your innocent childhood days where we could smile and laugh freely without all the care in the world, right? And then when you grow up, you start to realize all the f*cked up things in society. How did it turn out this way?! We just become adults and what the f*ck happened?! Yeah. Blame adults. So I can sympathize and relate why Stigma wants to create a world without grownups and is a defender of children. We need to get back those innocent and carefree days! I feel like I want to support Stigma but then again I realized if I do so, I won’t be able to enter adult sites and watch hentai. OH SH*T!!!!!!!

For now, Stigma is painted as the series’ antagonist because of the way he forcefully wants to set people’s heart free. Obviously everyone has darkness in their hearts because nobody is 100% good like God and his angels. Uhm, God and his angels are 100% pure goodness, RIGHT?! Anyway, with humans not waging stupid wars with each other (phew!), hence for entertainment’s sake, we have the heroes soon being pitted against a crazy group of crazy children. I bet these are lost kids with deep scars and traumas. That’s why they have this twisted persona. It would be premature to judge them since nothing much is fleshed out about their past but I have a feeling their personality are so and being reflected in their names. After all, in order for them not to be one dimensional characters, I am guessing they are just greatly misunderstood and that includes Stigma himself. Yeah, the real villains the superheroes will be actually fighting are the darkness of everyone’s hearts! But what are the chances the whole series ends with Shy helping to free Stigma from his whatever shackles instead? Sigma then can join everyone else in the dreaded society we all love and loath so much! Freedom! So much for the ideal world.

Action wise, they feel rather okay and nothing that would make one feel exhilarated or at the edge of one’s seat. Not intense. In fact, I won’t be wrong to say if the action scenes are rather lacking. At least that was my experience. After all, this is a superhero genre. But that is where the biasness comes in. You thought there are going to be supervillains to fight but the only one we got here was Shy-Pepesha vs Tzveta-Kufufu. And even that feels like a warmup (how many times must Tzveta spam her freezing ice move?! At least Kufufu was amusing with her random and killer jokey nature) and precursor for what’s to come in the next season. I mean, first we had Shy fighting against a corrupted Iko and then a training bout with Stardust. That’s all. The rest are just helping people from disasters. And like I’ve pointed out, we don’t really know the exact superpowers of the heroes and thus no memorable moves and even if they pull off one like from Mianlong it’s probably somewhat as a surprise. I mean, here’s Mianlong’s claw technique that puts you to sleep! Surprise! Yeah, it felt like that.

Art and animation are also okay and nothing much to shout about. Standard Japanese animation style of today’s era. Don’t you love your female heroes like cute Japanese anime girls? Thank goodness Teru so cute so we can close an eye these heroes wear embarrassing outfits like they’re attending some cosplay event. Like Pepesha. Almost like some Russian general wannabe, huh? However, something about Lady Black/Piltz that bugs me. Because the moment I first looked at her, damn she does not give an impression she is from Switzerland! SWITZERLAND SHE HAILS FROM!!! She looks like a typical cute Japanese anime girl and with twintails to boot. I mean, the guys like Stardust and Schwartz at least look like (stereotypes) from the country they represent. Even Isaak and Natalia at least look believable as Russians. But Lady Black? Holy f*ck. Damn I thought this was Hatsune Miku moonlighting as a hero! There is nothing Swiss about this girl whatsoever. Talk about misleading! And here I was expecting some blonde Caucasian… On a trivial note, Unilord’s mask reminds me of G.I. Joe’s Cobra Commander… Hmm…

A bit of CGI employed here but thankfully it doesn’t break the entire series. You would notice that the entirety of ABO is done in CGI and while he does stand out from the rest of the 2D animation, it doesn’t make the whole experience weird. Sure, ABO’s movements may look strange and so CGI-like but I guess when you have this flying shrimp floating about, at least better than having the entire anime rendered in CGI! On a side note, the mid-intermission and ending credits animation showcases the actual artwork and design of the manga itself. All I can say is that they look different enough that the manga seems to cast the characters with a more mature look rather than the anime whose style seems to be cute and kiddie-like. Then there are some abstract sketches especially from Stigma’s side. It does give off this unsettling and creepy feeling and such abstract images remind me of those from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Could be nightmare fuel if not careful. This series is done by 8bit who did Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken, Infinite Stratos and Yama No Susume.

To my surprise (why should I?), there are quite a handful of veteran seiyuus I recognized here. Most obviously… MAMIKO NOTO AS PEPESHA!!! OMFG!!! YAAAAASSS!!! For a very long time I believe I have not heard her in a leading role. All the while it is mostly cameos and short or small appearances. But as Pepesha, it seems she has spoken lines and a year’s worth of dialogue combined as compared to those other small roles!!! OMFG!!! BANZAI MAMIKO NOTO!!! It’s good to hear her voice again and at a consistent rate. As the lively Pepesha, it goes to show that she still has it going as a legendary voice actress (NO DISPUTE ON THAT!). So much so sometimes I couldn’t recognize her when Pepesha gets too lively! The other recognized voices are Miyuki Sawashiro as Tzveta/Lenya (hardly recognizable at first since she was so soft spoken), Kikuko Inoue as Unilord, Nao Touyama as Iko, Shinichiro Miki as Stardust, Tomokazu Sugita as ABO (very meek here), Rina Hidaka as Kufufu and Saori Hayami as Inori.

The rest of the other casts are Shino Shimoji as Shy/Teru (Saturnus in Beatless), Mutsumi Tamura as Stigma (Sonya in Kill Me Baby), Sayumi Suzushiro as Lady Black (Oono in High Score Girl), Ayumu Murase as Mianlong (Luck in Black Clover), Miki Itou as Natalia (Fujimura in Fate series), Naomi Kusumi as Schwartz (Ichibei Hyousube in Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen) and Shunichi Toki as Doki (Touka in Yuusha Ga Shinda). The opening theme, Shiny Girl by MindaRyn is a rock outfit. However I find this more noise than music and despite the song wanting to portray a lively superhero theme, it just sounds bland. The main ending theme is a duet by Shino Shimoji and Nao Touyama, Shiritai Kimochi. Just a normal anime pop music. Nothing special in my books. The other special ending themes are the bubbly and lively piece, Kimi Dake Ga Hero by Nao Touyama as well as Watashi No Aoi Sora ~As I Am~ by Shino Shimoji which is a slow rock pop. Both are nothing mind blowing to me.

Overall, this series has its potential so we’ll have to wait for the next season to see if it can stand among the superhero genre juggernauts like Boku No Hero Academia, One Punch Man and even Tiger & Bunny. Obviously this series still has its flaws but to be fair, with only a dozen of episodes and another season in the making, it will be too early to judge. But then again, first impressions count a lot. Otherwise this season itself is still fun and enjoyable especially if you are into superhero genres and love your cute shy girls. Heh. Of course my love for Mamiko Noto has made its score shamelessly shot up through the roof and I have to admit I largely enjoyed it because of her. Is that obsession the darkness in my heart?! I think I know how my Amarariruku would look like. But that’s it for this season. That’s all we’ve got for now. Great and fun superhero anime to watch. Just shy of being a great and epic superhero masterpiece. Heh. Just wanted to say that!

Helck

Kill all humans! Ah yes, those who chant that are of the other races who get oppressed by them, right? Not exactly. The one who wants all humans dead is a human himself?! Talk about being the extreme hater of your own kind. This is what the initial premise of Helck reads. Despite his cheery personality and eternal smiling face, he seems to harbour deep hatred for his fellow men and has joined the ranks of the demons to eliminate his own kind. Of course a certain Demon Lord is suspicious if this is all a ruse to let their guard down. After all, it is those sneaky humans we are talking about. As she tries to uncover the mysteries of our titular character, she also discovers other puzzling mysteries and strange events that are starting to unfold. Who’d knew killing all humans would be such a complicated matter.

Episode 1
As narrated, a hero barged into a Demon Lord Thor’s castle and defeated him easily. Humans rejoiced. 3 months later, the demons are holding a tournament to find a Demon Lord replacement. Vermilio oversees this tournament with her assistant, Hon. All is proceeding well until she learns the hero, Helck is participating in this tournament and bulldozing his way through the competition! She blows her top but as Hon shows proof that Helck claims he hates humans and wants to destroy them! Maybe he is just tricking us to let our guard down? Nope, he signed a contract that will not allow any harm to anyone outside the tournament. Furthermore, Helck is popular with the crowd and shows great sportsmanship. Vermilio continues to be sceptical that Helck must have an ulterior motive. The final straw is that Helck’s stats are way stronger than all the competitors and thus favoured to win! So mad she explodes! There goes her castle. Blaming Hon, he wants a chance to redeem himself. Change the next round’s format. Uhm, making a house of cards? Make Helck’s deck extra slippery! All proceed as planned as Helck couldn’t stack his cards. Until he blows away everyone’s deck with his ultra concentration and finishes creating it! Uhm, isn’t that cheating? Sorry, rules didn’t say that. Worse, the competitors think the house of cards represent the Demon Lord’s castle and were supposed to protect it. Yeah, now they’re fighting each other! But Helck advances. No matter what competition are thrown in, Helck wins. Be it some chess game or sculpting or even a cooking show that Vermilio herself is the judge! Too delicious! Soon, Ista has report from her twin, Asta who was tasked to be a spy in the human world. It seems Helck is a wanted person and a criminal in his world for killing his brother, Cless who was the actual hero who took down Thor. Another thing to note, when Asta was on her covert mission, all the towns she went were void of any humans. Hon then comes in with a distress report. A swarm of knights with wings have defeated another castle of theirs. Their general sacrificed himself to evacuate the citizens. Vermilio knows this place is next and orders to beef up the barrier and prepare the army.

Episode 2
The next tournament is a horse race. Don’t worry, they have rigged Helck’s horse to be a meek cat! He definitely can’t win this, right? Vermilio has her reservations, though. So as the race begins and the contestants off to a great start, only Helck remains at the starting line because his cat is spooked. Helck then calms it down and reassures they can do it. And just like that, they’re back in the race. How? Helck running alongside his cat! Apparently it’s not against the rules so… Whatever obstacles thrown at them, he overcomes! Finally he zips past the frontrunners. Kenros is awed by Helck’s power and won’t lose out as he does the same. But it is Helck who wins by a whisker. Now he is even more popular. Vermilio is now distracted with reports of the winged knights. So far they have taken over Urum’s castle and have no plans on advancing here. One of the top elite demons, Azudra offers his opinion on the case. He suggests the final tournament to see whoever can reclaim that castle takes on the Demon Lord title. It will also test if Helck is willing to fight on their side by pitting him against the winged knights. Vermilio ones again remains doubtful. Because it will be worse if Helck turns against them. Not to worry, Azudra has created some ring that prevents competitors to harm each other. With that, Vermilio agrees to this finals but will also take part to keep watch on Helck. The finalists for this tournament are Helck, Kenros, Hyura and Dorshe. They will be helped by Anne from management who is of course Vermilio in disguise. Yeah, nobody could recognize her even with this simple getup. They think she was one of the referees in the tournament.

Episode 3
The gang make their way to the castle and has to fight lots of demonic creatures that are responsible in making the air in this demon realm toxic. This is why many cities hear have barriers unlike the human world which is so free from it all. As they rest at a stop, Vermilio continues to analyse Helck’s power. This journey hasn’t even wear him down at all and this definitely proves his hero strength. Hyura greatly suspects Anne is Vermilio and tells Kenros about it. Not that he cares about it. Then taking the underground route, more strange monsters to fight until one new world life form shows up. Helck decides to fight this one. They think he might finally draw the sword by his side. But oh well, he defeats it with his kick! And that sword of his is freaking short! Vermilio burns its body to be safe as she ponders if Helck knows about it seeing he defeated it so easily. Do such monsters pop up in the human realm too? As the gang is moments away from the castle, Vermilio reminisces how it was Azudra who introduced Helck to the tournament. When they first met, Helck went through all his traps like it was nothing. In fact, Azudra’s wounds came from accidentally stepping into his own traps! He noted without Helck’s strength, he would have actually died. It was then Azudra trusted Helck as he was different from any other humans he encountered. Vermilio is still suspicious, though. Reaching the castle, they see the winged knights waiting. Yeah, they’re being noisy so the knights start moving. Oh well, let the final begin. Hyura makes haste to take out the leader but she got her arm sliced off by him!

Episode 4
Helck identifies this leader as Edil because of the way he swings his sword. Edil recognizes Helck as he tells him about some awakening ritual. He suffered through it and saw many of his friends went through the same. If that was the case, he would’ve preferred to lose his personality. Even so, he is happy to have gone through this because now he is more powerful to fight demons. It will only be a matter of time when more are awakened and their plan is to invade the demon realm and prove that humans are no longer pushovers. Vermilio isn’t worried because these knights just awakened to their powers and all their combined strength still cannot match the hero’s. Yes, as long as Helck fights on the demon’s side, everything will be okay. More shocking revelations as Edil notes how many will awaken as heroes. Now this changes the game because if the knights grow to be as strong as Helck and even more, the demons are going to be in trouble. Hyura returns and slices off Edil’s wings. It seems she is okay since her clan has regenerative abilities. She let him cut her arm so as to let his guard down and then ambush when the time is right. When Hyura is about to kill a weakened Edil, Helck stops her. This makes Vermilio’s fears come true that he is still on the human’s side. Helck advises Hyura about killing the winged knights. Edil then mentions all this is just a distraction for some pathway to be created. The ground caves in as the demons find themselves before some teleportation stone. It seems the winged knights created a gate here via this. But now the spell has failed and it is going berserk. Dorshe’s barrier can only help protect them because the magic is going to absorb everything into it. Not sure about Vermilio’s plan but she is going to stop it from point blank. Anyway she failed and as Helck tries to rescue her, both get suck into the vortex. Next thing Vermilio knows, she’s in some nice tropical beach.

Episode 5
Vermilio wanders around the remote island until she stumbles into Helck finishing building a cabin with this green annoying birdie, Piwi. Well, he thinks it is better to have a base of operations until they figure things out. Vermilio is in a dilemma because seeing Helck is here, he is not a threat to the demon realm. But with him being persistent on going back there, this makes her panic. Meanwhile another panic is setting in back at the demon realm. Yes, it’s Azudra realizing Vermilio is missing. But don’t worry, he can use a spell to detect her location. Just need to use her hair. And so Vermilio is detected to be… It’s off the map! Where the heck is that?! Vermilio continues to ponder deep about Helck’s alliance. She really believes he is on the human’s side based on his actions but if so, why did he not kill her? Is she of use to him in some ways? In worst case scenario, she may have to fight him. Knowing she cannot defeat him, she’ll bring him down with him. However thoughts that he is too strong and might return, this means her death is wasted. Soon, Vermilio learns there is a small village nearby. Yeah, the occupants are weirdoes and it seems they are quite cautious of newcomers. Vermilio panics upon learning Helck is making a boat. Yeah, the axe break while chopping trees so he used his own hands! So did he manage to find where they are and where the demon realm is? Not really. He just wanted to make one so they can move out in an instant if they get such info. Parts of the beach contain sunken ruins of past civilizations so this makes Vermilio feel nostalgic. Soon an old man confronts them and he is not happy they have turned this island into their own playground.

Episode 6
The old man brings them somewhere and he looks like he is going to do something bad. But it turns out he and the rest of the villagers were putting on an act and they’re throwing them a surprise party! Scared you there, huh? So as they party, Vermilio wonders if they can get off this continent. However nobody knows the direction and perhaps only the great witch who lives atop the mountain does. But don’t bother to go see her since she erects a barrier. Don’t worry, she’ll come down in a few days. Vermilio asks Helck why he saved her then. Because she is his friend. He further explains how his old human friends have become his enemies. He now hates them for he has a score to settle. That is why he will fight against them without hesitation. You see, when humans awakened like those winged knights. They no longer become humans and are just tools for the human king. They’ll commit mass murders and he must stop it. Humans are a blight on this world that mustn’t exist. Back at Hyura’s side, they’re having it tough since more winged knights reinforcements show up. There are a few who can talk and these already have high awakening rate as they badmouth the demons. The demons are about to meet their doom but thanks to Ista and Hon come to their assistance. They help them escape but are soon surrounded. Don’t worry, they brought along a one man army: Azudra! Azudra warns them to leave as he doesn’t want to fight them. They laugh it all as he continues about coexistence between all the races. It is not nonsense as a very long time ago, all races used to live harmoniously together until they broke up and started fighting each other. Of course they don’t believe and attack since it is an order given by their king. Also, it’ll be a waste not to use such gifted powers. Well, they’ve been warned. Azudra easily captures them all with his tree roots. They think he is the Demon Lord they must defeat but Azudra only points out he is one of the generals.

Episode 7
Azudra continues to be merciful and hopes they make the right choice. However other winged knights kill their own comrades before disappearing. Even the last winged knight kills himself and claims as heroes they will be reborn again. Asta has snuck into the palace and stumbles into the chamber of the human king. She sees all the winged knights resurrecting as the human king orders the quick extermination of the demons. Asta then reports back to Ista about this and it confirms the fact the killed winged knights are being resurrected. Azudra then holds a strategy meeting with the rest as he talks about the humans being the weakest race to exist in the world. However if all of them awakens as a hero, they will surpass the rank of SSS threat. Killing something that resurrects is a waste of time and in the end, the demons will be eliminated and a whole new world will be born. But Azudra knows a way to stop the resurrection and that is to kill the human king. He has lived long enough to know such things, especially this resurrection spell works similarly to the contract he put on contestants in the tournament. Only, it is more powerful. But can a mere human hold such a spell? The human king may be a different type like a hero but first they need to shore up their defence. As the humans will be marching here again, they need to retake their castle strongholds before despatching their elite to despatch the human king. Azudra then heads to the teleportation stone. He uses all his strength and magic to open a tiny hole for a very short while just to send a few items as hints to Vermilio on how to get back. Unfortunately, Piwi picks it up and then uses it as firewood fodder for Vermilio’s cooking.

Episode 8
Vermilio learns the witch has come down. But as she rushes to see her, looks like she has already gone back up! Oh my, blaming yourself for being too slow? Luckily the village chief told her about their predicament so she nullified the barrier and they can visit her anytime. So as they go see her, the witch is willing to cooperate and tells them the direction of where they need to go. She even advises them in stocking up on rations and some other stuffs to make the boat sturdier because the journey across the ocean will be perilous. They also need some weird deer creature to navigate the fog. You mean, the one Vermilio (or rather Helck) caught the other day? Yup. That one. Vermilio then talks privately to the witch and wonders if she is a member of the empire as she looks different from the rest of the villagers and she knows what they need when they didn’t even tell her. The witch doesn’t say much but changes the subject about Helck whom Vermilio must be very cautious. He might be her ally right now but it could change since she could sense very dark emotions inside him. Personally, I think the witch is related to Vermilio like her mom or sister because notice how similar they look?! And soon, Vermilio and Helck leave the island. But wait. What’s this? Piwi is coming with them? Vermilio isn’t impressed and wants this little pipsqueak to go back but it begs to tag along. Apparently a letter from the witch to take Piwi along because it can prove useful in dangerous situations as its body is very durable and won’t die easily. So welcome aboard? The sea journey continues until they stumble upon this Kraken.

Episode 9
Helck fights it and goes down! Poor Vermilio laments they’re this close to the continent and he’s dead… NOT! WTF he is waiting on the shore for them instead of going back to the ship? Vermilio is a fool to think something of that calibre could kill him. She chides and bans him from doing anything risky again but also thanks him for saving her. Suddenly they are surrounded by weak and reluctant soldiers from Erille? They are rounded up and brought back to their nation where it seems everyone is suffering in poverty. They are told it wasn’t always like this. They were a peaceful and thriving nation until the Tothman tribe came to enslave them. Because of their weird super strength, their few numbers was enough to turn them all into their slaves. The princess is not amused her guards stoop this low to bring adventurers outside their kind as extra slaves for Tothman. She orders them to be freed and apologizes for the insolence. Soon, Tothman tribe is here. Looks like the king is bored and wants to go conquer nations and they will be their soldiers. The princess pleads it isn’t part of the deal but he tells her to STFU and continues to abuse her. At this point, Helck and Vermilio won’t sit back and do nothing. Helck slaps away the Tothman guards while Vermilio uses her flame to burn them. The king decides to kill Helck himself. He thought his punch did the job but Helck is still standing. Are you not surprised? He continues to land successive punches but it is all nothing to Helck. One Punch Helck is enough to send this guy to his defeat. Helck tells him to free these people and never return here again. However he cannot accept this loss and suddenly his power starts bursting out of control. Now he is a true despicable monster.

Episode 10
Obviously we know Helck isn’t going to lose this one, right? Eventually the Tothman king succumbs to his own strength and dies. Vermilio feels conflicted because such strength of Tothman would not even pose a threat to her but yet she felt scared. The Tothman subordinates then thank Helck and leave. With the curse broken, the Erille side revert to their true form. Piggy people? As thanks, they celebrate the whole night and will pass down their names for generations. Next day they leave for the next town but is told by a traveller that both are destroyed in a war with a neighbouring country. Then in the next town, they need to get a map but the seller obviously jacks up the price. Where to get money? Yeah, this convenient cooking contest! One of the main competitors, Mr Ajikaba, doesn’t he look like a familiar retro cooking anime character?! No surprises because in the end, Helck wins. Ajikaba is impressed and gives him his recipe book while he will go on a journey to train himself better. Finally the get the map and now know where to go next. But they are warned by a troubadour, Iris not to go in that direction because there lies those ruined kingdoms and some warrior of darkness prowling the area. Nobody has come back alive from there.

Episode 11
Thanks for the warning but Vermilio doesn’t have the luxury of time to take a detour. Besides, nothing can beat Helck, right? So when they arrive at that said ruins, Vermilio feels a fearful shiver down her spine. It’s like that same aura from Tothman. Helck goes to fight it and it seems the dark warrior can fight on par. Oh no. Helck given a run for his money? How can he fight a creature that is so strong and fast? It can regenerate too? At this rate, Helck might lose since he is taking on some damage. Vermilio tries to help but even her most powerful attack doesn’t work. Helck then returns and looks like he is even more savage. He gives this dark warrior a beat down as Vermilio remembers the witch’s warning about Helck. The man who bottled up all his negative energy may be her ally now but he will bring about a great calamity. Suddenly Piwi pops up and starts singing and calms the dark warrior down. Apparently Iris told it to sing this song. So why didn’t it start singing from the start?! Then they follow him walk into some building. He starts talking that all they wanted was peace. But when their loved ones started getting killed, the people flew into rage and went to war. It grew so large and desperate that the knights started using some dark hex to boost their strength. Although it ended the war, it came with a great price as they turned into insane monsters and destroyed everything. It was no different for this guy but he managed to keep his sanity because of his will to protect something. Thanks to them, he is now freed from the curse. He gives Helck his sword as atonement and hopes he won’t end up in the same path as him. His final request is to sing that song. Iris is here to sing it as she is overcome with emotion that her brother is now freed. She tells him how he saved her and the few others that survived but laments she should’ve saved him sooner. Helck and Vermilio let the siblings bet as they continue their journey.

Episode 12
We take a look how our demons are faring. So far, they are more than capable to fend off the pesky winged knights each time they resurrect and return. Hyura has defeated Edil for the umpteenth time. Of course the concern grows that the knights level up each time and once they reach their full hero potential, can they still defend their place? Asta continues to spy. She notices the winged knights arguing among themselves for their consecutive losses. However she hears them say something about their goal isn’t winning. Because of their sharper senses, she is forced to hide as they can now sense an intruder. Azudra is ecstatic that he can finally locate Vermilio. This means she is back in the continent. He is thinking of sending a rescue party to get her. He also talks about Helck’s potential and threats as well as the trust level in him. Now we return to Vermilio and Helck. Just dispose of a giant sandworm. Nothing much. They camp for the night as Helck needs to talk to her. He shows her his short sword which used to be long. Named Hero Killer, it is what its name implies. Although it has broken off, it still has enough magic to kill a hero. He wants to give it to her and if it is necessary, kill him with it. Vermilio wants him to hold his horses. She thinks it is about the trust issue. At first she didn’t trust him but he has proven himself along the way so now she does. That’s why she refuses to accept this weapon. He thanks her and is going to tell his story. Once done, he hopes she will reconsider and do him a favour.

Episode 13
Helck and Cless were survivors of a village destroyed by monsters. They headed to the capital thinking life would be better there. They didn’t count on the bullying from nobles but Helck is more than happy to turn their beatings to him rather than Cless. It seems Helck can heal himself although at that point he didn’t know he had his hero powers awakened. Heck, it could have already awakened when he was born. As long as he could keep Cless safe, that was all that matters to Helck. They can’t leave the capital as monster attacks were frequent. They will only do so once they’re stronger and have more money. But one day Cless fell ill and no doctors wanted to treat a kid from the slums. Just when all hope was lost, a girl named Shalamy called her father, Rafaed to take him back to treat him with his doctor, Mikaros. Thanks to his kindness, Cless was saved and it didn’t matter if he was noble or not. Helck was grateful to him from the bottom of his heart. For the next 15 years, they stayed under him and the bullying became lesser. Even if life was better, something still bugged Cless. Those people in the slums were still suffering from discrimination. Hence he wanted to be a soldier like Rafaed to kill all the monsters. This in turn will ease up everyone’s tensions. From that day, Cless trained hard until he joined the military when he turned 16. By 18, he became a respectable captain of his own squad. While his name is now popular with the people, Rafaed talks to Helck about Cless who could be the kingdom’s saviour. He also notes of Helck’s power that could be on par with Cless and could use another help but Helck dismisses it and prefers to do construction and repair work. One day, Cless told Helck he will be away for a while to subjugate some tough monsters. Helck will be waiting and throwing him a party. That party never happened.

Episode 14
With Cless away, monster attacks have become more frequent. The kingdom called upon a military draft in which Helck was enlisted along with Edil. After many battles, Helck returned with Edil to his hometown. It was being ravaged by monsters. Luckily a group of mercenaries led by Alicia already evacuated the people and had begun exterminating the monsters. Helck and Edil help out until the town was rid of them. Because of the constant outbreaks, both form an agreement to help each other to fight off the monsters. This went on for 4 months as Alicia observes Helck’s incredible strength and regenerative abilities. He doesn’t even fight with a weapon so in a way it makes Alicia feel a bit down since she is from a line of heroes who has been exterminating demons. Soon, humans wrongly believed the horde of monsters were unleashed by demons and thus Cless was assigned to lead an expedition to slay the Demon Lord Thor. He was successful and the whole kingdom erupted in joy. However Cless has been fatally wounded and poisoned. He was barely hanging onto his life. Even then, Helck didn’t blame the people who were still wildly celebrating, unknown of Cless’ condition. After all, peace has finally come after so much suffering. But the monster attacks never let up. Hence the people started questioning if Cless’ side actually defeated the Demon Lord although his comrades assured they saw with their own eyes his downfall. Even so, the people demanded to be protected despite knowing Cless is not fit to fight. Helck’s only solution was to go defeat the Demon Lord himself as there is a possibility he may have revived.

Episode 15
As Helck arrives at the ruins, he thought Azudra is the Demon Lord. Azudra mistakes him to be Cless and attacks him out of fear. Helck deflects all his attacks and asks why he sent monsters to attack them. Azudra mentions the demons did not send monsters and they were born from the land. In fact, demons don’t want to wage war on humans and this place used to have power and prevented monsters from spawning. There is also a grave in which fallen demons lie and Azudra tends to them. Despite demons have overwhelming power than humans, they did not because they believe of forging ties with humans one day. Also to note, Thor was more of a pacifist and would prefer to make peace rather than fight. Azudra then gives him the invitation for the next Demon Lord tournament. Once a new Demon Lord is chosen, things will be far better. Helck returns in hopes to tell his fellow humans the truth. But outside the gates, lots of monster and human casualties. Learning from his mercenary friends, the nobles forced them to fight and locked them out. Many died. Then in town, Helck sees the crowd throwing stones at captured demons. Helck tries to stop them but it seems none will listen and even accuses him of being a transgressor. Then Rafaed comes by and warns him not to be deceived by demons as they are cunning. Because now those captured demons turn into monsters and run rampage. Thanks to other heroes saving the day. Helck is confused, did Azudra lie to him? Soon, Rafaed announces a new secret weapon that humans could tap into the hero powers. They will use this to wipe out demons. As Helck frets about this, his mercenary pals think of letting Helck be alone to date Alicia (obviously she has a crush on him). But he thinks it is to tell her the truth. Can he be more ambiguous in asking her out? Oh, he also asks Edil to join in? But soon one of Cless’ men, Zeruzeon comes in to seek Helck’s help.

Episode 16
Zeruzeon reveals those new heroes are actually felons. Their bodies were frail before they were awakened. They used some spell to awaken all the superhuman abilities but the risk is that they lose their minds and become merely puppets who will only obey the spell caster. But the bigger plan is to turn all citizens other than nobles into such at the same time and hence turning this kingdom into one of nobles only. Of course Zeruzeon and some opposed this plan and to Helck’s shock, this plan is devised by Mikaros and even Rafaed approves of it. Zeruzeon notes that they only need to take down the spell caster to stop this madness. Thankfully there are only 2 powerful people enough to play such role: The king and Cless. Hence this plan isn’t just to save the kingdom but Cless who is his best friend as well. That is why Zeruzeon pleads for Helck’s help after he heard of his unbelievable achievements. Obviously Helck is on board with this. Alicia wants in on this too since she won’t let him shoulder the burden alone. That night as Zeruzeon has some of the people cause a ruckus outside the castle, with guards dealing with it, Zeruzeon leads Helck and co deep into the castle. They arrive in the room where they see unconscious Cless ahead. But their arrival is expected by Mikaros. The senate continues to vouch that their actions are right and they should be thankful for letting them upgrade their bodies and serve them for eternity. With the king showing up, he orders them to kneel and as traitors, take their own lives. However Helck is only not effected and his words break his comrades free. That is when the king orders Cless to kill Helck. Helck tries to wake up his brother but he keeps attacking. Mikaros reveals he was searching for a person with such power for a long time. The first time he met and treated Cless, it was like God sent a miracle as he noticed such powers. But because of his weak state, he needed Cless to train up to withstand his spell in the future. Now all that effort has come to fruition. So either Helck kills his brother to stop his plans but that’s not possible, right? Well, surprisingly Alicia slashes Cless. Because of her special hero slayer sword, this stops Cless dead in his tracks. But Mikaros takes advantage of this revelation as he steals Alicia’s sword and cuts down Helck.

Episode 17
Mikaros invites Helck to join his side so they can change the world. But Helck is not going to do it at the expense of innocent people so, sorry. Mikaros is going to get rid of a weakened Helck but Cless breaks free from his spell to kill him. Then as the king is trying to give new orders, Cless throws his sword at his head! But even so, the king continues to order Cless to kill Helck. All Cless could do is apologize to his brother and kills himself! As Helck is in shock, the nobles start to badmouth Cless as garbage. This makes Helck sick as he suddenly permeates deadly aura that scares the sh*t out of everyone. At boiling point rage, he is going to kill those selfish motherf*ckers when Alicia suddenly hugs him. She apologizes her sword caused him pain and trouble. Helck passes out as the rest try to stave off the soldiers. Cless wakes up from a nightmare that Cless is dead. Only, it is reality. He emerges from the cave and a couple of bounty hunters are here to take his head as the king put a bounty on this traitor. As Helck wallows in despair that he was useless, couldn’t do the right things when it mattered most, blaming this whole mess upon himself, those hunters then mention something about his friends are still alive. Only because they’re going to be executed later. This gives Helck the much needed hope and motivation to pick himself up. No time to mope. There is still hope as he makes his way.

Episode 18
Helck busts his way through all the bounty hunters as he slowly remembers his friends risked their lives to have him escape and let him rest in that cave. Helck is unstoppable and not even the special soldiers can do anything about it. Meanwhile Alicia is about to be executed in public. But the executioner misses in beheading her. Why? He felt a cold chill of aura and soon everyone feels the same. It is Helck. Oh boy, he is mad! He grabs the noble who organizes this and accuses him for everything. But then he starts to blame the people and in turn the people blame him back. Helck has had it so he goes to rescue Alicia and wants them to escape and live in the demon realm where they will have better chances. As they leave, Rafaed talks to him one last time. He praises Helck for all that he has done via his sheer iron will but nothing can stop the awakening now. It seems snow is the trigger? Yeah, everyone starts to change into that hideous form. Not sure what Rafaed explains about everyone having that hidden potential and only rare ones like Helck and Cless can bring it out and control them naturally. He tells Helck to leave the place or he will have to fight enemies that were once his friends. Helck is in despair since Cless died for nothing. WHY THE F*CK IS CLESS RUNNING STRAIGHT IN THE SNOW?! SHOULD HE NOT TAKE SHELTER IN AT LEAST INSIDE A BUILDING?! I guess it is for some last moments of Alicia drama as she wants him to kill her before she turns into an unrecognizable abomination. Helck will not do it and wants her to promise not to give up. In that case, she has a final request of him: Always keep smiling. It’s the thing she likes about him best. Even she ends up fighting him one day, perhaps seeing his smile will hopefully make her remember to try her best.

Episode 19
Helck refuses to kill Alicia. How the f*ck is he going to stop the snow?! Then he stumbles into Zeruzeon. He has awakened and truly relishes with his newfound powers. At first he thought of going to kill the king but realizes that doing so will have everyone go berserk because nobody to control. Helck is mad to see Mikaros still alive. But what makes him even more infuriating is that Mikaros is using Cless’ corpse and turn it into some hideous form to continue this farce. Helck won’t forgive this bastard and tries to kill him. Noting he is still powerful, Mikaros can’t fight him yet and will have him teleport away using Cless’ new power. Helck ended up in the demon realm and got lost. Kenros picked him up and brought him back to his village. Despite Helck telling the truth, the demons didn’t care and treated him well. This is also why Helck has been fighting not because to free his friends but to keep everyone else safe. With the awakened humans, they have obtained powers that are far more dangerous imaginable. Now they have the power to resurrect after being killed and that was why he stopped Hyura from killing one. Because the only one who has the power to kill humans is himself. That is, if he continues to remain sane. But if he were to go insane, that is where Vermilio comes in as he wants her to kill him with this broken Hero Killer sword. Before Vermilio answers, she admits her lie that she is not Anne and reveals who she is. Because she also swears to protect, she wants Helck to promise to fight not with death in mind. With that, she agrees to hold the sword. Long flashback over so now they resume their journey. After a long train ride, they continue by foot. They stumble into an old guy explaining about a dreadful monster that has been destroying their village and taking lives. Uhm, you mean the monster they just killed?! He thought they were lying but seeing it is true, IT’S PARTY TIME! Soon, Harpey from the search and rescue team finds Vermilio. Azudra sent her on this mission to hand her a message. Azudra needs them to head to the southern part of the human realm instead of coming back. Since this is where they are going, Vermilio realizes Azudra’s plan. It seems Azudra’s side will continue to fend off the invading humans. This is all a diversion because Vermilio and Helck will be the ones who will kill the human king.

Episode 20
The winged knights continue to attack as the demons continue to defend. The former still lose but before the demons could capture them, they are killed off to restart the resurrection. We also see Azudra discussing with Hon and Ista about why he put forth this risky plan. Despite he has other backup plans, this is the best. He also throws caution about the humans doing this. They are weak even when awakened. Definitely not enough to defeat Helck. This begs the question if there is another human as powerful as Helck and controlling all this. For now, he believes they shouldn’t be making any moves and might obtain new info. Now we shift to Asta who continues to do her spy mission. It is thanks to those low level winged knights who are just freaking dumb and like zombies, Asta could easily hide and get away despite their sheer numbers all over the place. She also uses various spy tools but as explained, they don’t really work because Asta already naturally has those skills so these tools are just psychological. Asta almost got busted when a winged knight goes berserk, blasting her into the place where Cless is. She escapes through a crevice and continues to wander. She stumbles upon a secret library. She thought it is a good place to hide but she got locked out and couldn’t go back in. Searching for a new place to hide, she stumbles into a room where it seems Shalamy has been held captive. Asta finds it odd she is not awakened like the rest and it seems Shalamy is lonely and wants company to talk as all the people she know have gone away. The only person she has talked to is her father. Asta joins her over tea and listens to her talk about a certain pair of brothers and those fun days.

Episode 21
Zeruzeon leads his winged knights to attack the castle belonging to Demon Lord Shin. However they anticipated their ambush. Zeruzeon is not fazed since monsters are also popping up so the demons have another thing to worry about. Of course this was all coordinated by Mikaros as he planted some groundwork to have the monsters spawn here in the future. With Azudra’s forces showing up, you think the demons have won. However as noted by Zeruzeon, this is all going as planned because this attack is just a diversion. Mikaros is leading his side to storm Thor’s castle to obtain its barrier stone. Mikaros is having a cakewalk beating all the lowly demons. He meets his match with Hyura. Since he has no time to waste, he lets Edil deal with her. As he is about to take the barrier stone, he is suddenly ambushed by Azudra. So the one back at Shin’s castle was just a demon a disguise. Azudra realizes Mikaros has a powerful magic that can easily teleport, powers that are even near impossible for demons. Even more so, a power that could manipulate the new world. He deduces it was him who killed Thor and Urum. Azudra seems to know the trick behind Mikaros’ regeneration and the reason he can’t just kill himself to revive. Mikaros remembers those old days when humans were in power and had the numbers. Always engaging in never ending wars, one warrior who stood out from the rest was Azudra. He mowed down heroes from the kingdoms with ease. He was like a demon literally. Mikaros then was a lowly soldier as he watched his comrades get slain by him. Fearing for his life, he pretended to be dead among his comrades’ corpses. Somehow his body acclimated to the poison in the demon realm and awakened his true power which is the same as Azudra: Eternal youth. Mikaros claims he is doing this not out of revenge but to create a new world. This means destroying the current one. For 1500 years, he roamed across the land to learn all kinds of magic and spells. Now he wants to free himself from his past trauma since Azudra’s presence has no longer strike fear in him. Azudra intended to capture and interrogate him but changes his mind to kill him.

Episode 22
Edil continues fighting Hyura. However it seems his personality is switching back and forth. On one hand he is happy to fight her but on the other, he feels he must remain loyal to the king. Hyura wonders if he is breaking free of the king’s spell. Asta feels bad for Shalamy since she is stuck in here and has no idea about the current events. Since Asta wants to see the king, Shalamy is willing to take her there as long as she is brought along. She is tired of being sheltered. Along the way, Shalamy shows her a secret. It seems she has this power to spread other powers. So like those snow? When they enter the king’s chamber, the king immediately attacks Asta and even mind controls Shalamy to do the same. The farce is stopped by Rafaed who warns this fallen king not to use this spell on Shalamy unless ordered to. Asta tries to attack the king but Rafaed blocks her before winged knights restrain her. Rafaed explains it is thanks to the king that the current humans are all docile. Without him, all would’ve become monsters of death and destruction. This means by killing the king, they would bring forth a greater disaster. Mikaros and Azudra’s fight continues as the former explain once the king’s spell is broken, the power of the new world will take over and all the humans will become those hideous monsters. These humans are those who failed to become proper heroes. Mikaros notes he is not strong to beat Azudra but at the same time he cannot best this army of monsters which are now awakening. Azudra orders Hon to evacuate everyone while he uses his last ounce of strength to restrain all the monsters. Edil saves Hyura from certain death. Oddly, he feels he doesn’t hate her as much as before and now understands what Helck means about achieving peace. Edil is attacked by Mikaros who congratulates him from freeing from the king’s spell. He thought humans who retained their personalities after awakening would be a good asset. Now he changes his mind. They all should be mindless monsters. He breaks Edil’s mind with his spell to turn him into a true monster. Edil saves Hyura one last time before he heads towards Azudra, all part of Mikaros plan to take him down. Mikaros knows Azudra is counting on Helck to save the day. But he too despite being the ultimate awakened being is human. Once he faces the ultimate despair, he will fall slave to his own power.

Episode 23
Vermilio discusses with Helck about Azudra’s plan. At the southern border of the human realm, they have made a base there. Arriving there means reaching the human realm is just a stone throw’s away and they could save time. Although she is confident their strength will be able to defeat the human king, the real battle comes after that since they have to defeat all the mutated humans. Vermilio assures her power is good enough to take down hordes of enemies. So leave the winged knights to her and he can concentrate on fighting Mikaros and the king. Next day as they make their way to the base, a fellow search and rescue member collapses before them. She is injured and claims winged knights have attacked them in droves. Vermilio deduces they have come for Helck since they fear his power. This makes her worry about everything but realizes she is a fool to do because it’s Helck we’re talking about. She is supposed to support him. Helck and Vermilio head towards the base and leave Harpey and Piwi to treat the injured. We see Mikaros slowly generating in his base as he talks about Rafaed about Helck will be a far greater threat than Azudra if they get careless with him. Mikaros also knows where Helck is because on that day when he showed himself to fight him, it was on purpose to take a piece of his hair, flesh or whatever. This enables him to use some high level magic to track where he is. He leaves it to Rafaed to deal with Helck as he continues to regenerate. Hence Rafaed is here at this base, killing all demons and taking no prisoners in his bid to find Helck. It won’t be long before he shows up. Rafaed tells him straight up he is here to kill him since he is in the way of their plans. However if he walks away from this, he will not kill him and nobody will blame him. Go live your life far away in some remote place for the rest of his life peacefully. Obviously Helck refuses to do that and so the battle begins. Vermilio fights Rafaed and believes he doesn’t know the real Helck. He is stronger than he think he is. But soon Helck is confronted with a very familiar winged knight.

Episode 24
As Rafaed fights Vermilio, he tells her she doesn’t know the deep pain and suffering Helck has gone through. He believes this will relief Helck from all his pain. Obviously that winged knight is Alicia and Helck continues to put up his smile. But his aura of despair is so great, it brings other lesser winged knights to their knees. OMG is this like One Piece’s Haki or something? It is believed Helck will kill her and this makes Vermilio heart sink as she realizes the very important thing. She cannot stomach killing her own friends and the nagging feeling of hers wasn’t her concern over Helck. As one who puts others before himself, she is ashamed she never put himself in his shoes. It isn’t killing humans that Helck actually wants. She also realizes telling him to come stay in the demon realm was wrong. What she should have said to him then was they should find a way to save humans! Vermilio screams this to Helck as she also mentions about their travels where they witnessed all sorts of crazy stuffs. That is why they will resist and fight back. This time he is not alone. She is with him. Rafaed tries to rain on her parade, claiming those transformed are impossible to revert back. But she tells him to STFU because there’s no proof of that. You won’t know until you try. When Rafaed mentions Azudra has died in the attack, Vermilio calls his bluff. He has known Azudra for so long that he likes to pull off this crap so many times! He might not have Helck’s super body or regenerative abilities but he somehow always comes back from the dead! Speaking of him, we see him recuperating and alive. Surprisingly Rafaed withdraws from this fight. No point arguing with idiots. They will see for themselves how everything they do will be futile. Helck thanks Vermilio for giving him the courage because now he too wants to save his friends. Now their plan is to head to Shin’s castle to meet up with Azudra. Azudra receives report of Vermilio’s return and also her letter of her plan to save humans.

What The Helck?!
Uhm… Eh? Is that it? Are they missing an episode or something? Oh, I just checked and that is how they ended. Well, shucks. Not the most intense of cliff-hangers but I guess this means a change in goal. Saving all humans instead of killing them would be the best true happy ending for everyone, right? Imagine Helck killing all his fellow homo sapiens and being the last human species in this world. Definitely that wouldn’t bring in any smiles and would just aggravate his despair. Yeah, at least Helck looks slightly better now. No more that stupid smile on his face and this new face that shows a huge relief makes Helck look better and more believable than before.

Looking back at the entire season, personally I feel the whole story was just draggy and longwinded. Having 2 cours, I thought it would be boring if the entire series was going to be about Vermilio trying to suspect Helck and expose him but whatever plans of hers will backfire because Helck being Helck. There. Slapstick comedy all the way. But fortunately it didn’t turn out that way. Instead, the Demon Lord competition was cut short with the intrusion of the winged knights. After blasting Vermilio and Helck to a faraway land, then the story starts to become draggy. Well, it looked like some sort of long journey and road trip home. And then of course the obligatory long flashback to flesh out Helck’s history and circumstances which eat up approximately a quarter of the entire series. Wow. Such huge tragedy. And finally, the big finale boss fight that we’ve been waiting for… DID NOT HAPPEN! Oh man. Sometimes I wonder if the entire 2 cours just wasted our time. Even more so, each episode starts off with a short recap of what happened previously. I don’t know, is our memories that short that such is needed? Or just to fill up some time?

Since I am dissatisfied at how the anime ended in such a way, I did a quick (AKA lazy) check over the internet and found that the manga had already ended quite a while ago. Yeah, that is back in 2017! Way before a certain pandemic hit our shores! Not sure why it took them 6 years to animate or the producers just dug up and saw this title that was never animated before and decided to take up the challenge. Well, I guess it’s better than Hoshi No Samidare. Yeah, that manga ended in 2010 and the anime adaptation came out 12 years later! Anyway… The thing is, when I checked where the anime ended, it was the penultimate volume in the manga. This means 1 more volume left to go. Oh my. So are they going to give everyone some anxiety jitters if the final adaptation will be a single cour or OVA format? Or will it ever come?! Yeah, what a way to end the anime like that. My guess it is to get people hyped up to look forward for the ending and those who are impatient and want to know what happened will rush to find the manga. Great advertising tactic in this context. Me? Oh you know me. I’m willing to wait till kingdom come… In hindsight, maybe where the anime ended is for the best. Because it shows they’re not rushing things.

For our titular character Helck, obviously there is more than meets the eye to this guy. Always smiling and always strong that it puts him on par with all those overpowered characters of the isekai genre! We have a better understanding after watching his flashback and it shows that no matter how strong Helck has been portrayed, he is still flawed in so many ways especially the deep darkness that lurks inside his heart. So it’s like this happy persona is like a seal to prevent himself from losing his mind? Perhaps. He is so strong that he can do anything he wants and nobody could best him, making his actions look comical and perhaps trying to let our guard down and make us think he is a comical buffoon. In a way, yes and no. Helck is just being Helck. Initially just a simple man with simple needs, he got dragged into this complicated mess just because some humans are dicks. In some ways I can resonate and support his kill-all-humans motto! The only trivial thing bugging me is how they named him so. Is a combination of hell and heck? The creator got stumped in naming him so what the hell or what the heck… Yeah, just combined both! Just kidding…

Then there is Helck’s travelling companion, Vermilio. She started out as one who is very sceptical of Helck. Because of that, there is this weird dynamism between them. Helck does something incredulous and this makes Vermilio go into some comeback mode. I swear if this was another parallel world, the duo would’ve made it big as a manzai comedian. I mentioned about their road trip and journey home. While it may look like random fillers, I suppose travelling together helps Vermilio understand Helck better. And then after he tells his full story, we can see the obvious changes in her and one who is now fully behind Helck’s back. The thing that she is questioning now is the trust in her own self. After all that they have been through and seen, if all that does not change Vermilio, she wouldn’t be worthy of the Demon Lord title. But sorry, no Helck x Vermilio romance of any sort! Yeah, Edil x Hyura romance seems more plausible! Now that she has got her confident back, nothing else will stop her from achieving her goal. Not even Helck. The irony that a demon is the one who gave the hopeful idea of saving humans.

I thought Piwi would be the trump card AKA plot convenience in the end or something but I guess I was wrong. At least as far as this adapted anime is concern. I thought this little green bird is going to be more than just a cute annoying kiwi as well as the series’ pet mascot. Oh you know, Piwi could be the secret weapon that could save all humans! Remember how his singing calmed and saved a soul? Yeah. That. However nothing came of it in the end and hence Piwi is just a green annoying thingy that is seemingly having fun at his own pace but I can’t bring myself to hate it because it’s just too cute! GRRR!!! And here I thought Piwi could be revealed to be Vermilio’s long lost sister or something! What the heck?! Piwi isn’t the biggest mystery because I still keep thinking the bigger mystery is that witch. I still believe she is related to Vermilio. Otherwise, how does she know so much? Having such questions unanswered as the series ends is definitely disappointing.

As for the other characters, it feels like they are barely there. Especially the demons who are generally the nicest race ever at least in this anime. Yeah, makes you wonder if they messed up the naming terminology here because humans are the real demons while the demons are more humans in nature. Anyway, from the usual pack I surmise, Azudra looks like your goofy idiotic level that is perhaps on par like Helck. Of course as we have seen, this guy is also as powerful and perhaps he is only playing the joker to hide his strength. After all, we see him being like a simp for Vermilio and no matter how true that is, it doesn’t hide the fact that he is a powerful and good demon guy. Or maybe he is also straight up an idiot. Who says you can’t be both respectable and an idiot at the same time? The rest aren’t so significant like Hon just playing the assistant role, Asta stuck in her spying mission, Ista existing only as a communication tool for Asta, Kenros a very laidback and fun guy, Dorshe the gentle giant and Hyura probably the only very serious one among this pack but don’t let her scary looks fool you. She is still as caring as her fellow demons.

Now onto the humans’ side, it is strange that all humans have this hidden ability to awaken. It’s like they’re some sort of special race. At least as far as this anime is concerned. I have my suspicions that the king is dead because he just doesn’t move. I mean, anybody can play ventriloquist and make him speak, right? My suspicions would be on Mikaros who is the most dangerous human individual ever. He is quite a formidable enemy and it will take him a lot more than Helck’s superhuman strength to bring him down. Ah yes, I’m going to speculate to power of friendship and bonds playing a major role in taking this bastard down. Why else would we have seen Helck’s road trip across the land for?

Of course not all humans are bad especially Helck’s former friends like Alicia, Edil and Zeruzeon but they are now consumed by the spell. But just like all humans have, there is hope to save them in the end rather than kill of them. I feel the latter would be more feasible and save a lot of trouble but I guess we don’t want to paint ourselves as a dick in the end. Wouldn’t we all love to see Helck and Alicia’s greatest reunion and hug with tears streaming down their cheeks! Better share such happiness with us viewers than despair! This means double happiness when they save Cless too. I am not sure about Rafaed if he is friend or foe. In this context he looks like the latter. He is pretty cool and reasonable and could it be that he is fighting on the wrong team? I don’t know, but sheltering Shalamy shows that he knows this whole thing is bad. Speaking of her, she really stayed in there for years without really suspecting or trying to find out what the f*ck is happening? I thought she was smarter than that. Maybe by staying in her safe zone, it saved her from the inconvenience of the awakening.

The action scenes are rather okay. Personally, nothing mind blowing because of the fact that Helck is just overly powerful and heals in a jiffy, there was nothing that put me at the edge of my seat when I see him in battle. He was no danger in dying and perhaps it is the grim reaper who is afraid of him! Hell yeah. Of course Helck’s strength in battle as far as I can see is played mostly for laughs. Because he is so overly strong and destroys the opponent so quick, it just dumfounds Vermilio. Even her powerful flames need some time. So yeah, I’m not sure if Helck’s strength is on par with Saitama of One Punch Man fame but I really do want to know who will walk away the winner if both clashes!

Art and animation are standard with cute girls and cute guys as design. Of course some demons look as funny as f*ck especially those on the road trip. Vermilio could’ve looked cuter if she smiles rather than carrying that frown. On second thought, I imagine she might look creepy so scrape that thought. Of course Piwi takes the cake as looking the strangest and cutest both at the same time. Yes, quote little round thingy but the more I look at him, the more unsettling I feel. Especially those dead fish eyes… Some scenes are dark but that is to be expected since the demon realm is not really a nice place to live in (apart from its nice inhabitants). Though if there is one thing that needs more animation, it is the action scenes because some of them certainly look stiff. Sure, Helck’s strength might end it soon but this is no excuse for the stiffness. This anime is done by Satelight who did Fairy Tail, AKB0048, Log Horizon, Senki Zesshou Symphogear and Guin Saga.

Voice acting, Mikako Komatsu as Vermilio sounds like she is always on standby mode to do a comeback if Helck does something silly. Yeah, that is how she sounds for the most part. The only ones I recognized are Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Azudra, Akira Ishida as Hon and Tomokazu Sugita as the human king. Other casts are Katsuyuki Konishi as Helck (Tengen in Kimetsu No Yaiba), Shiori Izawa is Piwi (Pino in Edens Zero), Daisuke Hirakawa as Mikaros (Makoto in School Days), Atsushi Miyauchi as Rafaed (Niji in One Piece), Hiroki Nanami as Edil (Ayame in Gibiate), Rena Maeda as Hyura (Nike in Soredemo Sekai Wa Utsukushii), Hiroyuki Yoshino as Kenros (Mic in Boku No Hero Academia), Reina Kondo as Alicia (Nagomi in Akiba Maid Sensou), Shuuta Morishima as Zeruzeon (Kobayashi in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), Yumiri Hanamori as Shalamy (Nadeshiko in Yuru Camp), Shiki Aoi as Asta (Homura in Edens Zero), Haruka Shiraishi as Ista (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy) and Motoharu Ono as Cless.

Unfortunately all the songs didn’t resonate with me. It’s My Soul by Hiroki Nanami as the first opening theme sounds like a generic rock beat. But not as weird as the second opening theme, Help by Aimi. Although still another rock outfit, I find that the opening stretch of this song reminds me of the theme song of Inspector Gadget! Say it isn’t so! The first ending theme, Statice by Saji is more of a slow rock while the second ending theme, Hikari by Kanoe Rana is more of a slow ballad.

Overall, this series is just passable. What started as a story to kill all humans became a long and drag out affair of having a road trip, flashback and a not so final battle that ended in a cliff-hanger. Could’ve been better if they added a few more episodes to end it but that depends on the outcome and direction of that. Too bad no matter how awakened the humans get, they can’t save this series altogether. Hey, better awakened than woke! Now I can somewhat relate to Helck’s eternal smile even when the going gets bad. After years of seeing such animes, I have learnt to put it all up with a smile and just shake my head hoping the next time would be better while the deep darkness inside my heart screaming that it should have been better! Still waters run deep indeed >:-).

Boukensha Ni Naritai To Miyako Ni Deteitta Musume Ga S-Rank Ni Natteta

Somebody picks up an abandoned child in the woods, raised the child as one’s own until she grows up to be a really fine and great person. Sorry if you think this is Dekoboko Majo No Oyako Jijo and while basically having that same basic premise, Boukensha Ni Naritai To Miyako Ni Deteitta Musume Ga S-Rank Ni Natteta is not some outright slapstick comedy. Instead of staying in the boondocks and waste away, he sends his daughter to the capital to train and become a top adventurer. In a short span of 5 years, she has become a distinguished S-Rank adventurer and at this point all she yearns for is to return home to see the father she loves. Mind you, she has never been home once ever since she left. Homecoming is going to be awesome unless…

Episode 1
Belgrieve picked up an abandoned baby in the forest and raised her as his own. 12 years later, daddy loves his daughter and so does our little girl. But soon, wanting to follow his footsteps of being an adventure, Angeline would soon leave her sleepy village of Turnera to train to become one. Many years passed and now she is an S-Rank adventurer. She can’t wait to return home to see her beloved daddy and has already requested some time off. Even Belgrieve has received her letter and is looking forward to her return. But as she packs her bags, what is the guild master, Lionel doing here? It seems there is some demon outbreak in some country and her assistance is very much needed. Angeline actually wanted to screw that just to go home but I guess she can’t risk having a country destroyed. And so you damned insects bear the brunt of her anger! She missed her vacation home for this! Poor Belgrieve thought her daughter is back but it is just a letter to explain it is delayed. So on the way back, Angeline stumbles into a group of bandits attacking a poor girl. This going to delay her trip if she gets involved, right? Yes it does. After handing their asses to them, Seren Bordeaux is grateful for her help. Turns out she is some high ranking noble’s daughter. She was on some inspection duty but heard her father had fallen ill and rushed back but got ambushed. Oh, that’s the buzzword. Angeline will not leave this poor lady to her fate of not reuniting with her father! She’s going to send her home! Meanwhile Belgrieve accompanies the local kids to the mountains. He protects them from monsters but it is clear that his age has caught up to him. More monsters die at the hands of Angeline taking out her frustrations. Sure, Seren made it to her father but at the expense of her own. Only way is for her friends to treat her to food. As they are orphans, they have more of a motherly figure than a father. Angeline then tells them about her own origins. Then she writes another letter to dad, this time describing her friends, Anessa and Miriam. She hopes to see him soon and prefers via face to face than letters.

Episode 2
Sasha Bordeaux is here to see Belgrieve to thank him for his daughter who not only helped saved her younger sister from bandits but even escorted home to see her father before he passes on. Angeline refused any reward and even told them to give it to her father. And so Sasha is here to reward 100 gold coins. Imagine Belgrieve can live off a coin for a year… He agrees to hold onto this reward for Angeline until she gets back. Sasha wants to spar with him as she heard of his many heroics. Of course she loses but is impressed. She keeps forming all those heroic deeds he has done and doesn’t give him an inch to even correct them all. In the end, she wants to be his disciple? Oh well… Meanwhile Angeline is glad there are no great jobs for her but she still can’t take a whole month off! As she sulks while on standby, her friends talk about the legend of a great wizard known as Solomon. His thirst for magic led him to go crazy and his magic went berserk, summoning 72 demons before disappearing. The demons ravaged the land until the hero came to save the day. Nobody knows if that legend is true but there are rumours of a shady group trying to revive the Demon Lord. The friends are glad to know Angeline can easily defeat one. Oh, there’s a call for her for a tough job. Grrr… Helvetica Bordeaux, the oldest daughter has now become the countess to replace her father. What business does she have with Belgrieve? She wants him to serve her family because of his strength. He turns her down but she remains stubborn. She then orders her men to forcefully take him! Is she turning into a villain? But Belgrieve’s scary aura is enough to make the soldiers scared and not want to fight. Now that it has come to this, Helvetica tries to seduce and marry him! This farce is stopped with Seren admonishing her dumb sister. Since it is already late, Belgrieve invites them to stay and to also celebrate their own autumn festival. Angeline realizes she could just ask her father to come join her adventuring since there is short of adventurers lately. Why didn’t she think of this sooner? However she realizes dad may not want to leave his peaceful Turnera. Then she gets news of Helvetica’s wiles. Obviously not impressed but she is awed at how dad handled everything perfectly. That’s her dad.

Episode 3
Angeline is glad to be reunited with retired S-Rank dudes, Cheborg and Dortos. It seems both have been called out of retirement due to the increase threat in monsters. But as Lionel has investigated and put it, it isn’t just a normal threat. He believes the cause of this is because of the resurrection of the Demon Lord. This is why he has gathered a lot of high ranking adventurers to help out. With the help of another retired S-Rank adventurer, Maria, she sniffs out a hidden barrier that is hiding the core of this evil. But first everyone has to fight through monsters and the intense magic of this place has warped some of them to combine and be a hideous motherf*cker. Angeline and Dortos head deeper into the cave where the core is located. Angeline is stumped at first as this creepy apparition is looking lost and trying to find its master. Could have been killed had Dortos not saved her from its bloodthirsty sneaky attack. Although their weapons cannot cut through it, Angeline’s will of wanting to return to her father so bad that her sword manages to do that. Just paid the price of getting a little injured on the shoulders, that’s all. Angeline is hailed as a hero back at the guild. The old farts heard about her case of not getting the day off to return to see her father. Many would’ve left the guild but why did she stay on? She realized she can’t be selfish to go back to her father when the town is in danger. Her dad wouldn’t like it if she abandoned it just to go see him. Wow. How magnanimous. Makes us feel how small a man we are, huh? Yeah, it gives her more reason to brag about her dad. Meanwhile the master of that apparition collects it back. Despite underestimating the guild and wary of Angeline, things are still going as planned. Finally Angeline gets her much needed break to return to her father. At first she is worried and filled with anxiety and questions about him and the current state. But all that is blown away she soon spots him. Can’t miss the only red haired guy in town. She runs faster than her carriage to go see him. Welcome home.

Episode 4
Prepare for all the coddling and spoiling as Angeline can’t help revert herself to a child-like state. Belgrieve talks to her friends and he is grateful they are so. They tell him on their way here, they met Sasha and Angeline almost got the wrong idea that she was the one who flirted with him. Luckily nothing untoward happened and she soon changed her tone when Sasha started praising him. Belgrieve then learns Angeline has been spreading the Red Ogre label all around just to show how strong he is. Then he duels her and he easily defeats her! She throws a tantrum that will only go away if daddy gives her a hug. He hopes she could stop spread such rumours about him and although she agrees, she gets the wrong idea he wants to be the mysterious type. More reminiscing of the past and having a good time. Anessa and Miriam try to have Belgrieve spoil them just to annoy Angeline and it works like a charm. Nobody will flirt with daddy except her! Those who do must duel her! Angeline continues to lose to daddy in mock duels. He worries at this rate she can’t fight higher ranked beasts. Well, she believes the Demon Lord is not as strong as him! He learns she has fought one as she describes the shadow figure. This further worries Belgrieve because if she continues to fight this way, she will lose her life. Hence he throws down the ultimatum that if she wants to continue adventuring, she must beat him. Worse, failure to do so he will disown her! OMG. Can Angeline’s heart take this? She’s now throwing more tantrums but is forced to be on her guard when daddy attacks. However she makes a surprise move to hug him since she doesn’t like all this. Being caught off guard, he realizes his loss. Give an inch, want a mile. Because now Angeline won’t forgive him for that disowning statement unless he hugs her. Okay. Belgrieve realizes his own fault for not realizing she has grown. The friends truly believe he lives up to the Red Ogre nickname.

Episode 5
Cheborg and Lionel see a young couple of the Solomon faith, Ilya Charlotte and Byaku trying to sell people some charms. Looks like some religious scam so as the guards try to stop them, Charlotte uses magic to choke them. Cheborg and Lionel intervene but Byaku keeps them at bay. The gig is up so the scammers flee. As the festival is underway, Angeline is still sticking to Belgrieve. Koala Angeline?! With Belgrieve receiving a task at Bordeaux, Angeline is over the moon that he is going to travel with them back to Orphen. They pack their bags and leave the next morning. As they arrive and patron a bar, Belgrieve notices Charlotte and Byaku in the next table arguing. Not wanting trouble, Byaku shuts the loli up and leave. Soon, Sasha comes barging in to bring them back to her place. Belgrieve goes to see Helvetica and you bet Angeline wants to come. Just in case. As expected, Helvetica still hasn’t given up on him and Angeline is not going to accept this woman who wanted to be her mother! She will not forgive her for trying to steal daddy while she is away! Belgrieve assures her that he doesn’t intend to have any relationship with Helvetica. That’s the obvious rejection sign. Back to business, it seems in a nearby town of Hazel, Count Malta who rules it is objecting to send labourers to other towns. Thing is, the road project there is 90% completed so logically some labourers are to be designated for other projects. They believe he is purposely doing this as he is a fallen noble. Because now that their father is gone, some nobles are unhappy with Helvetica as the heir and are trying to stage a comeback and Malta is trying to egg them on. Though, there is no proof. Next day, Belgrieve trains alone but under the watchful eye of Ashcroft who is Helvetica’s retainer and distrusts him. When Sasha wants to train under him, Ashcroft warns her that he isn’t a good swordsman she think he is. He must’ve cheated when he beat her. Sasha takes that as an insult and wants Belgrieve to teach him a lesson. Ashcroft will be more than happy to take him on. Meanwhile Malta talks to Byaku about their plans. However Byaku is not impressed he is heading into Bordeaux soon. He wants him to delay. Malta will not wait any longer and will take back all the wealth and power he thinks he is entitled to unlike those Bordeaux girls who frolicked themselves with commoners. Tonight we act!

Episode 6
Belgrieve accidentally slips and defeats Ashcroft. The latter cries foul but is told off for being a sore loser. Now it’s Angeline’s turn to fight him and she went all out against him. Because of that, he got a little injured so Belgrieve has to tell off his daughter for going too far and apologize. In turn, Ashcroft apologizes for his insolence. We see a flashback on Charlotte. A happy young girl whose family worship the religion of Vienna. Until one day the people revolted and her parents perished just to let her escape. So much about that faith. People just got too greedy. Reduced to being a begging vagabond, Charlotte is then approached by some Solomon faith guy and given this ring. Now she uses this ring to unleash undead monsters onto Bordeaux. Belgrieve and Angeline go see Bordeaux’s guild master, Elmore. However they receive news that the undead monsters are attacking. The adventurers go into high gear to protect the people and do some warm up of cutting down the undead. Ashcroft rues his injuries as he cannot protect Helvetica at full strength. He might die doing so but thankfully Belgrieve and Elmore are here to help him. Angeline and the rest fight the undead all over town. She stumbles into some darkwalker and when she tries to cut it down, she gets engulfed in it. She starts to experience some creepy visions and a voice telling her she is the same. She starts to weaken but luckily the rest pull her out. It is then Charlotte arrives and uses her light magic destroy all the monsters. Conveniently Malta is also here, claiming he received the news and came with his army to protect. Angeline calls him trash since he arrived at the wrong time. Seeing his disappointed looks that Helvetica didn’t die in the attack, they have no proof of his scheming but will stay on guard since he agrees to station his troops here tonight to help protect the town. Angeline may be injured and weakened but nothing like daddy’s carrying to help heal her. Though, that darkness still bugs her.

Episode 7
Malta is not happy that Helvetica still lives and blames them. Though, Byaku already warned him. Malta threatens Charlotte to make her next move. She agrees to it seeing she can’t stand those people living happily while she has suffered. Ashcroft gives Belgrieve and Angeline some elven remedy. You bet they’ll heal up in no time. Helvetica sends Sasha to deal with Malta as he knows that fatty is scheming something. Along the way, she stumbles into Charlotte and Byaku. Byaku realizes Sasha already suspects them so he attacks her. She is not good enough to beat him but thanks to Elmore and Ashcroft coming to aid her. Still, his magic is just out of this world. Well, who else can beat him? Yeah, Angeline is itching for a fight. She now feels lighter and faster. This fight enables Charlotte to sneak away. When Angeline has Byaku cornered, he won’t give in and turns into a monster. But this effect only lasts for a while before he disappears. As the undead now swarms the mansion, Belgrieve and the rest fight the monsters and protect the rest. Belgrieve then fights the monster in which the perpetrator is Charlotte. She is upset that people always gets in her way. Mad loli fights back but her magic backfires and tries to swallow her. Belgrieve saves her from certain death and now she reverts to being a scared emotional loli. Knowing they have failed, Byaku takes Charlotte and leave. Helvetica is forced to face her father as an undead but she puts the past behind her and cuts him down. Malta gets impatient and goes to check things out. He is brought to where Helvetica is. Long story short, she is going to kill him to end all the misery. Her naivety led to all this and all his shrewdness that steeled her resolve to put an end to this mockery. Hey, the people will find out sooner or later. She has her men dump his body on the roadside and claim he died during patrol. OMG! Helvetica so badass!!! In the aftermath, Belgrieve won’t be returning with Angeline to Orphen. Because by doing so, she won’t return to Turnera. He’ll always keep it safe so she can return anytime. Angeline agrees with that and will work hard to look forward to come home. Before he departs, Helvetica gives him a peck. Boy, Angeline sure handled that slightly better than I thought!

Episode 8
Duncan the wandering adventurer is now settling down nicely in Turnera. Taking care of kids with Belgrieve and teaching young adventurers how to fight monsters. Soon an elf named Graham stumbles into the place. He is looking for one of the elven king’s daughters, Marguerite who wandered off on her own. You see, with monsters getting active lately and running rampant across the land. She has left to vanquish them. He talks about elves having mana in which they imbue in their weapons. Although she is quite talented, recently it has backfired on her. So she left her home and thinks she could defeat the monsters. But those especially Demon Lords are immortal. He is unsure if they are the reasons monsters are rising up. Belgrieve and Duncan agree to help him find Marguerite. Meanwhile Angeline is now suffering from not-enough-daddy-time syndrome. Her pals think she should get a boyfriend to distract herself. Absolutely not! They even suggest Belgrieve getting married so he won’t be lonely. Surprisingly, Angeline is receptive of the idea. She gets hyped up to find a suitable motherly candidate. First up is the guild’s receptionist, Yuri. Yes, Angeline went up to ask her straight to marry her dad. This shocks Yuri. Lionel supports that idea if he brings him to Orphen. Instantly Yuri beats him up. So uhm, if Yuri is your mom, will you get that same treatment? So she’s out. Next is Rosetta from the orphanage. Obviously she gets embarrassed when asked that. Soon Belgrieve stumbles into Marguerite. She gets mad when he knows about her status. Since her stomach is growling, he invites her back to his home for lunch. Wow, how many bowls has she devoured? Learning that Graham is here, she soon takes her leave. Graham manages to catch her in time but she seems eager to prove herself and makes her way. Oh, did we mention that Marguerite is Graham’s grand uncle? King Oberon is his nephew. Confused? Ange is disappointed nobody sees how good her dad is. Her friends suggest to bring him to Orphen and maybe he can find one suitable. Great idea. On her way back, Angeline sees Charlotte and Byaku sneaking around so she confronts them.

Episode 9
Apparently Charlotte and Byaku were trying to return the money they swindled. Of course some didn’t take it lightly and beat them up. Their plan after returning the money would be to settle things with Bordeaux. Suddenly zombie soldiers from the Inquisition are here to kill them. The only way is to kill them and with Angeline around, no sweat. Angeline brings them home as Charlotte explains the Inquisition is a secret organization of the Lucrecia faith to deal with heretics. Her father was a bishop and got involved in a power struggle and got killed. Because Charlotte wanted revenge, she was able to do all the heinous stuffs that she now regrets. Although it was Malta who ordered most of the evil stuffs, she is remorseful over her sins. Angeline may not have forgiven them but she can’t let them be. Meanwhile Marguerite is trying to fight off this Demon Lord. OMFG, this little kid is a Demon Lord?! I THOUGHT IT WAS MINI ANGELINE???!!! She is forced to back down when he is too powerful. Belgrieve deduces this kid is only trying to protect himself and nothing more. Hence they are able to retreat peacefully. More Graham-Marguerite spat back home and the hot headed girl once more leaves. Belgrieve will deal with the situation since he too has a daughter. He talks to Marguerite of his own daughter and in the end, both the elves apologize and reconcile. Wow, Belgrieve can work as a peace negotiator! Next day, Angeline brings the duo to the guild and tells what is happening. They believe staying with Angeline will be their safest bet. Marguerite and co go check out the Demon Lord again since the mana of the forest has started to change. They see the kid sick and soon after, a monster pops up. It seems this monster is absorbing the kid’s mana. They manage to take the kid and run outside before Graham deals with it. Since the kid isn’t dangerous, Belgrieve thinks of raising him for now. Oh, what will Angeline have to say about that?

Episode 10
Wow. Angeline and Charlotte are like sisters now? They’re having so much fun! In town, Angeline takes them to see Maria in hopes she can teach and improve their magic. Shortly, a few guys confront them because they still have issues with the swindlers despite their money has been returned. Not even Angeline can convince them to back down. Only Rosetta’s involvement did the trick because nobody wants to get entangled with the Vienna faith. However this makes Charlotte mad because that faith killed her parents. Rosetta tries to be nice but Charlotte obviously cannot accept it all. She tries to run away but bumps into a guard who wants to kill her! Rosetta uses her body to protect Charlotte and gets a nasty gash. Then they realize other guards are acting in a similar way and have been brainwashed. Angeline doesn’t want them killed and as everyone tries to fight back, she goes to smoke out the ones behind this. Uhm, it seems so unrealistic the way Angeline takes down those spell casters on the rooftop. With this threat over, the mastermind realizes those spell casters are too weak to test Angeline and will send a tougher one. With Angeline feeling a bit down that she failed to protect everyone, Byaku lectures her that she is all the same. Trying to shoulder everything herself and play the tragic heroine. This makes her much worse than before. Suddenly a creepy shadow monster shows up and threatens to kill the citizens. Angeline goes to fight it but with her muddled heart, she gets owned. She keeps telling Byaku not to fight since she will protect him but he doesn’t buy it and continues to fight and assist her. Yeah, Angeline not herself today. Finally after remembering words from daddy, she gets her groove back and easily destroys the monster. The mastermind is satisfied but before he could do anything else, Maria intercepts him. A short magic battle before he flees. Rosetta is in stable condition and an emotional Charlotte apologizes and thanks her for saving her life. Meanwhile back at Belgrieve’s side, Mit (the kid) is now making himself at home. The rest asks if Belgrieve has ever thought of marrying or had someone he loves. They think he does seeing he gives off a smile. But he is just reminiscing his old pals and wonders what they are doing now.

Episode 11
Byaku gets his Spartan training from Maria. Angeline is happy that she can go back to Turnera again soon. By bringing Charlotte and Byaku along with her, this is part of her plan to spend more time with daddy there. Back to Belgrieve’s lovely home, Marguerite mentions she wants to continue her adventuring and this also prompts Duncan to do the same. Going to be lonely here. You know something is wrong when Angeline is mad. She lashes out at Lionel about this letter from Grand Duke Estogal who requests her presence as he wants to reward her for defeating the Demon Lord. That was like a year ago! As you can see, this means she can’t go back to Turnera and heading to a faraway place like Estogal takes 2 weeks. Even Cheborg and Dortos have instructions to escort her there. However they will agree with Angeline if she doesn’t want to go. Yeah, you think a noble and his army can best S-Rank dudes like them? Of course this won’t do for Lionel since his reputation on the line. And by turning down this invitation, do they intend to start war?! But surprisingly, Angeline will go since dad would get angry at her. Oh my, Angeline has matured. Angeline confides with her pals about this. Miriam has the cheek to suggest as Angeline goes to Estogal, the rest will take Charlotte and Byaku back to Turnera. OMG, Angeline crying!!! Don’t go back there without her! Quick apologize!!! As promised, they will stay here and not sneak off to Turnera when she is away. Graham knows Belgrieve is troubled and hears his troubles. Basically he recently has an old dream and from what I see, the past catching up to him. Graham understands this means he needs to go on a journey to settle it but in a dilemma can’t leave Turnera. Graham offers to stay and protect this place on his behalf to repay his debts. After all, he was only following Marguerite out of concern and now he is assured she can take care of herself. A short flashback of a young Belgrieve during his adventuring days. Some parties viewed him as a hindrance. But there are those who viewed him as an asset. However Belgrieve left so as not to cause them more trouble. One of those comrades, Kasim is now languishing in prison, lamenting the things they should have done for Belgrieve. A princess often visits him so as to hear his stories. As long as she brings a bottle of alcohol.

Episode 12
Angeline will not be heading alone as Gilmena will accompany her. Upon arriving, Angeline is trying to hold in and not be rude to one of Estogal’s sons, Villard. Yeah, anyone would like to punch this arrogant guy in the face! Villard seems to be doing this because he doesn’t want his brothers to get ahead of him and get some praise from father. Angeline can’t believe the ceremony is taking place in 3 days. More time to waste. After she retreats to her room, now the princess, Liselotte barges in and wants to hear adventurer stories. After hearing them, she brings him down to the dungeons to meet fellow adventurer Kasim. We learn he was put in here for trying to dine and dash. Angeline feels he has potential and is wasted languishing here. However he claims he has nothing to do outside and prefers to stay here. Kasim advises her to take good care of her friends. Meanwhile Belgrieve and Marguerite arrive in Orphen. Everyone amazed to see Angeline’s dad for the first time especially Lionel feeling apologetic he couldn’t do much. But sorry, Angeline is away being honoured and Belgrieve couldn’t be happier they did the right thing. Belgrieve introduces them to Marguerite and she is here to register herself as an adventurer. Belgrieve also learns Charlotte is fine. Loli hugs him. Do you want to adopt her?! Anyway, Belgrieve hears rumours about him finding a wife so Angeline’s friends are reluctant to say and perhaps he could ask her himself. Belgrieve is also here to look for his old comrades: Percival the swordsman, Kasim the mage and Satie the elf. Lionel knows those big adventurer names but unfortunately, they have left Orphen a very long time ago and their whereabouts unknown. When they left, all were operating individually. Cheborg and Dortos enter because they want to challenge Belgrieve to a duel. First they hold a mock in which Belgrieve loses. Yeah, so much awesome power in this trial, imagine tomorrow’s real battle. Angeline gets dolled up in a dress. Well, she keeps tripping. She bumps into Fernand, another of Estogal’s sons. He is quite the charming playboy as he shows her around as they meet another of the brothers, Francois. Yeah, this military guy is so sceptical of everything.

Episode 13
Before Angeline attends the ceremony, she goes to see Kasim but he isn’t in his cell. At the ceremony, a guy asks her hand to dance and of course she refuses. Yeah, she didn’t know this guy is the crown prince, Benjamin! Like she cares! As the ceremony starts, Francois interrupts and doubts her abilities. Did she really slay the Demon Lord? He wants to test her and she will fight against Kasim. To prove Kasim is that legendary mage, he demonstrates his power. Angeline is given a sword but she throws it down and tells off her skills are not for entertainment but to protect the weak. She mocks the nobles for having no dignity. Estogal praises Angeline for her dignity and apologizes for his son’s rudeness. He bestows her the award. Later, Francois rues this embarrassment because it was his plan to pull a coup d’etat during that confusion. And it seems Benjamin is also in on this. He suggests to take care of Angeline. As Angeline prepares to leave, Francois confronts her again. Rather, he tells Kasim to kill her. Although both Angeline and Kasim don’t want to fight, the latter is just doing it because he has lost hope in living and doesn’t mind dying despite being a coward. He fires all he got at her as he thinks this is his way for atoning his sins. He adds he was once strong like her and believing he could do anything. But he his eyes opened when he couldn’t help his friend who was hurt. He tried to be stronger to find the answer but failed. In the end, he stopped caring.

When Francois threatens her father, she notes he can’t beat him. It’s Belgrieve we’re talking about. That name has Kasim stop dead in his tracks. He is shocked to know Angeline is her (adopted) daughter. He wants to know more about him and in turn he’ll tell about his past. Angeline agrees. To stop Francois from interrupting, he blasts him away! Benjamin is disappointed he couldn’t gauge Angeline’s skill. It seems he is also in cohorts with that mastermind, Schwartz and they need to find a key to determine her success. Angeline returns to Orphen and is surprised her dad is here. Yeah, she brought a surprise too: Kasim! This guy is hiding and too afraid to face his friend? As they drink, Kasim explains after Belgrieve left, all stopped smiling and left. The irony they wanted to help him but ended up hating each other. Belgrieve reveals he was jealous of them since they were so talented and couldn’t acknowledge himself. Even if the rest didn’t think like that, but because of the incident of losing his leg that led him to meet Angeline, he was able to move forward. Another irony that this caused his friends to be stuck in the past. Both friends reconcile and soon Belgrieve confronts Angeline about finding him a wife! Oops! But he forgives her. Don’t do it again. Now everybody parties to celebrate this great reunion.

Always Forever Daddy’s Little Princess
Looks like for now, a happy ending for Angeline and Belgrieve. Whatever conspiracies and troubles that come after, we’ll cross the bridge when they get there. Yeah, it will be bad if something interrupts this holy and precious reunion and I bet Angeline will never let them go! This could be a sweet day for Belgrieve as not only his daughter has returned to him but an old friend too. I am guessing that slowly everyone else will return and before he knows it, Belgrieve will find his family and circle of friends has expended. All except maybe the person that is to be his wife! Maybe someday… One day…

Seriously, I thought the entire series was going to about Angeline and Belgrieve missing each other! Yes, I actually thought the season will play out like that! But come to think of it, that would be super boring and not even funny even if they showcase how father and daughter miss each other and some close ones. After all, the synopsis gave me the impression of it and hence my mind wandered to start thinking this was perhaps going to be the main flow and running joke of the series. Who’d knew that by the end of the third episode, beloved daughter and her adopted father would have already reunited. So I don’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed because it is a good thing the series didn’t turn out like I expected because I’m sure going to talk crap about it! Including how this series should have just invented the handphone and internet so that father and daughter could keep in touch even if they’re on the other side of the world! Heh. Really. Oh man, now I can’t?! Oh well, one less thing to worry about.

So with Angeline and Belgrieve reunited for the first time in as many years, the rest of the story I feel it was just meandering around. I mean, I don’t really see where it is headed after that. A few mini plots in between but nothing really conclusive at least when the anime season ended. So it was somewhat a bit boring to me after that because there wasn’t really much. Like the case in Bordeaux was just pretty meh. Yeah, some evil fat noble wanted to get his dues but gets his just desserts instead. In fact, I was thinking to see Belgrieve and Angeline bonding even closer but they’re so strong and independent, it felt like their relationship has already hit its peak a long time ago. Sure, no signs of decline but I just don’t feel that they can progress any further than this. The only darkest aspect I find here is Helvetica killing off Malta. Pretty face with tainted hands now, eh? Damn, that was unexpected and so badass despite all that happened behind the scenes. But going to be a bit sceptical to wonder if she actually did that and was just a metaphor for something else.

The main focus are on Angeline and Belgrieve. At first Angeline is casted as a girl who is just obsessed about her dad. You can say nothing bad about him and only she is allowed to shower him with all the love and praises. Yeah, I figured at this rate she might become an annoying person. But after coming home and seeing her father a few times, I guess at that point she somewhat matures up. She no longer gets mad that easily to those who badmouth Belgrieve and instead of hogging all his love, feels it is better if others know how much great and even greater a man he is. I believe this is for the best. Because if there is one thing Angeline truly fears is daddy hating her! Now, don’t want to reach that stage, do we? And so what’s a little girl got to do and be obedient and listen to daddy’s girl. That’s my girl. And to note, it was helluva funny to see Angeline reunite with Belgrieve when she first came home to Turnera in 5 years. Because she was hugging and not letting him go like a koala, almost everywhere they go! OMG. Angeline like a koala bear? KoalAngeline… Sorry, bad pun. Clingy, isn’t she? But guaranteed, her love for daddy will never change.

As for Belgrieve, he remains the kind and humble man throughout his life. I believe I have never once see him get mad. I mean, the kind where he actually blows his top. Yeah, I think if he does so, he’ll be more than just a Red Ogre. He’ll be a Demon Lord! Seeing his gentle demeanour, it is hard not to not get angry with him. Is there a reason to? So humble this dude, he downplays his own skills and believes his own talents are nothing compared to others. I wonder if this is an extreme case of low self-esteem but I digress. I wonder if his kindness is a weakness because taking in orphaned children seems to be his thing. Angeline was first and now Mit, what are the chances for Charlotte? Seeing this loli is quite fond of him now, we’re just waiting for her to say it and make it official. Belgrieve, please make me your papa! I’m very interested to see Angeline’s reactions… Because by then she won’t be able to monopolize daddy’s attention. But then again, Belgrieve’s love is too big to be monopolized by one so spread the love around! Now, the next question is when he will take on a wife… And I wonder if Belgrieve will ever have empty nest syndrome. Sure, he thinks a lot of Angeline but he doesn’t look THAT worried. This guy is really easy going. I know Angeline would get papa withdrawal symptoms if she stayed on for another year!

As for the other characters, personally they just feel insignificant. Like Miriam and Anessa. It’s just to showcase that Angeline has her own set and friends so as not to make it feel that she has been isolated because of her strength and being lonely at the top. They do provide some support but nothing that I would say as significant. Then there is Lionel from the guild. This guy seems to always look like he is in a pinch and overworked. He has good intentions but the circumstances always doesn’t favour him and that’s why he has to seek Angeline’s help, making her mad she always has to cancel her homecoming plans. Cheborg and Dortos, need to show that old farts still have it. The thing that bugs me is I wonder if their names came about because the author likes Cheetos and Doritos. I don’t know! It feels so! The other female characters feel like Belgrieve’s potential future wives. From the Bordeaux sisters to Yuri and Rosetta, is there a woman good enough for him? Marguerite? I feel she is more like his student. Will she become his adopted daughter in the future?

For the art and animation, it seems like the whole thing just feels somewhat amateurish. I don’t know, look at the sketchy water colour-like backgrounds and sceneries as well as some of the character designs that are looking quite simple. In fact, Angeline looks quite plain! If anime guys have that plain look, Angeline is the female version of it! Heck, even Anessa and Miriam have more visual aesthetics than her! Oh, what’s this you say about her raven black hair? Yes, sure. But generally she looks as plain as f*ck. It doesn’t help when some characters especially the females have this roundish looks and it makes them look a bit cartoony. Of course, want to point out once again, Charlotte looks like a freaking discount of Ilya! And then there’s those dark shadowy monsters that I don’t know, do they look creepy or just because of poor design? Don’t know if that is better than copy and paste because I still think Mit looks like mini Angeline.

And I also noticed the CGI but that is mainly on horses. Once again, why do they have to give horses CGI treatment?! Do they have something against them?! While I am not saying that the horses in CGI effect look bad, it could’ve been better than this atrocity. It makes me wonder if they are recycling the same CGI assets because come to think of it, I think all the horses used in anime series for the past few seasons look pretty much the same! So are they really recycling the 3D textures and animation?! Can we just go back to the traditionally hand drawn 2D animation for horses? Or must they spend that puny budget allocated for 3D animation? This anime is done by Typhoon Graphics who did Kanojo Ga Koushaku-tei Ni Itta Riyuu and One Room. I can see why animation is a big problem…

Because of the animation, the fighting and action sequences just don’t feel satisfying. In fact, it just feels boring with the stiff animations. Like when monsters were rampaging throughout town and all the adventurers were fighting. I don’t know, it just felt mediocre. Not to mention the whole damn scene was just dark and you’d be straining your eyes to catch a glimpse of it all. Angeline swinging her sword that can almost cut through anything because well, she’s an S-Rank adventurer and the cream of the crop. (Almost) Nothing can stop her. Period. Even the spells that Charlotte and Byaku used to case felt more like light shows than anything. So while this series may not be intended for action, I thought they would’ve just at least animated it decently.

For the voice acting, while Saori Hayami as Angeline is identifiable in her trademark voice, however she sounds a bit different. I think she’s trying to fit into her Angeline character role. In a way, it comes out as somewhat rather strange. The others I recognized are Junichi Suwabe as Belgrieve, Houchu Ohtsuka as Graham, Tomokazu Sugita as Lionel, Koji Yusa as Francois and Hiro Shimono as Schwartz. Once again I missed Marina Inoue as Helvetica. The other casts are Kanon Takao as Charlotte (Latina in Uchi No Musume), Kazuki Ura as Byaku (Gorou in Kamierabi God.App), Maki Kawase as Anessa (Philomela in Mahou Tsukai No Yome), Rumi Okubo as Miriam (Chinatsu in YuruYuri), Ai Fairouz as Marguerite (Takechiyo in Hanyou No Yashahime), Kana Ichinose as Seren (Marlya in Fairy Gone), Saku Mizuno as Sasha (Ryou in Bocchi The Rock), Kikunosuke Toya as Ashcroft (Denji in Chainsaw Man), Taku Yashiro as Benjamin (Ryuuji in Darwin’s Game), Tetsu Inada as Cheborg (Gamagoori in Kill La Kill), Yousuke Akimoto as Dortos (Master in Uzaki-san Wa Asobitai), Hiroyuki Yoshino as Kasim (Mic in Boku No Hero Academia) and Ayasa Itou as Liselotte (Arisa in BanG Dream).

The opening theme, Sen by Yoshino Nanjou (voice of Rosetta) is a rock piece but mixed with some traditional medieval tune too. The fast pace of this rock music reminds me of Basilisk’s opener, Kouga Ninpouchou. Having very similar vibes there. As for the ending theme, Homeward Journey by Nagi Yanagi is also a rock pop outfit but more of a moderate pace. If you’re familiar with her brand of songs, you can feel right at home with this one.

Overall, this series is just okay in my books. It was supposed to showcase the relationship between father and daughter but I just don’t feel so while watching the season. Usagi Drop and Uchi No Musume seem to have better father-(adopted) daughter relationship than this but could it only be because the girl is a loli? Hmm… I don’t know if they are going to have another season because from what I discovered, the original light novel source already ended in 2021 although the alternative manga version is still currently ongoing. Some say the original source was way better (those who do always say that, don’t they?) and true the adapted anime version leaves a lot to be desired especially the darker aspects plotting in the background, time will only tell if this would get a sequel. But sorry, can’t give this series a lot of love or even half of it. Not my ‘daughter’ in the first place! XD.

Zom 100: Zombie Ni Naru Made Ni Shitai 100 No Koto

It’s about time! You see, Zom 100: Zombie Ni Naru Made Ni Shitai 100 No Koto could have been another fun or ordinary anime zombie flick of the season. If not for production issues that caused the final stretch of episodes to be postponed indefinitely! Oh yeah. Always production issues, huh? Why can’t they just let us anime fans watch in peace and finish a series like it should?! Heh. Such privileges. Yeah, we are the ones looking like anime addict zombies. But alas and thank goodness, about 3 months later, they released all the episodes together. On Christmas Day. There. There’s your zombie present. Are you happy now? You can now check off this anime as completed on your watch list. Is that what you want to do in your life? Watch animes forever? Yes siree, I would. Even in a zombie apocalypse?! Yes siree, wouldn’t change it even if the world goes bust. But as for our main character here, looks like he has a bucket list of things to do before he gets turned into one. And yes, I still want to watch animes even when I get turned into zombie!

Episode 1
Akira Tendou watches a dystopian zombie flick. Yeah. Such meaningless life. Need to go back to work tomorrow. Oh how he dreads that. How he wishes he doesn’t have to return. Flashback 3 years ago when he started out as a bright and promising upstart in this production company, he was filled with vigour and motivation. Yeah, it seemed like a nice place with nice people. Heck, even having a crush with this cutie pie colleague, Saori Ootori. Then after all the welcoming party, reality hits because it is back to work and they’re pulling an all nighter. Akira and others work through for several days without going home! And when he did, he was tired and sleep deprived. Realizing he is working for a black company, he tries to stay positive. Yeah, funny comments he had for all those negative outlooks! Despite Ootori being the one who kept his sanity for the couple of years, eventually he too realized that she is the chief’s mistress. And as we can see, it really took a toll on him as he trudged through. He kept wondering if he should quit but doing so, it would pile the responsibilities on the rest. Speaking of which, many have already left and now most of the burden is on him. One day, he woke up with a notice about his failure to pay his bike renting space. He goes to see the manager but sees him being devoured by a zombie! RUN! With zombies chasing him and seeing the whole place is now filled with zombies, the first thing that crossed his mind is that he doesn’t have to go back to work! YAHOO! FREEDOM! He is so happy with this vacation and now sees the world in colour! This is so much livelier! He can do what he wants! Wondering about Ootori, he decides to see her to let her know his feelings. Don’t get cold feet now. Yeah, the chief is there. Already a zombie. Akira thanks him for everything and tells him he is resigning. Then he tackles the chief to push him out of the window. Mind you, Akira played rugby in his school days! Confronting Ootori, sad she is already a zombie. He confesses his love but now it’s goodbye. The irony of running away from the girl who is now chasing him! So as he wanders around, he thinks about one’s mortality. No one knows when they’ll die. Hence he makes a list of 100 things he wants to do before becoming a zombie! Roll credits!

Episode 2
Oh yeah. What a great day to clean your house and do the laundry! I wonder who is running the electricity and water. But yeah, Akira feels great after doing his housekeeping. His next plan is to enjoy this vacation by lazing around and drinking beer. Only, he ran out of beer! Oh well, time to do some errands. Better to run through the zombies than the day without beer! As he slides down the pipe (because the stairwells are choked with zombies), he stumbles into a married couple, Kosaka. They too are surprised to see a survivor. They invite him in but Akira is doing errands and don’t mind helping them to get stuffs too. So as Akira enters the convenience store happily, he is shocked to see a girl there. Awkward. But Shizuka Mikazuki ignores him as he tries to strike up a conversation and even hopes to exchange contacts. However she tells him off that she cannot team up with someone who ignores all the risks. It seems Akira has attracted some zombies and they’re entering the store. He jumps in front to protect her but she throws him back! A truck then smashes into the zombies! After she leaves, Akira continues his way home. Nobody is going to mind if he steals a bike, right? So as he returns to the Kosaka, he sees their place all bloodied. Oh. Once again he thinks about mortality and starts writing down his bucket list. Well, he only got 30 or so and some already he did. But I guess it’s good for now. Now we see Shizuka’s side. She too has a bucket list but it is more for survival like securing water, energy and exercise regularly. She observes the different types of zombies because knowing them will increase one’s chance of survival. But she needs raw data and heads out to the convenience store to grab some supplies. As she has set up cameras outside, the reason she knew Akira was coming in. The entire time he was talking and she was being silent, she was analysing his carefree behaviour and stumped how a person like him can still survive. Noticing zombies coming as well as a truck being driven by a zombie going to crash here. She made some calculations for that to crash to happen to take out as many zombies. Of course Akira’s actions surprised her. She returns home with the basic necessary supplies she needed as well as the data of zombies. But she is still perplexed about Akira being so happy for some beer in this state of emergency. Yeah, maybe she should’ve grabbed some sugary treats too.

Episode 3
Shou and his fellow host club guys are defending the place which is a safe haven from zombies. As the internet is suddenly back up, Akira is thrilled to receive some messages. He scrolls down the list of friends and remembers Kenichirou “Kencho” Ryuuzaki. He thinks this guy can’t be dead. Speaking of him, he isn’t. However he is trapped in a love hotel for 3 days and has run out of water. Thank goodness he was playing bondage with this prostitute so she’s all tied up. But how long can he last? Suddenly he thinks of Akira. Yeah, this guy always laughs at his dumb jokes. Speaking of which, he receives a call from Akira. How ‘ya doing! He wants to meet up although Kencho says it is impossible as Shinjuku is swarmed with zombies. Don’t worry, he’ll be coming! And so Akira rides there as he remembers his best friend in college who also plays rugby. When Akira was overworked to death, Kencho was a successful real estate agent, making big contracts and even dating a model. Of course at that time, Akira wasn’t thrilled to listen to all that. So when Kencho suggested he quit that company, Akira blew his top. Their relations strained and that was the last they saw each other. A loud car horn seems to attract all the zombies (saving Shou from certain death). Once the zombies gather around this car, a bomb explodes. All set up by Akira. Kencho comes out of his hiding. All confused. What happened here? Couldn’t be more surprised to see Akira here. But the first thing Akira did is to apologize for not listening to his advice and thus took his anger out on him. All that shouting attracted more zombies so they have to run to the rooftop. Despite blocking it with air-cond units, this won’t last. Akira says to jump over to the next building. That’s crazy! Can we make it? Only jump and we’ll know! Akira does the impossible. Now it’s Kencho’s turn. He can’t do it. Therefore he wants to apologize for lying to him. You see, he wasn’t happy with his job because he had to deceive people and put up a lot of fake smiles. That’s why he was always bragging and putting up a fake front to hide it all. He wanted to be a stand-up comedian. Akira tells him to quit and be one. Remember, always take your friend’s advice! And with that, Kencho jumps! WTF he can strip in the middle of the jump?! Almost didn’t make it! Can Akira stop laughing and pull him up? Yeah, at least he got away with his balls lacerated! The guys have a naked bonfire party, drinking and talking things. This is how you should enjoy life, right?

Episode 4
Rooftop camping is sure fun. Yeah, it’s like their new base. Kencho sees Akira’s bucket list and adds his dream to it too. After all, Akira saved him so he hopes he can consider him on this ride. Since Akira wants a bigger widescreen TV, they head down to Ikebukuro to get one. However they hit a dead end. And behind them is a mad zombie truck driver! OMG! Better think fast before they get slammed! That’s right. Akira doing his incredible bike stunt as he plays chicken with the truck before getting on the car ramp and jumping down into the subway as the explosive fire ‘chases’ them from behind! Unbelievable. Then they escape from those subway zombies and manage to take refuge in this underground mart. Well, well. Looks like there are some survivors here. With food not running out anytime, looks like the duo join the rest in this weird group party. They introduce themselves. The rest are Reika, Maki, Yukari and some old guy who is too traumatized to talk. Learning the ladies are flight attendants, isn’t this one of Akira’s bucket list? To dine with flight attendants? Oh yeah. Being the noob he is, he asks if Yukari has a boyfriend. That disgusted look that she is not impressed! Oh dear. Hey, looks like Kencho is already hitting up with Maki! So as not to lose, Akira drinks tequila via his nose! WTF?! Yeah, everybody’s laughing now. Later he pukes from it all as Yukari comes to see if he is okay. He is happy she is concerned for him but sorry to break your heart, she already has a boyfriend. Meanwhile that old guy was already bitten by a zombie and bites Reika. Kencho and Maki are fresh from making out as Reika attacks Maki. Hope that make out was worth it. Meanwhile Akira and Yukari talk about the downside of their jobs. However Akira notes if Yukari’s dream is to be a flight attendant, so be it. The old guy then attacks Yukari. Oh dear. Yukari talks to Akira for one last time before turning into a zombie. She was happy. Akira returns to Kencho. Yeah, he just snagged a TV so let’s scram! Back at their camp, Akira adds another to his list: Remember his childhood dream.

Episode 5
With all of Japan in this state (who’s posting the news?!) however there are small isolated groups of survivors barricading all over. As Akira has a dream of his younger days of being a hero, he adds to his list that he wants to be a hero. So they head down to the aquarium to get the gears. Meanwhile a bus is stuck and surrounded by zombies. However one of the passengers is infected. Hell breaking loose. Who the unlucky ones? A girl runs towards the aquarium and thought she is done for as she trips but here comes Akiraiger to the rescue! WTF?! He is dressed in a diving suit designed for sharks that can withstand bites. As he rallies the other survivors to safety, he notices one of them is Shizuka. Feeling pretty lame now? Then he gets overwhelmed by the zombies as Kencho leaves him to his fate. Hey, he doesn’t have a suit. Not sure how but Akira manages to free himself and get back inside the aquarium. He tries to talk with Shizuka and exchange contacts but she won’t because she views his actions as risky. Did he not think when he decided to become a hero? She then gets psychology about his inferior complex, blah, blah, blah. True, he saved her but did he consider about putting others in danger when he decided to placate his low self-esteem? Well, can’t argue with that! That is why if he cannot analyse risk, it will lower her survival rate and she will not exchange contacts. Boo hoo.

The guys go to check out a large explosion. Well, what’s this… A zombie shark with legs!!! OMFG! Now I’ve seen everything!!! RUN! Oh, there are zombies in this area too?! As everyone runs to the exit, the panicky girl shoves Shizuka aside. Everyone is saved but Shizuka is outside and the exit door is stuck. Shizuka is about to meet her fate when Akiraiger returns from the vent to save her! Where’s your thanks, girl?! Still b*tching how this is all risky?! It all doesn’t matter to Akira. He just wants to save her. Obviously with no plan, they run around as the shark gives chase. Shizuka has an idea. Something about shocking the shark’s sensory. Akira buys time while she goes to look for something with electricity. When Akira can’t go further, Kencho entices the shark with his naked butt?! Don’t blame it when it wants to eat it!!! With Shizuka returning in time, she throws the batteries to Akira as his punches its nose to shock it out. In the aftermath, Akira and Kencho wonder why Shizuka is not following the rest. They were on the same bus to the harbour and she is done with big groups. Noting his bucket list, she notes the irony she is trying to not become a zombie but they are trying to do things before turning into a zombie. Their methods are incompatible and despite all the warnings, he still risks his life for a total stranger. However Akira notes that she is precious to him and he’d still save her if he wasn’t a hero. That make you blush? Before they part, she allows to share her contacts with him. After all, there’s not much of a risk in doing so, right? Did her risk analysing brain get fried?

Episode 6
Looks like the electricity is finally done for. This means no water to pump and no internet. They need to find a place with secure food and shelter. Aww shucks, like working in a zombie apocalypse? But hey, nice starry sky. This reminds Akira of his parents in the outskirts. And so just like that they decide to pack up, say goodbye to Tokyo and head to Gunma. But first, Akira wants to head to the RV exhibition centre because they’ll need one to cover the long distance and travel comfortably. Guess who is there too? Shizuka! Yes, she has the same idea too but too bad she isn’t too keen to form an alliance with them. The umpteenth time shot down. Akira like a dejected zombie… However they use this risk analysis against her because she has no licence to drive unlike them and that will be pretty risky. So do you not think an alliance is better? Shizuka pressured… As they look into the various RVs, the guys like country bumpkins, getting so excited to see all the weird models. Of course an argument breaks out with Shizuka about the practicality of selecting which RV for the trip. They’ve been so loud and now all the zombies stream in. Just get into an RV and drive the hell out! It’s amazing the key is in the ignition and it has gas! As they drive along, Shizuka talks about this epidemic is likely caused by a virus and that means there must be survivors out there creating a vaccine to fight it. There is still hope.

Suddenly they hit a spike trail. Kencho crashes badly and is injured. They are then cordoned off by a group of baseball ruffians led by Gonzou Kosugi. Who? Kencho’s ex-supervisor who was always yelling at him! Well, time for him to clam up and remember all the trauma. Shockingly, Kosugi seems to be willing to treat his friend and give them new tyres but only if Akira works for him for 2 days. Shizuka calls out this sneaky blackmail tactic so Kosugi reasons this is to avoid looting. With zombies coming in, Akira is pressured to accept this job. Only 2 days, right? His job will be unloading goods at the dock and reinforcing the perimeter. Yeah, noticed others being worked to the bone? When Akira decides to load some beer into the fridge so that everyone could have some chilled beer later, Kosugi blows his top for wasting electricity. But when his lackeys come by and think Kosugi being a generous dude, he changes his tone and claims it was his idea so that everyone can have a welcoming party for Akira. Later Akira is further shocked to see zombies being used to pull loads of cargo trucks. This is why the supplies he unloads seems endless. Kosugi notes these zombies are like equipment. Akira is the same and he is just a worthless guy who can do nothing but follow orders. So be like an equipment and do your job. I’m surprised Akira hasn’t snapped from this trauma yet. Meanwhile Kencho blames himself for letting Akira get into this mess. Though, Shizuka believes it is all calculated. As for why Akira is still clinging onto that unwanted past, it seems Shizuka has also faced something similar and notes that it is that fear ingrained into the heart and mind that makes it hard to forget.

Episode 7
Kosugi is throwing a party for his men. Of course the slaves like Akira continue to slog and serve them. He even has Shizuka pour drinks for him. She just went with the flow and do so. Kosugi continues to yell at Akira for making mistakes. This has Shizuka think of something similar in her past. From very young, she was told to obey her father who was a feared financier. When she found a stray puppy, she was told not to keep it. But she defied him and kept it a secret and even feeding it. Until one day, dad shot down her idea to become a doctor because she needs to be more than that. Also, he got rid of her dog. She started growing up to listen to every word he said. She hated it but had to because if she doesn’t obey, she cannot survive. As Kosugi continues to scold Akira, suddenly he changes his tone. He only did so because he believes in him. This is of course a tactic to brainwash him to stay by his side. He’ll do all the thinking and all he needs to do is just obey. Those same words echo eerily through Shizuka as father said the same thing. All those poor people in the streets? This is what happened if you do what you want. He had great expectations of her and didn’t want her to be an embarrassment. He claimed it was for her own good but she knew it was for his. Shizuka takes a look at Akira’s list. She’s going to add her own.

The day is here for Akira’s side to leave. But Akira says he wants to stay as he needs to repay Kosugi and all. Shizuka is fine with all that. They’ll leave on their own. But since Akira continues to rant about needs and all, she tells him to STFU. As this will be their last time together, she’ll tell him something. Kosugi just wants to dominate him to make him to what he wants. Free will is yours alone. This is why he puts others down and do anything to assert himself. She was in his shoes before until she met him, he opened her eyes. As there is nothing in this world now that is right or wrong, all she knows she wants to get away from that jerk. The clincher is when she gives him his list. She added another task to tell off his jerk boss. He is not a machine or zombie, so what will he do? Akira snaps out from his brainwash and says goodbye to his boss. Because he can never repay him, that’s why he’s leaving. Sorry for everything. When a supply team returns, little do they know a zombie was hitching a ride inside. Time to die! Everybody scrambles as more zombies stream in. The survivors stay safe atop the trucks. Seeing Kosugi in trouble, Akira still wants to help him because people turning into zombies is not part of his list. He has an idea and has all the zombies gather around this truck. The other men then surround the zombies with other trucks. Akira then lights up with the gas explosion burning the zombies away. As everyone praises how amazing Akira is, this time Kosugi’s lackeys are done with him. They call him a dictator and leave. Akira is a better leader than him. He pleads to them to stay but now he is all alone. Akira and co continue travelling. Strangely, he doesn’t remember slaving under Kosugi as his mind always went blank when that happens. As he ponders if he is right for any job, Shizuka says there is no rush to find one. Just do what you enjoy doing and hopefully it becomes the only job you can do.

Episode 8
Along the way, the trio see a horde of zombies converging onto a truck. They think there is a survivor. Time for Akira to don his hero suit and save the day. Akiraiger! But wait! Suddenly an armoured samurai bursts out and starts slashing all the zombies! OMFG! This is not a video game! Damn those slashing combos! Terrifying! Once done, she unmasks herself as Beatrix Amerhauser. Yes, a German babe who is infatuated with Japan’s culture. Don’t laugh, her knowledge of Japan will put us all to shame! Anyway, she is delivering fish to the city when her truck broke down. It seems she was promised by a sushi chef she can have the best sushi if she gets some fish for him. Akira is eager to help her. Yes, eating sushi luxuriously is part of his bucket list. As they enter the city, obviously swarmed with zombies. Our brawn heroes have no plan so Shizuka will have to be the strategist now. The plan has Kencho lure the zombies into a dead end. Then they’ll throw inflammable stuffs and burn them all. But the match is not lighting up and more zombies are piling up. Beatrix thought their dream is over but Akira won’t give up. If he cannot eat sushi, he’d rather be a zombie! That is enough for the duo to head down and chop some zombies but can they keep up at this rate? Shizuka’s backup plan is to use a drone containing Beatrix’s Walkman and lure them to a gas station. This causes a bigger damage but yeah, domino effect burns all the zombies. Now the gang enjoys the best sushi. It brings Beatrix to tears so they welcome her to Japan. Even the sushi chef is brought to tears for this honour. Drink and eat all you like today!

The quartet continue their journey (sushi chef not coming? Probably he’ll die in the shop he worked his whole life), they realize they need to have a good bath since they’re stinking all over. That’s right. Next on the list is to soak in a hotspring. Akira thought it’s a good place to go dating but Shizuka pours cold water about the inefficiency of that. A waste of resources for temporary pleasure and an investment with poor cost performance. Wow. So b*tchy today? Is it because she hasn’t had her bath yet? For Akira, he thinks he can do better if he is doing it with the one he loves. As they soak in, looks like the women’s side is busted. The gentlemen would love to share. Not Shizuka. Thankfully Beatrix as a westerner is open minded and would gladly get all naked! However there are zombies in the hotspring! OMG. Where the f*ck were they hiding if the guys were swimming in there like nobody’s business?! They run and only find safety atop a cliff. This sucks. They camp there in hopes the zombies will go away. That night as Akira wakes up to go drink, he realizes a natural hotspring nearby. He goes to soak in only to realize Shizuka is already there. Please share. He’d rather be zombie if he can’t have his hotspring! As they soak in, Shizuka apologizing her b*tch talk earlier on. Blaming her father for never approving her way of life, it became hard for her to accept opinions of others. Rejecting others is like asserting one’s legitimacy. However Akira is not concerned about winning and being true to himself makes her old habit slip out. She admits she is bad at romance and hopes the person she would fall for is as open minded as him. Uhm, is that a confession? Too bad this is interrupted when Kencho and Beatrix won’t let them hog all the fun.

Episode 9
Flashback shows when Akira told his father he wanted to go to college, he told him to dream bigger. Of course Akira was not happy with his answer. What does a countryside farmer know? Akira and co reach the tunnel but heavy machineries barricade it. Inside, lots of zombies! Well, looks like the only way is to hike up the mountains. Along the way, they saved an old man, Masaru Kumano from a zombie boar! Oh well, at least now we know animals can get infected too. Kumano is from the city but ran away after the zombie outbreak. As a carpenter, he is currently making a tree house. Oh well, the guys are so eager to help out! Part of the bucket list, you know. Kumano tells them how to build one and be with nature! But then it gets a bit emotional when he relates he saw his wife bit his son and then had to put them down. Akira vows to help him finish the tree house. And they did. Of course they won’t stay as Akira needs to go see his parents. But if they feel like it, they can always come back here. The gang has to cross a very narrow strip through the gorge! Many died in the past! In fact, before the tunnel, it was the only access to the village. Because of its remoteness, it is the reason why it is being spared by the zombie apocalypse.

When Akira sees no one around, he gets scared everyone is dead. Don’t worry, the old folks having their usual party in a house! Upon seeing his parents, Akira thanks them for all the hard work they have done to raise him and apologizes for not visiting them in 3 years. However, father instantly beats him up for such nonsense. He should think before saying all those dumb things. Then he goes off to work the fields. So much for the reunion. Mom tells Akira and co how their remoteness made the village self-sufficient. At first when some people from the city tried to seek refuge her, one of them got infected so they had no choice but to block the tunnel. Though, some made it and continued to live here. Akira tries to help around and eventually helps dad with the fields. Well, same awkwardness. But it seems dad is bleeding from something and knows he has not much time left. Like any father, he brushes it off and acts like nothing. On the way back, they pass a group of kids. Akira thought one of them looked familiar. Flashback of Kanta Higurashi shows he is a failure from an early part in life. Rejected by society, he relished when the zombie apocalypse hit. Because it can be summer vacation every day! No need to obey society and their stupid rules anymore! Then when he met a bunch a few fellow rejects, they decided to come up with a list of fun things to do before they become zombies! Mostly all evil fun stuffs and they’re going to have the time of their lives.

Episode 10
Another wish off his list. Yup, Akira wanted to have dreadlocks and one of the city survivors is a specialist in making this hairdo. Not cultural appropriation you woke motherf*ckers! Then there is one who is a movie makeup artist. The irony they were filming a zombie flick! It took her for a while to realize the zombie apocalypse was real! OMFG! Despite all the challenges, the villagers here welcomed them so you bet they are all grateful and want to continue staying here. Because Shizuka advised some old guy on how to treat his wound, everybody now thinks she is a doctor! Line up, old folks. Wait for your turn for your back/stomach/neck/muscles whatever to be treated! Kencho finds a sad girl, Anju and her dog. They are the only survivors from the city and she has not smiled since. Kencho uses his idiotic charms to cheer her up and she laughs after a long while. Hope this doesn’t make him a lolicon because he wants her to stay by his side. Beatrix learns the old waterwheel powers the minimal electricity and although there are electric fences, they are not enough to kill thanks to an old circuit board regulating the electricity. Don’t touch it no matter what. When Kencho spots Higurashi, the latter ignores him. It seems they know each other. From the same university but he quit after 6 months. And what do you know? Higurashi hates them because they’re always having so much fun. Loser. But looks like he has hatched a sinister plan.

That night, Akira drinks with his father. He learns dad wanted to become an astronaut after realizing how small the world is. Too bad he admits he is dumb and couldn’t become one. Higurashi’s lackeys get things going by starting to destroy the circuit board. Then with an excavator, they remove the sandbags and barriers to let the zombies in. Obviously the villagers soon notice this. Too many to take them out with their rifles. Think of hiding in their houses? Well, Higurashi throws bombs! As Akira and friends gather at the electric fence, they realize it has now high voltage and trapping the villagers in. With Higurashi’s groupie here, they realize this villain started this chaos. Yeah well, we’re all going to be zombies one day, right? Learning Higurashi has a list too, among it is to f*ck up society and turn everyone he hates into zombies. While Akira admits to enjoy life as one sees fit, however to put your freedom first, you must respect freedoms of others. Hence his bucket list is nothing like his as he wants to repay his parents. Higurashi takes this as a game and challenges him to see how can finish their list first. Akira’s pals go into action to rescue the situation while Higurashi’s lackeys will have fun in their own way. They are going to smoke the hiding villagers out and turn them into zombie fodder in this game of hide and seek.

Episode 11
Anju is looking for her dog. OMFG, trying to f*ck a chicken???!!! Society and nature have become crazy indeed! Luckily Kencho saves them from zombie doom and then goes up the roof to be safe. All they need is for Beatrix to destroy the waterwheel. However one of Higurashi’s lackeys, Depressed Loser (that’s what I call him) climbs up and is hell bent in pushing Kencho down. Beatrix is interrupted by B*tch Loser while Shizuka becomes bait herself so as to distract zombies from attacking the house many of the old folks are sheltering (they can’t run as they are old). However she is now going to be raped by Perverted Loser! Yeah, this is worse than a zombie! Better turn into a zombie than this! Now we see Depressed Loser’s flashback. He thought it was happily ever after since he got married. But it went downhill. Overworked and even fooling around, it is no surprise his wife treated him coldly and didn’t care. As for Perverted Loser, he worked in a French restaurant and used excuses for his own failures. One day his smoking accidentally burnt down the entire premise. Safe to say, he got blamed and fired. B*tch Loser is your typical strict perfect office lady, not impressed that no one takes her suggestions seriously. Depressed Loser claims he is the victim. However Kencho tells him off he has never appreciated his wife and thanked her, blaming others for his failures. Kencho will go down with him as he wishes. As they fall off the roof, Kencho immediately dives into the fertilizer cesspool! Depressed Loser gets surrounded. Panicked, he runs and arrives at the electric fence. Make a guess what happens. Ironically, sh*t saved Kencho from turning into a zombie!

Meanwhile bedridden old dude Hiko wakes up and wonders about his late wife (Shizuka looks like her). Everyone tells what happened so he is not impressed they’re still here. He lectures them that they have weathered through storms and other natural disasters, yet they are still here. What are a few zombies to them? NOTHING! Shizuka tries to tell Perverted Loser about some theory regarding luck. Not like that stupid asshole understands it. As he is about to rape her, Hiko’s sharpshooting fires off the gun in his hands. He is after all the villager’s best hunter. Other old folks then clobber him. Don’t you dare touch our doctor Shizuka! And so, Shizuka comes out tops in this luck thingy. Guess who ran out of luck with the zombies? Beatrix tries to tell B*tch Loser that some of the things she deemed wrong is acceptable in her country. B*tch Loser doesn’t care about her culture. So as Beatrix tells her to think that she might be in the wrong, she rides up the waterwheel. Their fight has attracted other zombies so as they try to get Beatrix, their weight breaks off the waterwheel. As Beatrix rolls away, B*tch Loser is now surrounded by zombies. Akira fights off the zombies as he claims he still hasn’t repaid his parents. That is when dad switches places with him. If he wants to do that, don’t die first! Looks like his miracle hoe could clobber a few zombies. But suddenly he starts to feel strange. About to become zombie chowder, surprisingly Higurashi saves and pulls him to safety. Actually, Higurashi has thought of the best way to turn Akira into a zombie. If he is so bent on repaying his debts, come out and get eaten by the zombies if he wants to save his father.

Episode 12
Flashback shows Higurashi was a lively kid and had his own circle of friends. But as he grew up, he started to become an introvert and had no friends at all. In university, he thought of changing himself by attending some internship and even some self-development seminar. But he felt all that went nowhere. That’s why when he saw how happy Akira’s group was, he thought he should’ve been the same as a visionless and ambitionless loser. Now, Akira’s father tells him not to open the door. He will not see his family turn into zombies. Besides, he doesn’t have more time. It is then mom reveals he has a huge growth. Father adds if he wants to pay them back, be empathic and help others. He can still give back even when they are gone. Nothing would make him prouder. But soon, Akira opens the door. A loud scream is heard before Akira walks out as a zombie. Higurashi is elated that he has won. But when Akira gets up close to him, he pulls him down from his high horse. You see, Akira had the makeup artist make him look like a zombie. Gee, she had all the tools and can do so in record time?! Anyway, Akira’s scream was to lure the zombies to him before the rest clobbered them from behind.

As Higurashi is in despair, kind Akira still can ask him if this is what he wants to do. Because if so, why doesn’t he look happy? A zombie bites his leg as Higurashi kicks it away. It is then he claims all he wanted to do was to go to the pool with his friends. Akira promises if he gets turned into a zombie, he’ll go to the pool with him as his friend. Flashback shows that Higurashi’s stomach growling did attract Akira’s attention. He invited him to join them but Higurashi ran away. Higurashi then runs away but it is to distract all the other zombies. Before he finally loses it, perhaps this river could be the pool he always wanted… RIP, Higurashi. As all are gathered at the fence, how are they going to break it down? Don’t worry, Beatrix still rolling on the waterwheel! After all runs through, they arrive at the suspension bridge. It’s gone! Oh no! But don’t worry, Kumano heard some commotion and went to check it out. They’re lucky he built wooden planks. Uhm, the gap is pretty far, he could throw that far?! Anyway, with Akira and Kencho holding down this makeshift bridge, after everyone runs across, now it’s their turn to take a leap of faith. Now the zombies can fall to their, uhm, deaths? Slamming into the opposite cliff might hurt but I guess this proves they are alive. As they climb up, Akira tells Kencho about Higurashi. Kencho thought he was a fool but Akira realizes he was like him. Lost. He could’ve turned out like him. That is why despite everything, he cannot bring himself to hate him. Reaching back up, Akira’s father thanks his son that everyone is alive because of him. He couldn’t be prouder.

In the aftermath, the villagers circle back around and after checking the village is clear of zombies, seal off the tunnel again and now is starting to rebuild the place. With Kumano now moving here, everyone is motivated to help build the village back. Even Anju has moved on and decided not to cry over zombies. Things won’t change if you’re always crying, right? That night, Akira makes a tearful plea that he will always protect his parents and their village. That is when he also learns that father is not suffering from cancer but haemorrhoids?! Because he hates hospitals, the reason he didn’t go to seek treatment. This makes Akira have a few new wishes. Because if this zombie outbreak is caused by a virus, perhaps they need to find a vaccine and thus he wants to travel around the country to find one. After that, he’ll convince dad to go to a hospital for treatment. As about becoming a hero to save the world, dad gives the green light! He has his friends add their wishes into his bucket list. Next day, everyone says goodbye to the quartet as they prepare to leave. Akira’s mom stocking him up with seaweed. Don’t know when you’ll get hungry. Anju sees Kencho off with a smile. Gee, she hopes he could show her one of his perverted tricks when he returns?! WTF did he tell her?! Oh well, who cares, right? The friends leave as we see snippets of other survivors (some pretty crazy ones too). Akira’s groupie looks like they’re on a great sightseeing trip. Yeah, they’re having so much fun.

Carpe Diem! YOLO! Live Life Like There’s No Tomorrow
Well, I guess that is it for us. I am not sure if there is going to be a sequel but we are definitely sure that at least this studio who animated this series will not be doing it ever again. Yeah, imagine the embarrassment. I read online how many people were mocking how this studio prides itself in delivering its works. Considering this anime is their maiden series, you can pretty much guess that it has already sealed their fate. Yeah, what are the chances they became the very problematic black company that this anime portrayed. Oh the irony. Everybody has lost confidence and don’t even want or expect to see them touch this series again. So perhaps this zombie flick may get a sequel in the future, just that not with this company ever again. Good riddance. Now they can go back to being dead. Oh heck, they couldn’t even rise up on their debut and now they are deader than zombies. Heh.

The story doesn’t seem like much because it’s just mainly about Akira and his groupie trying to do what they want in a world where societal rules do not bind them anymore. It’s all free to go. Hence I surmised that the episodes will be random and silly adventures as they around fulfilling their utmost desires in the bucket list, hence all the misadventures of the zombie kind. It might sound unrealistic but hey, a zombie themed series itself is unrealistic! I believe that the series doesn’t want to entirely paint the overall theme to be gloomy and apocalyptic. What I think they want to do is to instil some sort of hope in spite of such dreaded times. Because you see Akira and Kencho’s nature as they are just so happy and doing as they please. Yes, they are fighting to survive but not fighting as desperately as you would see in other dystopian zombie flicks that would also serve as a horror genre. Thus from what I can see overall, this is why the series is nowhere close to being a horror and a total comedy. With clowns like these, who needs YouTube or other online social entertainment, no?! So wait for them to find the next fun thing to do and check off their list.

Because as for now, there are many questions left unanswered. Like especially how the f*ck this epidemic started in the first place! I hope this isn’t some sort of warning of what the Corona virus can do! Don’t you f*cking blame China in releasing this one! Because in just a freaking short span, in fact in a single day, suddenly a big portion of the society becomes the undead. So what caused this? And why are some spared? Don’t tell me they have some special genes that makes them immune unless they get bitten directly. Like vampires then? And are our survivors going to find a vaccine to save the world or are they going to leave it to some brainy scientist who knows where they are now. And is this epidemic affecting Japan or the whole world? Well, don’t want to spoil Akira’s Japan tour. Once he is done with that, maybe he can think of other bigger things. I mean, all that he wants to do is done so what else left is there to do? #100: Save the world! And yeah, may I ask if Akira’s bucket list should stop at 100 or if he has more desires to do, can he cross that magic number? Knowing him, I bet he will. Don’t let a number limit your desires.

One of the main contentions of this series that has viewers debate intensely is the blood. Why, all the blood that we have seen here are so freaking colourful!!! OMFG! It just feels so unreal like as though they are just paintball effects! At first it really looks weird because it gives the series some sort of cartoony feel. But remember what I said in the previous paragraph of how they wanted this series to portray hope? That’s right. They want to give off this fun feeling too. Imagine if all the blood you see here are the thick dark red kind for realism, I think that would have made the series a lot more gruesome. It wouldn’t be as much fun to see Akira and co fighting or running away from zombies. Therefore from my personal opinion, the brightly multi-coloured blood effects work well for this series and yes, I do not believe it is because of censorship. Oh you know, sometimes they think blood is too gruesome and ‘censor’ it via different colour. So I guess we can’t say the zombies here paint the town red, huh? Hey, look on the bright side, at least the town is now even more colourful than ever before with all the splattering and gushing of ‘blood’ all over!

For the characters, you either love them or hate them. Especially Akira for who he is. Obviously he is the main character so that’s that. What I want to say is that the irony that Akira has never been more alive than before. He was a zombie when society rules but when that collapsed, he is now a free man. Do you not see the irony in this? The zombie apocalypse freed and saved him. A stern reminder that we are so preoccupied with this thing called life and we become slaves for what purposes that don’t even make us happy. This is why Akira sometimes looks artificial because he is having so much fun when zombies are lurking all around him. So unreal. Imagine, running with the biggest smile on his face while a horde of hungry zombies are chasing him from behind! Too unbelievable! But yes, the point is, he is now a free man and that is what matters most.

Since no man is an island, that is why he has his own group of friends to travel with. Best friend Kencho was also in the same shoes with him and found similar freedom with the fall of society. Both are great comedians together but if you want more adult-like jokes, Kencho is your man. Uh huh. This guy loves stripping down to his birthday suit for his twisted jokes whatever. You think most of the censor would be on hideous zombies or the fanservice of the girls? Nope! It is Kencho and his crotch! Even more mosaic censor in the end when he is covered in sh*t! Do you not love this guy or what?

Then there is Shizuka. Initially starting off as some strict b*tch who places efficiency more than anything else. Have to admit, she does have a point. However she doesn’t seem happy in doing it all. Long story short, by travelling together with Akira’s group, looks like whether she realizes it or not, it is more efficient to stop being efficient and just live life the way you want without all that strict rules and sh*t whatever. Screw the risks! Because taking risky risks is more fun that way! That is life! Damn right, it’s a risk she is willing to take. Because of that, do you not see Shizuka has become a better and heck, a lovelier person who smiles more often! Can you blame Akira and Kencho’s clown virus infecting her?! Now she is part of the group and fits in like a glove. Heck, if you put them in a row, you can’t even tell them apart, personality wise! Where the old Shizuka gone? I’m sure it’s not that she has discarded that personality of hers totally but she has learnt to adapt and move on seeing we have a glimpse of her past and all. In short, this has done wonders for her character and we couldn’t hate her for it. Who could hate a cute chick like her and she’s trying to be a cock teaser with that sexy workout outfit she always wears. This her trademark outfit? Okay. We approve!

Finally completing the quartet is of course the foreigner. Ah yes, this one seems to be the most unbelievable part. Uh huh. Just a personal opinion but yeah, foreigners loving Japan and their culture. It just shows how much Japan has influenced the world having a German girl from half way round the world to visit her holy land. And so yeah, Beatrix isn’t just there to add to the pretty face but she’s quite a lethal fighter too. If you need some offensive power and more accurately, sword slashing action, this German fraulein is your best bet to keep some zombies at bay. And also foreigners’ boobs must be the biggest so that white singlet is the best way to show off her assets and keep us being distracted from the zombies. Yeah.

Such apocalyptic disaster definitely sees the best and worst in human character. That is why we see a few despicable people who want to watch the world burn. For example, Akira’s ex-superior, Kosugi. Even at such times he tries to take advantage of others and he does well in his job in playing psychology. What I want to say is that this mini arc of reuniting Akira and Kosugi was perhaps not only to have Akira move forward but to turn him into a near saint status. Because the best part is despite Kosugi has done a lot of bad things to him, Akira does not have to dirty his hands in exacting any sort of revenge on him. Akira even went so far as to save this fatso and everything else fell into place. Now that Kosugi’s true colours have been revealed, he is now left to his fate. Whether he survived or get eaten by zombies, at least Akira has his hands clean on the issue. Did not even have to kill him and even more so, his reputation as a kind person skyrocketed.

The same can be said with Higurashi. Again, Akira doesn’t need to taint his hands to end up at the ‘best’ outcome. In a way, making some sort of peace with him. A grim reminder that anybody could’ve been like Higurashi. Even Akira himself. Without the proper guidance or friend to stop or guide him, falling to the dark side is easy. Thus a bittersweet and necessary evil to ‘sacrifice’ Higurashi as he needs to atone for his sins. So I figured they wanted to showcase a bit of history on Higurashi and his lackeys so as not to turn them into some one-dimensional villains. Sure, everyone has problems but as we have seen, they themselves were the biggest problems as they lacked empathy. Best part of it all, our heroes don’t have to kill them to get their hands dirty because the zombies did the job for them and their conscious are clean. Such convenience.

Initially, I wonder why there were featured characters that don’t matter. If you remember early on in the series, there was this host club guy, Shou and the rest. It did not make any sense since their story was not even connected to Akira’s side at all. But with the final episode montage revealing scattered survivors here and there, perhaps these are the characters that Akira and co will come in contact as they go sightseeing, oops I mean travel around Japan. Whether they join his group or become rivals, it is left to be seen in the future. And for all the other characters that Akira and co have met along their way especially the old farts at Akira’s hometown, the irony they live longer than you urban punks. Yeah, no social media, that’s for sure! A subtle reminder to love your parents when they’re still around! Oh man, this zombie flick trying to teach us a lot of things! Obviously, Akira’s dad being the best father as we can see why he has been the great pillar of support for his son. Who wouldn’t want a father like him?

Art and animation are pretty standard but as I have already pointed out especially the colourful blood, it makes this whole series look somewhat cartoony. It doesn’t help when Akira looks a bit cartoony himself. Yeah, see his plain looks with his bright round eyes and big smile. Even Beatrix looks a bit cartoony. Or at least, more like a German doll! Thanks to that, the zombies here do not look as terrifying as say, Resident Evil! Hah. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, even if the zombies here look motherf*cking ugly but at least it is good to know that by my standards, it is not enough to cause some nightmare and sleepless nights. There are some CGI effects as well for example like that weird mutant zombie shark. However it doesn’t break the series entirely (most probably the scene was dark anyway). For the record, Bug Films animated this series and seeing this is their first and only series, can I make a joke that they got bugged by production issues? Oh sorry, I already did! Well, I don’t think we’ll see them for a while…

For the voice acting, my only contention is Minami Takahashi as Beatrix (Megumi in Shokugeki No Souma). Obviously she sounds like a Japanese trying to sound like a foreigner but ends up sounding fake. Yeah, it would be more believable if she sounded fluent in Japanese and had Japanese accent. Yeah. That. On a similar but unrelated note, if you wonder why Anju sounds so genuine like a loli, because this is Kino Sakai’s debut (and so far only) role and she was 14 years old when she took on this role. Okay, not loli enough for you lolicons out there but at least doesn’t sound fake like a grownup woman pretending to be a loli with that fake high pitch voice. Yeah. That. A few recognizable seiyuus include Nobuhiko Okamoto as Higurashi (imagine Accelerator with a lot of angst), Sora Amamiya as Ootori, Shigeru Chiba as Hiko, Mamoru Miyano as Shou and Youko Hikasa as Reika.

This series has a hell lot of voice actors doing small and cameo roles. You need so many people to voice the zombies? Don’t they all sound the same with their moaning?! Don’t ask me, I’m not a zombie expert so I can’t tell them apart! So for the rest of the (selected) casts, they are Shuuichirou Umeda as Akira (Pochita in Inu Ni Nattara Suki Na Hito Ni Hirowareta), Makoto Furukawa as Kencho (Shirogane in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Tomori Kusunoki as Shizuka (Makima in Chainsaw Man), Hiroyuki Kinoshita as Akira’s dad (Doussant in Radiant S2), Naomi Kusumi as Kumano (Magna in Tensei Kizoku No Isekai Bouken Roku Jichou Wo Shiranai Kamigami No Shito) and Kenta Miyake as Kosugi (All Might in Boku No Hero Academia). One of the epic things of this series is the opening theme, Song Of The Dear by Kana-Boon. This epic rock piece gets you in the drive and mood to want to dance along or run along. Yeah, there’s even a group zombie dance (f*ck sh*t, they copy and paste the zombies or what?) but too bad it’s nothing near Thriller Night. Anyhow, this song definitely fits the pace of this series like a glove. Happiness Of The Dead by Shiyui as the ending theme is a lively fanfare. Might not be as epic but it’s to continue the fun run that everyone is happily living the way they want to.

Well, what do you know? There was a live action film of this series that came out at a similar time when this anime series aired. As I didn’t see it, obviously I can’t make comparisons but from the brief comments I skim through online, they are mostly mixed reviews. Strange entry some called it and of course, some didn’t like it. Seeing the manga is still ongoing and briefly going through all the titles that they have released, I’m wondering why they didn’t have one entitled High School Of The Dead… Just kidding!

Overall, this whole series is supposed to be funny than anything scary so if you prefer zombies to stay in the horror genre, you might not like this one. But sorry, this isn’t supposed to be Resident Evil or even The Walking Dead. Otherwise, seeing a group of people having fun surviving in a zombie apocalypse while miraculously managing to avoid being eaten by zombies (so far), it’s all good entertainment to say the least. It would not have been that bad if not for the production issues and so this series became infamous for the wrong reasons. So should I come up with a bucket list of my own in case the zombie apocalypse strikes? Hey, even the US government has plans in case of a zombie emergency! THE. US. GOVERNMENT! Oh never mind, I think I’ll continue to be a zombie and continue watching all the crappy and sh*tty animes for the next few foreseeable seasons. Am I happy and living the life I want or what? :’(.

N/B: Bucket list #1: Get a girlfriend… Oh no, why does this already seem impossible?!

Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki No Monmon

Introverts love nothing more than to stay indoors and not mix with the rest of society outside. Even more so a shut-in. So what happens if such a person is somehow made a commander of a military unit and fight in wars that guarantees slaughter and mayhem? Oh, I don’t know how but Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki No Monmon sounds interesting and funny enough for me to take a peek. Our titular character is also a vampire who hates to drink blood. Eh? Is this some sort of new age vampire thingy? Anyway, due to circumstances she is being trusted into that position and despite her aversion for blood and wars, she has to put up the greatest act that she is a bloodthirsty warlord so as her troops will not lose morale and support. Oh, did I mention those same troops will not hesitate to revolt and overthrow whoever is weaker than them? And so the great pretending continues… Keep this up and she’ll be Oscar worthy material.

Episode 1
Terakomari “Komari” Gandesblood is a vampire of the Mulnite Empire. She is a professional hikikomori who hates to do stuffs or even drink blood. Not giving a crap about society, hence she stays in her room for like 3 years. But one day, suddenly she finds this maid, Villhaze claiming to be her personal maid now and that she is the commander of the empire’s army. You see, when father asked her about when she would start working, she casually answered as long as she will get the throne. You bet daddy was so thrilled that he told Empress Karen Helvetius about this and she in turn made her into this general AKA Crimson Lord. But did Komari sign any contract? Well, Karen snuck into her room last night and kissed her to seal the contract! And so, Komari is now before the empress who lays down the rules in becoming a candidate for the throne. So apparently she must go to war with any of the neighbouring kingdoms and win. Win 100 times and she’ll get that right. Lose too many… Her head will roll! Plus, Komari is put in charge of a group of badass men who will revolt if they think she is weak. But we all know Komari is pretty weak, right? And so she must keep this a secret and act tough before them. That is why Villhaze is tasked to help her. So as Komari goes to see her men for the first time, one tries to kill her! She accidentally slams the door, decapitating him! Oh sh*t! Doesn’t that make you scared? She goes to address the men who get the wrong idea that guy died from a flick of her pinky. Yeah, now they’re respecting her as she pours on the lies as well as giving her convincing speech that she is the boss.

So we see her in her first campaign that ends up with Mulnite absolutely victorious. More lies she can pound other nations to a pulp that revs up her men. A reporter tries to interview her but she stays wise she can’t explain her greatness in words! At the end of the war, all those who died are revived. As explained, all the 6 warring nations possessed this very high magic known as Dark Core. No matter how wounded you are, you recover completely. And since all nations’ magic overlap in a certain area, this is where the wars take place. It’s a reason why Komari can’t stand how absurd this entertainment war is. Next day, the newspaper’s front page is filled with fake news of Komari’s greatness to crush other nations! But she has to deal with Villhaze creep since she is a pervert who greatly adores Komari. Sleeping naked with her is one thing… Then she takes advantage of Komari’s weakness by reading aloud one of her embarrassing stories she wrote. Poor Komari will do anything. Yeah, hug and sniff all over her now, will you? Komari has not talked to someone this long for a long time. When was the last time? Oh, that dream snippet of being bullied. I guess now we know why she became a hikikomori. Pain bad…

Episode 2
Komari meets the rest of her commanders that include Bellius Innu Cerbero (murderer), Caostel Conto (lolicon pervert) and Mellanconcey (rapper dude). Gulp. Later Caostel talks to Bellius about some classified document he got. Something about some murder in the imperial army caused by a single person and he believes it is Komari since they were all killed by a pinky finger. The duo then stumble into an intruder named Millicient Blueknight who claims she is here to kill the empress but she is more interested in Komari. They attack her but she dodges and flees. Komari goes to select her magical beast. She is interested in this dragon but didn’t foresee she will get the ride of her life. Remember that guy who died the last time? Yeah, Johan Helders once again gets killed when the dragon stomps over him! Okay, he still survives. He is crying for revenge on Komari but with her panicking and being clumsy, lady luck is on her side as she makes it look like as though she is easily owning him. And just like that he gets defeated. Too bad this isn’t over as he challenges her to a duel. And now we are here in the arena where all Komari fans are supporting their general. But don’t worry, Villhaze has already planned everything out and all Komari needs to do is follow her instructions. Just stand there. You bet Villhaze already rigged the whole thing like poisoning Helders’ food and even dug pit traps and planted mines! All Komari has to do is flick her finger to make it look like she used magic. The crowd goes while as Helders falls for the traps until it is ultimately Komari’s win. Literally won without lifting a finger. Then Villhaze’s ‘reward’ (and ours) as we see her and Komari bath together naked and the former caressing her fingers all over. Komari wonders why she is so loyal to her. She hints it is to atone for her crimes. Sorry, she doesn’t mean the sexual harassment on you but whatever. Karen holds a party to celebrate Komari’s success. She notes this gamble paid off seeing Komari’s father betted she would leave her room by forcing her to be a Crimson Lord. She assures Komari she is no longer alone and has many to rely on since many love her dearly. Also in this party is Millicient and she wants to talk to Komari.

Episode 3
As Millicient talks to Komari, she gets amused by all her fake lies of being strong. Then she shows her true colours, claiming Komari as the biggest insult to this war. It is then Komari starts to fear her as she remembers Millicient was her bully. Millicient claims she is here to return what Komari lent to her 3 years ago. Millicient tries to attack and kill Komari but Bellius takes a fatal blow. Komari is paralyzed in shock. Karen is not amused she tried to ruin the party although Millicient claims she was here to kill her. But it could’ve been more satisfying to kill Komari but now she’s just trembling like a coward. She then reveals she is part of Inverse Moon whose goal is to destroy the Dark Core of each country and bring true death to everyone. Millicient promises to kill Komari next time and escapes. It seems this is only possible because a traitor helped set all that up before the party began. Komari continues to be traumatized as she locks herself in her room. She remembers the torment Millicient and her group brought upon her and Komari accepted all that until that day when Millicient wanted to take her mother’s pendant. Komari defied her and tried to run. She can’t remember what happened after that but she found herself in her room and started becoming a recluse. Villhaze comes to talk and calm her down and even wrote a letter containing her feelings. Suddenly Villhaze is stabbed from behind by Millicient! How in the world?! Anyway Millicient isn’t here to kill Komari yet as she is preparing for an even greater tragedy. She mocks Komari as useless and a cry-baby although she had the most useless sense of justice. She wants Komari to come to a castle ruin if she wants to save Villhaze. Don’t be late and come alone or she dies. Komari thinks of abandoning that perverted maid and forever by a hikikomori. But will the maid abandon her? Then she reads her letter. Apparently Villhaze was the previous bully victim of Millicient since she was poor. It was Komari who stepped in to stop her before she actually killed Villhaze. Because of that, Millicient turned her attention to bully Komari. Villhaze could only watch from the shadows and could do nothing. That’s why to redeem herself, she trained herself and became employed to be her family’s maid to return the favour. Komari is her hero as she is stronger and kinder than anyone else. Komari can’t believe she forgot all this. But this has made her decide that she is going to save Villhaze by herself. As Millicient waits, the traitor is Helders but he too is in the dark and surprised by the turn of events so she kills the ignorant idiot off. Just in time to face off with Komari.

Episode 4
Millicient accuses her pain started the day she tried to take her pendant. Flashback shows her family is of a political one and her father wanted her to become stronger and hence hired a samurai named Kakumei Amatsu to train her. It was to invoke a special magic that would break the laws of the universe called Core Implosion. While the chances of such are low, it is believed that one may invoke it when experiencing near death. And so Millicient endured all the suffering. But nothing came of it. Father was so angry and even blamed her for being useless, comparing her as a failure to the daughter of Gandesblood. At school, when she heard someone with Core Implosion, it was Villhaze so she confronted her. It seems it is to tell someone future by drinking her blood. Villhaze was reluctant to say what unfortunate incident will befall on Millicient and that’s when her torment began. Then Komari rescued her and Millicient learnt who she was. The shift in bullying was to force her to invoke her Core Implosion. Well, it happened on the day she tried to take her pendant. It happened so fast she didn’t know what happened and all she knew was she was killed in an instant. Subsequently, Millicient’s family fell apart after they were accused for treason and banished. Millicient drifted around and joined the terrorist group called Inverse Moon. She hates Komari for living a carefree life while she suffered. But Komari realizes they’re the same. She is a lost soul who can’t live honestly because of that trauma she suffered. Komari kills off Helders to keep him safe (he will revive later).

Komari and Millicient begin their fight. Obviously Komari is much weaker but she doesn’t give up in her attempts to save Villhaze. Millicient is further infuriated when Komari despite claiming herself as weak and all, she still wants to do her best for those who care for her. Komari is dealt a powerful blow and as she lies helpless, Villhaze manages to wound herself to give her drink some blood. She sees the future of Komari will be victorious. With that, Komari’s Core Implosion activates and now she is like God! Damn, she is so fast that Millicient can’t keep up! She even deflects her greatest and most devastating magic! Millicient remembers that day when the same thing happened. All that bullying must’ve caused Komari to swallow some blood. With the tables turned, Millicient gets desperate but her fate is sealed when her arm is blown off. Then the other one too. Merciless Komari shows her mercy by killing her off as the loser ponders if she had taken a different path, her future would’ve been different. Yeah, definitely. In the aftermath, Komari awakes in her room with Villhaze next to her. Sorry, it’s not heaven. Reality means she won. Villhaze remembers Komari’s dad telling her that Komari’s Core Implosion activated when she was 3 years old by accidentally drinking blood and it killed everybody. That’s why they hypnotized her to hate blood. If she doesn’t remember it, it’s okay. Villhaze is sad thinking she will have no role to play or be by Komari’s side now. But Komari still wants her as her maid so yeah, please stay by her side forever. But sorry, that isn’t a proposal in any way.

Episode 5
Flote Mascarail confronts Komari and claims she is weak. Well, Komari wonders who the f*ck she is and this insults Flote because does she not know who the other Crimson Lords are! It is not Komari’s intention to piss her off but from Flote’s view, it certainly looks so. Flote is not impressed and doesn’t want to be friends with her. She hopes to see what Komari is capable of next time. As Komari goes to confront Karen about this, she changes the subject about her father and a few others being killed. Obviously they got revived. It is because of Core Implosion, they don’t remember how they were being done in. Karen wants her to confront the terrorist so Komari throws a tantrum she doesn’t want to work anymore. Karen will reward her with a week’s vacation. Okay, when do we start? Since Komari won’t be doing this alone, she has Sakuna Memoir to help out. This nice and meek girl seems to be Komari’s type. You jealous, Villhaze? Oh, did I mention that Sakuna is also a Crimson Lord and the only one killed by the terrorist? So you bet she has a score to settle and wants to regain her honour. Komari then talks to her men about needing their help to capture the terrorist and will reward them with a vacation. Uhm, they don’t look happy. Yeah, these bloodthirsty dudes live to kill! So she throws in a ticket to the zoo with her. Oh you bet everybody wants that secret date with Komari! You jealous, Villhaze? Oh, in fact she’s mad!

As Komari goes to see Sakuna to discuss the mission, she bumps into Helldeus Heaven, another Crimson Lord. He is a priest and loves talking about God. Komari has read Sakuna’s letter on how she accidentally became a Crimson Lord (her magic accidentally killing her predecessor and Helldeus recommended her for the role). Can’t have more of Komari fawning over her so jealous Villhaze starts getting down to business on how to tackle the problem. Yeah, it means more work for Komari as she will have to patrol at night. Soon, Komari finds her men all defeated outside. It is the work of Flote. Before you start blaming her of picking a fight, she claims her men were running around and causing trouble so she put a stop to that. Flote is further unimpressed with her and at the next conference, she will seek a vote of no confidence to remove her. Well, Villhaze saw the future of that and it seems that will happen and the results of a Crimson Lord being removed is explosion! Komari panicking now. Don’t worry, Sakuna will always be by her side. Even more so Komari loves being called a big sister. Say that again! You jealous, Villhaze? Since when flirting with Komari is monopolized by you? Anyway, Sakuna is amazed with Komari’s approach in non-violent ways to solve things because Crimson Lords often seek violence as their first answer. Sakuna also shares her views of non-violence and wants to talk things out with the rest.

Episode 6
Flote begins the meeting among the Crimson Lords that is presided by Karen. Flote begins by accusing Komari she is never seen fighting directly in battles. Furthermore, she shows proof of her school’s report card in which her absenteeism is high. However Karen points out where is the proof of Komari using her connections to become a Crimson Lord. With Flote trying to assert Komari is not acting like one, Komari starts acting haughty and mocking Flote. This has Flote wanting to challenge her right now. Okay. Bring it on. Komari will have Villhaze fight her. Only, she won’t! Okay. We’ll fight another day. Flote initiates the vote. Because only Sakuna and Helldeus vote to support Komari, Flote assumes the rest voted against her until Villhaze points out the rest didn’t actually vote so those votes against her remain unclear. So when they count those who do, only Flote and Odilon Metal raise their hands. Why is Delphyne remaining silent? OMG she’s dead! Who killed her?! It seems Villhaze poisoned her before the meeting and dragged her corpse here! OMFG!!! OH SH*T!!! Of course Flote is quick to accuse Komari without proof. She also challenges Komari to a duel. If Komari loses, she must quit as a Crimson Lord and if Flote loses, she’ll do anything she says. Uhm, you mean she won’t resign like her? But Odilon has a great idea. Have all the Crimson Lords fight each other! Karen approves! Oh my.

You bet Komari is fretting over this in her room. But when she finds out she accidentally lent Sakuna her manuscript that contains her real name instead of her penname, she rushes over. Well, looks like Sakuna is a Komari nut. Look at loads of Komari merchandises! Komari can’t say herself about keeping a secret since she too has some. Hence Sakuna knowing her manuscript now looks trivial. Sakuna talks about the war and she doesn’t like it since she is weak and will be killed off first. She also doesn’t want to fight her but Komari proposes to team up. What a great idea. She thinks of asking Helldeus the same. Sakuna then talks about her family being killed and Helldeus took her in as well as her older sister is also named Komari. Sakuna acts weird as she takes Komari to see the stars and asks her opinion about what she would do if terrorists took her family hostage and the only way to save them is to kill somebody. Komari’s answer is to kill the terrorist. It looks like Sakuna is about to kill Komari but Villhaze is here to bring her back. She warns Komari about Sakuna because she felt an intense bloodlust but is brushed off. Later we see Sakuna making contact with a member of Inverse Moon. It seems she is under orders to find Dark Core since her Core Implosion is to peek into memories of others. Because one of the Crimson Lords know its location, they are counting on her to get that info. For every failure, they will kill a family member. Don’t mess up like Millicient. Sakuna falls into despair. But she realizes she needs to find Millicient and talk. There she is and she’s looking fine.

Episode 7
It seems Millicient is in prison but is granted some leeway to go out. She knows all about Sakuna’s predicament, including wanting to leave Inverse Moon. In that case, confiding in Komari would be her best bet. However Sakuna is reluctant to get her involved. In that case when things get tough, let Komari drink her blood. Now the Crimson Lord war is about to begin. The main objective is to get some sphere in some ruins. The one holding it at the end of the day wins. There are also ways they could get points like killing other Crimson Lords. The one with the lowest score will resign. With Flote sending mocking messages to Komari, you bet Komari’s henchmen are dying to kill her. And so Flote thought Komari is a coward who would think of protecting herself. She didn’t expect her bloodthirsty men to come attack her straight. Komari and Villhaze is left behind but they are soon attacked by Delphyne who is out for Komari’s blood, believing she is the one who killed her. They make a run for it. Meanwhile Sakuna is at a lost on what to do. But then she starts to mobilize her troops to target Flote. Karen knows somebody is controlling Sakuna and thus this is to smoke out the Inverse Moon member. When Delphyne corners Komari at the ruins, the former’s desperation to kill her has Komari drink some of her blood (Delphyne uses her blood as projectile and weapon). This causes a huge explosion that destroys everything and takes out almost everyone. Komari is left confused as she is standing in the centre of this crater. Flote confronts her, claiming they’re the only ones left on the battlefield. Mad Flote accuses her of all the lies but before she could kill her, Sakuna kills her off. Komari is shocked to see Sakuna is this strong although she denies. Then she talks about that terrorist question she posed Komari that night. Sakuna realizes Inverse Moon will never grant her request since she is weak. Those she loves will be killed no matter how hard she works. Sakuna reveals herself as the terrorist of Inverse Moon. Komari is so confused as Sakuna prepares to kill her.

Episode 8
Sakuna gives Komari a glimpse of her family. Yeah, a pretty happy one. Then she explains about Dark Core being treated like a God. Hence a group of people who will destroy it known as Inverse Moon. She recounts her family was killed just to force her to become a pawn of Inverse Moon. They find her ability useful as she can manipulate the memories of those she is killed. Her family’s killer told her to work hard and find Dark Core and he might tell her how to get her family back. That is why she is going to kill her. Komari finds it odd because isn’t her family already dead? Well, Sakuna will turn her into her big sister. Like how she turned Helldeus as her father. Shockingly, Komari agrees. As long as she doesn’t get killed. She’ll be her big sister. As they both hug and reconcile, suddenly Odilon beats up Sakuna for getting cosy with the enemy. Obviously he is the mastermind. He even beats up Komari to boot. Sakuna has had enough and wants to quit Inverse Moon. Odilon will not allow that so Sakuna drinks a powerful potion to kick his ass. However the effects start kicking in just before she could kill him. It’s his turn for payback. Remember Millicient’s words, she lets Komari drink her blood. Not enough. She bites her entire neck. Now Komari turns Super Saiyan as she gives Odilon his beat down until he apologizes. Stubborn, isn’t he? He is forced to flee back to his base. He is desperate to form a plan to take Komari down but his subordinates start stabbing him to death. This is thanks to Sakuna manipulating their memories. They will no longer be his tool. To finish him off, here is Komari. Big explosion! Safe to say, Komari wins this war. In the aftermath, Sakuna goes to look for Komari to apologize but the latter doesn’t mind. This makes Sakuna sadder. Karen forgave her, her men forgave her, even Helldeus wasn’t under her spell and pretended to be. Despite knowing she was in Inverse Moon, he did nothing because he wanted her to get revenge by her own hands. So now Komari is going to add to this forgiveness combo? In that case, Komari will have Sakuna hang out with her on this vacation reward. There are things she wants them to do together. Gladly. Oh Villhaze gonna be a jealous maid…

Episode 9
Komari is given her vacation but she doesn’t like the beach? Oh right. It’s outdoors. Sakuna was given her punishment to participate in some wars. She won 3 out of 5. So now she is also vacationing with Komari and of course the unimpressed Villhaze who thinks her beloved Komari has gotten too close to Sakuna. Of course this isn’t 100% vacation as there is also a reason why they are here at this beach which is located at the country of Gerra-Aruka. It seems one of the top heroes of Gerra-Aruka, Nelia Cunningham accused her of fighting in her territory which is akin to aggression. So to ease tensions, she invited her for a tea party. Obviously a trap but Karen didn’t care and sent Komari anyway. So as they meet Nelia, she wonders if Komari is the strongest. As usual, she puts up her grandest act of being one. Nelia is so freaking impressed that she lived up to her expectations and reveals the real reason she invited her: She wants to team up for world domination. While Sakuna thinks wars are bad, Villhaze on the other hand believes Komari is strong enough and doesn’t need help. Not especially with an unpopular commander like her. So as Nelia pouts, Komari reveals her true intentions that even if she had such power, she doesn’t want to dominate the world. She is a pacifist after all. She will use it to seek world peace. Suddenly Bellius barges in with bad news. Komari’s troops accidentally stumble into Gerra-Aruka’s army who thought they were invading. In short, Komari’s troops easily defeated them! And there goes Mellanconcey blowing up their tower! Nelia gets mad. You asked for it! This is war! Komari and co no choice have to retreat.

Back home, no rest for Komari because soon there is Karla Amatsu from Heavenly Paradise who wants to speak to her. She wants to form an alliance with her country. Heavenly Paradise is on bad terms with Gerra-Aruka which was once a monarchy named only Aruka until 5 years ago it became a republic after the current president, Madhart started a revolution. So the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Komari seems to agree with Karla’s vision of peace as Karla continues to add that their powers are the same and that’s why she needs her help. But soon, Komari receives a letter from Nelia. She is hell bent in giving her some payback! This shocks Karla because she thought she was all for peace. Did she lie? Even more so Komari now acts tough like a bloodthirsty killer so as not to disappoint her men. Karla is shocked and wants to call off the alliance but Karen says that won’t do. It was her idea to call an alliance but backs out when talks breaks down? For that insult she must die. She orders Komari to kill her. Wait. What? So as both girls try to outdo each other by claiming how many they could kill, Villhaze just pushes a reluctant Komari onto Karla. This scares the sh*t out of her as Karen uses this to blackmail Karla to form an alliance if she doesn’t want to die. With that, Karla agrees. Meanwhile Nelia is chastised by someone for missing her chance to kill Komari. She is warned not to fail again lest she wants to end up like her father. Nelia has no choice to do it since she vows to change her country. She needs to make Komari her servant for her plans.

Episode 10
Karla panics after realizing the alliance would mean war and that she would die! But don’t worry, she believes her brains will see her through this. Her assistant, Koharu doesn’t seem convinced, though. As the Gerra-Aruka side is having their own meeting, Nelia pleads for another chance but Pascal Rainsworth mocks her for her failure that led to this. She will not be cowed and vows to transform her country. She will be the next president. Since Komari is still asleep, Villhaze brings her entire bed right in the middle of a meeting between Mulnite and Heavenly Paradise. It seems Madhart has declared war on their alliance and what do you know? Komari is now the leader of this alliance. Seeing mass massacre and slaughtering is inevitable, Karen suggests they divide into offense and defensive teams. They also talk about Gerra-Aruka’s illegal move by bringing in lots of ritual articles to this land to construct a Dark Core zone in their resort area known as Daydream Paradise. They want to expose this findings to the other nations but there is a risk that they might take advantage of this war and steal the articles. Soon, Gerra-Aruka teleports in and starts firing a few warning shots. Madhart makes contact with Karen, asking her to surrender or reveal their Dark Core’s nature for his side to withdraw. Obviously Karen doesn’t give a damn, even if he has allied with Haku-Goku Commonwealth and Lapelico Kingdom. She orders her men to bomb Gerra-Aruka’s capital! This is war! Hell yeah! So both sides start blasting at each other as we see formidable enemies like Prohellya Butchersky a crazy sniper from Haku-Goku and a giraffe with a really long neck, Neckson McLongo from Lapelico. Yeah, those names…

With Rainsworth coming in for Komari’s head, amidst the messy war, Nelia teleports her away. In a safe location near Daydream Paradise, Nelia reveals that she was a student of Komari’s mom. Proof, this pendant she keeps from her. Nelia recalls meeting Komari 5 years ago at a party. When they talked, Komari didn’t like fighting and wanted to make friends. That in a way can lead to world domination. Via friendship. Komari wanted to be her friend but Madhart warned Nelia of doing such. Cool Komari noted that whatever rift between the nations, it’s theirs to begin with. She wanted to be friends with him too. Now Komari remembers it all as Nelia continues how Madhart who was the kingdom’s former general overthrew the royal family and became the republic’s first president. His goal is to start war with all the nations and Nelia will expose his evil ways to reform her country. As Komari trusts her and agrees to help, Nelia surprises her by giving a kiss! Sorry, it’s not an Aruka greeting! But jealous Villhaze would love to try this custom. With Nelia missing, Rainsworth suspects she has betrayed them. But he puts his priorities to track down Komari.

Episode 11
Nelia explains the dark secret behind Daydream Paradise. Basically the supporters of the royal family are incarcerated there thanks to Madhart. There are also human experiments being conducted there and rumours has it that ritual articles are being smuggled into there. Some individuals who are tortured enough may have their Core Implosion evolved to a point that grants enough power to move the very stars. Hence the plan is to reveal this truth to the public. Madhart tasks Rainsworth to continue finding Nelia and Komari. At the same time he will activate Daydream Unit in which Rainsworth will take charge once the time comes. Now we see Nelia fighting Rainsworth and she is stumped how the enemies find their location so quickly. They try to escape as Villhaze takes some damage while protecting Komari. Before Rainsworth can slay Komari, here comes the cavalry of Delphyne, Sakuna and Komari’s men. Sakuna has a tracker on Komari so yeah. They buy time for them to head towards Daydream Paradise. Meanwhile the people of Gerra-Aruka are protesting against Madhart. They call for his fall as they don’t want war. When Nelia’s side reach outside Daydream Paradise, some tough warrior named Abercrombie is supposed to await them but he is already killed off. Don’t understand Villhaze’s deduction that this is Sakuna’s work. They both met before and she used her Core Implosion against him and he became her puppet and turned against his own men whenever she wants. As they head underground, Gertrude (Nelia’s personal maid) shows her true colours and betrays Nelia and deals Villhaze some damage. She is Rainsworth’s sister. The reason she is doing this is because after watching all her hard work went unrewarded, she felt if she continued, she would fall apart. So give up and live in peace instead. Rainsworth talks about Madhart’s peace so their goals are the same. However Nelia begs to differ since her method is different. When Komari tells off Rainsworth to apologize to Nelia, he beats her up. Sakuna is not pleased and wants to kill this bugger. But as reminded, he has a bigger task so Gertrude fights her as Rainsworth goes to take charge of Daydream Unit, an elite squad Madhart developed in secret. Yeah, look like awakened zombies to me. Madhart didn’t expect Karen to come see him but of course she won’t tell him where the Dark Core is despite he badmouths vampires as inferior beings. Nelia has fallen into despair and is willing to give up. Luckily Komari talks her out of it and gives her hope. She wants Nelia to drink her blood. Doing so, Nelia powers up and returns to her groove in accomplishing her original goal.

Episode 12
As Karen and Madhart trade bluffs that they will win, a reporter broadcasts directly from Daydream Paradise to the entire world of Madhart’s atrocities. After Nelia has freed all the prisoners, she goes to beat up her maid. Gertrude didn’t do anything because she is in shock that Nelia continues to defy what’s best for her. Gertrude explains how she was always abused by her brother to become stronger. Unlike Nelia who always treated her kindly. Because Madhart is a cruel hero, there is no way she wanted to see her get hurt. That’s why she wanted her to give up so as to live in peace. Gertrude thinks of disowning herself from Nelia’s service but she won’t allow that. She is not going to live in that kind of fake peace and find fault with Madhart. To handle what comes next, now Nelia wants Komari to drink her blood. Big protest from Villhaze and Sakuna but I guess there are things that needed to be done. After all, her mom is her teacher so they’re like sisters. With Komari awakening, everyone now cheers on for her. Flote and Helldeus have done all they can to evacuate the citizens. Thanks to Millicient who is now in charge of a platoon unit, she helps stave off Daydream Unit. She even pops up before Rainsworth to warn him about Komari. She leaves so that Komari can take the credit.

With all other nations now against Gerra-Aruka even their former allies, Rainsworth is not pleased with the tables turned. He uses his Core Implosion to turn his body into steel to fight Komari. Holy sh*t! Komari doing Gate of Babylon move???!!! Her light swords all pierce through Rainsworth. As he lies defeated, flashback shows he always tolerated the abuse by others to protect Gertrude. He hated the royalty and vowed to become strong to get back at them. Komari then finishes him. Now Madhart panics over that monstrosity as Karen tells him about Komari who is able to achieve world domination by being friends rather than military might in a single person. Komari can do it because she is different. Madhart dies as Komari kills him. In the aftermath, Madhart goes missing and a presidential election will be held for Gerra-Aruka. Nelia happily reunites with her father. We then hear Kakumei narrating that this was all part of his plan to destroy Gerra-Aruka. Because some goddess wasn’t happy with the human experiments he was doing and with the existence of Dark Core, that is why Kakumei baited Madhart with some ritual article and lead him into an unwinnable war. It’s also why Karla who is his sister wasn’t happy she was sent on this mission. A month later, Komari leads her troops against Nelia. The latter doing so to improve her reputation and get some votes for the election by defeating Komari. But I’m guessing this is going to be a fight over Komari. Nelia, Villhaze and Sakuna all want a piece of Komari. Regret that you should have stayed a shut-in?

Liar, Liar, Vampire
Maybe this is how people of the world is going to seek peace. They fight each other with all their heart’s content and at the end of the day, they shake hands and laugh it all off. I mean, fighting each other freely with to their heart’s content is still way better than being mind controlled and under the thumb of a single madman and selfish megalomaniac. So yeah, Komari is going to have a lot of work cut out for her now that she is quickly earning a great reputation. I guarantee there is no way in going back to her hikikomori life. And miss out all the fighting? Especially now she has (at current count) 3 twisted b*tches hot chicks who want nothing more but Komari herself? My, the world’s most eligible vampire if I must say. Good luck Komari. You’ll need it.

I don’t really know or where the direction of the series is heading and it feels like all over the place. While I’m not saying that it is confusing or a bad thing but the way I see it, the entire series is just trying to pit Komari into one troublesome affair to another. After all, where’s the fun when you have a certain Dark Core zone in which battles can take place but no real deaths. Sure, you get killed but you get resurrected soon after. I suppose if you love killing and shed blood, it would be okay but other than that, don’t you think it is all just meaningless? I mean, you can’t die and the whole war thingy between nations just felt like one big military exercise or something. Sure, there’s that Inverse Moon cult thingy who wants to bring true and permanent death (life’s so much more interesting dicing with death, no?) but as far as this season is concerned, it’s all about showcasing Komari and her, uhm, aptitude?

So basically the entire series is trying to showcase how lucky our vampire princess is. I think that is the charm of the whole series. Komari being a meek vampire who doesn’t want to fight, she is forced to put up some fake and lame acting (which would instantly win her a few Razzies) just to act tough so as not to be perceived as weak. Of course things get out of hand, lots of chaos ensuing, Komari must have lady luck on her side as she gets by one way or another. Either everyone thinks she is a cunning son of a b*tch or she is a totally competent and skilful bloodthirsty commander of her platoon. Everybody really overthinks and have quite a perception on her. Thank the newspaper reports that play up and exaggerate her exploits. Komari will be your new Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin if you’re not careful, damn! It doesn’t help that Villhaze and Karen stoke the fire to further portray Komari as one tough mother and make things even worse but as we all have seen, things somehow just work out nicely in the end. That includes Komari invoking her special power.

This series has got a few terminologies of its own and I’m still wrapping my head around terms like Dark Core, Core Implosions and ritual articles. Thankfully not that hard for me to understand them like those darn sci-fi series but still need to get some used to. But I’m still confused about the lore of this series. What goddess are they talking about overseeing all this?! Am I thinking that this goddess loves watching some (fake) bloodshed and that everybody fighting is like some sort of tribute to her? Could be wrong but yeah, I must not be paying close attention.

Love her or loath her, Komari is one of those that seeks peace and a pacifist but due to circumstances not under her control, she is forced to go on a ride of her life. It is definitely a dangerous world out there so was it better she had stayed locked in her room and never come out? Obviously by doing so we won’t have this anime! But despite all the rollercoaster ride, this new position has given Komari a lot of new breath in her life. Had she remained a hikikomori, she would have never meet the various people and learn what is going on in the current state. Not a pretty world but it is not going to change if she continues to stay in bed forever, right? After all, Komari possesses a unique power that could change the fate of the world and it would be a waste for her to just let it rot with her. So yeah, for better or worse (most likely the latter as I’ve seen her reactions) it was definitely more of a good thing that Komari has come out from her shell. Like they say, no pain no gain. Uhm, I think I would agree with Komari that no pain at all would definitely be more preferable!

Making Komari’s life a living hell or I would rather say exacerbating her misery is her personal maid, Villhaze. She is both resourceful and annoying. You can’t truly like her but at the same time can’t bring yourself to hate her. No, it’s not because she is a maid, mind you! Anyway, to sum up Villhaze in a word: Pervert. That says it all about her. We have seen her back story so we understand her circumstances and loyalty to Komari. But at the same time, it’s like she wants to have some fun with the admired person and hence a lot of perversion, much to Komari’s chagrin. Characters like her make the whole series a lot fun and funnier because imagine if Villhaze remains the stoic and serious maid without all the perversion. Is that Villhaze to begin with?! So yeah, forgive me if seeing Villhaze tormenting Komari with her unwanted perversions brings a smile to my face and at the same time makes my skin crawl on ends. Creepy. Of course sometimes she gets karma handed to her as she gets jealous of other characters getting closer to Komari or she being denied of whatever sick perversion. Just a little price to put up for loyal maid, no?

If there is a disappointing character, actually I want to point out they are the men under Komari’s wing. I was expecting to see more of them and especially Bellius, Caostel and Mellanconcey. They seem like really weird and wacko people. The crazy kind who would stir up trouble and be Villhaze’s partner in crime but provide useful when the time calls for it. However they are just like the rest of those bloodthirsty uncivilized and unnamed guys in the rest of the platoon: Forgettable. They don’t do much except causing a few havoc and chaos once in a while, especially when they fight over whatever weird Komari rewards. Yeah, makes them feel like rabid Komari fans who would stop at nothing to fulfil their whatever Komari desires. What if their tough and bloodthirsty façade is just the way they talk? You know, crude rude dudes? But deep down, they are actually nice and amicable people once you really get to know them! But for now, they serve as a stepping stone for the running joke for Komari to act as a tough leader so these losers can love her more when something brutal happens and is credited to her. Gotta love our Komari even more! Hell yeah! Better than the running joke of Helders getting killed off unceremoniously by her, right?! Yeah, thank goodness that stopped somewhere…

Other characters, they have their own charms, hits and misses. Like Karen being the current empress of Mulnite, she acts like a ditzy and carefree person but I assure that is all a façade to let your guard down. Which do you prefer? A strict and uptight b*tch ruler? Oh yeah. Having Karen as a lively person seems to be the better option but I’m sure this is just a distraction as she is a very powerful person. She is not the supreme commander of the Crimson Lords for nothing, you know. Then again, she could be a very dangerous person too and you don’t want to even know that persona of hers. Then there’s Sakuna who is shy and a Komari fan as well as Villhaze’s biggest rival to Komari’s heart. Need I say more? Helldeus is like a father figure so you wonder how such gentle people can become Crimson Lords. Circumstances like Komari, perhaps. Because the rest are just crazy like Flote, she’s one helluva crazy b*tch and Delphyne is hard to decipher since she is always wearing a mask.

Millicient was truly a cruel character whom you would love to hate seeing how she tormented Komari and she revelled in it. Obviously we were shed light on her past so is she to be entirely blamed? Still, a very cruel woman in my books but strangely, she has been given some freedom after her defeat? Not sure why but I think it’s to help soften the blow for us not to further think she is truly some evil b*tch. That’s why Rainsworth and Madhart helm that role because we all do really hate those people in power trying to do as they please, right? No love lost when they go down. Yeah, this series really has a number of characters seeing each nation has their own elite troops and bunch of crazy characters but too bad we don’t get to see them all here. From the noble Nelia trying to restore her nation to the clumsy and comical Karla (why do I feel her character was written to be a clown?), it’s definitely a huge world out there.

Art and animation are quite high quality. At least in many scenes I see they don’t skimp on the details. There are also quite a number of bright and livid scenes as well as dark ones. Also some blood but don’t worry, nobody really dies. While the character designs are typical and I find that many of the female characters have this one kind look, the one I want to point out is Komari. When I first looked at her, I was wondering what the heck Yami from To Love-Ru is doing here?! When did this assassin turned into a shut-in vampire?! I thought they were created by the same author but nope. Did this series do some plagiarism? Because some other characters also look like from other anime like Sakuna having this uncanny resemblance to the titular character of Tejina-senpai, Karla could be Nekopara’s Chocola, Nelia perhaps a grown up version of Spy x Family’s Anya and Millicient a rip-off from Genshin Impact’s Ganyu? But I think the best design is that t-shirt bearing Komari’s derpy face! Classic! A bit of CGI also but considering I noticed them only on Daydream Unit, it seems to fit those stiff armoured knights. This anime is done by Project No. 9 who did Ro-Kyu-Bu, Tenshi No 3P, Ryuuou No Oshigoto, Watashi Nouryoku Wa Heikinchi De Tte Itta Yo Ne and Shachiku-san Wa Youjo Yuurei. So if you’re wondering why the characters have a little bit of loli looks, now you know.

For the voice acting, I recognized Sora Amamiya as Millicient, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Rainsworth, Natsuki Hanae as Chaostel and barely Youko Hikasa as Karen (since she sounds a bit like a retard). Not forgetting cameos like Ayako Kawasumi as Komari’s mom and Aoi Yuuki as Prohellya while I almost missed Yuuichi Nakamura as Kakumei. Other casts are Tomori Kusunoki as Komari (Annette in Spy x Kyoushitsu), sayumi Suzushiro as Villhaze (Oono in High Score Girl), Manaka Iwami as Sakuna (Chiaki in Gamers), Ai Fairouz as Nelia (Takechiyo in Hanyou No Yashahime), Miyuri Shimabukuro as Karla (titular character in Yuragi-sou No Yuuna-san), Riho Sugiyama as Flote (Rosary in Slime Taoshite 300-nen Shiranai Uchi Ni Level Max Ni Nattemashita), Rina Hidaka as Gertude (Last Order in To Aru Majutsu No Index), Masaaki Mizunaka as Bellius (Ryuuen in Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi No Kyoushitsu E), Tasuku Hatanaka as Mellanconcey (Kaminari in Boku No Hero Academia), Kazuhiko Inoue as Madhart (Gildarts in Fairy Tail), Hidenari Ugaki as Helldeus, Natsumi Fujiwara as Delphyne (Damian in Spy x Family), Yuusuke Kobayashi as Helders (Subaru in Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu), and Tetsu Inada as Odilon (Gamagoori in Kill La Kill).

Well, the opening theme seems kinda familiar. That lively techno beat… Oh damn, it’s Fripside! Thankfully not a clone of any of the songs I know (like Only My Railgun) but Red Liberation still retains all that trademark that it is identifiable and uniquely Fripside. Too bad I didn’t quite like this as it is quite heavy on the rock side as well as too much techno beat and yeah, the dubstep that was just really heavy. For the ending theme, it is definitely something that is way calmer compared to the opener. Nemurenai by Miminari featuring Tomori Kusunoki isn’t entirely a sleepy song but Komari singing the entire song in a breathy manner gives it a sultrier feel than sleepiness. Otherwise, this feels like a normal anime pop song.

Overall, I have mixed feelings over this series. While it is entirely not boring but on the other hand it is not that great either. Seeing a reluctant shut-in vampire being trusted into an important leading position and then run riot with all the helter-skelter frenzy chaos while she continues to put up with all the tsuyogari (bluff strength) as her exterior and everyone gets trolled or vexed by it, can be fun at times but at the same time a whole lot of cringe. I mean, lots of twisted, sick and perverted characters here, right? Don’t worry, all in the name of comedy. Thank goodness the internet doesn’t exist in this world because Komari would’ve continued to stay inside and become the greatest internet troll that will kill everyone who crosses her online and die a horrible death a million times from her toxic insults and memes! Oh Komari, what will the world be without you. Now, where can I get that awesome Komari t-shirt!

Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari S3

When the next round of threat threatens to destroy the world, who are you gonna call? The shield hero. That’s right. Only this moody guy is strong and dependable unlike the rest of the other heroes. It is without surprise Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari S3 is another season under this series’ belt since it was announced they were going to have a second and third season. Just not airing continuously or back to back. Time to see our titular character rise to even greater moments as the fruits of his efforts (and betrayal) have come to fruition. He’s going to be your next God now at this rate.

Episode 1
Naofumi narrates after the defeat of the tortoise, the next beast AKA the phoenix was supposed to be next. But thanks to the energy he took back from Kyo, this bought them about 3 months of time before this next Wave hits. He wants to use this chance to strengthen their defence. However the fight with Kyo also took a big hit on their stats. Mirelia speaks to him about the other 3 heroes going missing. AGAIN?! There are also other issues to deal with like the Faubrey side stationing their soldiers around despite the tortoise have been defeated so Melromarc and its allies have also stationed theirs nearby just in case. As for the Seven Star Heroes, it seems she has no way in finding or contacting. Save for 1 who is right here in Melromarc. Well, who would’ve guessed it is Aultcray, oops I mean Trash. Speaking of that, Myne, oops I mean, Bitch/Slut is also missing. WTF these people… Naofumi then goes to see Berocas. It seems based on the new ruling by Mirelia, most of the slaves have been bought by nobles and then sold outside the kingdom. Naofumi wants to buy all the slaves back but it is going to cost him and very expensive. 10 times the price he paid for Raphtalia. Berocas then says if he still wants demi-humans from Lurolona village, go to Zeltoble. It is rumoured many are at this city. So his team head there to meet… Berocas? Oh, that’s his uncle. I thought he was his twin… They are taken to a secret underground auction where demi-humans are sold to the highest bidder. Obviously the slaves lie they are demi-humans from Lurolona. It doesn’t matter where they come from because that name is now a brand. He also notes Naofumi has not much money left after buying the remaining slaves. This means he needs to make money so head over to an underground arena where there are practically no rules for you to win. In here, money is everything. Naofumi recces the place and this hot babe. Nadia gives him some extra useful info about the fights if he buys her a drink. Hence Naofumi is going to enter this tournament with Raphtalia and Filo to win some money. I’m sure these masks will mask their identity… Folks, meet Team Rockvalley. Poor acting to fool the audience they are a weak team but they defeat their cocky opponents to cause a major upset on the betting odds.

Episode 2
What’s this? Many teams forfeit their matches? Are they scared of Rockvalley or something? Later Nadia talks to Naofumi again. He thought she set him up when bandits surround them. Apparently not. These are loser of those teams who forfeited. Nadia shows her great lightning magic that takes them out effortlessly. She then flirts with him but he is not impressed. She warns him to forfeit his match or pray they won’t meet. With more teams forfeiting, Rockvalley is reduced to fighting monster griffins? With the money they made, they go shop for some weapons and the famous merchant is more than happy to be their sponsor. With no more teams left, looks like the next match will be the finals pitting Rockvalley and Nadia. Nadia knows Naofumi’s intentions to win to get the money to buy the Lurolona slaves. She cautions him she won’t lose to those who only care about money. The final fight begins with both sides pulling no punches. To make things more interesting, the arena is filled with water because Nadia then transforms into her true form, a killer whale. As she is about to kill Raphtalia, the latter recognizes her as Sadeena. In turn, Nadia also recognizes her. Realizing who Naofumi is, Nadia now understands why he is in this tournament. In the final clash, Rockvalley defeats Nadia. However because her sponsor isn’t pleased, he forces the announcer to invalidate this match and instead both teams will team up to fight the next exhibition match against this Murder Clown and her marionettes. Another round of fighting until Naofumi and Nadia imbue Raphtalia with more power. Raphtalia could have beaten Murder Clown with it but she escapes. She then notes how weak they are and notes the other world will destroy them if they have trouble fighting her. As she has fought enough for her pay, she leaves. Nadia’s sponsor is still not wanting to give Rockvalley the victory they deserve, accusing them of using a fake name and betting on themselves to win more money. But when the slave trader and merchant vouch for Naofumi and that he will receive all the winnings he deserves, everyone soon realizes the shield hero. Also, Nadia is the rightful owner of the Lurolona slaves since she bought it with her prize money. With this over, Nadia now joins Naofumi’s team. Sorry, make that Sadeena. A racoon, a chicken and now a fish!

Episode 3
Fohl returns to his cell to feed his heavily wounded and sickly sister, Atla some food and medicine. Naofumi comes in to look for some slaves and calls out those pretending to be one and trying to be saved by him. Fohl catches his eye seeing he wants Naofumi to buy them. As explained, he is of a white tiger lineage and possesses very high combat ability despite at a young age. He can further upgrade when he grows up. This means he is quite pricey. Learning about his sister, Naofumi is able to heal her with this elixir so Fohl has to prepare himself to work for him for the rest of his life. Fohl assures he will quadruple that payback amount. With Atla feeling much better, a few more dosages and she’ll be back to health. The siblings are taken back to Naofumi’s village as well as the rest of the Lurolona slaves. Although the village is making some progress, he notes the holes in the defence. Yeah, they’re just a bunch of kids. Can they defend the place? Atla’s rehabilitation is done as she is able to take off her bandages although she still remains blind. At least she is learning how to walk. One night when Naofumi is away, the village is under attack by bandits who intend to kidnap the demi-humans to sell them for a high price. Fohl manages to head to a secret spot as told by Naofumi to light up a flare before being captured. The bandit boss is going to kill him to make him an example but that is when Naofumi and co return. They kick all the bandits’ ass and will not let any one of them escape. Even when the bandit boss surrenders, Naofumi wants to execute him. However he is told not to. Because of the crest on the armour the bandits were wearing, they belong to an important noble. This means there’ll be hell to pay if these bandits die. In that case, Naofumi will sell them to Siltvelt as slaves. Now the bandits are panicking and begging not to be sent there. Death would’ve been much better? Off they go as Naofumi even fetches a high price selling them. With Fohl needing to get stronger as he can’t protect Atla, Naofumi resets their stats so they could take advantage of his hero buffs. When Naofumi’s side visits Mirelia, they bump into Aultcray Trash. But upon seeing Atla, he is overcome with sadness and pity. Mirelia explains the staff hero’s heroics. Yes, apparently he too had a story. Luge Lansarz Faubrey abandoned his name and country all for the sake of his sister. As a soldier in Melromarc, he gained fame and glory. But his sister was kidnapped by Siltvelt and he was driven mad with vengeance. But enough of that loser’s story, the real reason Mirelia calls them is because they have found Motoyasu.

Episode 4
Naofumi’s job is to find Motoyasu and convince him to help fight the next Wave. The only other info Mirelia has is that Ren’s comrades are all dead. As Naofumi returns to his land and feeds his demi-human kids with lunch, a strange girl named Syne Lokk pops up to ask for food. Don’t remember her? She is Murder Clown. She is willing to pay but Naofumi distrusts her and shoos her away. Well, how many times is she going to glance over her shoulders to see if he changes his mind? None. Be gone! Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo head to town to begin their search. They see Motoyasu trying to beg a former comrade, Elena to rejoin him. However she shuns him. When Naofumi confronts him, he flees. Naofumi then talks to Elena what happened. Apparently Motoyasu’s team tried to attack the Spirit Tortoise first to get some brownie points. But he failed. And just like that, the comrades realized they picked the wrong guy to suck up to and left! Soon, Naofumi finds Ren alone at the tavern. Talking to him, he confirms all his members are dead but blames them for being weak so it’s not his own fault. Naofumi tries to convince him that he can still fight but oh look, here comes Myne Bitch to claim that this was all Naofumi’s doing. She accuses him of that mock trial was a sham, a conspiracy to take the throne away from her and give it to Melty and that he was controlling the Spirit Tortoise. Oh Ren won’t believe this Bit- oh wait, HE BELIEVES HER???!!! Because it seems her slave crest isn’t lighting up, proving she is telling the truth. More complication as Motoyasu comes in and wants Bitch back in his fold but she won’t allow him. So when Ren is now turning against Naofumi, the latter tells him off that his refusal to face reality and treat this like a video game is the root of his problem. However, Ren still refuses to acknowledge it and even attacks him with all the people around, luckily Naofumi deflects it. With Bitch’s advice, they flee. Poor Motoyasu is now in despair after being abandoned once again by that Slut. As Filo gives a sterling idol performance to the tavern, Motoyasu regains his confidence and finds his love for Filo again! Oh great. He’s scaring her now! Now he is calling Naofumi his father and wants to marry Filo! OMFG! LOLICON ALERT!!! Nobody is impressed or give a damn until he calls Raphtalia a pig. She beats him up and they all return home.

Episode 5
Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo are suddenly attacked by a couple of strange guys. Holy sh*t! Did one of them summon a meteor to crash on them?! You think a few puny shields and a shield prison could protect them? Well I don’t know, somehow it did. Thanks to Syne popping up to help, those guys are killed off. However Naofumi finds it all pretty convenient. He thinks she is working for them and still doesn’t trust her. I understand him being cautious but doesn’t he sound like a dick to a person who just saved him? Nevertheless, he takes her back to his village since she is hungry. From what those guys said, Syne confirms she is from another world and a vassal weapon wielder. Her world was destroyed and those heroes killed. She helped him because she doesn’t want to see another fellow weapon wielder die. As for her timing, she placed a needle on him during their fight and you could say she has been watching him ever since. Although Naofumi still doesn’t trust her, he lets her stay but keeps an eye on her. Well, she’s quite popular with the kids. With Keel and some of the kids levelling up, Naofumi takes them to the capital to upgrade their class. Then he goes to see Elhart because Tollynemiya wants to be a blacksmith apprentice. Apparently both know each other as they used to train together. Eclair reports to Naofumi about her findings. The Spirit Tortoise’s rampage destroyed some prison and while many prisoners died, some survived and escaped. They are the ones who then attacked his village but she is unsure if both incidents are related. She also discovered another group of bandits that is active lately. Their leader is very cautious and doesn’t make himself known. Naofumi rounds up the gang to go hunt this bandit group. He splits up the team to search the area. I bet Naofumi teaming up with Raph-chan is to give this mascot some decent screen time. To his surprise, he finds Motoyasu fighting Ren! OMG, Ren wearing a mask, he trying to be Batman or something?!

Episode 6
A glimpse of Ren’s previous high school life. Basically he is an avid gamer. When he came to this world, he realized it was exactly like the game he was playing: Brave Star Online. That was why he was so confident he could defeat the Spirit Tortoise. Until he realized he couldn’t. His comrades dead and he sank into shock. Compounding his misery is that b*tch who told him he was the only one. Yeah, I’m sure those tits swayed him to join her side. But soon, he realized he has been duped as that slut stole his equipment and left a note that he is no longer useful to her. Yup. Useless is a taboo word for him. Then he gets attacked by a couple of strange guys. He felt weak and ran into hiding. However he was chased out of homes of ordinary people who claim he did nothing to protect them from the Spirit Tortoise. Sinking further into depression, he stumbled into those mocking bandits. He killed them and took their mask and became the new Batman. Soon he fought Motoyasu who has been smoking out the bandits for attacking the town and he thought Ren was their leader. Naofumi stumbled into this and that’s where we are now. Because Ren is so desperate to become stronger, Naofumi realizes his curse is attacking. Despite all the tricks Ren does, Naofumi and his comrades could overcome it. Eclair offers to fight Ren. Naofumi realizes she is a better swordsman than Ren and allows it after buffing her. As they clash, she asks about his ambitions. He wants to be strong to save the world. That felt so flimsy that Eclair is able to best him. This aggravation invokes his curse further as Naofumi realizes his curse resembles both greed and gluttony. So the curse series resemble the 7 deadly sins? Fortunately, Eclair once more puts him down. Then those strange guys come to attack but are easily taken care off by Motoyasu. Their souls are trying to escape but Raphtalia takes care of that. Naofumi is surprised that Motoyasu did what he is told to get stronger and now the fruits are showing. Eclair offers to train Ren and with some sound advice that he can get stronger (although he cannot change the past), Ren agrees. I take it that he has found salvation. A brief clip shows Ren was stabbed to death when he tried to save a group of girls from a knife assailant.

Episode 7
With Sadeena’s training, Keel can now turn into a cute little puppy. Ren is also adjusting to life in Naofumi’s village. Ratotille Anthreya AKA Rat soon looks for Naofumi. She has a letter from Mirelia. It states she has been exiled for causing trouble. However her alchemy might help Naofumi. Of course Rat calls out those lies. Apparently people didn’t like her experiments so they shut down her lab and killed her test subjects. Rat thinks it is a good thing to be posted here since she is interested in testing Filo! Run, Filo, run!!! Naofumi would like to see what she can do so she tends to some caterpillar monsters they have in the shed. He notices they are breeding and have eggs. The kids don’t want him to throw them away although clearly he doesn’t have the capacity to take care more of them. Rat believes she can handle this since she is able to make monsters stronger. Naofumi still distrusts her and will have her a slave crest. She is okay with it as long as she can do her research. Then Siltvelt sends them a dragon egg. To help keep its good stats, looks like Naofumi has to carry it around. Yeah, no wonder some can’t stop snickering how funny he looks! There’s the case of Atla sneaking into Naofumi’s room to sleep with him. Nothing sexual, mind you! She even has the gall to tie up Fohl to prevent him from stopping her. Soon the egg hatches. Uhm did this dragon come from the wrong anime? Oh I don’t know, did he fail some Pokemon audition???!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Sighs… Since Wyndia names him Gaelion, Naofumi tasks her to look after it. So we see the cute little critter with the gang. Yeah, Filo is going to have a rival in getting Naofumi’s attention as his pet mascot! Hey, where the heck is Raph-chan?! Gaelion seems to crave for Naofumi’s attention so Raphtalia suggests letting him live in his room to serve as a guard dog and stop Atla’s nightly visit. Naughty Gaelion then swallows this jewel from Kizuna’s world. WTF?! Now it turns into huge menacing dragon. So this Pokemon finally evolved, huh? He creates a bit of havoc before flying off.

Episode 8
As explained, the Emperor Dragon may have taken over Gaelion’s mind since all dragons have a dragon that contains a core that contains their mind. They need to go get him back before it gets worse but looks like there is another problem. Filo has collapsed. Turns out she is suffering from some curse and Gaelion is absorbing her stats. At this rate she will die. At this point, everybody wants to come along with Naofumi so he has no time to argue. Even Filo. Arriving at the village, the villagers hope Naofumi will help save them from the dragon as there is a dragon’s den nearby. As they make haste, a porcupine monster shows up but I guess this is to showcase Wyndia having some magic ability. More precisely, to use the dragon veins around to summon magic. Meanwhile Filo’s curse gets worse. Oh my, she turning into an evil chicken? Then as Naofumi’s side enters the cave, there is Gaelion. But wait. Filo is here too! OMG. Dragon vs chicken?! Not much of a fight as Filo gets owned and devoured! Seriously? Does it taste like chicken?! Just kidding! This evolves Gaelion into a huge dragon. As everyone makes their attack to bring it down, Wyndia soon stops everyone. She tells dad to even stop. Eh? What? Her dad was the dragon that lived in this area. After he was killed, she lost faith in the heroes except Naofumi since he was the only one kind to her. Ren realizes the zombie dragon he slew was her father. He became a zombie to protect her. As Wyndia pleads for her dad to let go, he attacks her. Luckily Ren protects her as he now transforms into another form. Is this his final form? Perhaps. Herald, Emperor Dragon. Naofumi realizes combining the dragon’s core with the one from Kizuna’s world caused their souls to mix. Emperor Dragon wastes no time in telling his goals to control this world from weak humans and has a grudge against Kizuna’s group who stopped his plans. Well, he is kind enough to show Filo at the core of his heart. She’ll be part of his flesh. Better get going and slay this dragon. However his defence is high and only because he is absorbing Naofumi’s shield abilities. Naofumi thinks of using his wrath shield and fail a power up to weaken him. Too bad Emperor Dragon saw that coming and seizes control of his wrath shield. He can do that?! Then his blast takes out everyone. Naofumi left standing. Can his puny shield protect the kids?

Episode 9
Saving them from certain death is Atla’s mysterious magic touch. This causes Emperor Dragon to miss and blast the water basin above, flooding our heroes out. As they camp for the night, Atla asks Wyndia if that is her father. Before you wonder how a scaly reptile can have a furry mammal as an offspring, here’s a short flashback. Apparently they’re not related by blood. But of course. Her real father was running away and left her in the care of this dragon who happened to be nearby. He died shortly after. Dragon knew nuts on how to raise a kid so I don’t know how Wyndia grew up normally. Unless she’s a genius but whatever. So you can see the awesome times Wyndia spent with her dragon dad. Then one day, she saw an upside down scale and tried to fix it but he went berserk. Hence she remembers that is the dragon’s weakness. Telling this to Naofumi, he hatches a teamwork plan to take Emperor Dragon down. When day breaks, everybody is in position to fight Emperor Dragon. Just when it all seems hopeless once more against the dragon’s might, here comes the white tiger siblings to turn the tables. Fohl breaking through its barrier and Atla once more using her magic touch to paralyze it. This allows Filo and Gaelion to be freed. Once rescued, Emperor Dragon tries to flee but everyone does a final teamwork combo to slay him for good. Sad for Wyndia to see her dad go this way but she thanks him for being her father. In the aftermath, Emperor Dragon’s essence gets absorbed into Naofumi’s shield as he warns him about wrath will always dwell in his heart. While the villagers are thankful, Naofumi chides them off as the ones at fault. Because they manipulated the dragon to steal his treasures so it was not Ren’s fault to begin with. Thus they got what they deserved. Ren apologizes to Wyndia and knows what he has done cannot be atoned. While she cannot forgive him, but she still thanks him for saving her twice. Naofumi learns Wyndia’s dad’s core got transferred into Gaelion so he is somewhat saved. He hopes Naofumi will keep this a secret since his daughter is learning to overcome his death. The rivalry between Filo and Gaelion continues. Chicken wants her stolen stats back. Not giving back, loser! Gaelion further infuriates her as he evolves into a larger dragon. Now he can give Naofumi rides. In the sky! Rides are no more exclusive to you, Filo!

Episode 10
We still need to remember Lecia’s problem. Yeah, being kicked out by Itsuki’s group because she is weak. Flashback reveals she was accused of breaking something belonging to Itsuki and her comrades saw it. However she claimed innocence. And just like that Itsuki kicked her out not because she was right or wrong, but rather she will be a burden to him. Naofumi needs Filo to level up and sends her away to train with Melty and Raph-chan. While Filo is more than happy, Melty is not. But she has no say about it and that’s that. This is all part of Naofumi’s plan to have Melty relax a bit since she has been working hard. Also with Melty’s absence, he wants Eclair to pick up the slack and continue Melty’s work. With Syne making some money from the underground arena, she also mentions of a participant who is an archer that goes by the name of Perfect Hidden Justice making his rounds. Well, that’s Itsuki, right? So as they head there to check it out, speak of the devil, Lecia spots Itsuki but he doesn’t respond. She tries to finally talk to him in his room but he mutters about people needing his help and that he needs to save others. Since he continues to ignore her, Naofumi wonders if that b*tch is behind this. Yeah, looks like it. Warning him about her lies, if he doesn’t believe, Ren is here to tell him first hand his experience on it. Too bad he still doesn’t believe. We see Itsuki fight like a barbarian as he remembers how everyone was disappointed in him after the Spirit Tortoise incident. They left him but after that b*tch believed in him, everyone came back to his side. That is why he is fighting for them who believes in him. Naofumi notes his weapon doesn’t activate like usual and gives off a bad feeling. Lecia wants Naofumi to let her fight Itsuki as a way to talk to him and thank him for saving her life. Berocas has an idea. Itsuki delivers all his winnings to his ex-comrades and that certain b*tch. They put up the fakest act that this is still not enough to save the slaves. Itsuki tells them he stumbled into Naofumi. But don’t worry, he doesn’t believe his lies and will make him understand. After Itsuki wins the next fight, he receives an invitation for a special fight. Now he comes face to face with Lecia and thinks this will be an easy win. But Lecia has different ideas. This time she is going to save him.

Episode 11
Itsuki believes everyone tricked and set him up for this fight. No worries, he’ll let his justice prevail. F*cker tries to shoot at Naofumi’s group but of course he deflects it. He then accuses Naofumi of all his evil doings. Basically a certain b*tch told him that Naofumi bought all the slaves to be worked to death on his land. As for one mother who lamented about her son could not be saved, that son was already dead. You’re not expecting a shield to revive the dead, huh? Naofumi calls him out for trying to paint him a bad person and to hide his failures from the Spirit Tortoise incident. Itsuki thinks he wants to change the subject so now Itsuki fires multiple shots. Naofumi blocks them but some of the crowd gets hit. Apparently now they become fans who worship Itsuki. Yeah, that bow given by a certain slut is just brainwashing people. It’s not justice. Lecia refuses to accept his justice and the person he is now. So they begin fighting and with Lecia having levelled up from her training, this surprises Itsuki. Always thought of her as weak, huh? Itsuki so confused now he is sprouting devil wings! Even after Lecia’s sword breaks, she will not accept a replacement since it goes against her justice. So how to fight? Sure, one way is not to give up. But without a weapon? Oh I don’t know but it feels like plot convenience because now she got some translucent weapon that can change shape. In short, Itsuki is defeated by her boomerang! As he lies in shock, flashback shows a young Itsuki wanted to become a hero of justice. Everyone praised him for his dream. Even mom was proud. So when he enrolled in some magic school, his stats were the lowest. A huge shock. Even for mom. Now Itsuki believes a certain someone still believes in him. Yeah, Bitch telling him how he cares about everyone more in this world. Such sweet words. No wonder he was taken in. As he rushes back to her place. Oh my, she’s gone. Just a letter. She has already spent all the money he earned and if he wants to see her again, defeat Naofumi. In the meantime, she has left him all the debts. Have fun repaying. Enough justice for today? Yeah, he can’t handle it and faints. No joke. He wakes up in Naofumi’s village with Lecia by his side. I don’t know if this is heart breaking or not as we see a patient Lecia nursing him like a crippled patient. Still in shock but she remains by his side.

Episode 12
Sadeena talks to Naofumi about what he thinks of Raphtalia. She is trying to say that if he wants to marry her, he’ll have to watch out whenever Sadeena is around. Disappointing or not, Naofumi only views Raphtalia as his daughter. When Elhart visits the village, he brings some goodies. Among them is an outfit for Raphtalia. Naofumi insists she wears it. Raphtalia fans can droll over how pretty she looks in a miko outfit! But as she walks around in this village, suddenly a very alarmed Sadeena tells her to take it off now! But it might be too late because suddenly a house explodes! OMFG, who the f*ck these furry ninja assassins?! Sadeena claims such miko outfit means a declaration for the throne in a certain country. As everyone fights the ninjas, it seems the heroes’ attacks have no effect on them. Raphtalia and Naofumi have to combine their magic and use the dragon veins to confuse them before they are dealt the final blow. But everyone has to run because the ninjas self-destruct! Must be the next level hara-kiri. In the aftermath, Sadeena explains the details. Apparently in a faraway country in the east known as Q’ten Lo, such outfit is only worn by the ruler. Others doing so means a declaration of war. Oh, did we mention Raphtalia is of royalty blood of Q’ten Lo? Flashback shows her father who was tired of all the political struggles, ran away with his wife here. Sadeena has always been protecting them and went with them. When the first Wave hit, Sadeena was away and by the time she returned, tragedy has already struck. What makes Naofumi mad is that Raphtalia has been watched since the day she was born. In that case they should have known she was never interested in the throne. This means they were using this excuse just to kill her and at other times, they watched her in trouble, hoping she got killed. Obviously Naofumi will not accept this. He will head to Q’ten Lo to talk to them. If they refuse, he will force them to submit. First he sees Mirelia and she will send some knights to his village for protection. As Melromarc has no official ties with Q’ten Lo, she can only advise the fastest route there. A ferry that departs from Siltvelt. Meanwhile Aultcray Trash speaks to Fohl and Atla and is glad they are okay. Because he still faults Naofumi, they correct him that it was Naofumi who saved them. He leaves when Naofumi is heard returning but knows they will meet again. Naofumi will fly to his destination with Gaelion and Wyndia. Once there, he will open a portal back here for the rest to come. He notes he has no time for this when the next Wave is coming. But if this is concerning his comrades, he will have to fight an entire country if forced to.

Lost & Found
Uhm, so this is how this season ends? Are they saying that we are going to have another side distraction instead of fighting the Wave if they ever make another season? It is most likely that as the ending hints that there might be another season although at this point of writing there is no announcement of it yet. But I’m betting that my guts say it will. I mean, can’t end the series at this point, right? So I guess even if we have to go on another detour for another season, then I’m afraid we must. It is the fate of the shield hero after all. So yeah, I’m waiting for the next announcement of double seasons like how they did for the second and third season simultaneously years ago. Season 4 at Q’ten Lo and season 5 back to fighting the phoenix. Oh yeah. Just wait for it. Oh well, what do you know? And they did! Though, season 4 looks like it is going to be a movie…

Sorry folks, but I seem to find this season a bit underwhelming compared to the previous season. It’s like taking a big detour before the next Wave hits. In a way, it felt like one filler filled season. However it is wrong for me to paint it so because this tour isn’t actually meaningless. Before the next Wave comes, this season is all about Naofumi rebuilding his side and gaining comrades to his fold. I believe we are going to need more than just the usual shield hero’s team in fighting the next Wave. Oh you know, Raphtalia, Filo and Lecia being the only party members that Naofumi could count on. Therefore to add some more firepower and arsenal (and variety for the fights), this season is all about Naofumi gathering and amassing more party members like Sadeena to even Rat (who can’t really fight but at least could provide some useful research material and info).

The other important part of this season is the redemption of the other (lost) heroes. Before we can paint them as being dicks who just go off and do what they like at their own pace, this season will put an end to all the heroes acting solo and by themselves and to be united, strangely under the guidance of Naofumi. It is with mixed feelings to see those heroes fallen from grace and now karma being a b*tch serving them the just desserts they deserve after what they did to Naofumi in the first season or at least the way they mistreated and disrespect him just because of the kind of weapon he wields. It is good to see them back together again but at this point I am guessing and highly doubt that they will surpass Naofumi. What is the name of this series again? This means I am predicting that they will mostly be lackeys to Naofumi. If that is too strong a word for you fans out there, let’s just say that they will be playing more of a supporting and assisting role while Naofumi is the one calling the shots. I mean, he has the right and credentials after all that we have seen, right?

Among all the heroes, Ren struck me as the most surprising one. I didn’t expect him to have this insecure personality because I have always think that he was that selfish and taciturn swordsman. So it was a great surprise to see him fallen like that to a point where I just couldn’t believe it was that Ren I thought I knew. He was like a totally different character. Because for Motoyasu’s case, we all know this guy is an idiot. So even when he found his salvation in Naofumi, he still remained somewhat of an idiot! Hence this spear hero’s character did not come off as surprising as Ren. Though, still a creepy weirdo. Now that Ren has repented and atoned his ways, it looks like he is very more subdued and subservient to Naofumi. You know what they say, once bitten twice shy. Ren feels a lot like that and despite of this change, at least it is still way better before he got screwed.

But now that Ren is staying at Naofumi’s domain, I wonder why and where Motoyasu is. Uhm, shouldn’t he be also at Naofumi’s village? Oh right. Don’t want to be annoyed by the constant harassment of Filo! Imagine every day you hear the chicken screaming and running away from her stalker! YIKES!!! Thus I don’t know where Motoyasu is during all that time but yeah, at least it gives us a peace of mind as long as this idiot doesn’t his face. Finally there is Itsuki. Another broken soul who has been saved mainly by Naofumi (and Lecia). From the looks of it, it is going to take a while for him to get out from his shocked state. He’s like a vegetable now. So far he is recovering well and now as docile as Ren ever since. Is this how heroes act when they recover from betrayal? Oh right, Motoyasu still an idiot. Waiting for the day he calls Naofumi his real father… Yikes.

And of course the main antagonist behind all these troubles is Bitch/Slut. Yes, they actually want us to hate this scheming and cunning woman! They did a good job because we do. Don’t you wish this woman would just die! If this woman works as a scammer, she’ll be very successful! And scam indeed she played those heroes. Oh man, they really were taken for a ride. From our point of view, we might call the heroes to be stupid for falling for such obvious trickery and that they deserved getting betrayed in the end. However I can’t entirely blame them since they have been at their lowest after failing so badly at the Spirit Tortoise incident. Bitch/Slut being the perfect smooth operator took her chances and swoop in for the kill. Gotcha, losers. Sometimes I think she is blessing for those heroes because they have to learn the very hard way in order to realize what is right. Thanks to her, at least Naofumi do not have to worry about having the other heroes as his enemies and can put his focus in other more important things. But for Bitch/Slut, how she was able to break free from her restraint and her ulterior motives in doing all this, remains to be seen. At least the next time we have somebody we can truly pour our hate on! And what are the chances that she was the one who sent Elhart the miko outfit for Raphtalia! I bet on it 100% it was her doing! After all, we saw her riding a ferry across the city. Wanna guess where she was heading to?

After 3 seasons, it seems that my perception of Naofumi as being distrustful has waned a lot. Because otherwise he wouldn’t have been taking in so many new people into his domain. Yes, he is still sceptical but I can see that he is more open to trusting others. It’s a good way for him to move on otherwise he will be no different than the rest of the other heroes if he had clung on to his past. We are reminded that he can still get angry whenever it involves his comrades. Don’t try to take make a move on them because he’ll f*cking make you regret it. Raphtalia continues to support him although I feel not as prominent as before due to the influx of new characters. Of course that is before the final episode revelation that she is some faraway country’s royalty. The much needed emphasis to throw Raphtalia back into the spotlight. Next season we expect to see more of her, right?

And Filo, why do I have a feeling this chicken is going to be in distress in every season? Last season whereby she was sold in auction was distressing enough. Now we have to see her being the target of idiot Motoyasu and also becoming the core of that dragon. Is it so fun to torment a filolial? Lecia still feels like a she is insecure although last season she proved herself when it matters. But this time it bears fruition as it is her turn to return the favour and save Itsuki. Maybe it’s her character but I can’t say I dislike her. Melty at least has some dialogue this season but I don’t find her making any impact and was almost forgettable. Last season Mirelia had her fair share of screen time and now she’s back in the background. As for Eclair, I wonder if the reason she gets more screen time is because she is paired up with Ren so as to train him. Uhm, I don’t know about you but I feel that they’re trying to come up with some romance between the two.

The new characters are pretty okay but I suppose more time is needed to flesh them out. For instance, the white tiger siblings feel a lot negligible after Naofumi buys them. After all, Fohl continues to train and train while Atla could be the dangerous one. Oh you know, she doesn’t bat an eyelid into doing adult stuffs with Naofumi, if I should go so far as to say that. Oh Raphtalia, you’ve got a rival in this context. So better keep your eyes peeled (pun not intended) for this little white tiger girl because who knows when she’ll snatch Naofumi from under your noses. Considering her character, it’s not possible. And then we have Sadeena to add more offensive firepower to the group but for now it seems she is playing the nanny and taking care of the many young ones at Naofumi’s domain. As mentioned about Rat, she provides science! Period. Then there is the strange entry known as Syne. She’s like the most unwelcomed member in Naofumi’s group. Always tagging along and trying to prove herself, hoping Naofumi’s goodwill will accept her. She looks pitiful enough of wanting to just be accepted. There are a lot of mysteries surrounding her origins (especially her strange way of talking because some words are censored by interference) and for all we know, she could be like another Kizuna.

Speaking of Kizuna, I guess with last season solving her world’s problems, she won’t be appearing anymore alongside L’Arc, Therese and Glass? Because of that, this is the reason why Raph-chan became the pet mascot and hangs around Naofumi. Like as though a memento and keepsake that they were real. Going to Kizuna’s world was not a dream. Yeah, losing Ost wasn’t a dream either. And so with this little critter, it’s like a reminder of last season’s fling. Speaking of pet mascot, looks like now we have Gaelion who is going to be another pain in the ass in terms of rivalry for Filo. Yeah, this loli sure has a lot on her plate. Motoyasu’s harassment and now a Pokemon reject going to steal Naofumi’s attention. Oh well, competition is healthy. I hope.

Action scenes are still decent but I have to admit even at this point I am still lost at what kind of shield gives what kind of powers or abilities. Uhm, what does the meteor shield do again? I am so ashamed. Yeah, there’s a bunch of them in Naofumi’s arsenal. But I noticed that Naofumi didn’t very much go into his cursed mode and even so, just once against the Emperor Dragon. Shows that there weren’t formidable enemies enough to make him go all out like that. In a way it is good because would you rather see him get mad and pay the price from using such cursed skills or using others that are more powerful and surpassing the need for such quick fix? I’ve got a feeling the beasts attacking this world are of the 4 heavenly beings. Oh you know, the tortoise, phoenix, tiger and dragon. My guess the Emperor Dragon here only serves as a warm up and this beast will be the ultimate and toughest final Wave our heroes will have to face yet. But that’s for another time. Assuming I am correct. On a trivial note, seeing others like to hit on Naofumi’s village, I feel this is going to be some sort of running joke as some houses get destroyed and it looks like some parts will always eternally be in state of repairs. Oh well, at least it keeps those kids busy.

Art and animation are still consistent and this time I didn’t notice much downgrade during the fight scenes. But still the use of CGI especially on the Emperor Dragon. Yeah, last season’s CGI on the Spirit Tortoise was weird. However the fight with the Emperor Dragon in the cave was dark so in a way, it cleverly hides the CGI flaws. But still looking weird if you ask me. Especially Gaelion who is mostly animated in CGI but thankfully doesn’t break the series as a whole.

New seiyuus this season include Ami Koshimizu as Sadeena, Konomi Kohara as Atla (Chika in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Kouhei Amasaki as Fohl (Kirill in Double Decker! Doug & Kirill), Hana Hishikawa as Wyndia (Yui in Delicious Party Precure), Satsuki Kokubu as Rat and Maria Naganawa as Syne (Kanna in Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon). Once again, Madkid sings this season’s opener, Sin. Can’t say I like this rock and hip hop infused with dubstep music, which somewhat feels like a downgrade from last season’s opener because that rock music somewhat reminds me and fits to be a spinoff BGM for the retro hit first person shooter game, Doom! Serious! Chiai Fujikawa who sang last season’s ending theme is also retained for this season’s ending song, Suki Ni Natte Wa Ikenai Riyuu. Is it me or does this rock song has similar vibes to last season? But if you want something cute, special ending for episode 4 has Filo singing the idol-like Kirakira Kyu that will definitely make your heart go ~kyun if you are a lolicon and chicken lover. Heh.

Overall, I can’t say that I am totally impressed with this season because it feels like a detour and a season to see how Naofumi gathers up his comrades for the next big fight. Yeah, if they suddenly jumped into fighting the phoenix, I’ll be b*tching why they skipped a lot of material and get confused! After all there are still a lot of intriguing mysteries in this world like that Faubrey legend especially some hints about that fallen king, Aultcray Trash. Then there are those vassal weapons that adds to more interested. Oh, what’s this I found on the internet about a sewing kit vassal weapon???!!! Not surprising as we had a fishing rod for Kizuna the last time. I hope there’s none in the form of a dildo. WTF did I just say???!!! Hey, at least I didn’t let all the anger from last season built up. Was I even angry then? Nah. A major improvement in handling my emotions better? Nah. I was pointing my disappointment at other disappointing animes of the season. You got lucky this time, Shield Hero S3!

Saihate No Paladin S2

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait for years for the sequel. I’m talking about Saihate No Paladin S2 and it’s only about a couple years since the first season aired. The Faraway Sequel wasn’t so far after all. Heh. Sorry, bad pun. While it seems that the light novel source is still somewhat on hiatus, we were promised at least the sequel for the anime and thankfully they didn’t botch on that. While cancelled productions in anime are very rare and don’t happen often, there’s always that chance. But enough of silly unfounded worries, we’re glad we get to see Will continuing to spread Gracefeel’s faith and keeping his promises to his dead undead parents-cum-guardians. Stepping out from their shadows and becoming a man of his own.

Episode 1
Will happily explains to Menel about a few important documents he has got. He has turned this place into a trading port to diversify its portfolio. Because if they cut down all the lumber and sell it to Whitesails, they’ll run out in no time. Menel notes he thinks like an elf but unlike himself, he just wants to be happy today seeing the world can end tomorrow. Many feel the same as him. Later Bee wants Will to accompany her to the academy as there is something she wants to see. But as they approach the front, there seems to be lots of curses and warnings for those who intend to sneak in. Will of course will try the front door to show their true intentions. As they continue, it seems the forest is playing tricks on them in getting lost. They then stumble into an old groundskeeper and they keep him company with their conversation. He is interested to see Will’s power but as Will noted, he cannot use it for sport and thus he hopes he’ll understand why he cannot use it. Will is then tasked to gather firewood. Instead of using his magic, he uses his common sense and science to make them dry to light more fire. Then they talk about magic and Bee’s earnest reply about Will who put himself before others has the groundskeeper reveal his true form. He is Hiram and one of the professors of the academy. He will take responsibility to let them into the academy that is only otherwise restricted to only sorcerers. He takes them to the library where Bee continues to look for the book she wants. Will notices she is looking through records of the academy’s graduates and local historical records. After they leave, Bee tells Will why she was looking for such books. Before she became a minstrel, she was travelling with someone she ended up by chance. She was a beautiful and amazing sorcerer who helped others and was not really that well known. But after they parted shortly, she died in a fight against spectres. Bee is sad but accepted the decisions she made. That’s why she doesn’t want her forgotten and wanted to write a song on her. That is why she also sings so that people will know the existence of others. Will notes she isn’t the kind to settle in one place for long and will move on. But even when she leaves, she’ll eventually come back. Even if one day he dies in a battle somewhere.

Episode 2
Will and Menel fighting their way through monsters in a wilted forest until they arrive to battle General Cernunnos. It all happened a few days ago when Ethel tasked them to find out what’s happening. The duo learnt that this ancient forest is governed by 2 lords known as Oak and Holly. Some transfer of royal authority was supposed to happened but have stalled. So when they go to ask Oak why he didn’t do the transfer, he said it was Holly who refused to accept or rather communications with him have been severed. This transfer must happen or else the forest will collapse. Menel then suggested to transfer the authority to him in which Oak rejected because his body might not last for a month. Menel claimed it is enough time and he is bent on doing this to atone his sins. So Will waited for Menel as he entered deeper into the forest for his trial until he emerged victorious. Now the duo easily defeats Cernunnos as they transfer the authority to Holly who then restores the forest to its normal beauty. Holly thanks them but also warns Menel that his body is now suitable to be the next vessel and will turn into one. It seems he cannot refuse although the process will take hundreds of years. Holly also warns about the Rust Mountains in the west have turned red and that some Fire of Black Calamity will break out. Fire will break out everywhere and demons will invade as well as the Lord of Hellfire and Miasma. Will and Menel return to report to Ethel and Bagley. Noting now the Rust Mountains which was once the dwarves’ capital is now a nest of demons, they have to treat this with high priority. Will is glad since this means he can go all out fighting. Later as Will talks to Bee, she tells him what she knows about Rust Mountains. Once known as Iron Country where dwarves lived, it was lost 200 years ago due to an uprising to stop the demons’ advancement. Despite the gallant efforts. Many lives were lost. The demons took over and over time it became known as Rust Mountains. Survivors who fled do not want to tell of the horror and thus even in songs there is not much info of what happened. As Menel leads Will through the forest shortcut back to Torch Port, they talk about Will’s mortality seeing as a human, he doesn’t have long to live compared to even a half-elf. This means everything needs to be settled while Will is still alive since he wants to see all his accomplishments and will continue to fight by his side.

Episode 3
As Will ponders about the state of the immigrants, Tonio suggests he talk to Agnarr, the leader of the immigrants. Flashback shows Gus and Blood teaching Will about the different spirits. Combined with certain elements and that was how the races of elves and dwarves were born. As Will and Menel train, they catch Ru peeking on them. Menel accidentally scares him off. Will then goes to see Agnarr who introduces him to his grand uncle, Grendir who is one of the last survivor of Iron Mountain. It seems Grendir wants to die in his homeland just like many of his immigrants. As Will agrees to assist in any way he can, Grendir tells of his country’s history. This includes until the day their last king, Aurvangr was visited by an emissary of High King and told to pledge their allegiance to him. His answer was to slay that demon and thus the final warning that a dragon will come wipe out his country. Aurvangr gathered all his capable warriors, knowing they will all die in this battle but they will not let their country die. The rest is history. Those who didn’t fight could only regret and lament they only followed their king’s orders to escape. Thus Grendir hopes to fulfil his king’s wishes one day. On his way back, Will stops a fight between Ru and a couple of drunk men. The men immediately flee upon realizing who Will is. Will has Ru accompany him as they talk. As an immigrant who just arrived, he was just exploring around. He however feels guilty that unlike the rest of his clan, he isn’t doing anything busy. Will assures him as he has already spoken to Agnarr and suggests Ru become his thane. Unsure at first, Ru agrees so as to learn from him. When they return to his clan, everyone is worried sick about him. Ghelreis learns about Will wanting to make Ru his thane and this has everyone in shock because it is dangerous for a thane has to accompany the paladin master on beast hunts. They tell him to reconsider but he shrugs it off that he needs to prove himself as a dwarf. With Will making it official right now, Ghelreis considers Ru a dead man to him. What he means is that Ru now cannot place his own life higher than his master and must risk it all without hesitation to protect him. He will explain all this to Grendir. He leaves Ru in Will’s care.

Episode 4
Will wants to pay Ru to show that he values his loyalty. He also starts to train Ru and has Menel as his assistant. Looks like Ru has got lots of room for improvement and keep this up, he’ll be in shape in no time. Ru then tells Will about his background. Because of his noble background, he was shielded by his clan. Therefore he became weak and cowardly. For a long time he wondered if this was the right thing until he heard a song about Will and wanted to be like him. Now he is serving him and he couldn’t be happier of his dream coming true. Then talking about courage, Will says he can kill wyverns and chimeras using his training moves. He is not scared of them. Thus it is not courage. What is true courage? He too himself is unsure. Reystov returns and meets Ru for the first time. He gives him some tips on his posture to look confident. Of course Will also wants him to help train Ru. He asks Reystov the meaning of courage. He replies if that is his thinking, he cannot find the answer. Don’t tell me he too doesn’t know!!! Soon Anna reports to Will about sightings of the undead. Will goes to handle it but has Ru accompany him. As they trek through the place, they stumble into a grave keeper statue. It is believed to be erected to keep thieves out since many loved ones are rested here. They make their prayers before continuing their investigation. As Ru is stumped there are no undead here, Will explains these people received proper burial and hence cannot turn into the undead. He also notes how Stagnate as the god of death was overly kind with the undead. Because of that, it brought lots of inconvenience to the living. Will knows better since he fought that bugger first hand. Then they stumble into a small cave and head deeper. Once they reach some inner chamber, they feel an evil presence. This shadow recognizes Will and he too recognizes this evil as Stagnate.

Episode 5
Stagnate is not here to fight them as he knows he cannot win. He is also here not as an Echo but a Herald (messenger). He shows Will his revelation that brings the latter agonizing on his knees. It seems the vision is that Will will be defeated and die while fighting in vain the dragon, Valacirca. If he doesn’t believe it, feel free to consult Gracefeel. Stagnate is telling him this because he loves humans and especially heroes. It’ll be a pity to see him dead. He further adds before he turned to the evil side, he met Valacirca once. He fought for no beliefs but for victory and plunder. Narrating more about his deeds especially he was hired by demons as a mercenary 200 years ago, Valacirca was deeply wounded in that battle and fell into slumber. He confirms to Ru that Aurvangr was a true hero. He managed to take an eye from the dragon before his demise. This makes Ru emotional as his ancestors’ heroics were true. When a roar is heard, Stagnate warns the dragon’s roar will cause chaos. On their way back, they have to fight many monsters who have fallen or gone berserk by that roar. They even have to face a gentle giant of the forest who is now on a rampage. But Will won’t kill him and instead wrestles him down before healing him to free his mind. Gangr is grateful for Will’s help and will heed his warning to try and bring his clan to safety. Stagnate reminds Will that he got lucky this time. If another roar breaks out, doing such will not suffice. With chaos breaking out everywhere, Will and his pals quickly help to wounded and send adventurers to fight off the monsters. He notes at this rate if the dragon awakens now, all the cities will be destroyed.

As he is so deep in his thought for Gracefeel’s guidance, he didn’t notice the commotion outside until now. It seems Ru is trying to stop his fellow dwarves from confronting Will. They think he is going to slay the dragon so they want to go with him and die with their ancestors. He tells them not to panic but they won’t listen. Ru wrestles them down. Not a single one can defeat him. Even if Grendir argues they want to continue the battle to die with their king, Ru explains the flaws in that thinking. They are so bent on dying, they are not thinking of winning. Their ancestors died for the sake of winning as he promises Will will make his decision and when he does, he will be by his side. He swears by their king’s name as he also reveals he is his grandson, Vindalfr. Will now steps out and commends Ru. He tells everyone he is going to slay the dragon and hopes Vindalfr will fight by his side. He wants a guide there so Ghelreis offers himself instead of Grendir since he is needed to unite the people. The others joining him are Menel and Reystov. Is he sure this few people can win? Well, he too isn’t sure but he knows numbers are not going to defeat Valacirca. Bee is happy to write a new song on Will (hopefully it won’t be a tragedy) while Tonio has prepared all the supplies he needs. That night, Will dreams and meets Gracefeel who doesn’t want him to die. However Will is still bent on going to fight Valacirca to fulfil his promise to her. With that, she accepts and blesses him.

Episode 6
Our heroes set sail to their destination. Halfway, they switch places with Marcus and his men. This is part of Will’s plan to use them as the decoy. Because demons will be waiting for them at the front door, Will’s side will be barging in via backdoor. The gang realizes they need to past through a certain place and that is when Will points out it is where he once lived, shocking them. So yes, Will is going to visit home for a while as he disperses the foggy maze. Welcome home. After paying his respects to Blood and Mary’s grave, he goes to see Gus who gives him a scare because well, why not. I’m sure Gus is fine because the first thing he is asks is if Will is making money! You bet he is. And not as a child of some noble widow. He is the lord of his own town, mind you! Gus learns of Will’s plan and isn’t too happy. Especially when Valacirca is hired by the gods, it means Will could’ve solved this via money or offerings rather than this narrow minded thinking. Gus then meets his friends and Ghelreis knows Gus because he was one of the few fleeing dwarven soldiers whom he saved 200 years ago. Later Will asks Gus more about Valacirca. It is best to go for his old wounds because dragon scales are tough as f*ck. Because of their ancient words, they can fly fast despite their enormous size. This means in a magic battle, you will lose. Don’t even mention close combat. Gus laments Will is going to die fighting the dragon but Will is determined to fight this because he has no way to bargain with a dragon. If left alone, the dragon will cause more chaos. As for running away, apparently there is a difference between being alive and not being dead. Gus has everyone look through a secret armoury and select any weapon they want. These are all the equipment of fallen heroes who gave their lives against High King. For the weapons they choose, Gus knows the story and the wielder behind it. Will hopes to come back here with Bee once this is done so get ready all your stories grandpa Gus. Too bad, Bee isn’t Will’s girlfriend. So much about a grandkid.

Episode 7
Will gives Vindalfr his father’s dagger and believes he will put it to good use. As they stay for the night, Will visits Blood and Mary’s grave. Gus is also here to talk to him. It seems Will is leaving tomorrow morning. Once more, Gus knows Will and his friends will die seeing they are not strong enough to even be an obstacle to Valacirca. But Will would rather fight than run away seeing if he threw everything to survive, it means he wasn’t dead. After all, they have all come here knowing the risk but also didn’t come here to die. Gus is sad he can’t help them but for Will, his thoughts are more than enough. As they continue their boat ride the next day, they talk about an elven forest next to Iron Country called Lothdor. Ghelreis could remember some of the feuds between elves and dwarves. Mostly a love-hate relationship. During the Great Collapse, they secluded themselves and resisted. When they enter the area, it seems everything has rotted away. Menel and Will could tell taboo words were used by immoral demons to cause so. They have to fight serpents, enough to get away since they don’t want to attract demons with prolonged fighting. However with the change in terrain and the whole forest submerged in water, you could say they are lost. Then zombie hands pop out from the water. Will can tell they are not enemies. He knows they are in pain and says some words of comfort to ease them. Then an elven spirit seems to guide them to where they need to go. Menel then makes haste because elves’ sense of time is different AKA bad. Soon could mean a whole year or something. They hear a scream and it seems up ahead an elven lady has been attacked by a hydra. Will and co go subdue it. However the elven lady is deeply poisoned and refuses Will’s healing. She wants them to save her people in the north but Menel tells her to accept Will’s miracle first.

Episode 8
While Dinelind AKA Dine is grateful to Will for saving her life, she isn’t pleased with Menel since he is rude according to elf standards. They soon learn that the reason Dine is out here is because the elves have this pride not to abandon the sick and weak. Hence she voluntarily went on a journey to save resources for them. As she guides them to the village, the dragon’s miasma gets thicker. She explains despite the dragon is up at the mountain, it seeps through the tunnels that the dwarves made. Of course she doesn’t blame them. Arriving at Lothdor, they see many elves sick and weakened. Will goes see the chief in which he heals his coughing. He is willing to heal the rest. It might take a toll on his vitality but a few hundred is nothing to him. After he is done and resting, Stagnate comes to visit him to warn him this is his last chance to turn back. Any further attempts will have him killed. Fleeing now is not cowardice as he wants him to build up strength. Although his comrades and many others will die, their deaths will bring more followers to Gracefeel. Obviously Will declines and Stagnate is stumped that by being stubborn even more will die in the future. Will reasons that the moment he accepts his proposal, his promise and faith will be broken since he is a weak man. He knows this is all part of Stagnate’s plan to lure him to his side. Stagnate admits to that and wants him to be his right hand man. Together they will conquer the world by slaying the dragon, heroes and all the gods. Will smiles and once again declines. He will always be Stagnate’s enemy because he respects him. All Stagnate can do is say goodbye to his foolish enemy. Next day, Will sees Menel and Dine arguing. No, it’s not a lover’s quarrel. Long story short, Menel wants to heal the lord of the forest. Dine disagrees since it is too dangerous and the land is demon beast territory. She is not going to ask them to fight another battle. Will being Will, he wants to do it and gathers his men. Dine gives up arguing and gathers a few of hers to guide them. After doing so, he has the elves guide them to the entrance of Iron Mountain. He doesn’t want them to fight with them as they are weak and will only get in the way. It is humiliating but Dine accepts this reality. After opening the gate, a terrifying aura brings them to their knees. Will’s prayer saves them and it seems Valacirca has already noticed their arrival. Our brave men venture forth as Dine prays for their success and promises to repay their debt.

Episode 9
Walking through the miasmic filled pathways, they find it strange that no demons have attacked them. Then when they enter the hall, they see undead soldiers. Actually they are dwarven warriors all reduced to bones and skeletons. They think the war is still ongoing and look forward to fight. Vindalfr sadly breaks the bad news to them that their king has died and he is his grandson. They find it hard to believe that Iron Country has fallen but Vindalfr gives a rousing speech that promises to take back their land. That is why he wants them to rest. They have done more than enough. Just like that, they cross over to the other side. As they proceed, demons start to attack. These small fries are nothing until they reach the throne room. Sitting there is a demon general, Scarabaeus. Vindalfr wants to fight him since this is his fight. While Will agrees, Menel thinks the opposite. However they have no option of helping him since Scarabaeus sends his demon minions to keep them busy. A little bit of drama as Vindalfr gets owned at first. Then he powers up and kills the bug mother. Don’t celebrate too early yet as they have to clean up and fight the remaining demons. Once that is done and take a little breather, they realize Scarabaeus’ body is gone. Strange, he has been decapitated and doesn’t disappear into dust. They continue their journey, reaching the cavern. They see Scarabaeus’ body trying to seek help but then he gets squished like a bug by the dragon’s paw. Hello everyone. That’s right. It’s Valacirca in the flesh. Or scales rather.

Episode 10
Valacirca seeks their name but all are left paralyzed in fear. Will then remembers Mary’s teaching of acceptance so he calms down and tells the dragon to introduce himself first. After Valacirca does so, Will answers his question. Valacirca is nostalgic over those names because had they called him first before the demons, they would’ve been fighting on the same side. Will is shocked when Valacirca asks if he wants to make him his servant. Since they have defeated those demons, it proves that they are strong. He doesn’t want to fight strong warriors as it would be inconvenient to him. Of course he too has his ulterior motives and will seek proper compensation for being his servant. Will accuses him that if that happens, in a few years he will change loyalties and destroy everything again. Valacirca admits to that but even so, is this not a good deal? Why does he want to fight him? Show that he has it to control him. Now choose between peace or death. Wow, Will is so confused that he is asphyxiating hard. Someone help? Then he remembers Gracefeel and has been saved by her. He calms down and throws the choice back to him. Will will not choose but rather Valacirca. Will he mend his ways or not? Knowing that the peace is only limited between them, hence the only option is to change. By doing so, Will promises to protect him from all those who are hostile to him as long as he lives. Valacirca congratulates him for answering the dragon’s riddle. He is not a reckless boy trying to show off his strength or a selfish one trying to protect his own life. He acknowledges Will the same as the heroes of the old. However he refuses to change. Because what is a dragon without wars, deaths, disasters, treasures, heroes, etc. And so the fight begins. Will manages to cut through the tough dragon scales albeit it is not enough to bring the giant beast down. With magnificent teamwork from the rest, Will binds Valacirca and then recites the deadliest spell of Gus to absorb Valacirca into some black hole. So… Uhm… Is it over? Wow. This victory sure feels unsatisfying. As Will feels uncertain, he realizes the battle is not over when he feels a gush of wind coming in. Too late, Valacirca is back as the wind blows everyone back. Will realizes Valacirca uses words to transform. Come to think of it, how could something this huge enter this underground country? Will is left stunned as he further realizes this dragon has fought every kind of words in battle and won.

Episode 11
Valacirca offers Will to serve him. Refuse and he will burn his comrades to ashes. But knowing Will, he won’t and thus Valacirca offers him another solution without fighting him: Kill himself. Obviously Will will not take that option either. He will continue fighting him as all of them know the risks when undertaking this mission. Will is going to hit him millions of times till he dies. So that’s the plan? The fight resumes. Will manages to stab his old wound once but his spear breaks. Now he uses Overeater but apparently Valacirca knows how to deal with it too. The dragon blasts directly at him but only thanks to a Herald sent by Gracefeel keeps Will safe. Valacirca could’ve landed the finishing blow only to be interrupted by Stagnate. After seeing this valiant fight, Stagnate couldn’t help intervene because surely he wants to fight Will and will not let him die before that. For this crazy reason, he is more than ready to get involved. Valacirca is impressed he has 2 gods fighting by his side. However Stagnate will not give Will any protection since they are deemed enemies. However because this is Iron Country, he summons the dead souls of the fallen dwarves. As they surround the dragon, Will’s comrades return. Thankfully, they’re not dead or ghosts. The spirit of Aurvangr faces them as he gives Will his sword, Calldawn. But some souls are burning up from Valacirca’s flames and this will reduce them into nothingness and never be reborn again. This is when Gracefeel uses her blessing to bless them and then transfer them into our living warriors. Aurvangr leaves his last message to Vindalfr to take care of their people. Now they return to face Valacirca who has been kindly waiting for them to settle their business. Only because he wants them to be filled with hope and then he will crush it all and see them fall in despair. Will readies himself to kill Valacirca and keep his promise to Gracefeel.

Episode 12
The final assault begins as all sides go all out. When Valacirca breathes his miasmic gas, Will thought it is over and it will be fine if he dies alongside the dragon. However Gracefeel tells him not to give up so Will gets back up and stabs Valacirca with Calldawn. In the aftermath, Will wakes up with his comrades relieved that he is okay. The huge dragon corpse lying nearby. Good thing the dragon is not playing dead! They give thanks to the dwarven soldiers before they cross over. Will realizes his body feels different. He can crush a rock easily? Stagnate explains the dragon’s breathe has tempered with his body and now Valacirca’s blood is also flowing inside him. In short, Valacirca’s life is now intertwined with his soul. Although he is very powerful now and mere swords cannot hurt him, he must take great care to not let pride to his head or the beast will take control. Stagnate can’t be happier when Will feels indebted to him because this is way better than forcing him to submission. Gracefeel offers Stagnate to give up his ways and join her. However Stagnate will not. Stagnate further hints he wants to seduce Will’s child and wonders if he creates a female Echo, will Will create a child with that? This makes Gracefeel very angry although Stagnate notes about Rhea Silvia who creates demigod children with heroes all the time. Before Stagnate dissipates, we see the true original female form for a short while.

Now that Valacirca is slain, Gracefeel will grant any wish. Vindalfr wants the land purified from miasma. With others agreeing, Gracefeel uses her blessing to purify the mountains even as far as Lothdor. When they exit, Dine is very relieved to see they have survived. The elves are now out to play as they celebrate. Our heroes give some of the dragon’s treasures to them as Vindalfr hopes to rebuild their countries to its former prosperity. Menel will also try to seek help from his village so Dine will go with him. Stopping by the city of the dead, Gus is shocked to see all alive. Yeah, he really expected them dead, huh? Of course he notices the strange mana flow in Will and notes it is a curse but Will accepts this fate. After Will prays at the graves, Gus allows Vindalfr to keep the weapons. It is the best honour for his fallen comrades. As for Calldawn, Vindalfr says Will can keep it since Aurvangr has chosen him to wield it. Finally they return home as everyone hears the good news that Valacirca is slain. Here are some dragon scales and horn as proof! Tomorrow we celebrate this victory! Yahoo! Bee gonna be busy writing songs. One day, a couple of young adventurers want to do a dangerous job. Will advises them to take a suitable quest as well as giving them a special dagger. Never hold back in spending money on good equipment. Would you care to hear the story behind it? Sit back because it’s a long story…

Good Will’s Hunting
I am guessing that with Valacirca’s life force now inhibiting inside Will, this will avoid the gods and the likes in calling forth this creature again. After all, it is safe to say that now Will is in control of the dragon, do you not think so? This means Will can pull off some really dragon-like moves and powers in the future if he ever faces off with greater and more formidable foes. Like say, Stagnate? You bet they will cross paths again since there are unfinished business between them. But that is for another story in the future for another time. The Faraway Sequel joke doesn’t seem funny now…

Obviously this season adapts the entire chapter of the Lord of the Rust Mountains volume. Some may find it draggy as the whole seasons builds up from the meeting of the dwarves and their plight to take back Rust Mountains FKA Iron Country from a certain terrifying dragon. It’s a great season if you are into character and world building that takes time and the entire season to flesh out rather than just a few episodes. As pointed out in my opening paragraph, the light novel is still somewhat on hiatus so it is only right this next chapter also gets its full development like those adapted in last season.

This is just one of the many adventures that Will will face in the future and therefore this season serves to prove Will’s credentials as he matures and develops his own reputation ever since departing from the city of the dead and turning into an independent man. He is still far from being perfect but as I can see and remember, he has greatly improved from the person I know from last season. While it may seem a bit unrealistic that Will has levelled up considerably in the span of a few short years, but I have to remember that he has the blessings of Gracefeel and of course his dead parents-cum-guardians. And of course not forgetting Will’s stubborn iron will (pun intended) and some would call it stubbornness. Or should I say perseverance? It is what sees him through such tough life or death moments even though it may paint him as reckless. Despite all overwhelming odds that are stacked against him, Will is willing to die for his beliefs and that is what sets him apart from a lot of heroes and main characters. I bet at this point you have even forgotten that this is an isekai series and Will came from another world, right?!

Unfortunately, I just don’t feel the impact of the other characters especially those who travelled with Will to face Valacirca. Like Menel and Reystov, personally I just felt they were Will’s lackeys even though I know better that they aren’t. They just play mostly supporting roles to assist Will in his quest and fight. That’s most probably it about them for this season. My guess is that they don’t want to take away the focus on building Will’s character. Remember, what is the name of this series again? I don’t blame you if they feel underwhelming but this doesn’t mean that they are pushovers. Other characters from last season also felt minimal like Tonio and Bee who appeared only in the initial episodes but this is understandable. Can’t bring a merchant and a troubadour to a battle, right? The same can be said for Ethel and Bagley. What can a king and priest provide more in a fight?

New characters introduced like Vindalfr, somehow I also don’t feel quite the impact I expected his character to be. I’m not saying it is bad but considering this arc is about the dwarves trying to get back their homeland, I have come to expect Vindalfr to play a more significant role if not one that is of the same level as Will. Obviously Vindalfr at the start has lots of self-confidence issues as being a somewhat sheltered dwarven royalty, he also shoulders this guilt and responsibility of not doing enough for his people. Meeting Will helped restored some of that and under his guidance, Vindalfr is on track to become to new beacon of hope for his people.

In order for Will to overcome his current self, he needs a formidable foe. Valacirca is that right tonic and test to see if Will has got what it takes. There is a reason why the gods even fear this dragon and as I have seen, Valacirca is indeed as tenacious as he is terrifying as he is described to be. Unlike one-dimensional villains, Valacirca stays true to what he believes and wants. Even surprising us with some options like becoming Will’s servant. When you pit 2 stubborn characters together, you go nowhere. Thus this also seemed like a battle of who is more stubborn!

You know Will is such a great guy that even Stagnate himself (oh, so I see he was originally female as pointed out?) wants Will for himself. To a point that a former enemy would somewhat assist Will to help him vanquish a great foe. So can I consider Stagnate to be Will’s frenemy? It makes them strange bedfellows in this sense. Imagine if Will defeats Valacirca with his own power, this increases Will’s value from all sides. It is no doubt why Stagnate wants Will so badly. There is a possibility that other gods too may want him. Is there a rule that a person or at least a great hero can have the blessing of more than 1 god? I don’t know but for now, Gracefeel is going to have a rival over Will’s faith. But knowing Will, he will keep his promise to her. Unless Stagnate could offer something way better. What are the chances? As long as the possibility isn’t zero.

The action scenes are satisfactory. Might not have the most exhilarating fights since this isn’t supposed to be an action battle genre to begin with. The final fight with Valacirca understandably took a few episodes. But it’s not fighting all the way and there’s some intriguing dialogue. But yeah, I guess formidable enemies need to have their fights stretched out longer otherwise as seen and trolled by Valacirca’s fast ‘defeat’, it would’ve felt unsatisfying. And if you’re laughing at how 5 puny people can fight a mighty dragon, always remember quality over quantity. Imagine the chaos if all the dwarves who are ready to die, actually get killed. Valacirca will have a field day taking lives because they’re all like ants to him. So it’s probably for the best. Better to live with shame (and let there be hope) rather than die with honour (and in vain because it changes nothing). And also it is hard to animate hundreds of dwarves in a scene. Yeah. Oh right. That undead army. See how messy and ‘claustrophobic’ the scene was? So Will’s party sometimes feels like a video game. Pick a small RPG party and let’s go slay the dragon boss!

Speaking of the art and animation, they maintain consistent and especially the use of some CGIs in certain scenes especially the action ones. It’s not that bad and they don’t look too out of place. Even those undead dwarven soldiers do have the CGI-esque feel but it doesn’t break the entire series as a whole. After all, I don’t know if it is today’s trend that new studios will take over the ones who did the previous season. Because this sequel is now jointly done by OLM and Sunrise Beyond as they have taken over from Children’s Playground Entertainment. Thankfully there are no obvious changes in the visual styles and the backgrounds and lush sceneries are sometimes good to look at.

One surprising thing is the addition of Shouya Chiba as Will’s voice (Ayanokouji in Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi No Kyoushitsu E). Last season, Will had a female seiyuu voicing him (Maki Kawase) and even in his grown up form, Will was still voiced by her. It took me by surprise now that Will sounds manly. I guess Will is now an adult and no more a teen and it would be more palatable and believable to have him sound mature rather than a girly voice. Yeah. Talk about puberty kicking in. Of course the other complete change in seiyuu is Stagnate. This season the character is entirely in female form, Rumi Ookubo (Chinatsu in YuruYuri) takes over that god of death.

No other changes or additions like Will and Stagnate for other characters. The new ones this season are Gou Shinomiya as Vindalfr (Mao in Jormungund), Kenichirou Matsuda as Ghelreis (Gordon in Black Clover), Nobutoshi Canna as Valacirca (Lancer in Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works), Sanae Kobayashi as Dine (Lucy in Elfen Lied), Jiro Saito as Grendir (Magath in Shingeki No Kyojin), Hiroshi Yanaka as Aurvangr (Otogi in Nanbaka) and Kazuya Ichijou as Hiram (Hot Eye in Fairy Tail). The opening theme is Meika by Nagi Yanagi (who also sang the ending theme for the first season). Her singing trademark is there although the rock song is quite dramatic in nature. Need to pump up the hype to go fight the dragon, maybe. The ending theme is Puzzle by Kotoko and flows at a slower-cum-calmer pace. Like a homecoming song after returning from a hard fought battle. Both sound okay to me but nothing that would make me go gaga over it. But the more beautiful one is the final episode’s special ending, Ryuugoroshi No Eiyuu No Uta by Bee as it a fitting and epic finale to the saga.

Overall, a decent sequel to the series and if you love the first season, you’re going to like this one as much or even better. Still not the perfect fantasy but better than a few fantasy themed animes we had in the same season. Looking at you, a certain demon sword reincarnated high school Excalibur whatsoever and a certain gluttony based skill hero whatever. But for casual viewers, might find it a bit lost since there are already some terminologies and lore established (do you know the difference between an Echo and a Herald? And do you remember all those spells that are chanted in Latin?). I am still interested to watch this series and Will’s exploits should they have another season. What’s next after taking down a dragon? Maybe a phoenix, tiger and turtle to complete the heavenly beasts challenge. The Faraway Celestial Beasts…

Kamierabi God.app

Do not ever download and open suspicious apps or strange notifications. Because by doing so, you might end up becoming a candidate in a death battle to become God! Oh wow. Plot sounds as cheesy and generic like other battle royale genres but yeah, need to know what kind of app does that since we’re all so reliant on our Smartphone. And so in Kamierabi God.app, our chosen candidates will be given some sort of strange power from the app as they hunt down other candidates in the field until there can only be one. Oh well, makes you wish for easier times when you could just make 3 wishes upon a genie’s lamp!

Episode 1
Gorou Ono is made by his friend, Yutaka Akitsu to film him. Akitsu jumps off the edge! What a scare because there’s a hidden platform below. This is to see Gorou’s reaction and you bet Gorou is not happy. Classmate and crush, Honoka Sawa seeks Gorou’s help in some online social media thingy in which he gladly helps her out. On his way back, he notices a black cat crossing the street. Nobody giving a damn because they’re looking at their phone! And why is the cat looking back at him?! And just like that, the cat gets run over. Nobody cares. Return to your mundane life. Back home, he notices his phone is displaying a strange message. Something about he has been chosen and thus is allowed to have a wish. Thinking this is some scam, he nonchalantly wishes to do something ecchi with Sawa. Well, be careful what you wished for because wish is granted. Next day, Gorou is somewhat a celebrity because his video of Akitsu jumping off is viral all over social media. Gorou didn’t realize he accidentally posted it when he was helping Sawa. Obviously the duo get suspended for a week from school. Sawa feels bad about it and hopes to make it up to them. Akitsu lends him the key to his video arcade place so they can ‘date’. There, some hentai game accidentally got displayed on the screen. Gorou then unzips his pants and start to masturbate on Sawa!!! She allows it?!

That’s when this little imp, Lall congratulates him for his wish coming true. She starts to explain about this death game in which participants must kill each other to become the only God. Oh, did she mention she is his partner in this game? Gorou is not amused as he runs away. He realizes the hospital he frequents to is no more. What’s this about for his wish being granted, something is being compensated. Some karma thingy. He gets mad and lashes at all this nonsense when Sawa approaches him. Well, she’s not going to give him a blowjob. She’s going to kill him! Luckily he dodges and that poor passer-by got killed. She extracts a huge sword from his corpse to hunt Gorou. Gorou pleads to her to stop, thinking she too has been scammed. But she beats him up and claims she is doing it on her own free will. He runs as she mocks he isn’t even trying. Where’s his weapon? Since Gorou is so stressed up, Lall tells him to just die and avoid all the suffering. Yeah well, life is unfair. So is the whole world. Everybody dies every day and nobody cares. God isn’t going to save you. Just like that he gains an interest to stop Sawa. Before she attacks, he uses his book to summon some weapon to pierce through her. Game over. Next day, life seems to be normal. Sh*tty, that is. Mom is still an alcoholic and everybody treats him like trash. Lall mocks him this is the twisted karma on him and he would’ve been better off dead yesterday. But wait. Sawa is still alive?

Episode 2
Apparently it is one of Gorou’s wish to resurrect Sawa after he killed her. Lall calls this a foolish move since this gives her a chance to kill him. But it’s his wish so whatever. At school, everyone witnesses a girl being burnt alive. Yup, that gas mask dude is definitely a candidate. But he soon disappears. Because of this incident, the school will be closed temporarily. Karma has it that everyone is now bullying Gorou. Akitsu still remains his pal, though. Sawa wants to talk to Gorou privately and she is not happy about him resurrecting her. It makes her feel all weird. Because of that, she wants to form an alliance with him as she knows his ability is powerful and is scared of it. Lall warns him not to as she can tell she will betray him. However Gorou agrees to her alliance as long as she doesn’t kill him. Sawa then calls out to Akitsu eavesdropping. Looks like he is a candidate too. She has to teach the guys about the app because it tells about their abilities as well as other candidates. There are other functions but it is locked for now. We learn Akitsu’s ability is to see 5 seconds into the future while Sawa’s is to materialize a sword from any sort of meat. They have to get running because that gas mask guy is back and is burning down the whole place to entrap them. The guys just being freaking useless as Sawa uses her ingenuity to save their asses. She further explains the candidate is doing this to drag them into their zone. The stronger the fear, the better the chances. Hence this morning’s killing was to instil fear. Akitsu sees the vision too late as Gorou falls through the floor. He realizes he is now in gas mask’s zone as Gorou narrowly avoids his flames. One hit and he is a goner. Gorou seeks Lall’s help as she warns him doing so will further twist his karma until the misfortune becomes fatal. Gorou is willing to take the risk of living with some misfortune than dying here. With that, Lall uses her power to rewrite the laws of physics to repel air from gas mask. He now suffocates to death. In the aftermath, his body is not found (could’ve escaped) and Gorou collapses from exhaustion.

Episode 3
Is Gorou kidding that he hasn’t decided to fight and become God yet?! He is already in the damn game! Lall has to remind him it is kill or be killed. This means killing others even if he doesn’t want to. Akitsu suddenly pulls off a prank to steal his handphone. Lall panics since that is the source of his power. Without it, he won’t know about the other candidates too. Gorou stays calm and knows Akitsu will not betray him. Flashback 2 years ago shows Gorou was ostracized by his class for punching some popular guy. Even his parents regretted having him as a child despite all they need to do was apologize and avoid a court case. The only one who supported him was Akitsu who was a stranger then. Akitsu knew Gorou did it because that guy badmouthed about his parents. He was impressed with it. Gorou became emotional since nobody was on his side. Akitsu laughed his ass off. That’s how they became friends. Gorou finds Akitsu back at his home as the latter gives back his phone. See? No harm done. Gorou talks about them running away from everything. Flee to overseas and if somebody challenges them, they can just fight them off. Akitsu likes that idea since he isn’t fond of fighting and doesn’t want to see him die. Which is a pity as he is going to kill him now. Gorou has his arm chopped off as Akitsu reveals his true ability of moving items through timelines. As long as it exist in this space, he can materialize it here. He cuts off Gorou’s power as he knows it is to link up with something. As Gorou is seconds from death, it is like he revives and regenerates. Using his power to make something not exist, this sends Akitsu to his defeat. This is when Akitsu reveals he saw the endless future shortly after he got his powers. In all of them, they were brutally killed. However there was this 1 timeline in which there was hope. The one with Gorou winning. He hopes he can win to change this sh*tty world. He is forced to resort to this as it was the only way to alter the future. Gorou screams as Akitsu breathes his last breath. RIP, my friend.

Episode 4
Gorou is depressed after killing his best friend. Lall tries to cheer him but he is in no mood to talk. Uhm, so is he not going to resurrect his friend? Is it too heavy a price to pay? Ran out of wishes? Or perhaps the future will return to being sh*tty if Akitsu is alive? Anyway, Sawa visits and she can tell he killed Akitsu although Gorou will not say why and it’s a secret between them friends. She is here to tell him of this rumour that someone in their school who is nicknamed Little Angel is able to make your desires come true. There are accounts of those who actually got their wish in 3 days. As suspected, Angel might be a candidate so they are going to check this out. While looking about, Gorou stumbles upon this spunky lab coat girl, Chika Nojima. In short, she begs him to join her science club (or is it occult club?) to avoid being shut down. It seems she isn’t a candidate either. Not sure how she talked him into joining forces with her. She brings him to spy on this gloomy guy, Tatsuya Amano who is the supposed Angel. But soon, Kouki Ama grabs him away so Chika forces him to go stop it. Gorou’s move? Run away! Not going to risk his life fighting this bully! Later Gorou trades info with Sawa. Speaking of which, Kouki and Tatsuya just pass before her so she goes to confront them. Sawa attacks Kouki as she knows he is a candidate. Gorou and Lall discuss about Tatsuya not being a candidate because one could easily tell by the dangerous vibes all around as emitted from their power. Gorou tries to contact Sawa but she isn’t picking up. Uhm, she got killed?! As Gorou tries to investigate the posts on Angel, it seems there have been no updates from those who posted their wish came true for weeks. He gets a distress call from Chika for him to come help her since somebody is going to kill her. Then he gets a message to come to school because Angel awaits.

Episode 5
Gorou heads to school and almost gets attacked by Chika. Yeah, she thought he was the perpetrator. Thanks a lot. Suddenly they are being attacked by, uhm, masked zombies?! Sorry Chika, those aren’t aliens. They are saved thanks to Kouki as he brings them to hide in his student council office. Oh, haven’t you heard? He is the student council president! Kouki explains he was acting like a jerk to avoid more victims. 5 years ago, he was a bully victim. Understandably he wanted such people to cease from existence. However grandpa told him as they didn’t understand his point of view, he too didn’t understand from their point of view. So Kouki made some changes and somewhat became a delinquent to see from their side. Hence the reason he came to this school (which prides itself with student liberties) is to help such people find something that they can be proud of. When Kouki became the student council president, Tatsuya was his vice. He too was a bully victim when Kouki saved him from such. However Tatsuya thinks the rest of the student council members are trash and should be rid of. This doesn’t sit well with them and despite Kouki trying to mediate between them, they end up beating Tatsuya. A few days ago, those members became obedient thanks to an app Tatsuya got to rewire their personalities. Yes, he is a candidate. He has manipulated many of this school and wants Kouki to help him in their dream to clean up this school of scumbags. Especially playing the part of Angel, he rewrite their brains to make them think their wish came true. Of course Kouki wasn’t pleased and confiscated his phone. That is why without it, Angel wasn’t operating for weeks. Kouki messed up when Sawa confronted him. He dropped the phone, allowing Tatsuya to take it back and do Sawa in. Now they are in his zone. WTF this revs up Chika as she goes out to fight the zombies?! This science stick sure comes in handy. They arrive at the hall where Tatsuya is now playing God. He is trying to convince Kouki to join his side. Too bad he won’t. He understands but what he is doing is wrong. This makes Tatsuya sad as he believes he is not wrong in all of this. He is still hell bent on eliminating scumbags. With Chika’s help to free Gorou, he is able to use his power to drop Tatsuya into the abyss. Even at this point Kouki tries to save him. Tatsuya is impressed but realizes his loss and forfeits himself from this game. Kouki depressed for failing to save him. As Chika leaves, we see her meet up with a comrade. Turns out she too is a candidate and is not detected simply because she turned off her phone! Her ditzy act is all to gather info without busting her identity.

Episode 6
A year ago when a fan tried to tell his feelings to his favourite idol, Iyo Futana, the moment he entered her room, she is dead! Gorou is chirpy has hell because today is the day Iyo has her comeback concert. Screw Lall’s talk about being closer to God after Tatsuya’s defeat. Nobody gonna kill his vibes! Iyo is his goddess!!! He tries to invite Sawa but after that embarrassment, she doesn’t want to do anything for a while. And so Gorou invites Kouki. To his surprise, he can see Lall and this means he is a candidate. Apparently Tatsuya transferred his candidacy to him. You can do that. Or you can forfeit and die. Kouki doesn’t understand it all but he isn’t going to stress out on it. Iyo personally comes out to personally thank everyone and be a little patient more as the show hit a little setback. Gorou is so happy to see her that he needs to go pee. All the public toilets have a long queue so he has to sneak into a private one. That is when he hears Iyo talking to her manager about the cancellation of the concert. She is against it as she worked so hard for this day. As she frets about it, she realizes Gorou eavesdropping and this he is the one who is made the bomb scare claim. Lall then calls Iyo’s bluff and knows she is a candidate. Then a bomb goes off. Gorou still brings her to safety despite she is the enemy. In the concert hall, they see the perpetrator. Iyo then realizes he is the one who killed her a year ago! This Iyo is actually that fan who has impersonated her. His power is to mimic anybody including their memories, feelings and pain. He laments that day when Iyo took her own life because she couldn’t take it anymore the pressure from the stalker. She couldn’t tell anyone for not wanting to let them down. Now he is going to kill him but Gorou stops it. Despite all the hardships, he doesn’t want her to go down this road and will always cheer for her. Iyo accepts this salvation and to top it off, Kouki gives that stalker a good punch. In the aftermath, Iyo’s concert is reduced to online viewing. Nevertheless, Gorou is happy. Now we know where that silly dance came about! Perhaps he can die happy as Iyo personally thanks Gorou for bringing her back to her feet. Yeah, literally he starts to cry blood! It’s no joke! The twisted karma has taken its fatal turn for the worst!

Episode 7
A flashback when Sawa was young, she was ingrained with the family rules. F*ck, how many were there?! Sawa receives a call from Kouki to come to the hospital since he is in bad shape. She isn’t interested but changes her mind. It is because this is a chance to kill him. Sure, they made an alliance but she didn’t say about not killing him. Of course Kouki won’t let her and with Lall calling out her true colours, she threatens to mince her. This makes Sawa scared and runs away. Kouki tells Lall off for that threat even though it was a lie she can use such power herself. Lall is worried that all the misfortune is falling into place. Gorou doesn’t care about the price to pay ever since Akitsu died. But Kouki promises he will not betray Gorou as he is a friend. The more pressing issue now is Sawa. Speaking of which, as she tries to leave this place, she bumps into Chika who is looking for a friend supposedly sleepwalking. Sawa doesn’t detect her as a candidate and makes her way. She realizes too late as she enters a zone. It brings her back to those childhood days. Because her brother, Kouta broke the rules, he was locked in this room without food or anything for days until mommy and daddy said so. This of course brings Sawa a lot of trauma as she regrets not being able to save him. Back when she was small, she couldn’t reach the numerous locks. Now she just cuts through them. But it’s empty. When she hears her parents returning, she is stumped because she killed them before. Oh well, time to go kill them again. She returns to reality as Chika talks about parallel worlds that has no bearing on this one. Sawa realizes Chika is a candidate but this parallel world belongs to this wheelchair ridden friend of hers, Ryou. With Sawa claiming she will be God to save Kouta so they can all be happy, this initiates a fight between them. Surprise but not surprise at all, Chika reveals she is that gas mask character. She starts burning down Sawa and in pain, she realizes she doesn’t want to die yet so she stabs herself. No, not to kill herself but to use her own meat to revive. This time Chika’s flames don’t work on her. Sawa won’t kill her and makes her swear an allegiance. Otherwise she will kill Ryou. Scared Chika agrees but notes what kind of game the guys are playing because the last time Gorou also didn’t kill her. Too bad she jinxed it because she gets killed off by Ryou’s brother, Kyou. He doesn’t like the idea of collusion as it is too early for it. He leaves with his sister. So he isn’t killing off Sawa?

Episode 8
Keita wants some mangaka, Chokubo to change his story. Of course he refuses. Because of that, Keita makes a few taps on his keyboard and turns his life upside down. He is now a wanted criminal. Kouki has cooked this massive meal for Gorou to celebrate his recovery. Believe it, he can actually cook. You think nothing surprises Gorou anymore? Wait till he sees Iyo bursting out from this huge present! Yeah, that’s the reaction. I bet he is feeling more than better now. As Iyo’s agency has ideas of her doing some game streaming, Gorou would be glad to help her. He remembers that hentai game on Akitsu’s TV and takes precaution not to show her. Too bad Iyo already turned the TV on. Welcome to a new gaming? Kouki tries to pull the plug but the porn is still on. You know what this means. A candidate. Even more shocking a girl named Mitsuko pops out from the screen! This is not part of the game! Meanwhile Chika is still alive because Sawa healed her. Now that she has confiscated her phone, she has her spill the beans especially her comrades. Chika mentions about Ryou and Kyou. But they are nothing compared to Keita who is just insane. In short, his power allows him to manipulate any info and turn lies into truth. Mitsuko pleads Gorou and co for help because her friend, Mikipiyo is being held hostage by Keita who stalked her. She tried to tell him off but you can guess what happened next. Mitsuko is finding other candidates who will help fight this crazy guy. Speaking of which, he calls Mitsuko and knows that she is trying to form an alliance. He throws her a challenge to come rescue her friend in 3 hours or she goes boom. Oh, he has branded them all as terrorists so you bet the police are hot on their tails. Mitsuko’s power is to teleport them to places she knows she they take refuge at the playground. At the same time, Sawa finds them and also reveals about Chika. She proposes all of them form an alliance and a deal that whoever becomes God, will grant all their wishes. Can’t say no to this deal, right? But time is up. Police drones have found them and Keita relishes to play this game.

Episode 9
Well, looks like nobody here has got offensive power to fight the drones. Iyo’s barrier shields them from their fire but she won’t last long. Hence they have this desperate idea for Mitsuko to teleport them away. Don’t care where, just anywhere! As she begins, she realizes she messes up. Meanwhile Keita tries to talk to Mikipiyo who is ignoring him. Still being the haughty jerk he is as he offers one last time for her to be his girlfriend. Or die alone. Okay. It’s her choice. He returns to track the rest but can’t seem to find them anywhere on the face of this Earth. Just then he gets a call from Chokubo that he decides to draw the manga he wants. Keita is amazed and looks at this week’s issue. As he turns the pages, Mitsuko suddenly pops out and punches him! We go back an hour earlier, it seems Mitsuko messed up imagining some manga cover as she, Gorou and Iyo ended up in Chokubo’s apartment. Although he tells them about the lies on him, he doesn’t care anymore. It’s not like it’s going to change things for the better. He is on the verge of giving up as he tells the rest his story. Keita was a fan of his works but forced and imposed his ideas into his manga. We all saw what happened when he refused, right? However Iyo believes there is one work that Keita is still infatuated with because she noticed he still spouted lines from it. Thus the idea of Mitsuko popping up from a manga page at where Keita is. However Chokubo pointed out this week’s issue is not scheduled to appear this week. In that case, Gorou will use his power to put that issue back this week. Once that was done, Mitsuko began her trip. Keita is beaten up and Mikipiyo freed. Jerk still claims this is all unfair. So taking hostage was fair? She forces him to undo everything. Once that is done, she teleports him to South Pole. Have fun admiring the aurora. If you’re wondering where the rest are, looks like they got the short end of the stick. Kyou handing their asses to them.

Episode 10
Flashback a year ago, Chika found it troublesome since her parents had high hopes for her in taking over their hospital. She stood at the edge of the rooftop. This made Ryou thought she was going to jump off so as she tried to stop her, almost causing both of them to fall off! WTF?! Chika’s great luck and strength pulled them back up. Ryou lectures her about killing herself although pessimistic Chika believed all that she had done will amount to nothing. Ryou disagreed. As long as she kept living, she will one day find her dream. And now in present time, looks like she is on the verge of death. Kouki is facing off with Kyou who narrates the kind of world he wants to make. Obviously not the kind Kouki approves. Ryou makes him mad on purpose so that he will have the killing intent. Kouki beats him to a pulp until he is dead. But as Chika warned, he isn’t. Just like that he and everyone else gets impaled. Gorou and Iyo are making their way as the latter talks the strangeness of the candidates having superhuman powers and thus did God not foresee this mess? And what the heck is Lall? Well, little imp tells them not to think too much about it and fight each other to the death. Gorou explains about Akitsu’s death and the reason why he is still carrying on. But Lall brushes it off that his wish is anything like that. Lall is reluctant to say and Gorou doesn’t want to push her. It could be too late as a portal in the sky opens and blood rain starts falling right before Lall wants to reveal some big secret. Lall then fears the worst. Yeah, I thought she knew all about Gorou? So why she gets upset he didn’t tell her? Apparently karma has now slowly taken his senses bit by bit. And now bodies and falling down. We see Kyou talking to Ryou about some Schrodinger cat thingy. Basically, because Ryou is God, she can tell what kind of cats are in the box without opening. So if she is God, what is Kyou? God’s cat. He poses the question what will happen if that cat in a parallel world opens its own box. Gorou knows using more of his power will let his senses chip away. But he is well aware of the risks as Lall agrees to support him until he becomes God. He shuts off the portal.

Episode 11
Flashback to a year ago, Kyou talked to Ryou about the stars in the sky. They talk about some of its answers and Kyou’s conclusion is that the light of those hasn’t reached them. It will take a long time and the only one who could see or knew these starts is someone who lives forever. Like God. Unfortunately, Kyou is suffering from some disease and knows his days are numbered. One day it got bad enough for him to be hospitalized. Dad told Ryou to be patient since he will be sent to a faraway hospital for treatment. Ryou understood and waited. But as the days passed, she could obviously see the frustrations growing in dad. Something about wanting a cure and not some weird hieroglyphics displayed on his computer screens. He became obsessed in finding whatever cure when Kyou’s condition worsened. He sank into depression as Ryou snuck into his room where the computers are. Suddenly they told her she was the chosen one and to have a wish. Spooked, she ran out. Not sure how she could spot Ryou at the distance when it’s so dark. So as she tried to get to him, she got hit by a truck. In comatose state in hospital, she dreams about all the things she could’ve done with her brother. But the most important being she wanted to watch the stars with him from anywhere. And just like that, her wish of having her brother back materialized. Gorou sees all these memories as he leaps into the parallel world. Kyou confronts him to talk and wants him to join them in rebuilding a new world. He reveals Ryou’s power to materialize any ifs and non-existent realities into parallel worlds. And in such parallel worlds, Kyou has the power to control them in any way he likes. He can even link and overlap them. However he cannot cure Ryou’s condition. And that is why he needs Gorou’s powers. What do you say we join forces and screw this tournament? Gorou rejects him and Kyou sees that coming and thus is prepared to rob his powers. They fight and since Gorou has lost his senses, can’t fight well. Even if Kyou gets killed, he respawns himself from another parallel world. Since Kyou wants a happy for his sister where she can’t get hurt, Gorou tells him to talk to her directly and attacks Ryou. This makes Kyou panic as he rushes to protect her. At this point, Ryou awakens and is in a daze. This is where the parallel world starts to crumble as they return to reality. The public is now scared seeing dead corpses and blames Ryou for this and beats her up! A weakened Kyou can’t do anything. Gorou has paid the ultimate price as he can’t move and pleads Iyo to save Ryou. However she doesn’t recognize who the f*ck Gorou is.

Episode 12
With the other characters streaming in, Sawa thinks Gorou is the enemy and wants to finish him off. However Iyo and Kouki caution her because they feel something isn’t right. Something is missing from their memories. Sawa couldn’t care less and in her b*tch mode, wants to kill this f*cker. But WTF?! Lall gets in the way and gets stabbed?! Even so, Sawa continues to b*tch about everything including becoming God and getting her wish. Lall tells her to STFU because God is one who listens to the wishes of others. And the only person who fits that is Gorou. Now we see Gorou having a monologue about his sad life. Some talk with Kyou about the sad facts of reality that things won’t change no matter how hard one tries. Because of that sealed fate, people tend to give up. So what is the value of life? Then it is Akitsu’s turn to talk about something similar. And the real tragedy that hit Gorou’s family: His mom having an affair with another man and looks like she got pregnant from it! Gorou found out and threw up? Then a talk with Lall as he remembers about his true wish. Something about wanting others to entrust their wish to him as to show that he is wanted. Not just Akitsu’s but everybody else. Lall calls someone who does that as God. Now Lall continues to lecture about how she was never her fate to be born but yet Gorou wished her a happy future even when God wouldn’t save her! She thanks Gorou for caring for her and because of that, she can become the price of his power by fading away. She hopes to meet for real next time. Lall becomes Gorou’s power as he awakens as, uhm, God? Because everyone around him soon gets zapped into nothingness! When Ryou is the only one left, she immediately stops him and sternly tells him off her wish belongs to only her. Not sure what power she used but everyone returns and only both of them disappears. Meanwhile in South Pole, Keita curses his luck. If only there was internet so he could mess with some data to get him rescued. Then he realizes something in his phone. Now we see a politician calling out the recent terrorist attacks as a failure from the current administration to handle such crisis. He vows to make the change to reflect the true will of the people! Uhm, is this Gorou adult version?!

Karma-geddon!
Well, if the ending was helluva confusing, don’t worry because even before this season ended, they announced there will be another one coming up. Rather, I was confused why this was only a single cour because before this series started, I read somewhere stating this was going to be like 2 cours. I thought I read wrongly on my part. Looks like they decided to split it into another season. Yeah, we need to take a break from all the sh*t f*ckery that has happened in this season! Watching it consecutively in 2 straight cours might make you go crazy! Don’t want to be responsible for unrepairable damage, do we?!

So yeah, honestly I had some hopes that this series would be interesting. Long story short, it failed to live up to my expectations even if that expectation bar was set low enough. I mean, thinking this would be some sort of battle royale where people put their lives on the line, this should be interesting. Yes, candidates do put their life on the line but there weren’t enough people dying! OMG. Am I such a bloodthirsty sadist?! Blame Squid Games for upping the bar on such survival games. On the surface, this series had an interesting concept for it. Using you Smartphone or app on it to play life or death games. However the execution and how it played out was just disappointing. It was never really explained in detail (maybe it did but I wasn’t listening?) and I went through the entire season confused and blind. Until the very end, I still don’t know how the app really works or even see how the characters truly used it. Heck, the even more pressing issue are the strange and confusing abilities that the candidates draw up. I don’t even know what the rules to it are. Therefore in most cases, it felt like the producers were just winging it or writing the whole thing on the fly as they go by. To be fair, this anime was originally written and not based on any manga, light novel or game source. Goes to show how hard it is to write a good story in today’s era, eh? Yeah, somebody didn’t use the God app here to write a better story!

Thus as far as I can see for this season, it was just some long draggy drama between the characters we are introduced as they fumble along the way while playing this confusing and uncertain game. Heck, the rules themselves seem so flimsy and it’s like nobody even stops to think about it like circumventing them or finding a loop hole. I give you an example, is there any time limit to play this game? Because if there is none, there could be a point where everybody just won’t fight each other and carry on with their normal lives. Rendering the game to be endless. But hey, that’s not breaking the rules, right? Then there is the mystery behind this app or why certain candidates get chosen. Maybe it will be explained next season but as far as this first one is concerned, it leaves a lot to be desired. And why do we see the candidates all mostly from the same school or area?! Is this thing an international game or is it just confined locally?

And if multiple Gods are allowed (talking about making alliances so that our characters we love don’t have to kill each other), then what is the point of having this game?! You don’t need to kill to be God, so let us all be Gods together! Do you see what I mean?! As seen, Chika could switch off her phone and still not pay any penalty. So can we all just switch off our phones and ignore the game?! What happens if we change phones?! Lots of such questions are boggling my mind right now but I am going to play the patient game and see what they have to offer next season before I jump the gun in talking trash about this anime. Yeah. So for now I have to put up with this season’s strange story flow of our characters introduced, forming strange alliances as they fight the antagonists of the day. Yeah, that’s basically the formula I see this season has.

One of the biggest controversies that most viewers would have is the visuals. Ah yes, this show is rendered entirely in CGI. Yup, the dreaded method of today’s anime visual standards. It would have not been an issue especially like yours truly to b*tch so much about it had they at least put in some decent quality. It is not impossible. For instance, Trigun Stampede and Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall both have satisfactory quality and the entire season was done in CGI. But for this series, it serves to remind us the abomination why we hate it so much! I don’t know if they don’t have the budget and hired amateurs to do the rendering but as you can clearly see that the models were like incomplete or something. It’s like nobody applied the final texture and sometimes the scenes look like it is still work in progress. The guiltiest one in this department are the extra or background characters. The way they animate them, makes them feel like soulless NPCs! I know they aren’t important characters to begin with but come on, at least have the decency to make them look like decent human beings! Yeah, unfinished render. WTF. Looking like mannequins come to life. Are you even serious, people?!

I don’t know with the bad CGI, can I even say that this is at least slightly better than the promotional poster? Oh Jesus, when I first looked at the promotional poster, it was hideous and ugly as f*ck! Yes, I did not actually want to watch this anime at first and was going to give it a hard pass. But then I thought I should give it a chance after reading the synopsis. Oh you know, don’t judge a book by its cover! I guess that didn’t work here. But had I done so, I wouldn’t have come to a conclusion of how bad this show is. Anyway, making it worse were the character designs at least on the promotional poster. They were so ugly like as though they have some sort of skin disease! My God, WTF man???!!! It gave me an impression this was going to be some sort of horror theme! Yikes! Look at those abomination! Who the f*ck drew them?! Hence comparatively, they look better in CGI. I’m sad that I have to say that. Uh huh. What if that was just a psychological tactic to make us admire the ‘better looking’ (term used very loosely) CGI effects. This show is animated by Unend. Never heard of them? Yeah, a new studio and this is their first works! OMG. This is the level of quality on their debut? Not leaving a good impression here… I hope their name didn’t jinx them because it will be The End for them! HAHAHA!!! Sighs…

And now moving onto the characters, unfortunately they don’t impress me. Sure, everybody has their problems and their wishes especially our main character Gorou who is leading a pitiful and sad life. Whatever. Doesn’t he look like a wimpy version of Shingeki No Kyojin’s Eren?! Anyway, Gorou being the main character is forced to shoulder some sort of burden and also he must have that sort of justice that cares for everyone because that is one of the ingredients that made him the main character. He isn’t perfect and has a lot of flaws but somehow I just can’t seem to like or support him. Because he is also given some sort of ultimate ability that I don’t really understand how it works. Basically it’s like the God power of all God powers and he can do anything he wants but will pay a great price. Yeah. I might be wrong but that’s how I see it. And it is all for the sake of plot convenience. In a pinch now? Yeah, Gorou will do something with his convenient powers to save the day. There. Problem solved. It remains to be seen what has come of him but my guts ring hard that he will be back. Some twist will allow it. I know. Because he is the main character. Or is he not?

Then there is this Lall. Strange little flying imp who is said to be Gorou’s source of power. Yeah, why don’t other candidates get something extra and cute like Lall? All I can see is that Lall’s character is to be some sort of pet mascot or sidekick to Gorou. Oh you know, main character and his little sidekick needs to have some sort of amusing banter and that’s why they created her. Thing is, she too doesn’t know much about the rules and at this point I just want to scream BS at everything. Yeah, it’s like they couldn’t come up with an answer for us so they conveniently make her have no memories of her life before she came into existence. That’s why I said she is more like some comic relief sidekick. But my conspiracy theory of Lall as seen from the last episode: Could it be that Lall is Gorou’s unborn step sister? From the way she says things, it is highly likely that she is so. Otherwise, why still stick around him?

The other characters are also barely winging it. Sawa being the b*tch girl because we need somebody selfish and aggressive. To counter that, we have Iyo who is sweet and gentle but I am confused, is this the dead Iyo or the fan who is impersonating her? If it’s the latter, then it’s not the real Iyo, right? Whatever. Don’t want to think about it. Then there is Kouki who is the other guy in the group so it won’t look like an obvious harem. So he is clueless in the game and just winging it too but despite all that, has his own sense of justice and Gorou’s backup just in case. Then there’s Chika the reluctant ally. Feels like her character has fallen from grace ever since she was revealed to be the gas mask character (which isn’t surprising) and if I should say, lost her oomph. She wasn’t fun anymore. Then there’s Mitsuko… Oh I don’t know, she came in relatively late and there’s not much about her except she as trying to save her friend. So is Mikipiyo part of the group now or not? Oh wait, is she even a candidate?

Obviously other characters who aren’t part of this group would be deemed the antagonists. Too bad they feel one-dimensional. Kyou looks like your typical overprotective brother would do anything for his sister even if it means destroying and changing the world. Nothing exceptional because that’s what bad guys mostly do as opposed to heroes who are the opposite as they would kill you just to save the rest and many. Heh. But are the siblings really the bad guys because just like other candidates, they too have their own wishes they want granted. But I guess they’re better than Keita who is just a sleazebag, right? From the looks of it, we haven’t seen the last of him.

As already said, the powers and abilities of the candidates are not explained well so we don’t really know how this game or its system works. This means the action scenes are just mediocre and the problem already compounded with the CGI visuals and this makes the movements and all looking really weird. So yeah, just conjure the power and some flashy effects whatsoever, there, you have your candidates fighting. Are you satisfied? Not! And the worst offender of all? Personally it is not enough people dying! This season only actually had 2 candidates dead! I was expecting at least 10 people! Oh yeah, the series would then be filled with lots of uninspiring characters but whatever. Let me see some deaths! HAHAHA!!! So the only ones dead include Akitsu who is Gorou’s friend and typically as such scripts wrote, best friend must sacrifice himself so main character can realize something and move on. The other dead guy is Tatsuya who technically withdrew but he is as good as dead. So next season can we introduce more characters and have bloody deaths like Squid Game???!!! PLEASE???!!!

Voice acting feels pretty normal. Ayane Sakura as Lall feels a lot tame here. It could be just me because I felt that she too wasn’t really impressed in voicing her character and thus Lall sounding like Lall. Same can be said for Aoi Yuuki as Ryou but then again, it could be just me. The other casts are Kazuki Ura as Gorou (Shouta in Shuumatsu No Harem), Sara Matsumoto as Sawa (Towa in Hanyou No Yashahime), Tomori Kusunoki as Iyo (Makima in Chainsaw Man), Gakuto Kajiwara as Kouki (Asta in Black Clover), Natsuko Abe as Chika (Lonti in Leadale No Daichi Nite), Chiaki Kobayashi as Kyou (Mash in Mashle), Ai Fairouz as Mitsuko (Takechiyo in Hanyou No Yashahime), Shuuichi Uchida as Akitsu (Terafune in Fuufu Ijou Koibito Miman), Yuuki Shin as Tatsuya (Jinn in Edens Zero) and Shou Karino as Keita (Chifuyu in Tokyo Revengers).

One of the weirdest things this series has to offer is the opening theme, Scrap & Build by Elaiza. This song sounds like some sort of comical carnival and doesn’t fit the series at all. But considering how appalling everything is, maybe we need this weird song to make us raise an eyebrow and go WTF in a different way. Especially the opener where Gorou does his strange Iyo dance. WTF indeed. At least the ending theme, Bleed My Heart by Alisa is more bearable. Even if this song doesn’t fit the series but at least this hip hop with funky bass line and is sung entirely in English makes me want to shuffle my feet at times. Yeah, after seeing all the atrocities, maybe I need to hear such songs to wind down.

Overall, this series could have been better as it had the potentials but it screwed up from the start and what we got is this dreary mess including which the disgraceful CGI effects takes the largest chunk of the cake. You bet it was disappointing alright as it has wasted its chance to make something good out of it. Especially a concept of using Smartphone apps, something that is so indispensable from our everyday lives. Of course there is next season and while I still hold some hope that things will get better like fleshing out the mechanisms and the characters better, I am at the same time going to lower the expectations bar even further! Thank goodness I am not a candidate in this sh*tty game because my wish is just to simply end the whole damn thing right now! It is also a good thing I am not Smartphone savvy and I have no clue about the apps I have on my phone. Oh f*cking hell, I just block and disable all unknown apps from installing on my phone!

Goblin Slayer S2

DOUBLE VIRGIN RESURRECTION!!! And that is how we got the sequel, Goblin Slayer S2, am I right?! Oh heck, I’m just pulling a fast one. I just wanted to say that as it was one of the strangest and most memorable things from the first season. Heh. But yeah, a series like that would be totally strange if it doesn’t have a sequel considering in today’s time that we live in. Everything must have a sequel nowadays! But hell, it took 5 years for the second season to come out! Better late than never. An even longer wait for yours truly who didn’t even see the movie sequel that came out in 2020. Yeah, I was hoping they would adapt it into a TV series like Kimetsu No Yaiba did with its Mugen Train arc. Oh well… Got to start the next season with a missing chapter from my side…

Episode 1
A reminder from first season how goblins killed the guys and raped the girls. Can you still stomach this? Now we can move on to see our pretty gang gathering. Shinkan feeling happy she might get promoted shortly. Elf and Dwarf are still arguing. Lizardman happy that the winter is over. What is today’s business for Goblin Slayer? Slay more goblins, of course! We see him buy lots of potions and then check and mark them. It never hurts to be prepared. As they leave, they bump into a rude kid who seems to be in a hurry. The gang comes back late that night. Mission successful although it was a tough one. As Goblin Slayer returns to the guild, he thought he saw a goblin. Turns out to be that rude kid (Shounen Majutsushi) sleeping in. Is Receptionist also sleeping on the job?! As Goblin Slayer reports his goblin kills, Majutsushi is seen taking notes but Goblin Slayer advises against that. Then he wants Goblin Slayer to teach him how to kill goblins but is turned down. Seeing he has nowhere to stay, he takes him back to the farm. While Ushikai has no qualms for him to stay, it seems her father is against it. In fact, because of his rude behaviour, it makes him distrust him even more and claims such rookies are no different than ruffians. Goblin Slayer is willing to put him in the shed he rent and will watch over him. This has father relent seeing he needs Goblin Slayer to get some rest. Next day at the guild, Majutsushi wants to hunt for goblins but is told to start small by killing rats first. Meanwhile Shinkan is sad because she didn’t get promoted. When she brought it up, they thought she didn’t contribute enough. It could be because she is with a group of high level adventurers. Hence it is suggested she becomes a mentor of a rookie group so as her contributions will be more visible. When Majutsushi comes to mock her, Lizardman warns him about doing so because now the entire guild doesn’t like his attitude. Majutsushi won’t lose so he claims he is going to kill some goblins. Since Paladin overheard it, she has an idea. Sure, Majutsushi can try kill some goblins but the leader of his party will be Shinkan.

Episode 2
Goblin Slayer and co go to see a dwarven client. Apparently a naughty goblin stole his toolbox. Earlier on another team of adventurers took on his request but they did not return. And that team had a female in it. See where this is going? The base of where the goblins are is a mausoleum. It’s a maze down there. They slowly take on the goblins in each room and Majutsushi can’t understand why they’re being so slow. Then as they notice a door, it is obviously a trap. As they ponder their next move, Majutsushi can’t wait any longer and opens it. Well, some horrifying body parts all fall out. His scream is the ‘trap’ that alerted the other goblins. Then a woman’s scream is heard. Majutsushi becomes impatient as he rushes in. There that woman is. Tortured via the stolen toolbox. Is this some sick twisted S&M?! Oh, there’s that big mother troll too. By luck, Majutsushi didn’t get smashed by him. With goblins coming into the picture, he could’ve been done for had not the rest come in to start the slaying party. To save the woman and retreat, Goblin Slayer has Shinkan use her holy light to temporarily blind the creatures. Since the troll is not a goblin, Goblin Slayer just burns him rather than killing him outright? Well, in that state, the troll just smashes everything, taking out probably half the goblins. When the gang reach a dead end, it seems the troll is still hot on their tails. This time, Goblin Slayer has Shinkan do another holy light and the Dwarf summoning some water spell. The immense cooling down causes the troll’s skin to crack before Goblin Slayer goes in for the kill. Right after that, it is back to more goblin slaying! Majutsushi can only watch in shock. In the aftermath, everyone comes out alive and celebrating. Though, Majutsushi doesn’t feel like doing so. Learning that the woman is alive and will make it, this is when Majutsushi blows his top. Being alive won’t do her any good. She’ll be mocked for the rest of her life. That was what happened to his elder sister. All this would not have happened had she not get stabbed by a goblin’s poison dagger. At the academy, he kept hearing others mocking his sister. He hates them. So sad he just falls asleep? So, that got your attention Goblin Slayer? What is he going to do? Going out for a night stroll? Apparently going to cry and regret at some alley?! Another victim just like him.

Episode 3
My, what a slow episode with no goblin slaying… Goblin Slayer teaching a few young adventurers on how to use a slingshot. Others are also training other young ones. Got to put in the effort. During the break, Shinkan talks to them and since Majutsushi is still adamant in wanting to kill only goblins, she relates how a friend of hers wanted to kill a dragon. Impossible. A dream. But it’s fine if it’s that. Goblin Slayer surprisingly agrees to go drinking with Lancer and Warrior. They talk about their dreams and shortcomings but for the time being, they have to do what they have to do. Majutsushi gets more magic lessons from Dwarf while Shinkan tries to invite young Rhea Fighter to join her in adventuring. As explained by Lizardman, this is to help prove herself for promotion. Rhea isn’t sure about it at first but with Lizardman pointing out she has quite a high amount of luck, they start off to ask around for others to join them. As construction of expanding the training grounds gets underway, a worker is shocked to find a goblin mound nearby. He kills the goblin but the rest overwhelm him. Goblin Slayer is about to continue training with the young ones when everyone hears a scream. It’s goblin slaying time.

Episode 4
Goblin Slayer has the young ones go into formation. If he is not back within a certain time, they have to act on their own. Hey, what are the chances he gets killed by a goblin? As he checks on the place, lots of dead human bodies. Gathering with the rest of the skilled adventurers, they discuss that there must be numerous holes popping up all over the place. However they just need to pick one and ambush them and destroy their base since the holes are all connected. The problem now is the young trainees. Can they take them along during this ambush? Warrior offers to stay back and watch them. However Shinkan also points out a group of trainees that have left earlier on. She believes the goblins who are cowards will target them. She volunteers to go save them. Better hurry, because those goblins managed to grab a girl and eat her alive?! HOLY SH*T! Worse, they are surrounded by goblins all over even on the tree top. Goblin Slayer leads the skilled adventurers into the tunnel as they get into the goblin slaying action. Meanwhile Warrior shows off his might as he cuts through a hobgoblin wandering about. Shinkan and Majutsushi’s side manage to arrive in time to save the trainees. But with too many goblins, Majutsushi is worried about casting his spell and fears letting his rage control him. But screw that because time is of essence. He uses his magic to amplify his voice. It scares off the goblin? Well, it buys time for them to retreat. No goblin slaying for him but it’s not the point of this mission today. Goblin Slayer’s idea of flooding the tunnels with the lake above and then freezing it with ice works fine. Yeah, how the heck does he know he is right underneath a lake although he claims he was here like ages ago! Does he have some GPS?! In the aftermath, Shinkan’s actions earned her the promotion she needs. Majutsushi talks to Goblin Slayer and it seems he wants to travelling around the world to get some experience rather than going to school. His goal is still to get back at those who mocked his sister although he couldn’t care less if they still act that stupid for the rest of their lives. Majutsushi still doesn’t like Goblin Slayer and he doesn’t want to be him. He would rather be a dragon slayer instead. It seems Majutsushi won’t be going alone as Rhea will accompany him. He tells them to say his name if they meet into a fellow rhea known as Burglar. Off they go and Ushikai can tell Goblin Slayer is one happy guy today.

Episode 5
After receiving a letter, Elf thinks it is the season to get married! So as the rest wonder if this would be goodbye or if her future husband allows her to go adventuring, turns out that it is Elf’s older sister who is getting married. Trolled us there. Since all is invited, looks like Goblin Slayer is forced to put his goblin slaying missions on hold to attend this wedding. Even Receptionist is invited since her colleague wants her to take a proper vacation. But first, a few goblin slaying missions to put everything in order before the leave. And so we see the usual gang killing all goblins attacking a church. Poor sisters. Where the f*ck was God when these goblins raped them?! Some even died! Dwarf picks up slabs of ancient texts. Obviously no one can read it. Goblin Slayer returns home, Ushikai learns about the wedding and she too is invited to come. The gang then head to that water town to make their preparations for the journey. Goblin Slayer sees Sword Maiden to get the slabs translated. Very ancient language. But since none containing goblins, he is not interested. You can have them. Sword Maiden is not happy since he is leaving so soon. How nice of him to get invited. Sorry, not that she can leave her place. But she warns him about the possible goblins in the area since they are heading there via river. Lots of sunken ships reported. So the gang takes a raft there as Goblin Slayer carves up lots of wooden spears. Better safe than sorry. As they travel through the valley, everyone is now on alert as they feel something big is coming. Yeah well, rocks dropping from all sides!

Episode 6
Yeah, those goblins throwing stuffs are pesky. Shinkan is going to have to tough it out with her barrier. Elf shoots her arrows and Goblin Slayer throwing his spears. They do so blindly and can hit their target? Must be hell lot of them. And why must they always fall into the water?! I thought they were staying hidden? The goblins have created a dam to block them from going further. It is then Shinkan calling upon God to break all the debris and Lizardman’s howl propelling them forward. Once in a safe area, they camp out and it’s swimsuit episode as our ladies get into their swimsuits. Lizardman not into not scaly things, Dwarf too old for this and Goblins Slayer… Is he gay? A nice night camping until next morning an elf warrior approaches Goblin Slayer and accuses him for encroaching into their land. It seems his side has taken out the goblin remnants and notes the arrows that killed some belong to their brethren. So he is the guy whom Elf’s sister is engaged to. He goes to check on Elf but sees all the beautiful ladies sleeping in their pyjamas. Rude awakening. You know the scream… He brings them to their land as he talks about the goblin activities but doesn’t care much about them. Because as elves, they have witnessed clash of greater beings like dragons, gods, demons, evil spirits, hence goblins are just so minute in comparison. He also mentions some ancient being is starting to get activate. Elves are told not to approach it since it lives in a different territory and he himself has not seen it but only its tracks. Arriving at the beautiful elven forest, Elf meets her sister who also sees Goblin Slayer in the flesh. She thanks him for taking care of her but also feel free to find better assistance. Goblin Slayer is humble and gives Elf the credit when due. Noticing a meek elf girl behind, it seems Goblin Slayer knows her and he tells her he has killed them all, bring her emotional relief. Later the sisters talk and it seems Goblin Slayer saved that girl from ogres. The sister wants Elf to stop going on dangerous adventures since the monetary reward is small. She also warns not to associate too much with lizardmen and dwarves since people might talk. So what? We’re racists now? Then there is Goblin Slayer. The songs painted him like a hero but the real deal is kinda different. Is she disappointed? Of course Elf won’t stop adventuring since it is fun and she can count on them. Suddenly a huge beast stomps through the place. Uhm, WTF this dinosaur?! Sorry Goblin Slayer, it’s not an elephant!

Episode 7
So this dinosaur punk is called Mokele Mubenbe?! Whatever. They see a goblin riding it. Time to kill it. However they can’t kill this creature because it’s like a living thing. So goblins are not living things? After killing the goblin, they rein in the big mother using old methods. I don’t know how they returned it back to its forest but whatever. Elf has a talk with her sister who is concerned with her mixing with other races. She tries to point out the very short lives of humans but Elf doesn’t care. Meanwhile the men are drinking but also talk about the possibility that goblins have created a nesting near the elves’ homes. Elf’s brother can’t believe such creatures dare do such a thing but as Goblin Slayer puts it, they might be foolish but not stupid. It could be they think the elves are living peaceful lives so they could be building a nest nearby to steal their stuffs. Then take lives and the entire village. As they talk about older sisters, Goblin Slayer blames himself as the one who made his sister stayed back at the village instead of leaving. She could’ve been better off without him. The only way is to make it up to her. Sword Maiden has deciphered the ancient texts. Looks like some strong enemy that could destroy the world. Goblin Slayer and co leave to hunt goblins up ahead. They manage to fool the goblins with a decoy as they attack the first boat that is manned by Lizardman’s skeletal puppets. As Goblin Slayer slays the goblins, he notices that these goblins are just on the watch as their attacks are sloppy and not ready for ambush. As they near this water temple, they see lots of dead elf bodies put up on display. Enough to give you the creeps. Then they enter the building and follow the pathways downwards. They arrive in a room with corpses and blood everywhere. It is possible the elves could be drinking water from blood and faeces of their dead comrades. The goblins are thinking of poisoning the water and the mastermind behind this could be a shaman goblin and skilled spell caster. After giving the bodies a proper burial, they camp for the night. Shinkan is obviously shaken from all she has seen today. Stay strong. The worse is yet to come.

Episode 8
Oh look, there’s an elevator to the top. How convenient. The numbers on the keys are somewhat associated to activate it. How smart. Once at the top, the gang burst out and start their goblin slaying action. Shinkan inhales the poison gas from the shaman and sees a vision of her comrades getting killed. Goblin Slayer getting killed by goblins? No way. She snaps out of it and starts to chant her miracle. However I don’t understand this part because she turned the shaman’s blood into water and then goes into despair about the thing that she has done. Goblin Slayer continues to praise her a good job she has done. When the time is right, all of them jump off from the edge. The bomb has set off so the water comes gushing out and flooding down on the goblins, pushing them off to their deaths. Not sure whatever explanations about it but the building will be alright and the elves who construct it will know how to clean up. Shinkan is worried if she will still be worthy of receiving miracles and that if she can still grow within a year. Well, look on the bright side. Killing all those goblins with water has unleashed a beautiful rainbow. Fabulous. Then we see some adventurers slaying monsters and Sword Maiden’s interpretation of the ancient texts that they have connected to somewhere forbidden and opened the gate to transfer to hell. Although it is sealed, it will open again. Everyone is back in time for Elf’s sister’s wedding. Such a beautiful night to remember. Everyone having a good time and as the bride tosses her wreath that symbolizes whoever catches it to get married next, we’ll leave it up to your imagination on which girl who gets it. After a few days of partying, our gang return to their home. Some time has passed and since Elf has not received any letter from her sister, it shows that the banquet is still ongoing. Live long, party hard.

Episode 9
A short flashback when Sword Maiden was younger, she was part of a ragtag group of adventurers exploring dungeons and slaying really tough demons. But to her relief, hey, no goblins! Yet! Now we see Goblin Slayer’s side fighting against a sea serpent. Apparently they received a request to exterminate sea goblins (?!) since people have been complaining the fisheries have been attacked by them. Well, turns out they aren’t sea goblins but uhm, friendly gillmen? Uhm, Homo Piscesians?! They point out the sea serpent at work. Goblin Slayer wasn’t interested in this because well, no goblins. But the rest couldn’t ignore this so you bet he has to tag along so as not to look like a dick. So as they fight the sea serpent, I thought it was silly of Goblin Slayer to ask if it’s a fish or snake. Well, duh! It’s in its name! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT IS A FISH, LIZARDMAN???!!! Because it has no poison in its bite???!!! I’m so confused! The sea serpent is killed after a hard fought battle. Goblin Slayer keep insisting to Receptionist like a broken recorder that there were no goblins. There were no goblins… There were no goblins… They split up the treasure given by the gillmen as Goblin Slayer takes the seashell for Ushikai. She happily receives it. Soon Sword Maiden calls upon Goblin Slayer. Another goblin exterminating mission? Actually, she is supposed to head to a meeting in the royal capital but the path has been sighted with goblins. Hence Goblin Slayer’s job is to escort her and not exterminate them all (although she would very much like him to do it). As the journey begins and they camp out for the night, Sword Maiden tries to get close to him. I’m not sure if she is insecure or has other hidden agenda but damn those goblins show up. She hides in the carriage as the rest fight back and eliminate them in a pincer attack. It is Goblin Slayer’s intention to kill them all. In the end, as he counts the corpses, he finds the number few and believes there are others out there since this one is a wandering tribe. He cuts off one of their back since it has a tribe mark behind. Then they arrive at the royal capital. A beautiful place as this is Goblin Slayer’s first time here. He wished he could’ve brought his sister here.

Episode 10
A princess is left fuming and bored staying in her room. She wants to go out like her brother. Mind you, her brother his the king of the royal capital! So when he returns, she gladly greets him but this is just a ploy so she can sneak out tonight. With Sword Maiden and co arriving safely, now what else is there to do? Goblin Slayer wants to research and Sword Maiden’s face lights up, happy to take him to the library. Too bad Dwarf wants her to put that off because he wants the guys to go drinking! Wow. Now she’s so dejected. During the drinking, Goblin Slayer pondering about life so Dwarf and Lizardman talk to him about the meaning of life since they have lived longer. Meanwhile Elf accompanies Shinkan to pray at the grave of an ex-comrade (and Majutsushi’s sister). Then they go relax at a bath. Shinkan notices someone watching her. During the bath, a girl comes up to Shinkan to ask what it’s like being an adventurer and the kind of equipment she has. After hearing enough, she leaves. But soon Shinkan realizes her clothes and gears have been stolen. Reports from the staff that they saw a priestess walking out. So yeah, this place has no locker security? This was bound to happen… Shinkan realizes it’s that person who was watching her since she finds her money pouch at her stack of clothes she left behind. Shinkan is in tears because her precious chainmail praised by Goblin Slayer is stolen. And she has to wear this oversized gear. Later Sword Maiden visits Goblin Slayer to give him a book he wants to research. So he is not going to company a crying girl? Well, I bet Sword Maiden wants his company more. He talks about a dagger he received from his dad. A good dagger. But he somehow misplaced it. Sword Maiden says she will be having a meeting with the king tomorrow and will bring up this issue.

So we see the men bringing up several issues while he was gone. This includes the strange religion of God of Wisdom that is apparently not the same as God of Knowledge spreading its teachings as well as the completion of several training facilities in various cities and guilds. Then Sword Maiden brings up no sign of disarray in the world although there are more displaced people and orphans. And also her friend’s clothes have been stolen and to exterminate all goblins! Well okay, the king will have someone look into it. Suddenly an emergency message. A girl in a priestess garb hitched a ride with a merchant outside the kingdom walls. But soon they were attacked by goblins. The merchant managed to run away and ride back here but that poor girl he realized to late is the princess has been kidnapped! Obviously the king needs to do something but not blow this scandal out of proportion. Imagine what others would think if they send a full squad just to save his little sister who went straying herself. As they deduce the goblins are making their nest up north, Sword Maiden believes that is where the Dungeon of the Dead lies. They rest need a trustworthy person to deal with the goblins and they appoint her to handle this. Uhm, Sword Maiden looking scared? But no fear, somehow Goblin Slayer has heard it all and he will take on this case. It’s personal. Sword Maiden is so relieved.

Episode 11
The king summons that group of adventurers to check out some fallen stone in the mountains up north. If they are bad, then take it out. Before Goblin Slayer’s group leaves, Sword Maiden hands them a well drawn map of the dungeon. It seems the 4th level is where the heart of the dungeon lies. If they plan to go further deeper, they will die. Hence she gives Goblin Slayer this ribbon amulet. Once they depart, her assistant wonders if she wanted to return to adventuring. However she notes that she has become a coward and weak. Perhaps this is a sign to move on. Goblin Slayer’s group reaches the carriage as Shinkan retrieves her staff. They are unsure if this attack on the princess is staged or not. If it’s the former, it’s sloppy as hell. Outside the dungeon, they make their plans before heading. The usual ambush by goblins and wolves as they head deep into the dungeon. With too many of them, Goblin Slayer pours fuel and burns them and the rest gets sucked into his teleportation scroll to be dropped from somewhere high. Meanwhile the group of heroines are fighting a hideous monster. They are baffled goblins fell and died from the sky. Goblin Slayer’s group rides the elevator down as Elf picks up multiple footsteps and some weird smell. It is believed to be some sort of ritual being performed and is best they don’t breathe in. As they enter the chamber, they see lots of goblins and dead human bodies around. In the middle is where our princess lies. Miraculously she is still alive. And the ringleader goblin isn’t a shaman but a priest. It makes a barrier to protect the centre while the other goblin goons attack the invaders. Shinkan starts to get a bad feeling as her protection isn’t working. Then as she looks around, she realizes the princess is not being offered but as a sacrifice. All those dead humans for bloodletting. She calls upon her miracle to dispel the barrier. Goblin priest tries to take her hostage but you know what? Goblin Slayer walks over like a boss, kicks him in the nuts and kills him! OMFG!

Episode 12
Shinkan rushes over to the princess and sees she is fine. Princess gets emotional and breaks down in tears. Goblin Slayer and Lizardman try to figure out the strange ritual. They believe it is to summon some dark god. I wonder if they jinx that because the goblin priest suddenly a huge hand rips out from his body! Shinkan recognizes it as the hand of a greater demon. So I’m taking that everyone is screwed. The hand starts creating a cold blizzard. This weakens Lizardman considerably. Hey, he is reptile after all. Dwarf conjures an ice wall as the rest drink some potion to warm up. Think fast on what to do next because the hand smashes the wall! It can move too! Goblin Slayer has a plan. Having Shinkan act as a distraction, Goblin Slayer then pours petroleum. It’s too cold to light a fire so it slips. But is that all? As Goblin Slayer tries to rein it in, Shinkan uses the key to open the elevator shaft before the hand slides down. As it tries to crawl up, Shinkan calls forth a barrier to block it before the rising elevator squashes it. Wow. That easy? But okay. They take out the remnant goblins on the way out. Shinkan seeing the princess’ pitiful state, reminds of herself when she started out. When they exit the dungeon, real sh*t hits the fan as hordes of goblins are waiting outside. So they’re going to die slaying goblins? Well, don’t hope for reinforcements seeing the royalty doesn’t want word to spread that their princess got kidnapped. Thankfully, Sword Maiden and her group of warriors have arrived to slay the goblins. Goblin Slayer told her about it and it was up to her to take action. Meanwhile we see the happy masterminds discussing how they set all this up. Using the kidnapped princess as sacrifice to resurrect a dark god and in turn it will breed with something across the stars to conjure something more terrifying. If this fails, they’ll spread word of the kidnap and hence the princess’ engagement will fail as many would think she has been tainted. Their discussion ends when Knight of Diamonds (the king?) crash into the place to put a stop to their wicked ways. Back home, Shinkan rues about being stronger but Receptionist relays the good news that a certain princess has decided to become a devout faith of Shinkan. It’s not that she will become a nun, more like she wanted to be like a certain priestess. This brings tears to Shinkan’s eyes. Goblin Slayer returns home as he accepts his never ending fate to slay goblins. Yeah, we figured it out from his name. This path will remain unchanged as Ushikai welcomes him back.

Unwelcome: Attack On Goblins
Oh? Nothing changed? So can I assume that in the even that there is another season, we will be expecting more or less the same thing? After all, what is the name of this anime again? Which also so happens to be the name/nickname of our main character. So yeah, a premonition of the future. Quite simple. Fight goblins, slay them, rinse and repeat. Oh yeah. Goblin Slayer. Nothing changed. Nothing will change. So simple and understandable, don’t you think?

Honestly, this season feels a little underwhelming. I don’t know, maybe it is because I expected something more. But instead I got a season that divides itself into several mini arcs. Well, not exactly a bad thing but I suppose today’s generation might find it hard to follow an entire cour’s worth of plot. Haha. Just kidding. But seriously. So basically this season we start off with a bunch of trainee adventurers in training (kiddie fest?), followed by a return to Elf’s hometown for a wedding (WTF that dinosaur rampage felt so out of place) before the finale of a big royal capital adventure with a kidnaped princess to boot. Yeah. Basically that’s what this season is all about. Nothing really spectacular if you ask me. Heh. What was I expecting? Goblin Slayer coming face to face with the ultimate goblin adversary, the Goblin God! The one who creates all goblins to rape all women in this world! OMFG. Yeah. Dream on.

Perhaps the perception that this season is going to be gorier and more terrifying has been etched in my expectations. After last season’s opener whereby terrifying goblins raped terrified women, the tone has been somewhat set for this series. Sure, there are lots of goblins getting killed, smashed, sliced and the likes. But it was nowhere near the level of goriness I remembered from last season. There weren’t even such controversial scenes of women getting raped and even so, those disturbing scenes of women being tortured and turning into goblins’ playthings are for a couple of few seconds. True, still disturbing on its own right but it so rare that I think you have better chances of finding a unicorn! Just exaggerating but you get what I mean. Like I’ve said, I’ve come to expect the unsettling theme this series has to offer but as far as I have seen, they’re mostly lukewarm. And to think they put up that same warning of graphic violence at the start of every episode… Yeah, the newer generation must be so weak!

The characters are a mixed baggage. For Goblin Slayer and co, they’re pretty much the same people we know from the first season. To even quote it in Goblin Slayer’s words: Nothing changed! You said that right. Goblin Slayer living up to his name to slay goblins without any mercy. What else do you expect of him? Since he is only interested in slaying goblins and not much of other races, uhm, will he do it if that particular creature identifies itself as a goblin? Oh no! Keep identity politics out of this anime!!! Dwarf and Elf’s banter this season seems to have toned down a bit and they don’t jab each other as much as I remember they used to last season. If I remembered that correctly, that is. Cheese loving Lizardman still fights on the frontlines with Goblin Slayer to add more offensive power while Shinkan continues to struggle with self-esteem issues albeit not that bad. She still shows signs of vulnerability but she’s learning and gaining experience from each outing.

Another reason why I felt this season is underwhelming is because if you remember last season, Goblin Slayer and co were fighting a formidable goblin champion. Goblin Slayer almost died and his comrades almost got done in. Yeah, that was nail biting and distressing. But the gang was nowhere close to any such dangers this season. Despite the drama angles showing they might be in danger, there was never a second I felt they would be knocking on death’s door. Even the final episode where they fought a huge demon hand, perhaps it only took us by surprise because it was an unprecedented enemy. But after a while and calming down, you realize that it wasn’t so much of a threat either. Yeah, it got defeated by an elevator! Sheesh. So perhaps last season as a new ragtag group, they were still rookies. Now that they have adventured numerous times together, they have better teamwork and experience. Good for them but for us viewers, pretty much bland and numbing to see them doing their usual goblin slaying.

This season showcases a bit more on Sword Maiden but nothing conclusive. Though, it shows that she is even more insecure than before because of her past trauma. It makes her feel a lot more vulnerable than before. If she had the tenacity like Goblins Slayer, she would be his female version seeing she wants all goblins dead! Too bad the way she is now, she doesn’t have the balls (technically!) to even face them. It makes me wonder if she likes Goblin Slayer because she helps gives her a peace of mind by killing goblins or truly of the romantic kind. Well, you do notice some of her advances at him, right? But that guy obviously has nothing but killing goblins on his mind. That’s why even Ushikai and Receptionist continue to play the waiting game. Maybe once all the goblins have been killed. Then maybe. Just maybe… Hence that trip back to Elf’s hometown felt like some sort of excuse to have a bit of fanservice and remind us that they are still around. Otherwise they would have fallen into obscurity. There’s only so much a pretty face and boobs could do. Oh never mind, at least we got to see Ushikai’s tits up close. Gee, thanks?

One of the surprises this season for me was I thought Majutsushi was going to become Goblin Slayer’s new teammate. Hence this season’s new permanent character. Then what do you know? He decided to go on his own journey. It made me wonder what the heck his character was for and that the entirety of the first mini arc for this season. Is it just to link him with one of Shinkan’s dead comrades? Is that it? Some goblin related tragedy? So that Goblin Slayer could have some sort of connection? Oh you know, both guys have dead sisters caused by goblins. Uh huh. Wow. So pitiful. In a way, it felt redundant but my guts tell me that in future stories, they will meet up again.

As we all know, one of the unique things of this series is that all the characters here are identified based on their profession. While it is great for those who can’t remember characters’ names (sometimes I am guilty of this) but once there are too many characters and some seemingly have overlapping jobs, that’s when the confusion starts. You don’t know how to label them unless the characters somewhat mentions it. Especially in the final arc at the royal capital, there are a lot of new faces. Since I’m not well versed in fantasy themes, I guess I’m going to have to label them on how they look. Like that king’s counsel who has a dog head character… Too bad everyone else are humans… Oh God… Trying to identify them is going to be a pain!

I want to note something about the art and animation, although mostly consistent with last season, however I noticed that many of the action or rather goblin killing scenes, they felt rather stiff. Perhaps another reason why this season feels underwhelming. Yes, the violence and blood are there but watching them slay goblins with such stiff animation, you could say it took some of the enjoyment out of it. Not sure if this is because Lidenfilms took over from White Fox that caused the drop in this segment.

Voice acting, last season’s casts are retained and of course there are lots of new ones this season. As said, the lack of character having real names now contribute to my confusion so yeah, I don’t know which adventurer or fighter is which. They might have to go so far as to add more descriptions like Long-Red-Haired-Female-Warrior-With-Scar-On-Her-Left-Cheek-In-A-Skimpy-Dress-Wielding-A-Big-Black-Sword-And-Wings. I hope it doesn’t get that long and complicated!!! Anyway, the few new ones that I would note include Mariya Ise as Majutsushi, Sayumi Suzushiro as Rhea, Shinichiro Miki as the king and Rina Hidaka as the princess. The opening theme, Entertainment by Mili tries to sound epic with all those epic choir voices. But with the singer’s voice sounding strange, this dramatic piece comes off as weird rather than epic. At least the ending theme, Kasumi No Mukou E by Yuki Nakashima despite being a generic rock outfit at least sounds more decent.

Overall, this season did not impress me and if I should go so far as to call it a disappointment. I expected more even though I should have known better myself. Well, a series of this calibre should have at least taken things up a notch or to the next level. It did not and what we mostly got is watered down goblin massacring numbness and the likes. Controversial or not, it is up to us to decide. I don’t know, I keep blaming current generation for being snowflakes and unable to take the heat and that’s why things didn’t go all out as it was supposed to. To be fair, the light novel is still ongoing so in the future they might adapt another season. Not sure how many years that would take, though. We’ll see when the time comes. But as far as this second season is concerned, unfortunately I wasn’t slayed at all. Yup, nothing changed.

Seiken Gakuin No Makentsukai

Looks like another really familiar plot. Now where have I heard this kind of scenario again? Character in the past is weak or losing. Decides to reincarnate himself many years or rather centuries into the future to be awakened as a stronger version. However things have vastly changed. Although he is still stronger but the people of the current era has either weakened or using a totally different concept. Yeah. I know I heard is somewhere before too and I’m too freaking lazy to name it. Because Seiken Gakuin No Makentsukai also shares this very similar notion. And why do they always have to make it a high school theme too? Old new kid in town need to relearn all that has changed through the millennia? Yeah, history lessons are going to be a killer… Oh wait, what’s this about his original timeline not included in history lessons and records? Oh never mind. Just train up using new holy swords to fight new age monsters. With his group of girls harem. School days never been this fun…

Episode 1
Looks like the fate of good versus evil is about to be decided. The heroes advancing on the last stronghold left of the Demon Lord who laments either his other comrades have long fallen or betrayed him. The only thing left for our Ains-sama Demon Lord is to go into slumber and awaken only 1000 years in the future. Fast forward a millennia later, we see Riselia “Selia” Ray Crystalia and her maid, Regina Mercedes exploring some tomb ruins. Like all such people do, just simply touch anything suspicious! Selia opens a secret chamber to see a huge crystal before her. Flashback shows before the Demon Lord went into slumber, he went to see Roselia and vowed to find a human child as vessel for her power. And just like that she left him. Now our Demon Lord awakens to some noisy sound. WTF, Selia thinks she can break through this hard crystal with her pea shooter?! Demon Lord thinks she is some grave robber and soon breaks out from his slumber. He soon realizes he has taken form of a human child and looks especially like the hero, Leonis “Leo” Magnus. Did his reincarnation fail? He assumes that role and probably another awakening as Selia smothers him in her boobs. Selia is kind enough to share her food but Leo will keep her company to find out more about this time line. Apparently enemies of mankind known as Void has popped up 64 years ago and she thinks Leo is a victim, kidnapped and encased here. Hence Selia was here to conduct investigations on Void. Don’t look now because there is one ogre Void materializing. Seriously, Selia thinks she can do damage with her pea shooter?! At least Regina’s hand cannon packs a punch! This is more like it! Leo is stumped because her firepower (which isn’t magic) is equivalent to some high level magic. As they escape, more wyvern Voids pop up. Selia protects Leo and gets fatally killed! Leo is not amused this mere human protected him. How dare you do this to my info machine. So Leo summons his staffs and easily defeats the Voids. Though, he notes his strength has reduced tremendously. Leo then uses his basic spell to heal up Selia. Yes, back to life. Selia doesn’t know what happened but she’s glad everything is okay. However she is stumped when he explains his sorcery. Only then Leo realizes humans in this era relies on magic technology and has little to no magic power. Rendezvousing with Regina, they return to base as Regina tries to sexually tease him and turn him into a pervert?! Leo is amazed with the last human’s stronghold, Seventh Assault Garden (7AG). It was built to fight against Voids and it houses countless holy swords used for that fight.

Episode 2
Flashback 6 years ago when a heavy assault was launched on the Third Assault Garden (3AG). Civilians stayed safe in a bunker. A young Selia and Regina were there too. But in the aftermath, although the civilians stayed safe, the entre place is destroyed and all the holy knights that included the whole of Selia’s family perished. Leo further learns this stronghold is a mega float that goes around to hunt Voids. Selia will go do some registration so that he can enrol in the Excalibur Academy. Those who show such potential have to enrol there. Alone for a while, Leo summons his familiars from his shadows, Shary the maid and Blackas the wolf. Leo is frustrated things have turned out this way. The plan was to rebuild his army and bring humanity to its knees. And now we have human advancing in technology and a new enemy to begin with? He has his familiars to gather more info on the humans while he does the same by infiltrating as an academy student. After getting his ID, Selia takes him around the place. Yes, it is way bigger and much more technologically advance than his own fortress! As Selia brings him back to her dorm, they stumble into this typical senpai bully, Musel Rhodes. Obviously this guy mocks Selia for having no holy powers despite being in a lineage of one and he wants her to join his platoon. Obviously Selia rejects him. He doesn’t take that too kindly and starts to harass her. Leo can’t stand this and uses a sliver of his magic to force him to his knees and warn him not to touch her. He wanted to fight back until Elfine “Fine” Phillet threatens to show video proof of his harassment. Bye. Selia introduces Leo to Fine who is a data analysis of Selia’s platoon. Leo learns more that based on merits, platoons get better dorms. So you can say that Selia’s dorm isn’t the best but it looks comfortable. Yeah, poor Leo doesn’t even know how the toilet works or bathe himself. Then Selia sexually assaults him in the bath. JUST KIDDING!!! Yeah, time to force in some Selia fanservice. After all, Leo is only a kid, RIGHT???!!! No shame needed! When Selia suddenly starts to feel weak and drop dead, Leo activates something to return her back to normal. Then he apologizes about healing her. That was a lie. He cannot revive the dead. That’s right. The real Selia is actually dead!

Episode 3
Even 2 years ago, Musel was trying to court Selia into joining his platoon but of course Regina was there to shoo him off. Selia was bitter she couldn’t summon a holy sword and it wasn’t to keep that scumbag off her back. Leo explains to Selia that she needed his blood to replenish her mana. Explaining himself as a reincarnated ancient sorcerer, he only had that choice of saving her and now she is his minion. In fact, it went better than expected so now she is more like a vampire queen. Selia also takes this chance to explain how her entire family killed when Voids attacked her homeland. She and Regina stayed safe in a shelter and in the aftermath, Excalibur took them in. As they go have lunch, to Leo’s dismay, his ultimate gold coin has no value! What’s this about credits and silver? Curses, he saved so much to build up his army… Then they see Sakuya Sieglinde beating up pesky bouncers. It seems she gambled all her money last night and they want some payback. Yeah, they got it in a different way. She is part of Selia’s platoon and her ultimate goal is to kill all Voids because they destroyed her home and killed everybody. Another revenge case. During Leo’s magic inquiry, Leo overdid it and instantly destroys the drones, causing everyone to be shocked. Instead of preparing for another alternative simulation, Musel suggests fighting him. So basically in this team match, if Musel wins, Selia joins his side. Otherwise he must give up on her forever. During the mock fight, Selia gets paralyzed by Musel’s spell. Because of her great will to protect Leo, not only she breaks out of it but summons her own holy sword. Finally. As she breaks his holy sword, the coward gives up. Back at the dorm, Selia wants Leo to help make her stronger and although she doesn’t get this minion thingy, she thinks he wants her to play his big sister. Selia and co celebrate Leo’s induction into the platoon as well as Selia getting her holy sword. Leo gets analysed by Fine as she explains about her holy sword. She was once an attacker but saw some of her friends die in a Void attack. Her holy sword lost its abilities after that and she subsequently joined Selia’s platoon. Later Leo finds some correlation between outbreaks of Voids and locations of his ancient battles. Blackas reports some massive power plant that powers the floating island so Leo wants to get his hands on it. As for Shary, it seems nobody knows about him or the great war that happened before. Though, she is jealous Leo has undertaken another minion.

Episode 4
Flashback when Leo was a human and a hero! After the defeat of some Demon Lord, he was tasked to fight some gargoyles in some lowly village. However it was a trap as his fellow humans killed him. It seems Leo didn’t want money and riches but rather the idea of taming monsters was just too much for the nobles and royals to handle. So what better way than to kill him off, right? That was when Roselia popped up before him and asked his opinion if the world is just. Well, Leo had a hunch this would happen and accepts the sh*tty world as it was. Since Roselia wanted to rebel against the world and had her eyes on him, she revived him to join her. Fine contacts Selia about some meeting of the higher ups today on their off day. It seems some marine survey team has gone missing and the meeting could be a coincidence. So we see these people talk about the survey team that they have lost contact with and the possibility of some Void that has mutated. Yeah, not really sure what’s going on but a follow up order by the commander to further investigate. Obviously. Meanwhile Leo trains Selia. To help her become stronger, he summons his lowly skeleton minions for her to train. Easy pickings. As thanks, she wants to treat him to a great restaurant she knows. Meanwhile Sakuya sees Blackas and finds this doggie outside the dorm. She makes friends and even gives him a name. Mr Fluffy Wuffy Black Fur?! After buying a few food stuffs, Selia takes Leo to the orphanage that she frequents. The kids are impressed with Leo but why the sad face? He notes this is the place Selia wants to protect while reminiscing that his own place is gone. The place he wanted to protect is no more. As the follow up team investigates, looks like whatever Void thingy they were looking for is now missing. Then in the food storage, lots of strange vines everywhere and it seems a small vibration can be felt all over 7AG.

Episode 5
Flashback when Leo was still a hero and 12 years old to boot, a city was being attacked by monsters. Arakael Degradios wanted to use magic to burn everything including the citizens and then let Tearis Resurrectia heal them later. However Leo won’t allow that and singlehandedly defeated all the monsters by himself. He was successful as the crowd cheered on him. But Arakael feared that with such power, he will dig his own grave. Fine contacts the higher ups about her findings. Long story short, they seem pretty surprised that a Void might have infiltrated the place. And as for why they didn’t detect it, how it got in and other stuffs, didn’t really understand all that technicality but it seems this one has intelligence as it moves rapidly through the underground maintenance systems. Looks like it is heading towards the core crystal and it might trigger a Stampede. You don’t think those puny humans could stop those vines and branches from invading, huh? Well yeah, too late. Time to turn this place into a fortress and evacuate the citizens to the shelter. So sorry to cut your day at the orphanage. The alert is sounded as portals now open above and Voids flowing out. Those puny turrets can take them all? Looks like a video game… Selia has no time to be traumatized and needs to face reality. Obviously it is also for Leo to strut his stuff as he pulls off his devastating magic moves. Too bad in this form, it slows down his chanting and from the way I see it, it is not really that efficient in taking down the Void, although he did take down a mega colossal Void. I wonder what class is that Hydra one. When the ground splits asunder, vines start to grab all over Selia and pull her in. This is not the kind of tentacle rape I envision! Then the vines start to talk and call out to Leo. Leo knows this is Arakael.

Episode 6
Flashback when Leo just awakened as a Demon Lord, he revelled in his new powers. To celebrate his victory, Roselia gave him a gift. It was a holy sword but since it would be unfitting of it, she turned it into a demon sword. But there is a condition if he were to use it. Now Leo knows that Arakael is using Selia to bait and lure him in. He’ll play his game. Leo and Blackas discuss how Arakael have changed and now he is some Void monster. Because he is resurrected, it could mean that Roselia is alive somewhere out there. Leo puts a protective barrier on the orphanage and then has Shary help protect Selia’s pals fighting the relentless Void waves. Leo and Blackas charge into the core crystal to face Arakael who has taken over the entire place. Arakael is shocked to know Leo did not perished a thousand years ago. He claims he is going to rebuild the world with the Empty Star and that is why he has been chosen to do all this. Not that Leo cares for all that now. Because this place is Arakael’s domain, their magic grows weaker. Selia realizes she cannot be a damsel in distress and needs to help fight. She tries to resist all the roots tying her down. Enough for Leo to find her and then throw her a little of his blood to power her up into a vampire queen and break free. Arakael uses his ultimate magic that will burn everything down including himself. Hence Leo needs Selia to buy him time as he makes his preparations to kill this guy for good. This time he is going to use his demon sword. And the condition to unleash it? To protect his kingdom. Gee, that sounds so flimsy but I guess if Leo is going to claim this whole place and citizens as his own, then I suppose it is. The ultimate slash from Dainsleif destroys every bit of Arakael. This means no more new Voids and the rest are slowly whittled down. Yeah, the higher ups are even surprised they survived this damn thing! You mean they didn’t have hope?! You people got lucky. Selia and Leo reunite with the rest of their friends. In the aftermath, Selia wants to drink a bit of Leo’s blood since she consumed too much energy. He allows it and her friends walk in to see this unholy stuff. How is she going to explain her way out of this?!

Episode 7
The city undergoes reconstruction. Leo tries to get access to the vault to get more info but some spirit stops him for lack of credits or permissions. However thanks to Regina’s hacking, they manage to enter as Leo learns that spirits are now artificial and manmade. The original ones were gone when Void invaded. They get a message to attend a commendation ceremony for a select few. It will take place on SS Hyperion and hosted by the imperial princess, Altiria Ray O’ltriese. Meanwhile a few races include Bastea Colossuf (black lion), Jakt (elf), Gerdr Honzak (werewolf), Jiraf (leopard – a leopard named giraffe…???) and Elza (goblin) known collectively as Alpha Wolf Alliance (AWA) are planning to hijack SS Hyperion and abduct Altiria so as to free their brethren imprisoned in the capital. They are approached by dark elf, Sharnak who can help them achieve that. She gives Bastea a holy sword that powers him up. In exchange, she wants the holy sword users alive to be sacrificed to some goddess. Selia and her platoon (minus Regina) board the ship but stumble into this haughty Fenris Edelritz. Typical childhood friend and b*tch trope. AWA kill some guards to steal their faces and impersonate as them. Yeah, this ship has the princess and you think security will be tight everywhere…

As Leo studies the documents, he comes to believe that somebody is deliberately trying to cover up the past as there are no mentions of the wars, the heroes or Demon Lords. Even more so convenient as many of the documents got lost during the Void invasion. Shary comes to report on how this ship operates but soon Leo is distracted by Selia. In a swimsuit! Swimsuit episode?! Leo declines to go swimming with them so she takes it he can’t swim. He can teach her. Poor Leo has to suck up his pride and learn swimming. Yeah, don’t want those orphanage kids to best him in swimming, no? Bastea kills Altiria’s closest aide and takes her hostage. Right before the ceremony begins, the other AWA members hold all the guests hostage. Leo decides to go do some investigation and disappears into his shadow. Well, those terrorists didn’t do a headcount on their hostages? Especially the holy sword wielders whom they’re supposed to keep alive?! Altiria is forced to set the ship to the capital. But there are Voids detected ahead. Don’t want to fight them now, right? However Sharnak tells her to remain on course since her goal is to taint the holy sword wielders for the offering. She doesn’t care less about AWA’s objectives. Bastea gets mad and tries to kill her but she burns him. Nobody suspecting why the ship is leaving way ahead of schedule? Luckily Altiria’s pet manages to find Regina outside. She gets the message and jumps on board. Leo is lost but stumbles into Regina. She pleads to save her little sister. So Regina is royalty related?!

Episode 8
As explained, according to some stupid legend, anyone born some red shining star in the sky brings bad luck. In accordance with their stupid law, such child must be killed. But Duke Crystalia begged to the king for the child not to be killed. He agreed and the child was left abandoned in the forest. Shortly, Lord Edward who was one of Crystalia’s sons, took that child home. To hide her identity, she serves as Selia’s maid. And so that’s pretty much about Regina’s royalty secret in which only her comrades knows. She is here to see her sister from afar and is briefed by Leo about the situation. So Altiria’s pet is called a Carbuncle and looks like some discount Eevee and this spirit is what pilots the ship? Whatever. They go to the deck to see nobody around. The ship is powered by artificial spirits. The only way is for Regina to have some telepathy communication with Altiria. Masquerading herself as some spirit medium, Altiria tells her to prioritize the ship. Hence Regina must make way to the lower deck to take control of it while Leo promises to rescue the princess. Fenris causes some scene. Don’t even know how the f*ck she manages to tackle Gerder with her hands tied! This is the much needed distraction needed for Selia and Fine to disarm the bomb and destroy the detonator in Jakt’s hand. Wow. This easy to take down AWA?! Must be a joke.

But the ship has entered a Void reef and now mermen are attacking the ship. Our heroines go protect the citizens and there is one Brain Eater showing up. This is one ugly octopus mother. Sakuya wants to leave this one to her. Regina takes control of the ship to turn it around to safer waters although the Void attack is still relentless. Luckily Shary from the shadows help protect the humans when things get too overwhelming. Leo contacts Selia to go protect Regina as he updates her on the situation. Sharnak forces Altiria into the plane and they’re going to take off. Too bad for stupid Jiraf being left behind and killed by the Void. The plane cannot take off seeing Leo is using his magic to bring it down. Sharnak doesn’t believe he is the Demon Lord and attacks. Magic doesn’t work on him, silly. Because he was the one who created that magic! He forces her to spill the beans. Trying to corrupt the holy sword wielders to sacrifice them to some goddess to make a demon sword. But before she could spill that goddess’ name, she is killed off by a Demon Lord slayer sword, Zolgstar Mezekis. Well, this sword is now some Void Lord and can teleport. Oh Leo, you mean to look this shock? Surprisingly Regina takes control of the ship’s arsenals and fires away. So this stops the sword in its tracks? With Selia coming to aid Leo, this gives him enough time to summon Dainsleif and the rest is history. In the aftermath, Altiria rewards and praises the heroines. But Leo and Regina did not attend due to circumstances. Altiria ‘understands’. Leo is back home with sores all over his body. Regina nurses him and gives him a peck as thanks. Just don’t tell Selia.

Episode 9
Humans are trying to smoke out the remnants of AWA. Suddenly they are temporarily petrified by Demon Lord Zol Vadis (LEO?!) and he wants these fugitives to pledge their loyalty to him. Having no choice, they agree so he provides them a place of refuge to train up. All the epic awesomeness is ruined when Selia calls Leo for his whereabouts. Dang. Gotta go! Now we see some capture the flag battle between Selia’s platoon and Fenris. Let’s say everybody is all over the place. Fenris wants to settle whatever score with Selia and confidently goes to face her instead of protecting her flag. Selia gets owned at first but the script says she will have a comeback so Selia breaks free from her icy chains and defeats her. Did Fenris get so scared that she fainted?! Anyway, it’s Selia’s win so now she can have some bragging rights. The victory boosts their morale as they vow to keep up the good work. They could sure use some teamwork. WTF they allow Leo to bath with them?! Not surprising at this point… Meanwhile a Void Lord, Nefakess (NE-F*CKERS WHAT?!) is feeding demon swords to awaken his goddess. Selia’s platoon is soon called in for a mission. Radar has picked up the appearance of 3AG. Estimation is that it will come across 7AG’s path in a week. It seems they also picked up distress signals from it but they aren’t sure if it’s malfunction or something. Hence the team is investigate if there are any survivors as well as inspect its power plant and shut down the navigation system. So why choose them? Is it because it is Selia’s hometown? Leo can tell the humans want to use Selia to make her as the hero. So I guess this means no other reinforcements. As they take a plane there, Regina hijacks Leo from Selia and digs his ears? Such pleasant feeling… This brings back memories of Roselia lying on Leo’s lap. It was then Roselia told him her time is almost up and she will disappear but reincarnate a thousand years in the future. When that happens, she hopes he could find her no matter what form she takes. He promised to do so. Landing on the ruined 3AG, seems to be pretty nostalgic for Selia and Regina. They split up but soon Selia and Leo encounter a huge Void mother. Selia couldn’t avoid a falling beam as it falls over and traps her. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.

Episode 10
It seems an elf hero named Arle Kirlesio has been transported here from a thousand years ago. She is not pleased with her new and different surroundings although she vows to complete her mission. She is then confronted by Nefakess who believes she is here to destroy the goddess’ vessel. This gives himself away as the goddess’ guardian so Arle wastes no time in attacking him. However he has no time to play with her so he sends his huge Void to fight back. Leo manages to teleport Selia to safety as he fights this angel Void. He notes it is trying to mimic angel magic so he is going to show who’s boss and destroys it with his superior magic. When he tends to Selia (regeneration will take a while from such injuries), suddenly ghosts pop up! Selia recognizes the crest and they serve her family. William Richmond is glad to see her again and apparently they are the ones who sent the distress signal. However it is not to be rescued but as warning. At this rate, 7AG will experience a similar fate as 3AG since a new Void Lord has appeared here. Damn, these ghosts can summon a limo for Selia to be chauffeured back to her old mansion?! Don’t mind the slow speed. Thank goodness for Leo’s undead horses to pull it faster. Meanwhile at Regina’s side, they stumble into Arle. Thinking she is a survivor, however Arle attacks them as she thinks they are Nefakess’ underlings. Sakuya fights her but soon stops the match after noticing she is injured. Selia can’t contain herself and drinks Leo’s blood. Sorry, this scene doesn’t look sexy at all. Leo is ‘saved’ when Fine contacts Selia. They exchange info and agree to meet up at her old mansion. Leo then gives Selia a dress. Wearing it amplifies her physical attributes but it takes a lot of mana so use it wisely. As the rest treat Arle, Fine wants to know about her because she is not in the database of 3AG or 7AG. She says she is given a task to vanquish the goddess. She doesn’t want to be associated with them anymore but with those injuries and growling stomach, you bet she can’t go anywhere. Selia arrives at her old mansion. Destroyed. Lots of memories flooding through her mind. Since she is getting emotional, the ghosts put up some hallucination to rebuild the place so she could see even fonder memories with father. Wow. So real. But then Nefakess pops up. Selia wonders if he is a survivor. However he gets insulted for being mistaken as a human and attacks her! Once again, Selia’s injured. Oh Leo, have you finished your own reminiscing and get your ass over here!

Episode 11
A bit more in detail as we see a young Selia distraught her family was going off to fight the Void. Father told her to remember her duties but also mentioned about the Demon Lord in the fairytale. He will appear in their most needed hour to defeat the Voids. No kidding. Now, keeping Selia safe from Nefakess’ blast are 3 undead warriors of Rognas named Amilas, Dorug and Nefisgal. They are Leo’s subordinates and summoned via key chains Leo gave her. Nefakess is surprised Leo’s magic surpasses his. When a loud roar is heard, Nefakess believes his role is over. Tearis who played a role in all this will awaken and destroy the world. Nefakess escapes as Leo remembers his as a retainer to one of the Demon Lords. A huge angel Void Lord pops up and Leo can tell she is made from the flesh of Tearis who was one of the heroes. Everyone fights the smaller angel Voids but it keeps regenerating until they realize they have to finish off the head. Like zombies? Okay. When Leo’s ultimate fire spell doesn’t even burn Tearis, he needs Selia to buy time so he can prepare Dainsleif. However as he readies to use it, the sword resonates and he hears Roselia’s voice coming from Tearis. Did Roselia turn into a Void Lord?! He cannot accept this and gets reckless. Because of that, he gets pierced by one of the projectiles. Lying in Selia’s arms, he wants her to escape. Feeling guilty of what he made of her, he wants her to drink all his blood and escape as he remembers the other promise Roselia wanted him to keep: If she ever turned into something else, she wanted him to kill her. Obviously Leo will not abide by that. He is confused if Roselia got corrupted by the Void, why was his resurrection needed? There is no point being here if Roselia isn’t herself anymore.

Episode 12
Thanks to Selia’s blood, Leo revives as he deduces her blood must be the trigger that has him remember those memories. Therefore this demon sword was given to him to guide his fate. He vows not to fail. Of course now he needs to take care of the Void Lord but he needs time. William and the rest are willing to fight alongside them. Thus Leo gives them possess his skeleton warriors as a vessel to fight. They need to buy him time as he powers up Dainsleif. Everyone fights the angel Voids and meanwhile Fine’s side, they manage to start up their vehicles as they make way to where Selia is. Along the way, they encounter those angel Voids but thanks to Shary keeping them at bay from the shadows, they are at least guaranteed an uninterrupted ride. When they arrive near to the Void Lord, Arle then unleashes a powerful blast that injures it. This is the much needed assist Leo needs because it’s about time Dainsleif is ready. He fires a holy light (from a demon sword?!) that disintegrates the Void Lord and all its minions. With the battle over, William and the rest have no more regrets and cross over to the other side. They hope Selia will continue to keep their house name flying. Everyone reunites and what great coincidence, Fenris’ group arrives to pick them up. Gee, it’s like they avoided the entire fight entirely. On the way back, Leo cannot help wonder why the elf hero is in this era. Noticing Selia reading a fairytale about the Demon Lord, she explains how it goes. Well, certainly the Demon Lord doesn’t breathe fire! Nonsense! But this proves that even the true legend is erased from history and reduced to some childish tale. The ultimate nonsense? Everyone defeats the Demon Lord and lives happily ever after! Trash tale! Back home, Leo talks to Blackas and Shary about Nefakess. The next time they see him, they’ll have to force him to spill the beans because certain that Void Lord was a fake Roselia. As for Arle, she is being detained at a medical facility and remains unconscious. Fanservice time as Selia comes in dressed in a towel and sits next to Leo before raping him drinking his blood. Does she have to make it sound so pervy? Fine trying to uncover any relation of recent events. And what’s this? A certain file protected with heavy layers of protection. Suspicious! Arle wakes up and realizes since she has not faded, it means her mission is done. Then she breaks out so easily! Oh well, I guess they don’t place guards at medical facilities. Leo reminds us all about his vow to find Roselia and will continue to dominate until every last human territory belongs to him.

Dull & Void
As expected nothing gets really resolved. More questions than answers. So if that is how they want to play series in today’s time, so be it. Because I’m not going to bother with them at all! Hmph! Everyone can continue to play house until the next Void threat and then they can switch mode and play heroes of justice and cut down some monsters before going back to their usual lives. Rinse and repeat. Wow. Living in such an era must be so exciting. Thank goodness I’m not. But instead I got this kind of anime instead. Yeah, come to think of it, I don’t know who got it worse. Whatever.

Once again, I have to admit that I am not impressed with this season’s storyline despite having some sort of potential and development. But I am figuring those interesting bits felt more like to keep us viewers watching in hopes that there would be some sort of big twist or reveal in the story somewhere. Sorry, even if there was, it was so miniscule in comparison that it wasn’t worth the value for this season. For instance, one of the biggest questions surrounding this whole era is what happened to the thousand year history. Obviously somebody must have had a hand in changing history textbooks. That sounds very likely but since nothing concrete came of it, I’m going to call my conspiracy that Leo actually got the isekai treatment!!! Why this future has no history of his past? And why are there different monsters called Voids terrorizing the land? Because he is in another world, silly!!! OMG! So until they make some sort of concrete evidence, I’m going to go with my ‘superior’ conspiracy theories. Yeah. Sounds more interesting that way!

Therefore as I can see for this season, the plot just meanders everywhere and went nowhere at the same time. Confusing? Yeah. So was I. Like I said, they tried to keep us viewers glued to this series with the enigma of what has significantly changed in this era but no real answers in sight. Hence for the most part of this season, we see Leo awakened from his thousand yearlong slumber, gets picked up by a couple of cute girls, joins a group with cute girls, fumbles his way through his new discoveries (although with his Demon Lord powers he manages to get by), fights some Voids, protects his subjects, rinse and repeat. So are we closer to find out what those Voids really are? Not really. I’m going to bet since they come via opening portals, hence they must be from another world, right?! OMG. Isekai monsters attacking our isekai humans! Or maybe it is judgment day for these homo sapiens and God has sent his angels to destroy us all. Hey, don’t believe those make believe angels from Hollywood whereby they look freaking beautiful and gorgeous! Real angels in the bible are freaking hideous!!! Reality check!

Sorry but not sorry, the characters themselves are boring and generic as they can be. As we all veterans know, we’ve seen Leo’s character and setting somewhere before in past animes. Oh you know, main character goes into slumber so he can be a more powerful version of himself in the future. And since his power isn’t 100% fully awakened, hence this form as a kid which also serves as total plot convenience. Because as a kid, nobody takes him that seriously. Yet. Nobody gives him the attention he deserves. Yet. He’s just a kid so ignore him. Furthermore, it gives an excuse for some fanservice moments. I mean, Leo is a kid, a young boy. Hence everybody’s mind set is that little boys don’t do sexual assaults and thus a very safe bet. Uh huh. Nobody freaks out (as in call in the cops) when they change and hell, they even invite him to bathe together naked in the bath!!! OMG! These girls are so f-*cking trusting!!! It’s the only way this show can bait viewers with its fanservice. Otherwise it will be close to none. Therefore Leo x Selia romance feels unlikely at this point because it would be some creepy shotacon fest if you ask me. Sheesh. So big sister role is the most we get now. Oh, what was I talking about again? Oh right. Leo. So anyway, as he makes adjustments to his new life in the future, he also learns a few new things but there’s nothing that his old rudimentary magic cannot do to save the day. You know, lost ancient magic or science will always best the ones that are being used today. I don’t know why, but it’s always the case.

Then there is Selia whom I am going to call out as the reincarnation of Roselia. Yeah, notice the similarities in their name for starters? This is the reason why Leo was inclined and drawn to her in the first place, right? Why would some Demon Lord like him save a puny human like her? Something about her that has him unconsciously care for her. And that is because she is Roselia! Don’t they look the same too? Oh heck, many of the female characters have that one kind look. So yeah, Leo promising Roselia to search high and low, till the ends of the Earth to find her and here she is right under his nose. I won’t be surprised if they make this reveal. I would be if they don’t. Anyway, Selia being a kind hearted woman is typical for her main character. Remember, she sticks close to Leo mainly because she is dependent on his blood. In a way, forcing both characters to be dependent on each other. One mistake I predicted was that I wasn’t expecting her to get her holy sword so soon. Perhaps towards the end of the season where she would have some sort of awakening but I guess she needed to get her own holy sword fast just to dispel naysayers like me and as well it would be more palatable to see her go into action with a proper weapon. AND NOT WITH A FREAKING PEA SHOOTER! Yikes.

The rest of the other girls in the platoon fail to be memorable and to me, they’re there just to show that Selia has her own bunch of trustworthy friends she can rely on. First, there’s her maid Regina who yeah, plot twist, royalty related! So what does that do to her or anything for the story? Nothing. They trolled us by making her sound like some pervert (remember, she wanted to turn Leo into a pervert?!) but that died out fast and became forgettable. Then there is Sakuya because every group needs a swordswoman. So uhm, what’s this about her that she hates Voids and wants them all dead? Is she the Eren of this series? Kill all Titans Voids! Yeah, so, what of that? Nothing. Then there is Fine because every group needs some sort of intelligence gathering character and that’s what her character is for. So how does that affect everything else? Nothing. Don’t forget the childhood trope. Because girls like Selia must have one and make that the rivalry kind. That’s you, Fenris. B*tch girl just wants to tops Selia in everything but so as not to make her as bad as she sounds, in moments of crisis, she is pretty useful. But other than that, does her character do anything more besides to introduce her to this setting? Nothing.

With Leo as a Demon Lord calibre, obviously he is going to have a few loyal underlings. While Blackas may be serious and the pet mascot of the series, the more amusing one is Shary. I believe she is the ‘best’ character (term used very loosely) otherwise the series would’ve been even more boring with its bland characters. You see, this selfish maid subordinate only wants nothing to be in Leo. Heck, she could be in love with him for all we know. Therefore when Leo gives orders or comments that are somewhat against her wishes, she would often make snarky remarks or click her tongue. You could say that she is the only one who would dare talk back to her master. Even calling him an idiot right in his face! Much to our little boy’s chagrin. Eventually she is forced to do his orders but not really in a happy mood to do so. Yeah, they should have more Shary moments but I guess this anime is not about her. You know she is going to be an amusing character because at the end of every episode, Shary and Blackas host a very short comical segment in which they will do silly stuffs just for laughs. And it’s the only time they can get more screen time. All I can say is that Blackas is the one bearing the brunt of the pranks but his poker face means he takes it all in good sport.

While Nefakess may be one of the antagonists of the series, the funny thing that I want to point out about him is the pronunciation of his name!!! OMFG! I still can’t believe it. Here I was thinking it would be said as Ne-FAKE-ess. But when I heard his name first pronounced, OMG really, Ne-F*ck-Ass!!! SAY WHAT AGAIN???!!! Ne-F*ck-Us or was it Ne-F*ckers???!!! OMFG!!! IT’S SO DAMN HILARIOUS THAT I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING MY ASS EVEN AS I TYPE THIS!!! SAY IT ISN’T SO!!! But yeah. That’s how it is. Anyway, appearing so late into the season, he didn’t make quite an impact. This includes that elf girl who is just forgettable except that she is being distrustful. So she was sent to the future? Why do I want to scream isekai treatment? Understandably, Altiria’s moment so was that we could have a plot twist moment of Regina being her sister and that the sisters will have some sort of closure in knowing the other is okay despite not meeting face to face. What happened to that Musel guy? Will that be the last we hear of him? It feels like he is the stepping stone so that Selia can get to the next level after getting her holy sword. Good riddance. Better be Leo’s plaything than his! HAHAHA!!! Oops!

The action bits aren’t mesmerizing. They’re pretty boring to watch and nothing that exciting. I mean, Leo already has powerful spells to begin with and even some he was the creator of them. So when lowly Voids come to attack, do you think they stand a chance against this magic master? Think not. Even with Selia as his assistant slicing her sword, it all just feels boring. Regina shooting her cannon, Sakuya doing more sword dancing and Fine, whatever she’s doing with those floating balls orbs! Yawn! At time when the moment gets seemingly hopeless and that death might be the next result, here comes Shary to the rescue and then back into the shadows once more. Oh geez. And it’s like one big messy affair with Voids appearing all over the place so we see some sort of light show of bullets all over the place. And yeah, Voids turn to dust when they die so at least that helps in the effort of not cleaning up their corpses after the battle! Yawn! Even with more powerful Voids or Void Lords, sure, a bit of drama and fight but nothing like Leo and sometimes the teamwork of his platoon could do to help overcome the situation. And now seeing Leo has unlocked Dainsleif, I feel that he could be using this trump card too many times to save the day, which makes it boring. OMG. Don’t tell me he is going to use Dainsleif against Tearis. Yup, he does. Makes me wonder if he will have another ultimate trump card sword hidden to fight Void Gods. If those actually exist.

Art and animation are pretty standard. Cute looking girls especially. But I do want to note that the girls’ cuteness have this one kind look. At first I thought this series were created by the same authors who wrote Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai as I could see shades of those characters here. Such as Fenris having an uncanny resemblance to Sena whereas I swear Selia could be the grownup version of Maria. Did Kobato run away and become Regina here? Same case for Yozora, is she masquerading as Sakuya? Shary and Yukimura are maids so… With so many of such characters having such resemblance, it was obvious I would start to think that way. Turns out I was wrong and it was only a coincidence they look so. Oh well. At least that Carbuncle still looks like a discount Eevee in my books. Some CGI employed but as far as I noticed, they are only limited to Voids. Could have been better but at least they don’t look hideous. Well, some Voids do look ugly but that’s only because they’re monsters, right? Stop accusing me of being racist! Then there are those undead skeletons from Leo. They don’t look horrible but as always, could’ve been better. I don’t b*tch-cum-complain so hard because they’re, well, just skeletons. Heh. I would also want to point out that with the limited animation, this is one of the reasons the action sequences look a bit boring. Once again, could’ve been better. This anime is done by Passione who did Renai Flops, Ishuzoku Reviewers, Isekai Meikyuu De Harem Wo, Citrus and High School DxD Hero. So if you see some art style similarities, now you know why.

Voice acting, seems I only recognized Hochu Ohtsuka as Jakt, Sayaka Ohara as Tearis and surprisingly Atsushi Abe as Nefakess. I had my reservations of Yui Ishikawa as Selia but yup, that’s her. Chiwa Saitou as Arle eluded me since I haven’t heard her for a long time so I’m losing touch. This includes Marina Inoue as Leo. I fear I’m starting to lose touch of her voice as she is this close to sounding generic in my books… The other casts are Aya Suzaki as Regina (Mako in Kill La Kill), Honoka Kuroki as Sakuya (Ruise in Seiren), Hiromi Igarashi as Fine (Yuri in Overlord), Arisa Nakada as Shary (Iori in Tachibanakan To Lie Angle), Tomofumi Ikezoe as Blackas (Franken in Francesca), Ai Kakuma as Roselia (Eris in Mushoku Tensei) and Hina Kino as Altiria (Alas Ramus in Hataraku Maou-sama S2). 1000-nen Ai by Chiai Fujikawa as the opening theme sounds like another one of those bland and generic rock beats. Yururi by Kaho as the ending theme didn’t exactly impress me either since it has this hip hop beat that isn’t quite to my liking. Oddly in the ending credits animation, I noticed Shary is part of Selia’s group as they hang out and do fun stuffs on a girls’ outing? My guess it is to replace Leo so it doesn’t look like a shota having a harem of his own and make us otaku virgins fly into a fit of jealousy rage! HAH!

Overall, this series is just average and perhaps even wading the lines of mediocrity. At this point, I’m so numb in seeing such shows that, how should I put it, I would say it is just one of those kind of shows of the season. Always saying that it could have been better but if I were to be put in the production’s shoes, how different and better would I make it? Yeah. So be thankful I have got some pseudo harem, some action bits and the freedom to criticize it didn’t live up to my standards. Maybe they should put this series into deep slumber and then awaken it 1000 years in the future to see what needs to be changed by then. If anime still exists then. If mankind still exists then!!! Oh wait, never mind. You can’t change mediocrity no matter how long time has passed.

Edens Zero S2

Well folks, guess who is back? That is right. FAIRY TAIL IN SPACE IS BACK FOR A SECOND SEASON! What Fairy Tail in space? Is there such an anime?! Yes. That’s what people like me decided to call Edens Zero! HAHAHA!!! Sighs… Anyway, you know about that guy who wants to make friends and travelling into space to see some giant mother to get his wish granted or something like that? Yup, the journey continues. More friends. More allies. More enemies. More adventures. More fights. More jokes. More fanservice. More of everything. In space! HAHAHA!

Belial Gore Arc

Episode 26
What a way to greet the new season with a recap! But don’t worry, it won’t even last for 5 minutes! Phew. Now that Homura has taken over Valkyrie’s role, this means she is in charge of all sorts of weapons on the ship. They need all the firepower they can get because all that brute force is how they barge their way through the dragons. The ultimate weapon of Edens Zero is called Etherion. However it must be kept secret and only known among the 4 Shining Stars. Not even Shiki must know. As Homura can’t keep a secret, Witch will tell her another day. Rebecca has this dream whereby a destroyed future and a different looking Shiki saved her. Worse, Happy is dead! She wakes up in cold sweat, relieved nonetheless her cat is still alive. Because a strange ship has been following them, Shiki’s answer is to invade them. With Homura, Weisz and Pino, they head down there and it seems this ship, Belial Gore has its own city bustling with life. A good way to infiltrate and disguise themselves as they look for more info. Apparently Belial Gore belongs to Drakken so be careful. Along the way, they stumble into Sibir. However this guy is old, frail and good hearted. Though, Pino still scared of him. Sibir recognizes Weisz but not the rest since this version is a different future of him. Sibir feels bad for Pino although he doesn’t remember doing anything bad to her. Weisz tells Pino he understands she only saw his dark side. But there was a time Sibir was a good person and once saved him. Drakken then makes a public announcement that he knew some of Edens Zero members are on board Belial Gore. But this is all a trap as he sends some of his men to invade Edens Zero and take those crew members as hostage while Belial Gore is now under lockdown. So don’t do anything funny if you know what’s good for them.

Episode 27
Invading Edens Zero are Seth, Maria and Diego Reyes. They think Witch is a pushover as she claims she can singlehandedly deal with them. Jokes on them as Witch equips herself with a battle suit and uses Ether to fight them. They are swiftly taken out by surprise since Witch can change her Ether element. With the invasion over, Sister now will gladly interrogate them. The rest inspect the huge hole the enemies have created. It seems they have a special Ether Gear weapon that could reap through their special armoured exterior with ease. Hermit manages to make contact with Shiki and updates the rest that Edens Zero is safe. At the same time, Drakken issues a wanted statement for the fugitives and anybody who catches them alive will have their debts completely annulled. So everyone here is drowning in debt? Big chase coming up. They manage to run to the outskirts. Weisz uses his app for everyone to change their appearance. Shouldn’t he used it earlier? Suddenly Laguna pops up and turns Shiki into a puddle of water. He is one of the top 4 elite warriors of Drakken known as Element 4. They are all part of him. As you can see, Laguna’s specialty is water and as long as you cry, he can turn you into a puddle. All fell for this trick until Homura is left. Laguna makes weird attempts to cry and she holds her ground until she couldn’t. Yeah, who could ever resist no crying before an onion! As he collects the puddles, he notes one is missing. It is Weisz. He saw through Laguna’s trick and modified his app. This means pretending to cry and then disguising himself as a puddle. He dons his armour suit, ready for his counterattack.

Episode 28
All seems to be going great for Weisz until his suit starts to overheat. Thanks to Hermit’s advice to use some cooling system, he turns the tables back on Laguna and knocks him out. Before he can revel in his victory, he gets shot. The culprit is the flame sniper Fie who is part of Element 4. Shiki and co are released as they tend to Weisz. Pino calculates the origin of the bullet as Shiki dares the sniper take one at him. He fires and Shiki uses his Ether Gear to throw it back to him. Fie dodges but is now on fire to take them out. But Sibir’s smokescreen blocks his vision as he brings them back to his place for treatment. Relaying Weisz’s condition to Hermit, she’ll send Sister to deliver medicine via another gate. However Sister is busy torturing Maria and will have Rebecca and Happy do it. Sister seems to know Maria’s true identity (Seth and Diego self-destruct) and makes a deal with her to spill the beans. Maria then turns into her true form which is a space slime (and you thought her Maria Slime name was weird but damn it was a dead giveaway!). Rebecca rides through space but is faced with drones of Element 4’s Sylph. All that video games paid off as Rebecca easily crushes the drones. She meets her match when facing Sylph’s ship. In order to dodge her missile, she unleashes her Ether Gear to increase the speed of her own ship. Hermit notes with such power, she has the making of an Etherion Master. Rebecca manages to give Sylph the slip and land in the cargo area. They won’t get far as Sylph captures them.

Episode 29
Rebecca and Happy are trapped in a wind cage and can’t break out. As Hermit has lost contact with Rebecca, she sends her last coordinates to Pino so Shiki’s side goes to look for her. They find the medicine but no Rebecca. Shiki has Homura take the medicine back while he looks around. Of course Sylph is waiting to attack them. She is aided by Jinn who is her brother (Sylph’s real name is Kleene). Jinn stays back to handle Shiki while Sylph goes after Homura who is rushing back with the medicine. Meanwhile Rebecca wakes up in Drakken’s room. He assures he won’t kill or hurt her and just wants to talk. It is hinted that Noah sold her out, the reason he has info on Edens Zero. First, he shows her something: In a cell, a tortured Labilia. Rebecca should be happy for all the torment she has caused her, right? It’s his gift to her since Rebecca will be joining them. Drakken then reveals his reason for targeting Edens Zero: It has something precious he wants and that is Rebecca AKA No. 29. Drakken puts Rebecca in the same cell. He allows her to torture Labilia and do whatever she wishes except to kill her. Even the worst can bring in money. He goes off to tend some other business. But Rebecca can’t help free Labilia as Daichi of Element 4 is tasked to keep an eye on her. Of course Daichi is on the verge of going crazy. Went by 60 days without a single torture. Can he last 1 more day? Guess not.

Episode 30
Homura gets captured by Sylph. Fie finds Sibir harbouring Weisz and shoots the old guy. Laguna stops Daichi from hurting Rebecca further lest he wants to risk their boss’ wrath. Jinn and Shiki are about to go all out with each other but Drakken comes in between. Drakken then petrifies Shiki and takes him in. As our Edens Zero crewmates are captured, Drakken shows his ruthless side as he destroys the medicine meant for Weisz. He also says he has sold Pino and Happy to the junk for money. Shiki tries to fight back but in his tied up state, he only gets shot in the leg. Drakken warns him not to move or he’ll shoot the rest. First, he is going to punish them for illegally entering Belial Gore. He hints to Homura to use her body to make money and could even surpass her mother. Next, he cuts off Weisz’s arm. At this point, Rebecca will officially join his side just to let her friends go. But it’s not over yet. Drakken tells them that their entire Edens Zero ship has been neutralized. Diego faked his death to take control of the bridge. Although Seth self-destructed, he also did not die. Rather, he infiltrated Edens Zero to take over its programme to disable all the androids. This is the part Shiki is supposed to admit defeat, right? Well, he promises to defeat Drakken someday and become his friend. Unfortunately, Drakken shoots and kills him! What about his policy not to kill? Well, he makes an exception for those who do not obey him. Shiki dead. Edens Zero ends!

Episode 31
So uhm, this series still running? Anyway, it has been a week since Shiki is dead. Rebecca is locked up in her room. She is afraid and has lost hope. Laguna tries to talk to her to ease her since she is one of them but she is still hopeless. As she takes a shower, she remembers Drakken telling her that they have a device to extract her Ether Gear’s power. However it seems Rebecca’s Ether Gear isn’t speed but to change the laws of the cosmos. It is called Cat Leaper. He will not tell her what it is because it will put him in a disadvantage should she know what it is. The problem is that they need that power to awaken and only then they can extract it. This is why they are keeping a surveillance on her. So as Rebecca feels sad about everyone, suddenly her power activates. Drakken detects such power but it is too late before he could do anything. The next thing Rebecca knows, she is back in bed on Edens Zero. She is happy to see everyone alive. Before Shiki and co invade Belial Gore, Rebecca stops them to have a meeting. She relates what happen so the rest deduce she either went back in time or saw a possible future. But unlike Chronophage, only Rebecca has her memories intact. Then she remembers Labilia being captured. She confirms with Couchpo that she has not been posting her daily videos and this proves so. Despite all the torture she went through, Rebecca still wants to save her. Just then, Drakken’s men invade the ship. They are easily defeated by Witch but luckily Rebecca mentions this is just a façade. Thanks to the additional info, the trio are soon thwarted. Rebecca soon explains about Drakken’s fearsome power and the possibility of Noah being a traitor. Even so, they are no match for him. Shiki has an idea. Drakken is now impatient as his men has not contacted him back. Edens Zero then crashes into Belial Gore. Everyone will be fighting together to win.

Episode 32
After crashing in, Edens Zero crew is faced with Element 4. However to give Rebecca time to reach Drakken, the 4 Shining Stars will take them on. When Edens Zero reach Drakken’s tower, they are greeted with a hologram of Noah. First, he explains his Ether Gear ability to observe people’s location including outside time. He noticed Rebecca’s powers first activated 10 years ago. She was supposed to die in an accident. Whenever she is at the verge of death, her powers activate to change time and location. This is the 30th time she has used her power and hence Drakken is calling her No. 30. However, the downside of using that power is that she does not retain memories of the previous world. Surprisingly this time she could. It could only mean in this world she will defeat Drakken. It is unsure if she will be able to use that power again but in the event Drakken extracts her power, it will be the end of Rebecca’s world and the start of Drakken’s world No. 2. He admits he betrayed Rebecca and sold her out to Drakken because he wants to defeat him. He warns them about Drakken being powerful enough to be part of Oracion Seis Galactica and is using some life support machine to maintain his youth. Before more can be revealed, jamming interference cuts Noah off from the rest. His last words are Rebecca has figured out Drakken’s weakness in the previous world. However Rebecca can’t pinpoint what it is. Now we see Hermit fighting Fie. He thought being a sniper allows him to sneakily take her out but looks like she has heat seeking properties and once she smokes him out, controls all weapons in his arsenal and fire back on him.

Episode 33
Daichi may enjoy being a masochist too but he prefers to torture Sister. He thought he had her but some Ether Gear optimization whatever has her break free from his branches. She heals him so she could torture him until he passes out. Laguna has it tough with Witch. She knows he was once an actor but then disappeared. It may not be her business to know why, so she explains her reason to fight is to protect her Edens Zero family. So better think twice again the reason he is fighting her. Homura is able to absorb Sylph’s wind and this makes her scared. But some programme activates to turn her back into an expressionless killer. But even so, still not enough to defeat Homura. Rebecca’s side find Labilia but she looks fine and not tortured. Also here is Sibir as he hears them out. According to his history, his misunderstanding with Weisz was long resolved. Weisz used to be a troublemaker and it seems Weisz stole a suitcase not containing Pino but money. Weisz thought it belonged to Sibir when it actually belonged to a powerfully famous but unknown moneylender known as DJ Zombie. Weisz was caught and his arm cut off as punishment. He then started to change and became a good citizen. Thanks to DJ Zombie controlling the financial stuffs, he turned the planet into a criminal hotspot. Yes, DJ Zombie is Drakken! Sibir adds he looks the same as before and it is believed he is over 200 years old. It is possible he wants Rebecca’s power to return to his youthful body. He might not look like it but his power to keep his youthful appearance may be at its limit. Drakken realizes he has not enough time. But after thinking his underlings have not reported back and Edens Zero coming straight in to attack, he fears Rebecca may have awakened to her powers. Sibir thinks the gang should retreat for now and not fight Drakken. Unplugging his life support will not kill him right away. Labilia has a gist of what is happening. She will help them as she reveals herself as not human. Her face is a black hole?!

Episode 34
This Labilia in fact is actually Amira in disguise. While the true Labilia was captured, Amira infiltrated and swapped places with her. Currently she is hiding in some club. Speaking of which, Homura bumps into her. Still b*tchy as ever but running scared. Amira apologizes for the deception on Digitalis but it was necessary for her mission. You see, her mission is to get close to Drakken so as to absorb his memories to find his weakness. But thanks to Shiki’s side, now she has figured it all out and wants to be part of it. Suddenly Drakken arrives and turns the ground into muck. With no time left, he tries to take Rebecca but Shiki won’t allow it. Both men fall through several floors. Shiki will fight him and has the rest protect Rebecca. Amira as the rest lead her to Drakken’s life support system. There they stumble into Jinn. First, Amira asks if he knows what this machine does. Jinn is not interested in any way until Amira explains the secret of this life support machine. It actually absorbs the life force of all those on Belial Gore and converts it to Drakken. This is how he manages to live so long and retain his youth. In short, if you’re unlucky and get all your life force taken away, you die. Weisz becomes upset and runs away. This doesn’t sit well with Amira because she needs him to destroy the machine. This makes Jinn in a dilemma because Element 4 too is not spared from this. Sister makes a deal with Jinn that she will help Kleene if he helps them. Jinn will not betray his employer although he swore to protect his sister and destroys the machine instantly. Drakken goes into overdrive mode to fight Shiki. However it is interrupted by Weisz because he is mad at Drakken as the culprit who killed everyone.

Episode 35
Weisz trying to get his revenge on Drakken and blaming him for killing everybody on Norma. Flashback shows his mom and many others died from an unknown disease and it is hinted that Drakken brought that pathogen onto Norma. With Weisz blinded by revenge, Drakken could’ve killed him if not for Shiki saving his ass and telling him to calm down and work together to defeat him. That’s what friends are for, right? Further flashback shows Weisz showing Sibir a pendant he got that was a memento from his late mom. But one day it was stolen and he accused Sibir of doing so despite having no proof. Although Sibir might be a thief, he will not steal from his own comrades. Worse, Weisz rejected they were friends and as he got kicked out, he vowed to steal something back from him. Drakken then starts to weaken as Hermit has successfully shut down the entire system of his life support. But wait. Something worse happens. WTF Drakken now turns into a stronger and creepier tentacle monster?! Is this some video gaming logic whereby the last boss gets stronger the more his life reaches critical level?! Anyway, tentacle monster, huh? Oh Rebecca… Worse, he has hacked the satellite from Kurenai to shoot at Blue Garden. Edens Zero scramble to stop it. Drakken now craves for lives and kills his own comrades to take them. He also needs Rebecca’s power and he remembers Noah’s words that killing Shiki will activate it. But as he is about to do so, Shiki to activates to his powerful form. This power of his even allows him to see all the memories in previous worlds? Well, because it’s time to see Drakken’s flashback. Part of a group of experimental kids who will not live past the age of 15, Drakken refused to die like that and learnt alchemy to not only extend his own life but change the lives of others. That way, he could meet lots of people and make lots of friends! Gee, sound familiar? Shiki will now be his friend as he puts Drakken to sleep.

Episode 36
Drakken goes down in a single punch and turns into a frail old man. Weisz still wants to kill him but Shiki tells him not to. Can he be friends with a serial killer? It’ll be hard at first but yes. Weisz trolls us by shooting a few shots but turns out he missed on purpose. Yeah, he too finds it hard to kill him. In the aftermath, Amira arrests Drakken and hands him over to IUA. Sibir gives back the pendant to Weisz. It is not that he stole it but he retrieved it from one of his gang members who stole it from Weisz. Although Sibir wanted to give it back to him, Weisz told him to hold onto it. But he forgot about it and went on to be some professor (in the other timeline). Rebecca wonders what Connor have been doing all this while but it seems nobody knows who he is! Noah thanks Edens Zero crew in taking down Drakken. As gratitude, he reveals his identity which must be kept secret at all times: He is the director of GIA overseeing Sakura Cosmos and Amira is his colleague. As this incident cannot be made public too, he hopes they can be unsung heroes. Later Rebecca privately talks to him about her past of family. Funny, no matter how much he researched, he couldn’t find it or her power’s origin. As for Connor who existed in the previous world but no longer in this one, there could be another person who wields her Cat Leaper ability. He will investigate this further. Labilia tries to make amends with Rebecca but soon she returns to her b*tch mode by uploading embarrassing videos of Rebecca! This b*tch should’ve just died! Jinn and Kleene are guests on Edens Zero. Jinn is not happy to stay here but he has to since Kleene is undergoing treatment. She might be physically fine but her emotion is damaged and Sister is trying to fix that. Before Shiki continues his journey, he would love to visit Granbell first. To his dismay, all the robots have stopped moving. Did the virus get them? Hermit replays their memories and soon Shiki learns the truth that they have been putting up an act to be the villain to send Shiki into space before they run out of Ether forever. RIP my friends. But Shiki gets a surprise because here is Ziggy in the flesh. Or metal.

Edens One Arc

Episode 37
Sorry, no hugs and kisses. Ziggy attacks Shiki and regrets raising him. It seems his new goal now is to destroy all of humanity. As such, he commands Pino to join his side. Seeing the way she is programmed, she cannot refuse. As Pino overwrites herself, there is no way that Shiki’s words of telling her to do what she wants to do would reach her, right? OH WAIT! IT DID! Because Pino wants to be with them, she breaks out of Ziggy’s command. Now deeming her useless, Ziggy tells her to rot with her fellow human friends as he retreats back to Edens One. As explained, Edens Zero is just a prototype for Edens One and piloting this ship is Connor. Ziggy also has his 4 Shining Stars counterparts known as 4 Dark Stars! As the island is sinking, Edens Zero retrieve their crew members. Ziggy orders the destruction of Edens Zero. An epic space battle begins but it is mostly one-sided as Edens One is way superior and faster. Edens Zero taking on damage as Shiki is still in stunned mode. Eventually he comes to his senses and takes command for Edens Zero to escape. Even so, all the tricks pulled to escape is not enough as Edens One is hot on their tail. Rebecca is about to force herself to activate Cat Leaper (can she?) but moments Edens Zero meets a certain death, they are saved with the right timing of Elsie!

Episode 38
With Elsie’s intervention, Ziggy decides to withdraw and believes he is no match for her now. Elsie boards Edens Zero to tell what she knows of Ziggy. She starts off explaining about herself as a war refugee aiming aimlessly until Ziggy picked her up and she became part of his family. It was a time when Shiki was still a baby. Ziggy tasked Witch and Elsie to take care of Edens Zero until Shiki is ready to go into space. Because Elsie is bad in managing resources, she started plundering and became a pirate. Weisz finds the story strange because after Ziggy left Edens Zero and took Shiki to Granbell, what happened to that ship they arrived in? Witch theorizes Ziggy created Pino and had her use it to leave Granbell. That’s another story for another time. When Elsie returned years later to Ziggy, he was dead. But the Ether she felt emanating from him was evil. It wasn’t the Ziggy she knew. So she planted some drone in him and that’s how she knew to come to Edens Zero’s help when Ziggy turned evil. She doesn’t know the reason but a recording from the drone revealed evil Ziggy’s thoughts: He will go to Mother. As Elsie owes it to Ziggy, she will go after him. Shiki also feels the same and will chase after Ziggy although seeing Mother remains their top goal. Now they reach the Dragonfall area. A bunch of dead dragons caused by Edens One. So as Edens Zero gear up and fly through, lots of mechanical dragons on their tail. But nothing with a little Ether linking and teamwork to shake them off and voila! They burst through this barrier! Damn, it seemed so easy. Now they are in Aoi Cosmos. Ocean in space and fish swimming everywhere? The 4 Shining Stars discuss that anything outside Sakura Cosmos has been deleted from their territory although Hermit will try to recover those lost memories. But it seems they are on the path to the fire planet, Red Cave because Edens Zero has been through here 15 years ago. Then there is also this person whom you must not piss off: Poseidon Nero. He is also part of the Oracion Seis Galactica that Drakken and Elsie are part of. Unlike Drakken who rules the cosmos from behind the scenes, Nero rules Aoi Cosmos openly and thus is called the Emperor. For now, they set their destination to Red Cave in hopes of finding clues on Mother.

Red Cave Arc

Episode 39
Justice and his IUA pals contemplate on Drakken’s fall and they think there is some truth covered up behind it. And then some secret Prayer Council that Justice convenes along with Jaguar and other shady weirdoes. It seems they are Oracion Seis Interstellar and their goal is to crush Oracion Seis Galactica. Wow. This is confusing. Especially Justice who has a deep grudge on Elsie and wants to kill her. Seeing that she has gone to Aoi Cosmos, that’s where they’ll be heading next. We return to Edens Zero who has landed on Red Cave. Well, beach episode! Despite its name, it’s filled with sandy beaches and water! Fun time! Then the gang go have their underwater fun until they see a crashed ship. Too bad for the pilot, he is all bones. Noting a temple nearby, they go explore it but first, tentacle monster! Oh my, is this where Rebecca shows off her fanservice?! Oh well, no discrimination. Robots and guys too, the monster takes! Eventually Shiki breaks them out as they find themselves inside the temple. They are greeted by a robot named Nadia who welcomes them to the Temple of Mother Beacon. Rebecca finds the name familiar as it was carved on that dead pilot’s cockpit.

Episode 40
Nadia says that this temple contains a beacon that could be clues to lead to Mother. However they must pass through that door and she cannot guarantee their lives. Well, beyond this door is an insane amount of magma, flames and heat so you bet our gang can’t take it and quickly retreat. To solve this, Witch returns back to Blue Garden to get Laguna now working as an actor to help them. Uhm, so she really went all the way back there and even past those dragons?! While the rest wait, they listen to Nadia’s stories like how Ziggy was able to pass through it 15 years ago alone and got a beacon. It seems there was a treasure that emitted Ether that was also a power source for the androids here. Someone stole it and all the androids are now ‘dead’. Nadia survived only because of this cable she is stuck to that her beloved Andrew repaired. He is a human engineer whom she fell in love with. He left to get something and promised to return. That was 200 years ago. As Nadia still eagerly awaits that, Rebecca knows better Andrew has returned as that dead pilot and decides not to tell the truth. With Witch’s return, the plan is to use Laguna’s power to turn Shiki into water and then Witch will coat it with some special Ether for extra protection. Shiki then uses his gravity to push through the flames to enter this room filled with floating Ether parts that belonged to Mother. As he returns, Nadia further explains that there are countless of such pieces whether hiding in planets or floating in space. Such pieces of Mother are called Relics and gathering enough of them allows you to find her location. So it’s like a compass. Log Pose of space! The gang is ready to leave to find more Relics. With Nadia still waiting for Andrew, Witch then tells her the whole truth. There is even a last video from him that tells of his return. However his ship was hit by a meteor and crashed nearby. Nadia is saddened of this news but it seems he has brought back a Relic that returns Ether to the land. Now all the androids can move again and Red Cave returns to its original state as the deep waters reside. The 200 year promise of watching the red skies again have been fulfilled.

Foresta Arc

Episode 41
Is this going to be a trend because now Laguna is staying on Edens Zero. Based on his promise with Witch, he will leave once he finds a place to stay in Aoi Cosmos since he is wanted back on Sakura Cosmos. But no, he won’t be friends with Shiki. Meanwhile Justice is hot on Elsie’s tail. However she anticipates this because one of her crew member, Jessie is a government spy and has leaked info. She didn’t rat him out since he is like family to her. Everyone from all walks of life is free to join her crew seeing she will not reject anyone who seeks her help. She is willing to listen to him but since he refuses to talk, he is sent back to Justice. Edens Zero’s next stop is the planet called Foresta because based on the old log, this was its next stop and there might be a Relic here. After finding a spot to land in this very forestry planet, they are shocked to see humans as slaves to robots. We also see some robots arguing among each other whether to mistreat them or to treat them well since humans break easily. Well, non-believers kill those human rights believers! Shiki and co manage to slip away when a robot comes by. Happy and Pino just act like their masters. Couchpo then helps take them into her secret hideout. She was here to review some food but about a week ago, all this crazy stuff happened. Turns out Ziggy told the robots to rule over humanity and they started attacking humans. Soon the robots ambush them so everybody goes all out fighting. Uhm, I don’t think robots are meant to be eaten, Couchpo!

Episode 42
As Sister continues to examine Kleene, it seems the latter doesn’t want to be cured because doing so, she will have to leave this ship and she likes it here. Uhm, couldn’t she just veto her brother to say she’s staying? Because Jinn won’t tell how Kleene’s condition of having a mental breakdown each time she shows emotions come up, Sister wanted to ask Kleene directly but Jinn threatened her not to. Edens Zero is being attacked by drones so the 4 Shining Stars and ex-Drakken guys go into action. Meanwhile Shiki and co stumble into a cute fleeing robot. It pleads for help since Nero has sent forces to eliminate all robots on Foresta. Too bad it gets killed off by Mora. Crazy dude has got some sticky glue that really sticks. Shiki manages to break out from it using his gravity to fight him. Mora’s comrades, Orc and Britney observe the battle especially Shiki’s abilities that seem to be similar to that of Shura. Shiki uses his gravity to free the rest. But a drone attack bombs the area and separates everyone. Time for one on one matchups? Maybe. Homura vs Mora. Rebecca vs Britney. Shiki vs Orc. Shiki still believes Ziggy is doing all this for a reason but Orc isn’t buying it. He tells Shiki they are from Nero’s elite commando unit and have orders from him to destroy all robots on Foresta to protect all humans. This is also to send warning to Ziggy who started this rebellion.

Episode 43
Long story short, all our heroes win their fight against their opponents. Well, maybe except for Rebecca. Can’t best Britney in her smoke form so just run like hell! Meanwhile Weisz is being called back to Edens Zero because Hermit has discovered that a virus on some satellite set by Ziggy is causing the robots to go berserk. At this rate, the 4 Shining Stars will also be infected. Hence Weisz’s job is to modify it. Yeah, it would’ve been easier if they could just destroy it but nope. Just need to modify it. Elsie is also on this planet and what a rude welcoming as the robots start attacking her crew. But I suppose this is so that Elsie can transform into her Ether Gear and show off her Star Drain move. Meanwhile we see Shura being a cruel merciless dick by killing of his girls because he feels like it. They want us to hate him, huh?

Episode 44
Rebecca needs to rid of Britney but how to fight smoke? Yes, use a vacuum! But’s password locked! By the time Pino analyses it, Britney already blows smoke that rots Rebecca’s flesh! That is when her Cat Leaper activates and goes back a couple of minutes in time. This time she knows the password to suck and kick her away. Rebecca finds this version of her ability strange as it is more like reversing time rather than leaping to another world. So she tests it again a few more times to prove to Pino it is so. However like such great power, it takes a huge toll on her body and it is almost cracking up. Yup, there’s your warning not to simply use it so freely. Meanwhile Hermit and Weisz enter the satellite and to Hermit’s horror, there is Muller who is now part cyborg. Turns out he escaped from his imprisonment. Although it was Ziggy who planted the virus, now he is administering the server to control humans. He wants to abuse Hermit like before. Round 2 trauma. Elsewhere, Shiki and Homura are about to take on more of Nero’s elite commandoes but they are easily taken out by Justice and his IUA men. After imprisoning Homura, Justice learns Shiki knows Elsie. He doesn’t care about Ziggy or Nero because his most important goal is to capture Elsie whom he views as the most evil being. Since Shiki knows her, it is enough reason for Justice to kill him in the name of Justice! Did he just make a lame pun?!

Episode 45
Whatever Justice says about the privileges in the IUA, to take down evil with extreme prejudice, blah, blah, blah, uhm, isn’t he acting like a villain? But his powers are too much for Shiki to handle and he gets defeated although he still lives. Justice is about to deal the finishing blow but here comes Elsie to the rescue. Both know each other but now hate each other. Both are evenly matched as they possess the same Ether Gear. So we learn a few things. Elsie was a princess of some planet. Justice whose real name he has tossed away, James Holloway was engaged to her. Both sides lost everything. Justice blames it on Elsie’s betrayal. Both think their actions would’ve led to less losses. As their epic fight continues, Shiki is approached by this Yoda robot who tells him the true concept of gravity and to use the force that is infinite! Really?!Meanwhile Muller is fascinated by Weisz since as a fellow scientist, he has heard much of him. Weisz manages to break out from his predicament by transforming into Arsenal and then snap Hermit out of her trauma. But Muller isn’t done. He activates the switch that turns all robots into terminators. Yes, they kill all humans! Damn, how many human pets have died! Rebecca can stand her ground but with too many robots ganging up on him, Pino activates her EMP. Yoda robot then demonstrates his ultimate gravity move that puts a stop to the robots’ rampage as well as interrupting Justice and Elsie’s epic fight. He then introduces himself as Xenolith, the master of the force Magimech Arts and Ziggy’s mentor.

Episode 46
Xenolith might be dead 1000 years ago but that is his original body. Ziggy was a prodigy, learning and master everything in a day. Well, uhm, he is a robot! Anyway, Xenolith hopes Shiki will not turn to the dark side too. Xenolith’s gravity interruption has forced Elsie and Justice to settle it another day. Otherwise both would’ve died today. Rebecca trying to gather and reunite her fellow Edens Zero crew. Meanwhile Kleene is feeling unstable so Jinn pleads to Sister for help. The only way is to dive into her mind and see what’s wrong. Weisz’s attacks on Muller do no damage. He brags about all the experiments he done on humans to achieve this ultimate state. Especially the one done on Jinn and Kleene. The horrific experiment of Muller carving up Jinn to pieces as Kleene watches so as to emotionally break her. He targeted them because their family once funded his research. Of course he got busted and when the funding stopped, he targeted them for revenge after killing their parents. Weisz so mad he punches this dude but he can still stand up and blab. Apparently he has activated some doomsday system. In short, Foresta’s defence mechanism will destroy the planet. Laguna arrives in time to assist Weisz. After giving the mad scientist a water shock, Weisz proceeds to disassemble him. Muller then changes tone and pleads for Hermit to save him. But she uses him to disable the doomsday system and gives him a good punch. You’re not needed anymore so stay away. All threats on Foresta are gone and the robots become docile again. But at a great cost.

Episode 47
Elsie makes contact with Edens Zero to apologize for getting them mixed up in her affairs. She will still chase after Ziggy. Kleene has been saved thanks to Sister removing the horrifying memories of Muller’s experiment. Because of that, she can now give off a cute smile! Oh, did we mention she wants to stay here and be part of Edens Zero? I guess Jinn will have to comply. Justice is being contacted by Holy who is part of Oracion Seis Interstellar that he needs to take care of Shura who is Nero’s adopted son. Once that old guy croaks, this troublesome kid will take over so they want to avoid all that and have him eliminated first. She will send Jaguar and Eraser to assist him. We see Nero having a meeting with Shura and his elite team known as Oceans 6 (sorry, it’s not 11). Since Nero decides everything by the roll of his dice, fate has it that he will leave everything to Shura and not intervene. Bloodthirsty Shura revels in this as he sets sights on killing Ziggy. He means business as he kills off one of the Oceans 6 member who is a robot. They’re going to fight robots so they don’t need a robot comrade. Flashback shows Ziggy met Nero before. Ziggy trained Shura his skills since Nero’s powers weren’t compatible with his. This also gave Ziggy the idea of adopting a son. Xenolith revives as he mentions Ziggy’s plan to cause havoc on Foresta was because he fears him. No, not because he is a frail old robot now. But the fear of Xenolith meeting Shiki. Because now Xenolith is going teach him and transfer his powers to Shiki that will be able to take down Ziggy. But first, some VR training to better use their Ether. During the training, Ziggy hijacks Xenolith. Did he miss his grandson?

Episode 48
Ziggy takes Rebecca hostage and is going to kill her with his gravity. Unless Shiki promises not to pursue this case further, you’ll get to see all of Rebecca’s guts splatter out! Shiki breaks free from his binds to rescue her. Then it turns out it is all a simulation from Xenolith. Pretty impressive Shiki can use his Ether Gear at such moments but more needs to be done. With the jump scare over, back to more training for everyone. Of course Xenolith notes Rebecca’s power as the weakest and needs special training. Even so, her power is the most special that could change the world. Literally. Well, we’ve already seen it. Once training is over, Xenolith decides not to follow them and remain on Foresta. Witch asks him about meeting Ziggy. It was 15 years ago when he travelled to see Mother. However he was alone. This has Witch know something is wrong. Because 4 Shining Stars were travelling with him. What was it that caused them to erase their memories outside Sakura Cosmos? Meanwhile Ziggy notes the failure by the robots to take over Foresta. However this is all just a test and everything is still proceeding as planned. He remembers losing his memory when he visited Granbell. When he decided to look for Mother, he found Shiki. He was drawn to him and raised him as his own. After his revival, he got all his memories back including why he was drawn to Shiki. He is not a threat to robots but the entire cosmos. He must not be allowed to exist. In order to realize his goal for machines to dominate the cosmos, he will take Aoi Cosmos first. Edens Zero crew is on some mud planet. Because a huge building is a Relic, it is not possible to take it with them. Pino says they need to absorb its essence into its orb. That will be suffice although it will take some time. Right now on the news, Shura addressing his people. There were several uprising of robots on other planets too. But all were promptly subdued by Oceans 6. In order to protect the people, he vows Judgment Day and this means the elimination of all robots across Aoi Cosmos.

Sandra Arc

Episode 49
Hermit makes a quick check all over the internet and it seems there were no uprising unlike in Foresta. This means that Shura is using this an excuse to simply massacre robots. Obviously Shiki wants to defeat that jerk right now although Laguna stops him. It is not possible because of his army and fleet. I suppose Shiki doesn’t care because he can’t count? Anyway, Laguna knows a person who can help as he brings them down to the desert island of Sandra. Meanwhile Ziggy relishes this is all part of his plan. For Shura to kill all robots, he must activate All Link. He will use that to control all the robots. Likewise, Shura also knows Ziggy wants All Link and will get use this as bait to get him. Down at Sandra, Laguna takes Edens Zero to see his old friends. However they are not happy to see this traitor and surround them. Their boss, Goodwin is a huge cat and the leader of Oasis, the organization who is rebelling Nero’s rule. Well, Goodwin seems to be a huge fan of Rebecca! He might not listen to what Laguna says but he sure does for darling Rebecca. Goodwin will deal with the traitor later as the more pressing issue is dealing with Shura. He explains about this All Link system. Once in a while, Aoi Cosmos will be flooded with water. During that, all Ether will be linked within the cosmos and thus all networks become connected. 3 days till that big tide. When Shura’s army is here, time for our heroes to showcase a bit of their fruits of their VR training. Small fries are now too easy. Rebecca saves a young boy from the army driving a truck towards them. As thanks, he punches her face! Meanwhile Nero is being advised by his subordinate to stop Shura’s madness or their empire will fall. Nero reiterates that he will do nothing. Because it doesn’t matter what is done as the dice has guaranteed his victory.

Episode 50
Edens Zero and the rebels continue to beat the army. Then when reinforcements arrive, they head over there fast because well, Orc is going to use this super bomb that will blow up half the planet! Orc knows Shiki will be troublesome and tries to deal with him. But he doesn’t know he has undergone training and is now a different person. Yeah, Shiki owns him easily. Pino tries to hack into the bomb but Orc won’t give up and presses the detonator. So uhm, Shiki grabbing onto it as it launches into space? Kaboom! Don’t worry, he is still alive. He just flung it into space and the hacking reduced the bomb’s power. In the aftermath as the army is captured, Goodwin will not kill them as both sides have lost many. He might hate the empire as it takes away their freedom but he doesn’t hate the people. So once this war is over, he hopes they can drink together. A big guy with a big heart. Goodwin agrees to form an alliance with Edens Zero. Since IUA is coming here, there’ll be a big shootout so they’ll use this chance to defeat Shura and destroy All Link system. Weisz hears Laguna talking with one of his ex-comrades about getting revenge on Shura who killed one of their members who was a princess who went in to rescue her captured friends. He deduces Laguna joined Drakken’s group for this purpose. It doesn’t have to be any group. Edens Zero or Elsie, as long as it is a strong organization to take down Nero. He warns him not to drag his friends into his personal vendetta. If any of his buddies die, he will kill him. Now the war begins as Aoi Cosmos sees the biggest shootout ever between both sides.

A Journey Is Best Measured In Friends Than Lightyears
Well, I don’t know. I find it strange that at this point of this writing, there isn’t any announcement of the next season. This should be getting another season, right? The way they end it like that and tease us about the possible future. How could they end a season right in the middle of an important war? Or at least one that is about to start. After all, from my brief and simple Google search, there is enough material to cover another double cours of a season. Or is this series just going to follow the trend of a show having 2 seasons and that’s it. I know it’s a silly speculation but it could be just me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m a huge fan of this series. Seeing Fairy Tail has ended and left a hole for fans, this series as I would say would be decently epic enough to be the next Fairy Tail. But then again, it’s just my sentiments.

To be honest, this season does not disappoint although at the same time it is not that great either. Aha. My typical neutral on the fence answer. The plot is making some progress but it is not enough to warrant anywhere close to the ending. After all, the manga is still ongoing and we are still if I should say, at the initial stages of the story. As I have said, my sentiments had me thinking this is the next epic thing to replace Fairy Tail so there are going to be a lot more plots and characters along the way for Shiki and his Edens Zero crew to meet before the long journey finally ends. And yes, I anticipate it is going to be a long journey. Though, something like the length of Fairy Tail and not One Piece! Oh boy. So yeah, this may have the potential of reaching 3 digits of anime episodes but don’t mind me, I’m just getting ahead of myself. Yeah, why do I sound like I am so wanting another season?

I have mixed feelings about the first half of this season. Primarily, facing off with Drakken and taking him down. To be honest, I think I was just lying to myself thinking that Drakken would be the big bad boss and the endgame. But from the looks of it, he could be the weakest of the lot. After all, he was from my perception painted as some big bad villain from the first season so that’s where my misconception somewhat built up. That is why in some ways, the fight with Drakken ended faster than I expected and with much anti-climactic. There wasn’t much fanfare when Drakken was (somewhat easily) taken down (and in that manner too?!) but like I’ve said, Drakken in terms of galactic comparison to the rest of the bigger antagonists, he could be just a small fry. That is why I was having such dilemma about his arc went it just came to an end.

So we usher Drakken’s case out of the way and to the next plot and the second half of the series: Ziggy turning traitor and the next big bad. From the looks of it and as I have foreseen it, the second half wasn’t entirely enough to settle this. There’s a lot of mystery and intrigue in Ziggy’s sudden change of character as I continue to speculate he could be just playing the villain to shape up Shiki to fight an even bigger Demon Lord who could threaten the very fabric and existence of the entire universe: Mother! I know it sounds outrageous and it is. I just hope somebody or the next season proves me wrong. And of course I hope Ziggy becoming a bad guy isn’t because of some cheap plot twist as I have seen in Nanatsu No Taizai. Why did a heroic holy knight become a bad guy? Because as revealed many seasons later, he was being possessed by an evil demon! What the… What a downer. So I hope this isn’t the case either.

But if there was one thing that was my pet peeve, it was those mechanical dragons that surrounded Sakura Cosmos. The way they painted it, it was as though they were going to be a tough nut to crack. But alas as we saw, Edens Zero zipped through it like nothing. Sure, a bit of struggle but nothing that would put you on the edge of your seat. But that’s not the end of it. After that ‘breakthrough’, it now seems that everyone can zip in and out of Sakura Cosmos so easily. Like as though Dragonfall area does not exist anymore! I don’t know about you, but I felt this whole Dragonfall barrier thingy was like one dumb plot to keep Sakura Cosmos people inside and break their spirits if they ever think of venturing beyond. Well, now the impossible has happened so nothing is going to stop them from doing anything impossible. Like meeting Mother for real.

As for Shiki and the rest of his Edens Zero crew, what else can I say about them? The usual formula that their bonds will have them pull through at the toughest times. Rebecca still obviously there for fanservice but now we need to have a slightly different perspective of her seeing she has a very unusual power. Yeah, I hope it won’t be used for plot conveniences. Oh you know, everybody gets killed and then she leaps to another world for it. Yeah. That. And my curiosity of Mosco continues because what the heck is that “Do Not Push” button is for?! I’m going to add if he does push that, we will skip everything and go right to the ending! The ultimate cheat code! Moscoy… This season also adds new characters to Edens Zero crew and for now, they’re all ex-Drakken’s men. Well, it’s not so surprising as in Fairy Tail, we had members of a taken down guild joining the titular guild (Gajeel and Juvia were from Phantom Lord, remember?). So I’m just wondering when Maria will be joining the crew. What a waste to let this cutie disappear just like that, right? Or is that her character’s fate? I don’t know about Couchpo if she is officially an Edens Zero crew because she’s staying because of its magnificent kitchen. Where there’s food, there’s Couchpo! Now you can be assured all your kitchen food will be safe! Yeah, I foresee that’s her main role.

The other intrigue brought to light is Elsie and Justice but of course as we have seen, it is just the tip of the iceberg and is not of any significant importance at least for this season. I’m sure I take relief that a certain B-Cuber b*tch does not have a lot of screen time here. Yes, we viewers could have less of Labilia. It was a short-lived joy to see her being tortured as Drakken’s prisoner. Yes, I’m so evil in wanting to see this b*tch get a little taste of her just desserts. In the end, I think she didn’t learn much and returned to being a b*tchy B-Cuber like always. Yeah, maybe it’s her brand so it’s going to be real creepy to see her being a nice girl. Yikes. Xiaomei has been reduced to some redundant recap narrator, appearing only significantly for a short while to tease us about what’s going on or the possible future and nothing more. There are also many other characters here but of course I’m too lazy to note them all and many obviously appearing in only a single arc before disappearing forever.

Everything else in my opinion remains the same. The art style and animation (still looking a lot like Fairy Tail if you ask me), the action sequences (your obligatory battle and group fights to showcase our heroes’ abilities of course), the brand of humour (I think Happy has been reduced to mostly for some minor comeback comical relief character this season) and of course a handful of new seiyuus. Just to name a few (because I’m too lazy to just list the whole freaking list which is just freaking a lot) such as Rumi Okubo as Kleene/Sylph, Taku Yashiro as Laguna, Kazuhiko Inoue as Xenolith, Kenichi Suzumura as Shura, Takaya Hashi as Nero, Kenji Nomura as Goodwin, Aya Endo as Holy and Rena Maeda as Nadia. I am not impressed with all the themes this season either. Takanori Nishikawa who did last season’s opener is the only one retained for this season’s first opening theme, Never Say Never which has the same rock vibes as Eden Through The Rough. Another rock outfit for the second opener, Kaibutsu by Tani Yuuki. It must be just me since his voice sounds gay… This season’s first ending theme, Rinne by Asca is slow rock. The second ending theme is slightly more bearable to my taste, My Star by Lozareena is a slow ballad but is it my or does the singer sound like Lenka? Or is this Lenka’s Japanese moniker?!

Overall, once again this series is still rather okay in my books. On par with the first season but since it is still a long journey, it is too early to judge anything conclusive. Sure, I do that a lot especially for bad animes but since this isn’t entirely that bad, oh well. And I am pretty sure soon they will have another season because today we have run out of new animes to make and if we’re not doing remakes and reboots, we’re going to have to animate a series right until its source ends. Yeah. That’s today’s trend, I suppose. Because with a lot of sh*tty and not so impressive shows getting sequels (a certain isekai assassin to a certain isekai cheat skill to a certain isekai spirit chronicles to a certain rotten angel spoiling me to a banished hero living a slow life to a certain dead detective – all mostly I do not actually anticipate getting a sequel but looks like they are!!! F*CK!!!), it won’t be long before I hear the announcement of the next season for, wait for it, FAIRY TAIL IN SPACE!!! HAHAHA!!!

Boushoku No Berserk

Many of us eat to live. But for some, they live to eat. Sorry folks, while that may sound like a joke for those whom we called glutton, Boushoku No Berserk is by far anywhere or anything near a comedy genre. Our main character has been given a blessing-cum-curse. A power that could devour the abilities of others but at the same time it is like a drug overdose. Oh you know, you need to consume more of whatever in order to maintain the same levels of sanity or else you’ll go crazy or die something like having a drug overdose. Yeah, the food expenses must be racking up his tab real bad, huh? Sorry, that’s not supposed to be funny either. Thankfully he can consume monsters to satiate his basic appetite but where can he find such an endless all you can eat buffet? Then again, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Episode 1
A Mexican dude is being chased by goblins. Won’t somebody help our amigo?! Oh yes, adventurers to the rescue! Meanwhile Fate Graphite is a poor servant working for the holy knights. He curses his useless gluttony skill that has his stomach always growling. Those arrogant bastards from the Vlerick family, Rafale, Memil and Hado, abuse him and feel they have the right because he is a nobody. Thanks to the kind-hearted Roxy Hart, they stop this embarrassment. Unlike the rest, Roxy treats Fate with dignity and hopes the next time they bully him, he will tell her. Obviously Fate can’t burden her and will keep it to himself. One night, he sees thieves sneaking in. He reports to Roxy who switches her guard duties with him so she could nab them. When one of them breaks free and runs towards Fate, he is forced to kill him. To his surprise, his gluttony skill activates. Roxy is thankful for his help and wants to share the credit but obviously Fate doesn’t want trouble and prefers her to take it all for herself. Later as Fate ponders about this skill activation, he thinks with this improved stats he could kill monsters. Hence he goes to buy a weapon but since he is poor, the merchant ignores him and lets him look through the bargain-cum-trash bin. Fate appraises many of the swords and they’re all worthless. Until one named Greed starts talking to him! He tells Fate to make him his and promises to be worth his time. Meanwhile Memil complaints to Rafale about Roxy’s actions, like as though she wants to take Fate into the family. She wants her punished. However Rafale cautions her about complicating matters. Because Fate is replaceable and that the Vlerick and Hart families are the 5 core families of that support this kingdom. Besides, Rafale is more importantly studying ways to become immortal! Greed brings Fate to the goblin field where he easily kills all of them. As explained, Fate’s gluttony skills steal the stats of others unlike the normal way of levelling up. The downside that he cannot gain experience to level up. Greed knows as he is like him and wants him to keep this skill a secret as it defies all laws. As he returns to town and gets paid for the goblins he slew (more than the amount he made for the 5 years he has been here!), he bumps into a bandit taking a young girl away. He can read her mind that she wants to be rescued. The answer is obvious. He is not going to let somebody suffer and tails them to the hideout where the bandit laughs with glee this loli is going to be the holy knights’ new toy.

Episode 2
As narrated, Laplace created the world but before she went home, she gave everyone some skills. Too bad a poor orphan boy doesn’t understand why he got a useless one so the reason being it was a time when there were no monsters. Yeah. Perhaps better than it’s a test from God. Our sister is still worried Sahara isn’t home. She’s about to be somebody’s toy… Fate saves her but the bandit knows he will be doing this. They face off and with Greed’s guidance, he slices through him and forces the name of the person who arranged for this: Hado. Fate is kind enough to feed Sahara before sending her back to the orphanage. He is surprised because he never got thanked before in his life. Next day, Fate begins his first day working at Roxy’s mansion. First she takes him to see her dad’s grave. Apparently he got killed 5 days ago after encountering a divine dragon. Because of that, Roxy is now slated to take over as the head of the family but rumours are swirling if she can keep the families together like Mason did, especially with those wicked Vlerick siblings around. Roxy introduces Fate to her head maid, Haru who is strict about manners. Too bad, Fate’s first time eating meat so you bet all those manners get thrown out of the window. Fate has been working here for a week and has made friends with the other servants. When Roxy calls to talk to him, the way she calls him reminded him of his dad who also died in a monster hunt. But Fate soon suddenly passes out. He wakes up in his room and it is already night time. Greed explains that now that his gluttony skill is activated, he must keep killing to feed it or risk starving to death or lose control of himself. He can tell when it activates as his eyes are glowing red. Like now. In this state, weaker preys will be terrified and paralyzed. Thus Fate is able to kill lots of goblins but his hunger is still not satiated. Time to move deeper into the forest to kill hobgoblins. When he is done, he now encounters the goblin king. He fights and defeats it. Greed then tells him he can transform into a new form if he hands over all his stats. All? What was his name again? Seeing Greed as his valuable partner, Fate agrees and feels all his stats taken away. Greed now turns into a magic bow. He tests it on a fleeing hobgoblin. Works like a homing arrow too. Fate leaves the reward at the orphanage. They won’t go hungry for a while.

Episode 3
Roxy dresses so plainly is because she is going to town to do a secret inspection. Oh, she takes Fate along to be her escort. See where this is also going? So yes, it looks like a date between the young ones and Fate has to tell Greed to STFU each time he teases him, making Roxy think he was saying it to her! Then a holy knight pops up. Yeah, everyone giving way and getting scared. Such great timing Fate’s stomach growls. Somehow he gets offended. Roxy defends him by pretending to be his girlfriend who cooks for him. Is everybody so blind or only recognize a holy knight by their uniform?! They think Roxy is a holy knight but eventually think she isn’t because holy knights don’t cook! WTF?! WHAT DA F*CK???!!! Then a few more scenes that make them look like they’re dating. Until Roxy hears people talking about some wandering monster and asks for more info but is told to ask somebody else. So, this secret inspection is to find out that monster that has been wandering around the capital recently. Yes, that is you Fate! The duo then patron Fate’s usual bar and the barkeeper is surprised Fate is still alive. He has not been around lately so he thought he died. Then another usual customer who also has the latest info, shares the rumours going about that the wandering monster is a lich. Hence the holy knights are taking direct action to deal with it. This is bad for Fate because guess what will happen if Roxy finds out the true culprit. When other bar patrons come in, they try to hit on Roxy. She shows her strength and it is only then they realize who she is. They apologize in fear and even willing to give all their money! Roxy is sad the knights’ reputation has come to this. She vows to continue her father’s dream and this has everyone believe in her. This also has Fate vowing to follow her until her dream comes true. Returning to town, they see the Vlerick bullying a lost child. Obviously he gets scared so Roxy takes over to return the child to his lost mom. Then she asks Rafale of not informing her about the hunt and his excuse is that he thought she is grieving for her late father. Since she is okay now, she wants to be in the loop. As they return the lost child, Fate remembers being lost as a kid too. A kind holy knight helped him back (Roxy?). They realize the day is getting late so they go home and no choice have to face Haru’s scolding. Greed tells Fate about this magic mask which warps perception. So yes, good to hide his identity during his chow time. Meanwhile those darn holy knights are like in some secret cult meeting as Rafale begins discussing their excursion into Galia.

Episode 4
Fate has been killing so many goblins, others start to fear him as he earns himself a reputation known as Corpse. Roxy has another mission for Fate. Sorry, not a secret inspection but to accompany her back to her vineyard estate. Grape harvesting season. Fate is introduced to her sickly mom, Aisha who asks Fate what he thinks of Roxy. As an employer. He swears to follow her till the end of his life. This makes Roxy embarrassed so she retreats to her room. Well, short of mom giving her daughter’s hand in marriage! As Fate talks to the guards, it seems Roxy isn’t just here to harvest the grapes but to hunt monsters too. In this point when the foods are ready for harvest, kobolds usually come from the valley to search for food. Soon, Fate stumbles into a woman with the same red eyes as him. She believes she was too early and will allow Fate to kill the kobolds to have him owe her one. Roxy believes she is a survivor from Galia. The land was once famed for its military might but a surge in monsters caused it to collapse and many to die. Next day, the grape fields have been ravaged. Roxy and her knights scout where the kobolds are resting. To their horror, they also see a different one which is bigger and scarier. Kobold king? As Greed puts it, a crowned beast. A powerful monster born from accumulated aggression over time. Fate knows Roxy cannot deal with this so he has to settle this tonight. He goes to fight the kobolds and then does all he can and even offer 10% of his stats to Greed to activate the much needed skill to kill it. But soon as it ends, Fate is in danger of going crazy as he consumed something that is of higher quality, he is being overloaded. This is worse than starvation so he has to forcefully control it. Next day, everyone inspects the death scene and have no idea who caused this. At least Roxy thinks it’s that Galia girl so for now Fate’s identity is safe. As Aisha notices Roxy putting a different expression with Fate around, she hopes he can support her because he has the heart and not status. Aisha has not much time left and wants him to be there for Roxy. This has Fate ponder if he has the right to do so since he is deceiving everyone. Worse, now goblins cannot satiate his hunger. Then he hears news that Hado is leading an expedition to eradicate Corpse and another expedition to Galia in which Roxy is part of. He tries to advise Roxy not to do this but she has decided on it. It is believed they want Roxy gone since the Vlerick family views the Hart family as nuisance. Nobody can stop them once they’re gone. But Fate will stop them from causing suffering to others as he prepares to fight Hado.

Episode 5
Hado’s men think they can best Fate but obviously get owned. Yeah, they got scared and run away. Now Hado is left as he is shivering in his armour. Even more so, Fate unmasks himself. Hard to take what Hado says seriously when he is shaking like that. Obviously Fate toys with him and breaks his sword. Where’s all that mockery now? Then he uses Greed as an arrow to finish him off. With all his limbs torn and lying there with a slow painful death, Fate asks him about Roxy before finally killing him. Now that he has gotten Hado’s skill, Fate is not thrilled he has the merits now of being a holy knight. Of course he wouldn’t want that. Greed has also evolved into his next stage, a scythe that can cut through everything. Did he make a pun about wanting to cut short Roxy’s trip to Galia? And soon Roxy leaves her estate as all her servants sadly bid her farewell. Well, she’s going to be away for 3 years! Although Roxy left Fate a letter of recommendation, he will not accept it. Instead, he leaves the estate too as he is going to follow Roxy from the shadows and support her. Roxy addresses the knights who will be with her. Among them including a friend she knows, Miria as well as Mugan who served Mason and is now out to avenge his death. Meanwhile Raine and her scientist partner study the wounds inflicted on the goblins by Corpse. They realize it is no ordinary weapon and could only be done magically by the one of the Weapons of Mortal Sin. Only someone powerful enough could wield it and she would love to see who that person is. Fate arrives in Tetra and he doesn’t have nice memories of this place. Yeah, got bullied. He saves a guy from being bullied since he was trying to hire them to fight monsters but they laugh off at his paltry sum. That guy is Set and the village chief’s son who once bullied him too. Flashback shows Fate was living here peacefully with his father until he got killed. The village chief deemed him useless and exiled him. Although Fate still resents it all, this was the place he had memories with his dad so he accepts Set’s request to fight monsters. But it seems the chief still thinks he is useless and would rather sacrifice him to the monsters. Back at Set’s place, Fate learns Set is a changed man after getting married. Yeah, he has a daughter now. He learns about the monsters attacking could be gargoyles. They are smart creatures who will attack in swarms after their scouting. Fate soon passes out as Greed realizes the chief drugged his food and really wants to sacrifice him to the monsters. Speaking of which, they’re here.

Episode 6
The party is getting started with the villagers getting eaten left and right. That include Set’s dad who ironically becomes the sacrifice. Heh. No love lost. Set manages to create an antidote to wake up Fate. Once he learns of the situation, time to jump into action and put his scythe to the test. Long story short, he devours those gargoyles’ skills and levels up. In the aftermath, the entire village is ruined and not many survivors that include Set and his daughter. Fate analyses the soil and finds it is pretty useless to grow anything now. Set wants Fate to punch him to atone for his bullying. Okay. Here’s a big one. Now we can move on. Set will try to find a job in town and look after his kid. As Fate continues his journey, bandits want to rob his carriage but are given the Team Rocket treatment by that Galia girl. She thinks Fate still owes him and rides with him to the next down. She knows about him because those with skills or weapons of Mortal Sin should. She is Myne of wrath and her weapon is Sloth. Man, mixing the skills and weapons are going to confuse me one day. Arriving in town, they see this outgoing holy knight, Rudolph Lanchester impressing the ladies. Apparently it is also to put up a show to prepare and welcome Roxy’s team. Eh? They haven’t arrive? Looks like with the amount of supplies they’re bringing, their journey is slowed. Behind closed doors, Rudolph is a dick as he kills off those who displeases him. As Fate and Myne look for an inn to stay, they notice different people have different marks on the back of their necks. A caste system? At the inn, Greed explains more to Fate about this Mortal Sin thingy and of course gluttony is the top of it since it can overturn the levelling system. So to help control his gluttony before it goes berserk, more hunting and this time the sandman creatures. Night is just getting started as he even saves a group of adventurers from a crowned beast. Bard is impressed with his skills so Fate introduces himself as Corpse. Myne is not happy Fate defeated the sandman because she claims the reward is hers? Oh well, he is forced to share it. Rudolph wants to forcefully claim Fate as his. Myne claims Fate is hers first and gives him Team Rocket treatment! Oh dear. That hole in the wall! Better run to the next town!

Episode 7
Perhaps Fate teased Myne a little too much. Yup, all that eating and it didn’t grow a certain body part. Thanks to that, the carriage got destroyed. Fate has to be charged extra but thank goodness they arrived at the next village. Fate stumbles into the village chief, Aaron Barbatos who wants to fight Fate if he wants to stay here. Fate loses. However Aaron agrees to let them stay here provided Fate trains under him. Greed suspects something fishy since he is also doing this without anything in return. Fate trains under him while Myne just eats whatever food she can find! Soon, Fate sees a family portrait. Aaron’s son, Luke looks exactly like him. Just slap a blonde wig and you won’t tell the difference. Aaron eventually tells the real story that 15 years ago while he was away on official orders, his son was left to guard this village. Unfortunately everyone was taken down by a crowned beast. It is a lich and now it occupies the castle he once lived in. Oh wow. 15 years of staying in that castle and nothing else? You bet Fate wants to go there and great timing, his gluttony skill is activating. Aaron would love to join him too as they cut down the skeleton guards until they reach the ballroom. Aaron is shocked to see everyone including his family fine as they welcome him home. Greed of course can tell it is an illusion. They can cut through this but this will not bring salvation to the dead souls as they will forever be trapped in hell. Eventually Aaron can tell it is a trick as Luke tries to kill him and blame him for always only thinking of work. Father and son clash while Fate tries to find the lich. Yeah, this discount Ains-sama. Aaron soon joins him as they both join hands to take down the lich. Aaron says his final goodbye to the soul of his wife and Luke. A final touching family reunion. Once that is done, they take care the skeleton remnants outside. Aaron pays Myne as promised for helping to guard the village while they were away. Myne intends to rebuild the village with this money. It is then Aaron remembers Myne. He met her 50 years ago and still looks the same. Myne claims she is a phantom that cannot die. Fate also mentions a similar curse he has to Aaron, although he doesn’t give away much. Aaron has something important to tell him but only when he is done with his mission and after he returns here again. Meanwhile Rafale has found the philosopher’s stone. Truly it can heal all. Then he received the bad news that Hado is dead and the one who done him in, Corpse is rumoured not to be a monster but a human warrior.

Episode 8
Fate wonders if Greed knows about Myne and Sloth. However he refuses to say since he will understand if he travels enough with her. Just when Fate has left town, Roxy’s side arrives. They are greeted by Aaron and to Roxy’s surprise, he is the one who helped her parents named her. Aaron hints that somebody helped him to defeat the lich lord but because he promised that kid to keep a secret, he cannot say his name. To Aaron’s shock, he learns Mason is dead and that is why Roxy volunteered for this. He is willing to teach her and improve her skills. Myne and Fate arrive at this desolated and abandoned town. There is a cocoon right in the middle and this is where Myne wants Fate to repay his debt. Inside that cocoon is a chimera and it was used as an experience by Galia’s military to test out biological weapon. She believes they can defeat it since it is in its larval state. When it awakens, Fate sees a girl etched in its core. Oh, don’t hesitate now. That will kill you. He is in a dilemma to devour her because her soul will forever be tormented. Myne has to tell him that is no human and just a monster wearing a human skin. The only way is to destroy it. They start attacking but the chimera can regenerate. Despite Sloth being able to cut through the hardest things, it takes a toll on Myne’s agility. This is where Fate comes in to assist and finish the job. Oh man, did the chimera just evolved to its final form or something? Angel wings! With Fate dealing a crucial blow, it tries to flee. To prevent it from regenerating, Myne throws Fate up as he deals the fatal blow into the core. He also sees memories of this girl. Oh the usual, kids in some weird experiment sh*t. The chimera is dead but Fate feels no pleasure in devouring it. As Greed puts it, it is because he devoured the same kind. In the aftermath, Myne builds a grave for her fallen friend. She might not remember much about her but all she knows is that anyone who turns into a chimera must be killed. Fate fears one day he will turn like that. If that happens, he wants Myne to kill him. She hugs him and agrees. Fate has levelled up and this time Greed can turn into a shield. This is where both part ways as Myne will stay here to rebuild the village. Fate journeys alone until he reaches Babylon, the city that serves as a fortification fortress buffer for Galia. Hmm… Very tough and high walls to keep out monsters. Just like a certain Titan series, maybe!!! Soon after he arrives, Roxy’s team does to. As the crowd welcomes her, Fate senses someone with murder intent to kill Roxy.

Episode 9
Roxy meets Northern Alistair who is the holy knight in charge of Babylon. He laments he wasn’t able to save Mason despite serving by his side. Meanwhile Greed is bugging Fate to get this pretty scabbard for him. Even the store owner, Jade Stratos seems to want him to buy a few gears after appraising his equipment. But guess what? It costs so much that it freaks the hell out of Fate as he runs away! So I guess he needs to go hunting to earn that kind of money. A few adventurers want him to team up with them for the hunt but Fate prefers to work alone. With his getup, they think he is an ex-knight and don’t want to mess with him. Fate heads to the battlefield and fights the orcs. Yeah, just ram his shield all the way! Easy kills. When he takes his killings back to the guild to cash in. Those adventurers try to play dirty and claim he stole their prey. Of course they get rough so Fate beats them all up. Subsequently, Roxy and her men come in. She thought he is responsible for this but learns the truth. She is willing to close an eye on this as she feels responsible for the degradation of Babylon’s morale. She asks his name so by habit he accidentally says Corpse. Since she advises him to take care of his appearance, Fate feels embarrassed and runs out. Roxy’s words are like God. So better take care. Then he bumps into Jade again who has heard about everything. It seems he wants strong people like him to help advertise his gear. Fate sees no reason to refuse and agrees to work with him. And yes, at a much cheaper dirt price he gets to wear his finest gears.

Later as he patrons the bar, he can’t seem to keep his eyes off the barmaid, Eris. To his surprise, she knows his true identity and has been observing him since at the capital. It is without a doubt she is also a wielder of a Mortal Sin. Lust in particular. I can see why everyone would lust for those jugs. Uh huh. Better endowed than Roxy! Anyway, she claims she is second generation and doesn’t get along with first generation like Myne. Boobs the issue again? Then she talks about the chimera. She is unsure who moved it but there are more from Galia. Seeing how weak the knights have become, it won’t be any surprise if they start to mature, right? But Eris’ real business is something else. As she is the guardian of Babylon, she will do anything that benefits the kingdom if its effect will take place in centuries. In short, Roxy will die in Galia. This makes Fate mad. There is no way he is going to let Roxy get killed. She explains about the aggression that builds up for monsters, the same is true for humans. With Roxy’s death, all the people’s aggression of the death of their beloved knight will build up and give birth to a new type of power in the future. Her death is necessary for the kingdom’s future. Fate is pissed at this idea. There is no way in hell that Roxy’s death will be good. He leaves mad and claims he will protect Roxy no matter what as Eris notes the plan is already in motion and nothing can stop it.

Episode 10
Roxy receives word that the expedition team sent to Galia has not returned from near the great ravine area. What else? Quickly, mobilize a rescue team! Meanwhile Jade tells Fate that the magic crystals he needs to make the scabbard, the supply has suddenly stopped. No problem. He can go get it themselves. Where? Galia. Near the great ravine area. Oh. I can see where this is going. As Fate fights his way through the monsters, when he takes a rest, he sees a vision of that dead chimera girl he slew. Must be something haunting nightmare as those he killed like Hado are pulling him into some pool of blood. Well, nothing like snapping out of that nightmare to go kill a few crowned beasts. While fighting them, he finds something odd. It’s like the crowned beasts aren’t targeting him and as though they’re being controlled by something. Meanwhile Roxy’s side are being attacked by monsters. Stupid Miria trying to protect her Roxy that she gets injured. Now Fate is here to save the day. Stupid Miria still not a hint of gratefulness. With Fate pointing the weird emblems on these monsters, they deduce that the monsters seem to be targeting Roxy. Fate believes it is Eris’ fault. After they part ways, Fate stumbles into a petrified monster. He sees Eris ahead. Even more so, a chimera buried in some rubble. But don’t worry, this one has no core. When he hears fighting from Roxy’s direction, time to go save her again. Yeah, Miria being dumb again. So desperate to protect Roxy that she gives everyone trouble. Oh look, Mugan got hurt trying to protect her. Hope you’re okay. Once more, Fate just in time to save the day as he takes on the few chimeras. Since he has experience, he tells Roxy how to defeat them. Their combo defeats one but before they could do the same for the last one, the ground caves in. As you would expect, Fate-Roxy spending some time at the bottom together. She learns he is the one travelling with Myne and finds it amusing he reminds her of someone similar. Yeah, would you like to know? Fate must be happy she has not changed but his curse starts to act up. He runs away and stumbles into the chimera. As he tries to kill it, he sees visions of Roxy as the core. He will not be fooled and mercilessly overkills it. Doubling the reward, magic crystals nearby. Since he doesn’t even know, she enlightens him that magic crystals are formed via crystallization from such monsters. Then they reunite with everyone.

Episode 11
What’s this? Roxy challenging Fate to a duel because of complaints received that he went violent on 56 other warriors? Did Fate get framed or something? The only way to settle this is for him to join the holy knights. That way, nobody will pick a fight with him as he claims. Of course Fate refuses since he has got to have his freedom. And so that is how their duel starts. Fate fights with his scabbard on. With the magic crystals specially made for it, it allows him to use some holy knight technique. Fate could have easily won had he not get distracted by Roxy’s keepsake that he almost broke. This allows Roxy to rebound for the win. She wonders he has learnt that technique from Aaron. She hints of wanting to help him but Fate claims he will handle his own problems. He laments even at this point, Roxy is still being considerate of others. Mugan then talks to Fate about the chimeras. They believe somebody else is controlling them. It seems his daughter, Raine is a fellow scientist trying to study this. When Fate hopes she could research more, Mugan takes it the wrong way that he wants him to introduce his daughter to her. So he wants to kill him? WTF?! Speaking of Raine, she heard about Rafale holing up and studying up the philosopher’s stone. She believes while it gives any healing power, its side effects are dominating the owner’s mind and body.

Fate remembers Myne telling him for him to exceed his current strength, he must reach Domain E, where the powers of the divine dragon lie. But push too hard and his skills will overwhelm him and he’ll lose control. With a death march heading towards Galia, Roxy leads her troops to fight it. Fate is confident they can handle it. But he detects and underground slime monster heading towards them and since they are so focused on the death march, they’ll be wiped out. Fate intercepts it and finds that emblem on it. This big mother tries to let its small fries keep Fate company while it heads towards Roxy. Eventually Fate uses an untested move on it. He finds it strange it has no effect until he realizes the mastermind behind it all controlling his perception. This guy similar like his getup is Eris? Uhm, I think not… Well, he is a Mortal Sin wielder and his weapon is Envy. So as they fight, Fate realizes the need to get stronger and Greed tells him to get to Domain E to be immune to attacks of others. Desperate, Fate levels up enough to cut this guy’s mask. And what do you know? It’s Northern! Why am I not surprised! But wait! Northern claims he is only half right. But now he summons a divine dragon to attack Roxy. Can Fate save her in time? Because Northern revels in keeping more slime monsters as his company. Wow, see that fear on Roxy’s face as she is about to be the dragon’s mincemeat. But wait! She is saved! By the fate of Fate of course! Pun intended! So powerful the blast, it only cracks his mask?! Oh well, cue for Roxy to realize it’s her lover boy. Uhm, will Fate worm his way out of this one? Nope. Hi Roxy, long time no see.

Episode 12
Roxy is shock to see his red eyes. Fate apologizes for everything and runs off with an excuse he’ll buy her time to escape. Oh Fate, if you only knew how sad you just made Roxy! You just made her worry and cry again! But now Fate has to deal with Northern. Fate loses an arm and is about to be killed by him but psyche! This Fate is just an illusion as the real one kills him from behind. So he sacrificed an arm just for this, huh? Suddenly Fate enters another dimension. Oh, it’s Luna, that chimera core girl he killed. She thanks Fate for killing her and if you’re wondering why this divine dragon didn’t go berserk while Fate was fighting Northern, she was holding it back as much as she can. Now at her limits, she warns him not to devour this divine dragon or he’ll lose himself. Thanks for the warning but he can’t let it roam free either. Bye Luna. Back to reality, Fate uses Greed as a projectile to throw it at the divine dragon. Hey, only 1 arm. Then he uses his ultimate skill to destroy it for good. The threat is over but now he has to pay the price. Don’t say he wasn’t warned. In his final moments, he uses all his stats to reset Greed to his lowest levels in case he goes berserk in using him. But here conveniently comes Myne. Didn’t think she’ll keep her promise so soon. Fate allows her to kill him but wait! Roxy saves him! She won’t allow this selfish act. Fate realizes perhaps he always wanted to be saved by her. Now you got your wish. Even a lap pillow! So let’s go home.

For a week he is asleep. And when he wakes up, Myne and Eris visit him. They are here to return Greed to him. Myne forgot to pick him up and some monster carried him off. Myne was busy dealing with Envy. You see, Envy was mind controlling Northern and the one who came up with this plan to kill Roxy. As such weapons cannot be destroyed, Myne threw him to the far end of Galia. Yeah, like that would solve anything! Anyway, now what Eris was a fool to believe in that plan, the kingdom will enter a new era since the divine dragon is gone. They need Fate’s help and he can’t refuse. Fate only agrees when Eris swears never to harm Roxy again. After all, they need to get out of here before she returns. Hearing her name further activates his gluttony. When Roxy visits, Fate is gone. At least he left a letter apologizing of keeping this a secret and thanking her for everything. Roxy reminisces that day when she met a young Fate (so that knight was indeed her). It was because of him she felt proud of being a holy knight and continued to uphold her values as one. She hopes to be reunited with him again and when that happens, she will be stronger. Meanwhile Memil tells Rafale of Corpse’s real identity. However he is not fazed and returns to his research. Obviously he has gone insane from all the researching. So now we see Fate expending a few stats and using some secret art to heal his arm! OMFG! That easy?! With Greed levelled up and Fate into Domain E, he wants a new scabbard to match his awesomeness. Where to get all that money? You know the drill. Kill more monsters. And here is a swarm to get started.

Fate/Slay Nightcap: You Are What You Eat
So is Fate like shifting the goal post? Oh you know, he was supposed to protect Roxy but then with what happened, now he wants to get as far away from her. Yeah, probably for the best. With his gluttony skills going out of control, perhaps he’ll more than just devour her. Oh you know, devour her as in turning into a big bad wolf and sexually assaulting her!!! HAHAHA!!! JUST KIDDING!!! And with this kind of ending, I don’t know what to feel but I suppose it’s supposed to be happy because I’m glad this atrocity is over. Whatever next mission that Mortal Sin wielders need to undergo as teased by Eris, she can keep it a secret because I’m not interested anymore. So long!

Honestly, the story for this season feels mediocre and if I should put it, everything just felt introductory. My guess is that with some of the potentials, developments and mysteries surrounding whatever that is going on this season, it is just to serve as possibility if they ever want to do another season. Hence if you ask me, this season felt like it didn’t go anywhere except introduce the settings and concepts, that is all. The first few episodes obviously introduced us to Fate and his fate (pun intended) of becoming a Mortal Sin wielder. While that was pretty much understandable, the middle parts of the season felt like one weird road trip. Fate travelling to a few small towns along the way and encounter-cum-help whatever problems at hand before moving on. I mean, this part really felt out of place. I suppose it is to help build up his level and in a way serve as some sort of training but it just felt flat in my eyes. After all, Fate and Roxy being the most important and the 2 main characters of the series were apart from each other! WTF. The final stretch with the incident at Galia to close this season. So I don’t blame you if you feel this season was somewhat underwhelming in terms of today’s standards. Yeah, by our veteran standards, we need more than this to stimulate and keep us entertained! Oh my, have we been done in by the gluttony curse too?

As for the characters, unfortunately they are mostly bland and boring. Like Fate himself who is pretty basic with what makes him the main character. Oh you know, tortured past (that or amnesiac character, take your pick!), finds hope by the only or few people who treated him human, finds some sort of super weapon or power, rises up to the occasion and becomes his own heroes of justice. Yeah. That. I think I can create a few more of such main characters with that kind of generic line. So yes, Fate isn’t anything special in particular. Just that he has this obsession with Roxy and that he must get stronger to protect her. Just short of saying he is in love with her. But hell yeah, the way he is turning into some glutton monster, will there be true romance? Knowing Roxy’s personality, I think it does. Oh boy, Beauty and the Beast. Gluttony version. Heh. And so what keeps Fate keeping the faith and going strong is probably the only girl in his life. How lovely. Of course accompanying and guiding him is that sarcastic talking sword, Greed. Not much is known about him except he likes to do wise cracks that will cause Fate to tell him to STFU, in a way almost making other people think he is a madman for talking to himself! But unfortunately Greed being his sidekick, he doesn’t feel entertaining either. Yeah, what was I expecting? Some sort of Disney sidekick or something? Anyway, the pair are just being boring. To think this gluttony thingy is going to be like some drug overdose, he has to eat more and more to achieve the same level of sanity, oh well the only good news that is he won’t be putting on extra weights and fats from overeating! HAHAHA!!! Sighs…

Of course we have to talk about Roxy, the living saint-cum-angel in this world that is full of corrupted and evil people. Trying to troll us there is some sort of romance going on but from the way I see it, it’s not going to happen very soon. True, Roxy is God sent because amidst turbulent times, she continues to care for others than herself. In a way, staying true to Mason’s teachings and his daughter. But sometimes I worry that she might putting up a calm façade and all that pain especially the heart breaking agony of losing her father has been welling up in her heart like a time ticking bomb. I fear it will all blow up and we will see her true colours. Scarier than any corrupted holy knight, monsters, crowned beasts or chimera put together! Yikes. I hope I’m wrong. And that Roxy is just being the Roxy we all know. On an unrelated note, I would really want to see Roxy’s embarrassed reaction and was hoping Aisha asking Fate to marry her daughter! “Dear Fate my boy, what would you say if I give my permission to give my daughter’s hand in marriage to you?”. Oh boy. I can imagine Roxy’s embarrassment right now… HAHAHA!!! I’m so evil!

The other characters are a mixed baggage and I feel they aren’t going to be memorable in the long run. Take for instance, Myne. Her slacker attitude may be amusing at first but that gets old pretty fast. Sometimes she gets pretty annoying because she is a bit selfish. She only exists during Fate’s solo travel to Galia. So it’s like they needed to have a weird pair travelling together an in absence of Roxy, here, have Myne. There is more about Myne than meets the eye and so far she has only teased her with her origins. Definitely they will cross paths in the future and it’s not the end yet. After all, as a Mortal Sin wielder, she too has dropped a few hints for Fate but not entirely revealing everything. Yeah, I suppose that will take away all the fun and mystery. Eris came late into the picture and as another Mortal Sin wielder, piles on more questions than answers about the people who are having such status. So I bet there will only be 7 such people in the world, huh? Can we have 2 different people having the same mortal sin? Eris feels underutilized having entering the series so late (I guess I’ve been trolled by the promotional poster that Myne and Eris would be part of the harem group). If Roxy and Myne are too ‘flat’ for your fanservice taste, here, have someone that is way mature…

Then there is Miria who should easily be a candidate for being the most annoying character of the year award. This girl is obsessed with Roxy and it would’ve been okay if it was done properly. However it wasn’t so she comes off more irritating than anything else. Not even cute. I don’t know about their past but it’s like Miria feels she has this right to monopolize Roxy’s attention or something. So is she lesbian or what? Making her close to being hated is her ungratefulness of Fate coming to her rescue while her obsession put everyone else in danger. Yeah, I guess this is the kind of controversial character we need than the other bland characters. Mugan is a pretty decent guy until of course this is to link Raine as his daughter. Nobody’s perfect. Dumb doting father he is if you ever want to know his flaws.

It is no secret that many of the holy knights here are corrupted as f*ck and many abuse their authority for their own gains. It would have been interesting if Rafale and Memil had more screen time and show the evilness they are becoming but I guess as far as this season goes, they’re just laying the groundwork for next time. I mean, the Vlerick siblings have always long tormented Fate and it would be just deserts to see them get what they deserve. Alas I felt that should that happen very soon, in some ways the story would have ended. You know, Fate getting his revenge on his tormentors and that’s the end of the whole thing. Sure, monsters still abound and all but as long as those cruel siblings are still around, this gives Fate extra motivation to protect Roxy. Of course not all holy knights are bad but they are scarce like in Aaron’s case as his role has been relegated to be a training teacher for Fate and Roxy. And yes, the ‘reward’ is to have him get over his family’s death and move forward. And some holy knights are just clowns AKA comic relief. Rudolph anyone? Yeah, what happened to this dude?

I can’t say that I am impressed with the action scenes. After all, it goes without saying in a genre like this. I don’t know about you but I’m just bored in seeing Fate slash monsters after monsters even if they are stronger ones. Sure, Greed guides him but that’s so much about it. Fate levels up and can turn Greed into other forms of weapon if he offers enough stats but this is just for some visual variety. Each form has its own unique moves but I don’t find them memorable. After all that monster slashing, it gets numbing after a while. True, there are blood and gore after the monster gets cut down but I won’t be comparing it to gorier animes like Shingeki No Kyojin or Elfen Lied. The goriest one would be dying Hado without his limbs but that’s about it. And then there’s those stats that Fate uses to appraise monsters. Well, each time I see them I just want to scream, “It’s over 9000!”. HAHAHA!!! Sighs…

As for the art and animation, it’s just pretty standard. My beef is that there are quite a few scenes that are a bit dark and hence not being able to see much. Especially during the action scenes fighting monsters in the wastelands or something. It gets a bit too dark. There’s a bit of CGI too but only confined to the monsters. Not sure to thank the dark scenes but I won’t go so far as to say they look bad. Even the chimera was looking rather okay and damn, I thought they were rejected Gundam models or what! Speaking of character designs, why the heck does Roxy look like a smiling version of Aiz from DanManchi?! Oh, make her slimmer too! And if you ever seen that obscure retro anime Soul Link, you’ll wonder if Myne’s design was inspired from Karen of that anime. Yeah… Imagine if Rimuru is bustier and more feminine, voila! You get Eris! No kidding! And does Memil look like Mira from Shuumatsu No Harem? Must be just me. Oh what’s this? Some of you think Memil look like Honkai Impact’s Elysia? Whatever. Didn’t play that game. This anime is done by A.C.G.T. who did Freezing, Orient and Dies Irae.

Voice acting, I only recognized Takehito Koyasu as Aaron, Ayako Kawasumi as Aisha and Jun Fukuyama as Rudolph. Tomokazu Seki as Greed, he is hovering in between serious and comical sometimes so I couldn’t pick him out. The other casts are Ryota Ohsaka as Fate (titular character in Hataraku-Maou-sama), Hisako Toujo as Roxy (Chiaki in Hinako Note), Misato Matsuoka as Myne (Tsubaki in Rokudou No Onna-tachi), Hitomi Sekine as Eris (Koyuzu in Edomae Elf), Mariko Honda as Miria (Kurimu in Seitokai No Ichizon), Takahiro Miyamoto as Mugan, Daisuke Hirakawa as Rafale (Makoto in School Days), Makoto Koichi as Memil (Sakura in Lycoris Recoil), Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Northern (Tsukumo in Nanbaka), Ayaka Nanase as Raine (Atena in Megami-ryou No Ryoubou-kun) and Yuu Hayashi as Jade (Ryuunosuke in Haikyu). The opening, Jekyll & Hyde by Everdream feels bland and generic as a rock music. The same band also sings the ending theme, Ao No Genseki, a slow dramatic pop piece that doesn’t really impress me either. On a trivial note, I noticed the final episode (the one Fate regenerates his arm), the BGM sounds like a spoof of a popular BGM from Fate/Stay Night. Hmmm… Could it be just me?

Overall, this series just feels lacklustre and it would’ve been slightly better had they had more episodes to flesh out the characters and plots. Unfortunately this is what we got for this season and you know what they say about first impressions, right? Thus this is just another one of those action fantasies using the overly used trope of the mortal sins (from Fullmetal Alchemist, Trinity Seven, Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari, Re: Zero Kaara Hajimaru Isekai Seikatsu and even Nanatsu No Taizai that’s in the name of the series itself!). Yeah, I bet all of you could easily name the 7 deadly sins but not its virtuous counterparts! Thanks anime for that. Uh huh. Not impressed as usual. Yeah, maybe it’s my sin of envy that’s making me feel so. Dang, if only gluttony was useful to eat away all my problems…

Boku No Hero Academia: UA Heroes Battle

I lost count how many OVAs and movies came out ever since the inception of this long running series. So yeah, while we wait for the next season to come, they drop us another OVA to let us know that this series is still very much alive. Boku No Hero Academia: UA Heroes Battle takes place before the 6th season and somewhere in the 5th. With our young heroes locked in their dorms for the winter, can they survive Jack Frost without dying of boredom? Apparently yes. But it’s not going to be your ordinary poker, blackjack or even old maid game…

U-A-oh! Duel Heroes
Despite being winter break, Kaminari and Mineta are complaining they are confined to the dorms and can’t go home. Until they get lectured by Iida and Yaoyorozu that by doing so, they have to be escorted by heroes and police. That will be a lot of work for something selfish! So be grateful! The gang can look forward to some New Year event sponsored by UA. Looks like the events are huge games in which the students can use their Quirks to their heart’s content. However with the current situation, they can’t really go out. In short, it is cancelled. Don’t worry, Togata is here to relay some good news. They have come out with a new event and he hopes they could try it out. Basically, UA Heroes Battle is a freaking card battle game. You load a card with a UA hero on it on the game board and the AI will automatically judge its effects from attacks to defence. So it is not pre-programmed? The other catch is that you can only use the card once before it disappears automatically. Midoriya and Ojiro try it out first and in the end, the former wins. So we see the rest of them taking their turns using cards of various heroes of UA. Bakugou is late to the game since he has been awakened by the commotion. Knowing his behaviour, the rest egg him on to try it out so you bet this guy wants to beat Midoriya even if it is a card game. Both draw their own versions to fight it out. It ends in a draw because of the time limit. There’s a time limit?! Don’t worry, a sudden death match will decide the winner. Both will blindly pick a random card and this will determine the winner. Everyone thinks Midoriya is screwed when Bakugou draws All Might compared to… A doggie???!!! How is this even a hero at UA???!!! But surprise! Because of All Might’s kindness, he is going to help this dog find its lost owner. And just like that, the game ends in another draw. Bakugou is so mad that he blows up the entire place! And you’ve guessed it, Aizawa later bans all card games.

Cardfight! Vang-UA-rd!
I don’t know. If you ask me, I thought this whole thing felt underwhelming and just one of those easy going and random skits. It felt like one big flashy promo to promote the card game. Wait a minute. This series has a card game?! Yeah, I didn’t know about it until just recently when I Google it. Back in 2021, they release some collectible card game. You bet casual viewers like me don’t even know it existed until this. That is, if you care enough to do a bit of research online since this OVA didn’t really explicitly advertise or even give any promotional hints of that said card game. But I guess with a series this popular internationally, naturally they would want to grow their brand and have a hand in almost every conceivable category. Wanna bet there is a pachinko version of it too? Everything must have! Everything must get! Otherwise, this is just one of those episodes to pass the time if you have really nothing else to do or your anime watch list isn’t that busy and decided to check this one out of curiosity. Until the next season arrives, I’m going to wait and see if they’re going to release a mecha version of this series. Mobile Suit UA or Neon Genesis UA-ngelion when?

Nanatsu No Maken Ga Shihai Suru

Need another fantasy sword and sorcery anime? You got it. Add an academy that teaches a group of diverse friends to hone such skills. Check. Mysteries and conspiracies also abound. Got that covered. Nanatsu No Maken Ga Shihai Suru didn’t come as anything striking to me. The dilemma of me whether to skip this one has been on my mind for a considerable while. And because of that, it means the only to bust away such dilemma is to, you’ve guessed it, watch it and judge for myself. I know, it sounds dumb like always but if I left that quandary hanging with no resolve, it might bug and haunt me again with the same tormented feelings many years later down the road. Besides, isn’t this already a sign indicating to just (STFU and) go watch it? For better or worse. My guts are one thing but I should have known better…

Episode 1
Oliver Horn makes his way to Kimberly Magic Academy. We see a few other main characters making their way there. They watch the welcoming parade of monsters when somebody plays a prank on Katie Aalto and forces her legs to run towards a troll. Troll goes berserk but is stopped by samurai girl, Nanao Hibiya. She intends to take on the troll but Oliver knows it would spell her doom so he has the rest help him out with his magic plan to create a diversion. It is successful to take the troll’s attention away but Nanao did not run and instead knock out the troll. When she did so, her hair changed from black to completely white. Whatever innocent colour or it is called, all I know is that Oliver says it means she is going to be a great mage. The ceremony begins with headmistress, Esmeralda giving her speech. She warns them their life is in their own hands. Because 20% of the students at the end of their 7 years here will end up being consumed by magic. Meaning they get corrupted, go crazy and some committed suicide. But it is all up to you to achieve greater heights. During the welcoming banquet, our main characters get acquainted and introduce each other. We have Michela “Chela” McFarlane from a very famous magic clan; Katie who is into animals; Guy Greenwood who is into plants; Pete Reston whose family do not have any magic (I suppose he must be a real smart guy because he is always reading and that’s how he got into this school, right?); Oliver who comes from another great family clan and he has family members at this school; Nanao who was about to be killed in battle but saved by Chela’s father who is an instructor at this school, hence she was recommended to attend. Oliver is up very early one morning and goes for a walk. He notices someone watching him and calls out to her. Teresa Carste is tasked by his brother to watch over him and if he needs her assistance, feel free to call her. Oliver is shocked to see Nanao bathing in the public fountain. Oh sorry, purification a she calls it. More shocking, the scars all over her body. Her pose and all reminds Oliver of something similar. He lends his coat for her to cover up. Although he finds her strange and innocent, but he also smells blood on her that cannot be wiped away.

Episode 2
First day of class begins. Pete showing off he knows much about the history of magic and some students are already sniggering the nerd he is. Luther Garland will have some students duel each other so Nanao volunteers. When Richard Andrews volunteers to fight her, Oliver gets a bad feeling about this guy and usurps him to fight Nanao. He knows he was to guy who stood there watching during the troll incident and did nothing. Richard gets met when Oliver points this out so Chela offers to fight him instead. Oliver begins his fight with Nanao and can’t hold back. However she starts crying and this forces him to get serious. But before the fight finishes, Garland stops them. Seeing the intensity of this match, Chela and Richard withdraw from their match. Later Nanao thanks him for facing her seriously and wants to duel him again. However Oliver is not pleased and refuses. He will never fight her again for he doesn’t want to kill her nor to be killed by her. Then under some magical biology class by Vanessa Aldiss, the students are to feed the right amount of magic into silkworms. Because too much will turn them into vicious monsters. Everyone except Nanao is doing fine. But the worrying one is Katie because as an animal lover, she is trying her best to save every last one. And then when the final one flopped, she still thinks she can save it but gets bitten, forcing Oliver and Chela to intervene, causing them to lose points for intervening. Later Oliver talks to Katie as she relates why she will always try to help any animals or demi-humans. She cannot accept the rationale of mages exploiting anything that has no human rights to their benefit. All Oliver can say is about the harsh reality of this world and that what she has seen is just a fraction. Though, it is her choice if she wants to remain the way she is. Later when Pete claims he lost some book, Oliver and Chela quickly help him to find it. Although it is found, suddenly the landscape changes. As Kimberly is built upon some maze, the hallways turn into a maze after sunset. Not to fear, students getting lost is common but thankfully there are instructors and seniors who are patrolling. But they encounter upperclassman, Ophelia Salvadori. Olivia and Chela are cautious about her since her pheromones have a very seductive effect. It might not work on them but it does on Pete. They quickly take him away and won’t accompany her. However another upperclassman, Cyrus Rivermoore won’t allow them to just leave.

Episode 3
Apparently Ophelia and Cyrus hate each other’s guts. They summon their monsters to fight each other. The rest take this chance to escape. Nanao comes to join in the battle but the whole farce is stopped by Alvin Godfrey the student council president and Carlos Whitrow. Leaving the labyrinth, Oliver then lashes out at Nanao because she intended to fight and die in that battle. The rest cool him down and let Nanao explain her story. She starts about this battle she was fighting. There was endless killing. She reached the enemy’s general and wanted to fight his son who was said to be the best. However she was pointed out she just easily slain him. The general was sad of his son’s death and ordered his men to kill her. But that was then Chela’s father popped up to prevent that and invited her to Kimberly. Nanao comes from a school of thought about fighting to kill someone you respect and admire. That term is called shiawase. It is something she has been looking for. She was happy when she fought Oliver but then subsequently he turned her down and she got all weird about it. She is unsure she has fallen for him or his sword. All Chela can advise is that she will come to find a new way to live and proof is that she is here and alive so it’s not a dream. So let’s make fun memories together, okay? Next day, Nanao is obviously too close to Oliver. Not that he hates it. Then some lesson from Garland about the current Spellblades and those who are trying to invent new ones to defeat existing ones. As they practice, Richard still wants to settle a score with Oliver. He agrees but Nanao wonders if he will lose on purpose because she feels it from him. Later Chela talks to Oliver that Richard is her childhood friend. Both were always compared to each other so he has developed that fear of losing his place. Soon a commotion as Katie confronts Snape Darius Grenville because he wants to kill that troll. He is not amused she is vouching for a life that would probably kill many if left to live. She claims she will convince it not to kill but he laughs at it and teaches her a lesson with this painful spell. Garland and Vera Miligan come to stop him as they tell him the investigations are still undergoing so the troll is still an important piece of evidence. Besides, right advocates are no longer a small group so you bet there is going to be trouble if this gets out. Grenville backs down for now. Oliver and Nanao get a challenge letter from Richard.

Episode 4
Katie is trying to talk to that troll. Yeah, even trolls can get depressed. However this has many students mock and badmouth her. Guy wants to give them a piece of mind but Oliver doesn’t believe it is worth it. Until those mockers continue to do so in Katie’s face, Oliver blows his top. Nanao and Guy join him to blow them away. Sure, they get detention but now almost everyone else is against them and this will affect their duel with Richard. When they head over to the colosseum to face him, Richard puts up a display of killing kobolds. Turns out they will not be duelling as Richard feels he will not get his deserved honour in that. Instead they will hunt kobolds brought into the ring and the one who kills the most kobolds wins. Obviously Richard is a veteran in that. Nanao gets mad and chastises everyone for enjoying such blood sport. She gets booed but she lives. This fight is not worth her blade. But chaos soon ensues because inside the kobold’s cell is a divine creature known as a garuda. Yes, it starts slicing everyone! From the looks of it, this isn’t part of the plan. Even the audience can’t run since the loose kobolds are attacking them. Richard gets scared and runs away. Only thanks to Nanao blocking the attack. Nanao and Oliver put up a gallant fight against this mad creature. Oliver gets injured and retreats to heal himself. He sees Richard cowering there. Richard can’t understand why they can fight that monster. Have they no fear? Well, Oliver does but can’t say for Nanao. That is why she has to help her to teach her what it means of being normal. Besides, Nanao was hoping to see him fight. Oliver returns to assist Nanao and they need to end this quickly. Oliver will be the diversion to create an opening for her. Just when things get desperate and Oliver going to allow the garuda to wound him, Richard is the one who returns to help prevent that. This allows Nanao to decapitate the garuda and end the madness. The duo thank Richard who reveals he wasn’t actually afraid to fight but rather the loss of being an embarrassment to his clan since they put high hopes on him. The duo continue to praise him with all the honours and consider him as a comrade in arms so I think it’s safe to say that they’re friends now. Or at least Richard won’t be holding such petty grudges against them.

Episode 5
The friends discuss about the garuda attack and basically it was an attack on conservatives who don’t want to give their rights to demi-humans. It could also be retaliation from demi-human rights activists for that troll incident. Hence this might spark a war but Kimberly won’t do anything about it since it happened in the labyrinth and they’ll view it as students having their little arguments. They shift their topic to praise how good Oliver was. So Chela wants to give him a victory kiss?! When Nanao learns about it, she gives him a quick one and wants one in return! Interrupted by Oliver’s cousin, Shannon Sherwood who is here to say hi. During Grenville’s magic class, some students have trouble with their experiments so Oliver was quick to help solve all of them before it blows up. This earns Grenville’s attention. He notes his talents but warns him to choose his friends carefully. Later Richard talks to Oliver to warn him about Grenville. This guy has a very shady reputation like stealing results from his students and publishing as his own. Oliver will soon get an invitation from him. Tempting but think twice before accepting. His friend also wants to talk to them. She is the one who pulled that troll prank on Katie. She did so since her family thinks activists like her are an embarrassment. However she didn’t think it would go out of hand. Katie continues to talk to the troll and to her surprise, he can actually speak. The troll warns her not to come here anymore. As Oliver and Nanao talk about the troll incident, it seems from Nanao’s point of view, the troll was trying to run away rather than going berserk. This opens up a new perspective for Oliver as he realizes Katie is in danger. Too late, she is kidnapped. The troll gives the description of that person. As they make their way, Oliver narrates about some past project about activists trying to make demi-humans smart so as they could have the same rights as humans. But the project was scorned by many. Perhaps someone is doing that secretly in Kimberly. Not surprisingly, it is Vera. She has kidnapped Katie to examine her brain for her talents (since she managed to get the troll to talk). Don’t worry, she’ll put it back and release her once she is done. Of course Oliver won’t allow that. Vera does some powerful magic that is easily dispelled by Oliver. She further introduces herself as a rights activist and wants to raise demi-humans’ status in society. Yes, demi-humans is her biology major.

Episode 6
Oliver and Nanao team up to fight Vera. She is formidable and can handle both of them at once. Even more so she has this magic eye whom they must avoid contact at all cost. Eventually Oliver realizes Vera has a hidden magic and Nanao might be falling for her trap. However Nanao severs that hand where that hidden eye is. Because Nanao is unaware of what she has done, Oliver deduces that her sword allowed her to break through some space-time and distance and cut her opponent first. So it doesn’t matter how fast the eye could travel because speed has no meaning in the face of that sword. He believes is a Spellblade that doesn’t match the existing ones and could be the seventh. In the aftermath after Katie is saved, she learns of Vera’s fate. She might have started out with good intentions but seeing Katie making to troll talk, she got greedier. Because the troll has showed some intelligence, it will not be disposed as a unique specimen. Katie is glad everything worked out and kisses Oliver and Nanao. Katie stays positive on the path she takes and this makes Oliver cry? Well, he is happy he got to protect somebody.

Later Grenville summons Oliver so as to clean up some students who died while doing some research. Oliver then questions him about the troll incident because he is not a biology teacher and yet he wants to get rid of it like as though he wants to bury some evidence. But he finds it odd Grenville is helping Vera. It seems Grenville wants to eliminate stupidity from mankind. To do that, he must find a way to change human intelligence. Thus he is planning to use the same techniques on humans but now he feels disappointed he won’t get demi-human samples. Oliver then changes his tone and asks for his alibi on a certain date. Grenville soon takes it that he is targeting him from the start. They fight but Oliver could see all the different future outcomes. Most end in Oliver’s death so he picks one that has him emerge victorious. After he slays him, he reveals he is the son of the woman he slew that night. Grenville is in shock not to realize he is her son. Yeah, they don’t do look alike so it worked in Oliver’s favour. Oliver then tortures him with various pains that he did upon his mom until he says the right word. That word is to end this so Oliver kills him. Big brother Gwyn and Shannon check on him and despite Oliver’s determination to use this special ability till it kills him, they note he only has very limited numbers to use it so don’t do so unless necessary. Like some weird cult sh*t, all the other comrades gather around as they coronate Oliver as their next leader. It seems their goal is to kill every last one of those traitors who betrayed and killed Oliver’s mom, Chloe. The remainders are: Vanessa, Frances Gilchrist, Enrico Forghieri, Demitrio Aristides, Baldia Muwezicamili and Esmeralda. But Oliver is left to remember Nanao’s words that swords wield out of revenge bring no joy but only those out of mutual love. Time to test whether if she is right.

Episode 7
Esmeralda and Chloe’s killers are having a discussion among themselves as they note Grenville has been missing for 4 months. It is safe to assume that he is dead. She wonders if one among them killed him or could it be a student. Either way, that person has made an enemy of her and will only regret their stupidity. One night, Pete wakes up and finds himself with boobs?! WTF?! Hence throughout the day, he is acting strange and telling his friends not to get near him, making them feel weird. Then there is Stacy Cornwallis and her attendant, Fay Willock who are relatives of Chela. They have been ignoring her ever since enrolling at Kimberly. Dustin Hedges will teach the students how to ride a broomstick. Apparently broomsticks are living things so they’ll hover close to you if they like you. There are many who like Nanao but it seems there is one stubborn broomstick Nanao takes a liking. In short, they hit it off as they ride wildly into the skies. This brings back memories for Oliver because his mom used to ride like that. The friends talk about Grenville who has been missing in the labyrinth (the official story) but are soon interrupted by Theodore (Chela’s father) who is here to teach them alchemy. Then the next class of magic engineering by Enrico, he has the students diffuse some bomb box but since time runs out, it explodes. Oliver protect Pete from the snakes but nothing fatal. Oliver then privately talks to Pete and from his action all day, he knows he has switched sex. Some phenomenon called reversi due to one unsure of their sexuality but because of that, best of both worlds means his spells are more powerful. Carlos heard it all and gives Pete and invitation. Oliver accompanies Pete into the labyrinth as Alvin leads them to a secret party that is a gathering of students having this reversi condition. The students mingle with each other to make each other feel more comfortable with their sexuality and this makes Pete feel a lot better. Although he won’t change rooms (for fear of being alone at Kimberly), maybe just a simple curtain to separate their beds.

Episode 8
Not sure what beef Tullio Rossi has against Pete but it makes the latter mad enough that during practice, Pete fights him with emotions and that made him lose. As he wants his friends teach him to get stronger, Oliver and Chela argue over which of their styles to be taught. Sorry Nanao, your input isn’t considered! Katie suggests they both teach him so they make a compromise. Tullio then comes up with a game to see who the strongest first year is. Each will be given a medal and the winner of the fight takes it. The 4 with the most medals move on to the finals. Evelynn Odets challenges Nanao and thinks as long as she can keep her distance and use her magic, it is an easy win. Too bad Nanao’s swordsmanship is way better than that as she takes this win easily. As Oliver is invited to have tea with Gwyn and Shannon, he stumbles into Ophelia who talks to him for a while. She warns him not to adventure too much and should be studying like a student. Meeting up with Gwyn and Shannon, they discuss if Nanao is the 7th Spellblade. Oliver has no proof but his guts tell him so. Even more so, the broom that chose Nanao belonged to Chloe. Oliver is confused about his obligations to help Nanao so Gwyn tells him to forget the complicating feelings stuffs and concentrate on being himself. On his way out, Tullio wants to fight him. They begin as Tullio dominates Oliver at first but eventually loses. So I guess he is out of the running. Oliver commends Tullio’s unique fighting ability and hopes he learns some basics to hone it further since his skills will soon hit its limit. He is telling him this since he envies him for his talent. Oliver views his own skills were not of product of his own talent. After that, Joseph Albright challenges Tullio and is going to take everything from him.

Episode 9
Pete is in pain. It seems the magic has not gotten used to his body in his female form so Oliver administers some pain relief. Pete then comes out to the rest of his pals. Chela then administers some magic in his womb to store extra magic. During practice, Stacy seems to have some beef with Pete. Try as he might, Pete couldn’t land a blow. He feels depressed but his friends note how much he has improved. Even Tullio offers his praise on his improvement. Only Stacy remains mad and now she is for Chela, thinking she taught Pete their basic style which in some way humiliates her. Huh? WTF is her problem? Katie then gets her own workshop in the labyrinth and brings her friends there. It seems she disagrees to the rate in which demi-humans are killed at Kimberly for nothing and wants to make a name for herself to change the rules and make this place a haven for fauna. Along the way, they meet a lot of strange labyrinth creatures, some traps and a weird group of students eating as much meat as they can? They’re the labyrinth gourmet club and they invite them to eat but they’ll pass. The friends heard stories of Kevin Walker as he got lost in the labyrinth of 6 months. By the time he surfaced, his funeral was already held! They also go to buy some ingredients for food before finally reaching the workshop. Looks like a really good place as a secret base. They have so much fun camping that Chela suggests giving their group a name. Nanao has everyone raise their swords and because it forms some sort of rose, from today onward they shall be known as Sword Roses.

Episode 10
Katie brings the troll now named Marco to join them. She got Vera’s help, though. A rude awakening from Pete since Vera’s chopped off hand has now taken a life of its own! Is this Thing?! Vera was the one who helped secured this workshop for Katie as she is interested to see her potential grow. As Sword Roses continue to explore the labyrinth, Stacy and Fay show up to challenge Chela and Oliver. But Joseph butts in and wants to make it 3 on 3 with Nanao. Fay thinks this is a good deal seeing Joseph is after Nanao and this will increase their chances in taking down Chela. As the fight begins, Oliver quickly goes to fight Joseph. This leaves Chela and Nanao to team up against Stacy and Fay. Joseph is able to decipher the kind of moves Oliver makes and thus his fighting style. Stacy reminisces about pleading to her uncle in keeping Fay as her servant who was supposed to be killed. Since Stacy wants to win so badly, Fay tells her to just order him so since she is his owner. With that, he turns into his true werewolf form. Chela realizes that Fay being a half-werewolf has some disabilities and that means being in extreme pain in this form. She cannot understand why she would make her partner feel so much pain just for this fight. More flashback showing Stacy has always wondered why her uncle never accepted her. Is it because she is not his true daughter? In that case she vowed to get her real dad back from them. She is jealous of Chela who has everything. Nanao reminds Chela about the wrong way she is showing her kindness. Since they are going all out to fight her, they too must fight at their full strength or it will be an insult to them.

Episode 11
Knowing that he can’t best Joseph, Oliver tries to drag out the fight and wear down his concentration. This pays off. Chela bests Stacy and this reduces the latter to tears. Hope she isn’t a sore loser. As Chela seeks an explanation why she always hated her, Fay admits it isn’t her fault to begin with. As Stacy is from a branch family, she thought by killing Chela, she would take her place. Obviously a silly theory that won’t work. Making it sadder is that Chela and Stacy share the same blood and are considered sisters but their family tradition doesn’t allow them to do so. And with irony, the harder Stacy works and excels more, the more father shunned her. Like as though it made him realize his own blood was inferior to Theodore. So all this was to show she was more talented than Chela to have Theodore accept her as his daughter but come to think of it, even if she was successful, that wouldn’t happen either. Nanao tells Stacy that it would be impossible for her to become Chela because she is not. Instead, she wants to be her friend and get to know her as Stacy. So now they’re friends? Okay. Now it is Joseph’s turn to tell his past. He had a servant girl when he was young. He always beat her in chess but she never gave up and studied until she beat him one day. Despite the loss, Joseph felt satisfied. But when he told his father about it, he got beaten up for half a day! His servant was never seen again and her entire family was rid of! That day he learnt that his victories do not belong to him along but his family. Thus he will not accept this loss as he summons killer bees to get them. The gang stays safe in Guy’s vines but it won’t last. Oliver has a plan but Chela also has an idea. That is to reveal her true form as she is half-elf. This allows her to use some advance magic that would’ve put a lot of strain on normal bodies. After the bees are taken out, Nanao faces Joseph. Time to make him taste what true defeat feels like. This is a fight between them and no family or gods can take this victory or loss. Eventually he loses but accepts it. So now he is friends too? As they return, magical beasts attack. Unfortunately, Joseph, Fay and Pete get kidnapped. When Oliver returns to report to the student council, they too already know about this as there have been many reports of such. They also know that Ophelia is behind this as she has been consumed by the spell.

Episode 12
Guy is impatient. Are we going to sit here and do nothing? Yeah. Seems like it. But it’s better than rushing in and lose their lives. Even when they go talk to some of the teachers of assistance, basically they’re saying that they can’t be of help and they have to figure it themselves. Hey, you were warned when you signed up at Kimberly. Now we have Chela wanting to head into the labyrinth herself as atonement or she can never face Pete again. Better to minimize their losses this way. Oliver wants to come but she wants to do it alone. He won’t approve of it. So he’s her father now? But now there is the issue of Katie and Vera. Katie has agreed to be Vera’s experiment assistant in exchange for her help. Once more, Oliver being Katie’s father or something to object to that even if Katie herself agrees to it. Vera warns that they have very slim chance in defeating Ophelia. But she can help train them to increase that chance by 1%. As Vera’s research depended heavily on Grenville, now that he has gone missing, her research has hit a dead end. That is why she is interested on Katie. Aside training them, she will help find Ophelia’s lair. As Vera takes Oliver, Chela and Nanao into the labyrinth, she explains more on Ophelia’s family. Basically they believe they are related to the succubus and attempted to create a perfect life form. They failed and the succubus is de facto extinct. As seen, a lot of mana is needed to create a chimera. Ophelia needing a lot of chimera, she could be trying to create something more terrifying. Thing is, the mana she specifically needs is the male sperm. Well, this is bad news because if she finds out Pete is a reversi, she might get rid of him. Meanwhile Gwyn and Carlos lead a small team into the labyrinth to find Ophelia. They bump into Kevin who has mapped a lot of the area and it lightens their work to find Ophelia. Our trio watch first hand as Vera teaches them the tactics on how to deal with tougher labyrinth monsters. This is the minimum they have to do if they want to get past it and save Pete. Essentially, their teamwork in different areas will play a key role in defeating the monsters. They arrive in the next layer of the labyrinth which is a forest.

Episode 13
Flashback shows Ophelia was always alone. Every guy she talked to went crazy. Until Carlos. More jungle adventures we see from Vera guiding Oliver and co. Then they come across a lord of a region. Vera talks to it to let them pass. However it shows hostility as she prepares to take it down. Luckily Nanao continues to talk with it and just like that it lets them pass. Apparently it is wounded and would like to avoid any more fighting. Plus, Nanao explaining about the aura and scent one gives out. Magical beasts can sense that so one must confront them with a calm and sincere heart. Well, too bad for that magical beast because it got decapitated by a chimera! Now we see the trio showing off the fruits of their training as they cooperate to make their first big kill. When they camp for the night, Vera asks Oliver why they are risking their lives to save Pete whom they’ve only known for a very short time. Oliver recounts the incident when Marco went berserk during the parade. Nobody would’ve blamed Pete had he run but he chose to stay and fight with them. Considering he comes from a magicless family, he must be the most scared among them. That incident marked the beginning of the friendship for Sword Roses. Another thing Vera points out is that she is interested about Oliver. No, not in the romantic sense! Unlike others, it seems he is a plain guy but when in battle, his fighting becomes equal as his comrades. So what made up that gap in talent? Don’t worry, she won’t pry further and is just concerned as his senior. Now that Joseph has awakened, he now understands Pete’s condition as he is not affected by Ophelia’s perfume. In this desperate situation, Joseph, digs out orbs hidden inside his own body (OUCH!) and gives them to Pete. OMG is he killing himself with this move? Oh well, perhaps better than being Ophelia’s guinea pig. Anyway he is entrusting his life to Pete to use this orbs when he sees fit to escape and get help.

Episode 14
Heading into the final layer, the land is a thick marsh. Vera teaches them how to walk on water and this in turn will be useful so they can evolve into walking on air. As they get going, Cyrus attacks them. They think he is after Ophelia’s research and since they just want to rescue their friends, they can join forces. Cyrus refutes that so Vera believes he wants to be Ophelia’s last visitor before her funeral. Chela manages to summon a chimera to keep Cyrus company as they use this chance to escape. As explained, when someone’s spell goes out of control, there will be a last person to witness their last moments. That person is called the last visitor and sometimes may be consumed by the spell. Now we see Ophelia’s flashback. When she first came to Kimberly, everyone stayed away from her because of her strong succubus perfume. Carlos was her only friends but Alvin tried his best to do the same. But each time he approached her, to avoid being seduced, he kicked his own crotch! Every. Single. Time. To a point where he doesn’t even react anymore. Sure, there are better methods to handle this but this pain is nothing in comparison with the hell she has lived with. Ophelia then soon joins his group who watch Kimberly that includes Tim Linton and Lesedi Ingwe. A shy Ophelia soon grows in confidence as she participates more often in the watch. However there are a group of students who still dislike her. So one day they confront her to accuse her of manipulating Alvin with her charms. Lies obviously. After calling her names, they hint that they will acknowledge her if she is stronger. That was when she hit the button of no return. She activated her spell to consume them. She became lustier and her body even more bodacious, radiating even more sex appeal. When Tim confronted her about this, he too became a victim and it made Alvin sad. The time is right for Pete as he bursts out from his cage. Once outside, he uses a flare in hopes of somebody noticing his position.

Episode 15
Everyone sees Pete’s flare. But the one who reaches him first is Oliver’s group. Naturally Pete breaks down in Oliver’s arms. He was scared all along. But put all that fear in the backseat for now. Because they’ve got psycho Ophelia to deal with now. As Ophelia claims she has reached the peak of a succubus, Vera tries to negotiate to let them go seeing it’s not like they want to interfere with her plans and that she can’t do anything with a reversi like Pete. Too bad Ophelia is no longer rational and locks everyone in her Grand Aria. In this world cut off from the rest, all the rules bend to Ophelia’s will. Also pulled into this Aria is Stacy. Everyone fights off her chimeras while Vera seemingly tries to piss her off about her failed love life. With Ophelia mad and attacking Vera, this is to let Ophelia see her magic eye and get petrified. Too bad it doesn’t work. Vera continues to mock her as Ophelia continues to pierce through her body. Oliver and the rest launch a final attack to kill Ophelia. But before Nanao could land the fatal blow, she sees Ophelia’s crying face and hesitates. She gets owned. Nanao realizes Ophelia is just a child and it’s against her policy to kill one. So we’re all screwed and going to die now? As Ophelia laments her love life, Alvin and Carlos break in. Carlos approaches Ophelia despite being beaten up. Carlos sings to end it all. As Carlos made a pact with Ophelia’s family, something about him having his male reproductive system remove since young and hence his voice ‘frozen’ at that point became resistant to any types of sexual magic. They both embrace and get consumed by the magic. Alvin says goodbye to Carlos. The survivors return to the surface and life returns to normal. Oh heck, this is already the norm for everyone. Oliver hasn’t forgotten his path of vengeance and believe he is still on the right track.

Live By The Spellblade, Die By The Spellblade
Sorry, no fairytale ending. At least for Ophelia and preventing it from being an outright tragedy as childhood friend didn’t let her die alone. I thought they might pull off that sort of ending of saving her but I guess the kind of grim and dark atmosphere this series has, it is a reminder of the dangers and risks that students will face as long as they are at Kimberly. And since Ophelia wasn’t part of Oliver’s group, I guess that’s okay. She won’t be missed. Hahaha! Sorry… Anyway, I’m glad it is all over. Any more of it and I too may be consumed by the magic madness known as confusion. Good grief.

To be honest, I am quite confused with the storyline and plot of this series. Yes, the light novel that this anime is adapted from is still ongoing and there are more chapters that have yet to be adapted. But as far as this anime version is concerned, personally I thought it was all over the place and somewhat directionless. I know it is not fair for someone like me who has not read the source material to be saying such things but oh well, you know how it is for people like me who don’t read. Yup, first impression counts and I would say that this anime did not really impress me. Even more so with the confusing plot. If I have to summarize what this show is all about, it would be simply about a group of friends attending a magic academy and having some sort of random adventures and fending off disbelievers who want a piece of them. Yeah. That.

For the most part, I would say this first season feels a lot introductory as obviously we are introduced to a lot of stuffs like the setting, terminologies and the characters. Oh boy, there are a bunch of characters and we’ll get to that later. The closest plot that got me interested was the one whereby Oliver’s true goal here is to avenge the death of his mom. So yeah, it’s like he has already created a hit list of all those responsible and will be taking his time to pick them out slowly one by one. Unfortunately as my guts would have told me a long time ago, this will not be the case for the rest of the series. That is why we have detours and other random side plots especially the season ending with some sort of rescue mission and turning busty buxom Ophelia babe into some misunderstood villainess. So yes, Oliver slowly carrying out his secret agenda would have been the more interesting plot that I was looking for in this series but I guess everything would have ended too quickly had Oliver did all that instead of biding his time to set things up and build rapport. I believe it is for the better for the overall story but in terms of my enjoyment, very unfortunately it took a nosedive. To think this season had a strange number of 15 episodes. But I guess those extra episodes didn’t do jack sh*t to improve my sentiments. My, how fussy I am, huh?

One thing that also impeded my enjoyment are the various terms they used here. I’m not saying they are tongue twisting but they sound so alien and it adds to my ‘torture’ and hence my brain don’t really start remembering them. WTF this weak excuse but yeah, here I thought only sci-fi genres I will have such problems but it turns out if a series is too much fantasy, looks like I have a problem with the terms too. But hey, at least I remember that tonitrus spell is. A basic spell of just shooting basic lightning! Yeah, they spammed enough of that for me to remember. Last and not least I want to point out if not all of you viewers would already have noticed, the setting of this fantasy world is heavily inspired by Harry Potter. Sorry, I’m not a fan of that fiction to make deep comparisons and analysis but it was enough for me to think if Harry Potter got an anime version, this was it. Only big difference is that the students aren’t placed in different houses! Yeah, Mashle already did that so… We have flying brooms here but no Quidditch as per copied in Mashle so…

Moving on to the characters, I am also primarily confused by them. Heck, there are a hell lot of characters here although mostly are minor. Thing is, the way they show them feels like they are as of importance but as far as this anime played out, it feels like it leaves more to be desired. Like that obnoxious Richard guy, it felt like he was going to be a thorn in Sword Roses’ side. Oh you know, he could be this anime’s version of Draco Malfoy. But after he got ‘tamed’, he fell into obscurity. Oh well, better he being a repented insignificant than some persistent annoying dick. And then there is that Tullio guy whom I am also confused with his intentions. But you know what? Anime already reaching its end so it doesn’t matter. While there are a few like Vera who seemingly play more supporting roles in later episodes, the rest just fail to impress at least at this point in time. So what about that Kevin dude who wanders the labyrinth by himself? Or Stacy being some jealous misguided relative of Chela? Or Carste who is always working from the shadows like as though she is Oliver’s shadow secretary. Too many unanswered questions in the end so I just screw it all.

It doesn’t help that the sextet of Sword Roses too don’t make much of an impact in my books. They are only so because well, they’re the main characters. So to sum them up, we have Oliver (typical main character with revenge guy), Chela (elf girl), Katie (beast girl), Guy (plant guy), Pete (trans guy) and Nanao (samurai girl). There. To put it bluntly. So yeah, the typical ingredient that as a group of besties, they do things and care for each other. So while it may look like some draggy affair, I suppose this way is better than rushing things so in later chapters we can vouch for them being close friends in times of crisis. We are also being enlightened briefly about some of their past but it is not enough to make me feel like I want to support them. It’s all bits and pieces that the light novel has probably done its part in fleshing them out later. But as I have said, as far as this anime is concerned, a lot is left much to be desired. Can we consider Marco as their pet mascot now? Sorry people, not cute like your Pokemon, Digimon or Hamtaro so please don’t be a racist. Heh.

Although the action bits are part of this series, sad to say that I am not impressed with it either. Yes, all those flashy moves and some spells to go with it to add some spice. But at the end of the day, our young heroes always end up victorious because it is in the script. And yes, a bit of blood and gore too although it won’t affect your wellbeing unless you’re a weak ass wuss. If there is one thing that I really dislike about such fighting sequences, they ramp up the volume of the sound effects. I thought it was my hardware problem but thankfully it is not. So unfortunately I have to annoyingly turn down my volume because the clashing and even the damn background music suddenly becomes very loud. I know, I know. They want to increase the tension and drama of the intensity of the scene. Too bad it just annoyed the hell out of me.

To further nit-pick, want to bet that Nanao is the 7th Spellblade or something? Oh don’t worry, I already Google it so I’m already spoiled. Thing is, this Spellblade thingy still feels confusing. At least to me. From what I understand, it is supposed to be some super move that cannot be blocked. Oh you mean like those special uncounterable moves in fighting video games? Must be so badass, huh? Yeah, like we seen Oliver’s case but I’m still left confused. Not awe. Just confused. So this is the invincibility of his Spellblade? Uhm. Whatever. And to think there are 6 known ones but nobody knows who they are. Then how the f*ck do they know?! It just feels so flimsy. Especially when I did my short Google search to find out more, it had to gall to state it is not known except for the fact that it ‘exist’! WTF. That sure killed my motivation to do any more research. Unfair to conclude so but yeah, whatever. And to think that I thought the Sword Roses would be the ones mastering the Spellblades but that’s just my fault for me to go so far and assume all that. Come to think of it, the anime title might have trolled us all. How is it the f*ck the reign of the 7 Spellblades?!

I have mixed feelings for the art and animation department. Well, at least for the most part it looks pretty standard with the characters looking like your conventional Japanese anime character. Also with the fantasy setting and Harry Potter influence, mostly the atmosphere of Kimberly feels dark and eerie. Well, we were warned about what this school is about and it isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Especially in the labyrinth where it is all mostly dark, what a way to hide all the visual shortcomings. Just kidding! But oh well, got to be pleased with all the special effects of magic during the action sequences. It’s more than just some flashy light show. Done by J.C. Staff, you know at least there is at least some quality assured with this veteran studio.

Voice acting is also rather okay. Nothing that impresses me much. Hearing a few recognizable voices like Ai Kayano as Ophelia, Hochuu Ohtsuka as Enrico and Satoshi Hino as Alvin did little to bright up my day for this series. The rest of the huge casts are Atsushi Tamaru as Oliver (Ayato in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk), Yuka Nukui as Nanao (Serina in Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha No Oukoku Saikenki), Misuzu Yamada as Chela (Koushi in Megami-ryou No Ryoubou-kun), Riho Sugiyama as Pete (Jessica in Kinsou No Vermeil), Shinsuke Sugawara as Guy (Kei in Flying Witch), Hitomi Ohwada as Katie (Ryouko in Machikado Mazoku), Ai Kakuma as Vera (Rossweisse in High School DxD), Atsuko Tanaka as Esmeralda (Motoko in Ghost In The Shell), Kaori Maeda as Stacy (Shizuku in Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai), Kazutomi Yamamoto as Carlos (Yumoto in Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love), Makoto Furukawa as Joseph (Shirogane in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Hiroki Touchi as Grenville (Lily in Fairy Tail), Shouya Chiba as Richard (Ayanokouji in Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi No Kyoushitsu E) and Tastumaru Tachibana as Fay (Mori in The God Of High School).

Kenka by Kujira Yumemi featuring Mimizuku & Fukurou as the opening theme tries to sound dramatic and epic. Oh you know, it starts off quite grand to get you into the feel that this is going to be some great and big Hollywood-esque movie wannabe. Over the top orchestra strings and vocals, but the rest of the song just sounds pretty average to me. Then there’s the ending theme that is also sung by the same singer, Aim. Another epic and dramatic piece wannabe but with a slower pace and a bit of hip hop-like elements. Still doesn’t impress me, though. The better one is the special ending song for episode 7, Beyond Fate by Mion Yano. A string filled slow piece, it has medieval-like vibes which also suits the dark nature of the series and the powerful vocals give the song more impact.

Overall, I am not impressed with this series although it is only from an anime standpoint. The light novel is still ongoing and my guess is that there are more revelations over there than what has been adapted. So another season for a chance to change my mind? All I can say is that if you want to watch and enjoy this, you have got to be an enthusiast in the fantasy genre. Or else if you’re a casual viewer, you’re not going to appreciate what is going on. It just doesn’t have to be this anime but others that are heavily and deeply rooted in fantasy vibes. Need time and dedication to invest and understand the world. Otherwise, it will all be just pretty meh. At this rate this series won’t be more than just a Spellblade. It will just spell (its) doom! HAHAHA!!! Sighs. Sorry to end it with a bad pun.

Level 1 Dakedo Unique Skill De Saikyou Desu

Anybody has any more good ideas for the isekai genre? Okay then. We’ll just make it as cliché as it can get. Ordinary guy being worked to death in a black company gets isekai treatment. Gets overpowered after being reincarnated in the other fantasy world and lives out the rest of his days happily with his harem. And to top it all up, let’s even make the title as obviously and generic as possible so that viewers can tell right away it is another isekai anime. That’s right. Level 1 Dakedo Unique Skill De Saikyou Desu doesn’t even try to hide the fact and it’s so blatantly obvious what this show is going to be all about. Sure, it might confused us about being overpowered at such a paltry number but remember, it’s only a measurement. For example, do you know how long 1 light year is? ONE FREAKING LIGHT YEAR!!! ONE!!! The power of one, people.

Episode 1
Emily Brown is puzzled. After killing a level 1 slime, it drops a human named Ryouta Satou instead of bean sprouts. His is as confused as she is. He learns that in this world everything is dropped by monsters. Depending on the monster’s level, it drops different items. There’s a screen that can show your stats and as such, Emily’s skills are all so low level. Level 1. Ryouta also tests his and in addition to his level 1, to his surprise, other skills are S-rank and its rank is quite low. But when he tests out killing slimes, he realizes S-rank indeed ranks higher than A-rank. So as she makes soup for him, it brings him to tears. How long has it been he has eaten a warm food with somebody? Short flashback shows he died overworking in a black company. He laments nothing he did paid off. Emily hugs him and believes it will in the end. Because Emily has no home and camps wherever she is, Ryouta then part ways and heads to town. He learns more about the system of this world. He kills more slimes to earn more money. Enough for him to finally rent a decent house for Emily to stay! This is thanks for the soup. A house for a soup? I don’t know… She is shocked that he is giving it to her. Emily is concerned since he worked himself to the bone. It’s obvious, his bags and bruised hands. Hence she wants to always make soup for him. If you don’t get it, she wants him to stay here with her. Can he say now? Ryouta gets more info from the guild’s receptionist, Erza Monsoon. Especially a new dungeon called Nihonium that just popped up. She tries to flirt with him but too bad he didn’t get the hints and rejects here whatever offer. Ryouta explores the dungeon and fights skeletons. They drop seeds. However Emily cannot touch them or even have such drops when she kills a skeleton. He believes this is a dungeon only for S-rank. With Ryouta continuing to level up his HP and always coming home to a warm Emily welcoming him back, Ryouta soon believes it is time for him to take on the level 2 slimes. They drop carrots. At first many adventurers mock his level 1 ability. Including this cute bunny girl, Eve Callusleader (you mean as in Call-Us-Leader???!!!). Yeah, she hates low levels. Then later she pops up at his home to reiterate that and also confess she loves him. WTF?!

Episode 2
WTF, Eve tries to chop his head? No effect. Then she does the same to a random guy and he takes some serious damage! She is puzzled despite his low level, he doesn’t take damage. It is revealed she loves carrots. Because of Ryouta’s carrot haul, she followed him back and wants to eat them. So uhm, care to join us for a carrot dinner? At least Ryouta can be happy he has company for dinner because in his previous life he was always eating alone. Even continues to follow Ryouta in his dungeon quest. Heck, she forces him to give her carrots! Dead or carrot! He manages to convince her to wait at the guild and he’ll bring her some after he is done. He does so and shocks everyone in the guild. Erza explains that Eve has a very fearsome reputation and thus nobody gets close to her. But she is also picky of what kind of carrots she eats. This means those she approves, the guild will definitely want to buy it. Erza will gladly buy Ryouta’s carrots at a much higher price. Eve continues to bug Ryouta for more carrots but she’ll have to wait for tomorrow for more. During his dungeon crawling, he sees an autocratic old guy being real tough on his students. He claims it is for their own good but Ryouta knows better. He too had such experience. His boss would say it was for their good but it was rarely all worth it. When that guy badmouths carrots (because he sees Ryouta and co having carrot lunch), Eve goes to tell him off. Not wanting to risk something untoward, he leaves. Since Ryouta can only carry so many carrots, Erza suggests he get a magic cart so he can carry more items. He shops for one and even the cheapest one is costly. But soon a stray monster attacks the town. It’s a giant gorilla! Everybody is making a run for it. Even adventurers. Because strays do not drop items, they’re not risking their lives. So they’re going to just let the town get destroyed? Ryouta will not allow this and goes to fight it. He has Eve and Emily help keep it at bay before he delivers the knockout blow. Everyone cheers and thanks Ryouta, something he never received before. He is confident he can do things for others. Ryouta then hears the sound of a dropped item. I thought strays don’t drop items? Then he remembers maybe like some monsters only drop items for certain levels. He goes to check it out…

Episode 3
The gorilla dropped a gun. Then he tests it out by shooting zombies. Hmm… Does this remind you of a certain video game? Ryouta finds this useful and uses the gun to aid Emily in defeating monsters. They advance to the next floor and this time the monsters are cockroaches that drop huge pumpkin! It seems the sight of roaches will turn Emily into some mean killing machine! She’ll lose her humanity! Oh my, Ryouta has to kill all of them to keep her humanity! Does he have infinity bullets to kill them all?! Looks like… But as they leave the dungeon, some of their pumpkins are eaten and more roaches spawn from it. Oh my, Emily going to go berserk. If Ryouta is out of bullets, use his good ol’ hands to kill ‘em! Later he talks to Erza about it as she explains any dropped items left behind will spawn monsters. Hence this has Ryouta wonder if it is possible to force strays to spawn. He tests it out and finds something odd when it doesn’t work. Erza further adds that a single type of monster can only appear on 1 level. If it leaves that level, it will disappear. This is to stem spawning of strays. Now Ryouta tries this out with some tweaks. He manages to do so and now receives ice bullets. Even more useful to help Emily in fighting monsters. One rainy day after leaving another dungeon for home, Ryouta and Emily stumble into a merchant and bodyguard arguing about his dropped luggage in the ravine. It’s too dangerous to down to pick it up but they have to hurry before monsters spawn around it. Eventually the merchant gets possessed by the monster and is done for. Ryouta shoots him. The bodyguard will take responsibility to destroy the luggage. This brings back unpleasant memories of his black company. His colleague was forced to everything from scratch again and as much as Ryouta wanted to help, he too had his own pile of work and was thinking of himself. But now it is different. He shoots to freeze it before Emily destroys it. Because of that, Emily’s level goes up.

Episode 4
Ryouta kills a rare monster that drops a necklace. He gives it to Emily and he trolls us thinking he is proposing to her. But of course, the necklace doubles the items dropped and that’s that. Disappointed? Emily is. Soon, Ryouta discusses with her about moving to a new place that is nicer. Of course they have to save up a bit. When Ryouta is at the guild trying to sell his bamboo shoots, Eric Macy wants to have one. She eats it and finds it very good and now she wants to buy the whole thing from him. She pays good but Ryouta can’t help feeling disappointed with the amount. Erza then wants Ryouta to sign a contract with the guild. You see, Eric is a famous epicure and the food she approves fetches a high price. Because Ryouta’s bamboo shoots will become famous, she wants to exclusively sell them. He agrees. Back at Nihonium, Ryouta witnesses Princess Margaret killing the monsters with her men. One of her attendants mentions about the recent research that these monsters actually dropped something than nothing. What do they drop? Air! I kid you not! So she’s collecting air in these boxes?! I don’t even… Ryouta remembers to go buy a magic cart but looks like Olga is sad because her dad, Orton has not returned since he left to get some flower ingredient. Ryouta might know where he is and they find him unconscious there. So he’s just sleeping? What is it about something blocking his way? Anyway, he is unable to get this flying rock which he wants to insert into his prototype. Ryouta has an idea on how to get it for him. With that, Orton completes the magic cart and gives it to Ryouta free as reward for saving the town. Now they can collect a lot of items. When Ryouta returns to the guild to sell, he sees a ruffian accusing Erza of not appraising his goods properly. Ryouta intervenes and proves she judged everything correctly. He isn’t happy still and is going for violence but a simple slap knocks him out. Later Erza is still reeling from the shock and feels bad Ryouta has to always rescue her. She gives him a kiss. It’s personal rather than her job. Does Ryouta get the hint? Once Ryouta has enough money, it is time to pack up and move. However he thinks of keeping this old one too because he wants to protect the memories they made. It might be expensive but I suppose they can earn more money. And so the duo happily move into their new house. And why is Eve is also here?! Where there is carrot, there is bunny! Don’t worry, Emily made lots of it for her.

Episode 5
A hot guy named Neptune is looking for Ryouta. He wants to arm wrestle him after hearing about his strength. Ryouta accepts the challenge and to his shock, finds Neptune to be quite a strong person himself but ultimately Ryouta wins. Neptune is impressed and then suddenly attacks him but Ryouta luckily blocks. Turns out to be another test and since Neptune is further impressed, he invites him to join his team which is the strongest in this town. Obviously Ryouta turns him down as he doesn’t want to join some flashy group but to live a peaceful life with Emily. You heard that, Emily? Continuing his dungeon raiding, once again he stumbles into Margaret’s group. Her retainer explains to him about this new Pandora’s Box they have. Apparently it automatically sucks up drops and its owner’s face is also easily implanted on the cover. He gives a few boxes for Ryouta to spread the word. But Ryouta instead uses it to test for strays. He loads it with a few seeds and brings it outside the dungeon to spawn them. He then kills them to obtain his special bullets. This means with different strays, he has accumulated a bunch of special bullets. But soon Emily comes to warn him about a magic storm approaching. Erza then explains more about this rare phenomenon in which everyone’s magic will be nullified. Depending on the size of the storm, its effect can be felt outside its perimeter and even inside dungeons. That is why many magic users are taking a break today. But soon a new adventurer, Reyes comes in pleading to save his partner, Rosa who is trapped in some dungeon. Yeah, nobody gives a care to help him. Not even Neptune. But of course our Ryouta wants to be the hero Emily says he is. Please tell him the details. Ryouta makes his way there and uses his bullets (which isn’t effected by the storm) to destroy the monsters that get in the way. He finds Rosa but is out of bullets. Always like this, huh? When Emily and Eve heard what happened, they rush to help him. For Eve, it’s about the carrots. For Emily, Ryouta reminds her of her late mom. She was a kind person who cared about her comrades until the day she died fighting a dragon. They find him and fight the monsters to allow Ryouta to replenish his bullets. Outside and safe, Rosa is badly injured and Reyes’ magic can’t heal her. Don’t worry, Ryouta has a special bullet that heals! Ryouta thanks Emily for saving him but she credits imitating what he has always done.

Episode 6
And just like that, Eric now loves Ryouta’s watermelons and as usual, Erza wants him to sign an exclusive contract on that. She then tells him the need to get a licence if he wants to go further to lower dungeon levels. So after passing with flying colours, he wants to test something. He turns a stray into that gorilla and easily defeats it to get another gun. Because now with 2 guns in hand, it seems mixing different bullets together can have different effects! Like how an ice bullet and fire bullet will become an erasing bullet! I don’t know the logic anymore… And then there is this strike in some dungeon, Ryouta confronts them and shoots them sleeping bullet which is the result of fusing 2 healing bullets. His heroics has gained the attention of Clint Gray, the dungeon chief of Secro. He wants to enlist Ryouta’s help to fight for a new dungeon, Selen that has popped up halfway with a neighbouring country, Hetero. As that country drops livestock (MEAT!), this dungeon will drop 50% meat and 50% vegetables. You see, whoever owns the dungeon is important because it can determine a town’s economic health. If Hetero gets it, there will be tax on the products. Of course if Ryouta’s help, if they win this, it will be tax exempted but don’t fear, even if they lose, Ryouta will still be paid. Ryouta gladly accepts the mission and brings along Emily as they make their long journey there. As they camp for the night, OMFG how did Emily put so much stuffs in her backpack?! Is this Doraemon’s magic pocket?! They can even live in luxury! As Emily is going to burn the trash because these can become strays too, Ryouta has an idea to test his new homing bullet. Arriving at Selen, they see the trash from adventurers piling up faster than a tired Celeste can burn them. Ryouta fears for her because this reminisces of his black company. They go to advise her to rest but she claims she can do it. Oh dear, now she collapses!

Episode 7
Ryouta doesn’t want the same thing that happened to him to happen to Celeste so he shoots her to sleep. By the time she wakes up, she sees Ryouta and Emily taking care of the trash and strays. Heck, Emily even cooks for her and it brings tears to her eyes. Ryouta goes to see Duke who is overseeing Secro’s side for Selen. Don’t really understand how this fight for the dungeon plays out but Ryouta is amazed with the plan since it was built around him. He’s the Secro’s ace after all. As they head down, Secro has got their hands on some monster. However the Hetero side, Harvard and Eugene are waiting for them to slip up so they could steal the drop. When Ryouta shoots the monster but then it regenerates, Eugene then goes in for the kill. Luckily Ryouta is fast enough to kill the monster so the win remains with Secro. With this win, Duke rewards Ryouta handsomely since he deserves it. With that bonus pay, he manages to buy a ring for Emily that she wanted. It’s a good this world has a different type of proposal system, no? Ryouta and Emily continue their dungeon crawling. However Hetero’s side is waiting for Ryouta to kill this rare monster because they know he has very high rare drops. Ryouta won’t play into their hands but he can’t let them take this win. With Emily temporarily taking off the ring (because it boosts her stats), she is the one who deals the finishing blow (her rare drops skill is paltry). Once again Hetero goes away empty handed. Later Duke tells Ryouta that Hetero will send more reinforcements. Ryouta’s idea is to end the battle before the day ends by fighting fire with fire. It is a risky move but Ryouta is willing to gamble and pay back that loss to him. But as we all know, it all went well and it’s like Secro has already won this battle. As Ryouta goes to do more hunting by himself, Eugene and some Hetero guys surround him so as to teach him a lesson. Too bad their magic nullification doesn’t work as Ryouta can still use his guns. And yes, Ryouta can do martial arts too! Ryouta then heals the men. He understands where they are coming from and even gives them permission to attack him if they have nothing better to do. He’ll heal them after kicking their ass. You’re welcome.

Episode 8
Celeste returns to burning more garbage. Of course with her low magic power, she starts to collapse again. Ryouta heals her but with their faces so close, it makes her heart pound like hell. See where this is going? Ryouta further helps her to burn the garbage. Yeah, those bullets sure come in handy. But there’s only a limit because the garbage soon piles up more than he can destroy. This is because a dungeon master has appeared and hence more resources were used since no one is allowed to approach the dungeon. So how are they going to defeat it? Wish for it to go away?! Well, looks like a team is specially formed to take it out. As Ryouta goes to see Duke, it seems has hired Neptune’s team for it however there is a problem. Because of the agreement and rules, both Secro and Hetero must jointly take it out together. You see, Hetero isn’t making an effort to pick a team. The longer a dungeon master lingers around, it will change the ecology of the dungeon and thus affecting the drop items. This will bring the whole situation back to square one and it works in favour of Hetero. Who wrote such sh*tty dungeon rules?! Ryouta will end this himself but not sure what dumb rules they mention. Ryouta will try to get adventurers to join him but it will be hard. Nobody wants to join him since they are only here to profit from the tax exempt items. Selfish pricks. But don’t worry, Emily and Celeste will join him. But who is going to burn the garbage? Eugene has taken over her role and is doing fine. The trio head into the dungeon. No monsters. A dungeon master scared them all away. Then here comes the dungeon master. A horse. No, it’s a bicorn! Hey, it has 2 horns! We all know how this will turn out. A bit of drama and struggle that includes the bicorn reducing all their stats. This causes Celeste to be weakened and cannot help any further. With Emily taking care of her, Ryouta goes solo. Long story short, he defeats it. The golden horn it drops, Ryouta gives it to Celeste and now she can use her magic unlimitedly. With the day saved and everything back to normal, apparently Neptune is the one not satisfied so he confronts Harvard and blames his bullying that caused him his chance to fight Ryouta. Will that be the last we see of him? Next day before Ryouta returns home, he wants Celeste to join him. Funny, because she too has thought of joining him! With Emily’s approval, now Ryouta can grow his harem. Oops, I mean number of friends.

Episode 9
Celeste is turning heads in Secro. Even Erza is looking pretty panicky that Ryouta has got a beauty in his party. Just that it is not you, Erza! HAHAHA!!! Ryouta shows Celeste how he gets his special bullets and hopes she can keep it a secret. Then another rare stray terrorizes town. Nothing like Ryouta and co can do to stop it, right? It drops a useful pouch. Unfortunately, the fight has caused Emily’s hammer to break. She thinks she can fix it back to save money but she accidentally breaks it further. Time to really buy a new one. So while Celeste accompanies Emily to shop for a new hammer, Ryouta goes dungeon crawling. Noting Margaret isn’t doing well, her subject says her air boxes aren’t selling well. So why not sell something else? WTF Ryouta suggests her panties?! Don’t laugh, they actually believe it! So he suggests rings. Then he helps her in trouble. Grateful Margaret wants to give her first ring to him? Ryouta learns that money dropped in dungeons can also become stray. So he experiments on it and after killing the stray, turns into some potion. But he won’t have any use for it since it boosts drop rates. Wondering where Eve is? Yeah, she’s tired of eating yucky carrots and goes to find Ryouta. She keeps missing him until now. Carrots NOW! Finally she gets her treat so Ryouta asks her comrades. It seems she hates her own bunny girl clan and claims they only want other stuffs. Flashback shows Eve only ate meat when others tried to tell her to eat other things. One day, she stumbled into a young boy who got the isekai treatment. They hang out together and one time fought a monster that dropped a carrot. She didn’t like vegetables but after he forced her to feed it, she started liking only carrots. She thought of him as her good comrade until he suddenly disappeared and returned to his world. So that left a bitter taste in her mouth. Ryouta tells her to get her own carrots. Too bad her drop rates are low. He then hands her this potion. Eve now can get delicious carrots on her own. However he points out this potion only he can obtain. Oh no. How? Suddenly she begs to join his party! Just like that, she doesn’t think of it as bad! Ryouta relents since she won’t shut up. And just like that, Eve is Ryouta’s newest member. So much of love is flowing through Eve eight now…

Episode 10
Because of the passing magic storm, Celeste tends to feel sick. The solution? Ryouta buys a house that is magic storm proof! Oh well, I guess he’s got the money. Ryouta and co continue to raid more dungeons and there is one that drops a rare crystal. He sells it to Erza who buys it at a very high price since the festival is nearing. Then as Ryouta practises alone and some stats of his increases, this makes him ponder how people learn magic. As stated, people do so by levelling up and since Ryouta can’t, there is fruit that allows him to do so. However he has a better idea and turns that fruit into a stray. The stray turns into a metallic version of Ryouta and when defeated, turns back into that fruit. So he eats it and obtains some wind cutting spell. And some spell that can help his friends level up too. How convenient. When he returns to the guild, there is a new girl, Alice Wonderland (seriously, that’s her name?!) asking around to join a party. She is turned down due to her low level. But a cocky veteran adventurer is about to accept her when Ryouta intervenes. He will have Alice join his group instead. Can’t have this guy brainwash this cutie into one of his slaves. And just like that, Ryouta gets a new member. The duo go adventuring together as Alice reveals she is born in the dungeon. It seems she has the abilities to sense where the monsters are as well as can read some of their thoughts. She quickly turns a skeleton and slime to become her cute familiars. Needless to say, Bonesy and Jiggly will also be part of Ryouta’s family.

Episode 11
Ryouta and Emily go enjoy themselves around the festival. Some stalls are selling boxes that drops strays to help improve one’s level so Ryouta buys one to help improve Emily’s. When they go back in town, a stray monster attacks. As usual, Ryouta and co go to fight it but it seems it gets bigger whenever they land their attacks. Luckily for them, Neptune is here to help and with that, the stray is defeated. Neptune once more asks Ryouta to ditch his girls and join his family. Obviously Ryouta is not gay and turns him down once again. Then they continue to have fun at the festival that includes taking part in fighting monsters in the arena as well as playing fireworks. Yes, that exists here too. And what’s this about Eve eating meat?! It’s not carrot! Oh well, I guess even rabbits need to have some variety in their diet. At the end of the day, Alice seems to be like in a trance. Ryouta snaps her out of it and learns she felt someone calling to her from the direction of Nihonium. Soon Clint calls Ryouta over as there is another crisis. All the dungeons here have stopped dropping stuffs. This has never happened before and they don’t know how long this will last. Since Ryouta always gets good rare drops, I guess Clint is at his wit’s end to seek those who can help with this. So as Ryouta and his girls explore the dungeon, it seems it is true the monsters they kill now do not drop anything. Oh Eve, what do you say about carrot is dead? But wait. Ryouta’s kill did drop something. Then he remembers some words his girls said and Alice’s weird behaviour last night. So he figured it out? He runs over to Nihonium and finds this Japanese kimono chick who is supposed to be Nihonium’s dungeon master and is responsible for this latest phenomenon. What prove does he have?! He starts attacking her but she easily dodges. Time for Ryouta to sweat a little because his moves don’t work on her.

Episode 12
It won’t be long before Ryouta figures out something. You see, whenever she attacks him, she becomes corporeal. This allows his bullets to stick into her although it does no damage. However her moves are slowed and in no time Ryouta defeats her. Phew. What a hard earned fight. Is he so injured and can’t move that Emily had to fire his own healing bullet just to save him? Whatever. Obviously she is worried he got himself injured but Ryouta assures he is fine now. Like always. The rest of his worried harem is here to pick him up. Next day, Ryouta hears out Margaret’s problem. Despite her very high level, her stats are still like sh*t. Don’t understand what is happening because of a crystal that dungeon master dropped, he gives it to her and now she levels up! Some late bloomer thingy since her level grades are ranked quite high up. Whatever. Now Margaret would like to give all her firsts to him. I’m very sure that includes her virginity but luckily Ryouta is not a greedy man because he feels it is not right for him to take that much! Oh you said it! Then he has this great idea to turn strays into leftover experience crystals in which he gives to his girls. Yup, they too level up in no time. Now they are the talk of the town, everybody praising how awesome this team is. They do more quests and earn lots of money to buy magic carts each. Orton’s latest model allows anything that can fit in to be sent over to the guild automatically without them having to go back and forth. They’ve got so much stuffs that Erza is now officially working just for them! Soon a party but what the heck is everyone else doing here? Neptune, Margaret, Olga, Orton, Clint, might as well call in the whole town! Oh right. The more the merrier. There goes Erza’s welcoming party. Too bad she can’t have Ryouta all to herself! And if they run out of food, just head to the dungeon and kill a few quick ones! You bet Ryouta is having the time of his life.

Skill Level Matters Not, Is Nothing But A Number…
Oh yeah. You bet Ryouta wants to continue staying here and doing this because this pays well and hell a lot more than his previous dead job! Who’d knew this dungeon exploring job and killing monsters are such an easy and profitable task. Too easy when you’re such a freaking overpowered character! No challenge. I bet if a Demon Lord shows up threatening to destroy the world because the adventurers have milked and mined the dungeons dry, Ryouta will pull an easy victory because the force is with him! Aren’t we all envious of this guy! GRRRR!!!!!!! Too bad I was hoping for a last episode twist like how that kimono clad dungeon master could be his ex-boss and thus Ryouta falling into some despair or going into overdrive berserk beast mode taking out his frustrations! Isn’t that why he had no qualms in fighting her and could kill her easily? Is he not curious of all the strange monsters that he has encountered, this one looks like a human and wearing a clothing from his world! Are you not curious to think this might be his dead mother?! Oh never mind. Not that we have seen much of Ryouta’s flashback in his previous world either. It’s like they don’t want us to know about it. But oh man. That twist would’ve been more exciting but oh well, bland normal ordinary life is what Ryouta wants.

It should be no surprise at this point that there is no clear storyline from this kind of anime. After all, what was I expecting in the first place? Ryouta to become some sort of legendary hero to rise up to a Demon Lord threatening to destroy the world? Because of his low numbered stats, he is often looked down upon but they’ll regret it since he would soon hand their asses to them never to judge a book by its number. Heh. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. So instead we have this boring flow of Ryouta living out his seemingly happy life in this new world. Happily experimenting and getting new items from his drops, powering him up even more in the process. Sometimes, some sort of crisis like fighting over dungeon territory or that magic storm. However there is nothing that Ryouta cannot overcome since at the end of the day, it will all turn out okay. Nothing that puts us at the edge of our seat. At least for veterans like yours truly. Yawn! I can’t believe I sit through a dozen episodes for all that but what the heck, I’ve done so for the same in many such similar isekai series so I shouldn’t have the right to complain.

Making it even more confusing are the lore and rules of this world. In short, I still don’t really understand how the system works. Especially the dungeons and their drops. I’m sure it was explained somewhere but unfortunately I was so bored that my brain wasn’t on recording mode and as good as I didn’t pay attention. So yeah, my bad. Can somebody once again enlighten me about drops being left outside of dungeons turning into strays? Don’t bother, I won’t listen either. All I know is that those rare drops and whatever convenient successfully results from it, it all serves as some sort of plot convenience for Ryouta to use later and power up more. How convenient. Still don’t understand his special bullets and even mixing them can have different effects. Okay. Whatever. You’re the boss and main character of this series. And to think different dungeons drop different objects based on some theme. From vegetables to meat, I’m waiting for a dungeon that drops sex toys and accessories! Oh yeah! I’ll bet there’ be a long queue of horny adventurers eagerly trying their luck on those drops! On a trivial note, the mid-intermission eye catch must be cringe since it is some short ‘funny’ burst of quip by the characters. It probably flew over my head and that’s why to me it looked a lot more cringe than anything funny. Yeesh.

Speaking of the characters, all pretty boring and generic. Forgettable and cliché too. What else can I say about Ryouta? He already checks all the boxes for the typical ingredients that is needed for a main character in an isekai genre. Such a pitiful character who has been worked to death must be given a chance to shine in his second chance in life and that is why Ryouta is now living happily and freely. Because of his past, he feels sympathy for those he sees who are going through the same thing he was. Yeah, it got personal somehow. Thus an excuse to create his own family (fancy name for his harem) and also to help others in trouble. Because Ryouta doesn’t struggle so much and everything he does seems to be so magically convenient, it makes it hard to root for him and he becomes a really generic and boring character. Hence it doesn’t matter what level he is because just like age, it is only a number. We should all judge a person by his/her character, right? Yup, and so I judged Ryouta to be one helluva plain and boring main character! Yeah, even his surname is freaking bland…

Moving on to his harem, Emily being the first in his family seems to be like waifu material since she is a good cook and all. Pretty boring (equivalent to her commonly boring surname). The only thing that makes her stand out is how she keeps miscalling Ryouta as Yoda! Oh WTF?! His Japanese name is so hard to pronounce, huh?! Sorry, no great Ryouta quotes like “May the drops be with you”, “You will only find what you bring in” or “Do or do not. There is no try”. It would’ve been more amusing had they parodied this but oh well. Then there’s the annoying b*tch bunny girl AKA Eve. She really gets on my nerves because she thinks she is so high and mighty but depends Ryouta solely for her delicious carrots. She acts as though she is the boss and keeps mocking Ryouta as low level. Bite the hand that feeds you, huh? But I’m sure Ryouta isn’t such a bad guy to discard this bunny girl who is always living at her own pace. Yeah, maybe that is why Ryouta is keeping her since she is living freely as she wishes. The annoyance is just a small price to pay. As long as have carrots, everything good. Then there are Celeste and Alice who came in after halfway and I’m not sure what to make of them except to blow up Ryouta’s harem number. What’s this about Celeste being some great intel gatherer? Don’t really see her doing that. So what about Alice being able to have monster sensing abilities? I guess it is to make Ryouta’s hunting easier. Nothing will get in their way now!

Other characters are pretty forgettable too especially all those that make their cameos a short while. Yeah, hard for me to remember their names too but since they’re so minor, I don’t really bother (still remember Eric? What’s her role again?). I thought Neptune would play a bigger role than being someone with a pretty face who is out to court Ryouta to join his team. Understandably, don’t want to take the spotlight away from Ryouta so he is relegated to just helping him whenever the plot calls for it. Better be an ally than an annoying rival, right? Because of that, Neptune just feels boring as a side character. I wonder if Ryouta’s harem has a limit or if he is still open to take more girls in. Well, it’s pretty predetermined which girls will be part of his family based on the opening credits animation so spoilers alert. What I’m trying to say is that Erza seems to be the one who has been showing some keen romantic interest in Ryouta but can’t bring herself to tell him (and also he is dense) so don’t blame anybody but yourself when your invitations or flirting fail.  Isn’t that why she always bugs him to do exclusive business with the guild? It’s just a cover up and an excuse so she can still see him. Maybe if she would be honest and go straight up to him to say she wants to be part of his family, high chance Ryouta won’t turn her down. And looks like now she has been incorporated into his family. Good for her. Now she can fight for her place with the others! Good luck. The other curious one being Margaret. Not sure if it’s her running joke to see her struggling to kill monsters while her subjects support her. But her character feels so out of place and it feels like she only exists to give Ryouta some ideas of his own. So what are the chances for Ryouta to have a princess in his harem? Sorry, not in the opening credits animation so I guess that fate was not meant to be. Keep waiting for that first giveaway…

Sad to say, the action bits are also as boring. We all already know Ryouta is so freaking overpowered and with his guns, he is basically untouchable. No low level monsters can escape from their fate whenever they face Ryouta. And if there is one that needs more than a few shots, time for some teamwork action. Boring! Because all Emily does is just hammer away with her giant hammer and Celeste using her magic. All just feeling very paltry as there are literally no challenges that Ryouta and his girls cannot overcome. Yes, those dungeon monsters are a dime a dozen and they are all mostly so easily taken care off. I think even if you are a beginner with no experience, just have the right minimal equipment or weapon would be sufficient to kill them and get some drops. You could say this world’s dungeons are so mild compared to those we see like in DanMachi as there are no boss level creatures or big events that would even draw a huge group of adventurers to work together to take down the mighty beast. None. Just plain ol’ boring small groups like Ryouta minding their own businesses. Heck, even Ryouta sometimes goes solo by himself. That’s how freaking easy it is and I bet he could’ve done so even without his overpowered abilities.

Moving onto the art and animation, I think disappointing should be the right word. Sure, it might look like today’s conventional Japanese anime but the overall quality feels inferior. At times the animation is stiff and more often I noticed the characters’ features are simplified. Worse of all, I noticed some inconsistencies in the animation. Like as though the animators didn’t like this project and wanted to get it over with and hence a quick job. Maho Film helming this project, I thought they could’ve done better. Especially when they did Kami-tachi Ni Hirowareta Otoko and Uchi No Ko No Tame Naraba Ore Wa Moshikashitara Maou Mo Taoseru Kamo Shirenai. Oh, these animes have cute looking lolis too but I can’t say the same for this one because Emily and Alice sure don’t look as cute as those aforementioned. Before I forget, there is a bit of CGI too but those are relegated to dungeon monsters and they don’t look too out of place. I’m not saying it’s a masterpiece but its minimal and limited use on these is probably what saved the series from being a total visual abomination. Not by a lot, though.

Voice acting didn’t impress me either. Didn’t recognize anyone in particular except for Hiro Shimono as Neptune. Even so he is quite tame. I’ll be damned if he really goes into joker mode like Zenitsu. The rest of the other casts include Kaito Ishikawa as Ryouta (Iida in Boku No Hero Academia), Rin Kusumi as Emily (Hiyori in Slow Loop), Marika Kouno as Eve (Yumina in Isekai Wa Smartphone To Tomo Ni), Saori Oonishi as Celeste (Kaori in Arifureta), Kanon Takao as Alice (Hermit in Edens Zero), Mai Fuchigami as Erza (Nagisa in Ansatsu Kyoushitsu) and Yuuki Kuwahara as Margaret (Yue in Arifureta). The opening theme, Chase Me by Nora from Konya Anomachikara sounds rather okay with some hip hop elements and generic manufactured pop music. The same can be said for the ending theme, Tambourine No Naru Oka by Airi Miyakawa. Personally, I felt the singer’s voice is a bit flat and she’s saying too many words in her lines like as though a full stop doesn’t exist in this song. Then there’s that weird frenzy special effects sound in the beginning and also throughout the song, the electric guitar can’t stop giving those, uhm, electric guitar strumming effects in the background.

Overall, yet another mediocre and disappointing isekai themed anime that should come to me as no surprises at this point. Everything is so boring from the plot to the characters and for the animation quality to be substandard, it just shows you that something is really wrong with this genre. Or rather, what the heck is wrong with me to even go pick and watch this kind of show. Yeah, looks like my drop rates of watching good animes totally suck. My unique skill of watching crappy animes makes me disappointed at all levels! “That is why I fail”! No wonder. Because, “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny”! I guess it is impossible for me to “Unlearn what I have learnt”. Now I truly know what it is to “Feel the force… Of disappointment”!

Hataraku Maou-sama S2 part 2

There was this confusion at first. The finale of Hataraku Maou-sama S2 is this the second part or is this the third season? Well, based on the numbering of the episodes, I guess it is safe to say that it is the former. Makes sense since the whole thing is a continuation from where things have left off at the end of the second season and it’s not like we’ve been waiting for years for the finale to come out, right? Speaking of which, thank goodness this is the final! Now I can get over this series and move on with my life! Yeah. This is the final part, RIGHT???!!!

Episode 13
A quick reminder that the demon realm was a lawless place before Satan came along. And Lailah giving Maou the power to know about the world. Finally, MgRonald is reopened! It’s about time. Maou so excited with its upgraded features. Damn, he feels good to be back! When the girls go to have their girls talk, Maou doesn’t care since he is preoccupied with Alas Ramus. However it is not the case for Ashiya. He is suspicious they are doing something behind their backs. If eavesdropping wasn’t enough, he tailed them but soon lost them. Heck, even calling Rika and giving her false hope! Just asking if Emi has been acting weird lately! How disappointing. So the next time the same thing happens, this time Urushihara helps out by using a modern tracker. This leads them to a bathhouse but the guys can’t enter since it has a protective barrier. No perversions today. It couldn’t be a worse timing as they get a letter from Miki-T. Oh sorry, it’s a CD. But thankfully, it’s just to tell them to weed the backyard and she’ll deduct this much from their rent. This also gives the guys an idea. So after all that hard work, time to go take a bath, right? Not sure why the girls can’t put off whatever their secret meeting but Suzuno claims they can’t hide it forever from them. So in the bath, the guys hear ambiguous stuffs from the girls’ side. What kind of training are they doing? Sorry, I think they’re just trolling us if this is about making their boobs bigger! Soon we see this is all part of the training to help Chiho control her power. Maou is so curious now that he is willing to risk police arrest just to head over to check it out. Luckily that won’t happen as Emi reveals the truth. Even if this is not her concern, she still wants to help. Hence the training to control this power has caused her to tire out each time. On the way back, Chiho reveals to Emi that when she got possessed, she also saw a strange memory that doesn’t belong to her. From the way she describes, it seems it could be Emi’s dad. However he utters a word “aciethalla”. Too bad Emi doesn’t know what it means too.

Episode 14
With MgRonald back in business, Chiho might want to tone down her loud voice in greeting customers. Don’t want to scare them away to their competitor, no? Maou tries to learn from Kisaki on how to make great coffee so she explains her dream to be a barman. She lets him sign up for this course to be a barista. Chiho talks to Suzuno about Emi’s change in behaviour. She explains about the truth she has learnt and is lost since her whole life has been about duty and revenge. This might be good for her as it takes her focus off Maou. As for relying on Sariel, Suzuno doesn’t think it’s a good idea since that guy has shrivelled up to a shadow of his former self after that rejection. One night, Maou and Emi bump into each other and she sounds grumpy and in a bad mood. He is not impressed and further stokes the fire until well, she starts having tears in her eyes. It is then Maou thinks of taking over this world again. Emi is not impressed because what about it after he achieves that? Maybe he’ll plunge the world into despair. This makes her even madder because she thinks he doesn’t actually mean it. If he was really a cruel Demon Lord, she wouldn’t be suffering this much. She accuses him of not really wanting world domination but rather for someone to acknowledge him doing something big. Before Maou can counter that, he is whisked away. Before him is fellow demon Farfarello and a little samurai kid, Erone who is human. Farfarello claims his side has captured Ente Isla’s strongpoint and wants Maou to return. Obviously Maou declines. Suzuno realizes too late there is a barrier and now Chiho is missing. Sariel says this isn’t any barrier but one that distorts space. Chiho is now with Maou as Farfarello thinks Maou has abandoned his kind based on what Chiho says. Maou explains he was wrong about world domination then and only thought of expanding his territory. If he continues that path, the hero will kill him and demons will fall. Farfarello vows they won’t make the same mistake but Maou continues to reject him and orders him to return. Farfarello gives Maou some magic orb that will restore his heart to his former ferocity. Maou will hold onto it for now. Sariel breaks the barrier and when Farfarello learns who Emi is, he tries to run but she catches him and threatens him to go back quietly. Because if he tries anything funny, she’ll kill him now. Erone comes to aid him and it seems he is powerful enough to fend off Suzuno singlehandedly. But when Emi is about to strike him, Alas Ramus stops mom. Don’t hurt him. This allows Farfarello and Erone to escape. Emi thinks Erone is like Yesod. Alas Ramus confirms he is. Yesod is to Alas Ramus as with Geburah is to Erone.

Episode 15
Maou and co discuss about this and defeating Farfarello will not solve anything since doing so will have another person taking his place. The problem now is that because Maou defended Chiho, he might take her as hostage since she can’t fight. Hence Chiho pleads for Sariel to help train her. He sees no benefit in this until she promises to help him get back with Kisaki. Let’s start training now! So as Sariel trains her in using her voice via singing, Maou and the guys talk how they are taking a gamble with this plan to convince Farfarello that Chiho is on their side. On the way back, they bump into Kisaki who starts talking about her dreams. Not sure what it’s supposed to mean but I figure it’s to give them some hope that it is never too late to chase your dream and are reachable from each small step. Kisaki also takes this chance to unban Sariel from MgRonald since it would be unfair to use her feelings to hurt SFC. But she warns him if he pulls off another stunt like that and hurt her crew, she’ll sue his pants off. Sariel is over the moon. Maou and Chiho attend a MgRonald class. During that, Erone shows up to personally talk to Maou about his intentions about studying. I suppose Japan is a great place to study and prepare for conquest! After that, Erone pops up before Chiho and wants her to come with him. She agrees. Maou rendezvous with the rest and they believe Erone is behind this since they cannot detect her missing presence. With Sariel’s help, he pinpoints Erone’s barrier.

Erone has taken Chiho to see Farfarello. He is surprised she agreed to come. Why? He might have hurt her if she resisted. As he turns into his true form, Chiho explains about Maou’s goal to learn something in Japan for his conquest. Because he doesn’t know what to do, that is why he is learning. She is also trying to find out why he wants to invade Ente Isla. However he is curious why a human would want to help demons. She claims this is not about humans vs demons. In fact, she wants to help Maou achieve a different kind of conquest. A world where both Satan and the hero don’t have to kill each other and both humans and demons can live in peace. By this time, Maou has found them and wants an explanation. Farfarello claims he wants to hear his story from a third party. Maou scolds them that they can ask him anything. He won’t run or hide. Showing Farfarello money, he claims this is more powerful than magic. Once he builds its meaning, they can use it for his world conquest and won’t need magic anymore. Then he has Emi and Suzuno transfer some celestial power into him with the help of Chiho’s singing. This turns Maou back to his true form. Although such force would poison a demon’s body, because Maou is in human form, it had an opposite effect. Now that Farfarello is convinced, he is willing to accept any punishment. But Maou won’t do that. He wants him to return and tell Barbariccia about the new 4 generals by his side: Ashiya, Urushihara, Emi, Suzuno and Chiho. Uhm, isn’t that 5 people?! Emi and Suzuno not too happy but Chiho is over the moon with this ‘promotion’. Farfarello will return with this great news to boost the demons’ morale. With Emi still b*tching about it, Maou tells her to continue watching him so she can truly judge if he is her true enemy or not. Thus, follow him and he’ll show her a whole new world. Too bad the way he says it is so ambiguous and misleading, it makes Emi and Chiho mad. Looks like he has another conquest to clear. Personally, this one feels so much harder…

Episode 16
Alas Ramus wants to sleep over at Maou’s place. And so an argument ensues between Maou and Emi. Basically she is against it because Maou’s place doesn’t even have a decent futon. She doesn’t care about the guys but think of their baby if she is going to sleep here! So yeah, futon shopping! As Urushihara checks the places to shop for one, Maou gives Suzuno some crocodile meat as part of the repayment. Look at how her face lights up. They also talk about because Alas Ramus and Emi fused, they can’t be too far away from each other. Hence with Emi staying here, the rest might have to find somewhere else to sleep. Our lovely family take a train ride for the futon shopping. You bet Emi is going to wince each time people think they’re a couple. Oh, is she going to put on that stupid shocked face each time others refer them to a family? Apparently. Didn’t know futon shopping is so expensive. Well, next door has some that is dirt cheap but it is just for day naps. It ends without any futon being bought but the ‘family’ hang out together. Yeah, really start to look like one. Emi noting her dilemma of doing her duty as a hero or mother (why not both?!) because if Maou becomes the father than the Demon Lord, her job would’ve been much easier. Is she trying to say something?! When Ashiya learns Suzuno left her favourite box of udon packs to them, he feels something is wrong. Could she be going on a journey? Well, she’s not in. Only one person to call for advice. Oh my, poor Rika getting another false hope from Ashiya’s call! Emi is so annoyed that on the train back, Maou slept on her shoulder! She’s pissed! Then Chiho spots them. What are you doing? The baby always speaks the truth, right? Papa and mama picnic together. Going to sleep together. Buying futon! Oh dear. There’s only so much a poor girl can take before she dies of a heart attack! It gets worse with Alas Ramus crying, thinking papa and mama are fighting. Such public drama. As they return, Ashiya tells them Suzuno is missing. They knock on her door and no answer. But soon Chiho could hear something from inside and as they open the door, Suzuno is crying in the dark. Apparently she made some udon curry with that crocodile meat. But she tripped and spilled it all over her favourite kimono. In shock, she gave away her udon to stay away from it for a while. She’s been crying alone ever since. Oh well… As Rika is also having uncertain feelings, Emi calls Emeralda since she too is uncertain over her duty to defeat the Demon Lord. Emeralda hints of a change in pace so Emi believes visiting Ente Isla to sort out her feelings might be a good idea.

Episode 17
Emi tells the gang she wants to go home for a while to sort out her feelings. So as the days passed, soon they get worried as Emi hasn’t returned on the day she said she would. Suzuno asking Maou if he has heard anything but nothing. He suggests contacting Emeralda but it seems she too cannot be contacted. Then with the rest suggesting Maou should overload himself with celestial force, he starts thinking they want to go save her. This is when he says he doesn’t care what humans do on Ente Isla. If they kill each other, it is to his advantage. Hence if Emi is in trouble, it is not his problem. Suzuno then asks what if Chiho is the one who is in trouble. He says his conclusion wouldn’t change. Really? Because yeah, Chiho heard all that. She is sad that he is lying and not the kind of person who breaks promises. Especially when he made them part of his generals to show them a new world. She is the one who asked Suzuno to check on him so sorry for tricking him. Ashiya then talks to Maou that nobody would win a fair fight against Emi. This means if they found out she is in Ente Isla, they might play dirty and take somebody hostage. He calls out Maou’s move to name the humans as his generals and send Farfarello home as unwise even if it was to protect Chiho and prevent more demons from showing up in Japan. They think that humans there might get mad thinking Emi and Suzuno betrayed them and that Emi did all this to protect Chiho. If there is someone who wants Emi more than her fighting prowess, it is the angels. As Maou goes to take some driving licence test, he meets a strange father and daughter, Hiroshi and Tsubasa Satou. Tsubasa trying to sniff him?! You bet it freaks him out. Yeah, he smelled familiar. Meanwhile Rika visits Ashiya. No, she’s not desperate for him. Actually, Emi has been away from work for so long and she is worried since she has not contacted her since a week. But that is what shocks the rest. Because Emi has been gone for 3 weeks. Rika shows them an unknown phone call and that voice definitely belonged to Emi. She sounded like she was in a rush. Suddenly a distress call from Chiho. No time to explain. Suzuno and Urushihara start to fly there. Rika can’t believe her eyes in seeing this.

Episode 18
A Malebranche demon is seen wandering about at Chiho’s school. Sorry students, this isn’t cosplay. Chiho tries to contact Maou but it isn’t connecting. Maybe she’ll try Suzuno. What’s worse than Tsubasa trying to smell Maou? Why, trying to lick him! WTF?! She realizes he is the one and takes off her hat. Recognize this hairstyle? Yes, Acieth Alla is Alas Ramus’ big sister. That’s right. The baby is the big sister! So this Hiroshi guy can’t be human too, right? He then converses in Maou in their Ente Isla language. When Maou claims he is looking for Emi, he starts getting frantic as he too is looking for her. As you would have guessed, he is Nord, Emi’s father. Maou is soon contacted by Suzuno who tells him to get his ass right to Chiho’s school as she has sent an SOS. Don’t worry, Acieth can fly them there! Screw the public seeing them! Meanwhile Chiho tries to talk to that demon, Libicocco (better pronounce his name right!). Although he is happy Satan is still alive, he cannot accept his new generals. He is also here to cause havoc as told. Yeah, he is burning down a few houses! Just in time for Suzuno and Urushihara to drop in. Elsewhere, Ashiya is having it hard to explain to Rika about all this. I don’t think she’ll buy that energy drink testing crap! Maou then returns so as to put Nord here before flying off with Acieth. Ashiya and Nord converse in their own language. Nord explains he would’ve remained a farmer till he assumed responsibility to deliver Acieth to the chosen one his wife told him. That chosen one could be Maou. Putting the pieces together, Ashiya knows he is Emi’s father. Rika can’t stand being left out and demands an explanation. Ashiya starts off revealing Emi’s real name and isn’t from Japan. Heck, she is not from this world. If she can’t believe all that, then it will be hard to proceed further. But they soon realize the place is surrounded by some army. Ashiya recognizes them as Efzahan’s second highest knight squad. Nord believes they couldn’t be after him seeing he won’t be here if he had not met Maou. So Ashiya? Maybe. Because he thinks the attack on Chiho’s school is a diversion and that the enemy was targeting all along. Meanwhile we see Amane returning to the city.

Episode 19
Urushihara watches Suzuno fight Libicocco. He finds something off. The way he fights, he will eventually lose. Like as though this is a distraction for something. Eventually he loses but Suzuno will not kill him since she has changed. Suddenly fireballs rain down from the sky. Urushihara protects them but takes damage. The girls are surrounded by angel knights. Gabriel’s? No, archangel Chamuel. Meanwhile Gabriel’s side has disabled Ashiya and Nord. He tries to take them back but Rika is trying to stop them. So she’s not afraid of angels? I guess she’s not Christian… Anyway, not sure why an angel disobeys Gabriel’s orders not to kill her but luckily Amane returns in time. She claims she owns this place and has the right to do something if outsiders cause trouble. Gabriel agrees to leave as long as he can take Ashiya and Nord. Kidnapping them? Well, returning them to where they belong. As a huge wind barrier is protecting Chiho’s school, the only way for Maou to get inside is to kiss Acieth? Just trolled us. Just linking their foreheads together. It is then she realizes he is Satan. Libicocco wants Chiho to hand over her shard if she knows what is good for her. Suzuno reminds Chiho never to do that and fights everybody with deadweight Chiho on her back. Eventually she gets wounded as Libicocco seizes Chiho. Before Suzuno gets killed, the return of Maou to save them. He even pulls out a sacred sword to kick those angels’ ass. Chamuel then becomes a rabid mad dog trying to kill Maou but fails. Gabriel is here to pick up Chamuel and as apology, fixes all the damages and rewrites the memories of all those unrelated. That easy. Maou has to restrain Acieth since she too is on the verge of becoming rabid to kick Gabriel’s ass. As the angels leave, Gabriel admits Emi is in their custody. Maou and his injured comrades return home and learn from Amane what happened. Amane tells him Ashiya left him a message. Something about the gates of hell at some art museum. Maou then realizes something. Ashiya has been doing some research on it and it looks possible they can open that gate with an amplifier. Everybody is willing to go on this big rescue mission but what is bothering Maou? He needs to find someone to cover his shift! Oh my, that’s the least of his problems now! We see Emi and Alas Ramus fine in some room in heaven. Orba is also here and tells her that her dad has arrived. As the stage has been set, as long as Emi does as she is told, he will do no harm.

Episode 20
When Emi arrived at Ente Isla with Emeralda, the latter parted ways seeing she is going to look more into Orba as he is viewed as a hero here. They will only meet up a few days later. So welcome back to Ente Isla where everything is so backwards and it makes you appreciate the good life and advancement in Japan! I can understand why Alas Ramus is throwing up a fuss. Yucky food! Emi sees her father’s cornfield and is filled with hope that she can find him. One day, Alas Ramus runs through an invisible barrier and ends up at some house. It seems this house has the same scent as Emi. Emi then asks who her mom is. Lailah. Oh. You mean that question never crossed her mind before?! This agonizes Emi as she wonders why mom saved Maou and then scattered the shards. Trying to put them back together now? Alas Ramus thought she sensed Acieth but starts crying when upon realizing she is gone. This causes the barrier to break and Orba and Raguel to find them. Learning that her father is in their custody, Emi has no choice but to go with them. Suzuno returns with a couple of scooters! Oh, so they’re going to ride this around in Ente Isla?! So does it have gas there?! I guess better than flying around and gain unwanted attention. Because opening the gate requires a lot of power, only Suzuno and Maou will head there. After all, Urushihara has confirmed with Gabriel that Emi, Alas Ramus and Nord are all there at Efzahan. At MgRonald, when Sariel steps in, Acieth suddenly tries to attack him but Maou recalls her. Then they talk to him as Sariel notes Gabriel tried to bring him back but he refused. Then he goes on to say how he doesn’t care for anything else except for Kisaki and lives his life just for her. Creepy. Though, he admits despite he has done nothing to the Tree of Life directly, he reveals heaven’s true goal in messing with it: To prevent a true God from being born on Ente Isla. Maou and Suzuno get ready as they ride their scooter into the gate. Is it me or does it look funny?!

Episode 21
Emi’s strange dream of trying to find everybody missing and when she finally found Maou, he kills her! Is this a premonition? Orba has Emi don her armour and be the commander of the army who will go slay the demons and retake their city. Hear all the cries of hope? Yes, people are putting all their faith in her. Maou and Suzuno ride their scooter and camp out during their journey. She asks of his intentions to invade Ente Isla. He explains about the demon realm being sh*tty and all. When he managed to reunite it, he realized his miscalculation. You see, demons rely on magic to live and bringing peace while doing away with all the chaos also did away the magic. Knowing the realm would starve if he did nothing, that is why he invaded Ente Isla to restore their depleted resources rather than destroying it. After the invasion, he did his research on humans but just couldn’t get it. Until he stepped into Japan. He only realized humans need food to survive and not magic. So that became the basis for society structure for humans. He felt his sins were betraying the trust of his subjects and drove them to their deaths. His atonement is to be their king until he dies. Suzuno becomes God to absolve him of his sins? Or his guilt? As the campaign against demons rages on, Emi is prevented from taking part. Then she suggests to have the demons surrender but Orba disagrees since it is like allowing demons to live. But looks like without her help, the demons are routed.

Meanwhile Gabriel talks to Ashiya who knows about his plan to have him fight the humans. Gabriel only needs him to keep fighting Emi as long as he can. Ashiya then talks to Farfarello and Barbariccia and chastises them for being duped by heaven into this. They should’ve listened to Maou’s orders and returned to the demon realm instead of wasting lives of their brethren. Barbariccia then points out it seems the shard’s power also works on demons. Realizing that Nord doesn’t have his holy sword, Ashiya can see what Gabriel is planning too. That’s right, Gabriel has waited 2000 for this chance of a new Demon Lord to be born. Albert stumbles into Maou and Suzuno after hearing rumours of weirdoes riding scooters. He tells them of Emeralda’s fate. The day she was supposed to meet up with Emi, she got hauled up by the church. They branded her an apostate and all this was to cover up Orba’s wrongdoing. But it is her position that guaranteed Emi and Albert’s safety. He tried to see Emeralda after that but was prevented any form of contact. Maou suggests they join forces. He tries to demonstrate Acieth by turning her into a sword but it seems she is only able to transform into a small one. She claims Maou is preventing her. Is he? He then starts to vomit and feel sickly. Only then Suzuno realizes something strange. Maou has returned to Ente Isla but why is he not in his original form?

Episode 22
Chiho talks to Amane and wants to know if she is related to the Tree of Life. She claims she is half. Her dad is a sephirah but her mom is human. But Miki T is a child of sephirah just like her dad. Speaking of which, she returns and warns Chiho learning the truth won’t change anything. Even so, she doesn’t want to regret not knowing anything if she keeps running away. Emi’s side easily defeats Malebranche’s leader as Ashiya and his demons have a war strategy meeting. Maou is throwing a tantrum since he won’t be doing anything? Damn, he is even willing to beat up Acieth who is sleep talking about food?! Maou wonders why the heroes let him live peacefully in Japan. They did consider attacking him but Albert felt it was to respect Emeralda and Emi’s wish. Albert is also somewhat grateful to Adramelech. In a battle, he was prepared to die but Adramelech said he will not commit mindless massacres nor killed civilians for fun. Even when Albert requested a one on one fight with him, Adramelech refused such cheap warrior pride. It made Albert think that these demons were more humans than them. Suzuno and Albert’s mission now is to save Emi and the emperor. She believes she understands both sides enough to pull this off. Maou talks to Acieth about stuffs. But WTF she ate too much and vomits, and that vomit propelled them into the sky and then into the forest lake?! Is this supposed to be a joke?! Emi is shocked to learn that Ashiya is leading the demons. She realizes this is all part of Orba’s plan seeing Ashiya is the only demon general whom the heroes never defeated. Doing so will save Nord. But too bad, Maou isn’t here. So why is Emi looking so sad? Because yeah, she has an emotional breakdown since she is conflicted and hates doing all this. She is so lost and doesn’t know what to do anymore. It’s bad when Alas Ramus has to tell her papa will come and Emi even pining her hopes for Maou to come and save her! But soon Emi is called because Ashiya has sent a letter. Well, the rest can’t read this ‘cryptic’ message in Japanese. At first it doesn’t make sense to Emi. A vow to payback for some tofu. Then she realizes the meaning of this code. It means Maou will come and a warning to withdraw if they want to survive. She wants to head into battle immediately and oh boy, she is so relieved to know Maou is coming for her.

Episode 23
Suzuno and Albert take a secret passage underneath the palace and come out inside the royal toilet. As they go into the bed chamber of the emperor to seek an audience, they find it strange as he is not responding. Unfortunately, Gabriel won’t let them interfere in their plans and teleports them far away to the distant western continent. As ‘reward’, he tells them the emperor is not sleeping here but somewhere else. This is just Nord. Emi begins her fight with Ashiya. Orba tries to stop her since Ashiya is provoking her but Farfarello and Barbariccia stop the old fart from interfering. Emi apologizes for the many demons she has killed but Ashiya notes they are powerless to stop things. As Acieth is feeling better, the crest on her forehead starts glowing, an indication Alas Ramus is fighting. Maou is surprised to learn that she could fuse with anyone because she notes there were a lot of bad side effects fusing with Maou like the loss of his power. It means they were a bad match and she would’ve been more suited to Chiho or Urushihara. This means that it isn’t the sephiroth aren’t the mistletoe but everyone else with knowledge. It’s time to make their move so, uhm, ride scooters? At this point they’re worried about being discovered? As the angels watch Emi’s fight, Chamuel is agitated that Emi hasn’t used to full power of the sephiroth since doing so, Ashiya will not stand a chance. In the case she becomes exhausted, the angels will butt in. Yeah well, it’s been 7 hours of Emi vs Ashiya! Maou and Acieth ride through the guards. You better get out of the way since insurance doesn’t cover you blokes on Ente Isla! Even throwing firecrackers at those chasing them. They’re this close and still riding their scooter? Why not ditch it and fly?! Oh right. Don’t want to wreck it. But it seems the scooters are sturdier than the palace doors! Ram right through it! Maou finally meets Emi and Ashiya. Emi acting weird and apologizing for all the trouble. Awkward. She gets emotional as Acieth brings Nord to her. Finally reunited with her father. Alas Ramus is also happily reunited with hers and also Acieth. Sorry to interrupt this touching reunion but looks like they have to deal with the angels now.

Episode 24
With Emi deciding to side with Maou, Maou insults the angels especially Raguel and considers him lower than Sariel because at least that fallen angel is doing things via his own merits. Meanwhile, what a convenience that Suzuno and Albert stumble into the fake inquisition of Emeralda and put a stop to it to save her. As Maou and Ashiya fight the angels, Acieth notices the shard in Emi is no good. But then she notices it starts to resonate with Ashiya’s. Not sure about the logic of exposing it to magic rather than celestial force, Emi steals it from him to give it to Acieth. Because of that, she now gets to power up Maou and she becomes his holy sword. So apparently there’s some explanation about the sephiroth and that such sacred stuffs are not only limited to heroes and angels and that’s why everybody has got a misunderstanding over it. Not that I understand it either. Suzuno uses her authority to apprehend Orba as she reveals the revelation that there are no real angels and those so called angels are actually humans. You can buy some wings at the mart and call yourself one! Really? She also adds the angels are the one who brought terror to the land and not the demons. If they don’t believe, the emperor is here to vouch for her. Maou defeats the angels and he won’t kill Gabriel just yet. Not until he brings him back to Japan to spill the beans. With everything over, Emi tries to apologize to Maou but he claims it is not her fault to begin with. She only did it because she is the hero and he the devil. After all, there are other people whom she owes an apology for like Chiho and Rika. When they’re back in Japan, Chiho can’t contain her happiness to go see them. Gabriel is handed over to Miki-T and Amane. Rika sees Emi to tell her the bad news that she has been fired. On the bright side, Rika still remains her friend. More good news as Nord finally wakes up. Not a dream. Father and daughter finally reunite. Then everyone has a good meal together.

Devil In Her(o) Heart: Every Hero Has Demons
Uhm… Is that it? Is that really how it all ends? Why does it all feel so flimsy and unsatisfying in the sense that they just ended it for the sake of ending it. I mean, so many stuffs were left unexplained and it was all so rushed. A quick check over the internet as I discovered it seems there is some epilogue and whatever answers to unanswered questions because it ends with Maou ending up with somebody (I shall not spoil it here!). So oh my, are we going to have another season or not?! Perhaps it is not likely and maybe they might just do a few OVAs to cover that. But whatever. I’m so confused and bored that I’m just glad I’m done with this series. Assuming this anime’s season is the last one!

Honestly, I don’t understand what’s going on this season. Actually, I don’t see where the heck it is all going. Rather, I was so bored that perhaps I wasn’t paying actual attention so it could be my bad that my mind was shut off halfway and didn’t understand what’s going on. So yeah, this is supposed to be the final stretch but it felt like one long draggy affair to that finale. In fact, I believe there were a lot of questions that were not answered like Lailah’s goal and the likes. Again, I only have myself to blame since I wasn’t paying full attention. Hence this final stretch feels a bit odd because Emi has been separated from the family-cum-gang about halfway. Then it becomes another draggy affair to go and rescue her. Not even sure why Orba is doing this (don’t really remember, though) and the curious circumstances surrounding angels and humans were possibly from the same race and demons could be too, eluded me like a slippery eel. Whatever it is, I’m glad it is all over!

When you think about angels not really being angels and are just human beings (what a convenient and boring revelation), you have to wonder what are the demons then. Are they humans too? If they’re just some other races, I sure don’t see elves and dwarves around! And where’s even Lailah?! I thought she would show up for some major plot twist but she’s nowhere to be seen. I wonder if the producers forgot about her. And this sephiroth and shards thingy not really fully explained either and why does Efzahan looks so much like ancient China! At least the Chinese influence is so strong and it makes you wonder if there were refugees in the past that ran over to Earth and started a new China. Sorry, went off tangent there but those are some of the more pressing questions bugging me. Anyway, I don’t care anymore. I’m glad it is all over!

So I guess reading comments of this season from the internet, I could say that the fans and viewers are really split on this. Some say it is good and way better than the first season (I bet these people are just simps of Chiho) and the other team is saying everything went downhill and is all just sh*t. Yup, make a guess which faction I belong to. I have not read the light novel source (that ended back in 2020) but those who read it said the ending was sh*t. Yup, just like the one we got here in this adaptation. So it begs the question should it have gone for an original anime ending? I don’t know, either way the series is already like sh*t to me so it doesn’t make a difference. Whether our gang is going to happily continue play this pretend family thingy or Maou goes berserk and destroys the world and everybody else. Yeah. That. For better or worse, I’m glad it is all over. Now, I hope they don’t f*cking animate the other spinoffs of this series! WTF they have a high school spinoff and, uhm, a cooking version?! Please, NOOOO!!!!

I don’t know what to say any more about the characters but I guess I’ll try for closing purposes and keep it simple. Basically Maou trying to redeem himself for the mistakes he did when he tried to unify his people. And yeah, I find it really strange that it is Japan that thought him about all the societal stuffs. Hey, at least this proves that humans have some sort of worth then generally being selfish scumbags. So how is he doing? He is hanging on there and at this rate he might climb the corporate ladder or something. I don’t know, why not try to impose this on his fellow demons? Imagine demons working in an office job or serve food… Yikes. Casting away magic and conquest all for scraps of paper? It’s all about the money. YIKES! As for Emi, looks like she isn’t as irritating as in previous season since she is away. But in some ways she is a bit pitiful because of her conflict to get revenge on Satan for killing her father. And now the fact it isn’t so and her father is still breathing, you could see where the dilemma stems from. Like as though she isn’t sure of her purpose in life anymore. Well, good thing it all turns out well in the end. So is she ready to continue to play the role of mama? Wedding bells with Maou when? This should happen if they’re going to prove coexistence between races is possible! Or would you rather be a racist!

I thought Chiho would play some prominent role here. Because I’ve forgotten already whatever power she has and even so, it felt wasted because she was left out from the final stretch. So I really don’t know, did they forget her or it is all just some red herring. Alas Ramus not as annoying as last season since she makes less appearance but still annoying, though. Acieth also equally feels the same but to a lesser degree. Don’t know why I find her my pace attitude to be amusing but still better than Alas Ramus. Yeah, the other shards of sephiroth feel wasted because like Erone, where the heck was he? And what’s this about Miki-T and Amane being related to that? Oh yeah. Great plot twist. I knew they were strange people but somehow for them to be related to this isn’t surprising and somehow it took all my little zest out of them. Will Rika and Ashiya end up together? Still more probable than Sariel and Kisaki!

For the demons, Ashiya being given more screen time towards the end so that we don’t pigeonhole him as someone who freaks out whenever Maou goes over the budget or buys unnecessary stuffs. Like how we did for Urushihara as a hikikomori NEET who loves shopping online. Sure, he has some uses as a fallen angel but he is mostly the former. Remember Camio? No? Yup, me too. I suppose this is just to assure us that somebody is keeping the order in the demon realm during Satan’s absence. Why do they even need to introduce Farfarello and Libicocco is beyond my understanding but I guess it is to show that the Maou has some more allies considering the humans and angels have theirs. Sorry, still need to do double takes in spelling and pronouncing their names! For the angels, can I say better to know the devil than the angels? They could be the devil in disguise and for Gabriel, what is this about his goal to create a new Demon Lord? Does God exist or not? Who the f*ck this Chamuel? Why he so angry at Maou? Did Satan kill his sister or family or something? Raguel still there. With his afro and shades. Doing nothing. F*ck yeah, there are many other more characters that I am close to forgetting but I’m not just going to bother with it anymore. And they all just lost to Maou like that. Oh right. They’re just humans with wings.

Until today, I still cannot get over the downgrade of the visuals of this series, which is also the biggest issue that many of those who saw the first season umpteen years ago have. Yes, the visual quality for this part still sucks ass sh*t hard! I know we all love consistency but please not that only applies to good quality. It is one of the biggest put offs I had while I was watching this season and the last. The biggest demotivation factor that contributed to why I was just freaking bored in watching the whole thing. Story didn’t appeal to me so I wasn’t listening. Now the visuals look like sh*t too and I can’t spend 100% of my eyes watching this garbage, CAN I?! So yeah, sometimes I have to roll my eyes away in fear in staring too long at this crappy garbage animation will cause them to melt and fall off! But seriously, how can they still make such horrendous animation quality today?! Look at how freaking ugly and simple Chiho is! Don’t know about you Chiho simps but she’s a turn off. Good riddance this is all over.

Well, having Tomokazu Sugita voicing as Farfarello sure didn’t help much. I thought Eri Kitahara was back as Acieth something sounded a bit off about her voice. Too bad it’s not her but Madoka Asahina (Kominami in Bokutachi Wa Benkyou Ga Dekinai). The other new casts joining in include Atsushi Ono as Nord (Orochi in One Punch Man), Chikahiro Kobayashi as Chamuel (Sugimoto in Golden Kamuy), Megumi Han as Erone (Sumire in Chihayafuru) and Kenji Nomura as Libicocco (Reystov in Saihate No Paladin). Well, it’s good to know that after all these years, Nano Ripe still sounds the same as always. Yeah. Not good at least in my books. Here she sings the generic anime rock opening theme, Hikari No Nai Machi. And when the opening animation credits starts off with a distraught Emi in tears and emotionally crying, that isn’t a good sign and doesn’t bode well with me. As for the ending theme, Bloomin by Liyuu sounds more like an idol pop because if you don’t know, Liyuu is that Keke girl from Love Live! Superstar series.

Overall, this season has been really disappointing, even more so everything that led up to that bland and strange ending. The whole point is to get everyone together again as a family. Term used in the loosest sense. I’m only glad that this is all over and I can finally take heart that I can put away this anime in one of those boxes that I will never open again until many years into the future for posterity purposes! Heh. So can we say that this series is done for good? Unless… They decided to do a remake to fix that sh*t quality visuals! OMFG!!! PLEASE, NO!!! I want to resign from this series forever! Can it stay that way! When you have a great Satan renouncing his Demon Lord title to work part time at a fast food joint or a great hero taking on a normal office job, and then they both ‘marry’ each other and play family, come to think of it, these characters have a better life than mine! GRRR!!! But I won’t give up my full time otaku hobby for all that!

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken: Coleus No Yume

As we all already know long before, a certain popular slime series is going to have a third season. So what better way than to remind us all of that with a side story to binge on since all episodes were release at once: Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken: Coleus No Yume. Taking place between the first and second season, our slime main character gets embroiled in a distant kingdom’s conspiracy plot. Well, I guess this is better than a recap episode!

Episode 1
A few days left before Rimuru’s term in Freedom Academy is over, he is summoned by Yuuki. As usual, this guy wants Rimuru to do him a job that involves the Kingdom of Coleus. That nation is now embroiled in a battle for succession between the older brother, Souther who is the crown prince as well as Aslan who is the son of a concubine. The thing is, Aslan is a great adventurer and has convinced the local guild to rebel and now they have declared independence. As Coleus is part of a group of nation’s council, it seems they are not keen on diplomacy or interference from the rest so they have to respect that. Hence Rimuru’s job is to go investigate and see what the deal is on both sides. Of course he won’t do it alone and Yuuki will send another adventurer to help him, Paulo. Based on the info they get, Yuuki and the guild will see whose side they want to support. Before Rimuru departs, it seems Jeff knows he is heading there and is even willing to write a letter of recommendation. Jeff also knows about Rimuru doing and undercover investigation and suggests using an alias in which Rimuru uses Satoru (his original name). Jeff hints that the letter is to introduce Rimuru but whatever he does as Satoru is none of his business. After that, Yuuki brings Rimuru to meet Paolo. Quite a loud guy. You could say he is more brawn than brains and he is also broke! Yeah, looks like Rimuru has got to take care of him too other than being the team leader! And so the duo travel to the desert kingdom as Rimuru imparts some of his knowledge to Paolo, wowing him. Upon arrival, they meet Chiffon who turns out to be Jeff’s sister and is married to Marquis Barak Jahil. Rimuru now sees the connection why Jeff wants him to come here. Of course it is not to take Chiffon back but to discuss guild matters. Rimuru tells what is needed about his mission and thus he can’t make the decisions. Barak will not interfere but is willing to help. Chiffon then wants Rimuru to visit Princess Zenobia who is currently bed ridden with some illness. Perhaps he could help find a cure. Next day as she brings him there, they come across Gustav who is the court’s physician. It seems Gustav and Chiffon don’t like each other and the former thinks she brought a scammer (Rimuru) here and will report to the king. Suit yourself. As Rimuru sees Zenobia, he realizes she is blind. After analysing her condition and shockingly it is just mainly malnutrition, he lets her drink some honey. And just like that after a sip, she can now see!!! OMFG!!!

Episode 2
Souei reports his findings to Rimuru especially about Aslan’s great fighting abilities and Paolo has been slacking and drinking at the bar. Because Paolo has also been badmouthing Rimuru while drunk, at least the suspicions on him are off. Rimuru has dinner with Barak and Chiffon when Aslan decides to pay a visit. He has heard news of Zenobia being cured and is here to give his thanks to Rimuru. He mentions he intended to support Souther when he becomes king but he has changed especially when Zenobia fell ill 3 years ago. They got desperate enough to hire Gustav but even he said there was no hope. Strangely, the king their father also fell ill but none are allowed to see him. Aslan theorizes that many including Souther is under Gustav’s mind control. More coincidence because 3 years ago, Souther too was sickly when suddenly he became strong. Hence Gustav might be a vampire and this whole thing isn’t just about a kingdom’s succession struggle but a plot by Valentine to sabotage humanity’s defence zone (something about Souther being given Zeinblood that turns one into a vampire too). Barak uses some art of his to break free of the unsuspecting charm around him and his wife. At least Zenobia didn’t turn into a vampire and thanks to Rimuru’s medicine, it helped stemmed that process. Their priority now is to take out Gustav the traitor.

As Rimuru also hides in Zenobia’s room, he sees Souther visiting her and he is very worried about all the troubles that had befallen on her. Rimuru finds it strange since this is not how he was painted. As Souther leaves, Rimuru could sense a great aura that Souther has been hiding. He further eavesdrop that Souther is going all out to wipe out Aslan’s faction. Rimuru is then caught by Zenobia. She knows who he is but little slime guy pretends to be Satoru. She tells him that her brothers are like little boys crying out for help. The real problem is Gustav because she sensed something about him. Worse, her father has not visited her since she fell ill and guess what? Gustav is his trusted friend. Rimuru hides as Gustav is seen coming in. It seems he puts Zenobia to sleep in hopes of further refining her soul as well as making Rimuru as a living sacrifice. Although Zenobia is asleep, she can telepathically communicate with Rimuru and he hopes he can save her brothers seeing their powers have been given to this evil man. Rimuru later discusses his next actions with Benimaru and Souei. As predicted, Gustav is going to pin Zenobia’s poor health on Rimuru. This will cause the brothers to fight each other and they have to stop that. Rimuru will have his men stop Aslan’ side from meeting up. Soon, Rimuru is arrested but that is of course his body double. He then transforms into a handsome rebel known as Satoru as he takes Zenobia away. Obviously he gives himself away to spread some fake info. Benimaru and Souei confront Aslan and his men who are prepared to head out for battle. Both keep Aslan and Barak at bay until Rimuru arrives.

Episode 3
Rimuru heals Zenobia before the brothers. As shocked as they are, they learn both have been duped by Gustav and even more so, been fed false info by their good friend, Carl. Speaking of him, here he is laughing that he almost witnessed the brothers kill each other. He calls Gustav to take their next action. Gustav takes Souther’s vitality, making the traitors even more powerful as Archdemons. Gustav then takes Zenobia hostage while he lets Carl kill the rest. Aslan protects his brother from Carl’s fatal blow. But no brotherly tears or dastardly evil laughter. Because Rimuru shocks everyone by healing Aslan and then has Souei and Benimaru join in to fight him. Paolo realizes he has been useless and needs to act now. Gustav panics upon seeing Carl losing. Needing to protect Zenobia as his vessel, he steals all of Carl’s essence. As he powers up, Paolo kidnaps Zenobia. Gustav chases him but is stopped by Luminous. He doesn’t think much of her and fights her. Realizing she is much more powerful than him, he doesn’t want to die before achieving his goals. So he uses up all his power to summon his master, Ultima who possesses Zenobia’s body. It seems Luminous and Ultima know each other. The feeling is not mutual. Both have an epic magic fight but since it gets nowhere, Gustav thinks he has achieved something by summoning her. However Ultima scoffs off he did nothing since all this was done using her own power. Since he is a disappointment, she will not leave traces of evidence behind and finishes him off. Ultima will settle this next time and disappears.

Luminous then tells Paolo to take the credit for defeating Gustav. The rest realize Carl has reverted back into a frail human. They see Zenobia fine but find it hard to believe Paolo defeated Gustav. But whatever. Threat is over. Rimuru then quickly leaves to return to his clone sitting in prison. When the brothers go release him and ask him for the honey, they realize he and Satoru are the same person. So the gig is up as everyone talks to Rimuru and knows the great nation he is ruling now. They let him know that when they went to apprehend the king, it seems he has already died. Evidence left behind showed he did summon those Archdemons. This is to make the sons fight each other so that he could possess the body of the winner to extend his own life. Well, he got what’s coming as flashback shows Luminous killed him for this foolish act. In the aftermath, Souther ascends the throne with Aslan appointed as his minister for military affairs. Zenobia is totally cured while Paolo decides to stay back since he has been scouted to be the captain of the knights. Rimuru returns to report to Yuuki. All is well. But Yuuki has a new mission for him… NOT HEARING ANY OF THIS CRAP!!! Now, Rimuru has turned into a Demon Lord, Coleus wants to secure diplomatic relations with him.

Slime Of The Desert
I have a feeling that this whole spinoff was just to introduce the rest of the Primordial Demons (which Guy and Diablo are) even if it was just their short cameo at the end of the series and they might make proper appearances come the next season. So either they become part of Rimuru’s minister or cabinet, or they become the greatest foes that he will have to face. Either way, we all know how it will turn out seeing Rimuru is so overpowered and there is nothing that he cannot do. So yeah, let’s expend his Tempest nation and add more characters to his expanding family! And to think the promotional poster fooled us into thinking that Luminous and Ultima will be the main stars when they only made super short cameos at the end of the final episode. Were we duped or just over hoping for something?

Well, 3 episodes aren’t anything much to tell but it’s the same ol’ formula of Rimuru getting involved with something big and then in a way has a hand in solving it with his miracles or overpowered abilities. However this time I feel that Rimuru doesn’t play much of a prominent role. Sure, healing Zenobia’s blindness is one thing (and a reminder that Rimuru is God!), but for the rest of the typical conspiracy plot of outsider Archdemons making brothers of the throne fight each other for an ulterior agenda, it is basically Souther and Aslan who eventually rise up to the occasion to do what is necessary to thwart the tragedy. Rimuru and his merry men just did the minimal and played the supportive role. Oh heck, even that idiotic Paolo claimed a bigger credit even though he didn’t do no jack sh*t! And what’s this he borrowed money from Rimuru and didn’t pay back? Oh my, how’s that conscious coming along for you? For better or worse, I guess it is a good thing that Rimuru stays out of the limelight because who knows what troublesome sh*t mess he’ll get into if he becomes the hero. Nothing like his overpowered couldn’t fix but that isn’t the point.

I don’t have anything else much to say about this short one but I suppose it’s all just pretty average to me. It’s just pretty okay in my honest opinion seeing that I’m not really a fan of the series despite being awed in the first season. But I noticed all that enthusiasm has started to wane seeing how the cliché of overpowered isekai main characters tropes have permeated the industry throughout the years and seasons. My simple dream is that the next season won’t suck as bad. Just enough to keep me entertained. I’m sure that is the most simplest of task that a simple slime like the great Rimuru could easily accomplish, right? Otherwise, I’ll call it the OMG Disaster. Heh. Sorry. Bad pun.

Toshinden

Oh wow. You know me and my love for fighting games. But somehow my luck (or should I say apathy) just doesn’t allow to watch its anime version whether it was that retro Virtua Fighter or the recent Tekken. Oh right, Street Fighter had one adapted version but I only saw bits of it during my younger days and couldn’t remember much except it was boring as f*ck drama. Even Mortal Kombat cartoons (especially those in the early days) were pretty weird. But that’s not anime anyway. And then I stumbled upon Toshinden. Ah yes, bet many wouldn’t have even heard of this old 3D Japanese fighting series as since it wasn’t as flashy or popular as its other counterparts like those aforementioned. In fact, this anime adapts the sequel of the first game which is the only entry I played of that series. Oh wow. Brings back a lot of nostalgic memories. Time to relive those button mashing days once more… Don Papa! Makenai suru! Iku zo! Call me queen!!!

Episode 1
War is over! Peace treaty is about to be signed! But wait! Who the f*ck is attacking them?! There goes peace. War is back. Handsome guy with a sword cutting down all the latest military equipment? Yeah. Believe it. Sho’s your b*tch! After that, we see Sho fighting Fo Fai in the back alley and easily defeats him since he knows all his moves. The same fate with Mondo. How the f*ck he knows my moves, dude?! Meanwhile Eiji Shinjo is looking for Gaia. It has been a year since the tournament. Looking for his brother, he was facing off with him in the finals when Chaos and Organization goons surround them. It seems the Organization wants to capture the best fighters for its next plan. Gaia of course won’t allow that and kills Chaos. He then tells Eiji to further train himself stronger before disappearing. Now Eiji laments he still cannot find Sho. But he spars with Kayin Amoh and their duel ends in a draw. They talk about Fo Fai and Mondo’s defeat and believe the Organization is making its move on the fighters of the previous tournament. It is believed Sho is the one perpetrating this. Kayin chastises Eiji for wanting to do this alone. They’re friends remember? The fact Kayin’s dad was killed by Sho doesn’t change anything between them. Rungo Irons is kidnapped by the Organization and forced to fight a very improved Chaos. He loses badly. Uranus is pleased with the progress. By the time Eiji and Kayin reach Rungo’s home, he is badly injured and his very sad wife and son by his side. Kayin suggests Eiji find Sofia because it is for sure the Organization will move against her. Kayin will try to find the Organization’s base.

Eiji arrives at this countryside and orphanage where Sofia now resides. He cuts to the chase about the Organization making its move. Meanwhile Uranus shows the progress of this Man Machine Project to her prospects who are looking forward to its completion. Learning that Eiji has made contact with Sofia, she puts her next plan in motion. Eiji wakes up from a dream whereby demanding answers from Sho joining the organization. He gets killed. Thank goodness just a dream. Talking with Sofia about his dream to fight with Sho, at least he has real memories because Sofia’s memories were manipulated and erased by the Organization. That night, Uranus controls Sofia to assassinate Eiji. He can tell she is moving against her will because of those tears. So how? He lets her whip him and then hugs her. Enough to break the spell! Sofia feels guilty for hurting him since she thought she was free from the Organization’s spell. However Uranus has sent Sho to deal with them. As the brothers fight, Eiji can now tell this is not his real brother but a clone. The fight continues and Sho is in shock that he lost to Eiji. As he is about to call for Uranus’ help, she kills him off! She reveals everything has gone as planned. This includes creating a Man Machine out from Sho and has gotten all the data she needed. This is why she used Sofia and the image of Sho against him to make him reveal all his moves. She returns to her base and further upgrades Chaos. His mission is now to hunt down the traitor Gaia. Elsewhere, Kayin has found Ellis at the circus.

Episode 2
After Ellis is done with her circus act, she meets Eiji and Kayin at the backstage. They tell her about the Organization’s plan to mass produce artificial soldiers in this Man Machine Project. So far, those soldiers are nothing. Except one of them whom Eiji fought had almost the exact same moves as his brother, Sho. Later, Chaos comes by to kidnap Ellis so as to use her as bait to lure out Gaia who has betrayed the Organization. Of course Eiji and Kayin to the rescue but Chaos gloats about himself being the completed Man Machine and that Sho imposter he fought was only at 30%. Gaia then pops up as Chaos gladly fights him. When Chaos spews his poison on him, Ellis protects him and bears the brunt. This is all part of Chaos’ plan because the Organization only has the antidote. So Gaia knows what to do if he is going to save his daughter, right? Ellis is rushed to hospital and in coma, Tracy needs them to spill the beans seeing she has been receiving strange reports and activities of lately. After doing so, they need to infiltrate the Organization’s base. But how do they know where it is? Don’t worry, Sofia knows. When Uranus took control of her, she was able to see her thoughts and caught glimpse of the base. How convenient. Meanwhile Uranus is pleased with Chaos as she uploads all the fighting data of Gaia to complete her Man Machine Project. Our heroes head towards the Organization’s base. It couldn’t be more obvious of this hi-tech towering twin towers right smack in the middle of the desert!!! They are faced with foot soldiers. Eiji and Kayin ride ahead while Tracy and Sofia stay back to fight the grunts. Too many? Don’t worry. Fans of Mondo, Rungo, Duke and Fo Fai can be a little happy with their cameo to help out.

With all the distraction, Gaia manages to sneak into the base and confront Uranus. He will kill her and take her place as the new head of the Organization. Uranus doesn’t think so as she shows him Chaos in the final stages of Man Machine Project. Basically he will just become a mindless fighting machine. She orders Chaos to kill him. Eiji and Kayin split up. Eiji enters the tower filled with prototype specimens and destroys everything. Meanwhile Kayin joins Gaia to fight Chaos but since he has data on their moves, it is tough. Now Eiji joins them and they mixing things up by using each other’s moves (uhm, don’t Eiji and Kayin basically have the same moves in the game?!) and improvising on their existing moves, eventually defeating him. Now the trio confront Uranus who blabs that they only destroyed fake specimens as the real lab is somewhere around. You mean it is close by?! She thinks she can start over with this data but it is soon destroyed by… SHO! He won’t allow her to make fake copies of him and has blown up the real lab underground. Oh heck, that was freaking easy! The whole place falls apart as Uranus flees. They’ll meet again at the next tournament. Eiji is desperate to get his brother but Kayin restrains him. Need to get out or we’re dead meat! Our heroes thank each other for the assist but next time they meet at the tournament, they’ll be enemies. Ellis has recovered thanks to the antidote although Gaia has gone missing. As always. Eiji and Kayin renew their rivalry and the next tournament will settle it. And yes, Sho is glad his brother has gotten stronger and the next tournament will be their fight! Wow. Everybody looking so forward to it. We see Eiji preparing to face off Vermilion.

All Your Moves Are Belong To Us!
Well, that was fun while it lasted. Yes, the overwhelming nostalgia of my heydays playing the game was what made this OVA a lot enjoyable. Even though it was nothing much and I believe was just something extra for fans of the game. Too bad, I can’t go back playing it anymore. My computer system is way too hi-tech to execute such a simple CD-ROM game! I guess they don’t have rollback features. Sighs…

Come to think of it, I don’t even remember the story of the game that I played. Something about the Organization having some sort of weapon tournament. I guess it wasn’t important for me back then. I just wanted to play the game. Oh heck, it was actually all in Japanese and I clearly remember how freaking bad the English translation was! Imagine, Sofia’s ending had a line saying she was sad to remember each time she cannot remember! OMFG!!! DO I STILL REMEMBER THAT???!!! Anyway, the story of having fighters being hunted down for their moves to create super soldiers and thus the tournament was just a cover up for that shady goal, now where have I heard this before… Oh right. Did Dead Or Alive plagiarise this in some ways?! After all, the first Toshinden game came out a year earlier (1995) than Dead Or Alive. Anyway, the anime’s story feels just like a setting and introductory for the next tournament so feel free to brush off the dust of your Battle Arena Toshinden 2 CD and hit those gamepad buttons again. Oh wait. I still can’t play it because my system is so advanced.

Of course when you have a series adapted from the video game, it is only right to adapt some of the signature moves of the series. Get over here! Oops, sorry wrong game. But yes, even if I do not remember much of these characters’ moves, it is good to see them being displayed here and of course Eiji being the main character, he gets most of his moves showcased. So yeah, fighting scenes are pretty okay but just to showcase their special moves. On a trivial note, my favourite character is the secret character Vermilion because he is the easiest to use! Just stand at a distance and fire the guns away! Definitely the ultimate bring a gun to a swordfight trope! Oh man. Yeah, I am guilty as hell as I could never seem to master the moves of the other characters. Yup, it was all just button mashing for me! Making it even easier as I remember, the game allowed you to assign 2 buttons to quickly execute the special moves. Press and execute. Yup, that sure made me even lazier and turning Vermilion into my main. Wow. Such crazy days. Damn, I really want to go back and use this character and spam all his easy gunshot moves!!! And spam his f*cking Overdrive move once the f*cking gauge meter is filled up! Hell yeah! Let me play all that again! Damn! No f*cking rollback feature, dammit!

What else can I say about the characters? This adaptation follows closely to the gameplay and obviously Eiji is the main star because also obviously he is Ryu’s clone and as Kayin is to Ken (both of Street Fighter fame if you don’t know). Despite not having many characters (it’s a good thing fighting game rosters back then didn’t blow up to like 30 freaking base characters unlike today!), if you are fan of other characters, you would be sorely disappointed. But hey, at least they made their few seconds of cameo rather than none. Yeah, so I have to be pleased that my favourite Vermilion only made a stinking 2 second appearance and even so, right at the end. Hence the only character in the franchise who did not appear is Master, the boss of the sequel and the well, master of the Organization. Still wondering if this character is a boy or girl… On a trivial note, I bet they didn’t adapt the third sequel because it bloated up the number of characters who are all just mainly clones of those in the prequels. Hell yeah, imagine watching a Michael Jackson clone making his cameo! You do know there was a character created in the image of Michael Jackson in this game, RIGHT???!!! And they turned the final and fourth instalment into some weird team game with new characters whom we don’t like. Ugh. No wonder I never played the sequels. Nor did the anime adapted them. Thank goodness?

Sorry Ellis fans, it’s like they don’t want to get this little fairy hurt and that’s why they got her poisoned and put in a coma, leaving her out of action in the second part that at least sees the rest of the character showing off 2 seconds worth of their chops. Yeah, how the f*ck did Rungo even recover so fast to even join them seeing he was beaten up so badly to a pulp. Even Sofia had some screen time because it would be a waste not to showcase some sexy fanservice. Don’t you just love hot blondes in tight body hugging leather suits and a whip! Oh yeah. Body for pleasure, whip for pain! Don’t roll your eyes, that’s stated in her biography! Speaking of Ellis, I still can’t believe her biography listed her as Turkish! How the heck does she have a Japanese for a father then?! Oh right, maybe adoption thingy. Or did she change nationality later on. But yeah, it still boggles my mind until this day that this girl is of Turkish nationality. Sure, they wanted to diversify the races in this international weaponry tournament (you should see how freaking diversified the nationalities were in the game’s third instalment). I mean, you have freaking stereotypes already in the cast of characters. Rungo your big burly American. Fo Fai your crazy little Chinese man. Duke your chivalrous French knight. Sofia your sexy Russian buxom babe. Even Chaos as Sri Lankan descent felt believable. But Ellis is Turkish?! OMG did they get the whole thing wrong?! Sure, she broke the stereotype but I still can’t believe it. Sheesh…

The art and animation reek of retro style anime. It is 1996 after all. Even though it is dated but at least on a personal level, it still looked good for an anime that came out from that time. Though I have to admit, this animated version still looks way better than the ugly blocky 3D graphics of the game! Hell yeah! Oh well, you know, the 90’s was a strange time for fighting games when they were just getting into and experimenting with the 3D stuffs. So it’s nice to see our characters here having the typical Japanese anime looks. And to learn that this was done by the veteran J.C. Staff, might not be one of their greatest works as they have other better animated hits but yes, at least they made this one looking decent.

Surprisingly in the voice acting department, I wasn’t expecting to hear some recognizable ones like Takehito Koyasu as Kayin, Fumihiko Tachiki as Chaos and even Kikuko Inoue as Uranus! And then there are also Tomokazu Seki as Eiji and Michiko Neya as Tracy. Didn’t recognize them at first but seeing their names in the credits, now it rings a lot of bell. Some of them who voiced their characters in the game also reprised their roles in the OVA like Daisuki Gouri as Gaia, Yukimasa Kishino as Mondo and the late Kaneto Shiozawa as Duke. Bin Shimada as Sho (Gengai in Gintama), Kyoko Hikami as Ellis (Rabi-en in Di Gi Charat series), Yumi Touma as Sofia (Urd in Aa! Megami-sama), Ikuo Nishikawa as Fo Fai (Hanner in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor) and Shinpachi Tsuji as Rungo (Makarov in Fairy Tail). Ellis fans can take heart she sings the ending theme, Makenaide Fly Away, a lively retro anime pop that reflects the liveliness of her character. On a trivial note, the game has really awesome soundtrack BGM that I still sometimes listen to today.

Overall, it seems I have talked more about the game itself than the anime? Ah yes, overwhelming nostalgia. But it is good to see the anime even though I haven’t been playing the game for decades. The game has its ups and downs but I guess it was a different time back then. And watching this retro anime from this point in time, I’m going to say it again, opened the floodgates of my nostalgic memories. Yeah, the anime is just pretty okay and average. That’s about it. But still better compared to a recent spate of weird sh*t and bizarre retro OVAs that I have watched. In that context, this one seems pretty decent in all the departments. Thank you for bringing back all the nice and weird nostalgia of the game that I once played back in the 90’s. Now if I can only find an emulator online and play Battle Arena Toshinden 2 on my high end PC, that’ll be great… My Vermilion is waiting for me to use him again! Iku zo! Hontou ni yatsu wo taoshita ka?!

Sora Wo Miageru Shoujo No Hitomi Ni Utsuru Sekai

Funny. It was one of those old anime series that just slipped my radar somehow. Did it slip my thoughts too? I heard of Sora Wo Miageru Shoujo No Hitomi Ni Utsuru Sekai for a long time but somehow can’t remember why I never bothered to watch it or even put it on the back burner of my watch list. Not even during those dreaded Corona virus lockdown times. Ugh. Such awkwardness. I might have actually and really forgotten all about it until recently when I accidentally stumbled upon it. Lucky me or what? And I thought it was related to Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo but I was so wrong. Nothing to do with it 100% except for the very similar title that confused me. No time leaping here. Just probably some dimension hopping. Maybe. Heh.

Episode 1
As narrated, a war over a power known as Akuto rages on. Yumemi Hidaka looks like an ordinary girl. She goes to school with her friends, Ichiko Ono and Suzume Imamura. It seems Yumemi herself can only see floating islands that others couldn’t. Then suddenly out of the blue, this guy with red hair, Munto claims he has found her, the girl of destiny. He wants her to lend her powers but some barrier prevents him. She tries to get her to come with him but time is out as Yumemi returns to reality. Obviously, her friends did not witness all that drama. Munto laments he needs that power as flashback shows Gass, the guardian of time asking him about his plans to save the Magical Kingdom. Because if he is going to break the rules of time, he won’t let him go. However he won’t stop him since the world’s fate has been decided and stopping him won’t change anything. Because Akuto is running out, Gass wonders what Akuto saw since he is going in that darkness filled world. Munto said he dreamt of a girl. Similarly, Ryuely the prophet of the Magical Kingdom told Toche her disciple that Munto’s vision of a girl will save the world (although this prophecy caused Ryuely her sight). It seems this power is needed to open Heaven’s future. Otherwise, it will fall and crash to the lower worlds below, making everything disappear. Thus Munto has left to go get it. Toche remains sceptical if this girl really holds the key. Meanwhile Gass defends Magical Kingdom against the United Army led by Leica. This event is being discussed by the elders at the United Army HQ in Heavens. They are not amused that Gass is an Outsider and he is interfering. The longer this battle lasts, the more Akuto they will lose. Hence they must quickly destroy Magical Kingdom so they can manage the remaining Akuto. When they receive news that Munto has left for the lower world (that is without Akuto – which is Earth, right?), they think Magical Kingdom’s king has gone crazy with this suicide move. However United Army’s commander, Gntarl thinks Munto is scheming something.

In school, Suzume tells her friends that she is going to get married to her boyfriend, Kazuya Takamori tomorrow. WTF?! She is only 13! Is this the legal age of marriage in Japan???!!! Obviously Yumemi and Ichiko worry about her so they think of checking out this Kazuya guy seeing he has a reputation of being a troublemaker. The elders narrate how Heaven was the closest beings to God when Akuto was at its fullest. They could use Akuto as they please but little do they know, it wasn’t going to last forever as they thought. Despite knowing this, Heaven continued to waste Akuto. Then it got too late when they lost their future and hope. They started wars in fear of losing Akuto. But soon they started to realize it wasn’t worth it so they sealed their powers and have up their desires, living frugally and utilizing the remaining Akuto to the fullest. Despite so, Akuto continues to deplete rapidly and there is now fear Heaven is in danger of disappearing. In order to not let all their efforts go to waste, they need to find a solution. They believe Munto and his Magical Kingdom that overuse Akuto are the source and hence must be swiftly eliminated to stop the decline of Akuto. Although word is that Munto still lives, they think in that world he is going that is without Akuto, he will soon disappear. Of course Gntarl it isn’t simple as that and all this could be just a distraction. Just to be safe, he is going to send this ugly motherf*cker automaton to fight him. This will at least wear him out until he dies. Yumemi and Ichiko ask around until they find Kazuya at the river bank.

Episode 2
Gntarl demonstrates the automaton’s power. Destructive. Meanwhile Kazuya confirms he will be marrying Suzume here. He explains about his life. Basically forever alone. Eventually he felt useless and not needed by his family or society and wanted to kill himself. It was Suzume who saved him. It helped open his eyes. There is a wall before him that he cannot overcome and he needs Suzume for it. Hence the marriage is just symbolic and a starting point for them to move on. The friends sympathize with him but don’t drag Yumemi into this mess. Kazuya believes in Suzume and her capacity since her hand pulled him out from his miserable life filled with trouble. So for him to move forward into the future, there is something he needs to get past and Suzume told him a place he needed to go. So tomorrow their new future begins from here. He assures them he truly loves Suzume. As the friends return, Yumemi experiences another vision from Munto. He is getting desperate for her to lend her powers to save their worlds. She is brought back to reality with Ichiko’s intervention. Yeah, looks like now she is going to have to worry about Yumemi’s mental state of health.

Back home, Yumemi asks mom her opinions should she marry tomorrow. Why? Does she love somebody? Not really. In that case she isn’t ready and should only think about that once she is an adult with responsibilities. This only further confuses Yumemi because since she is a child, does not have any responsibilities? Oh right. Do your homework! After all, she doesn’t have the capacity to live on her own yet. As Yumemi ponders mom’s words in bet, yet another pesky visit from Munto. I get he is desperate but does he have to sound very rude and pushy? No wonder Yumemi is reluctant since heck, she doesn’t even understand what is going on? I mean, he wants her to lend her power but HOW?! WHAT POWER AND HOW TO LEND?! But I guess the buzzword for her is future and responsibilities so she wants to know how to fulfil that. Too bad time is up as Yumemi returns to reality. Next day at school, Kazuya comes in as Suzume elopes with him. Oh damn, the entire teaching faculty go into panic mode as they scramble! Yumemi and Ichiko try to tail them but along the way, oh no it’s that damn Munto again. Once more, PLEASE LEND ME YOUR POWER! I keep telling you, HOW THE F*CK IS SHE GOING TO DO THAT?! She doesn’t even understand what the f*ck Akuto is?! Another interruption breaks this. Of course this is thanks to the automaton attacking as Munto is forced to deal with this first. Kazuya and Suzume are seen swimming across the river. I hope they’re not going to drown themselves!!!

Episode 3
Some teachers are trying to stop them but hell, they can’t even swim?! Yumemi and Ichiko seeing this, they cheer on the duo to keep pushing forward. Yumemi remembers the things Suzume has done for her when she was in trouble. Because she has never lost faith, they too need to believe in her as she has never doubted them. At this point, all the other classmates have also arrived and start cheering on for them. The duo arrive safely on the other side. The teachers reprimand them although the rest continue to give their support at how amazing their feat was. Meanwhile there is only 1 pillar left holding up Magical Kingdom. It won’t do much as the floating island starts to fall. It is at this point that this island becomes visible to the Earthlings below. Wow. Must be a plane?! Oh God, is a plane that big?! Seeing all this, Yumemi now believes it is her turn to protect her world and future. Not sure where she is running to but in the end she ends up to where Munto is. He defeated to automaton but at a great cost. He is now going to disappear. Yumemi wants to help him so he tells her to believe in her own power. Because he does. Yumemi tries to reach him but a barrier stops her. She doesn’t give up and fights against the force. This shocks the watching elders and the Magical Kingdom’s prophets because she is an ordinary girl with no Akuto or even any equipment and yet she is breaking through this barrier. Eventually their hands touch and causes a great explosion. Actually, the break in the barrier causes Akuto trapped in both worlds to flow into the other. So in short, everything returns to normal. Yumemi wakes up in Ichiko’s hands. So now you believe about the floating islands? Yes, everybody saw it and the whole world is now abuzz trying to figure out what it is. Yumemi is unsure of Munto’s fate and his world. But at that moment where everybody saw the same sky as she always did, this is why she believes one day they will meet again.

Episode 4
Munto returns to Magical Kingdom and his subjects celebrate his victory and his promises kept. However as Ryuely puts it, he might have restored Akuto to Heaven and prevented its destruction but is this the future he wants? 1.5 years have passed as Yumemi and her friends are doing fine. But now we see Munto leading his warriors against the country of Horguze. Heck, in fact ever since the restoration of Akuto, the countries have started to fear losing it and trying to wage war on everybody. Yes, it’s a civil war right now in Heaven. The elders can do no sh*t as their advice has fallen on deaf ears. So their only hope is to rely on Gntarl? Speaking of which, he is trying to get Yumemi for himself but Gass confronts him. Noting the marks on his body, it seems Gass has been relieved from his position. Because of that, he is cursed and his body will soon be destroyed. He is no longer an Outsider. Gntarl theorizes he helped Munto by breaking the taboo and let him go to that world because it was the only way to save Heaven. He assures he won’t make the same mistake as Munto and will bring eternal prosperity to Heaven. Unfortunately Gass doesn’t see it that way and is here to stop Gntarl. Gass is weakened although he takes out many of Gntarl’s ships. Though, that won’t stop this guy from advancing his plans. Munto once again leads his men against the persistent Horguze. Ryuely is worried about him because ever since his contact with Yumemi, he seems to be afraid to reach out to her again. When they first touched, all her memories poured into him and became afraid of her fleeting existence. As he fights their king, Gridori, surprisingly Leica (from Ender nation) is here to help him. She suggests a truce and form an alliance since their enemy is the same. But looks like Gass won’t let Munto do that. He will handle this war for him as he throws Munto down to the lower world. He wants to see his dream.

Episode 5
Yumemi continues to space out into the sky and this worries Ichiko. Despite everyone coming to a conclusion that floating island was a mirage, maybe it hasn’t ended yet for Yumemi as she can still see them. Then as the friends work part time at a shrine belonging to their classmate, Takashi Tobe, when Yumemi goes near a sacred rock, she felt the same sensation when she contacted Munto. As she tries to further touch it, she is shocked to see a vision of an unconscious Munto. What is he doing in this world? Vision snaps so she calls it a day. Back home, she continues to feel sad and uneasy. Like Munto, she too has received his life memories during the contact. We see Munto being born during the Akuto crisis. His parents sacrificed himself to stem it and viewed their child as their future who will bring order back. However the elders viewed it differently and called him a cursed child who took the life of his parents. Because of that, they blamed him for bringing danger to Heaven. Hence the United Army will not obey Magical Kingdom anymore. Munto was enraged although he never gave up hope. Not even when Gass and Ryuely told him how they saw the sealed fate of Heaven. Because Munto vowed to continue to search for that ray of hope, Ryuely needed to see beyond her limited prophecy and hence sacrificed her sight so that she could become his eyes. Ichiko calls Yumemi to soothe her. She talks about how Yumemi could see the floating islands since young but Ichiko wanted to see it so much and when she couldn’t, she cried. Hence Yumemi was being considerate each time the friends go out, she always brought an umbrella no matter the weather. Last year she got her wish by seeing it although it was just for a short while. Ichiko believes her world is too far from hers. It’s not a place they can go. Also, she thinks thinking too much of it won’t make her happy. What she is trying to say is that her friends are reachable and will be there for her rather than those floating islands. So please stay with them. But Ichiko is still uneasy. She still keeps hearing voices and seeing things over and over again. Was it not over? She pleads for Ichiko to save her. So as the friends and other classmates hang out at the park, all is fine and normal until Yumemi starts to go into that usual trance mode again. Ichiko tries to snap her out of it but this time Yumemi claims she needs to go somewhere and won’t run away. Suzume vouches for that. Let’s run away together like we did before. Suddenly a huge blast rocks the place. Yumemi senses it is Munto.

Episode 6
Several blasts occur around the place. Can’t imagine the casualty rate… Yumemi runs in search of Munto while her friends go after her. It seems the blasts are actually pillars from Gntarl’s ship. Munto realizes Gntarl’s plan to use this to kidnap Yumemi. However he notes this incident will cause Yumemi’s heart to reject it and create some collision in the barrier. Not sure what it means but I’m guessing it’s bad! Yumemi finally finds Munto and wants to help although the latter claims she can do nothing now. She calls out to his lies because she can tell both worlds are in danger and if she doesn’t help, both worlds will be destroyed. Her friends now call out to Yumemi and wants her to come back. However Yumemi insists on going so as to protect their future. She hopes to have fun with them when she gets back. Yumemi goes with Munto as their contact causes both their times to merge, dealing a great damage to Gntarl’s ship. This impact also causes some shock through Heaven. Munto then shows Yumemi this beam of light that they must return to before it closes. That light represents the bond connecting their worlds. They need to turn it into an entity and doing so will restore the cycle of Akuto. Hence she must believe in her own strength to achieve this. As long as they yearn for tomorrow, the future will never close. Essentially, don’t give up. Because Gridori is not amused with this farce, he attacks Munto. Munto leaves Yumemi in the care of his magician comrades while he goes face off with that madman. Gridori has also summoned his golems to try and take Yumemi but the magicians do all they can to protect her. Gridori is vexed that the previous king left everything to Munto whom he claims is weak. Munto accuses Gridori he is weak because he has nothing to protect. Gridori rubbishes that thought because as one of Heaven, they take whatever they want from weaklings and let none of it go. He will be the only ruler of Heaven. Meanwhile Leica and others are trying to save Gass but Gass has some tricks up his sleeve. Don’t tell me he is going to sacrifice himself.

Episode 7
Gridori seems to be winning but of course, Yumemi unleashes a great power to overturn that. Furthermore, Gass is going to take down Gridori with him and entrusts the future of Heaven to Munto. Gass disappears with Gridori, war is over, Munto lets out a frustrated scream. However Heaven is still in danger of being destroyed. Yumemi wakes up in Magical Kingdom. To make preparations, Munto takes her to see Ryuely who then has Toche give her a tour around their land. She learns more about Akuto and how her heroic acts last year saved Heavens. She’ll try her best again this time. Meanwhile the elders have seen Yumemi’s amazing power and realize they must not attack Magical Kingdom and only watch over Munto. However Gntarl rejects that idea because they should be capturing that girl and crystalize her to stabilize her power and save Heaven. The elders reject that so Gntarl scoffs at them their non-action means Heaven has no future. The elders soon forbid him to take action on behalf of United Army so Gntarl screws them and takes actions into his own hands. He will not let Heaven’s future be left in Munto’s hands. Munto now shows Yumemi memories of Heaven’s past. The origins of how this advanced human civilization created and controlled powers known as Akuto that is composed of feelings, dreams and wishes. Absolute power corrupts so they got too indulged and intoxicated in it and even killed off breeders of Akuto. They even went so far to cross time into other dimensions to steal it. This led to the creation of Heaven which is basically formed from the ugliness of pillaging Akuto from other planets. The rebels/slaves waited for the day to attack them to regain their future. To prevent this, the then king of Heaven sealed off space and time and burnt the lower worlds, cutting off all communications too. He also created a guardian of time who are actually cursed deities with greater powers but no interactions to the outside world (hence their nickname Outsiders) to protect themselves. Ironically, it became an obstacle to saving Heaven later on. Gass realized this and went against his fate and Heaven so as to bring back Akuto’s circulation to Heaven. Now this light is the connection he left behind. If successful, both their worlds will restore the cycle of Akuto. Yumemi is in shock after hearing this but wonders if this is the right thing to do. Munto replies they cannot undo the sins of the past but they can create a new future to make up for it.

Episode 8
While Munto tries to buy time at the light pillar, Yumemi goes to see Ryuely for her preparations. Ryuely mentions that they need to give form to that light. What exactly is that form, Yumemi must look into this mirror and her spirit will be reflected in it. She must face and accept it. Only then the preparations will be completed. Yumemi sees her own world being destroyed. Oh boy, it’s turning into a disaster flick! Jokes aside, she also sees her friends trying to save her. Uhm, how the f*ck do they know how to do that?! Anyway, she hears Ichiko blaming herself for not believing in Yumemi and because of that, she went alone and shoulder all the burden by herself. Then Ichiko and Suzume lose their balance and plunge to their death. Yumemi in distraught as she starts to face her own inner darkness. She is about to succumb to it until she hears Munto’s voice to believe in herself like she always did. Open up your future! Just like that, Yumemi turns into some spirit to save her friends and bring them back up to Magical Kingdom. The friends are happily reunited as Ryuely notes she didn’t even see this future. She hopes Yumemi can give shape to the future she wishes for. Ichiko tries to apologize to Yumemi for not trusting her and wants to come along till the end of the world. At this point, is there a reason to reject her? Now they’re going to head to that light. Uhm, are they going to fly there? Apparently yes. I believe I can fly! Before that, Munto’s subjects come to admire the new princesses and also hope they can save Munto who is doing all the work to save everything but of course reality is he can’t keep this up forever. The girls soon take it to the skies.

Episode 9
The flight didn’t last long as they free fall. So did they stop believing in themselves?! Thanks to Toche’s winged golem familiar, it catches them and brings them to where Munto is. Before Yumemi could help him, her friends are kidnapped by Gntarl. He is amazed her friends have the same power as her and thus a huge source to help restore and save Heaven. He calls out to foolish Munto that his methods will not save Heaven and that he is just wasting his time. Munto’s hands are tied. He can’t stop whatever he is doing because doing so will cause this light pillar to break and both worlds to crash. Yumemi won’t abandon her friends either but she knows what to do. Believe in her. As she walks towards Gntarl, he uses his power to crystalize her. However the process stops halfway as Yumemi tells him that even if he does this, trapping a person’s heart and feelings will do the whole thing no good. She vows to protect everything she loves and breaks out of it. Gntarl looking shock. So I take it he is out of tricks, huh? He is going to crystalize her friends instead but Yumemi lets out one huge blast to free them. Then she lectures him about protecting his own spirit and those important to him. Must be embarrassing for an old fart to get lectured by a young girl and just like that, he gives up! Well, maybe it is too late as the light disappears. Munto meets Yumemi’s friends for the first time. She assures him the future he wants to protect is still here. Some innuendo that trolls us about each other’s feelings but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. With the light out, how are they going to fix the worlds that are crashing? From the memories, Yumemi has figured out that everything in the world was built out of spirits. So they have to create back that light using the spirits. Yeah, so simple that nobody even thought about it. And so the quartet join hands and some great magic happens. Uhm, did both worlds collide?! In the aftermath, we see everyone returning to their normal lives. It seems Heaven now exist in the same plane as Earth. So yeah, there are floating islands and too bad for the islands that crashed onto land! My condolences whoever’s houses were sitting there! Also, there is going to be a first conference between representatives of both sides. However Munto who is Heaven’s representative is missing. Hope he didn’t get cold feet. Ryuely could sense Akuto flowing normally between both worlds although much time and understanding is needed as Akuto from both sides still need to solidify as one. This is the next challenge Munto must undertake and that is why it is important he completes that preparation. Until then, they shall wait for his return.

Let Akuto Be Done Though The Heavens Fall
Well, I have to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed with everything. I just thought the whole thing felt mediocre from start to finish and nothing that spectacular. Obviously this is me watching this retro at this point in time and having watched so many anime series throughout the years, this one that came out way back in 2009 just wouldn’t quite cut it by today’s standards. After all, it’s your standard anime affair with magic and fantasy elements and obviously a young protagonist shouldering the burden that would change and save the fate of not only her world but another. So are you impressed with that? Good for you if you do. But for me, nah.

You see, there were a couple of OVAs released a few years prior to the TV series and I did contemplate to watch that first. However it was a good thing I read a few reviews and comments that the TV series was really nothing new except a rehash of those OVAs. Yup, recycled scenes and the likes. Safe to say, if one has not watched those OVAs (the first one coming out in 2003 followed by its sequel in 2005), you wouldn’t lose much. They added a few extra scenes when they compiled it into a TV series. So yeah, that at least saved me some time instead of watching a rehash of something. And get this, after this TV series ended, there was a movie sequel finale! Say what?! However it was supposed to be some director’s cut and added new footages in addition to the strange and somewhat incomplete ending of the TV series. Well, thank goodness I read the reviews again and basically they lied about the new scenes. Basically none. More recycled content and even if there were new scenes, it was just for a few seconds and not towards the ending. So yeah, more time wasting just to milk your money. Heh. No wonder there were no more follow ups or sequels of this original story (whatever Munto needs to prepare) and I take it they run out of ideas on how to dupe viewers. Heh. But of course I can’t be 100% sure about the recycled bits as I did not watched those prior OVAs and movie so I’m just taking their word for it. I believe in them! Saves me time and energy and I don’t have to crap and talk trash on this series again! Phew!

There isn’t really a deep storyline now that I look deeper into it and I felt that the TV series just dragged out whatever drama. That is why it is so odd with only 9 episodes. Yeah, can’t even stretch it to a dozen because that will be just wasting money. I made that up. But anyway, the first half is all about trying to get Yumemi’s mysterious power to flow through Heaven but that stupid barrier just keeps getting in the way. Obviously a girl like Yumemi who has been having weird visions and seeing floating islands stuffs since young, she would be doubting herself if she has been going crazy all the while. Hence the hesitation. Even more so that distraction story about Kazuya symbolically marrying Suzume, I wonder what the heck was that for?! It did not actually contribute anything to the main story and after it was done, the whole thing was kinda forgettable. It just served as a small stepping stone to boost Yumemi’s self-confidence. That is all. Because seeing kooky Suzume doing strange things that defied society with Kazuya, this had Yumemi make a decision to do what needs to be done. She is after all the main character. So yeah, that was what this whole side distraction was about. Because now that she believes in herself, she can go save both worlds.

And then for the second half, everything has gone mad in Heaven and everybody fighting some sort of stupid civil war because they’re the chosen one or something. And thus the power of Yumemi is once again needed to end this mindless bloodshed and of course save both worlds from being destroyed. It is all about the future, right? That’s basically it. So believe in yourself and protect the things you love. That is all the prerequisites needed to secure your future and your world. Thank goodness it works in anime because in real life, not so. Yeah, better stop being pessimistic since this is all fantasy and that’s what we’re here for, right? To run away from the dregs of reality and revel in the marvel of fantasy freedom! Wohoo! Anyway… With the convenient memory-cum-story of the world’s origins, it is good to know that those people up in their high horse have now come crashing to the ground and be grounded in reality. Time to move on and mingle with the lower castes. Sorry, Heaven supremacists are so yesterday’s philosophy.

I suppose they want to hint to us that absolute power corrupts and that is why selfish people in Heaven continued to be drunk on whatever this power was supposed to be even though it was dwindling. Yeah, once you get a taste and hold of that power, you never want to let it go. Forever. So it was kinda dumb but also aptly named that this source of power is called Akuto. Oh you know, ‘aku’ meaning evil in Japanese but I doubt people in Heaven know Japanese and could be just a coincidence. A very huge coincidence. People fighting to control over this root of evil (sorry, it’s not money in this case) and preserve whatever it is in Heaven, it was just funny to note that. So now that the ‘evil’ spirits are flowing freely in both worlds, I surmise it will give rise to evil hauntings and supernatural incidents, hence forming exorcism squads and purification models to rid of these evil spirits that plague the worlds. Sorry, got ahead of myself. Thank goodness I wasn’t hired to be the scriptwriter of the sequel.

The characters are mostly a miss with me. Yumemi being your typical heroine being thrust into deciding the fate of her world and thus the entire series sees her being turned from a meek girl with low self-confidence into one who begins to take hold of her destiny. All she needs to do is to believe in herself. Then there is Munto whom I have a feeling is bad in communicating with others. Like in the first half, he sounded very pushy in trying to force Yumemi to come over to his side to help. Sure, desperate and short of time. But the way he says it all, it is just scaring her away. He isn’t such a bad person once you get to know him but he isn’t much of a talker to begin with. He tries to shoulder everything by himself seeing he is king of Magical Kingdom so he takes it upon himself to do what is necessary. He didn’t read the script that he needs some girl power to save the day. Sure, he got scared after using her the first time. So shouldn’t he be taking responsibility of her instead of trying out methods that don’t work by himself? Glad things turn out nicely. Otherwise… Who knows? Munto might be marrying Yumemi to keep the future. They’re both the same, right? After all, Ichiko has Takashi and Suzume married to Kazuya, guess which pair is left?

Other characters felt forgettable. Their roles are mostly minimal like Ryuely who is supposed to have clairvoyance but it felt like a rip-off seeing there are futures she can’t see. So did she waste her vision? Oh wait, is it me or does Ryuely in the second half looked like she has her sights back? She doesn’t look as blind. What’s this Toche for? Somebody who exists to give Yumemi a brief tour of the Magical Kingdom. Magical mystery tour… Sorry, bad pun. Yumemi’s friends also exist so as to have her something to protect and this makes a character stronger, right? Yes people, always believe in your friends. Gass felt like some plot convenience because whenever Munto is in a pinch, this guy intervenes to save the day. So they got rid of him so as not to troll us once more with this tactic but by this time, the show’s over. I believe Gass even had a young apprentice that I think is supposed to succeed him. Yeah, she looks like a discount Shantae but whatever. Good thing or not, Gass ended this cursed position by breaking all the taboos. The price to pay for being a fan boy of Munto. Heh. Munto has also a bunch of loyal subordinates, but they felt more like Disney supporting characters than anything else. Yeah. That. Tell me what is Leica’s role again? Gntarl feels like the series’ much needed antagonist and while it is unfair to label him so because all he wants is to save Heaven, which is basically trying to preserve those holier-than-thou sacredness, which is basically being the bad guy. Trying to kidnap young girls for their power even if the cause is supposedly noble, is a big red flag so I guess we’ll just condemn him to being a baddie. Too bad no big epic fight in the end. Just restoring the light rather than young magic king and old fart strategist having some MMA slugfest showdown. Heh.

I have to note something about the animation quality. It really sucks! Okay, that is me being an extremist but to tell the truth, I wasn’t actually impressed. This anime was done by the legendary Kyoto Animation and they brought us a lot of great retro hits like Kanon, Clannad, Air, K-ON! and of course the (once) super popular Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu. It is no surprise to see some of the character designs like Yumemi having that similar trademark looks like female characters in Clannad or Air, so much so I thought she was a reincarnation of that character in this series! But anyway, the overall animation quality is bad just to say the least. In fact, it is quite inconsistent and in many scenes, it felt like the visuals were simple and lacking in details. Like as though they wanted to do a fast job and just skipped QC. Hence a lot of downgraded quality in a lot of scenes that look way too simple than they should. I am not sure if this was the quality in the prior OVAs but I can tell you the TV series was disappointing in this department and it really showed. Yikes.

They also used a whole different set of seiyuus in the TV series compared to the OVA. Good for me to hear the voices of old veterans once more like Daisuke Ono as Munto, Norio Wakamoto as Gntarl, Tetsu Inada as Gass and Kikuko Inoue as Yumemi’s mom. (What’s this I read Rie Kugimiya and Sayaka Ohara were voices of Suzume and Ryuely respectively in the previous OVA?). The rest of the casts include Mai Aizawa as Yumemi (Ayano in Lucky Star), Chika Horikawa as Ichiko (Izumi in Itsuka Tenma No Kurousagi), Hiromi Konno as Suzume (Sae in Amagami SS), Ryouko Tanaka as Ryuely (Hikari in School Days), Megumi Matsumoto as Toche (Kunikida in Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu), Fuko Saito as Leica (Hazama in Ansatsu Kyoushitsu) and Shinya Takahashi as Kazuya (Kouhei in Rokudou No Onna-tachi). The opening theme, Anemoi by Eufonius sounds pretty much like the songs they sing in other animes like Clannad and True Tears. Yeah, I thought I was hearing the same song… The ending theme, Hikari To Yami To Toki No Hate by Ceui is a slow dramatic piece and she also sings the special ending song for the final episode, Kokoro No Tsubasa which has almost similar vibes.

Overall, this TV series is rather just mediocre and not one of Kyoto Animation’s best works. In fact, it is so forgettable that perhaps it was a good thing that their other hits have overshadowed this disappointment. This means no remakes or rehash in the foreseeable future. So far so good! Hope they keep it that way. Let the flow of Akuto circulate within those worlds alone and let it not seep through to ours! Or maybe we lack such great creative power and juice and that is why current animes are all so bad and crappy. Will somebody take hold of destiny and break through the barrier and let those creative concepts and ideas flow and permeate the industry once more and save anime as a whole?! Anybody?! Oh well, I guess we’ll be happy and satisfied to watch more garbage series in the future.

Hyper Speed GranDoll

In a faraway planet in another galaxy, a young child is placed by the parents into a special pod. Possibly the last surviving member of the race. Reaches Earth. Being taken care of by good people till the child grows up and learns the powers and responsibilities within. Well, sorry if that sounded like some origin story of Superman because nope, they did not turn it into anime. Instead, this is the basic premise of Hyper Speed GranDoll. Ah yes, not exactly Superwoman material and close to being a hero. In fact a big ditzy klutz. Of course, her past starts to catch up with her and her enemies are going to wreck her normal life to get what’s theirs. And as always, reluctant superhero must choose to take up the mantle to protect and continue living such a peaceful life.

Episode 1
Well, it couldn’t be cheesier for college mad scientist Kouichi to propose to Miki at the park. But yeah, she accepted his love. Then as he makes his oath on a star, is it them or is the star getting bigger? Oh sh*t! It crashes near them! Well, well. Looks like that star actually contains a pod with a little girl. Like any parents, they take her in and raise her like their own child. Many years now, Hikaru Amagi is a lively teen. Clumsy too. She tells us her favourite stuffs. And her 3 sizes too. Oh wait. That’s a secret. Damn. She goes to school with her best friend, Haruna Saotome and since they’re late, use this weird jet contraption to fly there! 100% attendance protected but they crash into Narasaki who is Hikaru’s senpai crush and in the tennis club. Not that he minds. He got distracted by the new tennis racquet. Meanwhile Peos has located the whereabouts of the royal armour. To retrieve it, he sends this mecha dude, Garbiggi (garbage b*tch WHAT?!). As Garbiggi stakes out Hikaru at the tennis club in stealth mode, he is going to fire on her. Of course Hikaru’s clumsiness activates her own self-defence mechanism that blocks the shot. This makes Garbiggi think she is on to him so he backs down for now. That night, Hikaru dreams of Gran Knight who tells her she must fight and apologizes she can’t continue to live the peaceful life he hopes for.

Next day, Hikaru meets Haruna at the amusement park. It’s a setup by Haruna since she lets her be alone with Narasaki. You bet they’re going to have a fine time together. Yeah, she is willing to miss her favourite anime for this ‘date’. When she gets lost in the mirror attraction, Garbiggi confronts her to hand over the armour. She thinks this is such a cool special effect so Garbiggi attacks. They land out on stage where a sentai play is going on. Garbiggi can’t believe this retard is the princess and takes her hostage to lure the real one out. Is this all part of the show? Because Garbiggi fires and causes damage! Sigil drops in to fight her comrade. There is no chivalry in taking hostage! As they duke it out, Hikaru sees Narasaki unconscious from the blast. She becomes mad and won’t forgive this. Gran Knight then tells her to call him. Doing so allows her to don the armour known as GranDoll. She returns to fight Garbiggi and obviously her arsenal is better than his. Eventually the wining blow is from a move called Shining Breast. I KID YOU NOT! So much about that garbage b*tch. Gran Knight then temporarily appears before Hikaru to tell her if she is ever threatened, just call his name and he’ll be there. Back on the ship, Sigil chastises Peos for not providing her with enough info. Because of that, the mission is ruined at the cost of Garbiggi’s life. If it was her, she would have already gotten it. We’ll see. As Hikaru writes in her diary and ponders what is happening to her life, all is well since she has a great day with Narasaki.

Episode 2
Sigil was once a slave of some religion but thanks to Friedshalf who freed her, she now serves him. She is now tasked to retrieve the royal armour. Hikaru and Haruna can’t stop running (late to school, what else?) because of their cursed shoes? Well, Sigil is fast enough to dodge and put a stop to this farce. Gee, Hikaru in love with her already? As it turns out, Sigil is a new transfer student in Hikaru’s class and all the boys are hounding her! Can’t stand the attention? Sigil contacts Peos as he reminds her to succeed this infiltration mission. Don’t want to make Friedshalf mad, do you? Soon, she calls Haruna to the rooftop to challenge her. If she wins, give the armour. Obviously Haruna doesn’t know what she is talking about as Sigil chases her all around. Until Hikaru opens the door and she slams into it! Ouch. She wakes up in the infirmary with Hikaru by her side. Seeing her warm touch, Sigil believes that Hikaru is the princess whom she is actually also looking for. Can’t believe this airhead is actually Princess Shaina of the royal Gran Naas family. But Sigil soon feels conflicted because in this place, she is not a prisoner and feels free. As Hikaru invites her to her house, Sigil sees a dragon toy which is actually the crest of the royal family. Then Sigil has this weird vision with Gran Knight who claims she seeks him because Friedshalf gave her freedom. However he points out Friedshalf is the evil one as he was the one who destroyed the royal family 10 years ago and is once again seeking his own ambitions. Sigil does not believe him and gets mad. Well, she destroys part of Hikaru’s room. So as Hikaru is sad about this, her parents come to tell the truth that she is not their real daughter. Well, she already knew! Anyway, 10 years ago they took her in and treated her like their own child even though she is a princess from another planet. So you bet they’ll do anything to protect this family.

Peos mocks Sigil for her failure and as much as she wants to kill him, she can’t. It’s her weakness. But Peos has come up with a sneaky way for Sigil to win the next time. Sigil is conflicted at first but she remembers she has a duty she must complete. And so Sigil takes Narasaki hostage (so now she’s resorting to this evil?). Hikaru doesn’t want to fight her but eventually is forced to as she transforms. But the sight of Hikaru bears so much like Shaina so Sigil gives up. Peos curses this waste so he takes everything into his own hands. Uhm, going to use his ship to blast all of the town?! Because Hikaru blocks the blast to protect the town she loves, Sigil too can’t let her bear the burden and joins forces. Gran Knight then advises Hikaru to power up as she transforms into a higher gear. Gran Aggress? She deflects the blast back at Peos. Oh sh*t. Better run! In the aftermath, Sigil isn’t happy because why the f*ck did she help her enemy? Hikaru doesn’t think so and notes down all of her good qualities and the way she helped others. She wants her to stay with her and be happy. Too bad Sigil plays hard to get and runs away. Hikaru patches up Narasaki and bids farewell. So I guess lesbian love > senpai love.

Episode 3
Peos turns into a chicken and tries to flee. Too bad here is Friedshalf and he looks mad. Peos begs for another chance so Friedshalf fires and destroys his ship! SERIOUSLY! But good riddance. Friedshalf is in despair that Sigil has not returned. Speaking of her, she is outside Hikaru’s house? Come in. She looks pretty confused and all. But you bet the girls bond over bath and now they’re like good friends. Wow. So easy. As they sleep together, time for Sigil to reveal she is in love with Friedshalf. She was all alone and had nothing until he saved her. Then she asks if Hikaru remembers anything about her planet. A flower garden. Some shiny rocks. Some star. And yes, a huge fire! Really? Suddenly Hikaru’s parents barge in because it’s all over the news right now. Friedshalf making his announcement for Shaina to hand over the armour or the whole Earth will burn in 12 hours! Hikaru is willing to do that to save her friends but Gran Knight advises her not to. Doing so not only puts Earth but the entire universe in danger. Sigil is in shock over Friedshalf’s actions. She escapes to return to him. Next day, looks like everywhere is an awful lot peaceful. Yeah, damn humans think that broadcast was a prank! As Hikaru is in a dilemma on what to do, here comes Narasaki to talk to her. Hikaru reveals she is an alien but he isn’t laughing. He thanks her for helping him and this gives her the encouragement to do what she needs to do. Looks like his confession will have to wait. So how will Hikaru get to Friedshalf’s ship? Don’t worry, dad conveniently created a rocket booster overnight for her! It destroyed the house during launch but it’s a small price to pay and better than a destroyed Earth, no!

Sigil confronts Friedshalf but he has her fight him via sword. Yeah, remember those days he taught her so? Sigil wants to believe in him but is willing to stop him if she needs to. Friedshalf dares her if she can kill him. Hikaru crashes in. The guards want to fight her but Friedshalf tells them to back off. They are no match for her armour. She questions why he wants to armour so badly. Well, all that freedom has caused the planet to be lax. Hence he feels the need of a dictator which is of course not surprising, himself. A new hero who bears the royal armour. Hikaru then recognizes the sword. It belongs to her royal family. And yes, he admits he was the one who started the revolution and killed her real parents with it! Yeah, so that fire memory… This is when Hikaru remembers fully what happened as Gran Knight apologizes for the fake memories implanted since she was too young to understand. Hikaru will not allow him to further destroy the things she love. As they fight, Sigil gets in the way and gets stabbed. Friedshalf in despair and blames Hikaru. Realizing he is no match for her, like a true villain if he cannot get the armour, he might as well die and take the whole Earth with him! He fuses with his ship. A barely alive Sigil reminds Hikaru to protect and with that, Hikaru levels up her armour and destroys the ship. She still wants to save Sigil. But it seems she would rather go and die with Friedshalf. Goodbye :’(. A great explosion but it is hinted the armour absorbed it. Hikaru wants to believe that Sigil is alive somewhere. Yeah. In heaven maybe! Strangely, Hikaru’s parents are here to pick her up. Don’t tell me they made these special suits too? And they brought Narasaki along?! WHY?! I guess he wants to confess to her. Well, sum up your courage. Because in space nobody can hear you confess. Sorry, bad pun… Oh well, going back to straight love since lesbo love didn’t work out…

The Princess Within: Discovering Your Royal Inheritance
Well, that was pretty okay. I don’t know it could have been better but with only 3 episodes, how much can they flesh out? After all, this OVA was created possibly to promote the game of the same name. That was way back in 1997. You feeling old now? I know I am. But yeah, with only 3 episodes, it feels like it needed not much nonsense or fooling around and everything gets straight to the point. From the first episode being introductory, the second episode being rival turned (almost) friend and the final episode to just settle everything once and for all. No need to beat around the bush with all the side distractions that would have lasted a typical cour. So while it leaves a lot to be desired, but at least it got to the point and everything ended in a happy note. Earth is saved. Hikaru’s original planet continues to revel in freedom now that the self-proclaimed heroic dictator of the future is gone. What more could we ask for? I suppose there is also no reason for Hikaru to return to her original planet since she won’t know anybody there. Earth is much more fun! Besides, her favourite anime doesn’t exist there!

So as the story is pretty basic and straightforward AKA nothing much or special, the same can be said about the characters too. Once again, it leaves a lot to be desired but I guess the whole series is just to feature Hikaru awakening to her role and duty. She needs to step up to it if she wants to protect her life on Earth. That is about it. We give her a free pass because she’s being cute and kawaii as a ditz. Don’t we just love anime dojikko? Furthermore, I believe it is the power of the armour that does the job for her and not Hikaru herself. All she needs to do is just call out the name or the special move and voila, nobody can beat this ultimate move. After all, it is said that the armour is indestructible because even in the event if Friedshalf destroyed Earth, the armour will still remain intact! Oh wow. Now I know why he wants it so bad. But I have got to say that despite its invincible tag, I’m not pretty convinced seeing it looks so flimsy when Hikaru dons it. I mean, really? More like sexy armour and it leaves certain parts exposed. You sure this thing is indestructible? Oh wait. Where have I seen this armour design before… Oh sh*t, is this not Saint Seiya or something?!

It could have been much better if things were fleshed out between Sigil and Friedshalf but I guess we don’t have enough episodes for that. So we’re just given a gist about their past and that’s about it. Just a reason to tell us why Sigil is so damn loyal to this conniving bastard. He’s not your white knight in shining armour to say the least and serves his own selfish interest. But damn, she still remains loyal to him right till the end. Oh well, don’t want to make that lesbo relationship come true! Anyway… Friedshalf being your typical one-dimensional villain all for the sake of plot convenience and typical clichés that we have seen countless times everywhere. Trying to make us feel sympathy since he still has some feelings for Sigil but oh well, at least they’re still lovers in death. Now they can be part of the stars of the universe! Sorry, bad joke.

As for the other characters, they just feel minimal and nothing much. Like Haruna who exists to be her best friend and to tell us Hikaru didn’t turn out to be a lonely outcast. Then there is the typical senpai love interest. Also to show that as a normal girl, she too has a guy her age she likes. Thanks to Hikaru protecting the world, this confession can now happen! Any time now, Narasaki… Point to ponder, if Hikaru and Narasaki get married and have kids, doesn’t this mean Hikaru’s royal bloodline continues? Hmm… Kouichi and Miki feel like comical characters since they’re so lively and sporting all the time. And you thought mad scientists are all mostly gloomy and doom-like persona, no? Yeah, being a super mad genius scientist also screams plot convenience because aren’t such talents coveted by the government or aliens? Oh well, don’t want to steal the limelight from Hikaru… Then there is Peos who is annoying because he is arrogant and always talks big. It’s a good thing he gets killed off and didn’t even see the light of the fight because I can’t imagine how easy it will be a victory for Hikaru. Yeah, speaking of Garbiggi, I feel he exists only as a test model to showcase Hikaru’s power when she awakened to GranDoll.

And who this Gran Knight dude? Dunno. Could be Hikaru’s real dad’s spirit or something. I don’t know, super confusing. Speaking of the confusion, I thought Peos was Gran Knight in disguise and perhaps he was playing the villain to hide his true identity. Why did I say that? They’re voiced by the same person (Akio Ootsuka)!!! So it confused the hell out of me as I started pondering why Gran Knight and Peos sounded so much alike. Are they the same person? Well, from what I’ve seen, it isn’t. But I can’t help that there is this small possibility that Peos isn’t dead and hence this theory of mine could be true. After all, we all think of him as dead but now he is freer to play his Gran Knight role. Yeah whatever.

Speaking of voice acting, is it me or do I find Hikaru’s voice to be just way to shrieky? Oh I don’t know, especially when she gets all excited, her pitch gets higher which feels a bit annoying. Not sure, she is voiced by Junko Iwao who is more recognizable as Tomoyo in Card Captor Sakura. But she also sings the ending theme, Sotto Chikau Shunkan Toki which isn’t all that bad. Doesn’t have all that shriekiness to it. Yeah, I love those retro vibes of the song too. Other casts are Yuko Miyamura as Sigil (Asuka in Evangelion), Hikaru Midorikawa as Friedshalf (Lancer in Fate/Zero), Toshiyuki Morikawa as Narasaki (Tousen in Bleach) and Haruna Ikezawa as Haruna (Mao in Kimikiss Pure Rouge).

As for the art and animation, what else more is there to say? Really dated animation style and design as you can right away tell that all the characters come straight out from that era with such typical looks. Though, I have to point out the uncanny resemblance of Kouichi to Evangelion’s Gendou. Sorry buddy, you look more like a joker version of that guy! While the overall quality is rather okay, but some scenes do look like it has reduction in quality especially those fast action scenes. But it doesn’t break the entire anime. Oh right, got to mention the fanservice bits. There are but rare. Only the early moments of the final episode did they spam some bare tits of the girls in the bath. I never expected that after 2 episodes of paltry transformation fanservice which feels like nothing in today’s standards. I thought Sigil’s sexy pose in the initial moments of the second episode was the best it could do. Oh well, now I know why Hikaru has her ultimate move that bested Friedshalf called Shining Breast! Just kidding. Maybe. This series was done by Zero-G Room who did Shadow Skill and the OVA version of Master Mosquiton.

Overall, this retro OVA is rather okay. It’s not that I liked it very much and at the same time I don’t really hate it. I wasn’t bored and at the same time not really impressed either. My fence sitting answer is getting too boring these days. It was entertaining in its own right to say the least. After all, there are way much more worse retro OVAs and even more so, obscure ones out there so this one at least has subs and I suppose it is not that all bad. I don’t know which one is better, coming across and watching more crappy garbage animes or somebody telling me I belonged to some ancient royalty and need to take up my role and responsibility for the sake of the world. Either way, I know I’ve been scammed.